The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Delight in the Law of the Lord

Episode Date: April 24, 2022

his delight is in the law of the LORD , and on his law he meditates day and night. – Psalm 1:2 Is your life rooted in God’s word or are you trying to navigate life on your own?

Amen and amen. Happy to the church. Doing all right? You look great, sound extra good. Hey, if you got your Bibles, guess where we're going to be? Psalms. If you hadn't picked up on that yet, you'll fit right in. Don't worry about it.

Go to Psalms chapter one. That's where we're going to be for the next 22 weeks. We're going to be studying the book of Psalms. And happy week after Easter. So glad that you're here from many of you. Welcome back. I know for some of you, look, two weeks in a row. Look at you.

You're going to be all like godly, watch yourself. And I really do. I hope you are back, especially the, uh, 241 of you that surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ last weekend. Amen. Praise God. Hey, so just for a little bit of perspective, the reason that we're going to study the book of Psalms is this. This is the year of worship for 1122. So we got worship nights. We're doing a bunch of stuff about worship. And so I built the teaching series around that idea also, this idea of what it means to be a worshipper. And so the first teaching series we did was

called the upside down kingdom so that we can get the right perspective of worship. So that that we would worship the king of kings and not the kingdom of this air because we live in a world that tries to suck us into the values and the systems of this world and we want to turn that thing upside down and worship the one true king and then for the last seven weeks we really we really investigated the power behind our worship and the power that we have to worship comes from the resurrected Jesus because if the tomb is empty anything is possible and the Bible says that the same power that brought Jesus out of the grave is the very same power that we're that lives inside of the believer,

which now leads us to 22 weeks in the book of Psalms. And really what we're talking about here is the posture of worship. Now, I don't only mean physical posture, though the Psalms will talk a lot about physical posture. And just for you, Baptist, we put in the back of your Psalm journal, we did a definition or a glossary of postures of worship,

because check this out, the Bible says, that we're supposed to raise our hands in the sanctuary. Can you believe that? I know, I know, settle down, it's crazy, right? The Bible says we're supposed to sing loud, that we're supposed to play stringed instruments, and all kind of stuff like that. And so there are a whole bunch of,

there are a whole bunch of postures that we are to take, like the word hallelujah that we'll find in Psalm 148, 149, 150. That word is from two Hebrew words, Halal Yahweh. We put it together to say, hallelujah. That word Yahweh is God's name, and halal means like to lift up your hands,

to jump up and down, to turn in circles like the Bulldogs just won the national championship. That's what that means. means, okay? Sort of. So, but then there's also words that talk about worship where the Bible says that we are to come and bow down to be still and know that He is God. So it's not just talking about your physical posture, but one of the things that you'll see as we study the book of Psalms that there's also this heart posture too. That no matter what season you find yourself in, the appropriate response is worship. Because some of you, man, some of you just, you're just

getting blessed like crazy right now. You really are blessed and highly favored. And you walked into here today. You walked into his gates with Thanksgiving in your heart and into his courts with praise. Well, God bless you. I hope that's most of you. Then there's some of you that feel utterly alone. And before Jesus ever quoted it on the cross, King David writes down these words. He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You see, no matter what, the circumstance of your life, sometimes we just worship our way through it. And the book of Psalms, as they come, collection of songs, a collection of poems, and it is to be sung by God's people. In fact, that's what the word psalma means. It just means song in Hebrew. And there's actually five books that make

up the book of songs. Psalms one and two, Psalms one and two are like the introduction, the last five are like the outro. And all five books end the same. They all end this way. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. And it's more like a mixtape than a greatest hits, okay? If you're young, like a playlist, all right? Because it's got multiple authors.

King David wrote most of them. He wrote about 73 of them. There's a whole bunch that don't have an author listed. David's probably the author of most of those. But there's some that are anonymous. There's a couple of guys that are choir leaders, Cora and Asaph. And then there's some other dudes.

One dude's name's Juduthan. I don't know how he'd say his name. We call him Jed. Ethan. There's one dude named He-Man. Straight up, H-E-M-A-N. Now, I know in Hebrew is like, come on, but where I'm from, that's He-Man.

You know what I'm saying? Moses and Solomon write a couple. And then there's also different types of Psalms. They're not all the same, like different genres of categories. There's hymns of praise. There's laments of sorrow. There's songs of Thanksgiving.

There's Psalms of Confidence. There's prophetic Psalms about a coming Messiah. There's Psalms of Wisdom. There are Royal Psalms. There are Psalms of Ascent. And I think the reason we have so many, different types of psalms that address so many different types of emotions that we have is because no matter the season that you find yourself in, the appropriate response is to worship.

And the introduction to the whole book of Psalms is the first Psalm. So if you've got it, Psalm Chapter 1, and this one means a lot to me, because from the day JP was brought home from the hospital, which was over 16 years ago now, virtually every night that I have ever tucked him in, I prayed Psalm 1 over him. And so this one matters. And you'll see why, because this is what I want for his life. Now, the problem is, I memorized it in the NIV, but I teach out of the ESV. So sometimes my brain lags a little bit.

So if I mess up the words, that's why. My brain goes back to what I have to memorize, so give me a little bit of grace. Okay. Psalm 1, Chapter 1, verse 1, says this, blessed. All right, let's stop right there. So that's why it takes 22 weeks. Get over. How about this, man?

That the book of songs and psalms and hymns and prayers that God has given us to pray back to him, here's how he starts, that God wants to bless you. God wants you to be blessed. Let me ask you this. Do you believe that? I mean, do you really believe it? Do you want to be blessed? Because I'm telling you, some of you sickos don't.

You really don't. You have bought into this version of Christianity to think, The only way you can be godly is to be miserable. Well, God is not a God up there just trying to make you miserable. Now, he has no problem stripping away a whole bunch of things that you don't need in your life so that you will know that all you need is him, and that's how you're truly blessed. But he is a good dad, and he wants to bless his kids. He's a good dad, and he wants to bless his kids.

In Hebrew, that word blessed is a share. And it means to be considered fortunate. It means that you're under God's blessing. It means that you are fulfilled. It means that you are intrinsically right. And listen, man, like any decent dad, I want to bless my kids. Now, does that mean I always say yes to them? No, because is that a blessing?

No, you've met those kids. You don't like those kids. Nobody likes those kids. Does that mean you just load them up with cash and prizes? No, you've met those kids too. Not awesome. Okay? Not awesome.

So does God always say yes to what we want? No. Why? Because he loves us. And sometimes the biggest blessing he can say to your prayer request is, I love you, no. Like I was in kindergarten, Christmas was coming up, and I knew Santa Claus brought the stuff, but I had to tell my daddy about it. And so I said, Daddy, here's one I want for Christmas this year. I would like a horse and a 12-gauge shotgun. We lived in downtown Dillon. That meant we had paved roads, okay? Now, you know what my daddy? Essentially said, I love you, no. And instead, I got a red rider BB gun and a puppy, all right?

Why? Because he loves me and wants to bless me, and sometimes giving us what we want. It's not a blessing whatsoever. In the introduction to the whole book of Psalms is this, that God wants to bless you, but the blessing ultimately is that you would know God. Because your circumstances change.

And listen, by and large, circumstantially, we are very, very blessed people. But yet, the temporary things of this world are not the blessing that God necessarily is taught. about knowing him and only him is the thing that will bless you more than anything else. Blessed. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked

or stands in the way of the sinner or sits in the seat of the scoffer. All right, notice the progression here. Do you see kind of the death spiral of stupid going on there? There's walking and then they're standing and then they're sitting. sitting. And he's saying, blessed are you, and then he's going to start with a negative. That's very un-American. How are you going to bless me by telling me what not to do? Because he's a good dad and he loves his kids. And so he says, blessed are you when you do not

walk in the way of the wicked? And when you do not stand in the way of the center, and when you do not sit down in the seat of the scoffer, you see, the way Coach Lee used to say it, the Bible talks a whole bunch about who you surround yourself with. Coach Lee, my football coach, used to tell me all this all the time. He said, show me your friends, and I'll show you your future. Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future. And I'd say, coach, what are you saying? He says, you're going to be an idiot.

Why? He's like, because all you do is hanging out with idiots, all right? That wasn't as poetic, but he was pretty to point. So you've got to pay attention who you're walking with and who you're listening to, what counsel you take, and especially you've got to pay attention with who you get so comfortable with that you sit down and make yourself comfortable in the sea. of the scoffer.

You see, the Bible says this, this is Solomon, really smart God, Proverbs 1320, whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. He doesn't say

the companion of fools will become a fool. He's saying, if your buddies are all fools and you will suffer harm. He says in Ecclesiastes four, same author, two are better than one

because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. Let me ask you this. Who are you hanging with? Do you have like legitimate friends?

Do you have brothers or sisters in Christ that love you and care for you? Now let me tell you who's the worst at this. Married men. You're the worst. I'm telling you, you're the worst. You know why? Because what you settle for is buddies. And buddies are fine.

Golfing buddies are fine. Drinking buddies, that's probably terrible. But you know what I mean? Like some dudes that you just kind of casually hang out with and you do some fun stuff together, but they're not actually looking out for you. You can have some buddies like that, but that is not what this is talking about.

What every single one of us need is a band of brothers that cares more about you than what they care about what you think about them. Do you have that in your life? When is the last time somebody loved you enough to tell you something that you did not want to hear? If you can't think of that time, then either you're perfect or you ain't got friends. It's not number one, okay?

Spoiler alert. You ain't perfect. And you're definitely not perfect because you ain't got no friends. Do you have some people in your life that would love you enough that if they saw the direction of your life going over a cliff that they would stand in the window and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you don't want to go this way, man. It's going to ruin your family. It's going to ruin your career. It's going to ruin your walk with Jesus.

It's going to ruin everything about you. Why don't you come over here and let's change directions and go in another way. Do you have people like that in your life? Well, let me ask you this way. Who is legitimately praying for you? See, some of you boys, it's just your mama. But you lie to her. She don't even know what to really pray about because you ain't telling her to truth.

Who do you have in your life that loves you more than they love the friendship? That's the kind of band of brothers that we need. And you say, well, pastor, where could I find such men? I'm glad you ask. join a disciple group. Join a disciple group. And I know every time I say that some dudes like, well, I went to one and it didn't work for me. All right, listen, you've gone to a restaurant before that you didn't like, right?

But you didn't give up on eating, obviously. Just try a few out until you find your flavor, okay? But you need a band of brothers. And this is for you two women, for sure, it's for everybody. But you need a band of brothers or sisters, not just a bunch of buddies. And the reason why is because we are at war. And the enemy is trying to steal. kill, kill, and destroy you, because if he can take you off that wall, then by definition,

your whole family is helpless. I'm telling you, the Bible says that the devil, the enemy, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking one to devour. I've told you this a bunch. You've watched the animal planet. Which one does the lion get? You always get that gimpy one out on the edge. That one that's just like, I don't need y'all.

I'm going to go get my own water. Guess what's happening to that one? You flipping through channels? You get to that one on the animal? planet, he ain't going to be there long. He's going to be the star of the show for many seconds as the lion devours him. Look, bro, that's you. Isolation is a tool of the enemy. I got this. Is a tool of the enemy. And you might think, well, I don't, you know what, I don't need anybody in my life right now. Okay, that may be true right now. But good friends, it's like a retirement account.

If you wait until you need it to start trying to build it, it is too late, bro. And I will confess the church, the church historically has done a really, really bad job with those out on the fringe, the people with like kind of the goofy limp and that kind of stuff. Oftentimes, they've ostracized them. And what the church ought to do is open up a big hole and say, come get in the middle of the herd where you can be surrounded by the protection of your brothers and sisters, because this is war. Who are you hanging out with? Because there is a lion out there trying to devour you. Now, that is true, but I also think there's something else true about this first verse.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked or stands in the way of the center or sits in the seat of the scoffer. Do you see that the direction in his life changes? And this is very important. It is your direction, not your intention, that determines your destination. It don't matter what you believe,

that is just true. And church is full of some people with good intention, especially about right now in the service. You're like, oh, I'm about to go home and change everything. Okay, cool, all right. But let me tell you what happens. I don't care how much you pray about it.

If you don't head in the right direction, you will not go to the place that you want to end up in. That's just how it works, man. Like, if you plan a trip to Miami, but when you get to 95, you go north, guess where you ain't going? Miami. And you'd be like, no, pastor, but I prayed about it.

Okay, cool. Pray all you want. 95 North ain't taking you to Miami. Look, my disciple group prayed about it. Okay, they can pray about it. I have a peace in my heart. Look, darling, you can have all the peace you want to. I'm just telling you that's not where that road goes.

And there's God's way of doing things, and there's this world's way of doing things, and they do not head in the same direction. And your life is heading in a direction. It just is. And if we walk in the way of the wicked, and if we seek the counsel of the center, then we get to the place where we get so comfortable

with the systems and values of this world that we just sit down in the seat of the scoffer or the macher. What that means is the people that say, I can't believe you would believe that book. Hey, it leads somewhere. It doesn't lead where you want to go. See, everybody's into it right now

as long as we keep it philosophical and theological. But what if we go real practical? You see, there's the world's way and there's God's way. So let's talk about something just easy. Sex, okay? A little light topic for Sunday morning. Want to do that?

Cool. Yeah, man. You said the world's way is, hey man, it's you. It's your body. You do what you want with who you want, when you want. It's just physical. It's not that big a deal. And that leads somewhere.

It leads to death and destruction. Or if you're dating and you say, our goal, look, we love Jesus, but our goal, my goal as a Christian man or a Christian woman is one day I want this deep, abiding, Christ-centered relationship with a husband or a wife. but you do dating the world's way, which is hook up, shack up, break up, repeat,

hook up, shack up, break up, repeat, hook up, shack up, break up, repeat. And then one day you think you find the one and everything's going to change, it ain't going to change, man. Because the direction that you've been going, your entire life is that you're acting like a boy, take, take, give me, give me. And then one day you think you can just put on a tucks and say, I do, and then all of a sudden God sprinkle some husband dust on you and you can lay down your life like Christ lays down his life for the church?

I don't think so, Scooter. You're too dumb to talk to. Okay? That's the world's way. It goes somewhere. It just doesn't go where you think it goes. No, no. God's word says, flee sexual immorality for every other sin.

A man commits outside his body, but he sends sexually sins against his own body. The sex is a gift for married people, and you treat it preciously. And that leads somewhere. Or here's another one. What about money? Let's talk about that for a minute. That'd be fun. It's going to get real quiet.

Money. You see, this world lies to us and this world says that your money talks to you and your money says, if you love me, I'll love you back. And we look at our money and the world says this. The world says, you know what, I promise I'll give you satisfaction and I'll give you security. I promise. Just trust me. And God says, no way, man.

Satisfaction and security will only be found in the Savior. That's it. That's it. And there's different ways to look at money, man. So our world teaches us, mine is mine. That's called selfish. Our world, some people think what yours is mine. That's called stealing, unless it's the government.

It's called socialism, but I don't have time for all that, okay? But God says, no, no, no, no, no. What's mine is God's. That's stewardship. You see, and what we are supposed to do, according to the scriptures, with the resources that God has given us, is that first and foremost, we understand he owns it all, we are only stewarding it

as long as we have life. Everything we have is a blood-bought grace give from him, and we are to bring our first fruits faith offering, our first and our best to him, and trust him and stewarded all for his glory. And if you're like, well, where do I start? The bottom baseline level for just barely kindergarten, Jesus following would be, you start with 10%. See how quiet it is?

And then the moment somebody hears that, but like, whoa, Pastor, I don't think you understand. There's this thing called inflation right now. Oh, yeah, that's right. And over here in second opinions, it says, give 10% unless there's inflation, and then you just drop it down to whatever you're comfortable with. See? God's way or your way, man. Blessed as he who does not get comfortable

with the systems and the values of this world. But he makes a shift here. Blessed as he, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. I love this. I love this. What he's going to do now, see, this thing. starts with the word blessed and it's going to end with the word perish. And you get to decide. This is a choose your own ending. Remember those books back in the day? God's going to give you

the choose your own ending. You can go your way or you can go God's way. Blessed are you when you don't walk in the way of the wicked or stand in the way of the center or sit in the sky for, but however, his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law. He meditates day and night. Oh, I wish I had time to really get into this good. Do you delight in his work? I don't know how to explain this very well. I don't feel like I do a good job of it, but I feel like I say it a lot right now. I love the Word of God.

I mean, I delight in it. You know what you delight in? You delight in someone that delights in you. This is why some of your kids hate you, because every time you say their name, it's bad. You're not like, get in here, and that's all you ever say to them. You wouldn't hang out with people that talk to you that way, right? Try delight over in them a little bit.

I'm not saying they don't deserve to be yelled at and beaten with a rod. I agree with all those things. But try delighting me. Because what you'll find, man, if you delight in this word, if you'll pour yourself in this word, what you will find is that God lavishes his love upon us, that he delights in us, that he loves us. And I don't know how to make somebody love something that I love. You ever try to do that?

I try to do it all the time. Been trying to get Gretchen to love sweet tea for 22 years. She don't like it. I don't know what's wrong with that lady, okay? Nobody's perfect. I've been trying to get you guys to love the Bulldogs for 10 years now. About half over your end. The rest of you, a bunch of idol worshippers, whatever you are, okay?

That's fine. Nobody's perfect. And what we try to do every single week when you come into this place is I just want to give, I want you to taste and see that the Lord is good. I want you to delight in God's word and not stop there. Like if the only delighting that you're doing in God's word is you hear me give you a pep talk for an hour and that's all you get, you go starve to death. This is like an appetizer in here.

and I try to go as deep as I can go, but one great meal a week is not enough. I want you to get back into this all week long and devour it. He says, meditate upon it. Only two times a day, though. Only day and night. That's it.

If it ain't day or night, do whatever dumb stuff you've been doing. But if it's day or night, meditate upon the word. That word meditate in Hebrew literally means like to murmur. To like, you ever sitting in here

and I say something real good and the person next to you is moved, and they want to sound spiritual, they don't know how to amen like Frank does. And so they go, mm, like a cow, mm, so good, just tweeting it out. Praise saying, fire, fire. That's what it is, okay?

This is like, you don't just read it to check a box, but like I read it today, but you delight in it, you pour yourself into it, and God's word always does what it's supposed to do, and God's word begins to pour into you and, like, divide stuff up in your life, and you read it, and you're just like, mm, that's so good.

I want you to delight in God's word and meditate on it day and night. Spurgeon says this. Spurgeon says, true Bible readers and Bible searchers never find it wearisome. They like at least, who know at least, and they love it most, who love it most. So as I was looking at this, by the way, this is why my sermons are so long. I know it would be more convenient for all of us if I just talk for like 25 minutes, but I can't do that, man. I can't do that because I talk for a long time about things I love.

I just do. I do. You want to talk about my family? I could talk to you all day, all right? They're awesome. JP just was in the state finals for weightlifting yesterday all day. A bunch of steroid freaks beat him, but he was doing great, you know what I'm saying? Reagan Capri just tried out for cheerleading out of nowhere, tumult her way right in.

Boom, she's into it. We're going to be cheering for the Providence. I can tell you all about it. You want to talk about turkey hunting? I got picture after picture. I'd be happy to share with you. National Championship last year. Anybody want to talk about that?

I'll talk about it with you all day long, okay? But when we get in here, here's what we're talking about right here. And it takes me a minute. You know why? Man, look, y'all got all dressed up, got in your car, came all the way here. We might as well get all the way into it, not just do a little talk. You know what I'm saying? I will tell you this, because I'm going to yell at you the whole time.

I will tell you this. The best compliment I get about you is when I bring all my famous Christian friends in here. They're like David Platt, Matt Chandler, and all the dudes. and they walk out of here every single one of them told me this. Those people love the word. I'm like, you dang right, since we teach the word every single week, okay? So way to go. So I'm going half punch you and half pat you on the back.

So just whichever one you are, get ready. All right. So who you hang out with matters like crazy. But in our current world, what if when he says, blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked or stands in the way of the center, sits in the seat of the mocker or scoffer, is not just a couple of people you're running around with,

what if it's the inputs that you allow into your life? I mean, what if the wicked in the center and the scoffer in your life is cable news and Netflix and social media? And you're allowing it to just influence the way you think. Now, in and of themselves, there's nothing wrong with it, but what if you spend the majority of your time just with a godless input into your life there's a real problem.

So what I'm daring you to do, if you really want to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ, that's why we exist, right? We're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. So if you want to deepen your walk with Jesus, what if between now and saturated

for the next 22 weeks, we tried to turn down the inputs in our life so that we could turn up our ears to hear the Word of God so that we can meditate on His Word. Day and night. So again, if it's not day, It's not night, cool, watch Netflix.

But as long as it's daytime or nighttime, that we would be meditating. How are we going to do this? Well, we've worked really hard to give you a whole bunch of accesses to God's Word to be able to do this. As we're studying the Psalms, I need every single one of you to download the app.

Just put it in 1122 and wherever you get apps and ours is going to come up. And when you bring it up, there's a little thing right here that says sermon resources. And if you click on that thing, there's all kinds of resources. sources so that you can be saturated in the Word of God from thou till saturated. If you text the word Psalms to 44, 1122, Psalms to 44, 1122, we are going to text you

every day a Psalm because sometimes, guess what? You forget, me too. We're prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. And I love this word, and I'm prone to just wander over here and do stupid stuff. So are you. I know. I've seen your Facebook, okay? And so we're going to text you every single day, and we're going to text you a Psalm,

and you can listen to it or you can read. The other thing that we've done, I was primarily thinking about when you're at the house, I know you do what I do. You're walking to house, turn on the TV for some background noise. Don't do that. Or you get in your car, first thing you do is turn on some noise, right, until you look for that turn. And if you old like me, you got to turn it down because you can't look in here at the same time. I don't know what that is all about, but that's just that works, okay?

And we've recorded the Psalms from beginning to end, all 150 of them. And what if, what if, instead of just being inundated with the way of this world, what if you just had the word of God poured over you? And here's what it sounds like. Check this up. Whom have I in heaven but you. And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail that God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

So I can listen to that all day. One, it's Gretchen, so that's kind of neat. Now, if you're not into listening to Gretchen for four hours and 43 minutes, we understand. I think we have 16 different readers. So it's kind of mixed up. So here's another one. I will extol you, my God and king, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.

That's King David. Not really. This guy named Dr. Oshar, he's from Pakistan. But that's what I feel like King David would sound like, doesn't it? It's pretty awesome, man. So what if you did that? Blessed are you, blessed are you when you turn down the noise of this world that wants to lead you to a place that you know you don't want to go.

And blessed are you when you turn up your ears and you saturate yourself in God's word? Because God's word's different, man. It's not just a history lesson. This isn't one of those like soothing apps that helps you go to sleep. That's not what this is. The God's word always does what it sets out to accomplish. The God's word directs us and convicts us and comforts us. us, that God's Word will get into places where my sermons can't, that God's word is powerful.

The Bible says that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equip for every good work. God wants to bless you in a part of his blessing is that you would delight in His Word. Because when you do, you get to know Him. This is what happens. when you do that, then he gives this illustration. Verse three, he is like a tree planted by streams of water. That's what happens when we delight ourselves in God's word. Where it says planted, it literally in Hebrew is replanted.

That God may uproot you from the systems and values that you find most valuable and replant you into his very word. And then it goes on to say that we'd be planted by streams of water. In the New Testament, Jesus says, He is living water. And as long as you keep searching for things of this world to satisfy, they never will. But once you experience that eternal water, he will eternally satisfy you. Jesus says this in John chapter 15.

By the way, I had a critic online. Did you know there's critics online? I don't know if you know that. And they said that when I preach that I'm tunnel vision, that all I talk about is the gospel. And I said, well, the tunnel I look through is called the empty tomb. So anyway, all right, that's what you do. So anytime you read the Bible, you look at it. it through the empty tomb, whether you're in the Old Testament or the New Testament. And so when you

see, like, I'm planted by streams of water, and your mind goes, whoa, whoa, but when Jesus was with the woman at the well in Samaria, he said that he was living water. That's what he's talking about. And in John chapter 15, he gives this invitation. He says, come here, come here, abide in me, and I will abide in you. That's a relational term. That means like, come here, stay close to me, and I will stay close to you. And then he says this, if you abide in me, and I will abide in you. And then he says this. If you abide in me, my word will abide in you. You want to get to know Jesus? Get to know his word. You want to hear the voice of God? I'm telling you, the better you know God's word, the better you will be able to recognize the spirit of God speaking to you. And you'll be like a tree

planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season and its leaf does not wither. And all that he does, he prospers. How would you like that? How would you like to be prosperous in everything that you do. You see, there's some real reward to planting our life on the foundation of the scriptures. One, you'll be rooted and stable, not easily swayed by your flesh or by your feelings or by the enemy or by the world, and that you'll be prosperous. What does a prosperous tree look like? Here's how you tell if a tree is prosperous, okay? If it's an apple tree, then what are you looking for? Apple, good. The first service said, Jesus? I want to, I mean, I feel like we're in church.

I want to say apple, but I'm going to, Jesus, no, okay? Apple trees that are prosperous produce apples. What about a pecan tree? And by the way, some people are like, we say pecan. Guess who doesn't say pecan? The people that plant pecan trees is pecan. Heard anybody in Georgia say pecan, no, okay? Right.

A prosperous pecan tree produces pecans. So what about you? What do you produce, image bearer of God? You produce godliness. That's what prospering looks like. It's not just cash and prizes. Those are so temporary. Why in the world would you measure the success of your life

on things that you can't keep in eternity anyway? That seems silly. That's like hanging your entire career over that monopoly game you came in second end seven years ago. It all goes back in the box, bro. Don't count on those things. They're so temporary. But when you are abiding in him and he is abiding in you,

then the Bible says that we will produce fruit. And apart from him, we can do nothing. And the fruit that is produced in you are things like love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control. And again, they are produced from the inside out. They're not manufactured from the outside end. This is why if you go get fruit from the grocery store, it's in the produce section because it is produced from the ground up. It is not manufactured or assembled from the outside. God. Like if I took an apple and just nailed it to my podium, that does not make it an apple tree. But that is what gospel-less, Christless churches teach all the time. I mean, think about it, man.

Think about how silly it is to try to manufacture the fruit of the spirit. Try to be patient. It's an oxymoron in and of itself. Why are you so frustrated? I'm just trying to be patient, but it's not coming fast enough. It'll just kill you, okay? Because that's not how it works. Jesus says, abide in my word, you'll be like a tree planted by streams of running water, you'll bear fruit in season, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control, your leaves will never wither, and everything you do will prosper. And the prospering that you will experience is the blessing of knowing him. That's it.

That's how you prosper. We're not talking about cash and prizes here. That's silly. we're talking about knowing him and walking in the way that he is marked out for us. A few weeks ago I was talking to one of my kids. And I'm always, I try to be careful about the stories I tell because they're in like high school and middle school now. And so they hear them. And I just want to be careful with that and not just put their life on blast.

And in fact, my son, apparently he found an article on intellectual property and said, if I tell a story about him, I have to give him $5. So no problem. So I'm talking to one of my kids, you only have two to choose from them, so you've got a 50-50 shot and picking out which one it is. I'm talking to one of my kids like a week ago, two weeks ago. And part of what we were talking about is this, because they were making dumb decisions. They were walking in the way of the wicked and standing in the seat of the center and sitting down with the mockers. You know what I'm saying? And so I was talking to him about making wise decision and where that leads to.

And I had a little elevated intensity in my voice. I don't know if you know this, I can get a little intense, right? So I need him to understand the seriousness of what he's talking about and what he's doing and making decisions and I look at me standing in the kitchen and I'm standing close-ish and I'm like look here dude do you or a girl whichever one and I'm like look here child do you understand I said if you would just do what I say your whole life would be better if you would just listen to your dad who loves you and who is for you your whole life will be awesome look how awesome your life is look at everything that you have in your life you have people that love you you have more stuff than you can even want ever you food, you got, I mean, come on, if you would just do what your dad says who loves you,

your life would be so much better. And the spirit of God came down in my house, Chicana glory style, you Pentecostals, and tap me on the shoulder and says, say it again. I say, I will. If you would just do what your daddy tells you who loves you, your life would be better. And he tapped me one more time and said, one more time. And I said, hey, wait a minute, if you would just do what your father who loves you says, your life would be blessed. That's Psalm 1. He loves you. He loves you.

He wants you to be blessed. And there's no greater blessing than knowing him and knowing that he is more than enough. And you can choose his way. Or you can go your own way. Verse 4. The wicked are not so. The wicked are not so. You're not like a tree planted by streams of running water.

Your leaves wither. You don't bear fruit. Nothing you do prospers. That's what he's saying. the wicked are not so but are like chaff that the wind drives away the way they would separate the chaff from the wheat back in the first century wheat is what they were trying to get to and the chaff is like this little flaky stuff on the outside of it they just take a pitch for it throw it up in the wind and when the wind's blowing hard the chaff just goes all over the place

just whenever the direction or the current of the wind that's where it goes and those that follow the way of the world are like that you're just tossed to and fro by current culture by public opinion. You graduate here and you're like, I love Jesus. You take one half of a semester in a English class, a community college. And the teacher says something. I don't know. She's smart.

Is she? You watch one podcast. I don't know if I'd trust the local church anymore. You just tossed all over the place. And the reason is because you've got no roots. You try to root yourself in this world. Oh, my gosh. Oh my, it ain't very long.

It ain't very long to the whole world hates you. It just does because everything changes. Think about the people that were most radical a few years ago. Now they're not radical enough, so you've got to cancel them because they didn't keep up with the radical train. It's a crazy world, man. And you can be crazy. You want to be crazy?

Man, be crazy. Do money the way the world says do money. Do power the way the world says do power. Do sex the way the world says do sex. Guess what's going to happen to you? You're going to be miserable. do you know how I know see every person in Hollywood since 1940 because if that was the stuff that fully and finally satisfied then we would all look to their marriages and their families as epic

examples of what we want does anybody want one of those no no when God says right so do this thing my way because the wicked or not so they were like chaff that the wind drives away their the wicked will not stand in judgment. That means like survive judgment. They will be standing there before judgment. They just won't be standing after. That's what that means. Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

So there's a congregation of righteous and there's a congregation of sinners, that's what he's saying. Verse six, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. He starts with the word blessed and he ends with the word perish. and ultimately says, it's up to you. It's up to you, which one you want to be.

If you want to be blessed, there's a way to do that. If you want to perish, there's a way to do that. God's way leads to blessing, and the world's way leads to perishing. Now, here's the thing, man. He's talking about this on two different planes, okay? Now, I say this all the time. We don't follow Jesus because he makes life better, but because he is better than life.

That is true. That is true. But the majority of the time, if you do, regardless of what you believe, if you do life God's way, he is the author of life, and he gave us a book on how we ought to live it, and when we do life his way, it does go better. Like forgiveness is better than bitterness. Not stealing is better than stealing.

Generosity is better than greed. If you only sleep with your wife, better, I'm just telling you, man. However, I don't think that's what he's talking about here. Because if you read that for the first time, and you take your Bible seriously which you should. You should read this. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. You would ask the question, who are the righteous? How do I get to be in the congregation of the righteous? And, like, how righteous do you have to be? I mean, is it like, C's equals degrees, get you a degree in righteousness? Or, like, how righteous here?

Well, I got really bad news for you. If you keep reading in the book of Psalms, and you get over to like Psalm 14, which we'll get to in a few weeks, I got some real tough news. God's word says, there is none righteous, no, not one. To which you look at it and you're like, well, uh oh, so what are you saying?

I'm screwed? Yep, that's what I'm saying. That's it, man. That on your own, there is nothing that you can do to declare yourself righteous. In fact, if you just try to be good enough to declare yourself righteous, you are by definition self-righteous.

And that puts you at the back of the line. So what do we do? I think the key here is what he says in verse 6. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Jesus is going to show up on the scene. Second person of the Trinity, God, the Son. The Bible says that the word. So this is the reveal word.

And then the living word, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. and then Jesus comes and to do for us what you and I could never do for ourselves. And he lives a perfect life. And one day, while he was teaching in John chapter 14, he said this, I am the way and the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

And Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. The key to understanding this is you've got to know what the word righteous means. Righteous does not simply mean right activity. Righteous means a right standing before God. So what am I going to do? If I am, by definition, unrighteous, then I cannot stand in the judgment and I am not a part of the congregation of the righteous.

Well, here's what you do. Paul talks about this in Romans 3. I feel like I go there every week right now, but it's maybe the most important paragraph in all of the Bible. Paul says this. Paul says, but now the righteousness of God has been man. apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

So if you ask the question, well, so how do I become righteous? That you need somebody to do for you what you and I could not do for ourselves. And so Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21, God gives this offer of this unbelievable exchange. He says this. He says, God made Him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God. For anyone who would believe, for anyone who would trust that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. Imagine you open up your bank account and your trillions of dollars in debt. Who could ever be that much in debt? But whatever, okay? And you think, well, if I work for the rest of my life, I can't pay this off, what shall I do? and God looks at that and says, all right, I'll make a deal with you.

If you surrender to my son, we'll just make a trade. I'll take all of your debt and you will take everything that he has. The reformers used to call it the great exchange. You see, the Lord knows the way of the righteous. But when he says knows, that's different than just like knows. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for no was a relational word. It was a word of intimacy. Like there's knowing and then there's knowing.

My favorite example is this. And Adam knew Eve and she bore a child. You know what I'm saying? So it was like knowing? Then there's like knowing. You know what I mean? That's what he's saying? So then my question to you is this.

Do you know him? Do you know the way of righteousness? Do you know the one that declared I am the way, the truth in the life? Do you know the one that Paul said that a righteousness has been manifested, apart from the law by faith in Jesus Christ. Do you know Jesus?

Not just know about him, but do you know him? You see, Jesus, at the end of the sermon on the mount, before he gets to this illustration about where you're building your house, whether you're building on the sinking sand or on the rock. He says this. He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven. In John chapter 6, Jesus says, the will of the father is that you would believe in him

and you would be saved. And he says, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and perform many miracles in your name. And here's how you know that this group of people did not know him. Because on the day of judgment, instead of saying we are clothed in the righteous robe of you, they say, check out our resume of religious activity. And no one will be declared righteous by works of all. and they got some pretty stinking righteous resume, do they not?

Any prophets in the house? Nope. Any exorcist? You would think if you're on the exorcism squad. You're probably going to heaven, right? Anybody work. It doesn't say a miracle, many miracles. If you've done one miracle, please let me know.

We would love to tell your story. I can't wait to hear all about it, all right? And these folks that are casting out demons and prophesying and doing many miracles, they put their faith in their own right activity. instead of the righteousness of Christ. And then Jesus says, I will tell them plainly, I never knew you,

away from me, you evil doers? Do you know Jesus? Do you know Him? Again, it starts with blessed, it ends with perish. And those are the options. And to be blessed eternally is to know Jesus.

Do you realize you could go to church your whole life and not knowing? You could be in disciple group, man. You can sing the songs with your hands up. You can sponsor a kid. that you could give all the money you have and not know him. How do I know this?

Because when the disciples gather to gather for the last supper, and Jesus says this, one of you is gonna betray me. And the Bible says that every disciple that go around and 11 times in a row, the disciples say, is it I Lord? Is it I Lord? Is it I Lord?

Curios says the word. Is it I Curios? And then it gets to Judas who would betray him and he says, is it I, rabbi? See, he didn't know him. He didn't know him. to know him is to surrender to him. Two words, blessed or perish.

It's interesting because when I hear that, I think about Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in John chapter 3, who was a religious person that was interested in asking Jesus questions, and Jesus says this, for God so loved the world that he gave, his only begotten son,

that whoever would believe in him, would trust in him, would surrender his life to him. Whoever would believe in him would not, here's our word, perish, but have everlasting life. And there is no greater blessing than eternal life. So what about you?

Which one will you choose? You want to be blessed? Well, the way to be blessed for all eternity. It's not simply cash and prizes. It's not getting just a yes to your prayer request. But the way to be blessed is to know the way, the truth, and the life, the only one that can take you to the Father.

To be blessed is to know the one that died in your place so that we could be imputed with His righteousness. The way to be blessed is to believe, to trust that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for you. And when you do, you will not perish, but you will have eternal life. I want to give you that opportunity right now.

Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? And if you were here right now, and for the very first time, you would say, that's me. That's the kind of blessing I want. Not just temporary cash and prizes, but for the very first time,

I want to admit it. I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. And I believe that somehow, when Christ died on the cross, that counted for me. And if that's you, in this moment right now, confess him as Lord. Cry out to him as Lord.

Call on the name of the Lord, and you will be saved. And if that's you, if you're crying out on the name of the Lord right now to be saved, lift your hand in the air and say, Father, here I am, save me. Praise God. God, praise God. From the front to the back, no matter what campus or whether you're on

line, if you are ready to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, lift that hand and keep it up and say, Father, Father, God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. God, I thank you that you're the kind of dad that wants to bless us. You're also the kind of dad that blesses us in discipline and you were willing to strip away anything that would take our eyes off of you. But God, we thank you for the ultimate blessing, which is Jesus, the way of righteousness. And Lord, I thank you that today many have come to know him as their Lord and Savior. And so, Lord, we celebrate with the angels on high because the lost have been found,

the blind sea, the dead have been made alive. And so, God, we rejoice. And so God, for those of us that would consider ourselves Christians that follow after Jesus, Lord, would you give us the wisdom to delight in your word, to memorize your word, to meditate upon your word day and night, and would you give us the faith and the courage to then do what our father who loves us says, knowing that in that we will be blessed. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, would you please stand to your feet as we respond. We have a lot to be excited about, and we're going to sing. We're going to lift our voices up to the one who is worth it. That's what

worship is. We're not going to build our life on the things of this world. We're going to build it on him. And we're going to bring, as an act of worship, We're going to bring our ties and our offerings, our first and our best to make much of him. And we're going to pray because he's a good dad. And he invites us, cast all your cares upon me because I care for you. So church, let's pray, let's sing, let's bring. Let's respond.