Pastor Fredo Ramos: For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so, as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the psalms.
This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you, and so would you join us. Grace and peace. We continue in Psalm 15, praying the Psalms. David writes this in verse 1.
Who may worship in your sanctuary, lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? You see, he's asking a question of acceptance. Who does God accept today? He goes on in verse 2.
Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts, those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends, those who despise flagrant sinners and honor the faithful followers of the lord and keep their promises even when it hurts. What a phrase. Those who lend money without charging interest and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever. What a picture of what our lives can be today.
And I say that because so often as I read this psalm in my own personal life, I'll come to a table much like this with a cup of coffee and read David there in Psalm 12. And and he's essentially asking, who does God accept? Who are the kinds of people who could be in God's presence? And then he lists this, beautiful picture of an individual whose way of life is blameless. They walk with integrity.
They walk in truth. They speak the truth. Right. So there's a lifestyle picture. There's a picture of our speech.
There's a picture of love and justice for our neighbors. Right? We refuse to harm them or to speak evil of our friends. And then there's a financial part to this as well. We lend money without interest.
Right? So we don't oppose, high standards on those who are struggling, nor do we, find ourselves being bribed to to to lie about others. Right? Nor nor do we to carry out violence against people who are weaker than us because of what, of what benefit we might get from it. Right?
This is a righteous man or woman who has been changed by God's presence. So the invitation today, by way of reflection, is to think about, man, because we have, by the grace and mercy of God, access to him through Jesus, we can experience this person. Alright? The righteous one, there is one, really, and it's Jesus himself. And because he lived, died, and rose for us, we can now enter into God's presence with confidence today rather than as I would on any given morning feel like, man, I don't deserve God's presence.
I can come in because of Jesus today, and I can learn from him how to walk with, a blameless posture. I can learn from him how to speak truth. I can learn from him how to love my neighbor as I love myself. I can learn from Jesus how to be a steward with what I have for the good of other people and not just my own good. You see, Psalm 15 screams to us that access through God will ultimately come through Jesus Christ.
And that's good news for us today, that we can be in the presence of god and, as a result, live a life that serves for the good of other people. And, Jesus, we hear your invitation today as we hear you inviting us to, number 1, be in your presence, to ascend the hill, to be accepted by god because of you. We also hear your invitation to live a life that reflects the fact that we have been accepted. Holy Spirit, I ask that you would help us today in this moment to know that we do have access to your presence. That even though there might be a guilty statement or even a feeling of shame that arises in our hearts, by the grace of Jesus, we can be in the presence of God and be transformed to walk in a way that is blameless and to live, to speak, and to serve in a way that serves others.
Help us to do that today. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Grace and peace. Stay tuned for Psalm 16.