Scripture reading
Psalm 119:9-16
Suggested hymns
Cover With His Life Hymn No. 412
Trust and Obey Hymn No. 590
God's people that understand the nature of His love should come to the front and show their esteem and reverence for His commandments.
Thought for the day
"Satan represents God's law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts. The fall of our first parents, with all the woe that has resulted, he charges upon the Creator, leading men to look upon God as the author of sin, and suffering, and death. Jesus was to unveil this deception. As one of us He was to give an example of obedience. For this He took upon Himself our nature, and passed through our experiences. "In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren." Heb. 2: 17.—Desire of Ages, p. 24.
Offering prelude
"This spirit of unsectional liberality should characterize the churches of today. They should continually keep the burden on their souls for the advancement of the cause of God in any and every place. Benevolence is the very foundation of the universe." Ellen G. White, Sketches From the Life of Paul, p. 175.
Children's story
Perfect Peace
Lesson
"Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3.
Many years ago there lived a great man called Chrysostom. He was a good man, noted for the beautiful, kind words that he spoke. But one day he said something that offended the emperor. It was something true, but it was a truth that the emperor did not want to hear, so he decided to punish Chrysostom.
Consulting his great men, he asked, "What shall we do to punish Chrysostom?"
"Banish him from the kingdom," said the first counselor.
"Take away all his money," suggested another.
"Put him in prison," a third one said.
"Put him to death," came from another of the counselors.
Then the voice of another man was heard a heathen man, but he had more wisdom than the others.
"All these men have given wrong advice," he said. "If you banish Chrysostom from the kingdom, he will not be unhappy. He will be glad that he can preach Christ to others. If you take away his money, you merely rob the poor, for all Chrysostom's money goes to help the poor. If you put him in prison, he will sing as some of the saints of his church sang. If you tell him you will kill him, he will have cause to rejoice, for happy are those, he says, who die for their Lord. No, there is no way to punish Chrysostom, the servant of Christ."
Chrysostom had the perfect peace that nothing could disturb. His happiness did not consist of the things of this life, but in the things of the life above, and that is why nothing could hurt him. He had the perfect peace that comes when our minds are "stayed on" God.
Do things upset and disturb you? Leave them with Christ and they won't worry you. You will have the peace of Cod in your heart.
Sermon
It Pays to Observe God's Law
Psalm 119:10
A. Introduction
1. Psalm 119 is an artistic record of the psalmist's devotions and dialogues with God. The psalm contains many prayers that we could profitably pray as our very own prayers.
2. Look at the second stanza of this acrostic poem. It is composed of twenty-two stanzas.
It contains some prayers that each of us needs to pray.
B. Let me not wander from thy commandments—v. 10
1. The psalmist recognized the human tendency to wander away from the proper path,
a. He offers a prayer that he might be saved from a life of aimless wandering.
2. Why does man wander away from Cod's truths?
a. Perhaps it is because we have a fallen nature.
b. Perhaps it is because we are forgetful
c. Many of us are preoccupied with other things, and we find it easy to drift.
d. We can be tempted by the promises and the possibilities of what the world has to offer.
e. Some of us wander because of weariness.
The psalmist prays that God will so work in his life that he will be saved from wandering away, straying, from God's precious commandments.
C. Teach me thy statutes—v. 12.
1. Repeatedly throughout this longest psalm in the Bible, we hear the psalmist repeating this petition, "Teach me thy statutes."
2. Each of us should repeat this prayer and mean it with all of our heart,
a. In this petition the psalmist is saying, "I want what God wants."
b. God's grace had worked within the innermost being of this man to cause him to want to follow God's statutes.
3. We need to remember that our Savior was thought of as the great Teacher. (Matt. 5:1-2; 7:28-29.
4. Only as we understand the teachings of God through Jesus Christ can we truly walk in His ways and do the things that He wants us to do.
D. Putting feet on our prayers
1 .For prayer to be meaningful and productive, we must do more than just talk to the Father God.
a. We must cooperate with Him as He works to bring about the fulfillment of the desires we have expressed in the petitions that we have offered,
b. We can keep our lives pure by bringing our thoughts and actions under the searchlight of God's Holy Word. Psalm 119:9.
c. We can avoid a life of sin by storing up God's Word in our hearts that it might serve as both a restraint and as a challenge. v. 11.
d. We can verbalize the great truths and the great insights that come to us from God's Word in our conversations with others. v. 13.
E. Conclusion
1. If we would pray effectively, we need to delight ourselves in God's precepts, His ways, His statutes. vs. 14-16.
2. Devotional Bible study can be the listening side of prayer.
3. God will speak to our needs through His Word if we study it with trust and with a willingness to be obedient.
4. Let us consider the prayers that the psalmist has given voice to in this stanza, and let us say,
"Amen," from the heart to the prayers that we need to pray for our own spiritual good.
