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the Lord be with you and also with you
you just can't manufacture that buzz of the day before a break
welcome to worship it's a blessing to be gathered together again in God's house
we'll do one one thing that is our custom of the day before break
the groups that is going out on the mission trip we'll do a little
commissioning for them after the message right before the prayers
we're gonna save our hymn until after the message too so we'll just begin with the
invocation
and the reading and
then hear God's word
the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit
the Psalm appointed for this week is Psalm
nineteen
"the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork
day-to-day pours out speech night to night reveals knowledge
there is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard
they're measuring line goes out to all the earth
and their words to the end of the world in them he has set a tend for the son
which comes out like a bride groom leaving his chamber
and like a strong man runs its course with joy
it's rising is from the ends of the heavens
and it's circuit
to the end of them
and there is nothing hidden from its heat
the law of the Lord
is perfect
reviving the soul
the testimony of the Lord is sure
making wise the simple
the precepts of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of
the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes
the fear of the Lord
is clean
enduring forever
the just decrees of the Lord are true
and righteous all together
more to be desired are they than gold even much fine gold
sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb
moreover by them
is your servant warned
in keeping them there is great reward
who can discern his errors
declare me innocent from hidden faults
keep back your servant also
from presumptuous sins
let them not have dominion over me
then I shall be blameless
and innocent of great transgression
let the words of my mouth in the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
your sight
oh Lord my rock and
my redeemer"
this is the word of the Lord
thanks be to God
I wanna focus on just on one
half of a verse the second half of verse eight
"the commands of the Lord are radiant
giving light
to the eyes"
friends in Christ well it's almost baseball season some of you know I love baseball
especially baseball that was played a hundred years ago I don't know why it
is just is kind of quaint and intriguing to me
one of my favorite players was a truly eccentric character from the
eighteen eighties
his name was Pete Browning and he played for the louisville colonels a
team that does not exist anymore
he was an interesting guy he was a great hitter he hit three forty three
over his lifetime
the tenth highest ever in the history of baseball
but a painful here disease which made him mostly death
and to mask the pain he drank a lot
he was illiterate
he was a lousy fielder
but he was one of the great hitters of the game and he had this superstition about his
bats
that he thought every bet only had so many hits in it and so he would get rid
of his bats after
he thought that they had given up their yield of hits
and he used to name his bats
after old testament characters
like Hezekiah
and Ezekiel
so his bat Hezekiah he would refer to that
but the strangest superstition he had
was about his eyes that he thought that's what gave him such great
hitting what made him great
were his eyes
that he had such keen eyesight and that
he believed that by staring at the sun
he could recharge his eyes
and improve his eyesight
and when the teens used to travel by train
he would stick his head out the window so that the sparks in the smoke would
fly up by his eyes because he thought that helped improve
his eyesight
that's probably the cookiest thing you've ever heard
what does that have to do with God really nothing except the idea of
recharging are eyes
so that we can see better
the commands of the Lord are radiant
giving light
to the eyes
so how do you see better
well it's pretty obvious isn't it there are other places in the psalms we
look too also
"your word
is a lamp
for my feet and a light
unto my path"
God's word helps us see
in fact the whole second half of this psalm
talks about the law of God his word
is life
and gives light
so there's a couple things to remember when it says law here it's thinking of
the Torah here the whole old testament so
the wider sense of law and gospel certainly
and also
we could really
pick any of the images of those verses
did you catch them as they were read
these wonderful things about what it means to be connected
to God's word to the law how wonderful it is
how it changes our lives it says it
revives
the soul it gives joy to the heart
it gives light to the eyes it is more precious then gold even much fine gold
it is sweeter
than honey
we're just on the verge of spring break and some people have been gripping for
dear life for the last week or more
so what are you gonna do
over spring break
probably something that
will recharge you I would think
I would hope
maybe you're going to go on a mission trip maybe you're going to go home
maybe you're gonna see family and friends and maybe all those things will help to
recharge you
maybe you're just gonna enjoy being outside in this warm weather where you
don't even have to go to new orleans or florida to get warm weather
and sun
with the way things have been going these days
so maybe you just want to go
and soak up some sun
over spring break
I guess maybe in
the other sense
that's what we're called to do by this text
soak up
the son
son of God
the word
the thing that
recharges us that gives us life and hope and vitality and joy and
purpose for living
you know it's ironic isn't it that here at concordia
we gather here every day
and yet we can be so busy that we forget
what our purpose is sometimes
to glorify God
to have our faith built up
to realize our sins our inadequacy to stand before God
to be forgiven
to receive repentance and to share that word around
our campus and our world that's what we're doing but we're
so full of tests
and papers
and meetings
that we can
lose that
we can lose sight
maybe we need to improve our our eyesight a little bit
recharge our eyes
by staring at the son
so I might challenge you
wherever you're going
take your Bible
I guess if you're going to hotels thank God for the gideons there will be a Bible
there
but otherwise take your Bible
and if you haven't had much time to
build your devotional life these days
see if that's a great chance for you
to be recharged
because
the radiance of the word
that gives light
to the eyes
we need that
in a world that's so dark and full of sin
so that as we go out
we're God's people
and then as we gather back again
we'll be energized
to serve him again
so may your eyes see the light of
God's law
and bask in the glow of the gospel
in Jesus name amen
