well good morning couldn't spell good yesterday tate remembers so i thought i'd go with something simple like howdy good morning tate hey we're in psalm 119. this is an interesting psalm i don't know if you know much about it it's the longest psalm in the book um if i remember right i think it's the longest chapter in the bible i think i've read that somewhere but it's really interesting the way it's written you might have in your bible above different um sections like uh i can see on my pages here above 73 it says yod and then above verse 81 says cough and then above 89 it says lambda above 97 mem and here we are above 105 it says none or noon is the way that's pronounced and you might have the little symbol there that's the hebrew letter in the alphabet so this is the hebrew alphabet in each one of those little words but that's what that is and you'll see the little symbol there and so when this was originally written each each line under that symbol would have started with that letter so imagine and a poem written in english where you know you might have 10 stanzas that start with a and then 10 stanzas to start with b and so on and so forth and hebrew they read right to left instead of left to right so it would be written out that way and so here this verse that we're reading would start with that letter noon and start with that for each of these verses down to what what's that next one down there 112. so it's um it's you know it's interesting but what's interesting about it to me is a real a real poet wrote this oh and also not only did it start with that the entire psalm is about god's word it's about his law and his precepts and so you know somebody had written really taken their time to write this and you show real inspiration in this somebody because when you read through it it doesn't just you know read simply like somebody's just writing a poem that says you know a a a and you know having a simple verse each one is profound in its reading and this one that we're talking about today is is one that's well known but it's profound and this is uh why i want to talk about it not just because it's well known but because of what it does for us we're talking this week about paths in the life that we walk and there are many righteous paths that we walk on in life we walk in the path of justice and equity walk in the path of righteousness we walk in a path of peace we walk in a path of love and so all these ways that we go we need some help getting down there don't we now the word of god [Music] according to the psalmist here he says your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path and we all need that at some time don't we i mean i'm looking outside here this morning at 6 a.m where we're at and it's pretty low light if the street lights weren't on out here at the house it'd be pretty dark to go walking around out there and you would want some sort of light at your feet where you can see whatever's in your way and the word of god is that way but usually when we think of light in the biblical idea we think there's a real difference between goodness and evil and goodness will be light and then evil will be darkness and you you read this and i think you have to ask yourself am i walking in darkness that the word of god is a light to my feet well hopefully you're not walking in total darkness although if you are walking in total darkness and you're living a life apart from god the word of god is what illuminates the pathway to god this is how you come to know who the lord is by reading his word and that illuminates your way so you can find your way to him or you hear it or somebody preaches it or maybe you hear something about it in a song and that gives you direction for where to go because when we're in the dark usually we're having a hard time finding our way we're you know kind of stumbling about trying to figure out how we get there the word of god lights our way to get to him well for a christian there are times when we're not walking in darkness but we're walking in low light and you've probably had this in your life where you're walking and your way is difficult to find you've got a situation comes up at work or something with your family and you just don't quite know how to figure it out you're like the phrase we say we're in the dark which means we don't understand the word of god illuminates that and of course the closer we get to christ the more illuminated we are jesus said this about himself in john 8 in verse 12 he says i am the light of the world whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of so as we follow jesus we do find that our way is illuminated but if you're like me and i you know i'm willing to admit my faults there's times where i start going my own way and i start going based on my own thoughts and my own ideas have you ever done that where you pray lord i have this great idea and i need you to make it work right so instead of following jesus we think well we'll take the lead and then he can just sort of make everything fall into place and that's an easy thing to do and so we need to do is we need to take a step back and we need to pray lord what would you have me do and how would you have me go and what would you have me say instead of just rushing ahead and doing our own thing so when we walk with jesus we have light don't we but also when we walk with each other we have light because jesus told his followers you are the light of the world and he means all of us are light and so we've all got our own light because we carry the light of christ we walk in the light of christ we've all got our own light but you've probably had the same experience that i've had to where you're the only christian in a situation and there's no other there's no no other believers around you and you're in a situation that is low light because it's just one one person carrying the light and you know how difficult it would be if you try to make your way in low light like this morning here we are it's kind of twilight out there i guess we're starting this morning if you were to walk around just holding a single match in your hand you could see immediately what's right around you but you would have a hard time seeing very far down your path and so you're going to carry something that has more illumination than that you know you might carry a really bright flashlight because the flashlight then really casts out a lot of light into your path and you can see what's coming but you might be in a position where it's just you and you're in low light and you're having a hard time figuring out your way unlike what john says about light in first john chapter 1 he says this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus his son cleanses us from all sin so this is an important thing to remember we're walking around if we're trying to do it our own way we have some light we have some understanding about god we're trying to get our way down that path but if we're going strictly on our own ideas and our own memories of what god says it's going to be very difficult and so we need the word of god we need to remember what he said we need to take it in enough and often enough that we can remember and it's right you know in the front of our minds what god would have us do is we're going through this life and we're walking down that path walk in fellowship with him now suddenly you don't just have your own light that little match nelson you've got a torch with you because he is light and he illuminates the things and be with other christians make sure to spend time as often as you can with other christians so they can help illuminate and how do they do that by remembering the word of god i know you've had this experience i have many times where i've been struggling with some you know circumstance you know you've got something on your plate and you're just like i just don't know how i'm going to get through this you know you've got something coming up a meeting or something and i can think many times in my life where i was just struggling trying to figure out how am i going to get through this and i talk about it with fellow believers and and it's incredible how often they'll say something that it quotes scripture or they'll talk about an idea that's very close to something they've read in the scripture and how illuminating that is you think oh yeah that's right you know it didn't come right into your mind but when you're with another believer you start talking you say oh yeah that's right we knew that that's you know that's what jesus said it kind of reminds me of the disciples on the road to emmaus remember after jesus had been crucified they were walking along despondent of course they're light they've got their own light but they were struggling with coming to grips with everything but as jesus came into their midst and they talked they said later didn't our hearts burn within us when he opened the scriptures to us and that's the way it is and you've had that experience before i'm sure and so today what i want to encourage you to do is really walk in the light know what the scripture says and live it i'm sure you've got some difficulty in your life everybody does it from one day to another we've got some difficulty with some people whether it's at work or neighbors or our family you know we're just our own ideas that we need to get over let the word of god light your way let it let it illuminate your path lord i don't know which way i should go pray about it and ask the holy spirit to open your heart and your mind to the right way to go think on the scripture think about whatever that circumstance is maybe you're in a position at work where everybody else is compromising and you feel like you have to compromise too but you need your integrity remember what the scripture says about integrity remember what the scripture says about truthfulness remember what the scripture says about being a light in a dark world and let this book and the teachings of it open your mind to the right way to go so that's what we've got it for god didn't give it to us just so we could put it on the shelf and collect dust he gave us this word that it would illuminate our way but isn't that a great thing walk around so many times in this world in low light and we need that flashlight well it's right there in your hands let's pray about that father we thank you so much for your word and father there are times i know that it's an easy thing to do to just go our own way to disregard what you've said and just to make a plan and think that we'll just run ahead and do something and hope that you would help us clean up the mess and father i pray that if anybody's tempted to do that today that they would be stopped short that you would remind them that you've already laid out a path for them and that your word illuminates that way and the father as difficult as it may be to stop being headstrong i pray father that we would follow in behind christ and walk in the light and so we thank you for your word we thank you for the church we thank you for our brothers and sisters that help light the way for us in a dark world in jesus name amen well i hope you have a great day tomorrow we're going to talk about one of my favorite scriptures about making your path straight so we'll talk about that tomorrow look forward to that have a great day and lord willing we'll see here tomorrow