God’s Word is THE Source of Nourishment

00:00:00:00 – 00:00:16:07
If you would open your Bible to Psalm chapter one, Psalm chapter one, and I’m going to try not to preach long. don’t laugh about that, but I’m going to try to just share three verses of Scripture with you.

00:00:16:10 – 00:00:38:21
I alluded to these verses last week. If you were here, you may have, wrote these down. You may remember me asking you to turn there, but I didn’t have time to develop these verses. This past Monday night, we were having book writers Bible study at 6:00 at there at the arena, which will be doing that again, like Cody was saying, tomorrow night.

00:00:38:24 – 00:00:59:27
And it was a really awesome Bible study. We did some things on the barrel, and we even ran up a few bulls. And then Wednesday night at 630, we had an awesome Bible study here in the building, in the air conditioned, for everybody. And if you would like to come to that, will you? I’m telling you, you don’t want to miss, Wednesday night Bible study.

00:00:59:27 – 00:01:23:17
It’s it’s really, really getting good. We had an awesome study, and, it’s a little more informal than here. than regular worship service. But it’s a time to. We can learn and grow together. So I hope you’ll come be part of that. But, as I was talking about this last Monday night, we were discussing some things with young men and how to be blessed.

00:01:23:17 – 00:01:52:27
And immediately when that discussion came up, this verse came to my mind. I’ll never forget when I was a young preacher many moons ago. I was a young preacher. Believe there, and I can remember going to this verse and finding a lot of direction for my life as a Christian in this verse. And so I want to share these three verses, the first three verses of Psalm one with you this morning, and I hope to bless you.

00:01:53:00 – 00:02:14:13
Look with me in verse number one, Psalm chapter one, verse one. The Bible says, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the paths of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

00:02:14:16 – 00:02:43:12
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither. And whatever he does shall prosper. So I want you just to pay close attention if you underline or circle things in your Bible, which I think you should, that a way later you can go back and remember them and and maybe study more extensively what we talk about this morning.

00:02:43:14 – 00:03:08:14
As a matter of fact, I challenge you to go home and read the entire chapter of Psalms because of chapter one of Psalms, there’s three more verses, but for times sake I won’t have the time to go there. But, I just want to draw your attention for the next few minutes to those first three verses and I want to unpack those so that you understand what God is saying to you and I concerning his blessing.

00:03:08:14 – 00:03:33:20
When I read this, I can’t help but think that this is the way that God says he will bless his children. This is the way that God says, and if you would, a formula that he puts in Scripture, some of it you could call conditional blessing, conditional favor. But yet, nevertheless, when we are obedient to God, when we’re obedient to His Word, we’re obedient to the Holy Spirit.

00:03:33:27 – 00:03:58:28
Blessing always, always follows. Then I want you to remember that if you if you don’t want to be obedient to the Holy Spirit and you don’t want to tune in to him, don’t expect blessing. But if he really wanted to see the blessing of God, always, always, always be obedient to the Lord. Be obedient to His word. Be obedient to the Holy Spirit.

00:03:59:05 – 00:04:18:10
You say, man, what does that look like? Well, let’s look at verse one. It says, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the center or the paths of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. I’m going to stop right there, and let’s just talk about that for a moment.

00:04:18:15 – 00:04:36:28
I want you to notice three words that he uses that I believe are very powerful. First of all, he says, blessed is he who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. If you underline your Bible, underline that word. What? The next verse, he’s there. Next part of that verse, he says, nor stands in the paths of sinners.

00:04:37:04 – 00:04:56:05
And then, number three, he says, since if you know anything about English, you’re using some words here to describe the action. And so when you’re talking about action, he uses those three words. First of all, don’t walk in the paths of sinners or don’t don’t walk with the counsel and don’t stand in the paths of sinners. And don’t sit in the seat of the scornful.

00:04:56:11 – 00:05:23:07
What is he talking about? He’s talking about not doing things the way the world does it. How many of you know following Jesus will not always be easy, number one. Number two, it won’t make sense in the natural. How many of you figured that out? How many of you have followed Jesus long enough to know that some things he may ask you to do doesn’t seem at the moment to make sense?

00:05:23:09 – 00:05:46:09
And as a matter of fact, let me just go a little deeper and more real here this morning. There’s times as a believer that you’re watching people who are unbelievers and you’re going, man, I thought you said I was going to be blessed. As a believer. I don’t seem to have anything going right in my life, but I’ve got a friend, I’ve got a coworker, I’ve got a relative.

00:05:46:14 – 00:06:08:06
They don’t live for God at all, and there’s no seeming problems in their life. And let me tell you the problem with that, it’s we have the wrong perspective. First of all, you’ve got to understand when before you come to Jesus, listen to me. Before you come to faith in Jesus, you belong to Satan. The Bible says that he’s your father.

00:06:08:09 – 00:06:32:15
Jesus called the Pharisees is like, you guys are liars and you’re the you’re sons of your father. The devil who’s a liar. So think about this for a moment. If you are never a threat to Satan and never a threat to his world system, why in the world would he ever disturb you? Why would he ever bother you?

00:06:32:15 – 00:07:01:07
You know, if you’ve got somebody doing exactly what you want them to do, it’s better to just leave them alone, am I correct? You follow me. But if you if you suddenly become a threat, if you suddenly are not going along with Satan’s agenda, but now you have Holy Spirit agenda, you have in that moment become a threat to the kingdom of darkness and a product of the Kingdom of Light.

00:07:01:07 – 00:07:21:29
And as a result of that, you have become a threat to Satan, and he’s going to begin attacking you. Most Christians, especially young Christians, have a hard time grasping that. And maybe it’s because of the way some we preachers preach it. Maybe we say something like this if you come to Jesus, your life is always just going to be blessed.

00:07:21:29 – 00:07:43:17
And it’s never you’re never going to have any problems. Everything’s going to go right, and you’ll never face any obstacles. You’ll never have any attacks. But I’ve got to tell you, that’s not the truth. The absolute truth is, when Jesus said this, he said, look, if for all who live godly, anyone who lives godly, you can expect persecution.

00:07:43:17 – 00:08:06:21
Do you know who’s going to be the one persecuting you? It will be Satan himself. He will probably use other people to do it, because we know that Paul said in Ephesians six for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness. In other words, powers of darkness. They come against you. But we also know that Satan will use other people often to attack you.

00:08:06:24 – 00:08:34:26
But that’s okay. Never take that personal. As a matter of fact, Jesus talked about that we should we should count ourselves blessed that we were worthy to be persecuted for his name’s sake. Matter of fact, if you read the Beatitudes, he will tell you that. And so I just want to say to you, if first of all, if you are living the Christian life, but you’re facing no obstacles, you really should go back and check that part about the Christian life.

00:08:35:02 – 00:09:06:17
Because if you’re walking like sinners, you’re talking like sinners and you’re sitting with sinners. Before long, you’re going to start acting like a sinner. Before long, you’re going to be living like a sinner. And if you find the way in your life to separate yourself from that, you find the way through Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit to live righteous and godly, opposed to the things the world stands for, the things that Satan wants you to do, you will have become a threat to Satan’s kingdom and you will face persecution.

00:09:06:22 – 00:09:39:22
But count yourself worthy because God has counted you worthy, that you would stand up in a culture like this and speak the name of Jesus. That you would stand up today and do what is right and not buy into what is wrong. I’ve got to tell you, if you’re a believer today and you’re not getting somebody unlocking you or unfriending you or or saying things about you in this culture, especially on social media, my question to you is, are you really living for Jesus, man?

00:09:39:23 – 00:09:57:24
My wife made a comment here the other day about Taylor Swift, and I don’t even know Taylor Swift, but I do know some things that Taylor Swift said. And one of my preacher friends had said something about it. My wife made a comment and man, there were some people that went off on her because of her comments, and she simply reentered with Taylor Swift and said that.

00:09:57:24 – 00:10:18:13
Taylor Swift said she’s a witch. My wife didn’t say she’s a witch, Taylor Swift said she’s a wreck. And by the way, she joking? She’s joking. And these people just, I mean, so-called Christians went all off on her over that. I made a comment the other day. One of my friends post and not really no one, and I started getting all these.

00:10:18:16 – 00:10:40:10
Then you got to understand, for me, social media is like this big hurdle. Like I know how to get on Facebook. I can make a few posts, but I don’t understand TikTok. You know, when whatever else they get out there, I don’t understand all that stuff, so I’m entertained by it. I’m even educated by some of it. I don’t watch soap operas.

00:10:40:10 – 00:10:58:24
I just look up church members Facebook pages. You’ve ever done that? I mean, man, that is awesome. Just to see this stuff is like, man, you got to be kidding me. Some of the stuff going on. But I’ll I’ll look it up and and I saw that my pastor friend had made him he made this comment about the state of Louisiana.

00:10:58:24 – 00:11:19:00
God bless the state of Louisiana because they just, you know, said they wanted the Ten Commandments and all the schools that would make a lot of sense, a lot of sense. And there were some people that I don’t even know. All of a sudden I start getting these notifications on my phone that so-and-so commented on that comment. And so I began to look at them, and I’m like, I don’t even know who these people are.

00:11:19:05 – 00:11:37:17
And they were calling me a weak minded, you know, none of that of whatever, whatever they some really choice words and choice names and and I wanted to respond, but I didn’t. I thought, no, no, no, I learned a long time ago, you can get in, you can wrestle a pig to is this going to be this can be deep theological stuff right here.

00:11:37:17 – 00:12:08:04
You already you can wrestle a pig in the mud, and you can even slap that pig in the mud. But listen to me. But one of you going to enjoy it. Only one of you are going to enjoy it. In other words, Jesus said, don’t cast your pearls before swine. In other words, there’s some people in life that it’s not worth your time to argue with them, and it’s not worth your time even to entertain that stuff, because you’re not going to change their mind.

00:12:08:09 – 00:12:35:18
I made the comment. I said what I needed to say, and the point I want to make to you today is if we live in this culture today and we do, we live in this culture, and if we live in this culture today and we live for Jesus, we can expect some backlash. We can expect some things coming our way that that’s not going to be necessarily comfortable.

00:12:35:22 – 00:13:01:08
That’s not necessarily going to be peachy, but we’re being counted worthy by Christ to suffer a little bit for his name. And by the way, just because somebody says something about you on on social media or it just because somebody unfriend you or even because somebody doesn’t like something you do that’s really not even persecution. Persecution is going on around the world.

00:13:01:12 – 00:13:23:01
There’s a lot of people going through a lot worse stuff than we are. But he says, blessed is the man. Blessed is the person who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, stands in the paths of sinners, sits in the seat of the scornful. But number two, look at this. But his delight or her delight is in the law of the Lord.

00:13:23:03 – 00:13:41:20
Now the law of the Lord is the Word of God. In David’s day, when David would have penned these words, they had the Old Testament. You and I live today. We have not only the Old Testament, but also the New Testament. And so the law of the Lord, or the love of the of God is simply the Word of God.

00:13:41:22 – 00:14:05:17
And he says, but our delight, what does it mean to delight in the Word of God? I don’t know how many of you know. I’ve got some friends here this morning. three of them back there. even the president of our club, Brother Ron, back there, he’s the president of the. Happy to be here club. I have the I’m a card carrying member.

00:14:05:18 – 00:14:24:13
My not Ron. He gave me a card and my friend Gary back there and Ryan or when we all work at the gym. And I saw Gary this morning and we were talking about coming to the gym and working out. And while we work out one because of our age, but two because we love food some here, I’ll get that in a minute.

00:14:24:16 – 00:14:44:19
We work out because we love food. Like every day I go in and thinking about what I ate yesterday and like, man, I’m going to have to work a little bit harder to get some of those calories burned and some of that that fat I’m putting on every time. Matter of fact, I’ve got where I go to the cleaners, you know, I take my I’ve been where it starts jeans my whole life.

00:14:44:19 – 00:15:02:19
Okay. Y’all don’t know that. Just ask my mama. I was I was 12 years old. I’m in here with the iron on board. I’m start. I’m stay flowing. Those Jesus and my jeans would stand up all by themselves. But now they have a cleaners you can take it to. And I’m grown. You know my mama, you say if you want to start your day, you know we’re not going to pay for it.

00:15:02:19 – 00:15:23:21
You do. It made me do it. But now I’m a grown man. I’m taking my dirty cleaners. But I go in about every other day, and. And I think those ladies sometimes every day. And I think they notice that man, he he brings in like, this guy has only got a few pair of jeans because I’ll show up just today with this pair of jeans tomorrow.

00:15:23:21 – 00:15:41:29
They’re dirty and I take them to the cleaners and evening I go pick them up and, and they’re like, you know, you only have you seen only bring a few certain jeans here. Well, number one, they’re a little worn out, faded, which are my favorite. And number two, they’re my fat jeans. Thank you. I just don’t have many.

00:15:42:01 – 00:16:05:17
And I told them, I said I have to do that because I’m low on fat jeans. I’m trying to lose weight. That’s when we go to the gym. I’m working out, I’m doing all this stuff. But the reason I do that is because I love food. I have fat jeans and I go to the gym because I love food.

00:16:05:19 – 00:16:27:16
One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to break was an addiction to sugar. some of you. I’ve been around here long enough. You may remember I used to walk up to, you know, every Sunday morning with a a bottle of sweet tea, gold peach, sweet, 42g of sugar in one bottle. And I drank 12 bottles a day.

00:16:27:18 – 00:16:44:18
That’s a lot of sugar. Like, man, I’ve got to quit this. The Holy Spirit is beginning to tell me you’re. That’s missing you up. That’s bad for you. So I begin to try to get off of it. And today I can tell you, I don’t. I don’t drink any sugar, don’t eat any sugar. I notice that it’s Natalie’s birthday back there in the back.

00:16:44:19 – 00:17:03:25
I know there’s some cupcakes available, and, that’s, like, tempting, you know, that’s like an alcoholic going to a bar. I’m looking at deals, and I’m like, get behind me, Satan. Get behind me, get behind me. It’s just one day. It’s her birthday. I could, you know, get behind me like I, I know one of those cupcakes. I’m going to fall off the way.

00:17:04:00 – 00:17:30:04
The point I’m trying to make to you is I love food. I love all kinds of food. As a matter of fact, there’s not much kinds of foods that I don’t like. I like everything, and have you noticed that I’m just making an observation? I’m not even preaching. I’m just. Madeline says, hang on, I have you have you notice that the things that taste the best are the worst for you?

00:17:30:07 – 00:17:55:11
But that’s not the way God’s Word is. Though I delight in setting down, I don’t like drive thrus. I don’t like fast food. I you know, I’m not a fan of it. I’ll eat it. I’d rather go in and eat really, really good food. Part of that comes from the fact that I had my mouth weren’t at one time for 14 weeks and couldn’t eat any food, and I made myself a promise I’m going to eat whatever I want when I won’t.

00:17:55:13 – 00:18:15:13
When I got money, I’m, you know, I’m going to enjoy it. But I love food. And so when it comes to the word of God, the Bible often refers to God’s Word as spiritual nourishment and food to our soul. And I think when he says, doing you delight yourself in the law of the Lord, it means that I love to sit down.

00:18:15:19 – 00:18:41:06
If you cook me a T-Bone steak and baked potato, I’m going to feast. I’m probably not going to get done eating as quick as you. I’m going to sit there and I’m going to eat every bit of it if I can, and I’m going to savor every bite of it because I love it. And I want to encourage you this morning to let that be the way you approach the Word of God.

00:18:41:09 – 00:19:05:11
In other words, don’t rush through it. Don’t just make it an afterthought. But once you get into the Word of God, I. I’ve rarely ever come across a believer who really began to study the word, really begin to get into feeding on the word daily. That was like, oh, I’m getting bored with it. Okay, I get it. If you start in Leviticus somewhere, that might be frustrating.

00:19:05:11 – 00:19:27:16
Or, you know, one of the, you know, that that could be you know, or the parts where they go and he begat she and she begat he and but, you know, whatever. It’s like, boy, this is redundant and boring. But if you really get into the Word of God, what happens is you get a hunger for it. You eventually get to the point you’re like, man, that is so good.

00:19:27:23 – 00:20:04:21
I didn’t even know that was in the Bible. I won’t tell you what friend, but I have a friend sitting in this building today and she gave a man a haircut one time he came to church. His hair was all cut, his beard was all trimmed, and I said, man, who gave you that haircut? And I won’t say her name, but her initials are Nicole and I said, oh, man, Delilah, you cut off his hair and she’s like, would you call me?

00:20:04:23 – 00:20:18:02
I said, I just called you Delilah. And little did I know that she had never read that story. And like, oh, it’s a biblical name. Go read it. Well, so that she goes and reads it. And that Wednesday that we came back to Bible study. Next thing I know, I feel this slap right at the back of my head.

00:20:18:09 – 00:20:45:19
Don’t you ever call me Delilah again. I read about that lady. She was a bad person. But the next week we came back and she led part of the study where we learned about Samson and Delilah and the whole story of Samson, and it created a hunger. What I’m trying to tell you is when you read the Bible, when your delight is in the law of the Lord, it you get this the Holy Spirit creates this hunger in you and you’re like, I can’t get enough of that.

00:20:45:22 – 00:21:08:02
I got to read some more. My wife has gotten the Bible, audible. Right? It’s somehow I’m going to figure this out. She can drive down the road working her job at Fedex, and and she has earphones, and she has a while doing her job. In between stops, she’s. Listen, listening to the Bible and she’s, like, gone through an amazing amount of the Bible a very short time.

00:21:08:10 – 00:21:27:25
And she’ll come home and she goes, did you know? And she’ll tell me something or she’ll ask me a question and I’m thinking, I mean, maybe I read that once, but and sure enough, she’s she’s not mistaken, she’s learning the Bible in like so the more she listens to it, the more it’s getting in her and the more hungry she is for it.

00:21:28:03 – 00:21:53:10
It’s like she can’t get enough. And that’s what I want to say to you. When your delight is in the law of the Lord and you have that hunger. And then he says, and in, in his law, in God’s law he meditates day and night. have you ever meditated on something? My problem is I meditate sometimes on the wrong things.

00:21:53:12 – 00:22:15:28
Sometimes I find myself thinking, meditating all day long on the wrong thing. But when you meditate on the Word of God and the law of God, it what happens is it begins to transform you. The Holy Spirit is using the word to transform you. And before long you begin to memorize a lot of it and you know it.

00:22:16:02 – 00:22:47:28
And then you face some things in life and instantly like, if someone comes to me, they ask me a question because I’ve been a pastor’s for so long, and I’ve been a Christian for a long time. Whenever I hear something, what happens in my brain is I immediately go, what does the Bible say about what I’m hearing? And how many of you know that the Bible has an answer for every issue of life, everything that you and I could ever go through, I promise you, the Bible has that answer.

00:22:47:28 – 00:23:09:16
The Word of God speaks to every issue that you and I would face. And so I love what David said. He said, hey, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. I promise you, if you ever want to know, I wonder if what I’m about to do is sinful. If your heart is filled with the Word of God and you meditate on it day and night.

00:23:09:21 – 00:23:30:22
But can I just say before you, you can get to the meditating part on it day and night? You have to have your delight in the Word of God. In other words, the law of God is the Word of God. And when your delight is in it, you think about it. When my wife and I were dating, she was living at when we first started dating in New Mexico.

00:23:30:22 – 00:23:55:17
So we were dating long distance. And if anybody knows me very well, you know that I think there’s three things that the Bible said I remember Bible, don’t say it, but the Bible says sinner is going to be cast into the lake of fire. I kind of got an opinion about that, too. I kind of think cell phones and neckties are to go, I don’t like a necktie, and I don’t like a cell phone.

00:23:55:20 – 00:24:27:29
I’m not going to talk on the phone. But when she and I were dating, I so delighted in her. I was talk, I feel myself talking on the phone for four hours, four hours on the phone? Why? Because I loved talking to her. Can I just tell you something? When you delight yourself in the law of God, you’ll find it’s not so hard to make time to read.

00:24:28:02 – 00:24:51:09
You’ll find that you end up reading and spending more and more time there, and it becomes a joy. And let me tell you why had when I talked to her for four hours, had I been the only one talking, I would have ran out of something to say in four minutes, I really did. You can ask her. I’m a man of few words on the phone.

00:24:51:11 – 00:25:10:10
You ever call me and you talk to me? It ain’t that. What you got to say is important is just. I got much to say. I’m the man in few words when it comes to the phone. But she would sit and talk and talk and talk and more shit. I just listen and listen and, I mean, it was good stuff.

00:25:10:10 – 00:25:33:22
I don’t remember what she said, but it was good stuff. And can I just tell you that the Bible says that the word of God? Hebrews says it’s the word of God is living and powerful. So whenever you’re reading the Word of God, you’re reading the word. It’s living, it’s speaking to you. The Holy Spirit is, by the way, you know who wrote the Bible.

00:25:33:22 – 00:25:54:12
The Holy Spirit of God did 40 different men in 66, but over a span of 1500 years, and yet still the same author. That’s why you can pick it up in Genesis and go all the way, all the way to revelation, and it all comes together as one book. It makes sense because the Holy Spirit moved the book.

00:25:54:15 – 00:26:17:04
So when I’m reading the word, the Holy Spirit is speaking to me and when I’m hearing what he’s saying, it’s like, man, I love this. This is awesome. This is helping me. And so he says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. Now here’s the results. Are you ready to take notes?

00:26:17:04 – 00:26:35:03
If you to write something, write these three points down I’m about to make, he says. First of all, number three, verse number three, he says, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Now, I don’t know how many of you know about this, this area, this, this property that the church said so. But we’ve got a creek that runs right down here.

00:26:35:05 – 00:26:58:04
And, I’m down there several times a week chasing bulls out of it, trying to catch them up. And you go down by that creek. There’s, there’s there’s some rock ledges. I mean, it’s it doesn’t look like at first glance there’s there’s much there. They’re just a bunch of rocks. Matter of fact, you can go outside, grab a shovel, dig about six inches, and you’re going to get frustrated.

00:26:58:04 – 00:27:21:22
Here. There’s rocks. Rocks. We men weep. We grow rocks and grass around here every time it rains. I mean, every time we we took rocks out of the arena. And every time it rains, there’s lots popping up out of nowhere. So when you go down there, you would think there’s nothing that could grow here. But when you go down there, you’ll find there’s a lot of trees planted by this creek.

00:27:21:28 – 00:27:49:18
And those trees. I have watched those trees while other things around here got blown away. That big yellow tent we got sitting over there one time just back in the winter. We had a big windstorm come through here. It blew that thing. Roll, roll, roll right over here into the church. And that’s a heavy tank. But you go down here, those trees along that line there, they’re planted, they’re grown, and they’re planted by that water because that water is their source.

00:27:49:24 – 00:28:16:21
Their roots must run deep. And it’s like you can’t even kill them. They’re sturdy, they’re sound, they’re they’re rooted. So the Bible is telling me that if I want to be blessed, don’t walk in the seat or don’t sit in the seat or walk in the council, the ungodly stand in the seat of sinners, or sit in the seat of sinners, but rather delight myself in the law of the Lord.

00:28:16:23 – 00:28:43:00
Rather meditate on the law of the Lord. And if I do that, if my life is filled with God’s Word, then he says, you’re going to be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. So my first point to you is, number one, the blessed life looks like this. You are planted, planted what is when you think of a tree planted?

00:28:43:00 – 00:29:04:27
When I think of those trees down there, I think of other trees. I think of a tree that is rooted into substance. I think of trees that are rooted into a source. I don’t know how many of you know much about different kinds of trees. When I was growing up in Boyd, we had. And I’m sure they still have.

00:29:04:27 – 00:29:21:22
We don’t seem to have any right around here. Cottonwood trees. You ever seen a cottonwood tree in a spring? You know, just be cotton looking stuff flying all through there. And wherever cottonwood seed lands, it’s going to spring up a cut. And a lot of times they’ll land around a pine and, well, you get a cottonwood tree growing near a pond.

00:29:21:22 – 00:29:45:01
That thing is shoot up. I mean, it it grows a fast and it’s strong. Or, I once planted a willow tree over my septic system. Wouldn’t you? Good for the septic system. The willow tree sure grew fast. But what happened was it found a source of nourishment. See, when you find the source of nourishment in God’s Word through the Holy Spirit in your life.

00:29:45:03 – 00:30:01:18
Man, you’re like a tree planted by the world. And when I think of a tree planted by the water, I think of something that’s immovable. I think of something that is tapped in and you can’t move it. I don’t know if you’ve ever studied anything about a palm tree. You go down there around the coast and you’ll find palm trees.

00:30:01:25 – 00:30:29:07
I don’t know if you know much about a palm tree, how much hurricane force winds it can take. I’ve seen them lay completely over, and the next day spring back up. Why? It’s because of what they’re rooted in. How far down their roots go, how deep in the source they’re anchored in. And so I just want to tell you this morning that if you really want a blessed life, you’ve got to be planted in the Word of God, like a tree planted by the river.

00:30:29:14 – 00:30:59:09
And then notice my next point, verse three, and it says, and it brings forth fruit in its season. So first of all, the blessed life looks like this. You’re planted. Number two, you’re producing. You’re producing. When you plant a country are you plant a peach tree. You plant some type of tree bearing some type of fruit. How many of you know it?

00:30:59:09 – 00:31:26:03
Does it immediately begin to produce fruit? It may take it a few years to grow and mature, but then once it grows and mature, how many of you know that tree doesn’t? It may not be producing fruit constantly, but in its season. So here’s what the Bible is telling us. When you are rooted, grounded in, planted in the Word of God, and it is your delight, it is.

00:31:26:08 – 00:31:50:12
It is what you walk in. He’s saying you’re going to be planted, but then you’re going to begin producing. Your life will begin to produce what the fruit of the spirit. If you go to Galatians, you’ll find out there’s the works of the flesh, but there’s also the fruits of the spirit love, joy, peace, gentleness, self-control. I could go on, but there’s like 5 or 6 different, fruits of the spirit.

00:31:50:14 – 00:32:13:21
And by the way, who’s the author of the Word of God? The Spirit of God. So when you’re rooted in that, you’re planted in it. What’s it going to begin to produce? You’re going to begin producing the fruit of the spirit in your life. man, I have trouble. I have trouble loving people. You might say. Like, I love the people in my family, but, you know, loving my enemies.

00:32:13:21 – 00:32:38:12
That thing Jesus talked about that’s really hard to do when you get in the word. The Holy Spirit begins to change you, and you’re rooted and grounded in the word. And your source is they’re anchored in that. Then the Holy Spirit would begin to produce fruit in you. You begin to produce that change, and your life will begin to bear fruit.

00:32:38:14 – 00:33:09:19
This and I’m done. Look at the next part of that verse and we’ll we’ll will land the plane this morning. He says he should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not, with her. When I read on to verse four, as a matter of fact, you’ll find that the ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

00:33:09:22 – 00:33:44:26
When I think of a a tree whose leaves do not wither, immediately my mind goes to an evergreen tree that’s always got green leaves year in and year out. I think about a tree that has life through all seasons. But what I think of what verse four tells me that I’m not going to be like the ungodly whose with leaves do wither and are blown by the wind the way.

00:33:44:28 – 00:34:08:19
In other words, I don’t know how many of you have ever seen people who seem to only walk in blessing for a time, but then something in their life just withers away. Why would that be? Because they untapped from the source, the Word of God.

00:34:08:21 – 00:34:40:05
So it says it’s forth, it’s fruit. It it shall bring forth fruit in its season whose leaves shall also not wither. And here’s the last part. This part I want you to get. And whatever he does, whatever the blessed man does, whatever the man who chooses to live and seek the righteousness of God through the Word of God and be anchored in the Word of God, he says, whatever he does shall prosper.

00:34:40:11 – 00:35:10:11
We just say that word with me shall shall prosper. He didn’t say he might prosper. He didn’t say, could prosper. He said, shall prosper. Have you ever thought of your life and said, man, I don’t know why. I don’t seem to be prospering in my way. I’m not talking about money. Money is a form in which God can choose, and is a tool of which God could choose to prosper us.

00:35:10:11 – 00:35:38:15
But let me tell you some prosperity. True biblical prosperity is not in what you possess, but who possesses you. You follow me. And it’s actually a little bit, the world has a perspective of prosperity, but God’s Word has a perspective of prosperity. I like to tell people I don’t preach a prosperity gospel. I believe in a generosity gospel because for the generous person, God prospers them.

00:35:38:18 – 00:36:09:02
But what I think about what the Bible is saying, when you’re in, you’re anchored in the Word of God and your delight, your love is in what God’s Word says, and it is the defining of your life. Then he’s saying that whatever you do shall prosper. I think of how many people have different perspectives on prosperity and what prosperity really looks like in your life.

00:36:09:05 – 00:36:38:03
Prosperity in your life looks like this. It’s knowing and letting God do what is best for your life. It is allowing God to promote you in your life. When I think of a tree planted by the waters, one word that comes to my mind is faithful. That tree is faithful to be rooted right there, right? There’s trees. There’s trees around here.

00:36:38:03 – 00:36:52:22
And I don’t know how many of you have seen trees in different places. I’ve been to different places and parts of the country, and there be some little sign. But this tree and this tree may be 300 years old. And I’m thinking, man, that tree has stood there a long time. Can I just throw this in for free real quick?

00:36:52:22 – 00:37:15:06
This word faithfulness, when you are faithful to God’s Word and your faithful to the things of God, can I just promise you something from God’s Word that he will prosper. He will promote you. You say, man, I want to see. I want to see greater blessing in my life or a certain area of your life. Well then, let me just encourage you to do this.

00:37:15:11 – 00:37:37:13
Be more faithful in that area of your life to what God has given you. Now, I see in our generation, there’s so many times people want to be promoted so quickly. God loves you so much that he may not let that happen because he knows you’re not prepared for that. Jesus said, he who is faithful a little things.

00:37:37:13 – 00:38:10:16
I’ll make him ruler of great things. There’s a reason for that because there’s some blessing and some promotions in life that if God put you there right away, it would and could destroy you. I’m gonna read you a poem. It’s really not even a poem. I’ll tell you more about it in just a moment. But. It’s about a little boy who had a big dream.

00:38:10:18 – 00:38:31:00
And this little boy wanted to be a baseball player. And like many little boys, he would go out in the evenings with his ball and his bat, and he would have this, not only this, this idea of being, you know, a great baseball player. He didn’t have any friends close by. And so he often would play by himself.

00:38:31:03 – 00:38:56:25
But I want you to listen through it and listen to how his perspective changes. It goes like this a little boy in a baseball hat stands in the field with his ball and bat, says, I am the greatest player of them all, puts his head on, put his, puts his bat on his shoulder, and he tosses up the ball and the ball goes up and the ball comes down.

00:38:56:28 – 00:39:21:27
He swings his bat all the way around the world. So still you can hear the sound. The baseball falls to the ground. Now the little boy doesn’t say a word. He just picks up his ball, for he is undeterred, says I’m the greatest there has ever been. And he grits his teeth and he tries it again, and the ball goes up and the ball comes down.

00:39:21:29 – 00:39:34:27
He swings his bat all the way around the world. So still you can hear the sound. The baseball falls to the ground.

00:39:35:00 – 00:39:57:07
He makes no excuses. He shows no fears. He just closes his eyes and listens to the cheers. Little boy in a baseball bat picks up his ball and stares at his bat, says, I am the greatest. The game is on the line and he gives it his all one last time and the ball goes up like the moon.

00:39:57:07 – 00:40:27:12
So bright swings his bat with all his mind and the world. So steel and steel can be. And the baseball falls in. That’s strike three. Now it’s suppertime. And his mama calls. The little boy starts home with his bat, and his ball says, I am the greatest. That is a fact. But even I didn’t know that I could pitch like that.

00:40:27:15 – 00:40:54:10
you see, he may have went out there thinking, man, I’m going to be the greatest batter of all time. But he allowed his skills and he saw a different perspective. See, you may think in your life right now. Well, I don’t seem to be prospering. You remember that song just a moment ago? We sang last together about the goodness of God.

00:40:54:13 – 00:41:33:20
The goodness of God, pursuing you, chasing you down. You remember that when you think of that song, when I hear that song, things go through my mind hardships, moments of personal defeat, times that I didn’t think that I would ever be able to be who God made me to be or called me to be. I got up this morning and I thought, man, it sure going to be a hot day.

00:41:33:23 – 00:42:04:22
But I looked on Facebook to a young man that just one year ago I spoke to at a wedding. My daughter’s wedding, and today he has no legs. He can’t walk because of a horrible accident six months ago that changed his life forever. And I thought, wow, I get to go out and walk in a hot day. He doesn’t.

00:42:04:24 – 00:42:30:10
Was in my office this morning and I thought, man, that sun sure is bright out there today. Going to be in my eyes and I’ve got sunshine. And I opened a drawer and in my drawer. I should have brought him up here to the tablets. How many of you that as old as I am. Remember those little tablets that had a plastic cover that you would ride on is almost magnetic.

00:42:30:16 – 00:42:47:19
See, you ride on it that when you in a race, it you peel up the little piece of plastic and it erases. I don’t even know what those things are called, but I still have the what do they call etch-a-sketch looking thing. I still have the original two that at the age of 16 they brought into my room.

00:42:47:19 – 00:43:13:19
My eyes were swollen shut. I mean, so swollen I couldn’t see. I couldn’t see for weeks and I had my mouth wired shut, I couldn’t talk, so any communication I had to write on those things only whatever it is I wanted. And the moment I saw those, I just begin to thank God. Lord you, you have prospered me.

00:43:13:19 – 00:43:53:16
I can still see, I can still eat. I, I begin to reflect on the goodness and the blessing of God. I could go on and on and on in my life. How many times that I thought, man, I hope I’m not seeming to be blessed. But if you take a step back and look around you and look at your life and see how good God really is and how much he’s blessed you, you have no problem worshiping him and praising him all the days of your life.

00:43:53:19 – 00:44:18:10
And you’ll see what it looks like to know that God is the one who promised you shall prosper. His blessings and favor will be upon you. Would you bow your heads with me?

00:44:18:12 – 00:44:41:19
I’m not going to ask our worship team to come back. I’m just going to close this one all across this building today. First of all, if you do not know Jesus as your Lord and your Savior. Then I want you to know today you can have a relationship with him. He loves you. He gave his life on the cross for you.

00:44:41:21 – 00:45:10:00
The Bible says that if you will confess to Lord Jesus, confess him as Lord, and you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. The Bible says, thou shalt be saved, for with the mouth confession is made into salvation, and with your heart a person believes unto righteousness. If you today, before you leave this place, would pray for something like this from your heart to God’s heart.

00:45:10:03 – 00:45:38:13
Jesus, I know I’ve sinned. I’ve sinned against you. If I get what I deserve, it’s going to be hell. But I believe you died for me. You were buried in. You rose again the third day. And today I repent of my sin. And I ask you, Jesus, to change me. Save me. Be my Lord. And you pray something like that from your heart to God’s heart.

00:45:38:16 – 00:46:15:26
Right now he’s listening and you can become a child of God. Maybe you’re a believer here today and you say, Jeff, I really want to live blessed. Then God just gave us everything we need right there in those few verses. Right there it is. If if number one, we will seek righteousness and not sinful, not seeing other words, if we live with a heart of repentance, I don’t want to live in sin, but I want to seek the righteousness of God.

00:46:15:28 – 00:46:56:04
And I’ll do that because my delight is in God’s Word. If you don’t read your Bible or Scripture every day, let me just encourage you for this week, just just for the next seven days. I’d rather you do it a little longer for the next seven days. I really believe if you just everyday commit to reading a chapter of the Bible a day, you’d be amazed how much more blessed your life would be because you would begin to learn God’s will and his love for you through His Word.

00:46:56:06 – 00:47:36:24
And then when you do so, you begin to see God producing righteous fruit in you through His Holy Spirit, through His Word. And he said that whatever you do, it shall prosper. Because when you do the work and the will of God, it carries his blessing. Lord, we love you. We thank you for your word today. Lord, I pray your blessing upon every person here today, whether in the house or listening online.

00:47:36:24 – 00:48:03:11
Today. I pray father, that you would not let anybody leave here not knowing who Jesus is, not knowing and having a relationship, a saving relationship with him. Lord, I pray for every person the sound of my voice that we would pursue and our delight would be in your word, and that your Holy Spirit would produce righteous fruit in us.

00:48:03:14 – 00:48:28:08
And Lord, we look to see that you prosper our lives because of it. And we know, Lord, that that prosperity will come from the source, which is your word. We love you. We thank you. We praise you. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. We’re thank you all for being here. Hey, listen, we got it. Cody and a few others.

00:48:28:11 – 00:48:51:19
Melissa. John in the back. There’s going to be a couple of them standing up here at the end service. If you need prayer for anything in any reason in your life. This is part of our prayer team. there’s there’s others too, but I’m just asking those three if they’d be stone. Stand by up here today. And if you need prayer in your life for any reason, any reason, they’re here.

00:48:51:19 – 00:49:11:16
And they would be glad to, take time this morning and pray with you about anything going on in your life, any help you need? these these people love Jesus. they got a stout relationship with them. And, that’s why I always ask them if they’d be available, to pray with you afterwards. If you need prayer.

00:49:11:19 – 00:49:26:19
we don’t pass an offering plate. If you want to give an offering to the Lord, there’s a milk can there in the back. Of course, on your back to your bulletin. If you got one of those today, there’s your QR code. If you like to give online something like that, you’re welcome to. But God bless you. I hope you have a great week.

00:49:26:19 – 00:49:41:03
A happy 4th of July. We’ll see you next Sunday. We do hope ID like to see you on Monday night, Tuesday night or Monday night or Wednesday night at when the Bible studies. God bless you. You’re dismissed. Y’all have a great week.