Dr. John Y

Psalm 119:9-16 (KV 9)
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.”

Happy new year! Hopefully this conference has been a meaningful opportunity to get your year off on the right start. I hope we had a chance to take an honest look at our lives and ask: How am I keeping my way?

After the devastating storm caused by Hurricane Ike, nearly all the houses on the Texas coast were wiped out. However, one house miraculously was found still standing strong in the end. As I think about you young disciples, this picture aptly illustrates my heart-felt prayer for all of you: That you may be like this house—still standing strong to the end, strong in the face of life’s stormy temptations.

To help us stand strong in Jesus, our speakers have done a marvelous job in showing us the Way. Greg Lewis invited us to remain in Jesus and bear fruit in our lives. Abe Vucekovich shared that the fruit we bear in Christ is a life that loves God with our whole being. And Dr. Sarah Won shared that only after knowing Christ’s love-life for us can we truly live a life loving our neighbor in the same way. At the end of all these passages, we find one common theme from Jesus: “…Apart from me, you can do nothing,” “Do this and you will live,” “Go and do likewise.” After hearing, what’s the next step?

Jesus explains the next step in this verse: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (Matt 7:24-25).

So there you have it. You have heard Jesus’ word. Now begins the real living. Now is the time to put what you have heard into practice. In this final message, let us meditate on some parting wisdom from Psalms on how we can keep our way on the right track. My message has two main points based on the conference theme: 1) Live the Word. 2) Love the Word. May God bless us to keep our ways pure by living and loving God’s word.

I. Live the Word (9-11)

Psalm 119 carries the distinction of being the longest chapter in the entire Bible. Poetically, it is arranged as an acronym. So every 8 verses in this chapter begin with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. At the beginning of the conference, for example, Joshua Jeon “floored” us with one example “FLRD” (Focus, Listen, Repent, Decision). This memorizing style helped young Bible students retain and internalize the Word of God. As a matter of fact, this memory technique helped me survive medical school. In the same way, the psalmist employs this memory technique because he wanted young people to master the wisdom found in God’s word. In Verse 9 the Psalmist wisely asks a critical question: “How can a young man keep his way pure?” How can young men and women keep their lives going in the right track spiritually?

In the game of Jenga, a player might start out boldly, pulling out blocks to build the tower up to ambitious heights. However, as the game progresses it becomes more difficult to play the game with the bold vigor that the player exhibited at the onset. If you do not build wisely right from the start, every successive level you build gradually gets off track little by little. It is only a matter of time until the tower of blocks coming tumbling down. I know that many of you are bold and fearless—ready to do something great with your lives. But without God’s wisdom, all of us will tend to get off track little by little, eventually to stumble and fall.

Jesus once said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mat 5:8). So we can say that a pure life is one that brings us into the presence of the holy God. So how we keep our way pure is the million-dollar question.

As the Psalmist recognizes, young men and women are prone to lose their way. They may have the noblest of aspirations or the sincerest of intentions. In fact, some of you, like myself, have been coming to YDC so many times that you notice a chronic problem. For example, last year, I chose this powerful new year key verse. I mean—God really spoke to me through this verse. But man…what was that key verse again?…I forgot.

You see, we may choose meaningful key verses or make resolute spiritual decisions that delight the ears of any Korean missionary. Yet there is the ever-present danger to be unfaithful to God; the constant temptation to stumble into impurity; the continual tendency to go astray. Perhaps some of you know exactly what I am talking about. That’s why Greg Lewis explained in his opening message, remaining in Jesus is actually a life-long struggle. In the same way, keeping your way pure is a life-long struggle.

So let’s read verse 9 together. “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.” How is purity possible? By living according to God’s word. Here the secret to a fruitful life of holiness and purity, the secret to staying spiritually on track day by day, the secret to all this is simply: Living according to God word.

One way or another, we are living. No question there. The real question is we are living according to…what? Let’s be honest. When it comes down to your daily routine, your natural instincts, your general habits, your usual thought patterns—what is your life really based on? When we live according to our own brilliant ideas, our own selfish dreams—even live according to other people’s expectations of us—we quickly get off track. Ultimately living according to our own ways leads us away from God. Only by living according to God’s word do we keep our way pure in God’s sight. Only by living according to God’s word do we experience His holy presence in our lives.

What does it look like to live according to God’s word. Let’s look at the rest of the Psalm more closely. Look at verses 10-11. “I seek you with all my heart, do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden [or treasured] your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Now notice how the Psalmist emphasizes “my heart.” The only other times in life where you find someone confessing, “I seek you with all my heart” or “I treasure your word in my heart” are when lovers write passionate, romantic love letters to each other.

Like the Psalmist, living out the Word is expressing one’s love for God. Jesus once said to his disciples: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching” (John 14:23) Abe Vucekovich shared with us how the meaning of life is love. So the Psalmist’s love for God moves him to take God’s word very seriously in his life. He will not allow sin to damage the love relationship he has with God or with others. In other words, he says to God: “God, I love you so much; I’m willing to go the extra mile not to sin against you.”

Keeping our way pure in obedience to God’s word is a beautiful expression of our love for God and for others. Recently I read a story about Billy Graham when he was a young, tall, dashingly handsome bachelor. The young Billy Graham happened to be in Paris for one of his speaking events. Afterwards, he escorted a beautiful young woman back to her home in the middle of the night. Innocently, he was just trying to be a good gentleman. This woman, however, had other plans. She pulled him into her house, immediately undressed herself and proceeded to seduce him. Without hesitation, Billy Graham clawed his way out of the house and in the middle of the night ran like a raving madman all over Paris trying to run as far away as possible from there. His decision to run a 100K marathon in the middle of the night was an expression of love for his future wife. Ultimately, it was a faithful expression of his love for God.

What an amazing act of love it would be for us to exhibit such responses to temptations like sketchy internet pop-ups or websites of unspeakable addiction. One time, I was with a Christian friend who was engaged to be married. We were watching a movie that frankly we should not have rented. Sure enough, it came to a very graphically explicit scene. To be honest, my eyes were wide open. But I looked over and my friend was putting both hands over his eyes and burying his head into the sofa. Eventually I felt guilty and reluctantly stop watching. This actually happened over and over again. Every time we watched a movie together: I gazed. He resisted.

Soon I understood the difference. Both of us struggled with lust. But I saw sin more as breaking God’s law. He saw sin as more as breaking God’s heart. I struggled out of my desire to avoid shame. He struggled out of his desire to show love. Ultimately his struggle was successful because it was rooted in his love for God and in his love for his neighbor (who in this case happened to be his future wife). Seen in this way, what keeps our way pure is not simply the fear of being shamefully exposed. Rather, what keeps our way pure is the love that seeks to please the heart of God who is our True Beloved.

Indeed, the only desire in the human heart more powerful than lust is love. C.S. Lewis once said that we do not fight lust by mustering all our willpower to suppress it. We will only get defeated every time. Rather, we fight a lesser desire by nurturing a greater desire. Lust loses its taste and power only when we find that we love something more than what this lust falsely promises. Thus, we’ve come to the first main point: living according to God’s word. This means living in a love relationship with God with all our hearts. Let us live the Word as an expression of our love for God.
II. Love the Word (12-16)

So I mention living God’s word and loving God’s word as though they were completely separate. But as Joshua Jeon mentioned, they are in reality inseparable. As we begin to live out the Word, the more we grow to love the Word. The more we love the Word, we cannot but help live it out more fully in our day-to-day lives. So far, we see how earnestly the Psalmist desired to live out the word. Now we see how this actually leads to a love for the Word. In verse 12, we see that the Psalmist suddenly bursts into a praise and prayer: “Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me your decrees.” The rest of this Psalm shows how much he is coming to love the Word of God. First, he prays that God would teach him more. We see the Psalmist is developing an insatiable appetite for God’s word.

Indeed later in verse 14, this love for God’s word grows quite fiercer. Verse 14 he says, “I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.” Until finally in verse 16 he declares with overflowing satisfaction: “I delight in your decrees. I will not neglect your word.” In the Message translation of the Bible, verse 16 is thoughtfully translated: “I relish everything you’ve told me of life, I won’t forget a word of it.” Here we get the sense how much the Psalmist is coming to treasure the Word of God. As he lives out the Word, the more he loves the Word. As he loves the Word, the more he lives it out Word in eager expectation for more of what God has in store for him.

Based on the experience of the Psalmist, let me conclude this message with two practical ways we can demonstrate our love for the Word of God. One way to love God’s word is to deeply meditate on it. Verse 15 says, “I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.” Again the Message Bible translates it this way: I ponder every morsel of wisdom from you, I attentively watch how you’ve done it. In practical terms, to meditate on the word of God is to ponder every morsel of wisdom of God until it leads to concrete life transformation. As food undigested will not nourish the body, so the word of God not properly digested through deep meditation will not feed the soul. You may have experienced stomach indigestion from time to time. But do you know what is like to have spiritual indigestion? The stick figure that Dr. Sarah Won described: big head puffed up with knowledge, wimpy body weak in action. That is why we often encourage students to write testimonies as part of their Bible study. It serves as a way to meditate the word and consider God’s ways in our life. I know this is not easy in our Facebook, Google, I-pod-saturated lives. But when we meditate God’s word, we can learn to put it into practice in our daily lives. Our life testimony sharers have demonstrated the power of doing that through the transformation of their own lives in meditating God’s word.

The second way to love the Word is to communicate its wisdom to others. Verse 13 reads: “With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.” Here the Psalmist describes how he recounts the word of God to others. Yesterday Susan Hong, Christian Norcross, Francesca Park, Becky Song and Joshua Jeon each shared their experiences here and overseas on how they are learning to recount God’s word to others.

Some scholars think Ezra the scribe wrote this Psalm. If there was anyone who enjoyed recounting God’s word to others, it was Ezra. He lived during a bleak time when God’s people were trying to get back on track with God. The Bible itself describes Ezra as one who “devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Ezra’s love and devotion to the Word could not help but spill out to others. One time Ezra led a one-week, non-stop Bible study to the people. He did this for seven days straight, recounting each law, one by one. And Ezra’s love for the word had a profound effect. It soon sparked a national movement of spiritual revival and repentance (Neh 8:1-18). When we grow to love the Word of God, naturally our devotion will bear fruit in the lives of others.

The ancient saints of God used to meditate and recount by frequently journaling all what God was teaching them at every stage of their lives. So you know what? I decided to try it out. In preparing for this message, I searched through my computer hard drive for all the new years key verses I have long since forgotten ever since I decided to live as a disciple of Jesus—almost 15 years ago. Allow me to share with you what God has taught me through this process of meditating and considering God’s ways.

Year Major Life Event New Year Key Verse Lesson Learned
1995 College Freshman
I decided to live as a young disciple of Jesus Genesis 12:2-3:“…I will bless you…
and you will be a blessing.” God’s Promise of blessing if I carried through my decision to follow Him
1996 I liked one cute woman after another John 21:15:“…Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?’‘Yes Lord,’ he said. ‘You know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my Lambs.’” God’s command to love Him more than the cute women
1998 I graduated with no job Matthew 6:33: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." Seek God first and trust Him with the rest
2000 I got rejected to every medical school I applied for. In despair, I just watched DVD movies and slept in until 12pm daily. Hebrews 6:12: “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” Stop being lazy and watching sketchy DVD movies daily. Persevere with faith and patience.
2001 I earnestly sought God’s help. Then I got accepted to medical school. Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” God is gracious to the poor in spirit.
2009 Now as physician, no time for prayer. No time for Bible study. No time period. Revelation 2:3-5: “You have persevered…Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love…Repent and do the things you did at first.” God has been faithful. I have not. Repent and go back to my first love.

In summary, let’s read verse 9 together. “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.” James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Everything I have said essentially is to illustrate this main point: Let’s not merely listen to the word. Let’s do what it says. Let’s go and live out the Word. Let’s go and learn to love the Word.

Many of you are wisely selecting your new years’ key verses. Even with this one verse you have chosen, let’s make a simple decision to put it to practice this year. Whatever you decide to do, do it as an expression of your love for God and for others.

Perhaps you’ve chosen a key verse because you needed a promise to encourage you during a difficult time or struggle you are facing. Then recount this word aloud whenever you feel tempted to give up and despair. Like Ezra, recount it over and over and over again until you have enough faith to trust in that promise at least for that day.

Perhaps you’ve chosen a key verse that addresses a persistent sin in your life. Prove your repentance. Go confess this sin to someone. Ask him or her to pray for you saying, “Hey remember Dr. Sarah Won’s message to love your neighbor. I’m your neighbor. Please pray and keep me accountable over this sinful addiction I’m struggling with?”

Perhaps you’ve chosen a key verse because right now your spiritual life is in a severe dry spell. Or maybe you realize somewhere along the line you’ve really lost your way. Based on your key verse, make a practical decision to do something to get you back on track. Maybe it’s calling that Bible teacher to resume Bible study. Maybe it’s praying each day.

Perhaps you haven’t even chosen a key verse yet. Then ask God to speak to you. Ask Him to give you the word that will help you take the next step of faith. If you have no idea what you need, then go and pray with a missionary and ask for spiritual direction on how you can grow spiritually this year.

Whatever decision you make with these key verses, devote this year to living the word and loving it enough to put it into practice. Then each of you will be like that “miracle house” standing firm in the midst of the storm. At next year’s YDC, I look forward to seeing how God transforms you during your struggles to keep your key verse. Whether you stand strong in His grace, or occasionally stumble and fall, return to His grace over and over again. In the end I am confident of this: that God who began a good work in each of you—He will be faithful to bring it to completion until the day of Christ (Php 1:6). So with this firm hope in mind, I urge you young disciples: You all know what to do. Now go out and do it. And do it with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. May God bless all of you to keep your way pure by living according to His word.