I'm excited about this series in the book of Psalms. Because Psalm 1, what I'll be preaching today, it just sets the stage for the entire book of Psalms. So if you're not familiar with Psalms, if you don't know the book of Psalms, you're like, I don't even know how I would find it. It's okay. It's gonna be on the screen for you.

But Psalm one begins with this very simple truth. There are only two ways to live and only two destinations to end up in. Did you catch that? It's only two ways to live. Only two destinations to end up in.

Now I already have my notes and I have a monitor for my notes. But I'm pretty sure these notes on the platform here are gonna distract me at some point, and I'm easily distracted, if you don't know that already. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. My old man back was bending down there and I got down, I didn't know if I could get back up. See, of all the jokes, you laugh at that one. My daughter reminds me on a regular basis that I'm old. I think she just enjoys that little poke every once… They hear your laugh. See, a couple weeks ago when I said you're a stinker, now they know why.

The simple truth, there's only two ways to live and only two destinations to end up in. And the psalmist here isn't describing necessarily what we do, but who we are becoming. Did you catch that? The psalmist isn't describing necessarily what we do, but who we are becoming. Now, this is bad grammar, but it's good theology. Instead of who we are becoming, it kind of fits to be who we should be becoming, what we're supposed to be becoming, what the Holy Spirit desires to do in you, desires to do in me. And the psalmist here is showing us what it looks like to live life shaped by the Word of God versus a life that's shaped by the world.

This isn't just the theory. It's, it's reality. See, every one of us here is either walking God's way in his word, or we're walking the world's way. There's no third option. There's, there's no in-between, there's no neutral in this scenario. You're either walking God's way or you're walking the world's way. You said, "What? I'm a child of God, I put my faith and my trust in him as my Savior." That's great, but you still might be walking the world's way.

So in light of that, I want to walk through Psalm chapter 1. The psalmist gives us four pictures of the righteous man, the man who lives God's way. And we see that in Psalm chapter number one, verse number one. The Bible says this: How blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.

The psalm begins with three things that the godly person will not do. The godly individual does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, doesn't stand in the path of sinners, doesn't sit in the seat of scoffers. Now, I want you to catch this, because it's not just a list of rules that we're reading through. This is a condition of the heart. A godly, godly heart doesn't find joy in the world's way.

Now I want to define these three things for you here, and then we're gonna dissect the verse. The counsel of the wicked, that, that's about their thinking. Standing in the path of sinners, that's about behavior. Sitting in the seat of scoffers, that's about belonging. I've seen a lot of people really dissect and get into this passage of scripture, and they try and talk about what the wicked person is doing, when the passage of scripture is actually about the godly person. What is the godly person doing? In this case, what do they not do?

The godly person, want you to see this, doesn't take the world's counsel. This counsel means principles for living. A godly person doesn't get their values based on what the world says is right. Hey, the world says follow your heart, but God says that your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. The world says, listen, you've got to find truth, and whatever is truth for you, then that's truth. And the word of God says that the Bible, God's word is what truth is. See, we get this twisted up all around. We think because we walk into church, and because we carry our Bible, because we've listened to the music coming in and we sing the songs, that somehow that brings about a particular product of life. Know what's, what's shaping you? What's shaping your values? Because you can be sitting in this room right now and have your values shaped by something other than the word of God. And if your values are shaped by something other than the word of God, you're not gonna prosper like we see the individual in Psalm chapter number one. What's shaping your values? Is it the world, or is it the word of God?

What, you see the next thing in verse number one, the godly person doesn't imitate the world's behavior. To stand in the path of sinners means to adopt their lifestyle. It's when what you think becomes what you do. When what you think becomes what you do. See, it's easy for us to say, well, you know, I want to make sure that I never do anything wrong with my hands, that I never see anything wrong with my eyes, that, that I don't go the wrong places. That I don't go the wrong places. And we're gonna get into this in one of the other Psalms that I preach out of this series. It all starts here, and it all starts here.

Hey, when what you think becomes what you do, let me ask you, what, what do you laugh at? What do you watch? Someone said the eyes are a window to the soul. What do you do when, when no one's watching you? See, a godly person doesn't let the patterns of the world set the patterns of their life. Let me say that again. A godly person doesn't let the patterns of the world set the patterns of their life.

You see the next thing in this verse, a godly person doesn't belong with the world's rebellion. To sit in the seat of the scoffer. This doesn't mean that you don't love unbelievers. Hear me, Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, but there's a difference between reaching people where they are and joining them in their rebellion. There's a difference between reaching people where they are and loving them, and joining in with what they do. Let me say it like this, there's a difference between reaching people where they are and affirming them in their rebellion.

So let me ask you, hey, who are your close friends? Who are the people that you're the closest with? Who influences your heart? Because if they're far from God, don't be surprised when your faith grows cold. Now hear me, this isn't about arrogance, I'm describing allegiance. Blessed is describing the godly person who is separated from the world.

Look at verse number two: but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. Hey, separation alone doesn't make you godly. Avoiding the world isn't enough. Staying away from a bunch of influences and keeping yourself away from other people isn't enough. That's not going to make you godly. Hear me, separation from the world is not the same as being separated to God. You can be separated from the world and not be separated to God. But when you're separated to God, you will also be simultaneously separated from the world.

And the righteous person isn't just separated, they're saturated. See, saturated with what? The word of God. The verse says his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. The godly person loves the word of God. They don't replace the world with the word of God. The Bible says his delight is there, this isn't just duty, this is his joy, his passion. This individual finds joy in God's word. It, it changes their perspective. It anchors their soul, and it feeds their hope.

So let me ask you, what, what changes your perspective? Is it the media? Is it social media? Some book that you read, some person that you work with, some conversation that you have? What anchors your soul in everything that wants to take your soul and your emotions and your feelings and turn them upside down? Hey, what is it that anchors your soul? What is it that feeds your hope? Because if it's not the word of God, we're not gonna have the result that this individual does in Psalm chapter number one.

So let me ask you, when's the last time you found joy in reading your Bible? Hey, when's the last time the word lifted your perspective above your problems? When's the last time you went to the word of God with a heavy heart, a distraught heart, and you opened the word of God and God spoke to you. He spoke to you, illuminated scripture to you, and it ministered to you. And it ministered to you. Because for many of us, we have a Bible on every device. We have multiple copies in our home. We've got it everywhere. But are we actually reading it and seeing its effect in our life?

And I'm gonna tell you why we don't. It's the next part that we see in this verse. His meditation is on the word. You see, to meditate is to chew on it. To turn it over in your mind. It has the idea of a lion that, that grabs some prey and it's holding on to it. It's got its arms wrapped around it, and it's, it knows that it's his. It's like savoring a good meal. It's taking the time to digest God's truth. Warren Wiersbe says this: meditation is to the soul what digestion is to the body.

I'm gonna tell you the reason why so many of us are weak in our life, and we walk weak in our life. It's because we consume the Word of God without digesting it. How fast can I get through this chapter? Can I listen to this audio Bible while I'm driving my way to work, and multitask? I'm gonna be honest with you, when I'm driving, nothing spiritual happens. I don't know how you people do it. You know what? I know how you people do it, you get in the left lane and you go 10 miles under the speed limit. Listen, get up early, do your devotions at home, and drive fast like the rest of us. But come on, what are we doing? God of the universe wants to communicate with you and with me, and we fit him in on our drive. "Oh, you don't understand, I've got a long commute." The God is love, and in His mercy sent his son for you and for me. We want to fit him in on a commute.

Now I'm not saying that if you listen to the Bible driving to work that you're wrong. Here's what I'm saying. If that's the only time that you spend time with God, if that's your devotional time, you're missing something. You're missing something. You're not gonna see in your life what you want to see. And so many of us, we read chapter after chapter after chapter, we listen to chapter after chapter after chapter, we do all this stuff and we consume, consume, consume, and we don't digest. We don't look at what the verse actually means. And what, what could God show you, what could God show me, if we actually slow down, turned off the noise, and let the Word of God, that is alive by the way, sink deep into your soul and into my soul?

Look what it says in verse number three. Hey, when we do all of what we just read, look: he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. And whatever he does, he prospers. Verse four says the wicked are not so, but they're like the chaff which the wind drives away.

And here's the picture. He'll be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. The righteous person is like a tree. Not a weed. Not grass that withers, but a strong rooted tree producing fruit. Why? Because the Word of God sustains them. Hey, you ought to be in church. Hear me, if you're a believer, if you're a member of Northwest, if you call this place home, you ought to be in church. You ought to tithe, you ought to serve, you ought to do those things. But those things, those things aren't gonna make you like a tree planted by the water. It's the Word of God that's gonna make you like a tree planted by the water. It's the Word of God that sustains this person. Their root goes down deep into the water. That's why they survive the droughts. That's why they can keep standing when others fall.

So let me ask you, what, what sustains you? I mean, what keeps you? Money? Success? The economy? I'm gonna tell you what keeps most of us, everything going according to our plan. Because the moment that it doesn't go according to our plan, we fall apart. The moment that it doesn't go the way that we thought, the moment that it doesn't go the way we wanted, the moment it doesn't go the way we planned, or somebody else planned, we all fall apart. What anchors you? What keeps you? What sustains you?

The Word of God prospers the righteous. And I want you to catch this, because prosperity here isn't about money, it means fulfillment and purpose. Just like the tree prospers by bearing fruit, a Christian prospers by showing Jesus Christ. Just like a tree prospers by bearing fruit, it sucks up the water, it lets out the fruit. We take in the Word of God, and we show Jesus in every circumstance, in the droughts, in the storms, in the difficulty, in the wind and the rain, in all of it. Not because we're strong, not because we've been a Christian for 30 years, but because the Word of God sustains us. And we draw from it, and in our life what is produced is people being able to see Jesus. Even in sickness and sorrow and setbacks. It's why we hold to the verse that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

It's the Word of God that spreads this individual. I want you to catch this, trees just don't drink water, they produce fruit that blesses others. Sometimes we think this, we go, well, you know, I've been memorizing the Bible so that I can just say and quote the Bible to other people. Listen, I think you ought to memorize scripture. I love it when people memorize scripture. There isn't a verse that I memorized, that I'm sorry that I memorized. But sometimes what we do is we, we pull in Bible verses and we quote them out without digesting them. Without coming alongside somebody, putting our arm around and say, hey, let me explain to you a verse that God used to minister to me, to anchor my soul, and explain the verse to them and show them where it's at, instead of just quoting Scripture. This is displaying how God, God's word has changed your life, molded your life, shaped your life, and that others would be affected by it.

And in the verse, the Bible says the wicked aren't, aren't like that. They're like the chaff blown away by the wind. Empty. Empty, empty, empty. Rootless. Temporary. And then we come to verse number five. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

And I think out of the entire psalm, verse number six is my favorite. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. The final contrast here is, the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. This, this word knows means more than just information. See, because we know that God is omniscient. The word omniscient is that he knows everything. I don't know a lot of theological words, but I know that one. He knows everything.

And sometimes we just think, well, God knows my pain, but where is he in my pain? God knows my difficulty, but where is he in my difficulty? Especially when you're anchored in the Word of God, and you're walking in truth, and you're doing everything the way that he told you to do it, and life just seems to keep hitting you and hitting you, and you feel like you're that tree and you're planted by water, and you're taking in the Word of God and it's your anchor and it's your hope and it's your joy and it's everything. But sometimes you want to know where God is in all of that.

This word means more than just knowledge. It means God watches over, provides for, attends to, and leads the way of his people. He, it means this, the way is planned. God knows where he's taking you. You might not see it, but he does. God knows what he's doing with you. He might not feel like it sometimes, but he knows where he's taking you. But the way is provided for. David says in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I don't need anything because I have the Lord. God supplies everything. And the way is protected.

And I thought, how do I illustrate this? And how do I put this in the most simple way? For us, so Seth, would you come help me? And as you're making your way up here, let me just let you know, buddy, you don't need your shoes. You can just leave your shoes there. Say, what are you doing? You'll find out. It takes you forever to take off your shoes. Listen, when it comes to teaching your kids, please teach your kids about the shoes and not him. Thank you.

See, because the reality is, is, we think we can walk on our own. We think we can just do it on our own. We, we see, we know it's all there. Sometimes we look at life and we see exactly what we need to do. But the reality is, is when you and I walk through life, we don't see clearly. We don't see things the way that they actually are, and we definitely don't see them according to God's plan. Have those on, chief. So when we walk around, we walk our way. When we walk around, we just kind of do what we want to do. Let's see how well he walks around here. Just kind of go our way. So you're wondering right now if I'm gonna let him walk off that edge. You're not there yet. You're still not there yet. Okay, not sure now you're there. Go back up. See, we walk around blind. See, what's, still not bad, cuz you know what he started doing, he started feeling his way around.

See, you and I know that we're blind, because what we do is we make our decisions by our, what, our feelings. "No, no, I feel this, it's, it's got to be the right thing. Well, my heart is telling me." Remember, your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. We start making our decisions by our feelings, because in reality, we're blind. So you didn't see that coming. But let's be fair, this isn't really life. I want you back up just a little bit here, this isn't really life. I was trying to think about life here. Thank you very much, you can keep the lid, I don't need the lid. I was trying to think of, like, how do you illustrate the last thing in the world that you want to step on when you can't see? And I was describing this, this illustration to my family, and I was like, I know exactly what I want to do. And my daughter said, what? I was like, I want to put mouse traps on the stage. Someone on our staff said no, rat traps. I'll tell you who that is later.

Then I got to think of it, like, what's something that we can all just, like, really truly understand? So when I thought about this, just thought, nobody, nobody ever, ever, ever wants to step on Legos. Because if you step on Legos in the dark, like, that will just change your life. You're never the same. You forget you're a child of God. You like, you, you know, you know that there's just, like, something not right, it's everywhere. And the reality is, is this. This is what our life is. And I'm gonna be real with you, we walk around blind through life.

You want to try and walk, buddy? Yeah, I knew you were gonna catch one of those. Maybe try a different way. No, no, no, no, let's listen, you know what I think, you know what the problem is right now? I think really you're just kind of confused. There you go, now walk. You're good, thank you, my back. Now, can I tell you something? What, you follow with me right here. Bible says this, the Lord, Lord knows the path of the righteous.

And I know sometimes in circumstances you feel like you can't see straight. You feel like you don't know how it's all gonna work out. And you keep looking for some kind of an answer, hoping for something that's just gonna kind of give you a little bit of sight. And we say this all the time, well, if I could just, if I could just see clearly. "Of God, if you would just give me the big picture to be able to see clearly, then I'll know exactly what I'm supposed to do." When the reality is, what God really wants to do, he wants to guide you. And sometimes as he guides you, it gets a little uncomfortable. Hey, there's, there's still some moments where you end up someplace, doesn't always feel great. But as he guides you, it gets easier.

Hey, the Lord knows the path of the righteous. I want to show you something for a minute. You know what you and I do? We fight this process. The Bible says he knows the path of the righteous, and while God is trying to guide our lives, we end up fighting him. Say, no, I know my own way, I can figure it out. No, you don't understand how I feel. You don't understand what I'm going through. Hey, when we're anchored in the Word of God, we understand this process better. We're anchored in the Word of God, we understand to trust in the Lord with all our heart, not to lean to our own understanding, in all our ways acknowledge him, and he's gonna direct our paths. Be not wise in our own eyes, our own feelings, our own ways. We're supposed to trust, as he walks us, as he takes us, exactly where he wants us to go.

Hang on right there. And the reality is, so often we spend time in church, we spend time in prayer, we spend time doing a bunch of stuff, but we still want to run our own lives. Are you someone separated from the world? Are you someone that's saturated with the Word of God, not just you read it and read it and read it, but you digest it, it's part of you? The book of James, it says that the Word of God which is alive is engrafted with our hearts. Are you someone that's situated by the waters, where you are anchored and your joy and your hope comes from the Word of God? Are you someone submitted to his way? Submitted to his leading. Submitted to his guiding. Submitted to his guiding. Submitted to his plan. Submitted to everything.

Maybe you've been in church your whole life. Maybe you know this whole Psalm, you've got it memorized. Telling you what we need is, we need something different in our lives than what we've been doing. It's time that the Word of God just sinks in us. We distance ourselves from the influence of the world, not just pushing away from the world, but separating to the Lord. It would be so deep in his word that we would be saturated with it. If you call this place home, if Northwest is your church, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, so much of what I just said applies directly to you, and I want you to hold on to that.

Don't get distracted with where I go next. Maybe you've walked in this door today, and you don't know me and you don't know our church. You hear and you believe in the idea of God, but you know he created everything. I'm telling you, this process isn't some actions. It starts. It starts with recognizing your need for a Savior. Realizing that you're lost and without hope, that your sin separates you from Almighty God. Your sin separates you from this entire process that I preached about today. That outside of Jesus, you're capable of none of this. That you would put your faith and your trust in him would be the first step for you. Not creating a list of things, but realizing that you're a sinner. The fact, the Bible says it, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's none of us that are righteous, that we've all together gone out of the way, that we're all unprofitable, we're all sinners. The Bible also says this, that God was rich in his mercy and sent his son to die on the cross for you and for me.

Today that can happen. There are people here in this building who would love nothing more than to open the Word of God with you and show you what it means to put your faith and your trust in Jesus, to show you what it means to be saved. The Bible says this, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. That can be you today. Hey, church, you can be freed from this process of trying to feel your way around, and be guided by a God who loves you so much that he sent his son for you.

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