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.

 

This post is linked up at Faith and Friends Friday Link Up. Stop by and check out lots of great posts.

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This week in our Beth Moore Bible study, we are looking at approaching the alter as we study the topic of constructing the tabernacle.  We will be studying the construction of the tabernacle, the altar of sacrifice, acceptable offerings, clean hands and pure hearts, and contentment in the calling.

Constructing the Tabernacle

As we cover the topic of constructing the tabernacle, we learn that the first piece of furniture God instructed Moses to make was the Ark of the Covenant.  We learned that the tabernacle court was 100 cubits long on the North and South walls.  It was 50 cubits long on the East and West walls.  The entrance was at the eastern gate.  We briefly compared the tabernacle court with The Garden of Eden which also had an eastern entrance.

Beth teaches us that in the Hebrew translation of these scriptures, God refers to the court as a camp, a camp much like that of a military camp.  The Israelites were the army of God and God, their Commander-in-Chief.  What comes to mind at this point?  For me, the term “Spiritual Warfare.”  The children of Israel were most definitely in a position to experience spiritual warfare then.  We are certainly in a position to experience spiritual warfare in our lives today.  The flesh is our enemy.  The mind is our battlefield.  Where is the safest place to be in battle?  Close to the commander.

Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you. – Deuteronomy 23:14

If we choose to “camp” and walk with God, he will walk in our midst, deliver us, and defeat our enemies. 

The weapons of your warfare are mighty as long as you camp beside your Commander. – Beth Moore

If you would like to complete the entire Bible study, A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place, you can get your copy here.  I highly recommend you complete this study.  It is a powerful study.  I’ve never before studied the Old Testament Exodus, the wondering in the wilderness, and the significance of the tabernacle until this study.

Read all posts in this series here.

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