Introduction:
Living To Gain Wisdom (Psalm 1)
- Wisdom comes when we Rise above worldy influence . (Ps 1:1)
- Wisdom comes when we Rightly interact with God's Word . (Ps 1:2)
2 Timothy 3:16 - "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
- Wisdom comes when we Recognize the alternative . (Ps 1:3-4)
- Wisdom comes when we Righteously walk with God . (Ps 1:5-6)
James 1:5 - "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:07-01:37
All right, good morning It is an honor and a privilege to be up here today it's something that I never feel like I deserve the opportunity to do but What do we deserve really in the end? So I am very excited to be up here and to get into the word with you this morning When I was about four or five years old, I remember going for a walk in the neighborhood with my mom And of course, you know, being a young boy, I was excited.
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I was ready to explore the world.
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And so I'm holding her hand.
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And at some point along the way in somebody's front yard, there was a nice green, must have been luscious looking cactus plant.
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I don't know if I'd ever seen a cactus plant at this point in my life, but before my mom could even react to what I was doing, I had my hand wrapped around this cactus plant.
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And I remember it didn't hurt at first until I like rubbed my hand on my pants and then I could feel, oh yeah, there's hundreds of little needles going into my hand.
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And so I remember for a few hours after that, my mom sitting there with tweezers and just plucking out all of these needles.
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And just when you thought all of them were gone, there'd be more in there and it was a whole big mess.
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And I couldn't help but thinking coming into this that that serves as a metaphor for some of the things that we do in our lives, is it not?
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I mean, how many really dumb things do we do or have we done, even if we knew better?
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Or maybe we just did them without thinking.
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And although it might not be something as foolish as grabbing a cactus, we can do things that are unwise that cause hurt.
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And I learned that day never to touch a cactus with my bare hands again.
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But sometimes we do things that are unwise, yet it takes more than just one time doing it to learn that we shouldn't do it again.
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Or maybe that one mistake sucks us into forming a pattern or making it a habit of making those same mistakes and bad decisions.
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It can get a lot more complicated.
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But that's not how God wants us to live.
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God doesn't want us to fall into temptations, to get caught up in the many traps of sin and despair that this life can offer.
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He doesn't want us to go around touching the metaphorical cactuses in our lives so that we spend those painful hours in the aftermath to clean up the mess, and sometimes in the process hurting those who love us.
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It hurt my mom to go through that, to have to pick all those needles out of my hand because she knew how much pain I was in. God wants us to gain wisdom and to live wisely.
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But what does wisdom even mean? It can mean a variety of things. One is what I was just talking about. It's avoiding foolishness so that you and those around you aren't hurt by your foolishness. And it's also the reverse of that. It's living in such a way that you and those around you, those you love, your spouse, your children, your friends, your family, whoever you interact with, they're blessed. When you live wisely, you become a blessing because your life is blessed, because you're living how God intended you to live. Now how do I know that God wants us to be wise? How can I stand up here and say something like that? Well, it's because it's scattered all throughout His Word that He's given us to read. There are entire books, like Proverbs, that are dedicated to helping us gain wisdom. God leads His people. That's what He does. That's who He is. A good leader doesn't lead his people astray. They don't let the people under their care walk into danger without warning. They do everything they can to instruct and teach them to walk in better and more successful ways. And our God is the perfect and most powerful authority we could possibly submit ourselves to, and he's done just that for us. So we're gonna read one of those passages together today and see what God says will lead us to a life of wisdom rather than living in foolishness. So let's turn to the book of Psalms where we're going to read the very first one. So Psalm 1, and what you're going to see here is that wisdom comes when we truly know God and allow Him to shape the way we live our lives. And that's the sermon today. That's the big takeaway, if nothing else.
06:09-07:13
that wisdom comes when we truly know God and allow him to shape the way we live our lives. So let's read. "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He's that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and all that he does he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like the chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of lays out four different ways that we can live to gain godly wisdom in this life.
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And the first comes by not setting yourself up for failure.
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So on our outlines, wisdom comes when we rise above worldly influence.
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I don't know about you, but every time Christmas comes around, I always get suckered into at least half an hour, 45 minutes of the movie that's on constantly on TV.
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There's a marathon of it from Christmas Eve into Christmas, I think it is, the Christmas story. Anybody else get sucked into that? Just for a little bit. And every time I watch it, I know it's coming, but I always feel for my man Flick. Is that his name, Flick? The kid who puts his tongue on the pole? Because Flick is, I right? And his friends are around him and they don't really care about his well-being, right? They triple dog dare him into doing it. They just want to see something cool. You can't go against a triple dog dare. And they didn't care what happened to Flick's tongue. And he was subject to the influence of his friends around him. And maybe in a more serious note, you know somebody that you grew up with, who you were friends for a while, and maybe as you got older they started hanging out with a different crowd, and then years down the road they're doing things and saying things that they hadn't done before.
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And you could tell that they were most definitely influenced by the people that they had been spending time with.
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I think that scenario is what the psalm addresses in this first verse, where it says, "Blessed as the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers." And this isn't the only place in Scripture where we're warned about the people we associate ourselves with. One other one that might come to mind for you is 1st Corinthians 15 33 where we're told that bad company corrects good—corrupts, excuse me, corrupts good character, definitely not corrects, corrupts it. Who you surround yourself with matters. Who you look to for advice and try to emulate matters. Who you choose to be influenced by matters. You might not think that or think you can rise above some of the nonsense that you willingly subject yourself to, but it It makes an impact.
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I mean, the concept is really simple.
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If you are choosing to surround yourself with those who don't know God, they're going to act like someone who doesn't know God, right?
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They're going to choose sinful ways of thinking and acting.
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And you might be able to recognize sometimes when they're doing things or saying things that aren't glorifying to God, but are you always going to catch that before you start anticipate, or before those things creep into your mind as well.
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Influence can be a dangerous and powerful thing.
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And make no mistake, as human beings, we are subject to influence.
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That's why there are people literally called influencers out there on social media now that are supposed to convince you to live the way they are living, buy the things they're "Fine, do what I'm doing." What if you spend more time around those who scoff at the Lord?
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Do you know what we mean here by scoffing, by the way?
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That's that person that gives that sarcastic chuckle, like, "Oh, God, okay.
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"Yeah, whatever.
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"Yeah, you believe in God, cool.
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"Haven't seen Him around lately.
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I'm not going to let the big man upstairs tell me how to live.
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You know, Jesus, who supposedly lived thousands of years ago, yeah, OK, keep believing he was real.
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They talk about him in the Bible.
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Yeah, that book of fairy tales, sure.
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And you think some invisible God is in control.
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No, I control my own life.
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I can decide what's right and wrong.
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Are you getting your life advice from people who say those things?
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Are you under that kind of influence?
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If you spend more time with them than quiet time alone with the Lord, what do you think's gonna win out in your mind?
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And maybe more importantly, in your heart.
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In Luke chapter six, we're told that what you store up in your heart, that's what you're going to produce.
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The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
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If you're feeding your heart things that aren't of God, that's what your life is gonna produce.
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Now, I wanna make an important distinction here for what this verse in Psalms is not saying.
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And this verse is not saying that we should avoid anyone who doesn't believe in God or walk with God at all times because we can't afford to spend a single minute being around them because of their potential influence.
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No, that is ridiculous and really it's virtually impossible.
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And that's not how Jesus lived on earth either.
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I mean, he chose to surround himself with sinners, with some of the most hated in society at the time, the unclean, because he was bringing them the good news of his coming, of a kingdom that they could soon be part of because he was going to do what he was going to do at the cross, to take away the sins of those who believe in him.
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So if we don't spend time and have meaningful relationships and conversations with non-believers, and how are we ever gonna reach the lost?
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How are we to share the good news of Jesus with them?
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So this is not saying avoid them always, but the difference in verse one is pointing out the actions and the heart.
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And there's a huge difference between spending time with people to love them and ultimately bring them to Christ and walking with the wicked, standing with the sinners, sitting with the scoffers, that it's talking about here.
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choosing them over God. And I also want to point out the the progression of the verbs here. Do you catch that at all? Where we go from walking to standing to sitting. And do you notice what's happening here? This is a this is a settling down. It's more and more of an acceptance of that lifestyle. And by the you're sitting, you've settled in to that life of sin with the scoffers and the wicked, you've allowed yourself to get comfortable, and you're not planning to go anywhere anytime soon if you're sitting down, right? I mean, you guys all came in here and you sat down in these chairs because you weren't expecting to go anywhere for the next 20-25 minutes, right? Hopefully you don't get up and leave, but you know, at least you were planning to stick around for the whole thing. And that's the picture here. This is what God is warning us to avoid. I also think of when you're sitting at a beach and you're in your little beach chair and you're right by the water line. Maybe you have a book in your hand and the chair is always uncomfortably low for me because if a big wave comes then it's a big mess basically. But as you sit there and more of those waves come in off the shore and go underneath your chair, don't you kind of feel yourself sinking into the sand? And then eventually, by the time you get up half an hour later or whatever, you've got to really almost yank your chair out of that sand. Don't let it get to that point with your life of sin and what you're indulging yourself in and the what things that that you're surrounding yourself with.
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It says, "Blessed are those who avoid that." And so as we're in prayer month here at Harvest, be praying, God, show me the areas where I allow myself to be influenced against you.
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God, give me the eyes to see the people I allow myself to act like that aren't acting in ways that represent you.
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Show me where I might be standing in the ways that sinners stand and help me recognize the times and repent of them.
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because that's not how wise followers of Christ live. So it is unwise to willingly subject yourself to sinful ways and certainly unwise to adopt them.
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So what should you do then? How should you be spending your time? Well, point two in our outlines, wisdom comes when we rightly interact with God's Word. Verse two says, "But as the light is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. And this is critically important, so I want to be as clear and simple and direct as possible here, and I will start by asking you this question.
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And that is, how do you view this book? I mean, really, deep down inside, when you see the Bible, what is your honest view of it? Do you truly believe that this book is written by God himself? That yes, it was written through people, of course, many of them over history, but they were divinely inspired to write every single word in here? That each verse is God speaking through them? I mean, really think about that, because it doesn't matter what the person next to you thinks. It doesn't matter what your friends think, your family thinks. It matters what you think. I mean, what do you think that that is? The Lord tells us that the Bible was inspired by God every bit. And but for a while there'd be somebody holding up the John 3:16 sign somewhere in the camera view.
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Probably the most famous verse in the Bible because it tells us that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
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It's the gospel, really. It's wrapped up in one verse.
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But I feel like after you've heard that verse and you've applied that verse and memorized it, that there's another 3:16 that might be next for you.
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And that's 2nd Timothy 3 16 It says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness So if you believe that it's all God breathed and it's literally how God speaks to us We can hear from him always guaranteed 100% Do you treat it that way Do you really treat it that way?
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And man, as I say that out loud, I am convicted because I don't think that I have that kind of reverence all the time that I pick up my Bible.
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I don't realize the magnitude of what I'm holding in my hands, what we've been gifted with.
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And what the psalmist is saying here actually goes beyond just what I'm calling for and just reading it and treating it for what it is.
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The psalmist says the person who delights in the Lord and in the Word is blessed.
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And so I ask you this question, do you delight in the Word?
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Like do you find delight in life merely by just being able to pick up and read these words?
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And man, that's convicting for me too, because I know that I don't always do that.
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I don't always find delight in my life just because I can read the Word.
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And then not only should we delight in it, but we should also be meditating on it.
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Now what does that mean?
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You know, should we be crossing our legs and doing some pretzel-style hum kind of thing?
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Now actually it's funny, in other religions meditating is to kind of empty your mind, right?
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But here meditating is the exact opposite.
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It is filling your mind with the Word of God as much as you possibly can.
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conscious effort to do that and to understand what God is saying to you. And if you happen to be going through the Fundamentals of the Faith book by John MacArthur here at Harvest, or maybe you've read it before or you're doing it at home or whatever, he gives the definition for what that means. He says, "Meditation is prayerful reflection on Scripture with a view toward understanding and application. So meditating involves praying about what you read, hearing it, applying it, and then memorizing it. You know the point is that meditating on the word goes far beyond just reading it once and then forgetting about it two minutes later, or just getting through that last section of that chapter just to say that you read that chapter for the day, and then and checking it off your to-do list.
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Now, meditating on God's word requires some work.
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It requires some sharp focus and attention.
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And it can look like reading that same section or that verse multiple times in your head and then maybe reading it out loud so you can actually hear the words and understand them.
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It could look like marking up your Bible with underlines and notes and highlights, and I know a lot of people that do that, just to try to unpack as much as you can from what you're reading.
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And it also should involve prayer.
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It's asking God to help you view your day by the truth you just read, or maybe for an opportunity to apply what you read that day.
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Now, prayer is an important part of meditating on God's word, and it should go hand in hand.
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And so what happens when we do this and we make it a habit, that we delight, that we meditate on God's word, what happens next?
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Let's look at verse three.
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It says, "He is a tree planted by streams of water "that yields its fruit in its season "and its leaf does not wither, "and all that he does, he prospers." And we went over earlier about how we can become seated and comfortable in living in worldly ways.
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And this is saying that the one who delights in God's word and meditates on it will be like a tree planted by streams of water. A tree has deep roots to keep it right where it's planted. A healthy tree is constantly nourished to keep those roots strong. So the psalmist is clearly talking about a healthy tree by saying it bears its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. And so the picture here is that God's Word provides a never-failing and ever-flowing source of nourishment and refreshment for our souls. That when our lives are deeply embedded into His Word, He sustains us. He gives us healthy life. And that's where you want to be rooted.
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That's where the Lord wants us to be rooted. And let's not get tripped up on the phrase "everything He does prospers" either, because this is not some prosperity gospel phrase.
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This is not saying, "Hey, everything that you do will be successful.
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You're going to get all the money, cars, houses you could ever want." This is not about health and wealth.
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Now, this goes far beyond those material things.
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This is about spiritual prosperity.
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This is finding true soul satisfaction because you're living how God designed you to live.
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You're living according to the Holy Spirit who's inside of you.
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calling you to a life that glorifies and honors the Father and brings people to Christ.
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That's what real prospering is like.
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It's wise to rightly interact with God's Word.
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But what happens if we don't?
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Well, back to the outlines.
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Wisdom also comes when we recognize the alternative.
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4 says, "The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff that the wind drives away.
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Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." So the psalmist goes back to the wicked here and says, "They're gonna be like the chaff in the wind." Now what are they talking about here? What's the chaff? Well this comes from the old process of threshing and winnowing grain husks. So you'd have the grain, then you'd have the chaff, and And they would oftentimes, to separate the two, they would kind of just throw it up in the air.
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And the grain is what would have substance, and so it would fall to the ground.
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Then the chaff, the useless stuff, the weightless stuff, would just kind of float away.
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And so going back to the tree that's watered by God's Word and rooted in His righteousness and bears fruit, it isn't going anywhere.
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The useful grain would fall to the ground.
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It wasn't going anywhere.
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It had weight to it. It was useful. It had substance.
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But the chaff, the wicked, the sinful, the one opposed to God, it just lifelessly blows away.
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The chaff, it's weak, it's weightless.
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That's the alternative.
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A life without real meaning.
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A life without clear direction.
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Right? I mean, that shaft could land right here, or the wind could pick it up and blow it a mile down the road, or it could put it in a bush somewhere.
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Who knows where it would end up? It's not rooted in anything.
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So when the strong winds of change, or heartache, or tragedy, or adversity, a temptation come into them, they're just blown about. Instead of being anchored down, they blow away.
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And does that sound like any wise way to live?
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Just being a victim of the circumstances, basically, as you go through life.
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And what's even more metaphorical here is that oftentimes what would happen to the chap afterwards, if it didn't blow miles away, if they still had it, it would be burned up.
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And that's a pretty gruesome and sobering reality of what a life without accepting the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ results to in the end on Judgment Day.
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That's the alternative.
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That's what's in store for the wicked who reject God, make fun of Him, scoff at Him, want nothing to do with Him.
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So as you focus on your prayer life this month, pray for those who are on this path, who are living this life.
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Pray for opportunities to share with them the freedom, the peace, the eternal security that comes when they accept Jesus who laid down His life for them on that cross, so that their sins could be taken away and they could live far beyond this short life here on earth.
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And finally, wisdom comes into our lives when we rightly walk with God.
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Let's look at verse six.
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"For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." And I just mentioned it, the way of the wicked ultimately results in death.
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And by that I mean eternal death, or as the Bible references it elsewhere, the second death.
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But yet on the other side, the Lord knows the way of the righteous.
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He knows.
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You're not fooling Him.
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He knows who's really living for Him and who's not.
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God isn't mocked.
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He can't be hoodwinked.
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He can't be slyly deceived.
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He knows.
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Luke 16, 15 says, "And He," Jesus, "said to them, 'You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.'" Jeremiah 17 10 says, "The Lord searches the heart and tests the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds." So God knows who his children are, and that should give us great comfort.
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Because when we are walking in righteousness, when we are that tree that's planted by streams of water, we're well taken care of.
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Other interpretations of verse six say he watches over the way of the righteous.
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And if we're truly living for him, we're daily giving our lives over to him and have accepted his salvation, he's promised to never leave us or forsake us.
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He's ever present in our times of struggle and whenever we run into troubles in this life.
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Our Lord took human form in Jesus, so He knows in intimate detail about the ups and downs of life on this earth.
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He understands it.
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And He's there with us, He's watching over.
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And like the good shepherd watching over His flock, He's guiding, He's protecting, He's leading us into a life of wisdom.
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And there is awesome comfort in there, they're not. Who better to know the paths laid out before our life than a God like that?
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And so, as I close things out, I'll ask you one more question.
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If wisdom is something that God wants for us and is something that will bless us, and those in our care, those around us, those who we love will be blessed by that as well, If all of these things are true, do you ask for wisdom?
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Because God calls us to. James 1 5 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it'll be given to you." And that is, as clear as day, our Lord inviting us to ask for His wisdom, and He is not going to hold back from it.
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If you ask with a genuine heart and honestly seek Him, that's where we find wisdom.
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And that is definitely worth incorporating into your prayer life this month too, isn't it?
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And I'll close by saying that Psalm 1 shows us that when we know God, and when we truly know what He has written down for us, when we truly seek the truth and seek guidance for our lives by seeing what He says, we're going to find wisdom.
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Meditating on His Word.
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Delighting to meditate on His Word.
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That's where we find wisdom.
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know to avoid the influence of bad company, will recognize the alternatives of what life is like without Christ, and will walk in righteousness with Him.
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We're going to be those trees that are planted by the streams of water, forever satisfied, spiritually healthy, bearing the fruit that He wants us to as His people.
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comes when we truly know God and allow Him to shape the way that we live our lives.
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Let's pray.
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Father God, I thank You for Psalm 1, Lord.
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I thank You for Your Word, that You give us Your Word to learn from, God, to study for all of our days, Lord.
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It doesn't matter how many times that we've read over the same things, God, we can always find new things, Lord, that can hit us in different ways in whatever we're going through.
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And Lord, I pray in the times that we're struggling, and even in the times when things are going really well, that we would always be seeking wisdom through you, Lord.
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That we would be spending that time rightly interacting with your Word.
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We would recognize what the alternative is to a life that isn't full of your wisdom Lord Where we go into those traps where we hurt ourselves and hurt others And I pray that we would be committed to seeking that wisdom and God we'd be spending that time Praying to you as well to help us with that To reveal what you have in your will for our lives And I pray this all in Jesus's name.
Small Group Discussion
Read Psalm 1
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Is there a habit or an area of your life that might be holding you back from living to gain wisdom?
Do you humbly and genuinely ask God for wisdom? If you do or have, in what ways have you seen Him "give generously" to you (James 1:5)?
Is there a particular method of "meditation" that works for you to help you fully comprehend and absorb what God is saying to you through Scripture? Is there any method you'd like to try to implement?
Breakout
Pray for one another!