Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the February 1st sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Today's scripture is Psalm 119, verses 33 through 40. And the sermon is entitled Teach Me, O Lord, delivered today by Pastor Jeffrey Campbell.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Speak, O Lord. That is our prayer.
And as we gather around God's Word, certainly we want God's Word to direct us and to speak to us. Psalm 119. And I wanted you to know this is just been a part of personal devotion of mine. I've been studying through this psalm. You know it as the longest psalm, the longest chapter in all of your Bible, 176 verses. But it's been my study over the past few weeks personally. But I've turned it into lessons for our staff. And I've turned it into a sermon last week and turned it into another sermon this week. And so I'm grateful for God's Word. If you get into God's Word, it never grows old, and it continues to teach us. And that will be the lesson of our message today.
Maybe you have been fortunate enough to have been blessed at some point in your life by a teacher or someone that impacted your understanding, your learning, and your growing in some form or fashion. It could have been in school, it could have been in church. It could have been a job or even a sport.
But throughout my life, there are a handful of people that rise to the top that made an impact in my life in school.
I want you to know I grew up not really liking school.
And so I had to be encouraged to like school.
But there were teachers that did that for me in fourth grade. Ms. Dean was a very good encourager for me.
And that's kind of where things start to change for Jeffrey in school was in fourth grade. Ms. Dean showed me not only my value, but also the empowerment that learning could bring.
And she was an amazing woman. She actually comes here sometimes to visit and to worship with us. And I'm grateful for her. In ninth grade, I met a teacher that would teach me about the world, geography. Mr. Longenecker. There are some of you that know Mr. Longenecker that had him. He challenged me to learn about the world and that this big old world was bigger than Amherst, Virginia. I didn't know that.
I thought Amherst, Virginia, was the greatest place that anyone should be.
But I'm grateful for Mr. Longenecker. Mr. V. In middle school, Ms. Farrell, my government teacher in 12th grade, we did not get along because we stood in differing opinions. But that woman challenged me in such a way to know what I believed about government and to know why I believed what I believed, even though we differed in what we believed. I could defend that and this woman, even though we would headbutt each other. I think I've told you the story. Every day when I come to our class, I would knock on that door like this, Mr. Campbell has arrived.
I needed her to be warned that, hey, guess what?
The discussions were about to begin, but I have arrived. I announced that, and she welcomed it with a big grin.
And I'm grateful for that woman because she taught me a lot, to the point where she actually nominated me for the student of the Year.
Someone that you disagreed with.
Someone that challenged you. Not only did I challenge her, but she challenged me.
I think about baseball and Bill Saunders, Kinkle Tolliver.
I think about a machinist trade and David C. And Dieter Snarkowski teaching me those trades of building something with your bare hands and taking a piece of nothing and making something out of it.
I feel like that's what the Lord did with me and he's still doing with me.
But it's amazing that these teachers throughout our lives influence us. Two of my greatest teachers of faith, one never graduated high school, the other holds its doctorate.
It's amazing the people that God can put in your path to teach you and to grow you and to challenge you. But I want to give to you today, as Christians and believers, my argument. The greatest teacher that we all have as believers is the Holy Spirit.
And we have the greatest textbook in all the world. And that is His Word.
And if we gain a love and devotion for God's Word, it's amazing what that will do. We don't know who wrote Psalm 19. Many will argue and try to debate and guess. Some people think David did and David it as a good possibility.
But the writer of Psalm 119 is unnamed.
But what we see here is a love for God's Word.
And then today, the section that we're going to read, starting with verse number 33, the title in my Bible simply says this. Living the Lord's way.
Psalm 119, it is divided into 22 sections because that's how many letters are in the Hebrew Alphabet.
And each section has eight verses. And each of those eight verses in the Hebrew language start with that letter.
And so today's letter is the letter. Hey, maybe you see that above your section, starting with verse number 33.
But we see this as we get into God's Word. Here is our prayer. Before we ever look at one word, teach Me, O Lord.
If we come before God's Word seeking the Lord to teach us and to grow us, it's amazing what His Word and how His Word will lead us in the days ahead.
My boys over the next two years will graduate, and I pray they never stop learning.
And at 43 years old, I'm a student at Liberty University.
I pray I never stop learning.
I pray I never get tired of God's Word. And if I can convey that message to you today, my simple truth is if Christians will read their Bible and pray, we will make a difference in this world.
We have to have a love for the Word of God and then allow and desire that Word to change us.
Teach me, O Lord.
That's our prayer. Look at verses 33 and 34.
Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end.
Give me understanding and I shall keep thy law. Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
As we look at this prayer today, we want God's Word to affect us in three ways that I believe that this psalmist points out. Number one, point. Number one today is we need a deeper understanding when we come to the Word of God. We come to the Word of God seeking a deeper understanding of God's Word and of his truth that it will lead our lives. Maybe you're somebody that can fix something on your own.
I try to be that guy when it comes to my car.
YouTube is a great teacher, but I try to fix something on my own most of the times. Number one, it may be a time rush or it may be a financial situation, and we desire to fix something on our own. And maybe we just desire to learn to do it. But when it comes to my car, there are things that I know I can do and there are things I know I cannot do. I know where that line is, okay?
But there comes a point when we as Christians sit down with the Word of God that there is no line. You can't learn too much of God's Word.
There's nobody in this world that has ever learned everything it is to know about God's Word.
So when we come to His Word, here's what we desire. We desire a deeper understanding. And the psalmist desires that. As we see that now, why does he want a deeper understanding now? There are some reasons that you want to learn more. Maybe you go back to school because you want a better job or you want more money or you want to advance in your career. Those are not bad reasons to go learn.
But here's the reason? If your sole goal for learning is to get more money, you will be unhappy in the long run, you will eventually become unhappy.
If your sole purpose is to move up the corporate ladder and I need this degree to help me to do it. If you hold onto that degree and that's the sole reason you're going, that job is going to become old and you're going to be worn out and you're going to be tired and you're going to be longing for something more.
The psalmist sole reason for wanting a deeper understanding. Look at verses 4, 33 and 34. The second half of that says this. Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Look at verse number 34. Give me understanding and I shall keep thy law. Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
What is the motivation of learning God's Word? That I need to know and I want to obey it and allow my life to follow God's Word.
The sole reason for wanting a deeper understanding of God's Word is that he desires to follow it.
God's statutes throughout the years have marked the walk of the Child of God.
I'm going to say that one more time.
The statutes of God are markers of the way that the Christian should walk.
If you go down here to the Piney River Trail, that trail is paved and marked and packed surfaces. In some areas the trail's marked. If you get off the trail, it's your own fault because it's marked.
And that's simply what the psalmist wants to do. I want to know your way, mark your way, the way that I should walk as a child of God, because I want to follow it.
For the believer, the Word of God marks the trail for the life of the Christian.
And so we look to God's Word in a deeper understanding that we can follow those markings and follow God's Word, asking God to teach us and to give us understanding and to give us guidance through through His Word.
My desire is the same desire as this psalmist is. I want God's Word to infiltrate my heart, make it all the way to the heart. How many of you know that there are times that God's Word just lands on the ears? And that's as far as it goes.
Maybe there are times you heard a good sermon, right? Well, it's landed on the ears.
Maybe there's time that sermon has made its way into the mind.
And just because a sermon or God's Word makes it to your mind doesn't mean Anything because your mind starts to process it and wonder what this is talking about. And you want a deeper understanding. But guess what? It lands on the ears. It works its way to the mind.
But truly the word of God needs to make its way to your heart in order to have an impact on your life. God's word cannot rest on your ears or rest in your mind. It must make its way to your heart.
Maybe some of you saw a handful of deacons go back in this room and pray this morning before our service.
Now, the deacons don't know my sermons, okay?
But one of our deacons prayed this morning that the distance between the mind and the heart be shortened.
Oh, thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord.
There are a lot of people that have heard the good news about Jesus, that knows mentally about Jesus. They know the facts about Jesus, but they that has never made it to their heart and they don't have a relationship with the one that can change their life. God's Word can change your life if it makes it to your heart.
Look real quick at verse number 34, the end of it.
I shall observe it with my whole heart.
This psalmist, as he writes, he knows that he wants to give everything to the Lord to give his whole heart to God's Word and that he shall observe it with all that he has and all that he is. Do we desire God's Word to reach a place where we long to understand it and we long for God's Word to teach us and, and we want to obey it with all that we are?
Let me put it this way.
Do we read God's Word for information or transformation?
And that's the answer.
If we read God's Word for information, to check the box to say that we've done our Bible reading for the day that's not getting anywhere.
But when we read the God and read the Word of God in our prayer, before we even open the book, is God use this word to change me, to speak to me, to show me?
Man, it's amazing what God's Word will do.
Is it for information or transformation?
Do we desire that deeper understanding of of God's Word? Number one. Our prayer, oh Lord, teach me is we desire a deeper understanding of God's Word.
Look at verses 35 through 37.
Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way.
Point number two. Today Is simply this that we pray. Oh God, teach me. Oh Lord. A delightful undertaking.
We is it a delightful undertaking. So think about coming to the Word of God. And we're building on that a little bit. But the Word of God, when it reaches our hearts, we desire that deeper understanding.
Now, I don't know about you, but even the preacher, there have been times that say, oh gosh, it's 10 o' clock and I still haven't done my Bible study.
So what are the preacher's choices?
Well, this preacher goes to bed at 10 o'. Clock. Okay, do we go to bed or do we just check off the box and say we've done our reading?
Because I want you to know I might as well go to bed. If my heart is not set on God's Word, I might as well go to bed.
If I rush through it and I check the box, it's not going to do me any good. Now that's not the preacher telling you don't read your Bible.
But what that is is the preacher reminding you, when you come to the Word of God, that we must see the Word of God as a delightful undertaking.
It is a joy to open the treasured Word of God and read what God has to say.
Then allow God's Word to infiltrate our lives in such a way that it changes us and it molds us and makes us.
The psalmist prays here that he needs that deeper understanding of God's Word because it's going to impact three areas of his life.
So don't seek reading God's Word as a chore.
View reading God's Word in a delightful way, like going to the beach.
Like when I say some of you going to the beach, man smiles come on your face. And there are certain people I'm looking at right now when you say, I'm going to the beach, man, they light up like that's the greatest thing in the world.
Now you may say, Jeffrey, you just a preacher, you just crazy like that. But when you come to the Word of God, seeing it as something that can change your life, draw you closer to the Lord, and that you can walk in the footsteps of Christ as you obey it, it's amazing what God's Word will do. It's a delight to follow and to read God's Word.
And so there are three areas that the psalmist wants the Word of God to impact. The first area of his life is in verse number 35, and he says this.
Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight. He's talking about his walk.
I want the word of God to affect my walk in a positive way.
This is a prayer of obedience.
A prayer that he will not stumble. A prayer that he knows that he cannot walk without God's help.
Let me ask you, church, have you been in that season of life where you know you cannot do it unless God is there?
That should not simply be a season. That should be our lifespan.
God's word. We cannot make it without you. Oh, God.
And that is the prayer here. It is a prayer that without God we cannot even take one step in this crazy world.
God, I need you. I need you in my walk.
But there's a second area.
He desires the Lord's help.
And we've mentioned this already, but it's with his heart. Look at verse number 36. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness.
And so what does it mean to incline my heart?
What is that prayer?
It's a prayer that his heart would desire God's word.
His heart would not desire anything else. What does covet mean?
Covet means this. You got a nice tie and I want it.
I just sinned right now. If I tell you you have a nice tie, I really like it. I don't think that's a sin.
But if I look at you and say, what you have, I want, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to get it, that's what covetousness is.
So why does the psalmist say, let my heart bend toward your word, Incline my heart to bend toward you, Lord.
But also in verse 36, and not to the covetousness?
Because I believe Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 9, very true.
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
That's what Jeremiah writes. If you leave it to me, if I leave it to my own heart or my own feelings, guess what? Jeffrey's going to be doing what he wants to do.
But if my heart bends toward the Lord and bends toward God's word, then I will follow what God would have me to do. The psalmist knows this. The danger of what would lead him away from God and turning to his own desires.
So that second area is that his heart would be inclined or bend toward the things of God.
There's one more area in verse number 37.
It's an area that we can all relate. It is our eyes.
He just simply says this.
This is the Jeffrey version. Okay.
Don't let me look at worthless things.
Church.
How much of our time is spent watching, looking at worthless things.
Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity. Vanity is a worthless thing.
And he says this and quicken thou me in thy way. Revive me quickly, revive my eyes. Put them where they need to be.
How many worthless things hold our attention?
Many of these things distract us. Many of these things waste time. And many of these things don't last and don't benefit the child of God in their walk with the Lord.
Now I'm not doing this. I believe it is the Holy Spirit of God. Can you name something worthless that is holding your attention right now instead of God? I can.
I can.
And so today, when we understand that we desire God to have control of our walk and of our heart and of our eyes, this psalmist desires God's help in overcoming the worthless thing and the desire for other things, and that he would have a delight in in undertaking and following God's word.
If I were to boil it down to one thing, here's my question. Do you follow God out of obligation or out of necessity?
If it feels like you must, that's the wrong kind of relationship.
If you feel like you had to come to church today because it's the right thing to do. I had to come to church today because I know I can't make it another week without church and about the people of God and without worshiping together.
So the second part of our prayer is simply this.
God, give me a delightful undertaking. Let your word be a delightful undertaking in my life. Let it change the areas it needs to and the worthless things. Let it remove it from my heart.
There's one more point. Verses 38 through 40.
Here's what the psalmist writes. Establish thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear. Turn away my reproach which I fear for thy judgments are good. Behold, I have long after thy precepts quicken me in thy righteousness.
The third point today is a devotion undivided with that prayer of Teach me, O Lord. We desire to learn. We desire to walk according to God's word. And now we see the psalmist's desire to live this lifestyle out day by day. Help me to live it out. And so in this section you can see thy word and thy judgments and thy precepts and thy righteousness. Lord, these are all things that you offer that I need.
But the psalmist comes and says, there's one thing I need your help with.
You've got all the truth in your word. You've got the judgments that will show me what is Right and wrong. You've got your word that will lead me in righteousness or the right way of living. Your word does all of this. But Lord, there's one thing I need your help in doing.
And here's what he says and verse number 39, turn away my reproach.
Do y' all see that?
What does that word reproach mean?
Well, that word reproach means disapproval or disappointment or disgrace. Here's what it really means. It means shame that is brought to you because you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing.
So at the end of the psalm, the end of the section of the psalm, the psalmist says, God, your word is doing all these things. And then there's still a portion of my life that I'm shameful of because you don't have doesn't belong to.
As we see this honesty and this honest, humble man coming before God, simply saying, there are parts of my life that I dread.
He says, I fear, I dread these parts of my life.
Oh God, forgive me. And I long for your word to change me, revive me in your righteousness.
Are there areas of our life that if we were to stand before a holy God, and he knows us already, that as we stand before the Holy God, that we would dread even being in his presence?
Yes, yes, there are those areas.
But here's what he's telling God's word can reach those deep, dark, shame filled areas, the areas where we don't want him to be. God's word can change even those areas.
So do you see that?
Do you see that devotion that's undivided. There's a battle on how good God's word is. But God, there's this spot that I'm too shameful to let you even know about.
Oh, that we would be devoted to God's Word.
That as he says earlier, that it will have an effect on our whole heart as we close today, I could ask you a few questions, but simply I want to ask you this.
Do we desire God to be our teacher?
Do we desire the Holy Spirit of God to teach us?
The scripture that Mike Bell read today reminds us that the Holy Spirit will be our teacher, the comforter. He is our teacher.
But today, do we desire God to reach into those areas that are not fully his, that we dread to even open the doors to?
Do we desire a deeper understanding of God's Word, that it becomes a delight undertaking to follow and to read and to seek out his will for our life.
We know that it is a battle that you cannot handle on your own. I cannot handle on my own. We need the Lord's help.
But maybe today, Christian, there are those areas that we're not giving him our whole heart.
Or maybe there's an area that you dread to even let God into.
Maybe it has to deal with forgiveness or accountability.
We don't want to go in those areas because they're hard areas.
Here's what God wants to do. God and his Word wants to break down those doors and teach you how to forgive and how to be accountable and how to change.
Maybe today your heart is being pulled, leaning to something else other than the God, other than God.
Maybe you are desiring that something else more than you desire God.
Maybe you're looking at those things that are wasteful in their time.
God's Word teaches us today, put your eyes on Jesus.
Maybe today you long for something more.
Maybe you've never had a good teacher.
Maybe you're trying to get through this life on your own and trying to figure it out all by yourself. Here's what I need you to understand today. You cannot make it through life but without a relationship with God.
And the only way to come to that relationship with God the Father is through his son, Jesus Christ.
And so today, if you are lacking that in your life, you simply need to come to him by faith. Turn from your sin, say, God, I want you to teach me. I want you to lead my life and surrender your life to follow Jesus.
I'm grateful for God's word.
It's gotten in the crevices and it's beginning to work today.
Will you let him in those areas that only God can do the work and trust him to mark out that life that you are to live the way that you are to walk.
And if you need that relationship by faith, you come to him today.
Let's pray.
Father God, thank you.
As I gather with brothers and sisters in the sanctuary, those who are watching livestream, I want to pray for us as a group of believers today. I know there are many churches represented in this room.
I'm not worried about the church name.
I'm worried about carrying the banner for Christ.
So God, as we carry that banner together as Christians, God, our prayer is simply this. Teach me, O Lord, we are coming before you acknowledging we don't know it all and we cannot do it without you.
We need your understanding, we need your wisdom, we need your guidance.
We need the touch of your Word in our life to change us, to reach our whole heart.
Oh God, pull our eyes off of the things that are wasting time and put our eyes on you.
God, as believers, give us a hunger for your word that can only be satisfied through our relationship with you. You, God, thank you for what you're going to do. And in this moment of invitation, God, we pray that you will convict the Christian, that you will change us, but also for that one that needs you.
Oh God, I pray that that distance between the mind and the heart be shortened today.
In Jesus name, amen.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church, please call our church office at 434-946-0555.
