Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Repentance and Renewal
we're going to be really looking at this book of the bible that no matter what season of life you're in no matter if you are celebrating the goodness of god in such apparent ways that he's answered prayers or provided for your life or if you're going through a very difficult time the book of psalms is the book of the bible that just medicates the soul and we're going to look at a particular psalm this morning psalm chapter one that really uh it's so appropriately the first psalm because it really sets into motion the heart of the entire book and we're going to read it this morning and as we read it this psalm will be a little bit different in the way that we've been studying the psalms and what we're going to talk about the psalms that we've looked at leading up to this going back to december have really pointed us to who god is who is god as we wait on him he's faithful who is god as we look for him and hope to hear his voice he meets us in the still and in the quiet and in our patience last week it was full of psalm 25 remembering the goodness of god that those who wait and worship and trust in god will not be disappointed because he's faithful and he reveals himself to those who fear him and he plucks our feet out of the net and those who wait on him will not perish and so all of that is as you study the psalms and you and you spend time in his presence and worship you get a revelation of god psalm chapter one really gives us a picture of who we are in our waiting and i say all of that before we read this because i hope as it did for me as i read it studied it and as it will say meditated on it really made me consider who i am in my pursuit of god in my attendance of church in my preaching in my friendships in my family and i hope that as i preach this will give you a picture of who you are this morning who god is calling you to be as you search for him as you look for him so let's read it and then we'll talk about this concept of knowing ourselves in the pursuit of god psalm chapter 1 verse 1 the beginning of the book of psalms says blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but his delight is the law of the lord and in his law in god's law he meditates day and night he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper the ungodly are not so but are like the shaft which the wind drives away therefore the ungodly shall 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 ungodly shall perish i hope that i have encouraged you and i'll do another reminder that as we go through the psalms they are not meant to be something that you really understand and know through a sermon or through studying really the psalms are meant to be consumed by your soul and meant to really be meditated upon and meant to be something that you experience with your time alone with god and i preface that by saying there is so much in this psalm that we will not cover today and there are some themes in this psalm about the person who pursues god and the person who doesn't that we won't have time to flesh out but what we will look at is really summed up in verse 6. so i want to read it again for the lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish that is really a summation of the picture that this psalmist has painted for us today there is a way of life that pursues god and it gives you certain results blessedness or as some translations say joyful is the man pursuing god and knowing god and then there is a way of the ungodly and i want you to think of that less as sinners and tax collectors the ungodly people who don't come to church this morning the ungodly people who don't pray like we pray but the ungodly in a way that their life is in the pursuit of something other than the will of god the knowledge of god and the path that god specifically lays before them and this psalm can really be broken down into those two categories there is a way that produces life and there is a way that will perish or produces destruction and i am drawn to this psalm chapter one and these this reminder that there are really two type of people this morning with the intentions of your heart with the attention of your mind as i preach with the motivation of your heart as you sing and even the motivation of your life that brings you into church there is a person who pursues god and you will know that person by what happens to a life that pursues them and there is a person that has other pursuits of their life and what the psalmist says is when you pursue god with everything you are when you love god and you love to meditate on who god is and who he's called you to be when you delight in his law god knows that way and he blesses it he makes that life sound and joyful and content in the seasons of the ups and the downs and when you have something else as the motivation of your life that you are pursuing inevitably the path outside of the will of god for your life will end in destruction perishing broken plans and broken hearts i'm drawn to this psalm because i truly believe as we look back on this time in the history of our country the history of the american church and really the moment that we are all in our lives we are at a fork in the road as people who are waiting and wanting god and as a country who is waiting in expectation of what comes next there is an absolute fork in the road of what will define your hope your pursuits and what you put your trust in fact i did my best to not be too consumed by the latest election cycle but of course at any time there's election cycle that does represent a fork in the road doesn't it are we going to go to the left are we going to go to the right are we going to go to the new guy are we going to look to the old guy and i remember one of the slogans of one of the candidates and i actually don't even remember which one so forgive me if this offends you but one of the one of the slogans was this is a battle for the soul of our nation and i thought you know that is an interesting way to think about this probably not in the way that this campaign manager had in mind when he slapped it on a bumper sticker but isn't it true that there is a battle for the soul of the nation and the battle is not between left and right the battle is not between republican and democrat the battle is not between progressive and conservative the battle of this nation and the battle of all nations preceding us and the ones that will come before after us is this nation set apart for the will of god like a city set on a hill or is this nation concerned with earthly things that will eventually perish away that's the question we are not this is not the tension between politics this is the tension between prayer and trust in god and love of god and love of neighbor that is the battle of the soul what will happen according to the sovereignty of god only he knows but that is the true battle for the soul of our nation and there is a battle for your family in the same way there's a battle for your marriage there is a battle for your pursuits in college there is a battle for your day right now are you someone that is going to pursue god and trust that when you do that just as we looked at last week in psalm 25 anyone who waits on the lord will not be disappointed anyone who delights in god will be blessed or are you going to pursue the ungodly plans of this world and i use marriage very specifically because when i think of the forks in the road that's something that i can always think of is this moment that every one of us came to when we were courting or dating or thinking about is this the one there's always a fork in the road and i remember that fork in the road with my now wife and i thought do i want to continually go through the cycle of dating and then finding flaws and then finding a reason to break up and then finding someone new or am i going to trust that if i pursue god's plan for relationships that he will bless my life it was a fork in the road in my life i remember having the conversation with my wife are we really sure we want to do this there is a fork in the road that begins your pursuit with christ in fact really all of your life can be summed up by this decision that you make as the psalmist says day and night to either pursue god or to pursue something else so the first thing we're going to look at is the reality that this is just one of the grand schemes or themes of scripture it's defining which side of the fork you are going to pursue it says in deuteronomy chapter 11 moses the leader of the people of israel as they are as he is preparing them for what god has planned the promises of god he's preparing them to make a decision in deuteronomy chapter 11 before he makes this declaration that there is a fork in their life he says remember all of god's faithfulness remember he took you out of egypt he parted the red sea he provided for you in the desert and then he says in verse 36 or 26 i am setting before you today a blessing and a curse the blessing if you obey the commandments of the lord your god which i command you today and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of your lord but turn aside from the way that i am commanding you today to go after the other gods that you do not know that's the decision that was before them as they thought about the promised land of god i set before you a blessing if you take the land and a curse if you're too fearful to follow the will of god for his people and of course it was something that they struggled with they struggled to believe in the faithfulness of god and it cost them an entire generation of not receiving the promise until joshua and caleb take the land by the faith they put in god that he blessed them with the promised land and joshua comes to his own moment with the people of israel generation later moses passes off the people of israel to the leadership of joshua and in joshua chapter 24 look what he says he says in joshua chapter 24 after he reminds them of all of the goodness of god remember god took care of us with the giants of canaan and he helped us defeat all of the armies of the inhabitants of the land and all the hittites and the other ites and all the people that god removed from their paths to give them the promise and then what does he say he says now i put before you verse 14 therefore fear the lord and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness put away the gods of your father served before the river in egypt and serve the lord and if it's evil for your eyes to serve the lord choose the day whom you will serve whether the gods of your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the amorites and whose land you dwell as for me in my house i am going to serve the lord there is a generational commitment that people have to make because it's either the land of promise or it's the land of egypt or wilderness or the one that came before you that god is continually taking us through and we see it all throughout scripture jeremiah has something that almost seems like he lifted from psalm chapter one or was inspired he said there is a land that is green full of waters of life and there is a land of desert that is barren choose which land it will be calling the nation to repentance and then of course jesus the fulfillment of the leader of god's people representing the fulfillment of the promised land not a kingdom of this earth but the kingdom of eternity and he says in matthew chapter 7 enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many for their gait is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few jesus coming again and saying there is a way that god has planned and it is so unique and is so narrow it is fulfilled in this simple fact that he is the way and he is the truth and he is the life and there is no god there is no false idol there is no religion there is no culture there is no political party there is nothing in this world in all of the wide pursuits there is nothing that will get you through the narrow gate that has to be entered in by the name of jesus this is the tension of our world right now do we believe that do we believe in the in the in the in the plethora of things that we're all considering in the tension of our country and the tension of our families and the tension of our hearts is the way of god what we choose today and so we come to psalm chapter 1 so that we can look under the promises of god from an ancient text that is just as true today as when it was written that when we choose the narrow way the way of christ and his law the way that he has set aside for his people to represent a different way than this world we will be blessed we will be blessed it says blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly in your christian life in your pursuit of jesus maybe you're not a christian or maybe you're not a follower of jesus but it really can be summed up in what you don't do and what you do the blessings of the of the person pursuing god says it begins blessed is the man who doesn't do some certain things who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful so we start as an overview of this because i said there are some themes in psalm chapter one that can be entire sermons they can be entire hours of meditation with the lord but one of them is you can't help but see the things that we reject from the blessedness of following jesus the things that we don't do or don't commit to there is almost a cycle or stages of choosing a path apart from god in and look at the progression that it comes with walks not nor stands not nor sits not and there's the progression you go from walking to sit to sitting to standing just hanging out and the concept is when you really are pursuing god when you live that joyful and blessed life of someone who has the knowledge and the goodness of god in your life you are not receiving the influence of the world the influence of ungodly people you don't start in a pursuit of just kind of hanging out and walking with them and you don't then take counsel from them and make it part of what you do as you as you set up the life that you're living and you don't just start hanging out and standing with them it's a progression that slowly goes into a more committed life apart from god there are all sorts of ways that we see how a life that is in pursuit of god can get turned so quickly and it usually starts with the observation or just the flirtation of something that is not part of god's will for your life and i'm grateful we have the college kids with us this morning because as i see this maybe the best way we can see this in our culture is and i love that you guys are the salt of the boise state campus but how often parents have we seen this process play out where we get the freshman year of college the wave of the ungodly council coming out of academia and then all of a sudden you're the freshman that you sent off by now she's or he is a sophomore coming home and it's like actually not only do i do i listen to all this stuff i actually kind of buy into it i kind of like the stuff that the world is throwing at me and now the dating advice comes from the people in your dorm and the plans for your life come from the people you've been hanging out with and by the end uh so often and we just look at the statistics of where christianity is slowly losing its attendance and it's ability to watch it grow and it's this age group it's hanging out walking and it's standing and we've got a question now for all of you because remember psalm 1 i'm asking you who you are the question that i ask myself as i read this is i'm like wow first of all am i blessed in god right now when i just live my life in my day-to-day activity with my family and my neighbors and my church hangout am i someone that just has this countenance of the joy of knowing god in all in and out of season do i just have that blessing and if i don't one question i ask is where is my influence coming from what am i consuming in my heart in my mind the counsel that i receive and the stuff that i'm doing my life that takes me from the blessed life that god has for me and puts me in a place by the end of it you're just a scorner and mocker of the things of god what kind of influence do you have in your life if you have to answer the question in your life right now in times of mourning in times of blessing in times of waiting in times of receiving in times where god is planting new things in your life in times of watering in all the seasons that we walk through from glory to glory with god if you're not feeling that blessed life then what is it in your life that is influencing you to feel scornful to feel ungodly to feel less than blessed in your life and i think again as we think about the tension of the world we live in right now i see in my own life a need for repentance and i see a need to call the church to repentance in this area who are we listening to why do we feel like we have license to not be hopeful why do we feel like we have license to not be joyful why do we have license to not be forgiving why do we have license to not be accepting of all people as people that were made in the image of god who he has plans for redemption because he desires none that would perish and yet we set up the boundaries and the circles and we walk around in the character of doom and gloom and we walk around with no joy and we think about the world we live in we think man i don't know if it's going to work out this is not the blessed life that is not a blessed church that's not a blessed believer if i asked you how are you doing can you say i am blessed by god in and out of season or do you feel that the weight of our world collapsing on you and you find yourself just constantly heavy-hearted now by no means do i not want us to realize that in hard times like this in times where there's real challenges to life blessed are those who mourn blessed are those who wait on god they won't be disappointed but there is no license for us to look to the world to find the way or the reflection of our character we glory in tribulation because it produces in us hope perseverance and character blessed are the poor in spirit they will be comforted if you mourn you're comforted so we have to ask ourselves are we people who really represent the blessed life of psalm chapter one and if we're not what can we do in all of our lives my life lord what can i do to not have the counsel of the ungodly in my ear what can i do to not be in the path of sinners just watching sin happen as if it's normal and what can i do to not be in the seat of the scornful or the mockers those that make a joke out of jesus we want to be in the world but we can't be of the world we want to be set apart as something that god has designed to be a light of the world he goes on to say but they're delight so blessed is the one that doesn't do that no influence of the outside world defining who we are we get our reflection of our image from christ and christ alone and how does that happen it says in verse two but his delight is in the law of the lord and in his law in god's law he meditates day and night a delight in the law of the lord we in other words the law representing the word of god the way that god designed us he made us with good works that we should walk in and commandments of those walkings the law of god summed up to love god with everything that we are and love our neighbor as ourself do we delight in that i wanted to read just what that law for us looks like what our heart and our reflection of god should look like are we are we people who meditate on these type of things it says first corinthians chapter 13 the law is love it says that in other areas but here it is love is patient and kind i want you to think of this in terms of what you delight in your pursuit of god delighting in patience and delighting in kindness the law does not envy it's or the love does not envy or boast it is not arrogant or rude it does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth love bears all things believes all things hopes all things and endures all things when we read that when you hear that message preached and washing over you washing of the word to cleanse your heart to renew your mind is the love that god has put into our hearts by the power of his holy spirit things that we can say that is my delight in life that is that is what brings me joy is to consider the plans that god has given me to take part in the fulfillment of his love for the world do we delight in it and if i'm going to be completely honest with you because i really want psalm 1 to not be a preacher's message but a reflection of each one of our hearts i have to say no to that all of the time do you i mean can you read first corinthians 13 and say that's just i just love it and i always love it i just love being patient i love being kind to people who are unkind to me i love it when i get to pray for those who persecute me i love the reflections of god's love that come out of me in my forgiveness instead of bitterness in my rejoicing in hope instead of sitting in my heavy-heartedness the answer is not always yes and that's why psalm chapter 1 is not meant to be something that really separates the good christians from the bad christians but it's meant to set us into motion to say this is what god wants for us and delight is not something that i want you to think of is well some people just got it like pastor tucker must always delight in the word because he's a preacher he must love it i don't always love the word i don't always wake up in the morning and say i'm just so delighted to wake up i'm like my kids are all right they got up before me and they're screaming and i'm gonna be late but i just love it lord i'm delighting in it i can't wait one of the best ways to think about anything that you delight in is to remember this is why it's important for us to remember that jesus called us to make disciples and to be disciples what always precedes delight in your life anything that you can find joy in is discipline is what turns into delight discipline in your life is how you get to enjoy anything i was watching the um i was watching a classical piano player play a kind of a concerto i guess and i just thought man could you imagine to be able to open up sheet music and just play beethoven's fifth at any moment and just enjoying that moment to me i just i actually envied for that skill and talent to be able to sit at a grand piano and look at the music the way that we read something and be able to turn it into some of the most beautiful music that's ever been penned what a delight for him to be able to enjoy that what a delight to listen to it but you realize that delight that he's enjoying comes from years and years and years of hard work and discipline of knowing that he was going to have to exchange so much of his life and the momentary fun of being young or going home from school and do whatever you want to sitting at a piano day in and day out and learning how to play so that it could become his delight and to me that's
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.