Trusting God to Guide

Good morning. This morning, we are going to be thinking about looking at rules, restrictions, prohibitions, and boundaries. No one else is excited about that. It's interesting. We actually typically don't like rules and especially being told no. But I kind of want to make sure we understand how important rules, restrictions, prohibitions, and boundaries are. Most of life is made up of these. You need them to live and to enjoy life. Think about just games where we actually take rules most seriously probably. Think of the game of baseball or softball. You have an objective. You have a goal. Score more runs. Well, how do you know how to do that? Well, you've got to have boundaries. What's out? What's in? You've got to have bases. You've got to have strikes and balls. You have to understand what fair play is. And it's interesting, if you watch any kind of sports programs, you know that there's been a recent cheating scandal in baseball. And it's amazing, the outcry. You've dishonored the game because you didn't follow the rules. When you follow the rules, you're free to play and enjoy the game. But if you don't, you dishonor the game. Think about your job description. Your job description's a helpful boundary and prescription and restriction. You're not responsible for these things. You're responsible for those things. If you're a teacher, you're responsible for your grade or your subject, not all those other subjects. Restrictions and prohibitions, they're helpful. These things are out of bounds. These things are in bounds. Now, enjoy work. IKEA furniture, right? Now, here we're going to get into two kinds of people. There's those people who read instructions. I'm thankful I married one. And there's people like me who think, this could be fun. Let's see if we can do this on our own. And of course, that means I take it back apart and rebuild it with the instructions later. They're even with something like, how do you put the duma flogging back on the hemoglobin? You've got to have instruction. How does it fit together? Worship. It's a scary thing and it's something that bothers me that it seems like worship is where we think that's where we should have those freedom and not restriction. that anyone should just go and want to talk with God, and come to approach God in any way they really want to, and not think God is actually holy, and just, and righteous, and He wants us to be with Him, and then He tells us exactly how to come to Him. We should want instruction. We should want the restriction. We should want the boundaries, because once we actually see what God says is out of bounds, free to enjoy worship. Because the most basic objective of life is, love the Lord your God with all your heart. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that everything my heart wants to do is right. It means what God says we should do is right, and what God says is wrong is wrong. There's amazing freedom when we recognize God's truth as a helpful guide. This morning we're in the book of 1 Samuel. We've had the two chapters. We're looking at red. I'm looking at chapter 26 and 28 because it really captures one of the big pictures of 1 Samuel, a constant contrast with David and Saul. All right, 27 we'll look at next week in more detail because it goes along with that story a little bit more, but I really want to focus on David, who has a reverence to respect God's restrictions. That's point one. David has a reverence that respects God's restrictions. And Saul, whose self-interest excuses sin. His self-interest excuses sin. The book we're studying is named Samuel because it begins with a woman who is unable to have children. She prays to God, if you give me a child, I will give him to you for your service. Samuel is born, he becomes a prophet, and the word of the Lord was rare before Samuel, and then after Samuel, the word of the Lord abounds to Israel. He is the one prophet who's speaking God's truth clearly. And we see the people rebel and want a king like the nations. And that's where Saul comes from. Then we see David. After he kills Goliath, he, he is going to be the new king, the next king, the king after God's own heart. Saul is rejected because he will not obey God. David is a man after God's own heart. He responds to God's truth. We see this constant contrast. Saul rejects God, David obeys God. God has kept David, God is pushing away Saul. And we see the difference in the way they respond to God. We're beginning in verse 26. This is not the first time this kind of episode has happened. Saul has been trying to kill David for a number of chapters in a number of ways. He's tried to trick him with his wife. He's tried to send him out to battle to kill him. He's tried to kill him himself by throwing the spear at him at least three times. And before, David has already gone up to Saul when Saul was vulnerable in a cave, cut the corner of his robe off, and then showed Saul, God has given you in my hand, but I did not kill you. Why did he try to kill me? That's important because Saul acknowledges, you're a better man than I am. I will not try to kill you again. But a man who is full of bitter and rage and anger, he cannot control himself. He cannot keep his word. And so we see here again, he's turned upside down in his own heart to pursue David. 26, 1 to 5, we see the Ziphites again. Those are people of Judah. David's on tribe. They are telling Saul. David is here. David and Saul are encamped close enough. In verse 6, David says, I want someone to go with me to look at the camp of Saul. Abisha says, I will go down with you. And we see the opportunist. They're in the same place as Saul. They've snuck in. David's a pretty clever, sneaky guy. Saul is sleeping. His spear is stuck in the ground next to his head, verse 7. Abner lays next to him. In verse 8, Abisha says the same thing the army said to David earlier. God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear and I will not strike him twice. A bishop is speaking with great boldness and confidence. Here's the will of God. And he's doing so by looking at his circumstances. He's saying here, God has given your hand. Let's take advantage of this opportunity. I know the will of God. Let me do it. Verse 9, David responds to him the same way he responded to his army. Do not destroy him. For who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? Saul has been a wicked king. Saul has been, he's wiped out an entire city just in his own selfish anger. He's been pursuing David. David would be at ease at some level if Saul were not alive because his life would not be in danger. But here you see the respect he has for the Lord means he will not put his hand out against Saul who's been anointed by God to be king. There's a reverence for God that says, if he is my king, I will not put my hand against him. This is not the will of the Lord because it's going against God, regardless of what our circumstances say. Verse 10. David makes an oath. As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down to battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put my hand against the Lord's anointed, but take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water and let us go. You see, there's a radical trust in verse 10. I do not have to avenge myself. I can trust God to be the one who takes my problems into his hand. I don't have to take justice into my own hand. God is good and trustworthy. He's the righteous one. Let me trust him with it. And then just like he cut off the robe in the previous episode, now he takes something that would be unique to Saul, his spear and his water bottle, you know, Whenever you lose your water bottle, you tell people, you know, it's blue and has a sticker on it. Right? There's a lot of water bottles in the Lawson family, by the way. Go identify yours. But these things would be unique to Saul. Now look where God is in the story. So David took the spear in the jar of water from Saul's head and they went away. No man saw it or knew it nor did anyone wake for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them. That deep sleep is a very unique Hebrew word. We only see it in a few instances. This is the word used for Adam when after he was exhausted from a day of naming all the animals, God put him into a deep sleep so that he could pull the rib to form Eve. Something wonderful happened out of this deep sleep. This is also the deep sleep when Abraham in chapter 15 of Genesis is put into a deep sleep after he's cut up the carcasses so that God alone can go back and forth and say, as sure as I am alive, I will keep the covenant with you. You will have a son. This is a unique episode. God is showing himself powerful. All of the army is under this deep sleep so that David can be successful. David, as he did before, goes to their side and he calls out, not Saul, but Abner. Abner, will you not answer? As we've seen before, David has advanced in trash-talking. If you remember David and Goliath, you know, I'm gonna feed you to the birds, you giant. I'm not afraid of you. Here, the first line, are you not a man? David's challenging Abner. Who's like you? You've got one job. You're supposed to protect the king. And here, look what I've got in my hand, his spear and his job. You should be put to death because you failed so miserably at your job. We see Saul. He keeps coming back a little bit. Is this your voice, my son? David, verse 17. Saul recognizes David. He calls him his own son. There is a unique relationship they've had. David has been a great blessing to Saul. He's never tried to harm Saul, but he's built up in this rage. Notice how David speaks to the king who's trying to kill him with as much honor and respect as he can. My lord, O king. He's speaking to them based upon the position God has given him. My lord, O king, why does my lord pursue after his servant? What have I done? What evil is on my hands? Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering. But if it is men, May they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out of this day, that I should have no share in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go serve other gods. See, the men of Israel who are stirring up Saul are pushing David away from God. The king is supposed to lead all of Israel to worship God, but now David's being pushed out to other gods. He's been living with the, he's gonna end up living with the Philistines. Now, therefore, let not my blood follow the earth away from the presence of the Lord, for the king of Israel has come to seek a single flea." Why is a king hunting me? You've got more important jobs to do, Saul. Saul responds, fairly well. I've sinned. I've done you harm. I've acted foolishly. I've made a great mistake. And then David says, come over and I'll give you the spear. I'll give you the water jug. And they depart. So he's done this at a safe distance. They have not yet reconciled and coming back together. David's going to flee to the Philistines because he's going to say, I know Saul is going to try to kill me. He doesn't yet trust him. Now what do we make of this passage where David, out of reverence for the Lord, will not strike Saul because of God? Last week we looked at how this really should apply to the household commands. Wives submit to husbands as to the Lord. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. Children honor your parents as to the Lord. Workers, employers, there's a reverence that should control those relationships. to pull back and actually look at something much higher level than that though. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. That's your number one job. That's what we were created for, to worship. But the second command, love your neighbor. Love your neighbor. Why? Because they're made in the image of God just like you. Love your neighbor as yourself because what's most important about you is what's most important about them, that they've been made with honor and dignity and value and worth just like you. You see, when we start to think about God and what he said and order our lives around what he says, we actually see people differently. This culture, our world wants us to think about all the differences, and we've got to celebrate those differences. No, we should celebrate what's so similar. Everyone here in this room, you can just look around for a second. Stop looking at me. Look around. Wonderful, different faces and cultures, but all have one thing in common, made of the image of God with dignity and worth. If we actually go back to Genesis 9, God declared one of the most important things about us, that's what we're looking at in that next Sunday school class, first and foremost, is male and female made in God's image. And then in Genesis 9, 6, it makes it very clear, you shall not take life in murder. Because that life is sacred. It's been made in the image of God. How often do we think of others like David does here, according to what God says. How often does that image bearing, how often does that dignity and worth actually force us to think about one another differently and treat one another differently? Our reverence for God should give us a love for others because of what he says. We can look at actually more explicit commandments. Do not lie. Do not lie. Why? Because your neighbor, who's also made in the image of God, is worthy of the truth. Do not rob them of the truth. Do not take your neighbor's property. Why? Because that person has been given that by God, and he has worth and dignity. Do not covet your neighbor's possessions. Why? Because they have dignity and worth, and those possessions are theirs. If we think about the fighting, the quarrels, James 4 makes it very clear. The fighting is because of the sinful passions we have. That the failure to see things as God has said they are, and that they're being wound up in the way we want them to be. If you're a believer this morning, there's certain limitations and boundaries God has given us in the way we treat others. Are we rejoicing in what God has said about our neighbor being made in the image of God, and letting that control the way we treat them? There's a reverence for God that leads us to rejoice in restrictions. If you're not a believer this morning, there are certain things God has made clear is out of bounds. And everybody in this room is not only made in the image of God, but everyone in this room has broken some boundary at some point. Sin is really a word for missing the mark. We've all failed. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. And that's why Jesus had to come to become like us, so that that sin, that problem we have, that we cannot cleanse ourselves, we cannot take care of it ourselves, Jesus took care of it on the cross. Because He died as if a sinner for all the sin of anyone who believes in Him. We cannot wash ourselves enough to make ourselves holy. No, Christ has to come and we're washed by His blood. You could be thinking of all the ways people haven't treated you like an image of God. Or you could be thinking of all the ways you haven't done that. Or the ways you haven't loved the Lord your God with all your heart. There's guilt. Jesus came to die so that we would no longer be guilty, but we could be forgiven. We must believe that He died for us as a righteous man for our sin so that we can be forgiven. And then we can start living that life in His grace. As we move on, I'm gonna make it very clear, 27 we're gonna look at later. David goes to, David is still so scared of Saul because he knows Saul, because he's seen Saul break this pattern of repenting, but then seeking him again, he says, I have to flee because Saul will take my life if I don't. So he spends this kind of odd time among the Philistines. We're gonna jump ahead to 28. We're gonna see Saul, who's a different kind of cat than David. David has reverence that respects restrictions. Saul has self-interest that excuses sin. It's a terrifying episode, chapter 28. Saul seeks to pray to God, and God doesn't answer. That's terrifying. We need to back up and just make sure we understand what's going on here. Verse 3 reminds us that we've already been told Samuel's dead. Samuel anointed Saul to be king. Then Samuel is very clear in at least five different episodes, God has rejected you. You are not going to be king. Now he's dead. He's been buried. He's dead. Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers, those who speak in between the worlds of the living and the dead. No, medium here is not the size of a shirt. It's someone who mediates between the two worlds of the living and the dead. He has put them out. Why? Deuteron 18 commanded him to do so. He didn't do all bad things as a king. He seemed to understand that this kind of practice was completely out of bounds for Israel, so he put all the mediums out. Those two points are very important context. Samuel's dead. Saul has made it clear mediums are out of bounds. And now the story, verse four. Philistines came to attack Saul. In verse 5, Saul was afraid. His heart trembled greatly. We see a continued lack of faith. David has a courageous faith that does not fear anyone but God in battle. Saul continues to be afraid of his circumstances in battle. Verse 6. Saul inquired of the Lord. The Lord did not answer him. Either by dreams or Urim or by the prophets. This is something I want to linger on because most Christians have had some kind of what feels like a dry spell in prayer life. Maybe somebody here right now just feels like there's a dry spell in prayer life. This is an important point because Saul keeps getting opportunities to just step back, reflect, and think, there's something wrong with me, let me pursue God. This is another one of those moments when the Lord will not answer him. And I want to be very clear, there's actually a lot of emphasis in Scripture that tells us when and how and why God doesn't actually answer prayer. It's something important here, though, that we need to think about with Saul. Saul isn't obviously a believer. The reason he's rejected as king is that he just keeps refusing to obey God. There's very little fruit in his life. So, so when we think about Saul being rejected and not having his prayers heard, I, I don't believe he's, he's a believer. The reason he has been able to talk to God is his office. He's a king. His office is what's being rejected. His role. It's important for a king to be able to talk to God because God is leading him to lead the people. He's an ambassador of sorts. Prayer is a great blessing. Let's just be very clear about this. The God who spoke creation into existence. The God who showed us His love by sending His own Son to die for our sins. And is able to speak a word of declaration, not guilty. That God that has that power, bends His ear down to us. He's a speaking God. He's a listening God. He desires to hear from us. And one of the greatest privileges is for His people to go and make inquiries, to seek wisdom, to seek instruction, to be aligned with His will. And when that happens, and there's a sense of coldness, or closeness, or a sealing, it's painful. So if you're here now, and you feel like maybe your prayer life is cold, or there's a sealing, or if you've been there, There's actual clear passages that talk about when and how and why God doesn't answer prayer. Let me walk through them, because I think it's an important topic. The first is from Psalm 66, 18. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. We can actually see this very point in Jesus' own prayer, where He actually invites us to pray. Pray like this. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And then He gives an explanation. If you do not forgive, neither will you be forgiven. It's important how we talk about sin. There's two real options when someone sinned against you. You can talk about it to God and seek forgiveness towards that person, or you can talk to yourself about it and get wound up in bitterness. When we're wound up in bitterness, according to Psalm 66, and what Jesus himself says, if we're cherishing iniquity in our hearts, either our own sin or sins done against us, God's not gonna listen. Another verse, James 1, verses five to six. James gives that all so obvious command, when in various trials, count it joy. Okay, how do you do that? You ask for wisdom, but he says very clearly, if you ask with a double mind, if you ask with a faith that's tossed to and fro constantly, if you ask without really having faith in God who can help you, don't expect anything. God will not answer. We have to remember, James 1 ends with God, the Father, being the perfect giver of every good and perfect thing. He's a generous God who longs to hear us, who longs to give to us. And here it's, you've got to ask in faith. It's always difficult, because I really ever feel like I've got enough faith. At some level, it's having the faith and the right giver. And at some level, there's that wonderful prayer modeled for us. I believe. Help my unbelief. But the clear call is to believe when we ask. God can help. James warns us another place about when you may not have your prayers answered. Chapter 4 verse 3. You ask and do not receive. Why? because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. We too often think of prayer as our wish list. God, here's all the things I would like to have, and if I had them, I think I'd be happy. No, prayer is really, God, would you align my heart with your heart? Would you let me see what I need? Would you help me have what would help me best glorify you and worship you? God is not a means to an end. He is the end itself. We treat God like a candy machine to satisfy our sweet tooth. No, God's the one who should cure the sweet tooth. And finally, a verse we actually looked at last week, 1 Peter 3, 7. The command is for husbands to live with wives in an understanding way, because she's a weaker vessel. She's a fellow heir with you. Lest your prayers be hindered. It's a charge to husbands. Don't be jerks. That's God's girl. Christ purchased her with his blood. Live with her in an understanding, if you don't, I'm not going to listen to you. What a judgment. If you think about Saul here, I think he's probably guilty of all four of these. He's selfish, as we're gonna see here in a moment. He lacks faith in the true God. He's cherishing up iniquity, and he's not taking his role and responsibility of being the leader of God's cherished people seriously. He's not living in an understanding way. He's completely unreasonable. This is a moment for Saul to reconsider. If we're living in a moment where we feel like our prayers aren't being answered, if we feel that there's a ceiling, it's an opportunity to have your life reconsidered. Some questions you could ask. Am I coming in faith asking God to help me according to His wisdom? Or am I trying to insist on my way to God? Have I forsaken, number two, have I forsaken some other kind of faithfulness? Is there, is there a way in which I'm, I know what God wants me to do, to repent or to obey, but I'm just resisting? Am I doubting? Am I being faithful to the responsibilities God has given to me? Prayer is to the believer as breath is to our life. speaking with God, listening to God. He bends his ear. He's a generous God who wants to give good things. And it's clear we do not have because we do not ask. Trust the generous giver. Do not do what Saul does. When Saul has this problem of God not hearing him or answering him, he does what Saul does and he tries to find another way. Verse seven, seek out for me a woman who is a medium. Again, someone who can go in between the worlds of living and dead, the people he himself has pushed out because God said this is out of bounds. So he seeks for a medium. They tell him there is such a medium. It's interesting here. Saul dresses up to pretend he's not Saul. I kind of wonder if she's already aware that it's Saul. One, Saul doesn't seem to be all that clever. Two, Saul has a whole head above everybody else in height. It's kind of hard to disguise that. I don't know what's going on here because she seems suspicious. Are you trying to lay a trap for me? When she asks this, look at what Saul says. Verse 10. He swore to her by the Lord. As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon me. He's just taken the Lord's name in vain. He's just made a promise calling upon the very name of the Lord in a way that is rejecting the name of the Lord. Do you see that? He has no reverence for God's glory. He's a manipulator. He's just trying to make it up as he goes. He's unpredictable only in the fact that he just will not obey God. He swears to her, breaking the third commandment, taking the Lord's name in vain, making an oath in his name that is in very essence going against what he knows God has prohibited. She says, who shall I bring up? Bring up Samuel for me. Now this is also kind of suspicious. Saul, what do you think Samuel's gonna say? Every time he's talked to you the last six episodes, he's told you, why do you keep rejecting God? God has cut you off. He seems desperate, and when we're desperate in sin, it just seems like we make really bad decisions. Saul seems to be modeling that here. Look at verse 12. I'm not sure how to interpret this. Verse 12. The woman saw Samuel. She cried out with a loud voice. Now, if you're a medium, and your job, your practice, is to regularly call up from the dead, you'd think you wouldn't cry out in fear when you saw someone from the dead. It actually seems like this is a unique case where she actually did what she says she did, in my mind. The response doesn't seem like somebody who's normally talking with the dead, really. It just seems like somebody who's probably usually being deceived by a spirit, or is pretending or faking it. Here, we actually see the person she called out came, and there's something unique about it, at least, where she cries out. And notice how the narrator talks about Saul. The king. The king who has cast these mediums out. The king who should know better. The king who has actually said this is not right. Oh, the false confidence. Verse 13. Oh, don't be afraid. Don't worry. But what do you see? I see a god coming up out of the earth. This is clearly different than what she's ever seen before. What is his appearance? It's an old man. wrapped in a robe. He knew it was Saul. So he bows his face down to the ground. Samuel comes up from the grave. We see here that the Old Testament saints, we are bodies, we are souls. When we die, the soul separates from the body. The body's in the ground. At some level, that soul was resting, we know. Because Samuel says, why did you disturb me and bring me up? We also know from Matthew 27, When Christ rose from the dead, all the spirits of the saints were risen with him. There's an intermediate state for the soul, and then we're made whole again with a body, those Old Testament saints in Christ when he completed his work. Samuel, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? Saul says, I'm in great distress. The Philistines are coming. And God has turned away from me and doesn't answer me. Therefore, I summon you to tell me what I shall do. Again, Samuel is the prophet of God who's always told Saul the truth of God, and the truth has been God has rejected you, God has rejected you, God has rejected you. Verse 16. Samuel said, why then do you ask me? Since the Lord has turned from you. become your enemy. God is against you because you've never listened to Him. God is against you because you refuse to obey Him. Verse 17. The Lord has done to you as He spoke by me. I've told you this a hundred times, Saul. He's taking the kingdom from your hand. He's giving it to your neighbor, David. Why? Verse 18. God never punishes us for sin we don't commit. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek. He spared this city. He spared the king. He spared the sheep. And then Saul tries to spiritualize it. Well, I didn't spare... I spared the animals because I thought God would like a sacrifice. No, God doesn't need your super special spiritual sacrifice. God desires your obedience. God desires listening, humble, faithful, reverent obedience. Therefore, the Lord has done this thing to you today. You're alone in your capacity as a king who will not listen. And then verse 19. Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the land of the Philistines, And tomorrow, you and your sons shall be with me. You're gonna die. Your life, your royalty, your lineage is going to come to an end tomorrow. because you have not obeyed. This is not Saul losing his salvation. This is Saul refusing to be who God wanted him to be, and that is a king who listened and obeyed and did the will of the Lord. The following action here, verse 20 to 25, Saul doesn't eat. He's afraid. He finally gets nourishment from the medium, who slaughters a calf for him. As we think of this, I want to go back as to what we're doing here, and that we see two different ways to live. There's David, a man after God's own heart, who listens to God. who responds to God's commandments with obedience, who goes into battle that seems difficult with a courageous faith, who, when confronted in sin, responds with repentance and remorse and contentment for that sin, who's wise. He fears the Lord. David is wise. He has a reverence for God that leads him to recognize God has boundaries that he wants to stay in. Remember, he's the psalmist. He's a model of prayer. And he teaches us to pray, delighting in the law of the Lord. How wonderful are the righteous restrictions of God. Saul is a man, not after God's own heart, but a man with a hard heart. He seeks God on his own terms. He wants to prescribe to God what God should do. He wants to go to God in his own way, and he's willing to go around God's actual commandments. He will not obey or recognize true restrictions. He is a fool. He lacks reverence for the name of the Lord. David's reverence leads to life. Saul's foolishness leads to death. There are two ways to live. and only two. Having a fear of the Lord, that is the beginning of wisdom, or committing to our own foolishness that leads to loss and destruction. As we just think about this, I want to remind us that God is good. Romans 7, as we actually looked at on Wednesday at our sanctification study, Paul concludes, the law, God's words to us, is holy. The commandment is holy, righteous, and good. When God says things are out of bounds, that's good. It's good to know what we can't do so that we can flourish and focus on the things that we're supposed to do. It seems like we're oftentimes just too busy trying to figure out how far we can push against maybe those boundaries. How far can I go? How far can I feel like I'm in control of the sin that God said no, but maybe I'm gonna straddle the fence, and it'll feel good, and I can have that satisfaction, and yet still try to pretend I'm worshiping God? No, the goal of the boundaries is to keep us focused and worship. Some simple commands. Don't make images. Don't worship other gods. And that's still helpful for us because we're created by God for worship and to worship Him. We're natural born worshipers. We're going to be worshiping something. If we're not worshiping God, we've got to think, what is the idol? What is the thing that I am worshiping? Do not swear falsely to tell the truth. We're supposed to be people of the truth who tell the truth. Children, there's a wonderful command for you specifically. Wake up the children, let them focus here. Honor your parents. Honor your father and your mother. Obey your parents for this is good for you. There's boundaries. You don't argue against what the people who have authority tell you. You listen, and you may make wise appeals, but you seek to obey. Christian, we need to be clear that we're not using the Spirit sometimes as an excuse to just express our own freedom. To worship in Spirit and truth as Jesus prescribes in John 4, It means we're looking at God's Word and we're saying these things are out of bounds and these things are in bounds. Let's strive towards working toward those things that are in bounds. Yes, the Spirit sets you free from having to live in sin. The Spirit sets you free to see what God's good word says and say, I want to do that! A reverence for the Lord. Let's just see how those walls and the boundaries allow us to actually flourish in the good things God has for us. It means we look up to Him as the one who gives good speech, good words, good goals. He's the one we're living our life out in front of, the Quorum Deo. We're living before the face of God. He's also the referee. He sets boundaries. A lack of reverence for restrictions from God is a lack of reverence for God. The beauty of the gospel is we can be forgiven when we confess our sins. We can be forgiven and strive towards holiness. We can know the God of love who gives us those good instructions and delight in His law. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have not left us alone. Thank You that You've spoken words so that we can know out of bounds. We thank You that You tell us the sins to put off and how to put on Christ in our words, in our conduct, in our relationships. We thank You that You've made all of life holy for us. Forgive us for how we push against You. Forgive us how frustrating We are towards one another and to Your boundaries. Lord, give us eyes to see how good You are, how good Your Word is. Lord, give us hearts that long to speak with You so that we're not making just constant requests for more things for our pleasure, but asking You to even change our hearts so we would desire the things that are above. Thank You that You're a God who speaks and a God who listens. Lord, I pray that we would have hearts after you to respond quickly and fully to your truth so that we can grow up into Christ and rejoice. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.