Psalms 119: Review - The Quaf of Philippians 4:5

This is the Truth Network. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Thank you back.

We'll be right back. It's a positional issue, and so when he's talking about being like someone else's position, the more I thought about that is he's saying to be on their side. Now that doesn't mean on their side of their particular choices, but it means that if it's not about us and it is about God, we know that the closer they get to God, so if we will be on their side wanting them to come closer to God and moving towards them, it's a positional thing. So as we grow closer to God, we should grow closer to one another, and it does fit in well with the idea of what J. Verna McGee was saying, that this has to do with power. Well, as you move closer to God, your power grows stronger, especially if you move closer to other people.

Especially why? Because God is close, and so when you think about the seventh verse in the kph section, you might remember it said, Thou art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are truth. Well here again, we have this completely positional statement, and it seems to be, from my perspective, saying the same thing, because one of those commandments is love your neighbor as yourself, which would mean they would be on their side. It's like grace in a way, but it's a positional thing, and the reason why I wanted to apply this from a standpoint of what I've experienced, so you may not believe this, but it's true. Everybody doesn't like me, and there are people out there that I, at one time, was in close community with me, and they got really mad at me, and they won't have anything to do with me, is what they told me, and I got emails to that effect, like, I never want to talk to you again, I never want to da da da. And you know, I have some issues in my family at times with people that don't ever want to be around me again, I get told that, you know, however that works. But I push into that, because I just, it's not about me, it is about being on their side, and every one of those people that sent me those emails over the years, I still have a relationship with, now not the close relationship we once had, but I can pick up the phone and call them, and, you know, I have had them come down and do certain events with me and that kind of stuff, it's, I just know that the opposite of being closer to people is to move away from people, and that's exactly what Satan wants. He wants us to isolate. And so, you know, in my own family, unfortunately, a couple of my closest family recently got very mad at each other, and I heard immediately both of them say, well, I am never going to be around that person at Christmas, at Easter, I'm never going to be around that person again, and it broke my heart, because I just know that's not what this, what this verse is saying, is if you're going to be on their side, then what can we do to move this person closer to God, and usually it's not by isolating them, you know, and I understand it's complicated, but I also know what this verse is telling me, and I believe that it's true that this is a positional, that power, the power that I believe that Paul was going after here, right, the power of rejoicing, and he's moving in the power of prayer, but he's showing you the positional issue of the power, right, that the closer you are to God and the closer you are to other people, the more power is involved, and the more you move away from anybody or God, you know, the less power that is involved, because if we can move closer with God and towards somebody, obviously, right, then this is what God has in mind, because we're his kids, and just like my heart was broken over what, you know, my kids said to one another, I know God's heart is broken when we say, look, I've never talked to you, I mean, it's just, so I don't know if this is for you this morning, it was certainly for me, just to remind me something that I know in my heart is that I can feel this, and it's not good, it's not good to make agreements with Satan that I'm never going to talk to a person again, or I'm never being in a relationship with this person again, because let's face it in heaven, you know, we might as well get used to, I mean, we are going to be back in relationship with other people, and so as we're praying as we move into this let be anxious for nothing, which is the next part of Philippians 4, but I don't know where that's going to God, God's going to take me tomorrow, but I'll wait and see, but as of today, this is where God had me for the 119th Psalm, and I still believe that the 119th Psalm is a great way to interpret Philippians 4-5, verse 151 of the 119th Psalm, thou art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are true to me.