The Village Church
Wholeness Part 2 - Balance - Audio
them to Psalm 119. Psalm 119, as Matthew Henry states, is a statement of a believer's experience. This is what I said last week about Psalm 119. It's a statement of a believer's experience. This experience is one of wholeness as opposed to one-sidedness in our Christian journey. Last week, we talked about this wholeness as being as seeing balance in our lives, having balance in the way we live. On the one hand, we have a life of integrity. As I said last week, walking into God's instruction, our life, and where did we live. And on this hand, we have a life of affection. Our hearts been bent toward God's will. And so, the Psalmist tells us that whole Christians experience both the heart and life transformation at the same time. It's not either or, it's both and. My heart and my life must be bent Godward at the same time. Happy are those who experience this as the Psalmist. And so, we notice that in these first four verses, he gives us this as a description, a description of what we should experience as sons and daughters. He tells us what the Lord even expects of us in verse four. But if you notice about these first four verses, Mike here, he doesn't say anything about his life. He doesn't say anything about him being one of those who experience this balance until we get to verses five through six. In those verses, the Psalmist turns to his own life, what he's actually experiencing. And by doing this, he gives us yet another example of what it means to experience wholeness. So, if you have your your Bibles, we're going to look at verses five through eight of Psalm 119. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes, then I shall not be put to shame. Having my eyes fixed on all your commandments, I would praise you with an upright heart when I learned your righteous rules. I would keep your statutes, do not eardly forsake me. This is God's word. Please pray with me. Father, as we come through your truth, we pray for your spirit, Father, for come and move in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives, that he would take the word that is preached and applied to the hearts of your beloved, your church. You know what we are. You know what we're dealing with. You know what we need to hear. And so, Spirit, the one who helps us in our weakness, the one who moves in us, I pray to you with me, everyone here where they are this morning, and give them a word of encouragement, a word of conviction, a word of hope, a word of assurance. Whatever they need to hear, I pray that you would do it for them this morning. I pray for all this in Christ's name. Amen. Wholeness, we said first is balance. Second, it is seen in having acceptance. Acceptance. And this is seen in verse five. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. You see, acceptance is you embracing those little contradictions that every believer experience in his or her life. Well, what do you mean by that, Alex? I'm going to tell you, it's going to be a fight and a struggle for you to do everything I said last week. Remember what I said last week. It's going to be a fight and a struggle for you to live that way, for you to have that balance, a life of integrity, a life of affection. It's going to be a struggle not to be one sided. Not only that, there are actually going to be times when you are. As I said last week, you will struggle to fight against this tension that we have in our lives in terms of anti-law living. Some of you fear that. Some of you fear anti-law living, feeling so free of living loosely. And so you become a slave to the law. And so you fear that. Then there are others of you who fear legalism. You fear following all the rules. So you become a slave to other things, toward just my heart. And what I said last week is if it costs us sin, we struggle with those things. It costs us sin. We struggle with those things. Remember what I said also. Because of the finished work of Christ, because of his death and resurrection, we struggle with these things, but we don't have to live in them. Then the longer I'm asked to sin it. That's what Paul says in Romans. That sin is the longer I'm asked to. We have been set free from the dominion of sin. And so we no longer live in it, but now we still struggle with it. And so there are going to be times in your life, seasons in your life, years in your life when you feel that your life is nothing but a bit contradiction, because of your struggles. The Psalmist understood this. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. What does those words reveal to you about the Psalmist? What is he saying? My ways this referring to the Psalmist's life is referring to his heart. He is saying, I have the desire for this, but his heart still places his affections on other things. And his life still falls short of what he desires it to be. He is not steadfast in keeping the lowest statutes. It's a struggle. He too experienced those little contradictions. And with these words, he lets us know that he still has a defect in his life. He still has issues. His heart and his life are far away from where they need to be. And he accepts the fact that in this journey, it's a struggle, a warfare struggle, a fight unto the end. Have you accepted that part of the Christian journey that you're never going to arrive at the place where you're going to have heaven on earth where you're no longer struggling with sin? Oh, you may be set free from certain struggles, but when he sets you free for one thing, something else coming up the road that you didn't see before. Oh, you didn't see that coming. I didn't see that one coming because it's a struggle. This past Tuesday, I was working on this sermon in one of my local coffee shops I love to go to. Now, I was taking a break because I had writer's blog and so I was just walking around in coffee shop and then I picked up this magazine called Home Life. And as I was flipping through the pages, I came across an article called Stripping a Way to Vineer. I was like, huh, that's a Christian title. And in this article, the author says this. She begins the article this way. She says, "My life is a walking contradiction. My inward dialogue sounds something like this. I'm a follower of Christ who has experienced his redemptive touch and yet I'm self-seeking and superficial at the same time. I have no rational reason for these contradictions to openly confess this feels as if I have swallowed an entire apple and it has settled in my throat." Who can identify with her here? Do you feel like your life is a walking contradiction sometime or she alone? All of us have. The temptation for us is to hide the struggles with sin. To hide behind what she calls the veneer. You know what that means? It refers to an attractive appearance that covers or disguises someone's true nature or desire. It means we're hiding behind someone. And the author says the only way for us to get free, she says the only way to begin anew is through confession, acknowledging our faults and flaws, not faking it but faking it. She created a new word here but I love the word, not faking it but faking it. Faithing it pushes you outside of yourself to a place of dependence, on a power other than your own. This dependence is the third way in which we experience wholeness. Dependence is you relying on what actually enables you to experience balance and acceptance in your Christian journey. Something else is at work beside us, besides my intellect or besides my knowledge. Something else has to be going on that enables me to experience this balance, just acceptance. Look at verse 5 again, "O, did my ways and be steadfast in keeping your statues." There's another translation for the word steadfast and it's called established. The summons wants his ways to be established and keeping the Lord's statues. He knows he doesn't have the power within himself to establish his heart and life, so he's confessing his shortcomings and his flaws. He's not faking it but faking it. He needs the Father to use his power to establish his life and his heart to keep his statues. Now the question is how does the Father actually achieve this? Who was going to establish the summons' ways that was going to enable him to keep the statues? Jesus says in Luke 11, 13, "What Father among you, if his son asks for a fish, when instead of a fish, give him a serpent. But if he asks for an egg, well, give him a scorpion. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more would the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask you? If me been sinful, broken with a whole bunch of issues know how to give good gifts to Trason and Madison, then how much more by Heavenly Father who has no issues know how to give good gifts to his sons and daughters?" You see, there are tons of gifts that we have as Christians, tons of benefits to begin a child of God. His grace is a benefit and gift. His mercy, his forgiveness, his compassion, his kindness, our sonship, all of those things are wonderful gifts but you get none of them apart from the Spirit. Did you think you embraced those things if the Spirit is not at work in you? No, you don't. There is only one person that enables us to embrace these things and he's the third part of training and it's not us. The effectual work and the effectual power of the Holy Spirit enables us to embrace everything in the gospel. And so when he's at work, things move and then if he's not at work, nothing moves. And so that means if there's something you're not understanding about Christianity in a gospel, then that means you need to go pray to the Holy Spirit. Give me understanding. Help me to understand what I'm misunderstanding here. The Holy Spirit is the one who establishes your heart and your life to keep these statues. The Spirit of God dwells in you. He does. Do you believe that? The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. That's power. He's not left us as orphans. That's the verse that we read today. The Spirit is our deposit. Guaranteeing our inheritance. He is a very important role, a vital role. He helps us in our weakness. If you are weak, if you are fearful of sharing your faith, pray the Spirit to give you boldness. Pray the Spirit would empower you. Pray the Spirit would give you confidence. He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Do you love that? He intercedes for us according to the will of God. Even now in what you're going through, he's interceding for you. He convicts us of our sin. He reminds us of the word of truth. He leads us into all truth, and he's the guarantee of our inheritance that is still to come. I would say the Spirit has a very, very important role. Listen to what Paul says about the Spirit in Romans 8. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. That's not our righteousness, but Christ's righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Do you see what Paul is saying this morning in that verse? As a believer, you don't only have your turn of life to come, but you will experience newness of life in this life, not perfectly, but you would taste of it. Why? Because of his Spirit that lives in you, you would taste of it. Are you experiencing the effectual power and work of the Spirit in your life, in your family, in your marriage, in your raising your kids as you diminish you within this community? Pray that the Spirit of God would be at work in you. And when he's at work in your life, you can sail what the psalmist says in verses 6 and 8. Then I will not be put to shame having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. I would praise you with an upright heart when I learned your righteous rules. I would keep your statutes not early for safety. I believe these three verses are connected with the first three verses of this song. This is the psalmist saying that his character and his conduct are becoming more of a reflection of God. That's what the Spirit is doing in us. When he's transforming you, he's transforming you to be a more reflection of the Father, now reflection of your pastor, now reflection of some pastor in New York or out in Minnesota or out in Florida, down in Florida, but you'll be made into reflection of Jesus. That's what the Spirit is doing and he will do it. Do you pray for it? You should. He makes us whole, dependence upon him, the acceptance of the struggle, the balance of my heart and life being bent more God would. In the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, you have a elderly veteran with his family visiting or the Normany American Cemetery. The early vet, overcome with emotion, collapses on one knee in front of a gravestone. Then the scene takes you back into the movie. The movie is sent around a character called James Ryan. No history brothers were killed in the war and his mother was going to receive all three death notices on the same day. General George Marshall received this information about the three sons. Then he finds out she has a fourth son, James Ryan, who was somewhere behind enemy lines. He has a decision to make. Should I send a team to get Private Ryan or just assume he's dead and forget it? He goes with the Father. He sends a team in to save him. So Captain Miller and eight other men were commissioned to go behind enemy lines to find Private Ryan to return him to the L.R. forces. In the fulfillment of this mission, Captain Miller, all these men were killed. In the final battle scene in the movie, Captain Miller was fatally wounded and Private Ryan kneels next to him as he dies. Captain Miller says these words to Private Ryan, earn it James, earn it. With those words, he was telling Ryan, don't let these deaths be in vain. Then the movie goes back to that opening scene in the cemetery and Ryan is kneeling in front of the grave of Captain Miller and James says to his wife, tell me, I live the good life. Tell me, I'm a good man. And she says, yes you go. You see, Jesus entered behind enemy lines. You do know that, right? When he came here, he entered behind enemy lines. He gave his life to say that which was lost. And through his great sacrifice, he earned it for us. What we could not earn for ourselves. Meaning what? Everlasting life, reconciliation with the father. None of those things can be taken from us. And so during those times when you fall on your knees before the cross doubting, hurting, beat up, tired, broken, crying out to the father, tell me I'm accepted. Tell me I'm a son and daughter, though I still struggle with sin. Tell me father, even though that my life is filled with his contradictions. Tell me that I'm a child. The spirit shows up and says what? Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Even though you fall, even though you struggle, even though you have it all together, you are still a child. Why? Because what Jesus did on Cadbury cannot be taken away. You are eternally secure. Turn secure. So let us pray. Thank you spirit that you show up and remind us that yes, we are still a son and daughter, even though we don't have it all together. I thank you that through you, you are transformers. I thank you that through your work, you give us what we need to accept. The fact that it is going to be a struggle. We're not going to ever have it all together. We taste for the life to come. Let's say it's just a taste. It's never going to be heaven on earth, but Lord, we do taste of it. And so I pray for all of us that we would taste more of it. I pray for those who are beat up because of their sin. I pray that you remind them, Lord, that they are forgiven, that they don't have to wallow, that there is hope, that they can, that through you help them embrace the grace and mercy that is there to them. And so spirit, you meet us where we are and to bring us where we need to be. I thank you for all this in Christ's name. Amen. We please stand as we close our service.