Encountering God // How does God speak to me // Pastor Josh Evans

Has your heart already been blessed today? I tell you, God is so, so good.

I love singing praises all about Him. That's what the theme of this service, if you want to call it that, has been. I appreciate all the musicians and singers just kind of leading us to the throne. Music's important in a church service. Prepares our hearts. I want you to know, it's never about singers and things like that.

It's all about Him. That's why we gather. That's why we worship Him here today. If you have your Bible, go to Psalm chapter number 19.

Psalm chapter number 19. I didn't make mention of this earlier, but I know anytime you have a day like this, our online attendance skyrockets. With it being rainy, I want the people watching online, if they are watching, just let us know that you're there.

Maybe comment if you're on Facebook or something like that. We greatly appreciate that. I wanted to welcome them to our service here today.

I'm grateful that we have the means to provide that for so many people that are watching online here this morning. But I'm also glad that you are here and looking forward to sharing what God has laid on our heart here today. Psalm chapter number 19. We have been in a series entitled Encountering God over the last several weeks. Just a series through the book of Psalms. Psalms is a book of songs. They were written as praises to our God.

You see, the Psalms, they speak directly to some of the most practical questions that we face in the Christian life. In week one of the series, we looked at the question, how can we be happy? That's what everybody wants. We all desire. We want happiness.

Everybody's chasing it in a bunch of different places. He gives us, in Psalm chapter one, the exact pathway of where we can find and how we can find happiness. Last week, we looked at how do we come into the presence of God. Does it matter, our life at all, when we come into the presence of the almighty God, creator of the entire world?

We looked at that. Then today we come to Psalm chapter 19 and we're going to answer this question, how does God speak to us? How does God speak to us? Have you ever been around somebody and they will say that maybe, man, I got a word from the Lord or God told me this. God spoke to me.

You're kind of like, man, what was that like? I want to know a little bit more about that or possibly you've attended a service like this and you've walked in and maybe it's a revival service, special service or just a normal Sunday and you leave. As you guys are heading out, somebody says, man, that was such a good service. God did this in my heart or he spoke to me and you leave.

You're like, man, I didn't get anything like they've gotten. You've probably all been there at some point. I grew up all around the church and we would go to these things. When you know it's real, those services that you would do, we would go to things, they would be called rallies. It's kind of like you had camp, you had conference, but when you know you were getting serious about God speaking to you, you'd call it a rally.

We'd go to these rallies growing up. I'd go to these things and everybody would come out of there and they would, God did this in my heart, God did this. Sometimes I was like, man, I didn't get the same thing like that. It is a big question that we have in life. How does God speak to us? Or perhaps you're thinking in scripture, you look all the way in the Old Testament and you're wanting a burning bush experience. You're wanting God to say something to you as clear and plain as day as he did Moses there in the desert through a bush or possibly like Balaam with a donkey. You got animals in the house and you're wondering if God's ever going to speak through them, right? And you're wondering, that's a joke, but you're wondering how is God going to speak to you and how does God speak to us? Well, here in Psalm chapter number 19, David, he addresses that question.

He addresses that question. This is a powerful Psalm and I pray that this morning you've had a moment that you have set aside that you've prepared your heart for what God wants to say to you and what God wants to do in your life here today. I pray that this isn't just another Sunday for you. I pray that you leave here with a better understanding of who God is and how God is presently speaking to you and to me and to the entire world.

B.S. Lewis called Psalm 19 the greatest Psalm and the best lyrics ever written to any song. So let's dive in here today and God speaks to us. He's going to mention two things. I'll go ahead and give you the first one that we're going to see in the first six verses. The Lord speaks, if you're wondering if God speaks, he's going to make it very clear here, especially in the first six verses. The Lord speaks through creation. The Lord speaks through creation. Look at what he says here in verse one. The heavens declare the glory of God. Now I love the Psalmist and what he uses the word declare and that's so important because it's like he's shouting. He's shouting. If you want a word from God here today or if you want a voice, you want to hear God speak, all you need to do, I'd encourage you, maybe this is the application and we have an altar call right now and let's leave.

It's this. We need to go outside and we need to look up because here's the thing, if you wonder if God is speaking or if you're like, man, God is not doing in my life what he's doing in everybody else's life and he's not speaking to me like he is that person over there and you're wondering, is God ever going to do anything in my life? God is saying this and the Psalmist is reminding us that every time we go outside and look up and look around, God is declaring a very clear message to you.

He's declaring a very clear message to everybody. You say, what is the message? It's the glory of God. You say, what's the message when I look up? What's God trying to tell me?

He's trying to turn our attention to the glory of himself. He goes on and the firmament showeth his, God's handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. In other words, the light and the day, they both reveal the glory of God.

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line or their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world and them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun. What he says, this is so good, is he's talking about how God, the glory of God is the message, the sermon that God is proclaiming with the world that he created. Everywhere that we look around, especially in the heavens and the galaxies and what we could see is God sending this message that he is glorious.

He is mighty is what he's trying to do. The Psalmist goes on and he says, listen, this is not just a message for where we are at today. In fact, the message and the declaration that God is worthy and God is glorious is this, it's not just for us, it's actually a message that is preached to every single person on the face of the earth. Every nation, every place in the entire world can also look up right now as we speak and it's the same message that can be heard around the entire world at the very same time and it's this, that he is glorious.

Isn't that good? God is glorious and God is worthy of our praise and so if you're wondering if God speaks, go out and look up. He's constantly speaking, he's constantly declaring something to you and to me. Verse five, which is as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. Talking about the sun when it comes up and down. Verse six, his going forth is from the end of the heaven and the circuit unto the ends of it. In other words, the sun, it covers the entire sky like his glory. You saw the sun can go from one side to the other and it's constantly covering just like the glory of God.

He goes on and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. You see, God is constantly speaking to us. He is constantly declaring a message. He is shouting his sermon, if you would, and it's shouting through the clouds, through the galaxies, through the stars, through the sun. You say, what is he shouting? He's shouting this, I am glorious. You say, if you want to know what God wants to tell you today, this is simple enough for you. He's trying to declare something to you that he is glorious.

You see, we have to have a glimpse of him. The Lord is constantly speaking to us. You say, what does that word glory means? You know, glory is really impossible to try and define.

It's impossible to try to explain exactly what it is, but the word stems from words such as weight or heaviness. It's really a word that is too great for us in our humanistic minds to even comprehend, but here's the point that we have to understand when God is declaring this message to us. It's this, that the heavens and the galaxies, the stars, the clouds, everything that you see around you is declaring how big God is. It's declaring how big God is. You see, that's the message that he wants to know about himself, and as we talk about encountering God, going into the presence of God, sometimes it would do us good just to go outside and look up and let the heavens speak to us. Let the heavens communicate something.

Let me ask you this question. Is your view of God worthy of what the heavens say he is? Think about it. Is the way that you view God worthy of what the galaxies say he is, what the heavens says he is, what the stars and the skies say he is, what the sun and the earth and the planets and the solar, everything you see around here, is your view of God worthy of what the heavens say he is? I don't know about you, but sometimes I think we have a very limited view of who God really is. That's the point of the whole series when we talk about encountering God.

I don't think that we realize who we are approaching. I think we can rejoice and we can get all excited about the fact that we can enter into the presence of God, and listen, I'll be the first to say amen at that. Listen, I love that. I love the fact that I can go to him. I don't have to go to a priest.

I don't have to go to anybody like that. Listen, I have direct access to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and I'm grateful for that, but sometimes we forget who we are addressing. We become so casual in how we approach God, and we're forgetting who he really is. Any time you see in the New Testament specifically when people got a glimpse of God, the disciples in the boat, when God spoke to the winds and the waves, what did they do? They marveled, and they immediately said, whoa, what manner of man is this? You see, that's the proper approach to who God is.

It's not a casual approach. It's an approach recognizing him for what he truly is, and he is glorious, and here's the best part of it all. The glorious God that is declaring the message, the sermon for the entire world to hear about his glory, that same God, he wants to have a relationship with us.

Think about that. The God that spoke the world into existence, and it happened. The God who spoke everything into existence and saw that it was good, that same God, he wanted a relationship with you, a personal relationship with you, and so you say, what did he do? It's the gospel.

He sent his son Jesus. You see, you and I, we were born into this world sinners. We were born into this world, and none of us, there's not a person in here that ever was good enough to get to God on his own, so if you walk in, you're saying, Pastor, I am messed up today, and I am broken.

Listen, we all are. You're in good company here in this place here today because there's not a person next to you today that is not just as equally broken as you are, but here's the good thing about the gospel is that the God who spoke the entire world into existence, the God who is preaching this sermon to the entire world that he is glorious, he loved you and I so much that he sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for you and for me, paving a way and creating a bridge so that you and I could now come into the presence of the almighty God. Because of Jesus, you and I can have a relationship with the creator.

The one that's glory, you and I can pray, and we can sing, and we can enter into his presence with thanksgiving. You see, he is worthy and glorious, but the Lord speaks through his creation. Many of you, you're wanting a burning bush experience, and I'll be honest with you, over the years, sometimes I wonder why is God not speaking to me in the ways that he will in scripture sometimes? And I get frustrated you've ever been praying about a big decision in your life and you need a message from God and you're asking God to maybe put it when you're at the beach and an airplane kind of flies with a message on the end of it. You're kind of like, hey God, that would be really helpful right now if you would do something like that.

But yet, you don't get that experience. Let me remind you this today, he might not be speaking in the ways that you're wanting, but every time you walk outside and you look around, guess what? God is communicating something to you and to the whole world that he is glorious.

You say, what's the second way that he speaks? He speaks through creation, number one, but secondly, the Lord speaks through his word. So we see in the first six verses that creation, God is speaking to us, but now the psalmist kind of transitions here in verse number seven and it's an interesting transition here in verse seven.

He kind of just goes from one thought to the other. He says, God's speaking through creation and now he kind of goes to this other direction and says the Lord speaks through his word. Look at what he says in verse seven, the law of the Lord is perfect. So the scripture, the word of God is perfect.

Aren't you thankful for that? Listen, let me tell you this, that the scripture is God's inspired, spoken, breathed out word. It is inerrant. It has absolutely no flaw in it and no air in it, no contradiction in it. It is completely perfect and I'm grateful that we get to open up a book that is perfect. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting or reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure or reliable, making wise the simple. If you grew up in church, how many of you used to sing these verses?

There was a song, remember that? I thought about singing them for you, but I wanted you guys to stick with me for the remainder of the sermon, so we're not going to do that. But verse eight, the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Then get this, verse 10, and he's talking about the word of God, and this is so important.

I want to give you some application here in a minute. More to be desired are they than gold. He's talking about the word of God. He says, you know, the Bible, the word of God, it's more to be desired than even gold.

Yea, than much fine gold, because it's sweeter also than the honey and the honeycomb. You say, what's the psalmist saying here? Possibly you've heard this preached so many different times, and you've kind of just become callous to what God's trying to say here. He's trying to remind us that not only does God communicate a message to the entire world, to you, to me, he's speaking constantly through creation, but he gives us the word of God, 66 books, for you and I, and he is speaking through his word. You see, if you're like me and you're wanting a message from God, he might not be putting a message behind an airplane at the beach for you, or he might not be speaking through one of your bushes in the yard and things like that, but let me tell you this, is he has given you the word of God, which is a message that is loud and clear for everything that you need in life today. You see, the word of God says in the New Testament that it is profitable.

That means it's practical for you. Listen, when I was growing up, I would get into the word of God, and I grew up around church. I've been in church my entire life, and sometimes when I would come and I would be around the Bible, I'd think, man, this just does not apply to me in any way, shape, or form, but as I got older and I started really looking at the application here and looking at the encouragement and everything that it is, I find that this book is actually applicable to everything that I need in life. Paul says that it's applicable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. He tells us everything that we need in life is found in the word of God, and so it's a profitable book, and the psalmist is saying that the law of the Lord, it speaks to us. It communicates something to us. You say, what does the word do?

He mentions several things and by way of an outline, you can write these down if you want. Number one, the word of God revives the soul. The word of God revives the soul. He says that the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The word converting means to turn around or to turn back. It has the idea of restoration or changing it or reviving it. You see, I don't know about you but sometimes in life, the world can kind of come into your life like you spend a day out in the world and you get kind of, you know, the world kind of comes into your life a little bit and you need revival.

You need God to revive your soul, right? Yesterday, we were with our family at like a trampoline park, right? We were at this trampoline park and these kids got in a scuffle. Some of our kids were in them with some other kids that they didn't know, all right? I got upset. Listen, don't look at me like it doesn't happen to you guys, okay?

When your family goes out, y'all try to pick fights with other families, don't you, like we do, okay? But these kids got in a scuffle and it was crazy and I got frustrated and I got mad and I left there and I'm thinking, you know, man, I need reviving of my soul after that. You see, sometimes when you're out in the world and you kind of, you know, you get frustrated, you get flustered, you get irritated, you get bad news at a doctor or you get bad news from your family member or something happens in your life, listen, and you need reviving.

You need your soul to be restored. What the psalmist is saying is he's saying all of that can be done in the word of God. You see, the Bible, it's God's love letter to you and to me and it restores, converts your soul. Not only does the word of God revive our soul, number two, it fills us with wisdom.

Look at what he says at the end of verse seven. He says, the testimony of the Lord is sure, reliable, making wise the simple. Let me tell you this, that education is important. I believe in it.

I believe in that. You know, I've been to school and I'm grateful for my years there and I'm so grateful for educators and things like that, but no amount of education or intellect can provide you with the wisdom that is found in the word of God to navigate the ebbs and flows of this life. Listen, I went through school, seminary, and I have dealt with more things in life, just real life stuff that they did not teach me there. And it's no different than your education.

It's no different. You see, the word of God actually helps us to navigate the ebbs and flows, the good and the bad of life. It provides us with wisdom. You say, what is wisdom? Wisdom is seeing life through God's perspective. It's being able to view life from a heavenly perspective, from his perspective. I don't know about you, but I would love to start viewing life from his perspective, not my own. Our perspective is just what's happening right now. We only have a knowledge of what has happened and what is happening, but I'm grateful that we serve a God who not only knows what has happened, what is happening, but he also knows everything that is going to happen.

He's like a constant DVR. That's what I think about. It's like, you know, I'm watching, my life is just a game that I don't know the end result of the story, but God knows the end result of everything.

He already knows it. If you think about it, any time you know the end of a movie or the end of a game when you're watching it, you can watch it knowing the end. It provides peace.

It provides comfort because you already know what's going to happen. It's not a mystery anymore. You see, that's how God's viewing your life here today.

He knows everything about your life. All we can see is the here and now. We're so stressed and frustrated and bitter and our soul is not restful at all. And God is saying, listen, if you go to the word of God, he can provide you with heavenly wisdom so that you can see life through his perspective. I don't know about you, but I need wisdom. I need wisdom. If you need wisdom, raise your hand, okay? I need wisdom.

Listen, trust me, I get myself in trouble when I do things on my own. Several years ago, I got a phone call. I was at home by myself. I got a phone call and all the person said, didn't ask me anything. It just said to me, hey, do you want a free cruise? Do you want to hear more about it? And I was like, absolutely, tell me more. And it wasn't long after I got all the information for this cruise and Abby came home and I said, babe, I got the best news ever. I don't understand how this happened, but somehow we want a free cruise.

And she was like, you did not give them any of our credit card information, did you? And you see, it was a complete scam, but here's the thing. I fall for anything. You've learned that if you want to sell something, just come to me. I'll buy whatever you have. It's whatever I will.

And so, but I fall for things like that all the time because I lack wisdom a lot of times with stuff like that. And so, I mean, seriously, when I go to the dentist's office and I'm getting off track, but you guys will like this, but when I go to the dentist's office, I'm the one that comes out of the dentist's office with tons of, I spent tons of money and it costs my family nothing to go to the dentist. And so I'm coming home and I'll just be like, man, I don't know why the dentist was so expensive today.

How much does it normally cost you, Abby? She's like, everything's included. Like how could you, it's like, because they offered me stuff while I'm sitting in the seat. And I just said yes to everything, right? Fluoride, yeah, I'll take some more of that, you know?

And so I buy anything because I lack wisdom. My wife called our dentist. True story, she called our dentist.

And then when you pull up my report, when I'm checking out or doing anything, if they're in the, when I'm in the chair and they pull up my account, it literally says my account. Wife says, say no to everything. It's serious.

She called the dentist. She said, this is not happening again. Why? Because I lack wisdom. I lack wisdom a lot of times.

And I know those things are silly and that's really not heavenly wisdom. But the point is, is that when I try to do things on my own and I try to handle things on my own and when I try to look at life the way that I think it should be run, I'm going to get in all sorts of trouble. It's going to lead to pain. It's going to lead to frustration.

It's going to lead to more discouragement. And what the psalmist is saying about the word of God is he's saying, if you go to the word of God, the scriptures, it'll provide you the wisdom, the heavenly perspective that you need to navigate the ebbs and flows of life. The word of God revives the soul. It fills us with wisdom. Not only that, verse eight, it produces joy in us. It produces joy in us. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. I believe this. I think Christians should be the most joyful people on the face of the earth. And too often, like I've been in church a long time, too often some of the places that have the least amount of joy have steeples on the outside of their buildings.

It blows my mind. And I'm not hard, but I know life's tough. And sometimes we get down. Trust me, we all do.

I'm right there with you. I'm not saying that there's not a place for that. There is. And God cares for all the things you care about. But at the end of the day, like Christians, we should be joyful because our joy is not based off of circumstances. It's not based off of circumstances. See if you base your joy off of circumstances, it changes all the time, right? Because circumstances change all the time. Sometimes life is good to you. Therefore you can be joyful. But when life's bad for you, that's when you lose your joy.

That's when it's placed in circumstances. Don't believe me. Ask my wife. If Duke is winning, I'm joyful.

Okay? If Duke is losing, we've literally gotten to the place in our relationship where if I'm watching a game, all she has to do before she talks to me is to look at the score. And if Duke is winning, she's like, okay, I have entrance into the presence of my husband, right? But if Duke is losing, she's like, okay, I'm talking to him later, maybe even the next day or the next week, right?

Because he gets upset. And so you see, when our joy is based off of things that change from time to time, like our health or our finances or life or whatever, friends, relationships, kids, whatever, if your joy is placed in things that are constantly changing, then your joy is not going to be consistent. It's going to be up and down. Sometimes it's going to be great if your circumstances are good. And other times when your circumstances are bad, it's going to be terrible. You see, if joy is based on circumstances, our joy is going to be unstable. So therefore, what the psalmist is saying is we can have joy all the time. Our heart can be full of joy.

You say, how is that? Because our joy as followers of Jesus, it's anchored into something greater. And it's anchored in something that never changes. You see, our joy is anchored in a person.

It's anchored in Him. Billy Sunday says if you have no joy, there must be a leak in your Christianity somewhere. And I amen that.

Because listen, Christian, if you're a Christian, you're a child of God, you've trusted in Jesus for your Savior. Let me tell you this, you have something to be joyful about today. Don't leave here and just be doom and gloom. We have some good news in our heart that we should be shouting about, we should be excited about. Some of you, I look around every now and then at some of you singing. You don't look like very joyful.

And some of that is time change, I get it. But other Sundays, right? Listen, we got joy, we got the joy of the Lord in our heart. Don't get down about life. Because even on our very worst day, God has been so good to us and we have something to be joyful about.

We have something to get excited about. Not only that, He changes our perspective. Look at verse eight. At the end of verse eight, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. You see, enlightening, it helps us to see. The word of God, the law of the Lord, it helps us to see. You see, darkness hinders our ability to see things. You see, when we're out in the world and we're out in darkness, it hinders our ability, it blinds us to be able to see what God is wanting us to see.

But He says when you come to the word of God, you have your eyes enlightened. I don't know when you, in the middle of the night, if you get up at our house, sometimes I have to get up in the middle of the night, get a drink or something, or take my little six pound dog outside or something. And sometimes when I'm going out to take him out or to get a drink, I go through my house and I just assume that I can handle, you know, I live in this house. And so I feel like I don't need to turn the lights on to get to where I'm going.

I feel like I know my way around and so I'm good. Well, I always forget that in the house that we live in, there's a step that goes up into the kitchen. And so most of the time I remember it on the way in to the kitchen, but when I'm coming out of the kitchen, that's when I just forget. And so it took me a while. Now I don't even get up. I'm laying in bed and I'm like, listen, you'll be thirsty till morning. I don't want, you know, what happened last time to happen again. But when I go in there and I'm taking the dog out or I'm getting a drink, whatever, and I come back, seriously, it's happened like three times since I've lived there, I completely miss the step and fall right down on my rear end. And I lay there waiting for my family to come check on me.

If I really waited for that, I'd still be there today. Okay. But the point is, is a lot of times is that darkness, when things are dark, it hinders our ability to see. It hinders our ability to see what God wants you to see. And so when your life is consumed with the world and you see things through the world's perspective and through a secular perspective, and that's all that's speaking into you and you're not daily in the word of God and spending time in the word of God and allowing the word of God to change your heart, when you're just trying to do life apart from the Bible, here's what happens. It's like you are walking around with blinders on and the darkness that you are surrounding yourself with.

It is not allowing you to see things through his perspective. You see, I've sat through a memorial service yesterday afternoon for Ian Romaine, eight year old boy. Missionaries gave their life to the Lord to go to Spain and to serve God. Serving him there, they went when they were pregnant with Ian eight years ago. Well, about a year and a half ago, they got a terrible diagnosis that he had cancer. And so they had to come off the field and their life completely changed.

And for the last year, they've experienced treatments and ups and downs and no hope, no answer, it's just, it's terminal. And yesterday we sat in this memorial service, eight year old boy, and on a personal level, he's just a few months younger than my own son. And as you sit in that service, and here's what the service was, and Lomax was with me and he understands that, him and Linda. And here's the thing, it was such a Christ exalting service. The whole service was not about pray for these people that are hurting because of their son, that was a part of it.

But it was all about the treasure that Ian is now experiencing in the presence of an almighty God, the creator of all things. He is now fully healed in the presence of the father because he made a decision to trust Jesus two years ago and made it public at a baptism service. And you see, we sit there and I left there thinking like, how in the world can this family, and they got up and spoke, and when they read what they read, it all pointed to Jesus. You say, how in the world can they do that when God took away their eight year old boy, their only son, they have girls. You say, how in the world can they lift high the name of God in the midst of that?

It's because they're finding the joy and the sustenance and everything they need, not in the health of their children, but in the presence of God and in the word of God. And here's the point, is for you, if you want to see things through that kind of perspective, you got to take your eyes off of the health here and the kids here and the grandkids there and the this here and the health, whatever, whatever your eyes on, the money, the career, the promotion, all of those things. When you take your eyes off of that and you put them on the word of God and what he wants to do in your life, here's the point, your eyes will be enlightened. Your eyes will be able to see things through his perspective. The word of God, it changes our perspective. Psalm 119, 105, you know it, the word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Young person, you're making a decision with your life, figuring out what your next step is, the word of God is the best place for you to start with that. You say, I need to sit down with a pastor, that's important too, but let me tell you this, I cannot share with you anything more valuable than what you will find in the word of God ever. Those things are important, but the word is the lamp that you need for your feet, it is a light unto your path.

It gives us perspective. Verse nine, the word of God shows us how to live. The fear of the Lord is clean and during forever, the judgments of the Lord are true, they're also righteous altogether. You see, he mentions that the word is clean, it is true, it is righteous, it shows us how to live. Verse 10, the word of God satisfies our soul.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than the honey in the honeycomb. You see, what's the Psalmist saying about the word of God? Is he saying this, that the word of God is everything that we need and it satisfies everything you are looking for. You see, the word of God should be more precious than the gold that you could ever achieve here on this earth. Too many people, Christians included, were chasing after earthly treasure and were forgetting that the biggest treasure that we have is already found in the word of God. That's our ultimate treasure and when you spend time in it, it is sweeter than honey. You see, David is speaking directly to the heart of what draws us, our riches, our appetites and he says that the word of God is more desirable than both. Think about satisfaction, some of us are looking for satisfaction, for security, for safety. We are looking at it through wealth, popularity, fame, fortune, relationships and it can pull us.

What our heart wants, it can pull us in all these different directions and David is saying that everything we need is found in the word, the word of God. Have you ever thought about when you are really hungry or really thirsty and when you take a bite of something or you get a drink of whatever you need, it feels good, it satisfies you. I can remember when I was growing up, I played soccer, I was terrible at it, I really was, so I didn't play long and it was a lot of running and so I was just like, I don't know if I'm into this and so I played for a few years and I can remember we go out and we play and this is before like nowadays, you see kids, they carry around like jugs of water. We didn't do that growing up. All we needed was a hose on the side of a building.

You remember those days? And so we would run miles before soccer practice. I mean like before practice, who runs before practice? We did. We would run all these miles and afterwards we would all run to the side of this building.

Matt, you remember what I'm talking about? And we would run to the side of the church building because that was the closest building to the soccer field. There was this hose on the back of it and we would just stand in line there and honestly, we ran faster to the hose than we did in the miles we were required to run. We would run there and there was just this hose, I mean just like spigot water and we would just, I mean we'd pour it all over our face and put it in our mouth, you know, get as much in your hands as you possibly could.

If you're really dying, you would just put it down like this until you choked. It was a great feeling. It was awesome. But I can remember when you would get to that water spigot, it was like nothing else. It was like this is exactly what I've needed, what I've longed for, what I've wanted and it quenched the thirst and the feeling that I had.

Everything I needed was in that at that time. You see, he's telling us that everything that we need in life is found in the word of God. The security, safety, assurance, hope, everything that this life can drag us down and everything that we need in life is found in the word of God. And let me say this, if you are not fully immersed in the word, you're missing out on so much more. You see, God has so much more for you in the Christian life on this side of heaven and you're missing out on so much of it because we're trying to find security and safety in everything but the word of God.

Everything we need is found in the Bible. So the psalmist, he says that God speaks to us through two different ways, creation and through the word. So you say, what does this mean for us?

Like how do we land the plane? What does this mean for us? God speaks to you but he's revealed himself to you. My challenge is for you to stop looking for the signs and all the things you see in scripture, the burning bush experience and all these different things, you know, and just stop looking for that and start looking up to the heavens and God is declaring a message that is loud and clear to you and to our heart that he is glorious.

He's declared a message through 66 books that he has given to you through his word and that is how he can speak to us. But I want to tell you this, when you get a glimpse of him and when you listen to him and he speaks through creation or he speaks to you through his word, there's only one thing that will happen to you. When you hear God speak or you get a fresh perspective of him, it will lead you to repentance. There's no staying the same when you get a glimpse of who God really is.

Some of us want to, we want to experience God for who he is, but we want to stay the same. God, I want to experience you the way the psalmist said, but God, I'm still going to be chasing after money. God, I want to experience you the way the psalmist said, but I'm still finding all my security and fame. God, I want that experience that the psalmist is talking about, but I want to keep this over here. You see, when you get a glimpse of who God truly is, you recognize how sinful we are and how in desperate need we are of him. Look at what the psalmist says after he just spent all these verses talking about how good God is, how glorious he is, how he speaks to us. Then he says in verse 11, moreover by them as thy servant warned, in keeping of them there's great reward.

Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.

Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. You see, the only proper response to seeing God for who he is is falling on our knees before him in full repentance and full surrender to him. You see, that's why the psalmist ended this passage the way he did is because after getting a glimpse, after looking, I can imagine him writing this psalm, looking around and after seeing the galaxies and the stars, the heavens and the sun and the moon, the only thing he could say was, man, how glorious is the one true God. How great is the one true God. How mighty is the one true God.

How good is the one true God. That he would speak to you and speak to me and offer you eternal life. The only response to him is by falling on your knees in repentance to him because when you get a glimpse of him, you don't want any of the same.

You want everything he has and you want to surrender it all to him. Would you bow your heads with me? Nobody looking around. This is what we call an invitation to response time. It's a time where we can just really respond and reflect upon the word that was preached and I don't want you to think about anything I said. It's all about the scripture and what he said to us, but if you're in here today, I would love to invite you.

Let's all stand in this place. Heads bowed, hearts are lifted in prayer and here's all I want to ask you today. I want to ask you today if you're in here today and you say, pastor, I do not know Jesus as my savior. I don't know him as my savior and you might have grown up in church for a long time.

That doesn't mean anything. I'm not asking about your background. I'm asking, do you have a personal relationship with the creator? Do you call him father?

You have that relationship. If you're in here today and you say, pastor, I don't have that. Would you do me a favor?

Would you just slip up your hand? If you don't feel comfortable with that, that's fine. If you want to just make eye contact with me or even see me after the service, but anybody anywhere say I do not, I do not have a relationship with the creator.

Anybody anywhere? Talking to a bunch of Christians. Then Christian, here's what I want to ask you. Some of you need a fresh glimpse of who God is.

Some of you have been looking for a burning bush experience or for a message in the sky or something to show up in your inbox or the mail from God and God is saying, I am declaring a message that I am glorious here today and I'm declaring it through creation and I'm declaring it through my word. How many of you Christians would say, I need to get into the word more than what I'm already in. Would you slip up your hand? My hand is up, hands going up throughout this place. I'm going to pray and this altar is open. If you raised your hand and said, I need more of the Bible so that I can gain it a perspective that he wants me to have. I'm going to invite you to come and I pray that God would give you the courage to come. Father Lord, I pray that you would just speak to hearts every hand that was raised. God, I pray that we would flood this altar here this morning and that we would all pray that you've given us an invitation of a relationship with the creator of all things and yet we're trying to do life apart from you.

God be with your people this morning. Give them the courage to come for it's in your name. We pray if God spoke to you or if your hand was raised, I want to invite you to come at this time. You don't have to come. You can do business with God right there, but I want to invite you to come. Maybe you need to come and say, God, I need to spend time in your word more. I want the perspective.

I want the perspective that you have. I want to see life through your perspective or maybe you need to just find satisfaction in him. Remember, he is our treasure. It's not anything else. It's God. He is our treasure.