Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I keep Your word.Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I observe your word.Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.Before I was afflicted I went astray; But now I observe thy word.
5 sermons cite this verse
… Yes, sometimes God will let us go through hardship so He'll get our attention. The psalmist said, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept your word. So maybe something's happening in your life that's caused you to look up, as in looking up to God, and you're saying, help. Listen, that's not a bad place to be. In fact, that's a really good place to be. It's been said when you get to the end of yourself, you get to the beginning of God. Do you feel like you're at the end of yourself right now? Then why don't you pray? In fact, I would like to lead you on a prayer. Maybe you've never prayed before. You don't even know want to start praying, that's okay. Prayer is just talking to God. Let me lead you in a simple prayer. You could pray it after me, in fact. And this is a prayer where you're asking God to enter into your situation, but more significantly, you're asking Christ to enter into your life. See, that's what being a Christian is. It's having Christ living inside of you. It's a relationship, not some religious thing. So if you would like a relationship with God, if you would like God to walk with you through your times of difficulty, you could pray this prayer after me right now. Just pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus, I'm scared and I need your help. And I'm asking you to enter my …
Yes, sometimes God will let us go through hardship so He'll get our attention. The psalmist said, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept your word. So maybe something's happening in your life that's caused you to look up, as in looking up to God, and you're saying, help. Listen, that's not a bad place to be. In fact, that's a really good place to be. It's been said when you get to the end of yourself, you get to the beginning of God. Do you feel like you're at the end of yourself right now? Then why don't you pray? In fact, I would like to lead you in a prayer. Maybe you've never prayed before. You don't even know how to start praying. That's okay. Prayer is just talking to God. Let me lead you in a simple prayer. You could pray it after me, in fact. And this is a prayer where you're asking God to enter into your situation, but more significantly, you're asking Christ to enter into your life. See, that's what being a Christian is. …
… Yes, sometimes God will let us go through hardship so he'll get our attention. The psalmist said, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept your word. So maybe something's happening in your life that's caused you to look up, as in looking up to God, and you're saying, help. Listen, that's not a bad place to be. In fact, that's a really good place to be. It's been said when you get to the end of yourself, you get to the beginning of God. Do you feel like you're at the end of yourself right now? Then why don't you pray? In fact, I would like to lead you on a prayer. Maybe you've never prayed before. You don't even know how to start praying. That's okay. Prayer is just talking to God. Let me lead you on a simple prayer. You could pray it after me, in fact. And this is a prayer where you're asking God to enter into your situation, but more significantly, you're asking Christ to enter into your life. See, that's what being a Christian is. It's having Christ living inside of you. It's a relationship, not some religious thing. So if you would like a relationship with God, if you would like God to walk with you through your times of difficulty, you could pray this prayer after me right now. Just pray these words if you would. …
… It's like the psalmist said, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept your word. Think about a young man that I met a while ago, 16 years old. His name is Cannon. Cannon was living a great life, everything going beautifully. Then he found out he had stage four liver cancer. In other words, it was very likely that Cannon would die. And so we heard about what he was facing, and we asked him to come to church, and we prayed for him in the service. Here's a photograph of us praying for him at Harvest Orange County. Here's a closer shot. Well, I don't have a current photo of Cannon. I wish I did, because God heard our prayer and touched and healed this young man. And just yesterday down in Huntington Beach, they did an outreach with a bunch of young people and Cannon got up and gave us testimony. And I love what he said. He said, I was 16 years old when I found out I had stage four liver cancer and it's one of the best things that ever happened to me because it brought me to Jesus. …
… That he allows you sometimes to feel the pain of your sin even after you've been forgiven. David understood that. In Psalm 119 verse 67, David said, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep thy word. David understood that painful consequences of his forgiven sin were God's way of gently keeping David in line. Whenever David was tempted, perhaps to look at another woman or to stray into some other sin, David felt the sting of his past transgression. And that's why he said, before I was afflicted, before God sent judgment in my life, I went astray, but now I keep your word. You know, one of the greatest consequences David had to deal with the rest of his life was a disloyal son named Absalom. Absalom staged a national rebellion against his father. You can imagine how painful that is. Some of you have experienced something similar before, a disloyal child who goes to war against you. Well, literally that's what happened with Absalom. …