The Village Church
Wholeness, Part 1 - Balance - Audio
If you have your Bibles, please open them to Psalm 119. One Christian theologian said, "As human beings, we are naturally inclined to be one-sided." Think about that statement. As human beings, men and women, we are naturally inclined to be one-sided. Isn't that so true? But do you recognize the areas of your life in which you are one-sided? Think about all the different positions that you take in your life when it comes to money, family, education, church, politics. You name it, we got a position about it. As my lovely wife would say, everyone has an opinion on everything we do. Everyone has a natural bent to be one-sided. We believe so strongly in our position that we have a tendency to become what I call either or people. Well, Alice, what do you mean by that? I mean, we believe things has to be a certain way. Our way is always the right way. We become one-sided. You, either Alabama fan or Auburn fan, can't be both, right? You, either traditional worship or contemporary worship, right? Private school, private school, liberal conservative, rich, poor, no-frontsville, south-frontsville, one denomination over the other. It's always either/or. This is what we do. Sometimes it can be good, sometimes it can be bad. Now an important thing is for you to realize not what I'm not saying. I'm not saying you shouldn't have value, that you shouldn't have standards and preferences, but what I'm saying is that you shouldn't be blinded by the position that you take. You shouldn't be blinded by that. Because here's the question, can you be one-sided in your views of money, church, education, discipline your kids, family, politics, can you be one-sided in all these different areas of your life and still have a whole list of views of God and the gospel? Can you say, "I'm a one-sided here, but when it comes to God and the gospel, I'm whole?" Think about that question. The answer is no, because what you don't realize is that your one-sidedness flows out your one side of your God. That's why you're one-sided, because you're not whole in your understanding of who God the Father truly is, because that understanding influences every area of your life. So if you sit in there now saying, "Man, I'm one-sided here," that means it's something about the Father that you don't get, that you don't understand, that you haven't even embraced yet, our God is a both and God, not an either or a God, but at times he's both holy and just, love, merciful, but at times we have a tendency to put those things in opposition to one another. All we embrace God's sovereignty means, which means he's in control of everything at this expense of man's responsibility, or we embrace man's responsibility at the expense of God in control. It's both and. It's not either or the Bible talks about them both. Here's another one. We want grace to cancel out personal responsibility, or we want personal responsibility or no grace. Where are you? Which one are you? This is one I love. Jesus the Savior, we love. We love Jesus the Savior, because we see the cross, where Jesus the Lord, who has authority of our life, he's the Jesus who we have a hard time dealing with, because he speaks into your life and says, "No way, that's mine. I have authority over you." Like Jesus, we don't like Jesus the Savior, we love, both and, not either or. The Father wants us to be whole, and not understand who he is, not understand the gospel, because when you hold there, you'll be holding your life, and Psalm 119, the Psalmist gives us an example. So you can't build up theology on the Psalms, because it's poetry, but he gives us an example of what it can look like for you to be holding your life. So we're going to look at the first eight, well, we're going to look at the first, there's going to be a two-part sermon, I'm sorry, so I didn't want to keep you in here all day. So we're going to look at the first four verses today, and the next four took next Sunday. So Psalm 119, beginning in verse 1, "Bless are those whose ways blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord, bless are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with a whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways, you have commanded your precept to be kept diligently." I just read it all just for the sake of the passage, "Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes, 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 learn your righteous rules, I would keep your statutes, do not otherly forsake me." This is God's Word, God's truth, please pray with me. Father God, as I, as we come to your truth, as I pray every week, I pray that you will be the one who's glorified, that you will be the one who's made great, you will be the one whose name is lifted on high, that is not Alex's name, it's not about me, it's about my God. You are the shepherd of your people, I'm just a man, a vessel, a broken one at that. So Jesus, Spirit, do what your guys do best, bring glory to yourself, and Christ in my pray. Amen. According to Matthew Henry, he's a Christian theologian, he said, "It's a statement of a believer's experience," that's his description, "a statement of a believer's experience." To me, I believe this is, the experiences, the experiences, the experience of wholeness in your life, of what takes place in your life when the Holy Spirit is actually working in you. Because he's the one that's behind the scenes, of anything that we embrace, the Holy Spirit is the one who is the one who's in line to embrace those things in the gospel. So the experience that we should have this year is the experience of wholeness in your Christian journey, and the experience of wholeness, I believe, is seen first in having balance in your life, balance in your life, verses 1 and verses 1 through 3, "Blessed are those whose ways blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord, blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart, who do no wrong but walk in his ways." This balance is seen in first in having a life of integrity, blessed are those whose ways blameless, blameless here is not talking about how to perfect life. On a surface, you could say, "Well, he's talking about me being sinless," is that what it means to be blameless? No, it's not perfect obedience. It simply means to have integrity, to be a person of integrity, undivided, unempaired, whole, happy are those who have integrity. The psalmist is saying, "As a believer, you and I should have integrity in our life." Do you have integrity? In other words, do you actually practice what you preach? As a believer. If I am a believer, then I will walk as a believer should walk. According to the psalmist here, he says, "You will walk in the law of the Lord." Now when you think about the law of the Lord, a lot of folks are getting nervous because the legalism starts coming in to play or trying to earn something from God, but this is not the psalmist intent here. This is not moralism. This is not you trying to earn your own salvation through works of the law, the point that there are implications of our adoption into God's family. You see, you are not a friend of God who was made into a son and daughter. You realize that, right? You were not on the fringe, you were not a friend that God adopted into his family. You were an enemy who was turned into a son and daughter. Which one is more radical? Enemies, they made sons and daughters. That's who we were. That's what Jesus says. That's what Paul says in the Romans. You were God's enemy before Christ came and reconciled you to him. So through Satan, faith, and Christ we become sons and daughters and when you become sons and daughters, you don't live like God's enemies and you don't live like God's enemy. Nor are you treated like an enemy. Think about that. We don't live like enemies, nor does God treat us like enemies. But we live like sons and daughters and we're treated like sons and daughters. Part of that is walking in his words as sons and daughters. What do you think about that? When you read in the Bible and it talks about walking in God's law or being God's law, what do you think about that? Does it make you afraid? Do you think sense that you're bent towards self-righteousness and legalism that is going to take over your life now? Do you feel oppressed by it? Do you think it already? This takes away my freedom, Alan. This is not how I want to begin the New Year. You talking about walking in God's law? Man, you messing up my year already. If those are the questions that are running through your mind, that's orphanedness. It's lest you think like an orphan, not a son. It's you thinking not like a child of God, thinking like an enemy. If you truly understand your adoption, if you truly understand what it means to be a child, a son and daughter, then when you see God's law, you will not be afraid of it. You can't, what I've learned is that I can't blame my sinful struggles with self-righteousness and legalism on God's law. It's my heart. It's the problem. That's where the blame lies, my heart. My heart takes me there, not his word. That's what I've come to mind, that it doesn't take away my freedom, it doesn't, it gives me great appreciation of my freedom. Instead, if you're a whole, if you're thinking like a son and daughter, you have a different view of God's law. For example, the Hebrew word for law is Torah. Do you know what that word means? Torah? Thank you. It doesn't mean rules and regulations. You know what it means? Instruction. Direction. Who doesn't need direction and instruction from the Lord? Who doesn't need it? I want you to get the point here. Whole Christians see God's law, his word, as fatherly instruction for their well-being in a fallen, broken world. Because if he didn't love you, he wouldn't give you instruction. His instruction is good. It's not a bunch of do's and don'ts, it's for your well-being for life in a fallen world. All people have standards by which they live their life. You have standards by which you make decisions on how you live. And for the believer, our standard is God's word, his word, his truth. Proverbs 4-1 says, "Here old sons of fathers instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts, do not forsake my teaching." Whole Christians pay attention to God's instruction, which they see as good. Every good parent gives instruction to their kids, do you not? What parent here does not give any instructions to their kids? No one. Why would you expect less of your Heavenly Father, who's better parent than you? Who is a better parent than you? Do you give them instruction to take away their freedom? Do you give them instruction to limit them, to oppress them? You give it to them because you love them, because you love them. How much more Heavenly Father? Now, as parents, what I'm learning, your kid don't always appreciate your instruction in direction. This week, Madison told me she wanted a new parent. I want a new parent, Daddy, because she didn't like the instruction that I gave her. This is what she told me when we came out of the restaurant. I said, "Madison, I need to go to the car, I need to watch before you cross the street, and then go straight to your seat." We got to the car, you said, "I want a new parent." And that's how we respond to the Father when he speaks truth in their lives sometimes. I want a new God. I want a God who's different, who will let me do what I want to do. If you don't think you're a struggle with that in your Christian journey, you're not going to understand your sin very well. Madison is us. There are going to be times in your life when the Father's Word comes to you, you're going to be like, "Craping my style, I want a new God." That's the struggle. Our sin takes us there, don't think that it doesn't. Now, I lost my place, man. Man I want a new parent. I wish God would be different. See, that is, we will struggle to walk in God's instruction, that's the point, but that's the norm for all of us. All of us are struggling to do that, but nonetheless, whole Christians live a life of integrity. The Lord will be imperfect, the Father knows that, and they strive to walk in His instruction imperfectly when the Father knows that. Not only do whole Christians have a life of integrity, the second thing they have is the life of affection, verse two. The rest of those who keep His testimonies, who walk, who seek Him with their whole heart. A life of affection is the second half of the balance, that whole Christians experience in their life. A life of integrity and a life of infection is a balance. Life of integrity deals with the way we live our life. Life of affection deals with the fictions of our heart toward God. The psalmist says, "Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart." Notice in the first verse, the psalmist mentioned the law of God, which means instruction, here he uses testimonies. What does it mean by testimonies? It refers to what God testifies to be His will. That's what testimonies mean. When God testifies to be His will, whole Christians keep close, they watch the world of God. It's in their hearts. Our hearts must be bent toward the will of God. Our will, his will must become our will. That happens as your heart grows more toward Him. The rhythm of your heartbeat must be the beat with Him. His rhythm must be your rhythm inside your heart. His will is your will. See the heart refers to the center of your being, is who you are as a person, your emotions, your reason, your will, your affections. And whatever has your heart has you, husbands, the wife that you married, she has you. If you love it, she has you, all your affection. You got married to your bride, you told her all my affections, I'm giving to you, not another. That's what you told her, and that's what the father wants from us, all of our affection to Him. Because we have all of His. How do I know that? Look at the cross. Look at the cross. What happened on the cross? Jesus said, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Who is your treasure? Is your father your treasure? What did Jesus accomplish for us through His death and resurrection? He accomplished a lot. And one of the things is that He restored the broken relationship between God the Creator and mankind His preacher. He restored that. And so when you embrace and connoisseur faith in Christ, you have been brought back into unity with your heavenly Father into relationship. And can you be in a loving relationship and have no affection for the other person? Can you be able, can you be a healthy, is that a healthy relationship? And so through Christ, that's what you could actually love the Father back, and perfect love. But nonetheless, you can have affection toward Him. He wants your heart. In these two verses, the Psalmist is telling us, "Whole Christians should have both a heart and a life transformation together." Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say either or. He doesn't say either or. He doesn't say, "It's just your heart." No, they just say, "It's just the way you live your life." He says, "It's both a hand." Both my heart and my life must be Godward, and it happens at the same time, not in isolation from each other, at the same time. And this is where I once sided this kick in, because remember, you have some of us who are so afraid of legalism that any time you mention the law, the shield goes up, the wall. And so your natural intent is going to focus exclusively on the heart. All right, it's the heart. I can't deal with this stuff. My legalism is going to kick in, so until my heart gets right, then I'm not going to do anything. Can I ask you a question? If you are a legalist, when it comes to loving your spouse, do you stop loving your spouse until your heart gets right, the answer is to do you. If you have a tendency to say, "My wife is an idol, me loving her is me trying to earn favor with God." So because I'm doing that, now I'm going to stop loving her until I no longer try to earn favor with God by loving her. Because do you do that? Because if you say, "I find my righteousness in spending time with God's word, I'm not going to do it because I do that," that applies to every area of life, because you make an idol at everything. And so what are you saying you're going to do? You're going to stop loving your spouse, because you make her an idol, no, you repent of it and move on. Because you're going to continue to make her an idol, I don't care how much, you pray your wine about it because you're a sinner. And so your struggles with legalism is going to be there until you die. The issue is, are you living in it, are you struggling with it? Are you repenting of it? Are you blind of it? That's the issue. That's the question. Can you see it? When I first became a believer back in college, 1996, I didn't grow up in the church, I came to a campus ministry, the death of a camp believer, the guy that led me to the faith, came to my dorm room, guess what he taught me? He taught me how to have a quiet time, he taught me how to remember our scripture, he got me signed up in the Bible study, and so for three years, that's all I did. Bible study, scripture memory, share my faith, all these different things. Never talked about grace. It was works, works, works, works, works, works, works. And if I failed to have a quiet time, I felt like God didn't love me no more. And so I worked hard trying to earn that faith and what happened is that my pride creep came up and I started thinking I was better than everybody. If the requirement was to memorize five verses in Bible study, then I'm going to memorize seven, because I'm going to be better than the guy in the group with me. So all I did for three years of my faith is just work hard, became a good parent, that's pretty much what happened to me. And anyone who wasn't doing as well as I was, I thought I was better than them. They don't get it yet, they still haven't arrived yet. Me and God expected to have me on his team, that's how I live, and I burn out. I humbled, he humbled me in college, and it was the darkest time of my life. Everything I, most of you know this testimony in my life, this was a turning point in my faith, because he took everything away from me that I thought made me right with him. I no longer want to spend time in the world. I went a year and a half that missed the time in the world, and I thought I was proud of myself for that. Then that depression came and I stopped doing everything. I stopped sharing my faith. I stopped memorizing strips, I stopped going to Bible study, went to church off and on, and I thought I was not saving anymore. I was like, "What's going on?" "Father, you don't love me anymore? I mean look at all the things I used to do for you. I'm struggling here," but that was love. What he did to me was love, because the person I was becoming, didn't love people. I used people. So for four months, God peeled my life away and brought me to a place, he brought me to the end of myself, and when he brought me to the end of myself, I saw grace for the first time, and so it wasn't God's law that did that to me, it was my own sin. And he said, "Well, what got me out of that, what got you out of that, Alex?" A guy used a man to come into my life and preach the gospel to me every day for three months. He told me to gospel, and he met with me once a week, and he helped me work through a lot of that stuff, helped open my eyes to a lot of things that I was blind towards, because I didn't see it. I thought it was just being a good Christian, but I actually saw what I was doing, what I was actually seeing, your father. He said, "Well, Alex, it could have been that bad." When you say you don't think the devil is attacking you, that's bad. That was my thing I used to say, I don't feel him attacking you, but why didn't realize he already had, because of my pride, because of my pride, my pride. I lost my place again, I hate it, you get away from your notes, you always get in trouble. So if you're afraid of legalism, you have to realize that it's a battle, and you deal with it by repenting of it, that's how we deal with it. Now on the other side, you have those who don't focus that much on the heart, it's all about how they live their life. My life has got to be aligned a certain way, I've got to make sure I'm following all the rules and all the standards. It's always the external obedience that you focus on, and you don't really deal with the heart as much. It's both, and you've got to deal with both the heart and your life. What's going to happen when the Spirit starts working on your heart and starts working on your life, you're going to really see your sin differently, and that sin is what makes us one-sided. Verse 3 says, "Who do no wrong but walk in his ways, do no wrong is referred to living and sin, and what is sin is independence from God, and it works itself out in two ways, righteousness and self-righteous, legalism and towel off, it works itself out in two ways. Verse 1 John 3 says, "No one born in God makes a practice of sinning, for God sees the buys in him, and he keeps him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he's the born of God. The point he's made is that you will not live an unrepentant sin, but you repent of it." And so the question is never perfection, it's can you see your brokenness and are you repenting of your brokenness? Walking in the ways of God pounces back the first two verses. Walking in his instruction, living in his will, his will for all life becoming our will for all life. God is not an evil rich father, he's a good father, and inheritance he gives you is not like a carrot that he uses to control you. He's good all the time, you're his son, you're his daughter, and now as you start to look at your heart and start to look at your life, I said you're going to start seeing your sin differently. When I, the other part of my story is that once I started embracing grace and understanding it more in my life, guess what happened to me next? I went from following all the rules, oh man, there's no rules anymore, I'm on the grace. This is my journey, this is what happened to me, I don't know what happened to you, but this is what happened to me. I went from morning stream to the next, the question is did the grace bring me there? No, my son found another way to work itself out of my life, found another way for me to be independent from the father, and it chose that. We have a natural tendency to abuse the gifts the father gives us, give them, and our sin takes us there. And so you got to know what this is about yourself, that there's part of you that loves instruction, that's part of you that hates it, that you want to do what you want to do. And you deal with those things by being honest about it, depending on it and moving on. That's how you deal with it. The problem is that when you think you're going to get to a place where you no longer struggle with those things, brothers and sisters, that's glory, not here. What Jesus done for us, He freed us from living in our sin, but He's given us the freedom to struggle with you through His death upon the cross, and you will. The more you embrace that reality, the more joy you're going to have in your Christian journey. Now this is one of my favorite things, grace gives you freedom to struggle with your sin, not to live in it, but to struggle with it. And that's the reality. Who He doesn't struggle with sin, and guess what, the Father knows that, and He's okay with that. You're not okay with it. Jesus went through the cross for that. So our adoption as sons and daughters into His Kingdom is a wonderful, wonderful thing, and I hope you realize that, and as you begin to live this year, that you will live this year with asking the Father to change your heart, and asking the Father to change your lifestyle, that they both would be God-worked, bent toward Him. Like I said, this is a two-part sermon. Next week, we're going to talk about what actually enables us to experience this balance. Today, we're just giving you a description of what the balance looks like. Next week, we're going to talk about where does the power come from, that enables us to have this balance. That has to be a power, and guess what, it's not you, so let us pray. Father God, I thank you, Father, for brokenness. I thank you that you break us because you love us, because you adore us. If you didn't love us, there will be no discipline, there will be no instruction, or guidance. I thank you because you are a good dad. What we do, what I do for my own kids, I give them a instruction because I love them, because I adore them. And so, Father, I pray that as we begin our new year, that your spirit will give us a greater understanding of what it really means to be adopted into your family, what it really means to be a child, to think like a child, to worship as a child, to pray as a child, to embrace the gospel as a child. When you see us, you don't see leopards, you see sons and daughters. You still think you see us as enemies sometimes, by the way we talk about ourselves. You see the blood of Christ over us. When that blood is over us, you no longer see us as we used to be. We are a new creation in your sight. You have instrapped us in a palm of your hands, Father. You did dance over us with shouts of joy, Father. Help us to know what it truly means, or help us to live, or help us to bathe in it more and more. And I pray that you watch over us this upcoming week, be with our kids, that they return to school, be with our parents, that they get really adjusted to being back on the school schedule, be with our teachers as well as they prepare to teach our kids, and pray, Father, for you to be glorified in our lives, and give us hearts to love you more, and Christ in my prayer, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]