Psalms 119:150 - Near - Far God

This is the Truth Network. When it came to the letter, it gave me a sense of really the inner meaning behind the letter itself and how much the letter has to do with how close we are to God in both time and space. And I'm sure you're going to hear that. And that knowledge comes in extremely wonderful as we are in our pursuit always of growing closer to God, becoming more like his son. So verse 150 in English again, when you hear me say the knowledge verse, let me say that before I say the verse. And I'm talking about the anointings of Christ, which you'll find in Isaiah 11. They right at the beginning of the verse, it says he was anointed with wisdom and understanding.

Council might knowledge, fear the Lord and a delight in the fear of the Lord. So this, again, being the fifth verse would give us the knowledge of that anointing of the letter cuff. And again, understanding the letter cuff is what happened to me because of this verse. And because when you look at the Hebrew, you'll see it's also clearly. So verse 150 in English reads, they draw nigh that follow after mischief.

They are far from my law. And so when you do a little study on that word, on the words that are in this verse, the nigh, when they says they draw nigh, that means they draw close. So it's really neat because you see the word close in Hebrew and the word far in the same sentence. And when you look at that, you'll see that the cuff, the letter that the whole section is after is at the very beginning. It's the first letter of the word nigh or closeness. And as you might guess, it's the last letter in the word far.

And so as I began to process that, I began to see that, oh, my goodness, that they literally, as part of painting this picture are showing you. And when you find anything that has to do with gathering people together or waiting on the Lord or things like that, you'll always find this cuff. And it is also the beginning of the word holy.

OK, so this cuff being, you know, how close we are, how far we are for something. So in this case, when it says they draw close to mischief, well, that mischief word is really sexual immorality in a big way. I mean, some really debauched things that this mischief words means in Hebrew. And so it's cool that that the King David is sharing with you that they're far from God when they're far from the law. That means they're far from Christ. It means they're far from God. And so he's given you a comparison of those people that are struggling with things are clearly a long way. And so what's it telling you? The closer you get to God, the less you're going to struggle. And of course, we know faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God. I mean, all kind of comes together.

But what does this actually look like when it has to do with closeness in an actual relationship? And so when I think about this knowledge, you know, I go back to actually the first sermon that I remember hearing in my entire life and my wife had asked me actually told me that if I was going to marry her, I had to go to church. We lived in Greensboro at the time and she we're trying to pick a church to go to because she had moved there from Raleigh and we went to the First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro. Clearly the only reason we went is it looked like the prettiest church in Greensboro.

To my wife's point of view. And of course, it didn't matter to me. And if you ever do see the First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, it is a gorgeous church. But anyway, that particular Sunday is I still find it more amazing how God orchestrated it. There was a pastor emeritus by the name of Dr. Redhead, which gave the sermon again to this car salesman who did about as far from God as you could get.

OK. But he started out with a sermon that really caught my attention. And he basically said this, that, you know, when you pray, you're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk. He said, you got two ears and one mouth.

Do the math. And so he gave us an example of this prayer that I later you might have heard me talk about it before the five slam a jamma cat's pajama prayer. And the idea, he said, was that if you are to picture that Jesus himself walked down this aisle and sat next to you. Then listen, OK, to see the key word of what he said is you're to perceive that Jesus is right next to you.

And actually, since I got that picture on that sermon on that day back, I think it was in 1988. I've had the sense that when I pray, I want to grow closer to God. That's my that's the whole idea is to get as close as possible. We talked about before, like Moses, take off your shoes so you can get holy so you can get to the holy ground. You're supposed to get close to God. And so, you know, even this morning, as I was actually praying to do the Christian car guy show today, I still actually perceive that I'm sitting right now. And today I perceive I'm sitting with a father and with a son and with the Holy Spirit. And in that close proximity, I listen. And as I listen, you know, God gave me the title of today's radio show, the one I did on the Christian car guy, which, you know, which I already knew to some extent that I was going to be talking about the idea of heavenly clothing, which is, you know, say yes to the dress.

And so forever. Identity was what God gave me as I drew close into him this morning and got a sense of what he wanted to do with this show. And this is a testimony that actually goes on in my life, hopefully every day. Like what is it that I'm doing? You know, God, help me push in next to you.

And since you know what it is that you see your vision for this exercise, whatever it is like tomorrow morning, I will be teaching my special needs class at Calvary. And I will push in and I'll begin to just open up those two ears and listen and listen. And when you're listening in present time, right, because it has to do with time and space.

So I'm in present time. I want to be in the exact same time he is. And I want to be as close to him as I can possibly get, because it is about this relationship and it is so much about my identity as his child. Of course, he wants you close, right? I mean, I I know my my daughter, Mariah, went to Alabama to go to college.

She's still there and she actually graduates in April, but it is so hard that she is so far from me. Right. And you want those that you love close to you. Well, that's what Jesus wants. That's what the father wants. That's what the Holy Spirit want. And so as you draw close in this holiness, wow, what a beautiful place to be. And the closer you get to the law, right, because this is what it's saying, you won't be far from that law. You won't be chasing after mischief. That's the plan. Thanks for listening.