What Are You Reading? – His Covering

well hey ladies good morning and happy monday morning to you so um we're gonna go ahead and as i always do we're just gonna jump straight into it and so today we're going to be in matthew 9 that's currently the portion i tend to do a bible study reading where i'm in four different chunks of the bible and kind of work my way through them very slowly this time around it's the reading planets for a whole year but I'm going really slow and this year I'm only I think a quarter of the way through the plan and we're already in June so but I'm in Matthew 9 and Matthew 9 verse 12 really picked my or piqued my curiosity this morning and just kind of made me take some time to think and some of this has happened because of the Bible study we're in the middle of the armor of God Bible study and so if you would if you have your Bible or if you're just listening um i'm in matthew 9 so i'm just going to set the scene a little bit so um jesus has just called matthew to join his ministry he said follow me and matthew who is a tax collector has joined the lord and is with him and i'm going to pick up in verse 10 so i'm going to do matthew 9 verses 10 through 12 so it says while jesus was having dinner at matthew's house many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples when the pharisees saw this they asked his disciples why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners on hearing this jesus said it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick but go and learn what this means i desire mercy not sacrifice for i have not come to call the righteous but sinners and so this week we're actually studying the armor of God in this armor of God Bible study and we're studying the breastplate of righteousness and it really made me kind of think about how we first started talking about the truth and how the truth the righteousness sits on truth so the truth God's word is what holds it all together and then righteousness is how we understand what is righteous is through God's truth and so last week during our Bible study lesson I shared kind of an example that I thought of while um working through truth and all of that and um sort of we went through sort of a diagnostics test um checking and seeing areas where we were weak or where we were strong and it reminded me of as a swimmer I was a swimmer competitive swimmer for many many years and um swimming college college you know all those things and um sometimes I wonder how I stared at a black line for 12 years so if you ever wonder if you're bored I know how to entertain myself i could stare at a line forever but that's an aside um but this diagnostics test so there's a thing there's a tool for swimmers called a pool buoy and you place it between your legs and it allows your legs to float and you can swim your laps without kicking and what this would do not only would it build your upper body strength but it would also allow you to see your positioning of your hands and if you were fishtailing in the water or if you were rocking from side to side as you should when swimming freestyle you should be rocking from side to side and so it showed you where your core strength was and how you were doing so it was a diagnostics test and so as we were studying the truth last week we um it reminded me of that and it reminded me that that has to be strong i have to know the truth i need to know the truth well enough for that to be strong but as we move on to the breastplate of righteousness and take that on um the righteousness sits upon the truth of god and obviously we cannot pursue righteousness without god's goodness and we cannot reach the level of righteousness that we need to be because it's impossible but because of christ's sacrifice we then become righteous for those who believe in him we are clothed and robed in his righteousness so all of that to say when i was reading through matthew 9 and i got to verse 12 and just listen to this again just verse 12 jesus says it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick and in doing that diagnostics test that we did through the truth and then just even in righteousness and looking at the areas of life where um that don't match up and again i'm never going to match up you're never going to match up on our own strength it's god's righteousness but suddenly as we get to know the lord more it's our desire we want to we want we care what god thinks about what we think we care what god thinks about what we do right so we start to transform our will we start to transform maybe not our will that's probably the wrong word to use we transform ourselves we don't the holy spirit transforms us so that our we are like working out our faith as paul says that the righteousness it's an ongoing sanctification that happens but like jesus said it is not the healthy who need a doctor if we were perfect we wouldn't need jesus it is the sick and it made me also think of one of the areas that has been pointed out to me is my mouth that the holy spirit is convicting me of and just making sure that my speech is always uplifting that it is true that it is you know that it is not unwholesome that the words that come from my mouth would be wholesome and pleasing to the lord and so that's something that has really i've been convicted of this week of just making sure that my speech would be glorifying to god and it made me think of pastor's message i know this is coming out monday so it would have been what a week and a day so i record these earlier so it would have been a week and a day ago i guess and um about encouraging and being an encourager being someone who lifts up other people and um so that's where god is kind of shaping and working with me because i need jesus i am sick i am a sinner i need him to transform the words of my mouth and so many other things but right now that's my main focus is transforming my mouth and then i will just show you this this is kind of a neat thing so i know that there's you know we have those scriptures of made the words of my mouth meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight great scriptures right but we also have that that time where um you've maybe said this in conversation lord put the guard over my mouth well um today i was sitting and eating lunch and i think i've shown you this before and this is not a bragging thing by any means this is just this is my bible that's well worn and used and as you can see the leather is peeling off of this i will the cheap leather um of whatever this is made up it's made up of is peeling off but years ago i bought this and this is my little this is the real leather actual covering that i place over my bible and it just made me think about one the covering and the righteousness we are covered by god right it protects that which is weaker because this is weaker and this means i can take it with me everywhere i go but also this has started to shed over time um it started to shed and it leaves things in places and so leaves little pink pieces in places where i go and it made me wonder and asking you you know if you think about your words being something that is left behind what exactly are you leaving behind are you leaving that behind discouragement are you leaving behind empowerment and encouragement are you leaving behind uh words that um were are going to be remembered in anger or remembered in joy and so it made me wonder that but because this is of such value as you are of such value and the holy spirit dwells in us as part of the word we get to be covered covered in god's righteousness and it protects that which is inside and so um i just thought that that was a really neat little analogy and that the cover of this bible um is shedding because it's old and it is well used but it is shedding because it is a process that every time i open this bible some of it comes off and is that not the same as reading the bible um going to the doctor jesus because i am sick and a sinner in need of his help i'm shedding things off and being pruned and being shaped to be more like him and so i just want you to take some time today to think about the areas of life where god is through his holy spirit is transforming and shaping you while also remembering that he has covered you in His righteousness and that you are covered and you are of value because Christ died for you and His Holy Spirit dwells in you. So take all of that, that big package of all those different thoughts that I had today, just take all of that and be encouraged today and just remember that He covers you with His righteousness. He came because you are a sinner in need of a Savior and um just live for his glory live for his goodness and just be excited about um today and that it is a new day and um as my friend katherine always says and in the bible it says today is the day the lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it so i hope that you have a wonderful wonderful monday bye

Originally published at warren.church.