Psalm 15

Psalm 15 1 Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? 2 The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; 3 whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; 4 who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; 5 who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken. Let us think about what the word of God means in Psalm 15. We say we come before God to sing praises to Him, worship him and honor Him. David shows us how we are to worship and I would like for us to take a look and see if we are living this life as shown in the Psalm. 1 Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? Who can dwell with God, who is it that can be with the Lord? Who can come before God to worship and who can live as one with the Lord? He answers: 2 The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; 3 whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; 4 who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; 5 who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken. That is the answer. This is exactly how you are to live your life so that you may walk with the Lord and give Him glory. It is when you walk with the Lord and give glory to Him that He will answer you whenever you pray to Him. There needs no other explanation. It is clear. The problem is, although we recite these words we lack the application in our lives. This is not the only place where we find these words. There are too many verses of scripture that we cannot go over all of them. In Psalm 24:3-6 it is written: 3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. 5 They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob. He asks, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?” This explains how we are to live. Psalm 25:10 All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant. What does it mean to keep the demands of his covenant? It is to live the life in accordance to God’s word. To those who live this way God is loving and faithful. Unless the entirety of our lives is obedient to God’s word, we are confessing that God will not be with us. There is no difference when we worship. When we worship we are to worship as written in the New Testament John 4:23-24: Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” When we come before God our conscience must be clean. When we are filled with the worries of this world, our own thoughts and ways, all that we have set as standards in our lives prohibits God from accepting our worship because all our thoughts that get in the way of us being one with Him. It says to worship in truth, what is truth? God is Spirit and unless we worship in spirit and in truth He will not accept our worship. Unless God accepts our worship what would be the point of it? Pastor Lee always says that it is better to live how you want and end up where you go. At least you would have enjoyed your time on earth before ending up in hell so you might be a little less bitter. Why do you want to live uncommitted to Jesus nor completely in the world and still end up losing it all in the end? What does it mean to live in truth? What does it mean to no longer sin? There are many important questions that come up that must be thought about. There are countless explanations. In Job 6:29 Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake. Job was replying to his friend who came to console him. His friend told Job that he was being punished for his sin, because God is just and his plight was the result of his sin. He told Job to repent. Job replied that he did not sin, and that he lived righteously before God, and he replied to his friends that they should relent in their judgement for in not doing so they were committing sin. How accustomed are we to judging others? Job’s friend was committing sin for assuming that Job had sin in his life even though he was right about God and the judgement of God. If it is sin to not see the entirety of what is going on and to pass judgement, then how great is the sin when we pass judgement on others and not use the word of God but judge according our own thoughts and standards? How much sin is there in our lives? How much evil are we doing in our lives? Will God answer our prayers? When our prayers are not answered we get frustrated and complain. We are jealous when other people’s prayers are answered. Or when we get an answer to one of our prayers we think that we are righteous. Pastor Lee and I always reminds you, the reason that God gives you gifts and ability is not because you are just, but rather it is to let you know that God lives and He is revealing Himself to you. When you receive an answer to you prayer it is showing you that He is. In return you are to obey and repent, but rather you think that you are just. You desire to be lifted up before others and you judge others. The bible tells us that you are an evildoer. When you judge someone who is righteous as Job, you become an evildoer. Don’t behave this way. If you do not know, it is better to be silent and not do anything. If you do not know and keep silent at least you would not be likely to fall and stay on level ground. Let us not live foolish lives by opening our mouths and speaking foolish things. What does God say to us when we come to Him to worship? He tells us that if we have wronged our brothers, to leave the offering, not to give it, to leave it there, go make amends and then come back and give the offering. Then God will accept your offering. If God does not accept your offering then all you did was give your offering for no reason at all. Before you come to worship, you must go and repent and ask for forgiveness from the one you have wronged until your relationship between you and God has been restored, but do you do this? We do not. Although it clearly explains how we are to come before God to worship Him, we do not do these things. With our tongues we should not stir up emotions in others but how often do we do this? We should not slander others, but how often do we point our fingers at others? When we are at work or speaking to others, when something is not to our liking the tome of our voices immediately goes up, that means we are stirring up the emotions of others and are judging others. If I come to worship after having done all this, then God will not answer my prayer even though I try to feign innocence to Him. God will call us guilty because we refused to obey His command. If this is the condition of your heart, then you cannot be one with your family, or your spouse no matter how much you pray. Jesus teaches us that it is not the food that goes into a person that makes them unclean. He teaches us that it is what is in a person's heart that comes out of them that makes them unclean. Matthew 15:11 11 What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them." What is it that comes out of a man's mouth? It is words and our emotions. Matthew 15:18-20 18 But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them." These evil things that I think about come out in my speech and in my actions. Why does this happen? The reason is when I see what I want and enjoy I place them into my mind and heart. When you ask the youth they say they think about many things, but where will their thoughts be evident? You can see what they think about through their speech and their actions. If you think about things that are good, then your actions are also to be good, but if you notice that someone speaks wildly or behaves foolishly will you think that they are thinking proper thoughts? You will not. Even if someone were to be silent you could tell what they were thinking by the look on their face. If it is even more evident their thoughts when they open their mouths or in their actions and they continue in this way and add more filth to their lives, how can God acknowledge their prayer unless they repent and really change so that they may confess with their mouths that they are truly living a life that allows them to be one with God? He cannot. The bible is clear, God will not accept someone who lives this way. Unless I am free of sin and filled with spirit, and my life reflects Jesus and the Spirit, I will not be able to worship God with joy and thanks. Out of me will come my anger, complaints and bitterness. So rather than praying to God with praise and thanks I will gripe and complain. This even more reason that our prayers will go unanswered. We cause this to happen. But rather than take the blame we put the blame on others. We put the responsibility on others. We say "I did this much." We say "that person did such a thing us us." We shun responsibility and when we pray, rather than repenting we tell God that He has failed to provide for us and we blame Him. Our lives must be centered around the word of God. Our hearts must be a place where God can dwell. I have explained before, when you are a part of the world and then come to know Jesus and choose to follow Him, it is like a tree that must be uprooted and planted in a new place. A tree that is uprooted and replanted takes a minimum of three years of struggling to survive before it can bear fruit as it should. From the depths of the world, the Lord has touched you, shown you even made His voice heard to you and called you, but now that you have come to Him, it does not mean that it is all over. You must now begin the struggle to survive. It is the struggle to rid yourself of all the past sins that are deeply rooted in you. It is this struggle that we must face with determination but lack. We think that just by hearing and seeing that everything has been done. I frequently give examples from the garden. As I was tending the garden yesterday I pulled this out. The flowering part is small but look at the root. Look at how much longer the root is. If you do not remove the entire root and just cut off the flowering part, the plant will grow back. Look at this and compare how much bigger the root is even though the plant is not that much bigger. If I leave these weeds alone in the garden, then will I be able to harvest the vegetables that I want to eat? These weeds will grow extremely large. Later, they will be even difficult to remove. When you live your life, your selfishness, your desire to do certain things, your unwillingness to forgive others, if you allow these things to stay within you, the roots of these things will keep growing and go deeper inside of you, then later after you have been redeemed you will not be able to uproot these things from you. If you realize the wrong in your life, then you must immediately repent and change your life so that you can remove the roots of sin quickly. When you overlook sin in your life, then over time these things will become habits that will form the way you live. Just as the food you eat effects your health. If you eat too salty or too spicy the effects of your health are poor circulation, poor blood and overall poor health. Just as your health is effected by the choices you make about what you eat, the things that you choose do in your life will become habits and then these habits will decide who you are. In comparing your life to the bible, if you do not remove the one or two sins from your life, eventually these will decide who you become. These must be pulled out. These must be removed so that you may walk in union with God so that even if you were to glance at Him, He would acknowledge you. I did not date much before getting married to my wife and never really had a chance to date because of our life situation. But if I recall correctly from others, when you are dating before the other person even really says anything you already know what they are thinking or need because you know their heart. When I take care of my wife Pastor Lee, I must know when she needs to use the restroom, when she needs a drink of water, and all other needs as long as I am willing to put my heart and focus on her. When you are focused on someone else you can understand their heart and need. The reason I tell you this because when your interest is the focus of the other person, you can tell what they are thinking or what they need just by the look on their face or the look in their eyes. If your focus is on yourself and how busy you are or how hard your life is then you cannot care about the other person. If you really desire to live a life that is in union with our Lord, then you must love God. We all know that you receive as much love as you give. It is the same before God. God has already given His great love to us, but I am unable to see His love in my life because I am unable to give love from myself. This shows that my heart is not filled with Jesus. If I had removed all the dirty and evil things from within me, then to the extent that I was filled with the Lord, He would bless me with all that I need because He is aware of what I am lacking. But if I am still filled with the things of myself, then it will not matter how much I call out to Him, He will not answer my prayer. The reason is because I am not filled with the Lord who would allow me the receive the blessings. You must realize this. But our focus is always on us and the God who gives us what we ask for. There is a misunderstanding. CNN ran a news article about a man in Brazil who went fishing at a river and saw a beautiful rock and took it home as a piece of decoration. It weighed about 25 pounds or 11.6 kg. The more he admired it the more he became curious and had it looked at by someone and it was found to be an emerald. He took it to have it cut and it weighed 57,500 carats and was valued at W80,000,000,000 (~$80,000,000). He picked up and brought home W80,000,000,000 and became wealthy overnight. I am not talking about the emerald, but about Jesus who you are to pick and place in your hearts who is far more precious than that emerald. He is far more valuable. Just as you would take a raw gem stone and cut it to give it value, if you are going to place Jesus in your heart then you must live your lives as if it has worth and value. Do you think that only that one person saw that W80,000,000,000 stone. Other people saw it also, but only in this person's eyes was it beautiful and special and worthy of taking home. The entire world knows about Jesus, those who hate Him, those who believe in Him, but the question is how have you placed Jesus in your heart? Are you keeping Jesus in your heart like a decoration to show others when they come to visit? What use it that? What use is it to be a pastor, a deacon, elder, to come to service dressed in fine clothes, and to look the part because of Jesus. What use is it to make a name for yourself? What value is it to take a rock and have it for decoration or to take a picture of it and hang it on the wall. There is no value. Is Jesus worth less than this W80,000,000,000 emerald? When I dwell with the Lord, He in Me and I in Him, He who provides me everything will give me all that I need and more. He will give me blessings that are worth more than W80,000,000,000. The reason you cannot receive these blessings is because you yet have to place Jesus in the right place in your heart. You still complain about what you don't have or the things that you still need. You still point fingers at others and judge them. Look inside yourself and see if you have yet to be transformed by Jesus. We sing this hymn often "You have longed for sweet peace and for faith to increase, And have earnestly fervently prayed". Do you really want His peace and do you really want your faith to increase? Have you fervently prayed? "But you cannot have rest or be perfectly blest Until all on the altar is laid". Have you laid it all? The foundation of laying it all is not the giving of our material things but the laying down of all our sins and repenting. We must be rid of all this so that we may have peace and then God can see our sincerity to others. Then God will hear our prayers and accept our offerings and answer our prayers. We sing these hymns but if there is no life like this, then we must take a look at ourselves. "Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Your heart does the Spirit control? You can only be blest and have peace and sweet rest, As you yield Him your body and soul." We sing this, but do we mean it? Is the Spirit really controlling you? Another hymn "Serving the Lord, repent And sorry for my sin, I'll give my love to Jesus And gladly serve for Him. In Christ, Where -e'er I be, There what-e'er I do, For Him Who died for me Lord, I would be be true!" When we sing this hymn we are pledging allegiance to our Lord. We are giving Him out of the depths of our hearts. We are giving ourselves up to him and surrendering our lives. We sing the praises that we will live our lives to glorify Jesus and not ourselves. We must not only speak these words from our mouths but they must be evident in our lives so that when the author of this Psalm asks: Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? You can boldly say "It is I". I am the one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from my heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and do not change my mind; who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. This is the person that dwells in the sacred tent and lives on His holy mountain. This is the life that is controlled by the Spirit so that even though I only lift my eyes to Him, He will answer all my prayers and I will be able to confess this life to others. In order to live this life that the author of this Psalm describes you must make the necessary changes in your life. It is not a life that reveals who you are but rather reveals our Lord. It is this life gives glory to God. May you live this life that will be a blessing to you so that you can be true Christians and be the light that reflects Jesus and the Spirit to the world.