Stuck in the Middle with You – Psalm 118 – Purity 758

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of an outcropping of rock in a natural waterfall comes to us from a friend who recently decided to stretch their legs and remember a departed loved one by hiking the Catskill Mountains, as they brought a photo of their friend with them and took photos of it at various locations along the way. Stating that the Catskills were the closest place to heaven in Greene County and that they were enjoying treasured memories of days gone by and sharing the magnificent views they encountered with thoughts of their friend every step of the way. Well, it's Wednesday, and I share this photo taken along the trail heading up a mountain to remind us all of the natural beauty that is out there waiting to be discovered and to remind us that we are headed up up the hump of the midpoint of the work week. Speaking of work, I was out late last night at my second job as a psychiatric tech for the mobile crisis assessment team and am scrambling to get her done this morning as I am seeking to simultaneously encourage my friends on the path of Christian discipleship and to activate my new iPhone, which is an early birthday present to myself as I hit the big 5:00 in 10 days. This hurried multitasking might prove to be foolish, especially considering the fact that I didn't get, didn't get home until after midnight last night and have already altered my regular routine by sleeping in and forgoing my normal exercise regimen, and will have to satisfy my craving for God's Word by revisiting some of the content of yesterday's Bible study by sharing Psalm 118. As always, the Lord knows our situations, and as quote-unquote coincidence has it, it turns out that Psalm 118 is completely appropriate for sharing on hump day, because if you didn't know it, Psalm 118:8 is the middle point of the Bible. That's right, if you take the content of the Bible and divide it in half, you would see Psalm 118:8. 8. Don't ask me what industrious Bible scholar determined that, but I will take it on faith that this Bible fact is true. But is it meaningful? Is the middle verse in the Bible— does the middle verse in the Bible say something that would satisfy the curious or indicate that the Bible is not just some book but is the inspired Word of God? Well, let's look at it and you, you tell me what you think. Psalm 118:8 says, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." I don't know about you, but that sort of gives me goosebumps. Imagine it, someone decides to give the Bible a shot and opens, opens it to the middle point of the scriptures, and this is what they find: "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." I don't know about you, but that would cause me to keep reading. And that's what happened to me when, after 38 years of doing things my way and a life of ups and downs and error and confusion, I heard a gospel message that adequately explained to me, as if for the first time, the fact that it is through the fact that Christ died for my sins, and it only required a simple act of faith by making Jesus my Lord and Savior to receive the free gift of God's forgiveness, eternal life, and entrance into his kingdom. After I said yes to Jesus, I was far from perfect, but I had a perfect hunger to pursue the truth of who Christ was and how I should live after I had received such an awesome gift. So I started reading the Bible to figure this thing out and to try to be an authentic Christian. And if you are new to the Bible, I would say that the midpoint in the Bible is a great place to start your journey to get to know God more, as its verse— uh, verse— as, as this verse— as its verses— oh boy, yeah, I sort of— yep, like I said, we're running on empty this morning. Anyway, uh, to get to know God more as this verse— the verses of the Psalm are, are the most quoted in the New Testament. Yeah, that all got lost somewhere, but I remember that's what I wrote. Some— somehow. Anyway, um, so let's read Psalm 118 in its entirety and see why it is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament. Um, let's see, Psalm 118 says Oh, give God— give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let Israel now say, his mercy endures forever. Let the house of Aaron now say, his mercy endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord now say, his mercy endures forever. I called on the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is for me among those who help me. Therefore I shall see my desire on— I will see my desire on those who hate me. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. All nations surround me, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. They surround me, yes, they surround me, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. They surrounded me like bees; they were quenched like fire, a fire of thorns, for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. You pushed me violently, violently, that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go through them, and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. Through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise you, for you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I pray, O Lord. O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. God is the Lord, and he has given us light! Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, I will exalt you. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever! There are some familiar verses in that Psalm for sure, and even though it is in the New— it is in the Old Testament, its content points us to Jesus Christ as the Messiah. He is the chief cornerstone of our faith. And although I am running and gunning this morning with a hectic pace, that is all I want to do, point my friends to Jesus Christ. To not only admire him as a good example, but to trust, believe, and obey him as one of his many disciples. This— the entrance into the kingdom through a prayer or an act of faith that specifically claims Jesus as your Lord and Savior— is only the beginning of our new and eternal life in Christ. And even though the road as a Christian may be difficult at times, when you are walking and talking with God and have made Christ the Lord of your life You can somehow have peace in the midst of any storm as God himself, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, is stuck in the middle with you. So if you are in a hurry or not, keep going on your search to discover who God is, who you are, and what the purpose he has for you in this life. As Psalm 118 says, if you can't trust me, trust in the Lord. Because it is better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in man. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation, uh, the New Living Translation, but the NLT from Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is 1 John 4:17, and it says, and as we live in God, our love grows more perfect, so we will not be afraid on the day of judgment. But we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Today's Bible verse reminds us that we can face the Lord with confidence on the Day of Judgment when we live like Jesus in this world, and that our love grows more perfect as we live in God. So much, so much for just believing. Phrases like "just believe" or "just have faith" will undoubtedly be good encouragements as we attempt to live out our Christian faith authentically, But those phrases are not to be intended to be the one and/or final instruction of our faith. As today's verse indicates, we are to have a lifestyle and a mindset of Christian— of a Christian, as we are directed to live like Jesus here in this world. We are supposed to follow Christ in the way we live, and not only will we benefit from making good choices as a natural result of cause and effect relationships, when we decide to follow Jesus and live in God—talk about an immersive experience—we will have confidence in our security when the Day of Judgment comes. But our love— but also our love will grow more perfect. God's love is perfect, and when we experience it We know that to be true. God is the higher love that Steve Winwood was looking for. Bring me a higher love. Well, Steve, if you live in God by following Christ's example and the way that you live in this world, the higher love will be brought right to your doorstep every day you abide in Christ. So let's be, let's, let's be encouraged to become more perfect in love by sharing the love that we have received from God in the way we live here on the earth. We can have confidence that when, when we are in Christ, we have nothing to fear, and we have been given incredible purpose to experience and to share the love of God. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk Today we continue sharing from Clinton E. Arnold's Powers of Darkness, and today we're sharing from, uh, well, the end of the first chapter of his book, uh, The Powers of Darkness, with the, um, with a review of Acts 19, where, where there was, there was people who came to Christ who burned their own old magical books that cost a whole lot of money. And, uh, Clinton also provides a summary of, uh, the Chapter 1. So if you want to read that short excerpt from The Powers of Darkness, go to mt4christ.org and check out that resource. Um, well, like, like I said, uh, sort of multitasking as we were called out several times, uh, well, several times, yeah, several times all over Columbia, Columbia County, uh, in crisis assessments yesterday. Um, good news, nobody got hurt, nobody was in danger. Everything turned out to be okay, or, you know, it was what it was, and we gave the support that we needed to and encouragement that we needed to in those crisis situations. So, you know, it was good. Just all that scrambling and running all over the county basically caused us to get back late, near quittin' time, and the necessary paperwork needed to be done, and we were the 3 of us were there until after midnight getting everything done and documented for what we did and who we called and everything in between. One of my colleagues asked if it was a full moon yesterday, and I don't know what the state of the moon was, but it was a busy, busy night in, in the Mobile Crisis Assessment Team's duties yesterday. So I got home late, and because I get up early, I got next to no sleep. So I slept in a little earlier, and now I'm ahead of time actually as I complete this message. And that's just it. We, no matter if we're busy or not, our faith is to remain, and you know, it's to guide us and to help us. You know, when we live in God, when we live like Jesus in this world, as as best we can, we discover the fruit of the Spirit grows in our lives. And, you know, we have joy, we have peace, we have, we have love. We can be kind, we can be faithful, we can be gentle with people who need it, and we can be patient, and we can develop self-control. Now, God has given us great power, but it's only through Christ that we really experience the full meaning and purpose of our lives and experience the full power that God gives us to affect change. So that's why we encourage people to walk, to not only believe in Christ as Lord and Savior, but to walk in his path as a Christian disciple. And we encourage that on the, on the, on the blog and the podcast by sharing our discipleship classes that we shared in the past. They are all available on our podcast and our YouTube channel. And we also encourage Bible study, even though I didn't really get to do any this morning. It's not about perfection, guys, although I did read a psalm, so whatever. Anyway, um, you know, when we're on the path, it's not going to be a perfect path, um, but it's going to be our path, and it's the path that God lays before us, and that path is a good one because it leads to him. And if we keep walking and talking with God, we'll only experience more of his love in our lives. And we'll be able to see the goodness of the Lord here in the land of the living, as his mercies are new every morning. And, you know, this is the day as the Lord has made, and we'll rejoice and be glad in it, as one of those, those verses in Psalm 118 told us. So let's rejoice in who we are in Christ today and rejoice for the things that he has for us to do by praying. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, I didn't get much sleep, but it was about a little less than normal. But, uh, we are fully, uh, fully engaged to, to, to meet our purpose today at work and, and for whatever you have before us, Lord. So we pray for you, uh, to come before us, uh, to lead us in the way we should go. And we pray for everyone listening today, Lord, whether or not they got a lot of sleep or a little we know that the Lord loves them and has a purpose for them. And, uh, Lord, we just pray for you to guide them and help them in their walk, as we pray for you to come alongside their prayer requests and to, to guide them in the way they should go today too. Lord, we, we need you desperately to show us what matters and to remind us of who we are in Christ and to encourage us to keep going in our faith, because it is is, it is the one glorious way to, to you. And, um, or we wouldn't, we wouldn't have it any other way. Um, so we, we thank you, we love you, and, uh, we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.