Harvest Detroit West
Sunday Sermon - Psalm 119:9-16 -"The Majesty of God's Word”
August 11, 2024 In this week’s sermon, Brett Romisch looks to Psalm 119 to encourage us the be dedicated to the Word, to memorize the Word, take our instructions from the Word, and as we delight in the Word to make time to meditate on the Word.
(upbeat music) - We hope and pray that you are blessed by the word of God as it's preached. - And good morning, Harvest. It is good to be here with you this morning if you have your Bible with you and if you have not done so already, go ahead and open it up to that passage, that RJ just read for us a few moments ago. Psalm chapter 119. Psalm chapter 119, someone said the whole thing. No, not the whole thing. We are going to be looking at verses nine through 16 this morning in a message titled the Majesty of God's Word. If time permitted, I would love to take the next 20 minutes to read Psalm 119 in its entirety, all 176 verses as this is a wonderful Psalm that magnifies the majesty of God's word. And that speaks to the profound impact that God's word has on our lives if we listen to it and if we follow its commands. Unfortunately, we do not have the time to read this Psalm in its entirety this morning, but I pray that you will be able to find some time this afternoon or this evening to do so, perhaps this is your family devotion this evening. Psalm 119 is all about the word of God and that becomes abundantly clear when you read this Psalm in its entirety and notice that in nearly every single verse, I believe it is in 173 out of 176 verses in Psalm 119, God's word is referenced. Or a synonym for God's word is used like his laws or his commandments, his precepts, his statutes, his testimonies, his ways and so on and so forth. This Psalm is a wonderful Psalm that is all about the majesty, the wonder of God's word, the book that you are holding in your lap right now. Psalm 119 is also one acrostic Psalm that is broken down into 22 sections and you will notice in your Bible that each section rather has eight verses contained in it. You will also notice that each section has a header above verse one, you will see the header is aliph, above verse nine, it is bait, above verse 17, it is gimbal and so on all the way through to the end of the chapter. These headers are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet which is why we have 22 sections in Psalm 119, one section for each letter. And each section is arranged in such a way where each verse starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, when you read it in Hebrew, each section starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet that it's headed up by. So if you read Psalm 119 in Hebrew, you will notice in verses one through eight, every single verse starts with the Hebrew letter aliph. In verses nine through 16, if you read it in Hebrew, you will see that every single verse starts with the Hebrew letter bait. Verses 17 through 24, each verse starts with the Hebrew letter gimbal and that happens all the way through to the end of the chapter. And Psalm 119 was written this way because it was supposed to be memorized. All 176 verses of this Psalm were supposed to be memorized. The Hebrew alphabet was used as an aid to help God's people memorize this text and in memorizing this text, they were bringing to the forefront of their minds. They were remembering or constantly recalling the majesty of God's word. The importance of God's word, the value of God's word and the wisdom that is contained in God's word. It's so good. And as much as I would love to preach on this whole Psalm this morning, we just don't have time for that. The 11 a.m. service, we're gonna have time for it because we don't have anything after that, so they just gotta stick it out. But you guys are the lucky ones. I'm just kidding. What we're gonna do, we don't have time to go through the whole Psalm, obviously. So we're gonna turn our attention this morning to that second section, the bait section versus nine through 16 of Psalm 119 this morning. And here we are going to consider the majesty of God's word in that it purifies and blesses our lives. It's one of the things that makes God's word so majestic. It purifies and blesses our lives. And that is what this section is all about. God's word purifying and blessing our lives. So this morning, we're gonna consider two things as we work our way through this Psalm. Two points. We are first going to consider the question. And then we are going to consider the answer. And we're gonna spend a majority of our time this morning looking at the answer. But let's begin by looking at the question that is posed in the first half of verse nine. It is a very important question. And that question is how can a young man keep his way pure? How can a young man keep his way pure? Again, it's such an important question in our day and age, but it is a question that was no less important in the Psalmist's day and age. Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun. How can a young man keep his way pure? Living in a society today that has lost its way and seemingly abandoned all moral values where sin runs rampant on television, even on children's shows in today's day and age and in music and in advertising. And I would say especially on those devices we keep in our pockets and those social media accounts that we have where sin is running rampant in all of those places, how can a young man keep his way pure? How can he stay on the path of purity? How can a young man keep himself and make himself free from the tarnish of sin? How can he live a righteous life? That's what purity is all about. It's about living righteously. How can he do these things? But not just the young man. This goes for the old man or the older man and the woman too. Certainly moral purity is a challenge for young men. I would say it is especially a challenge for young men with their youthful energy and lack of wisdom and slow gaining of independence, but let's be real with ourselves here and admit that we all have our own challenges when it comes to living a pure and righteous life. Perhaps it's an addiction that you have not been able to kick since your youth. An addiction to drugs or alcohol or pornography. Maybe it's been a lifelong battle with anger or gossip. Gossip is one of those sins that I actually think is more common among adults than it is among youth. Maybe it's laziness or pride. I could go on and on and on, but the point is we all fight the battle against the world, the flesh and the devil. So this question applies to all of us. How can we keep our way pure before a holy God? The wisdom that is found in the rest of this song provides us with the answer. And that's the second thing I wanna consider this morning. It's the answer and we find the answer this question in the second half of verse nine. How can a young man keep his way pure? Assuming you want to keep your way pure? Listen to the answer. By guarding it according to your word. If you wanna live a pure life, you want to experience that freedom from the world, the flesh and the devil and you want to be free from that sin that has had a tight grip on you for years and years and years, perhaps even since your youth here is the key. This is the wisdom that God has imparted to us. Here's how you do it. You guard your life with the word of God. You guard your life. But what does that mean? Guard your life with the word of God. It sounds good, guard my life. Got it, all right? But what does that actually mean? What does that involve? Well, I would argue again that the rest of this song verses 10 through 16 provides us with the answer to that question. What does guarding your life with the word of God involve? And so we're gonna spend the rest of our time this morning considering that question. I just presented the question and gave you the answer. Now I'm presenting you with another question. What does it mean to guard your life? With the word of God. Well, guarding your life with the word of God involves five things that I want us to consider. With the rest of our time this morning. First, guarding your life with the word of God involves a dedication to the word. A wholehearted dedication to the word of God. We see this in verse 10 where the Psalmist writes, "With my whole heart I seek you." If you mark up your Bible, I want you to circle or highlight or underline those two words in verse 10. Whole heart. With my whole heart, God I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. If you want the word of God to guard your life so you can have a life that is pure and free from the tarnish of sin, you have to be dedicated. And I am talking about a wholehearted dedication to seeking the Lord in his word. Consider for a moment in light of the Olympics coming to an end today. One of the greatest Olympians this country has ever seen. The gymnast Simone Biles. Throughout Simone Biles' career she has earned 11 Olympic medals, seven gold medals to silver and two bronze medals. And think why has she been so successful throughout her career? Certainly she's a gifted gymnast. There are a lot of other gifted gymnasts in the world as well. So what has made Simone Biles so great? I would argue it is her wholehearted dedication to her craft. It is her wholehearted dedication to gymnastics. Earlier this week I was reading about her practice schedule and I would say it is her wholehearted dedication to her practice schedule. She practices for six to seven days a week even on birthdays and holidays. And she practices gymnastics, the same jumps over and over and over again for six to eight hours per day. And if you include her time of eating and recovery it can be up to eight to 10 hours per day. Six to eight hours, I'm sorry, six to seven days a week for six to eight, perhaps even 10 hours per day she practices. Now imagine for a moment Simone Biles only practiced one maybe two days per week for one to two hours at a time. And when she was practicing she didn't really want to be there. She just wanted to go off and do the next thing that she had on her schedule, whatever that may be. Imagine for a second that Simone Biles was only half-hearted in her dedication. How many Olympic medals do you think she would have? I would argue she wouldn't have a single one. She may not even be on the team. If Simone Biles does not dedicate her whole heart to her craft she will not find success in the same way Harvest Family. If you want to live a pure life but you do not dedicate your whole heart to seeking the Lord in his word you will not find success. You won't. If you are seeking the Lord but only half-heartedly once a week on Sunday mornings or on the rare occasion twice a week if you decide to join and participate in a midweek small group you're gonna have a hard time keeping your work pure and free from the tarnish of sin. If you find yourself straying towards sin throughout the week it is because you are not dedicating your whole heart to the word. You are not seeking after God with your whole heart and your heart is seeking after other things. And if you seek after other things you will find other things. Other things. Instead Harvest Family we need to cultivate a singleness of heart. A singleness of heart. And we need to start seeking God through his word. We need to cultivate corporately and individually a deep hunger and a dire thirst for those daily meetings with God in his word. And this is why I said this a few weeks ago and I'm gonna say it again today. This is why our daily devotions need to be not just a priority in our lives they need to be the priority in our lives. Parents if you want your children to stay on the path of purity I have two young boys and I pray that for them every single night I want them to stay on the path of purity it is very clear what I have to do. It is very clear what you have to do. We have to make our family devotions the priority. The priority in our lives. Do 'em in the morning. Do 'em on your lunch break. Do 'em in the evening. Nobody said family devotions can only happen once a day. (breathes deeply) This goes for everyone not just families before you go to work meet with the Lord. On your commute to and from work meet with the Lord. At your lunch break on work meet with the Lord before you go to bed meet with the Lord. Be like David who in Psalm 63 verse one cried out, "Oh God, you are my God." Listen to what he says next. "Ernously, I seek you." "Ernously, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you." My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Water, earnestly seek after the Lord with your whole heart. It is a wholehearted dedication to seeking him in his word. That's the first aspect of guarding our lives with the word of God. So how can a young man keep his way pure? Guard it according to your word. What does that look like? First, it looks like a wholehearted dedication to the word of God. Secondly, this morning. The second thing guarding your life with the word of God involves is memorization of the word. Memorization of the word. So dedicate yourself to the word number one. Number two this morning, memorize the word. We see this in verse 11 where the Psalmist writes, "I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." There it is stated plainly. If you want the word of God to guard your life and keep you pure and free from the tarnish of sin, store it up in your heart. Memorize it. I love the thought of storing up God's word in our hearts. Other translations may read your word. I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. That was how I memorize this verse back in my "owana" days. I love this idea of storing up God's word in our hearts, hiding God's word in our hearts. Why do we store up God's word in our hearts? Why do we hide his word in our hearts? Well, there's two reasons. Number one, we store up and we hide God's word in our hearts so nobody can take it away from us. You can take all the Bibles away. You can take the Bible app off the app store for those of you who like to use your phones. You can take all the Bibles away, but when I have hidden in my heart, you cannot take away. No matter how hard you try, you cannot take it away so we hide and store God's word up in our hearts so nobody can take it away from us. And then we also store up God's word in our hearts so we can have it readily available in our minds when we need it the most. I remember as a teenager, being a young man, trying to keep my way pure. I still consider myself a young man. Okay, so I'm not saying I'm not, but I remember as a teenager, I was a young man trying to keep my way pure. I remember sitting down with my accountability partner and we were talking about purity and how we can help each other stay pure and how we can keep each other accountable. And my accountability partner and I committed to memorizing some verses that were going to help us versus that we could just pull out and use any time that we felt tempted. I remember one verse in particular that we memorized that has been and continues to be so incredibly helpful to me when it comes to fighting any temptations or any desires to sin that come up in my life. This is a verse that helps me stay on the path of purity. And I want you to write it down if you're taking notes and I want you to memorize it later. And that verse is first Corinthians 10, 13. First Corinthians 10, 13, where we get this wonderful reminder from the Lord through the Apostle Paul. First Corinthians 10, 13, it says this. It says, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Whenever I face temptation as a youth and even to this day, but especially back then, I would quote this verse in my head and sometimes I would say it out loud over and over and over again until the temptation passed. I had this verse and many others stored up in my heart so I could pull them out and use them whenever I needed them, whenever I was facing temptations. And I would quote this verse in others until the temptation passed. And in doing that, I was simply following the example that was set for us by our Savior, Jesus Christ. Who, as I'm sure many of you recall in Matthew chapter four, after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, Jesus was visited and tempted by the tempter himself. The devil visits him and tempts Jesus three times, Jesus was tempted and all three times, Jesus responded to the devil's temptations by saying it is written and then he would quote scripture. And after the devil tempts Jesus for the third time and the devil failed all three times. Matthew four, 11 tells us then the devil left him. The devil fled, he left Jesus, harvest family. If the word of God himself used scripture to thwart the attacks of the tempter himself, how much more important is it for us as sinners to do the same things? Our hearts and our minds need to be storehouses for God's words. We gotta storm up as that is what will help us get on and stay on the path of purity. I heard a great analogy one time from, I believe it was from Ray Comfort and it was a gardening illustration and I thought it was really impactful. Ray Comfort said, what is the best way to keep weeds from growing in your garden? And he answered his own question and he said, it's to fill your garden with so many flowers that there's no room for the weeds to grow. Good idea. And then he said, what's the best way to keep evil thoughts out of your mind? He said, it is to fill your mind with so much scripture, so much scripture, hidden up, stored up in your mind that there's no room for those evil thoughts to even enter in. I love that. Our hearts and our minds need to be storehouses for God's word. As that is what is going to help us keep our way pure. So here's my challenge for you this morning. It is to memorize scripture. Do it as a family. If you have children who are in our Awana program here at Harvest, which is starting up in a couple of weeks, they're gonna be memorizing scripture. Those kids will be in Awana, so parents memorize those same verses with your children. Memorize scripture as a family. Do it as a small group. Do it as a friend. If you're like, I don't have a friend to do it with, come and send me afterwards and I will do it with you. It is vitally important that we start hiding God's word in our hearts today. And if you're here this morning and you're thinking, I'm too old to start memorizing scripture. I have a hard time remembering where my keys and wallet are. Nicholas Stone just raised his hand in the back of the sanctuary. And I think that's hilarious. Happens to us too, Nicholas, that's great. But if that's you, I would just pray and I would say, Lord, give me the ability to memorize these verses. I know the importance of memorizing these verses will help me to memorize five verses, 10 verses, 15 verses, just start today. And if you don't know where to start or what to memorize, you're like, man, I really want to start memorizing scripture. I have a few recommended resources for you. I'm going to put them up on the screen here and I'll just talk through each one quickly. The first one that I'd strongly recommend when it comes to memorizing scripture is the navigator's topical memory system. Topical memory system, you can buy it for $15 on Amazon. Right now, you'll get a workbook that will help you memorize scripture. And then you'll also get these little scripture memory cards that you can take with you on the go. So when you're at work or in the car, wherever you may be, not while you're driving, but in the car parked, right? You can pull this little card out and you can just go through and review and recap and memorize scripture. It is a very effective system. I've used it before and absolutely love what the Navier's have put together here. And if you follow the system, you can memorize 60 key verses of scripture in 30 weeks. So that's one that I would recommend for you first and foremost. The second one I would recommend is an app on your phone and it is called the versus app, the versus app. This app is free to download. It's $5 per year for the ESV translation. It's free if you want to memorize in the King James version, but good luck. If you want to challenge, it is free. But it's the best $5 you'll spend all year. It offers a variety of ways to memorize scripture. It even has some scripture memory games that you can play, it tracks your progress. It's easy to go back and review. You always have your phone with you. I know that you do. You always have your phone with you everywhere you go. So when you pull out your phone, if you have the versus app on it, instead of going to Facebook or to Instagram or to TikTok, you pull out the versus app and you can review and recap the verses you have memorized and you can memorize new ones. You store up God's word in your heart. My wife and I are trying to memorize James chapter one together right now. And she is doing the versus app. I am not and she is doing way better than I am. And a small part of that is because she's using the versus app, a large part of that is that she's just way smarter than I am and way better at memorizing scripture than me, but we're trying. The last resource I would recommend is simply just opening up your Bible and committing yourself to memorizing a chapter. It's completely free. If you don't have a Bible, you can just take one from here today. I'd recommend memorizing if you're looking for a couple of chapters to memorize. Psalm 23 is a good place to start. John chapter 15 is a great chapter to memorize. And Colossians three, one through 17 is another good and effective one as well. I give you these resources because I wanna emphasize how important it is that we together are hiding God's word in our hearts because that is a guard against sin. It is a prescription for the control of temptations that come up in your life and in our lives. And it will help us live righteously. I have seen that to be true. So the first two things guarding your life with the word involves is a dedication to the word, a memorization of the word. The third thing guarding your life with the word involves is receiving instruction from the word. Instruction from the word. We see this in verse 12 where the Psalmist writes, "Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes." If you want the word of God to guard your life and keep you pure and free from the tarnish of sin, you have to have a teachable spirit. You have to have a teachable spirit. You have to be open and receptive to receiving instruction and at times receiving correction from the word of God. The good news is, it's very easy to have a teachable spirit when you have a good teacher. I remember when I was in fourth grade, I had a horrible teacher. And this was before I was homeschooled. So I'm not talking about my mom here, okay? Fourth grade, I had a horrible teacher. She was mean, she acted like she didn't want to be there. She actually would like tell us she didn't like kids and we were like, "We are kids, lady." But she was not very nice. She only made it one year after school and of course it was the year that I was in fourth grade. But she was just mean. And I had a really hard time learning from her and listening to her. I didn't really learn much in fourth grade at all, which honestly explains a lot. But it's really hard. It's hard to have a teachable spirit when you have a bad teacher. But the inverse of that statement is also true. It's easy to have a teachable spirit when you have a good teacher in the Psalmist here. The recognizes that not only does he have a good teacher, but he has the best teacher, a teacher who he loves and holds in high regard. And this is evidenced by his praise in the first half of verse 12. He says, "Blessed are you, O Lord." And then I love what he does. I love what he does here. In the second half of verse 12, he then invites the Lord to be his teacher. He says, "God, teach me your statutes." That's a plea he makes eight other times in this chapter. The Psalmist was eager to learn and the Lord is willing to teach and to give understanding. What a wonderful truth that is. If we are eager to learn, the Lord is willing to teach and to give us understanding. And this is why he has given us his Holy Spirit who is Jesus said in John 14, 26. It's the Holy Spirit, our helper who will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Harvest family, we receive instruction from the word and understanding from the Lord. And it is that understanding that drives us towards purity and righteous living. So I wanna encourage you and challenge you again this morning that whenever you go before the Lord each day, when you have your daily devotion, as you devote yourself to the word of God, take a moment and pray the prayer of the Psalmist. Just pray, Lord, teach me your statutes. Teach me how to keep my way pure. Teach me how to guard my life with the word. Teach me God how to live righteously. Teach me how to be a good father. Teach me how to be a good husband. Teach me how to be a good church member. Teach me how to be a good son or daughter. Teach me, teach me, teach me. And he will. The fourth thing guarding your life with the word involves is delighting in the word, delighting in the word. So dedicate yourself to it, memorize it, receive instruction from it. Fourthly this morning, delight in the word. We see this in verses 13 and 14 and verse 16 as well. Starting in verse 13, the Psalmist writes with my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth in the way of your testimonies. I delight as much as in all riches. And then in verse 16, he says, I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. If you want the word of God to guard your life and keep you pure and free from the tarnish of sin, you have to delight in it. Delight in these words. In verse 14, he writes again, in the way of your testimonies, I delight as much as in all riches. That is to say, if I had all of the riches, all of the wealth that this world had to offer, I would delight in that less than I delight in the word of God. It's almost as in essence saying if I had the choice between a billion dollars or a Bible, I would choose the Bible every day of the week and twice on Sundays. How can he say this? It's because he knows that the riches of the world do nothing to help us keep our way pure and free from the tarnish of sin. They do nothing to help us live righteously. In fact, riches can make it more difficult to live righteously. And Jesus said in Matthew 24, it is in Matthew 19, 24. Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. All the riches in the world do nothing for us. From an eternal standpoint, they do nothing for us and they tell us nothing of, and this is the most important thing, they tell us nothing of our sin and our desperate need of a savior. In fact, they give off riches of the world, give off the opposite message that we have everything that we need and that we don't need anything else. And that's just not true. The word of God, on the other hand, it tells us, as we've seen, how to guard our lives, how to keep them pure. It tells us how to live righteously. And the words that we're looking at this morning, the book that you're holding in your hands right now, contained in that book, contained in the word of God are things of eternal value. Words that lead to eternal life, the truth that we are all sinners, who have fallen short of the glory of God, that we do have needs, desperate needs. We are in desperate need of a savior and that we have a savior and that his name is Jesus. And some of the richest words in all of scripture come from Romans chapter 10, verse nine. If you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, I plead with you to listen to these words and to the eternal value contained in these words. Romans 10, verse nine, it tells us if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. And if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved forever. Saved and forever safe. The word of God is so much more valuable than the riches the world has to offer. And that's why the psalmist delighted in it. He delighted in it so much he couldn't stop talking about it. And we see that in verse 13, he says with my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth. He delighted in these words because of what they did in his life. And he couldn't shut up about it. And I love that. I think of parents who always talk about their children. I'm guilty of that. Okay, I am that parent, right? I wanna do that because I love my children so much. I can't stop talking about them and telling stories about them or grandparents who love to pull out their phone and spend 10 minutes trying to find a picture of their grandkid to show you, right? It's 'cause they love that kid so much they can't stop talking about it. That's how the psalmist is treating the word of God. He's like, I love it so much. I see the value and the wisdom contained in it. I can't stop talking about it. I feel that. Delighting in the word of God, it brings about a love for things that God loves. And it brings about a hatred for the things of the world, the things that God despises. And that helps us get on and stay on the path of purity. It purifies our lives. It's rich and we need to treat it as such. Lastly, this morning, the fifth and final thing, regarding your life with the word of God, involves is meditation on the word. Meditate on the word. We see this in verse 15 with a psalmist's right. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your waist. It's important to define this term meditate. It is not sitting cross legged with your arms out in an attempt to empty your mind and reach another state of consciousness. That is actually the complete opposite of biblical meditation. Biblical meditation is not an emptying of the mind, but it is a filling of the mind with the word of God. Whenever the Bible speaks of meditation and refers to meditation, it always every single time talks about meditating on something, specifically on the word of God. Or as we see in this psalm on his precepts. It's a filling of the mind, the word of God, and then a daily and deep contemplation upon the truths in God's word. It's a reading of the word. And then you go on to spend the rest of your day thinking about it, chewing on it, turning it over in your head and mind, over heart and mind, over and over and over again, and then considering constantly throughout the day how you can apply God's word to your life. There's a well-known saying that goes like this, says the real issue when it comes to reading the Bible. The real issue is not how many times I go through the word, but rather how many times the word goes through me. It's not how many times I go through the word, but rather how many times the word goes through me. That's biblical meditation. It is a thinking about the word of God day and night. Just as God commanded Joshua to do back in Joshua chapter one, verse eight, God says this to Joshua. He says Joshua, Moses has just died. Joshua's taken over and God gives this instruction to Joshua. Joshua, this book of the law, shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. Meditate on it day and night, 24/7, and listen to the blessing. God says so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. If that's not incentive to meditate on God's word, I don't know what is. Fix your eyes on God's word. A few verses each day just focus in on those verses. Keep your eyes there. Keep your mind there. Keep your actions there. Meditate on those words and that will help keep you from putting your eyes somewhere else where they perhaps shouldn't be or your mind somewhere else, perhaps where it shouldn't be or your actions elsewhere, perhaps where they shouldn't be to a place that isn't pure and isn't righteous. Meditate on God's word, harvest family. My prayer this morning is that through this psalm, you have seen the majesty of God's word on full display. How it purifies and blesses our lives if we guard our lives with it, if we dedicate ourselves to it, if we memorize it, if we receive instruction from it, if we delight in it and if we meditate on it day and night. But here's the reality I want to leave you with this morning. Even if we do all of those things, even if we strive to live a life of purity, the reality is we are not going to be perfect. We will slip up. We will have moments off the path of purity because as I just said a few moments ago, we are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God. And that is why ultimately, what we need is the word of God incarnate. Jesus Christ, as it was through his sinless life, his atoning death and his victorious resurrection that he secured for us a perfect purity and a perfect righteousness that we could never attain on our own. So thanks be to God for his word and for how it works in our lives. It will work in your life. If you dedicate your life to it, thanks be to God for his word incarnate, his son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again just for this morning and we thank you for this opportunity that we've had to open up and to study your word. Lord, as we sang this morning, we proclaim that truth. Your words are wonderful. They're wonderful because of how they work so powerfully in our life to purify us and to bless us or to draw us closer to you. And to your son, our Savior, who all the scripture points to, Jesus Christ. Lord, as we go from this place this morning, may we be a people who commit ourselves to pure and righteous living. May we have that desire to keep our way pure and may we live in obedience to your word, dedicating ourselves to it, committing to memorizing it, having a teachable spirits so we can receive instruction from you through your word. May we be a people who delight in your word. And may we be a people who commit to meditating on your word, day and night. May we keep our focus on you and on your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, thank you for your son, Jesus. Thank you for his sinless life. Thank you for his atoning death. Thank you for his victorious resurrection and we are so looking forward to his glorious return. And we'll recumb before you this morning and we pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen. If you want any more information about our church, you can visit our website, harvestsattroitwest.org. [MUSIC PLAYING]