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4:30Everything that's stated in this elongated psalm of some 176 verses that he adopts for every one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, or we got 22 letters with eight verses under each one of those letters, and the dominance of all the information is personal. Now, we started by saying it's a psalm of bibliology, a psalm that in the Old Testament context exalts the Word of God, its importance, and its usage in each and every one of our lives. Now, that's essential for us, and it's essential in its personal use. Well, let me illustrate it with a cartoon if I could. I'm sure that all of you have followed the Peanuts cartoons. You know, we got those wonderful characters. Remember, Lioness, and you remember some of those. And I'm only mentioning Lioness because he's famous to one of the Charles Schultz cartoons that I used to read every, you know, in the newspaper. I always went to that was the first place. Who could care about the news, right? So I always went to the cartoon page because I wanted to read the Charles Schultz cartoons. And one of them that I remember so vividly is one where Lioness is throwing a stick for Snoopy to go and get it and bring it back. So they're playing this game, and he's throwing the stick, and Snoopy goes out and he gets the stick and he brings it back. So basically, Snoopy is chasing sticks on behalf of Lioness. But you know, Charles Schultz always humanizes it in such a wonderful way. You get these little caricature circles, you know, and you got the words that make it human-like. And Snoopy's running, Lioness throws the stick, and Snoopy's going out. He's chasing down the stick. And as he's chasing down the stick, he says to himself, He says, You know, I wonder when I die what people will say about Snoopy. And he runs a little bit farther, and he finally gets to the stick. And when he gets to the stick, he says it again. You get the little caption that Schultz puts up there, you know, I wonder when I die what people will say about Snoopy. And then you get that kind of a big exclamation mark with another little circle on there, and Snoopy comes to a conclusion. And he says, Well, I know what they're going to say. You know that, Snoopy? He was a good old dog. He chases sticks. Snoopy was a good old dog. He chases sticks.

7:04Now, Snoopy put it into a format whereby nobody would want to be really recognized that that is what their life was all about. And what's interesting, when you come to the heart in the 19th Psalm, though it is a psalm that is full with bibliology, it's also a story about a psalmist who doesn't want to be known as an individual who's just a good old dog. He chases sticks. And so I want to bring your attention to the ninth verse as we come into the second group of eight verses under the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And here we have the psalmist facing God with a question. And here the psalmist says, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? Now, all of us would like at this moment to sit back and say, Okay, who is the psalmist that's asking the question?

8:00I preached this same message this morning over at the other church and worked my way through it. And there's at least one couple here that's got to listen to it for the second time. So I've got to be extremely careful to make sure I get all my points in here. She happened to play the piano today, okay? Amen. But anyway, as I think of this verse, we always think about who is this psalmist? I'll tell you right now, for about 25 years of my ministry, I preached that the psalmist was David. And then for the second 25 years or 26 years of my ministry, I preached that the psalmist was Daniel. Now, both of them make sense to me. David makes sense because after the swing with Bathsheba, and after he finally comes to the Lord, gets his heart right with the Lord with that beautiful psalm, Psalm 51, and he now wants a life that is worth something to be lived. Remember what David prayed? He said, Restore to me the joy. He didn't say, restore my salvation. He said, restore to me the joy of my salvation. Because remember, in his sin with Bathsheba, he had lost it. Remember. There was an early psalm where David said, My mouth became like cotton, my bones they waxed old like an elderly man while I lived in my sin. But then in Psalm 51, he says, Though my sins were as red, what was it as crimson? He says, God has made them now white as snow, and God has brought joy back to my life in that essence. And sometimes when you read the 119th Psalm, you might think, well, take the question of verse 9, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way. Boy, that sounds like a David should ask that question. Or you may want to bring it into the life of Daniel. Because if you look at the historical ramifications that are found in these 176 verses, the historical ramifications don't fit with David. But boy, do they fit with a Daniel. If you've ever read Daniel chapter 1, and Daniel is taken into the Babylonian kingdom, and he's faced with all the temptation and all the trials that the power of Babylon is pushing upon this young Jewish boy's life and seeking him to compromise and to bring his life into that style of living. You know, if I was in that predicament, I might be a Daniel and cry out before God and say, God, wherewithal shall I, still a young man, faced with all of this, how am I going to keep it clean?

10:23So let's start with Daniel. Doesn't matter if you like David. Let's just say it's Daniel. Daniel, for now. It's good enough for me, simply knowing that it came from God in the first place. But he says, Wherewithal shall young man cleanse his way? He doesn't want to be a Snoopy that just walks through life chasing sticks, but he was a good old dog. He wants a life that he says is a cleansing of a way. And I think the key word here is way. It's an interesting little Hebrew word. It actually means a line drawn between two significant points. Or what Daniel is asking for, he comes before his God and he says, God, I've got a question to ask you. How do I keep the line drawn between two significant points? How do I keep it clean? And if you've got the figure of the language here in Hebrew, it's an idea that he's not starting at this significant point and asking the question. He's somewhere down the line looking back at what started it with the idea there's still a portion of the line left to get to what's going to end it. And he says, in the circumstances of life, he comes to his God and he says, God, I've got a question. How do I keep the line drawn between these two specific points clean? Now, I don't want to read into the scriptures, but I've often wondered, taking that little Hebrew word, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, the line drawn between two significant points, to kind of discuss what are the significant points the psalmist had in mind. Could it be that what he was looking at, in the essence of saying, as a young man, he says, by faith I came into your presence. Now, we would symbolize. That into our New Testament theology by simply saying, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Not of works thus any man should boast. And we would say, in the essence of living, that that's a significant point, would you not? I mean, without that significant point, my friend, the Bible says you're dead in trespasses and sins. So there's no line drawn between anything if you're just dead in trespasses and sins. But just by conjecture, let's say that that significant point to Daniel was simply saying, Lord, I began real life when I came to know you by faith. And I know that that faith someday is going to end by another significant point. Let's just say by sight. And I'm down the line living this life, and I'm faced now with every temptation, every trial that could possibly come to somebody in my position. And I got a question. I am really wondering how am I going to stay clean on this line drawn between two significant points. I'm this far. I don't know how much is left till I get to that next point, but I got a question I need answering. Wherewithal shall a young man keep the line drawn between two significant points? How do I keep it clean? And it's the cleaning that's so essential. Now, I want you to notice something about his attitude. Look at verse number 10.

13:25You notice the sincerity of the question here. And by the way, the context puts it together. So, when he asks the question, he's saying, I want to tell you, I'm coming to you, Lord. I'm coming with all my heart. With all my heart, have I sought you. He comes with total sincerity. He's not bargaining with God. He's not coming 50% in and 50% out. This is a psalmist who's saying, God, I have come with all my heart on this question. I need to know how do I keep the line drawn between two significant points clean? And I come sincerely with all my heart. Not only does he come sincerely, notice how unselfishly he comes. He says in verse 10, Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments.

14:07You notice where the psalmist puts all the power, not in himself. He turns to God and he says, God, you take over my life. On this issue of keeping my life clean between these two significant points, I come sincerely, but I come unselfishly. I come willing to say, in essence, like the psalm used to say, I surrender all. All to Jesus, I surrender. But in this context, here the psalmist is simply saying, I turn my heart over to you, Lord. I come sincerely with everything that makes up my being. I come unselfishly with everything I have to put all the power in your hands. I put it all where it needs to be. It's almost like Paul saying, for me to live is Christ, knowing that that's the issue at hand. And the psalmist said, Would you please give me. An answer to this issue. And you know, what's interesting to me is God is quick to answer him. You go back to verse 9 where he asked the question, wherewithal shall I still being a young man keep the line drawn between two significant points clean? And God turns around, he answers, he says, it's very simple. Now, he didn't put those words in, it's very simple. He just said this, by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

15:25He said, Daniel, David, Psalmist, whoever you want to put into the characterization, God's answer was simple: you must take heed to the Word of God. Now, what's interesting when we take these letters of the Hebrew alphabet and we string out the eight verses to each group of each letters that are there, we get a context of thought that actually develops what we call propositional truth within language, and that propositional truth is actually developed to give us what? Not only an answer, but the means by which that answer can be fulfilled. And so, would you notice with me even this evening, four ways that you can take heed to the Word of God, and in that enjoyment, you can have victory over sin.

16:12Four ways you can take heed to the Word of God. Let me give you the four ways. Number one is going to be the way of memory. Number two is going to be the way of speech. Number three is going to be the way of study. And number four is going to be the way of enjoyment. Now, let's go back. And see if the text gives us the support that's necessary for the four ways that we can take heed to the Word of God so that we can keep the line between two significant points clean. Now, I'm assuming we're coming sincerely and we're coming unselfishly to our Father and saying, Help us to keep the line clean between two significant points. We start out with the first way, and it's the way of memory. You've probably memorized this verse: Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Verse 11: Blessed art thou. There's an imperative in Hebrew: Blessed art thou. It is imperative, not optional, that I come to a conclusion that I can bless the Lord. But to get there, I've got to go through verse 11. Thy word, that is the very word of God. He says, What have I done with it? I have hid it. And where have I hid it? I have hid it in my heart, in the very seat of my understanding, in that very source of where my thoughts and my insights and my reflections all come from, where the very seat of my will exists. See, this is not the heart pumper. Thy word, the word of God. What have I done with it? I have hid it. And where have I hid it? I have hid it in that place where conduct and all the determinative realities are. Moral issues find their residence. And I've taken the Word of God and I've hid it there. I think the key word is that word hide.

18:12Why is it so important to us? Well, it's a neat little word in Hebrew. It carries this idea, and see if you can follow me in this. It is, it's something I have done in the past. So when the future becomes the present, it'll be available to benefit me. What is he saying? I took the Word of God in the past, I placed it in my heart, I placed it where my understanding finds its source, where my thoughts and my reflections, in the very seat of my will, I placed the Word of God there in the past, so that when the future would become the present, it would be available to benefit me. Now, let me illustrate it this way.

19:00We have two children. My wife and I have had two children. My wife is with the Lord now, but we had two children growing up. We were married 48 years, some of the best, the greatest years of my life, no doubt about it. But when we had both of our children, we made a decision that at the age of two, we would start teaching them memory verses. And back in those days, we were able to put together, and then it was later, there was a format that was actually put together to follow, where we sought to teach our kids to memorize one verse for every letter of the English alphabet. Either they'd memorize a full verse or they would remember a portion of a verse. And we started it when they were two years old. And by the time they were four and a half years old, both of my children had at least a verse or a portion of a verse memorized for every letter of the English alphabet. Like A was all of sin and come short of the glory of God. Now, you get to D really quick. No, no, not D. D was draw nigh to God. He will draw nigh to thee. You get to C really quick. Children, obey your parents and the Lord. Amen. That's the one we like to get to quick, you know. But we had this session. We called it Alone with God. And we did Alone with God before horizontal time. Horizontal time simply meant we were putting the kids to bed. And, you know, you've got to kind of trick them a little bit by telling them, you know, you're not going to bed. That never works. So you say, we're going to horizontal time. Amen. Going to be fun, right? But before horizontal time, we had our alone with God time. And during alone with God, this was my daughter. And keep in mind that with my daughter, we taught these verses. With my son, we taught these verses. And I'll be honest with you, they didn't have the slightest idea what any of these verses meant. They didn't know how to apply it to their own personal life. All they knew is that mom and dad got extremely excited when they could recite a verse. And we would do it, play games. We'd be in the grocery store, you know, over at Publix grocery store, and we'd be wheeling a cart down the aisle. And, you know, and I would say to the kids, I'd say, To my daughter, give me the letter A. And she'd say, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know, and we'd do a dance around the cart, you know, and get all excited and things like that. And that's about what it was for two and a half years as they learned these verses, each one of these verses. Well, now my daughter is four and a half years old. My wife's at church for a women's program that night, so I had the alone with God before putting them down at horizontal time. And I'd finished devotions with my kids. And when I was done, my daughter turned to me at the end of the devotion and she said, Daddy, I want to become, I want to get saved. Now, I don't know about you, but my daughter was four and a half years old. She's 48 years old now. And if you asked her, When did you come to Christ as your Savior? She would say, It was during Alone with God when I was four and a half years old with my daddy. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. But that night that we went through that, and she said to me, I want to be saved, I said to my daughter, I asked her the question, I said, Why would a little girl who's only four and a half years old want to be saved? Do you know what her answer was? She said, Daddy, it's the letter A.

22:11All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You see, we put that verse in her heart in the past, but she had no idea what that verse meant. But when the future became the present, when she was four and a half years old, she took that verse along with her children's church at church. Hearing testimonies and all the things that took place in life for two and a half years. And finally, it came to a place she understood that that verse was talking about her.

22:41And at four and a half, when the future became the present, that verse that she'd put in her heart in the past blessed her to become a child of God that day. Now, it was the work of God, there's no doubt. But what I'm simply saying is this: you ever gone to church, heard your pastor preach the word of God, and say, You know, I know what he's talking about. I don't really need that this morning. I know that's for so-and-so at Row 7 on the outside. You know what I mean? And you start thinking in those fashions and those fashions, and you start putting those things together, and you kind of think, you know, that I don't need that today. Are you sure you don't need that today? How do you know you're not going to be listening to put something in your heart in the past? So when the future becomes the present, it will be available to benefit you. Well, let me ask you, what really is the benefit? Well, he said in verse number 11, he said that I might not sin against thee.

23:39You know, this book will keep you from sin, or sin, as one has said, will keep you from this book. And here the psalmist is challenged to take the Word of God by the way of memory and to place the Word of God in his heart in that center of all his understanding, the source of thought and reflection. So they'd have victory over sin. And that victory over sin, that's not the only fold of turning out results in your life. Verse 12 is a part of it. It's connected so that we can bless the Lord. It's not only that we get victory over sin, but it's so that we can honestly bring praise to our God and to bless our Lord as well. Amen. Because we've placed the Word of God in our lives. Keep in mind the question: how do I keep the line drawn between two significant points clean? God says you've got to take heed to the Word of God. And the first way is the way of memory. The second way is the way of speech, the way of speech. For notice, if you come to the Word of God, he says, with my lips there, where is it down there in verse 13? He says, With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.

24:59You know, it's interesting. One man put it this way: you'll either give the word of God out or you'll give the word of God up. I don't know what it is, but there's something about when we open our mouths out and start to talk the word of God with somebody else. When we use the way of our speech in sharing God's word with somebody else, it almost seems like it's reciprocal in coming back to benefit us and to strengthen us in our Christian life. Isn't that what the Apostle Paul meant in Romans chapter 12? Chapter 1, when he talked about preaching to them and having it come back to bless him in return because of what he did for their benefit, the sharing of the word of God, it is a proclamation, it is not just a testimony. You know, on the North Carolina seal, we have the Latin words, esse cuam videre, which in English simply says to be rather than to seem.

26:05To be rather than to seem. That is to be authentic than just to seem to be that way. Now, I was not raised in a Christian home. I was raised in the home of an alcoholic, left home in ninth grade, came back home to watch my alcoholic father die a terrible death. And it was through his death in the witness of a sister who had gotten saved a year before I had gotten saved, who had come all the way to Wisconsin for the purpose to talk to my father, hopefully before he died, about knowing Christ as Savior and to speak to me as well. I've often said I was kind of the fringe benefit. I was not the ultimate purpose in this witnessing process. But you know, when my sister came up to see me, I was a senior in high school at this time. You know, I took the Direct notice that there was something extremely different about my sister. She was not the same person that I knew as a young person growing up. She was a different person, even though she's six years older than I am. I knew there was something changed in her life, but you know, I could have watched that change day in and day out, and it would have done nothing significantly for me. I mean, here was a person that prayed now before every meal. She always prayed. Here was an individual, there was never a bad word come out of her mouth. And I knew her when that mouth was pretty sour when it came to language. Here was a person that didn't have a cigarette in their mouth all the time. And as I said this morning, it's not in the essence I'm sitting here to say that the cigarette is something significant in this whole realm. You know, I'm not saying you're going to go to hell if you smoke. But as I said this morning, you might smell like you've been there, amen. But I'm not saying it in those words. But my sister was a chain smoker, and all of a sudden, that wasn't a part of her life. You know, I saw all the changes that were there, but I didn't come to Christ because of the changes in my sister's life, although it was very supportive. I came to Christ because, well, to be honest with you, she never shut up for a minute. She was so dedicated to see me come to Christ that with her lips she proclaimed the truth of God.

28:30But I want to tell you something. When you share Christ with somebody else, when you share the Word of God with somebody else, it does something for you as well. It can take a jellyfish backbone and make it the backbone of a warrior immediately in its reciprocal benefit. I think the psalmist knew exactly what he was talking about. When he said, With my lips have I declared the judgments, all those judgments. And judgments was just one of the seven synonymous terms that is used in the 119th Psalm to address the Word of God itself. He says, With my lips I became a declarer of the Word of God, and that brought strength in what God is saying. You know, you don't have to be a Snoopy that's just chasing snicks. Oh, I'm a good old dog. No, you can be an individual who can have a line drawn between two significant points. That is your life, and it can be clean.

29:24That is, if you consider the way of memory when it comes to the word of God, when you consider the way of speech when it comes to the word of God. But we've got to move on. I want you to notice that there's a third way, and that is the way of study. Come down with me down. We're going to skip a verse because we're going to come back to verse 14 because verse 14, verse 16 has some identical terminology, though one is present tense and one is passive. But I'll come back for the last point when we talk about the way of enjoyment. But let's look at the way of study, if you would, for a minute. I will meditate, verse 15, and thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. This is almost like, it reads like a testimony of a psalmist who had thrown out a question, got his answer because of his sincerity, his unselfishness, and then he lays out, I have actually lived it, I have proved what was stated in verse 9. And the third way is the way of study. Now, the key word here is the word meditate. It's an interesting Hebrew word. The word means actually to run back and forth.

30:28I will run back and forth. Now, he's not talking about himself running back and forth, he's talking about taking this word of God and he's talking about running it back and forth. In fact, we take this Greek term and we use it in some English areas to define the word cultivate. Now, for you that are farmers, you know what exactly I'm talking about. We cultivate the soil. We take those little round discs out there and pull them in a tractor and we run them back and forth over the soil because we want to do something to that soil with those discs by running it back and forth over the soil. Now, I don't know about you. Farming to me is like reform school. My uncle had a farm in Neilsville, Wisconsin, and I was sent there a lot of times in the summer. You know, and for me, it was like going to reform school. There's no way I could get in trouble because all we did was work from the time you got up till the time you went to bed. All you did was work on the farm. And I learned a lot of things. I learned how to strip cows. You know, you do the milkers. Then you have to strip them to get all the milk out of the udder. I learned how to strip cows. I learned, you know, the aspect of sitting on a, we had what we call a two-road cedar for corn, where you had to sit on the cedar, and then when you get to the end of a row, you know, you turn. Well, you got to pick the cedar up by hand in those days. It wasn't automatic in those days, so you didn't plant seeds at the turn of the corners, you know. And I ate all the dust, and I remember all the things that went on. And I used to talk to my uncle about different things he did. And one day I asked him about this whole idea how he would go out and he would take this big disc machine and he'd run it over the soil and run it over the soil. I mean, he would break that soil up till it was as fine as you could imagine. And I asked him, I said, Uncle, I said, why do you do that? Why do we cultivate soil? Now, this was his answer. And, you know, it works so well with this point of Scripture. I thought, I've got to use it. My uncle told me, he says, there's two reasons I cultivate the soil. He says, you see, I've put a seed down in that soil, and my livelihood is based on that seed. And what that seed needs in order to go through the process that has been designed is it needs oxygen. And if I allow this soil to get so hard and so crusted, that oxygen cannot get to that seed, and I'm not going to get the crop. And he says, not only that, when that seed begins to perform its duty and starts to come forth as just a young shoot. I don't want it coming up and hitting cement. I want it to come up through a loosened and beaten soil as it comes up into life itself. And he says, the way we do it is we cultivate.

33:14We keep running the cultivator over the soil. Well, folks, I don't know if you know it, but you know, in the Bible, there are a number of places where the Bible talks about a danger that each and every one of us have. You know what it is? We grow callouses over our hearts. And there's all this oxygen of spiritual thirst and growth and desire that wants to come through. But all the seed, I shouldn't say, all this seed that wants the oxygen of life. Let me put it that way. All this seed in our souls because of Christ. It wants the oxygen of life. But we've allowed all this crusted concrete to grow over our hearts. And when it wants to push forth, you know what happens? It just keeps button up against it. What do you do? Well, you take the divine cultivator, the word of God, the way of study, and you keep running it back and forth over your heart. I mean, why do you come to church? Is it not to come to hear the word of God taught? So that you can take this marvelous message and run it back and forth over your heart. Hey, we're very prone to grow calluses over our hearts, even as believers. But it's the word. Of God, like a divine cultivator. See, this is not transcendental meditation here. We're not talking about some druggie sitting in a corner, you know, and darkening the room and going through some mantra and coming to some exclusive reality. I hope, man, you know, I have found God all of a sudden. No, it's just a simple word. It's taking this cultivator, the Word of God, and running it back and forth over our hearts. Back and forth, he says. No wonder he says, I have respect unto your ways. I respect them.

35:09Those are high words for the Word of God working on our hearts as we run the cultivator. But let me come to the last way. It's the way of enjoyment. And it's interesting to me that he mentions it twice. Notice he mentions it in verse 14, where he simply says, I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies. And testimonies, again, synonymous word for the word of God. And verse 16, I will delight myself in thy statues, statues, synonymous word in identifying the word of God itself. That's why we have this great psalm of bibliology. But keep in mind, it's also extremely personal. This is a psalmist saying, how do I keep the line drawn between two significant points? God says, take heed to the word of God, and let me show you the way. He says, there's the way of memory, there's the way of speech, there's the way of study, and there's the way of enjoyment. Have you ever noticed that whatever you enjoy, nobody has to persuade you to participate? In it.

36:02And the enjoyments here, one's present and one's passive. Present tense is what? It's the psalmist saying, you know what? I have such joy when I think about the fact I'm getting in the Word of God. Did you get up this afternoon after your nap and say, oh, we get to go to church tonight. Amen. We get to come to hear the Word of God. I've got such joy to come and hear the Word of God tonight. Or when you're going to have your devotions, do you think that way?

36:30Or you just think, man, I've got to get this over with. Pastor may ask me, well, did you read that today? Or do you come to the Word of God present tense with that continuous reality of the joy of entering in the Word of God? But the other one's passive. What he is saying is, I just was there in the Word of God, and now that I'm leaving it, I've got such joy. I had the thrill of heading toward it. And once I got there and went through it, I had the thrill when I was leaving it because of the message of the Word of God. Think of it. Whatever you enjoy, if you enjoy the Word of God, I wouldn't have to persuade you to participate in it. Now, I enjoy hunting.

37:15And hunting is not everything you think of. I've hunted in Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, and Pennsylvania. And whether you know it or not, you know, deer season in those states, it's pretty cold. And, you know, we get up about 30 years. 4 o'clock in the morning, and we head out into the woods at 4 o'clock in the morning. It's 10 degrees, 20 below wind chilled, 4 o'clock with a flashlight. We're wandering through some wooded area, heading out to a tree that's got a ladder that's 15 feet high with a bench on top of it that's so cold it'll freeze your bones the minute you sit on it. And we go all the way out in those woods to that tree there. We get there before the sun even comes up. We climb up that 15-foot ladder, sit on that cold stool, and you know what? We'll sit there all day in 10-degree weather with 20-degree wind chills and sit there all day waiting for that great big trophy buck to come by our 15-foot ladder so we can shoot that buck, drive it out of town, and bring it into the area and all these things, you know. We'll sit there all day long and freeze and freeze and freeze. Come home, my wife would always say, Did you catch anything? As if I was fishing, you know.

38:29But it was hunting. Now, if you actually thought it through, you would come to the conclusion: this is totally and absolutely ridiculous. Why would anybody get up at 4 o'clock in the morning, take a flashlight, walk into the darkened woods when it's only 10 degrees, and you've got 20 below wind chills, climb a 15-foot ladder on a tree, and sit on a stool, you're going to freeze to death, and spend the whole day there? Why would anybody do that? That. You know why we do it? Because we enjoy it.

39:05And whatever you enjoy, nobody has to persuade you to participate in it. Nobody ever woke me up to those four o'clock mornings. I was excited to get out there and spend the day hunting. Would to God that would be the same joy we have when it comes to hearing God's word preached and taught, or when it comes to our personal devotions of getting into the word of God. Keep in mind, the psalmist is not just laying out statements here, he's not just simply saying, you know what, take heed to the word of God and leave us sitting. Now, the psalmist comes with a great question: how do I keep the line drawn between two significant points? And folks, we don't want to be like Snoopy. We don't want the day come that they say, you know, he's a good old dog. He chases sticks. No, we want a life with such value that it's been worth living.

40:03A life that's clean and cleansed by taking heed to the Word of God. And folks, if you're going to take heed to the Word of God, well, there are going to be four ways, at least from this psalmist and just this one little group of eight verses he lays out for us. There's going to be the way of memory, there's going to be the way of speech, there's going to be the way of study, and there's going to be the way of enjoyment. And I challenge you. I challenge you to come like the psalmist. Almost with the same sincerity and the same unselfishness, and say, Father, I want to keep the line of my life between these two significant points clean. Help me to take heed to the Word of God. And you know what? You'll be just like Paul when it's all over. When you come to that last significant point, you'll be able to say, I've fought the fight, I've finished my course. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown. Much better than chasing sticks. Amen.

41:06And so we have it. Take heed to the Word of God. Well, Pastor said I should just close the service, and I'm going to do that. Amen. And you know what? I think I'm almost on time. I gave you four minutes. Amen. You're in good shape tonight, right? Let's have a word of prayer together, shall we? Father, thank you for these fine folks. Thank you for this fine pastor. Thank you for this ministry and all that makes it up. God, each and every one of us must recognize that we start life at a significant point when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Thank you, Father, for searching us out. Thank us, Father. Thank you, Father, for opening our hearts and saving us. For then we begin to live. And Lord, we know that the day is going to come that our faith is going to turn to sight. We're going to enter your presence, and we're going to enjoy thy Presence forever and ever. But right now, Father, we got a life to live. And I'm sure for each one that knows Christ here, there's somewhere down that line between these two significant points. And no matter what has been lived up to this point on that line, Father, there's still whatever is left. And we know the measure of that lies with thee and thee alone, Lord. I pray for them. I pray, God, for myself. God, that each and every one of us would want to finish well.

42:26And Father, we would want to be the completion of all that is stated: that we are new creatures in Christ. Old things are passed away. All things are becoming new. So, Father, help us to be people of this book. Help us to memorize it. Help us to speak it out. Help us to study it. And by your grace, help us to enjoy it by taking heed that we may keep that line clean between two significant points. Thank you for this church. Thank you for all it means for this community. God, continue to use it. May we hear the cry of the newborn babe often because of the testimony of this body. And may the discipleship of these believers be such that maturity and growing Christ would not become a novelty, but would become a reality. And we'll thank you for it in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen and amen. I believe you are dismissed. God bless.