Be Passionate About Purity, Prayer, and Personal Influence

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Be Passionate About Purity, Prayer, and Persona Influence

The following are my Bible study notes based on my pastor's sermon.

Today's Bible study lesson is taken from Psalm 119:137-144  From this passage we learn to be passionate about purity, prayer, and personal influence.

Righteous are You, O Lord,
And upright are Your judgments.
You have commanded Your testimonies in righteousness
And exceeding faithfulness.
My zeal has consumed me,
Because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.
Your word is very pure,
Therefore Your servant loves it.
I am small and despised,
Yet I do not forget Your precepts.
Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
And Your law is truth.
Trouble and anguish have come upon me,
Yet Your commandments are my delight.
Your testimonies are righteous forever;
Give me understanding that I may live.

Live the right way.  Be passionate the right way.  It is never right to rebel against God’s way.  How to we know what is right?

There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. – Proverbs 16:25

We have a tendency to look at the culture around us to determine what is right.  We look at Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other things on the internet to see what others are doing – to see what is popular.  Just because these things are accepted by society doesn’t make them all right.  Some behaviors are OK.  Some aren’t.  How do we determine which way is the right way.

Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday.

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. – Psalm 37:5-8

Better is the little of the righteous
Than the abundance of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked will be broken,
But the Lord sustains the righteous.
The Lord knows the days of the blameless,
And their inheritance will be forever.

They will not be ashamed in the time of evil,
And in the days of famine they will have abundance.
But the wicked will perish;
And the enemies of the Lord will be like the glory of the pastures,
They vanish—like smoke they vanish away.
The wicked borrows and does not pay back,
But the righteous is gracious and gives.
For those blessed by Him will inherit the land,
But those cursed by Him will be cut off.

The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
And He delights in his way.
When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong,
Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.
I have been young and now I am old,
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
Or his descendants begging bread. – Psalm 37:16-25

Look back at Psalm 119, tonight’s main passage.  The word “zeal” in Psalm 119:139 means “passion.”  Serve with zeal.  Serve passionately.


Be passionate about:

1. Be passionate about purity (integrity).
2. Be passionate about  prayer.  It is through prayer that we declare our dependence on God.  When we don’t pray, we are saying that we don’t need God.
3. Be passionate about personal influence.  Leadership is influence.  Be passionate about leadership.  A God-appointed leaders are effective when they are passionate, when they are influencing others.  We serve best when we suffer most, when we are broken.  Imagine how much we influence others when we remain faithful through difficult circumstances.

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. – 1 Corinthians 11:1

Be passionate about imitating Christ.

 

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