[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas. [SPEAKER_00]: For more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry, please visit citizenschurch.com. [SPEAKER_00]: If you're visiting with us for the first time, welcome. [SPEAKER_00]: We're so happy to have you with us. [SPEAKER_00]: If you've been here a long time, welcome back. [SPEAKER_00]: My name is Mike M. I'm one of the ministers on staff here.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've got your Bibles going, grab them. [SPEAKER_00]: We'll be in the book of Psalms. [SPEAKER_00]: Today, we're going to be starting a short series for the summer, really for July. [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be taking a deep dive into the book of Psalms, but we're going to be doing it in a particular way. [SPEAKER_00]: There's several ways you can read through the Psalms. [SPEAKER_00]: You can read them as a kind of ancient literature.
[SPEAKER_00]: that teaches wisdom regarding the world and the human condition. [SPEAKER_00]: You can also read the Psalms historically, or even psychologically. [SPEAKER_00]: And what I mean by that is if you've ever read through the Psalms sometimes there's like little subtitles, it'll say, like a Psalm of David when Saul was trying to kill him. [SPEAKER_00]: Or a Psalm of David when the prophet Nathan called him out for what he had done to Beth Shiba.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you read those, you're looking for like, how does David deal with being afraid for his life? [SPEAKER_00]: How does David deal with the shame and the guilt of doing something so evil? [SPEAKER_00]: You can also read the Psalms devotionally. [SPEAKER_00]: That is, you take those same things that we just talked about in the Psalms about what they teach about the world, about the human condition, about how to deal with fear, guilt, shame, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you apply them to yourself. [SPEAKER_00]: David was going through this. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm kind of going through almost the same thing. [SPEAKER_00]: What do he do? [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I'll try that. [SPEAKER_00]: And so the songs to learn about life and about the world and about the author and about ourselves is all really good. [SPEAKER_00]: It's wonderful, legitimate ways to read the text. [SPEAKER_00]: But there is another way to read the songs.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we're going to be focusing on. [SPEAKER_00]: That is to study the songs, not to find those things, but to find Jesus. [SPEAKER_00]: If you were with us during our first Peter series, you might remember in first Peter chapter one, verses ten through twelve, Peter says something, he makes a big claim. [SPEAKER_00]: He says that through the preaching of the gospel, Christians can understand the Old Testament scriptures better than the people who wrote them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can read the, understand the prophecies better than the prophets, better than Moses and Isaiah. [SPEAKER_00]: And you can understand the Psalms better than the Psalmists, like David. [SPEAKER_00]: That's a bold claim. [SPEAKER_00]: Where did he come up with such an idea? [SPEAKER_00]: He got it from Jesus. [SPEAKER_00]: There's several places we can go to see this and establish this, but the easiest place for me is to go to the end of the Gospel of Luke.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is right after a good Friday, and then this is early in the morning on Resurrection Sunday, the disciples are scared and confused because they didn't expect Jesus to die, even though he talked about it all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: And the resurrected Jesus appears suddenly to some of the disciples and begins to ask them, what's going on? [SPEAKER_00]: Why are you so upset? [SPEAKER_00]: And they share, like, we don't know what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have no idea what's happening. [SPEAKER_00]: Why is this all happening? [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus basically says, don't you understand? [SPEAKER_00]: Don't you know the Bible? [SPEAKER_00]: Don't you know the Bible says that these things had to happen exactly in this way? [SPEAKER_00]: Later he gathers all disciples together and he begins to teach them.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, these are my words and I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. [SPEAKER_00]: And then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that in First Peter [SPEAKER_00]: ten, Peter is essentially describing the experience that he had of having this familiar Bible stories that he grew up with, these familiar Bible Psalms that he had memorized, and then having Jesus retell them to him in a completely new way that changed the way he saw them forever. [SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to be trying to look at the Psalms, but like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm going to ask you a question to just kind of file away in the back of your mind as we go through this Psalm one. [SPEAKER_00]: And that is, I want you to judge for yourself. [SPEAKER_00]: Does reading the Psalm in this way make any sort of difference at all? [SPEAKER_00]: Does it actually, is it just one of the many different ways of reading the Psalms? [SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, okay, that was an interesting perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or does it actually unlock the actual meeting of the Psalm? [SPEAKER_00]: Does it transform the Psalm in a deep way? [SPEAKER_00]: When the disciples were taught by Jesus, they said, weren't our hearts burning within us? [SPEAKER_00]: While he was talking with us on the road and explaining the scriptures to us. [SPEAKER_00]: That's my desire for us today, that that would be true of us to see if that is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what I'm going to do is I'm going to do Psalm one and I'll explain and expose it and exagit this text. [SPEAKER_00]: And then we're going to see if putting on the Jesus lens changes it in any sort of way. [SPEAKER_00]: So we've got your Bible's good and gravely and Psalm one. [SPEAKER_00]: It's only six verses so I'm going to go ahead and read them all. [SPEAKER_00]: Blessed is the man who walks out in the council of the wicked.
[SPEAKER_00]: No stands in the way of sinners, no sits in the seat of scoffers. [SPEAKER_00]: But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he demeditates day and night. [SPEAKER_00]: He's like a tree planted by streams of water that yield its fruit in its season. [SPEAKER_00]: And his leaf does not wither. [SPEAKER_00]: In all that he does, he prospers. [SPEAKER_00]: The wicked are not so, but are like chaffed at the wind drives away.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment. [SPEAKER_00]: Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. [SPEAKER_00]: For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. [SPEAKER_00]: Before we get into verse one, I just want to highlight verse six. [SPEAKER_00]: The key to understanding the Psalms, the Psalm one, and really all the Psalms is to understand verse six. [SPEAKER_00]: This is the summary of the thesis.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, there are two ways. [SPEAKER_00]: There's the way of the righteous, which is verse one, two, three, and there's the way of the wicked, four, five, six. [SPEAKER_00]: And these two ways lead to two very different destinations, one that leads to life and the other to total destruction.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's look at these two halves, the way of the righteous, and then the way of the wicked. [SPEAKER_00]: Take a look with me in verse one. [SPEAKER_00]: Blessed is the man. [SPEAKER_00]: We immediately open with blessed. [SPEAKER_00]: This word, blessed is not the usual word for blessed, which means favored. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a different word, Ashray. [SPEAKER_00]: It means happy. [SPEAKER_00]: Happy is the man, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason why it's this other word is one reason for this is that it's not just talking about like a spiritual blessing. [SPEAKER_00]: This is a joyful way of living that everybody wants. [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to be religious to recognize that. [SPEAKER_00]: If you're not religious, maybe you don't want, you know, like blessed, I don't like that churchy word, but like everybody wants me happy. [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody wants to live the good life.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a life that everyone recognizes. [SPEAKER_00]: That's the thing that everybody wants. [SPEAKER_00]: Blessed is the man. [SPEAKER_00]: Charles Spurgeon points out this is specific. [SPEAKER_00]: It's the man. [SPEAKER_00]: That's not to say it's not a woman. [SPEAKER_00]: This blessed is the man he points out. [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't say blessed is the king or blessed is the theologian or the scholar or the priest. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not about a high position.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is just a regular guy. [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of the other songs are addressed to kings or to nations or to kings speaking, but this is for regular people. [SPEAKER_00]: God's blessing is open to everyone. [SPEAKER_00]: Blessed is the man or woman. [SPEAKER_00]: And then it's going to describe this blessed condition. [SPEAKER_00]: It's going to do it in a couple of ways. [SPEAKER_00]: First, there's three negations. [SPEAKER_00]: Three things that the blessed man doesn't do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's two things that the blessed man does do, and finally there's a picture of the blessed life. [SPEAKER_00]: So first, blessed is the man. [SPEAKER_00]: You expect a description, but instead of describing what blessed man does, it describes what he doesn't do. [SPEAKER_00]: Blessed is man who walks down the council of the wicked and stands in the way of sinners and sits in the seat of scoffers. [SPEAKER_00]: There's three noes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those three knows have a progression. [SPEAKER_00]: There's actually a double progression. [SPEAKER_00]: First, it's a progression from thinking to doing to belonging. [SPEAKER_00]: That is head, then hands, and then lastly, sinking into your heart. [SPEAKER_00]: And then the second progression you can see in the action verbs, there's a walking, and then there's a stopping, and then finally there's a sitting. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll walk you through these progressions.
[SPEAKER_00]: So first, the head. [SPEAKER_00]: It says, the blessed man doesn't walk in the council, doesn't walk in the advice, doesn't take advice from the wicked. [SPEAKER_00]: This has to do with what engages our minds. [SPEAKER_00]: What do you fill your mind with? [SPEAKER_00]: What council or advice are you receiving constantly? [SPEAKER_00]: Who has your ear? [SPEAKER_00]: Is it Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Discord, cable news? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, where?
[SPEAKER_00]: Information from, that is influencing you, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone is trying to influence you to do something. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, my phone somehow knows that I'm a dad now, and so if I dare to open social media, I get all kind of weird videos. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, like five toys, you should never give your child otherwise they'll never get into college. [SPEAKER_00]: That's a thing. [SPEAKER_00]: I better watch this, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Three things you should never do before nap time unless you're a really bad dad, Mike. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, whoa, super specific, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So like, everyone's always trying to get you to do something or buy something or vote somewhere, or like, to feel a certain way, they're trying to influence you. [SPEAKER_00]: That's literally a job now, influencer.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if this has been helpful, if you could like, share, subscribe, hit that bell notification, it really helps the algorithm, leave a comment. [SPEAKER_00]: See, like, all of you left, cause you know that line. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I bet all of your YouTube pages are very different. [SPEAKER_00]: You have different, you know, different things that you look for on YouTube, but you all know that line. [SPEAKER_00]: It's the liturgy of today, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me influence you. [SPEAKER_00]: So the questions are we being more influenced by the world or by God's word? [SPEAKER_00]: And some of you are undonted by this. [SPEAKER_00]: This actually makes you say, you're like, you're like whispering to your Nick, like, this is why I don't have social media. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, and you feel really good about yourself, you know? [SPEAKER_00]: And then somebody else is like, I don't even have a phone, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: I use more code, smoke signals. [SPEAKER_00]: We'll all become omission, throw away all our technology, like, are we going to be safe then? [SPEAKER_00]: No. [SPEAKER_00]: Because there is a wicked council that comes from the outside world. [SPEAKER_00]: That's definitely true. [SPEAKER_00]: But there's another wicked council that's whiskey when you're just by yourself. [SPEAKER_00]: It comes out of your own heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm really honest with myself, if you're really honest with yourself, isn't it true? [SPEAKER_00]: No one has lied to me more than myself. [SPEAKER_00]: No one has broken more promises to me than me. [SPEAKER_00]: No one has given me more bad advice than myself, right? [SPEAKER_00]: My heart tells me, like, you don't have to apologize to you. [SPEAKER_00]: Why if she's a dumb one, you're always right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my evil heart lying to me and trying to get me to do this evil thing. [SPEAKER_00]: And you have to know, like, no, that's wicked. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to listen to you. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't walk with you. [SPEAKER_00]: How do you know how to do that to yourself? [SPEAKER_00]: There's a way of listening to the wicked counsel of the outside world that enslaves you to the world's trends and the world's fads and the world's obsessions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you just become an agent for the world. [SPEAKER_00]: But there's another way of listening to the wicked counsel that comes from inside your heart that enslaves you to your own emotions, to your own anxiety, to your own self-hatred, or your own self- magnification. [SPEAKER_00]: And you just get stuck in that spiral echo chamber as well. [SPEAKER_00]: The song says that the blessed man doesn't do either of these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: The song says the blessed man's mind is not engaged with that. [SPEAKER_00]: He does not listen to either of those kinds of counsel. [SPEAKER_00]: Next says the blessed man does not stand in the way of sinners. [SPEAKER_00]: I told you in the beginning there's two ways. [SPEAKER_00]: And what the blessed man does not do is walk in the way or stand in the way of sinners. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, we've progressed from the head or the thought to the doing the hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when you think about evil, then you want to start doing it. [SPEAKER_00]: Right? [SPEAKER_00]: If you fill your minds with wicked things, next natural things, you want to try them. [SPEAKER_00]: If you've ever watched an illicit video, the next natural impulse is, well, I kind of will try that. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, you're surrounded by people, and then they're doing something. [SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, well, I want to take a turn.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since like a marital infidelity, don't just come out of nowhere. [SPEAKER_00]: It's proceeded by thinking and imagining and wanting and craving and it incubates. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says like yeast. [SPEAKER_00]: So the blessed man, he doesn't think about these things and they don't progress into the hands, but then there's a third progression here. [SPEAKER_00]: It says the blessed man doesn't sit in the seat of scoffers.
[SPEAKER_00]: The evil has moved from the head, thinking down to the hands of doing it now, it sinks down deep into the core of your being into your heart, from thinking to doing to belonging. [SPEAKER_00]: You see, if you sin long enough, you begin to identify with your sin. [SPEAKER_00]: In the beginning, whenever you've been tempted to do something, you don't do it right away. [SPEAKER_00]: You're kind of chicken. [SPEAKER_00]: You're like, I don't know, I'm gonna get caught.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna get in trouble and you're like, kind of nervous about it, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And then maybe one day, you're like, scoop the courage to do it. [SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, OK, I'm going to, and they're like, OK, well, that one's so bad. [SPEAKER_00]: No one caught me. [SPEAKER_00]: And then the second time, the third time, the fourth time is not so hard. [SPEAKER_00]: And eventually, it's like, yeah, no big deal, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, why doesn't everybody do this? [SPEAKER_00]: The thing is that you sin long enough. [SPEAKER_00]: It comes your very identity. [SPEAKER_00]: It becomes precious to you. [SPEAKER_00]: And not only that, you'll begin to form communities around your sin. [SPEAKER_00]: You'll look for other people to sin with. [SPEAKER_00]: This is the internet is very good for this to find other people to sin with. [SPEAKER_00]: That's because we long for community.
[SPEAKER_00]: We long for belonging. [SPEAKER_00]: We will take it anywhere we can. [SPEAKER_00]: Even communities organize around wickedness. [SPEAKER_00]: This is what basically like street gangs are, the mafia, you know, we create clubs to propagate sin. [SPEAKER_00]: But it's more than that. [SPEAKER_00]: It says they are a community of scoffers, the seating and the seat of scoffers.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were here for the wisdom series a while back, you remember that there was a different kinds of fools, but the most dangerous one was a scoffer, the one who looks down or judges or laughs at those who were trying to follow the right path. [SPEAKER_00]: And there's many reasons why the scoffer's dangerous, but in here, the reason why the scoffer's so dangerous is that this scoffer is the furthest away from repentance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only do they sin, they collect other people who want to sin, and they want to keep them sinning. [SPEAKER_00]: They keep each other accountable in their sin. [SPEAKER_00]: And they look down on others. [SPEAKER_00]: who don't do it. [SPEAKER_00]: This is like a picture of the judgment seat where you judge other people and you find them lacking. [SPEAKER_00]: This is really easy for us to do that. [SPEAKER_00]: This is because this is the major pastime of America today.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sick burn, the roast, right? [SPEAKER_00]: The sarcastic quip being snarky. [SPEAKER_00]: Some of us pride ourselves on our ability to be quick-witted. [SPEAKER_00]: And the Bible says that's a very dangerous kind of thing to do. [SPEAKER_00]: And our culture celebrates it as being smart. [SPEAKER_00]: I have to, I have to guard myself as a preacher. [SPEAKER_00]: It's really easy for me when I'm hearing a sermon anywhere here online or whatever to begin to pick it apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, well, that's not exactly right. [SPEAKER_00]: I want to say that way. [SPEAKER_00]: He kind of left out this thing. [SPEAKER_00]: And if you can say that, that's right. [SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, you start doing this thing. [SPEAKER_00]: And I need to remind myself something when I come in to these doors that I'm not here to examine the sermon. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm here to be examined by the sermon.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's dangerous to come in with a scoffing attitude into the place where God is. [SPEAKER_00]: The judgment seat is a dangerous place to sit. [SPEAKER_00]: A dangerous place to play. [SPEAKER_00]: All of that was just verse one. [SPEAKER_00]: So we'll pick up the pace a little bit. [SPEAKER_00]: Verse two, so those are the three things he doesn't do, but what does he do?
[SPEAKER_00]: What does a blessed man fill his head, his heart width, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. [SPEAKER_00]: Where does he fill his head, where does he fill with heart width? [SPEAKER_00]: The answer to both of these is the law of the Lord. [SPEAKER_00]: I want to define two words that can be confusing in this verse, which is law and meditate. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So first, when you think law, you're thinking like rules, you know, so he's like, I gotta make sure I get all these rules, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Man, there's a lot of rules, six hundred and thirteen rules, okay? [SPEAKER_00]: Memorize these rules, right? [SPEAKER_00]: That's not what the law of the Lord here means.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Hebrew word here is Torah, which can sometimes mean like the first five books of the Bible, but generally in the Psalms it's referring to the whole scripture, just the word of God. [SPEAKER_00]: He meditates on the scriptures, all of the Bible, not just the rules. [SPEAKER_00]: And what does this word meditate mean? [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't [SPEAKER_00]: He does something with the word. [SPEAKER_00]: He meditates.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so as an Asian person, I feel like I feel the burden and responsibility to unpack the word meditate because it does not mean Eastern meditation. [SPEAKER_00]: Like where you're like empty your mind and focus on your breath and you know like that kind of stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: That is not what that's never what the meditation looks like in the Bible. [SPEAKER_00]: The meditation in the Bible is not emptying of the mind. [SPEAKER_00]: It's feeling of the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I'd be helpful. [SPEAKER_00]: This word meditate is actually used of animals. [SPEAKER_00]: So it says that pigeons meditate, and it's translated as cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've ever heard of pigeons, it's like, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also used of cats and lions that that low growl that they make. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's this repetitive, low-grade sound that's just coming all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: It's actually even used in the tone too. [SPEAKER_00]: It says, why do the nation's rage? [SPEAKER_00]: Why do the people's plot in vain that were plot is meditate? [SPEAKER_00]: They're planning, they're thinking, they're mulling it over what are we going to do? [SPEAKER_00]: How are we going to do this?
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're talking about it constantly all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: They were citing it to themselves. [SPEAKER_00]: They're plotting against God. [SPEAKER_00]: That's what this is. [SPEAKER_00]: But this person not plotting against God. [SPEAKER_00]: He's plotting to obey God. [SPEAKER_00]: So the picture here, I want, it might be helpful. [SPEAKER_00]: If you remember back in this time, nobody had their own Bible, you didn't have an app or even a paper version, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: In the time of the kings, the king had his own copy and then the temple had a copy. [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody went home with it, a Bible, right? [SPEAKER_00]: They were also very large. [SPEAKER_00]: So how did you, how are you supposed to meditate on the word? [SPEAKER_00]: Because they would, they would say it and then you would repeat it back and they would chant it.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were little songs and melodies that went with it and you'd memorize it that way and you'd say it again and again and again and again. [SPEAKER_00]: until you know, and that's the first part, the meditating is the repeating again and again to yourself. [SPEAKER_00]: You're saying it out of your breath. [SPEAKER_00]: But Meditations more than just wrote memorization and repetition.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second image here of this word is the image of chewing on something, like a cow chewing its cut, ruminating on something. [SPEAKER_00]: You ever had a jawbreaker or hard candy that took a long time to dissolve and you're just sucking on it and rolling around your mouth and it's clicking against your teeth and you're just like, you know, in the flavors are changing, it's that picture. [SPEAKER_00]: He's just chewing on it for a while, mulling it over.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's studying the word, but the word is also studying him. [SPEAKER_00]: And he's having this conversation with God. [SPEAKER_00]: He's feeding on the word of God. [SPEAKER_00]: And we know this because how often does he do it? [SPEAKER_00]: He does it as often as he eats, day and night. [SPEAKER_00]: It's his food. [SPEAKER_00]: Why does he do this? [SPEAKER_00]: Why does he study the word of God? [SPEAKER_00]: Why does he meditate?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why does he study it and allow it to himself to be studying fear, guilt, duty to show off? [SPEAKER_00]: No, it's just delight. [SPEAKER_00]: What is delight? [SPEAKER_00]: Why does it say delight? [SPEAKER_00]: When you delight in something, you don't have to be forced to do it. [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to be convinced to do it, reminded to do it. [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to be influenced to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this blessed man studying God's words, not something he has to do, it's something he gets to do. [SPEAKER_00]: When he pause your for a second, some of you guys were like, well, this is kind of heavy. [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe you're thinking, man, I don't really delight in God's word like that. [SPEAKER_00]: Studying the Bible is kind of like chore for me. [SPEAKER_00]: I forget really often. [SPEAKER_00]: I like say every more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna do QT and then like I forget, you know? [SPEAKER_00]: Can I just confess to you like, that's me too, you know? [SPEAKER_00]: I can feel like that sometimes. [SPEAKER_00]: I think like, if I'm not preaching something, it's like, man, what's the next time I get to get to preach now? [SPEAKER_00]: And then whenever they're like, okay, you're preaching next to him. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, why did I agree to do this? [UNKNOWN]: What do I do? [SPEAKER_00]: That's how much work.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know? [SPEAKER_00]: And I had to pray like, God, I'm not delighting in your word today. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot of work. [SPEAKER_00]: But Lord, I want to delight. [SPEAKER_00]: What would you help me want to delight? [SPEAKER_00]: Other times like, I don't even want to delight. [SPEAKER_00]: Or would you help me want to want to light in your word? [SPEAKER_00]: Would you give me an appetite for this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm so tired, I'm so grumpy, I'm so hurt, or whatever the thing is, right? [SPEAKER_00]: It's natural to sit here, okay? [SPEAKER_00]: But this blessed man, it's his delight. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, what is the result of this way of life, this blessed way of life? [SPEAKER_00]: Was it like verse three? [SPEAKER_00]: It says, he's like a tree. [SPEAKER_00]: He's like a tree planted by streams of water.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you remember, the scoffer, the wicked man, he plants himself in the seat of scoffers. [SPEAKER_00]: He plants himself in the seat of scoffers, but the blessed man does not do that. [SPEAKER_00]: The blessed man does not plant himself. [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, he doesn't plant himself at all. [SPEAKER_00]: It says, he is the one being planted. [SPEAKER_00]: God plants him. [SPEAKER_00]: Where? [SPEAKER_00]: By streams of water.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means a blessed man is stable and steadfast regardless of the circumstances. [SPEAKER_00]: Because other trees are beholden to whether it's going to rain today or not. [SPEAKER_00]: That's where they get their nourishment. [SPEAKER_00]: But this tree is not being fed by the rain that everyone can see, but by streams of water, by its roots going down deep into the water, this underground that no one can see.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, this tree yields fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither in all that he does, he prospers. [SPEAKER_00]: Sounds good, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Some of our members just got back from the Amazon. [SPEAKER_00]: There's a huge river there. [SPEAKER_00]: Trees everywhere. [SPEAKER_00]: I went last year. [SPEAKER_00]: It was so beautiful. [SPEAKER_00]: So green. [SPEAKER_00]: Lush. [SPEAKER_00]: You can't stop the plants from growing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to remind you, Israel's not like that at all. [SPEAKER_00]: It's dry. [SPEAKER_00]: Trees can whither if there's a drought, but not this tree. [SPEAKER_00]: All the other trees are turning brown. [SPEAKER_00]: This tree stays green and lush and it's covered in fruit all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: It says, in all that he does, he prosperous. [SPEAKER_00]: That's a promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this promise can be so easily twisted to the health and wealth, like everything's always gonna go good. [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing, well, that will ever happen to you. [SPEAKER_00]: Is that what this means? [SPEAKER_00]: It cannot mean this. [SPEAKER_00]: We can look outside of this Psalm in another Psalm, but also within this Psalm itself. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I want you to remember all that he does prosperous. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, it's a tree that's prospering. [SPEAKER_00]: What does a prosperous tree look like? [SPEAKER_00]: Does a prosperous tree own a yacht and have a good four or one K? [SPEAKER_00]: Travel the world, right? [SPEAKER_00]: A good tree doesn't travel anywhere. [SPEAKER_00]: A tree that moves, that's not a good tree, right? [SPEAKER_00]: This is a tree that doesn't go anywhere. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not rich, it's not famous.
[SPEAKER_00]: The prosperous tree is healthy and stable and fruitful regardless of the circumstances. [SPEAKER_00]: But also, prosperous doesn't mean that this tree does not experience hardship. [SPEAKER_00]: Because remember, it's green when the other trees aren't green. [SPEAKER_00]: If all the trees are green, there's nothing special about this tree. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just raining all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: There's never a drought. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, then what's the big deal?
[SPEAKER_00]: Every tree is surviving, right? [SPEAKER_00]: It's when all the other trees are dead, there's a drought, there's hardship, it's suffering. [SPEAKER_00]: This tree is going through the hardest thing that would kill everyone else, but these trees leaves or somehow still green. [SPEAKER_00]: This tree is surviving something that would kill a normal tree. [SPEAKER_00]: This tree is prosperous, not because it doesn't experience drought, but because it can survive the drought.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just surviving, it's multiplying. [SPEAKER_00]: It says it yields fruit in its season. [SPEAKER_00]: This tree is not just getting fed, it's feeding other people. [SPEAKER_00]: All in the middle of a hardship. [SPEAKER_00]: That is the blessed man. [SPEAKER_00]: All right, so that is the first three verses that talk about the way of righteousness. [SPEAKER_00]: And now, let's look at the second half. [SPEAKER_00]: The description of the way of the wicked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse four, it's a really short description. [SPEAKER_00]: The wicked are not so. [SPEAKER_00]: Very short. [SPEAKER_00]: And basically it's saying, everything we just talked about, what not to do, what to do, and especially that part about being prosperous and surviving and being hearty and fruitful and full of green, that is not true of the wicked. [SPEAKER_00]: The wicked are not like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: This should immediately cause you to ask, oh, hold on, I can't be true because I see prosperous wicked people all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like if you're wicked, you will definitely prosper more. [SPEAKER_00]: What do you do about that? [SPEAKER_00]: And I would say the Psalmist agrees with you. [SPEAKER_00]: In Psalm seventy-three, the Psalmist cries out to God saying that he almost lost his faith in God. [SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. [SPEAKER_00]: I saw that the wicked are prosperous and not the righteous. [SPEAKER_00]: And so it made me doubt. [SPEAKER_00]: Is this true? [SPEAKER_00]: Later in the Psalm, he says, but I saw their end. [SPEAKER_00]: And so it can seem like the wicked of prosperous for a time, but eventually that will be revealed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see this in someone that we get or not so, but they're like chaff that the way it drives away. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how many of you in here are farmers, but maybe there's some terminology here that you might not be familiar with, chaff, but you think about grain like wheat or barley or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: There's the grain and then there's like this paper like husk on the outside of it that you can't eat. [SPEAKER_00]: That's the chaff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they harvest, [SPEAKER_00]: in the ancient times when they would harvest the grain that would cut it down and then you'd have this big pile of the stuff and then you'd thresh it. [SPEAKER_00]: And so you could either rub it or you'd take a big stick and you'd whack it. [SPEAKER_00]: And what that does is it cracks the chaff open so that it can release the grain.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now you've got a pile of chaff and grain mixed together and then the next process is called winnowing and you take a big fork and you throw it up in the air, the whole mix, you just throw it up in the air. [SPEAKER_00]: And the grain is really heavy so it just throw goes up and comes right back down. [SPEAKER_00]: But the chaff is like dandy line fuzz. [SPEAKER_00]: When you throw it up in there, it just blows away.
[SPEAKER_00]: I watched a little YouTube video just to make sure I was getting this right. [SPEAKER_00]: And there was a video of a family farm. [SPEAKER_00]: It was super cute at these old kids. [SPEAKER_00]: And they were like, clicking it up. [SPEAKER_00]: And they put it in the pillow cases. [SPEAKER_00]: And they're like rubbing it and stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: And the mom had put up this box fan. [SPEAKER_00]: And the kids were just with a tarp in front of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the kids were flipping over the pillow cases in front of the box fan. [SPEAKER_00]: And the grain would just fall straight down. [SPEAKER_00]: But the chaff is just blown away by the box fan. [SPEAKER_00]: Even on low, it just floats away. [SPEAKER_00]: So this is a picture of yes, like the child in the grain right now, or mixed together. [SPEAKER_00]: They're all intertwined. [SPEAKER_00]: But one day God is going to separate them forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the blessed man is like a rooted tree. [SPEAKER_00]: He can't be moved. [SPEAKER_00]: He's heavy. [SPEAKER_00]: He has substance, but the child is like nothing. [SPEAKER_00]: It will be revealed to have no substance, no weight at all. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just going to blow away. [SPEAKER_00]: And also the fruitful tree, the righteous man, he feeds many people, but the child you can't eat it. [SPEAKER_00]: Can't feed anyone. [SPEAKER_00]: So what happens?
[SPEAKER_00]: You think the story ends here? [SPEAKER_00]: The chapter is blown away. [SPEAKER_00]: They died. [SPEAKER_00]: There's more. [SPEAKER_00]: Verse five. [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment. [SPEAKER_00]: This is after the chapter is blown away. [SPEAKER_00]: Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. [SPEAKER_00]: We saw earlier in verse one that the blessed man cannot stand with the sinners. [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't belong to their community.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the same way, the wicked man can't stand in God's judgment, and he doesn't belong to God's community. [SPEAKER_00]: At the end, they're separated from each other. [SPEAKER_00]: This brings us the last verse verse six. [SPEAKER_00]: For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. [SPEAKER_00]: There are these two ways. [SPEAKER_00]: There's the righteous way and the weird way.
[SPEAKER_00]: One way leads to life, the other way leads to perishing. [SPEAKER_00]: And God knows the way of the righteous. [SPEAKER_00]: If you are in God's family, God knows your way. [SPEAKER_00]: Even when you don't know the way. [SPEAKER_00]: When things are good, or things are hard, God knows where you're going. [SPEAKER_00]: And we sing a song here, sometimes I don't know what you're doing, but I know what you've done. [SPEAKER_00]: I know you're faithful, so I'll just follow you anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we trust in. [SPEAKER_00]: But if you're not walking with the Lord, the way of the wicked will perish. [SPEAKER_00]: OK, so let me pause here. [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I've explained the song, maybe even over-explained the song quite thoroughly. [SPEAKER_00]: What do you think of the song? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, how are you feeling? [SPEAKER_00]: Do you delight in the love of the Lord? [SPEAKER_00]: Let me ask you some questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you ever walk in the council of the wicked? [SPEAKER_00]: I know I do. [SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever stood in the way of sinners? [SPEAKER_00]: I have. [SPEAKER_00]: You ever indulge in a little scoffing? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. [SPEAKER_00]: If you count the number of the hours a day you spend on your phone scrolling and compare it to how many hours you spend meditating on scripture, like, what's that ratio? [SPEAKER_00]: Is that looking good for you?
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't get like, even if you're doing it a bunch, you're supposed to be delighting it at all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, yeah, you know? [SPEAKER_00]: day and night, you're delighting. [SPEAKER_00]: How am I supposed to delighten this when it's just pointing out how far away I am from this standard? [SPEAKER_00]: Is anyone in here brave enough to say, oh, yeah, I'm this blessed man. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm this blessed woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is me to a T. Especially if you're married, you can't say that because you're like your spouses right there. [SPEAKER_00]: Look at you. [SPEAKER_00]: Is anyone brave enough to claim that that's them? [SPEAKER_00]: How do you ever met this person anywhere? [SPEAKER_00]: No, of course not. [SPEAKER_00]: Because here's the thing, the song is not about you. [SPEAKER_00]: It's about Jesus. [SPEAKER_00]: Is he everything that I've said in my sermon so far up to this point?
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter already knew all this. [SPEAKER_00]: All the rabbis knew all of this. [SPEAKER_00]: They could have said all of this without Jesus showing them a single thing. [SPEAKER_00]: Because everything that I've said up to this point is spoken to the lens of the law. [SPEAKER_00]: The law is good, but the law by itself is not complete. [SPEAKER_00]: What Jesus brought was a view through the lens of the gospel of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be clear again, everything that I've taught so far is totally true. [SPEAKER_00]: I hope I'm showing you from the text. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just not complete. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just not complete. [SPEAKER_00]: Without the gospel, really, nothing that I've said so far is incompatible with any other world religion. [SPEAKER_00]: This could be an Islamic sermon. [SPEAKER_00]: I'd just change a couple words.
[SPEAKER_00]: Blessed is the man who walks out in the council of the infidel, but his delight is in the law of Allah, and on the Quran he meditates day and night he's like a tree in an oasis. [SPEAKER_00]: Easy. [SPEAKER_00]: It's the same ideas. [SPEAKER_00]: We don't differ on the law. [SPEAKER_00]: The secret is the gospel. [SPEAKER_00]: The thing that transformed this text for Peter and the other disciples was the gospel truth about the identity, the person, and the work of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's this. [SPEAKER_00]: The Psalm is not about how to be blessed. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not about how the Psalm is about who the blessed man is. [SPEAKER_00]: There's two ways. [SPEAKER_00]: And every religion says, we'll help you find the good way, and you avoid the bad way, because the good he's go here and the bad he's go there. [SPEAKER_00]: You want to be good, you right? [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus never talks like that. [SPEAKER_00]: Not like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't say, I'll show you the way. [SPEAKER_00]: When his disciples say, well, we don't know where the way is. [SPEAKER_00]: We don't know where you go. [SPEAKER_00]: He said, I am the way. [SPEAKER_00]: The truth and the life. [SPEAKER_00]: No one comes to the Father but through me. [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't come to show us a way. [SPEAKER_00]: He is the way. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's go through the Psalm again with this in mind, verse one. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the Blessed Man.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the only man who did not walk in the counsel of the wicked from outside or inside. [SPEAKER_00]: We see this when Satan tried to give him wicked counsel in the desert after forty days and forty nights Satan wickedly tried to tempt Jesus. [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, who is the wonderful counselor, rebuked the counsel of the wicked with the counsel of God, with scripture disproving him. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is not only delighted in the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the Word of God. [SPEAKER_00]: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. [SPEAKER_00]: The Word was God. [SPEAKER_00]: Verse two says, the blessed man eats God's Word like food. [SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus was tempted by Satan and he said, turn these rocks into bread. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, man does not live by bread alone, by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. [SPEAKER_00]: God's Word is my food.
[SPEAKER_00]: Elsewhere he said, my food is to do the will of my father, obeying my father is my food. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is nourished by the word of God in a way that no one else has ever been able to claim. [SPEAKER_00]: Also in verse three, this tree thing is not just like, oh yeah, desert people are super into trees. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not a random picture. [SPEAKER_00]: This is a specific picture of a specific tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know your Bible, you know, early on in Genesis, there's a special tree, a tree of life. [SPEAKER_00]: And it seems like a big deal. [SPEAKER_00]: If they take them this tree, like it's all over, you know? [SPEAKER_00]: And so, like, we're very guarded. [SPEAKER_00]: And then you're like, this tree disappears. [SPEAKER_00]: I thought this tree was a big deal. [SPEAKER_00]: What would happen to it? [SPEAKER_00]: And it appears again in the last book of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: The last chapter of the last book of the Bible, Revelation twenty-two. [SPEAKER_00]: John C. Siss. [SPEAKER_00]: Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. [SPEAKER_00]: Also on either side of the river the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. [SPEAKER_00]: The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see this? [SPEAKER_00]: This is the tree from some one. [SPEAKER_00]: All the images are exactly the same except they're amplified. [SPEAKER_00]: In verse one, we see a picture of the triune God. [SPEAKER_00]: God, the father, uncreated and unbegotten. [SPEAKER_00]: God, the son, uncreated and only begotten.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God, the spirit, uncreated, unbegotten, but proceeding from the father and the son, picture it as a mighty river of living, water, nourishing the tree of life. [SPEAKER_00]: This tree is no longer planted on the side of the river. [SPEAKER_00]: It straddles the river. [SPEAKER_00]: The river goes right into the tree. [SPEAKER_00]: And notice this tree doesn't just have fruit in its season. [SPEAKER_00]: It's season is every month.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every month there's a different fruit. [SPEAKER_00]: It's always in season for this tree. [SPEAKER_00]: And not only do the leaves never turn brown, they're always staying green. [SPEAKER_00]: It does something even better. [SPEAKER_00]: It says the leaves were for the healing of the nations. [SPEAKER_00]: This is right after the final battle, all the nations are beat up. [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone's bruised. [SPEAKER_00]: And this tree heals them all.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't just keep itself alive. [SPEAKER_00]: These are resurrection leaves. [SPEAKER_00]: You are not this tree. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is this tree. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said this, it looks our team to give us a hint of this. [SPEAKER_00]: What is the kingdom of God like? [SPEAKER_00]: To what can I compare it? [SPEAKER_00]: It's like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden and grew and became a tree in the birds of the sky nested in its branches.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are not the tree. [SPEAKER_00]: You're like a bird hiding in a tree. [SPEAKER_00]: If a storm comes, you're a little bird's self. [SPEAKER_00]: You don't need to be strong. [SPEAKER_00]: You need the tree to be strong. [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is the only one that in all that he did, he prospered. [SPEAKER_00]: This can be shown in many ways. [SPEAKER_00]: But the clearest picture is the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even when Jesus was betrayed by His friends, beaten and crucified and buried when He bore scoffing unjustly, they were not defeating Him. [SPEAKER_00]: They were crowning Him. [SPEAKER_00]: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. [SPEAKER_00]: Philippine Stuce has being found in a human form. [SPEAKER_00]: He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. [SPEAKER_00]: So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father, even his death was prospering. [SPEAKER_00]: No one else can say that. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's not all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus does not just fill up all the things that the Blessed Man is supposed to do. [SPEAKER_00]: He also takes the penalty that all the wicked man is supposed to take. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the one who was blown away like chast. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the one who had to stand in the judgment and be crushed. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the one who has cast out of the congregation of the righteous. [SPEAKER_00]: The right of Hebrew said he was sent out of the camp.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrew started in twelve. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus also suffered outside of the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. [SPEAKER_00]: He was cut off from his own people, rejected and despised. [SPEAKER_00]: Man of sorrows. [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, the blessed man, is the one who became cursed for our sake. [SPEAKER_00]: Paul says in Galatians three, thirteen, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: For his written curse is everyone who hangs on a tree. [SPEAKER_00]: There are two ways. [SPEAKER_00]: And the secret isn't to learn how to do a certain kind of way. [SPEAKER_00]: It's to know that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and to come to Him. [SPEAKER_00]: I wanna end with this. [SPEAKER_00]: When we think about, I'm gonna go back to thinking about studying God's Word and delighting in it. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it can be daunting.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I wanna share something that I hope will help you. [SPEAKER_00]: The Psalmist said already that the blessed man is always speaking and thinking about God's work. [SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus is that blessed man who's thinking and speaking God's work. [SPEAKER_00]: But the writer of Hebrews also says something very astonishing. [SPEAKER_00]: He says, Jesus is always making intercession for us. [SPEAKER_00]: He's our high priest. [SPEAKER_00]: Always making intercession for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means Jesus is always speaking and thinking about you. [SPEAKER_00]: But he's setting you. [SPEAKER_00]: It says that he counts the hairs on your head. [SPEAKER_00]: He knows when one of them falls off. [SPEAKER_00]: He doubts on you like his precious baby. [SPEAKER_00]: He loves you. [SPEAKER_00]: That is what it means to be blessed, to be known by God. [SPEAKER_00]: That's why we delight in reading the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can you delight in God's Word unless you know that God's Word delights you? [SPEAKER_00]: Knowing that, you search the scriptures. [SPEAKER_00]: So let me just ask you this, the thing that I asked in the beginning, did that way of reading the Psalm make any difference to you at all? [SPEAKER_00]: Or is it just, oh, that's a cool perspective. [SPEAKER_00]: For me, when I read this, it makes my heart burn to see Christ to make my chest just warm when I'm thinking about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It changes something from just an analytical, okay, I can see how this grammar works and this goes here and it changes everything. [SPEAKER_00]: That I don't need to search and try to find that Jesus is the one who searches and tries to find me. [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to be blessed by God, [SPEAKER_00]: I urge you to put your faith in Christ and his finished work and not in your own performance. [SPEAKER_00]: You will never measure up to the blessed man of some one on your own.
[SPEAKER_00]: And also, I want to say, if you're struggling, no one is beyond his love and reach. [SPEAKER_00]: Not even the scoffer. [SPEAKER_00]: I want to remind you that most of the New Testament is written by a former scoffer, Paul, who lived a life of scoffing and God planted him. [SPEAKER_00]: Pray to Jesus. [SPEAKER_00]: that you would be able to see your sin, understand your suffering, and see your Savior, and know how those things connect.
[SPEAKER_00]: I urge you to put your trust in the only one who can be called the Blessed Man, that what is true Jesus would become true of us. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray. [SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I just, Lord, I know I need this message. [SPEAKER_00]: I know how far I am for being this Blessed Man. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, then I'm not worthy to speak these words, to read these words, to open these words. [SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I don't need to be worthy, you're worthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we pray that you would help us to see your beauty in every page. [SPEAKER_00]: And as we study the Psalms, Lord, to sing them back to you, to worship you, and to trust, Lord, that you hold us with your faithfulness God. [SPEAKER_00]: Lord, help us to praise you, the blessed one. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, thank you that you took our curse and only blessing remains.
[SPEAKER_00]: Gotta pray that you would help us to strive for holiness, not out of a desire to earn, but out of delight to God. [SPEAKER_00]: May all these things be true of us. [SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we pray them in the name of Jesus Christ. [UNKNOWN]: Amen.