This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:01] If we haven't met yet, My name is Bobby and my brother who's here at the church. His name is Bill. We have another brother named Ben. Her dad's name is Bruce. Our mom's name is Berta. And we're the Blakey's. I was growing up. We lived on Brookside Lane. We had a dog named Boomer.

[00:00:24] We were one of those families.

[00:00:27] And I was blessed to grow up with parents who loved each other and loved me. And I had a good childhood. And one thing that I was really great at has really helped me that much in life. But when I was a young boy, I was exceptional at playing anybody else good at this. Like no one had to teach me how to play. I knew how to do it right away. I was a natural, instinctual. It felt good. I mean, every day during the summer, round up the kids. Let's have an epic Nerf battle. That's what it was about at the Blakey. Yes. Get our Nerf guns out. Shoot each other with darts. Do that for like ten, fifteen minutes. Spend the next forty five minutes arguing about whether the dart really hit so-and-so or not. Parents come out breaking up, start slamming some Caprice sons. That was a good day right there. Summertime at the Blakey house. Now, when I as I started growing up, my parents had this kind of radical idea these days. They thought that me and my brothers at the house should do chores.

[00:01:24] They thought that we should start to do some work. Now, work was I was not a natural when it came to this. It was not it didn't feel as good. It wasn't as instinctual. My mom, God bless her. Literally printed up every month a list of chores that I was supposed to do during that month. And she'd like put it in some annoying place, like on the fridge or the door of my bedroom or something like that. And I was supposed to do these chores and I didn't really fully understand the benefit of these chores and I didn't really see the big picture. And so I did them begrudgingly.

[00:01:56] And eventually I got a nickname at the house called Half a Job Bob. That's what. That's why they called me, you know, like I would take the trash out and I'd be like, what? I took the trash out. Leave me alone. And they'd be like, Yeah, but you didn't put a bag back into the trash can. I don't know if that's ever been a big problem for anybody else in your life, but it's been a challenge for me. Right. When Boomer is out there doing boomers business, you know, in the back yard, Boomer was not my dog, but. And I ended up even somehow having to take care of this dog. And I have had a bitter attitude towards dogs ever since. And so I wasn't really too excited about scooping the poops. That's what we used to call it out in the backyard.

[00:02:37] And my dad, he would you know, he'd walk out there, he'd start playing catch with one of my brothers are doing something, and he would step in poop and his response would be half a job. Bob strikes again, everybody. There he is. Right. I mean, the whole neighborhood could hear this. My dad has since apologized to me for the constant mockery of calling me half a job up. But I actually am thankful that my dad called me that because it instilled within me that if I want to be a man, if I want to do things in life that are worth doing. They're going to require work. And I'm going to have to give my whole heart to them. Half a job is not going to cut it. We got a lot of half Christians in the church today.

[00:03:22] A lot of half of Christians. Oh, they come to church on Sunday morning. They're here. What are they doing the rest of the week? And we got to see that that is not OK. It is not acceptable.

[00:03:36] To just come to church on Sunday morning and not live it out and not get in the word the other six days of the week, please grab your Bible and open it up to the Psalms with me.

[00:03:46] And I want to show you this morning the desirability of reading the Bible, of studying the Bible, of knowing the Bible, not just when we preach it here in the church, but for you to read it and to do it on your own. And as we get into the Psalms, as we encourage everybody here to start reading the Psalms. We're going to start with Psalm Chapter one, which I believe was intentionally put at the beginning to encourage you and warn you about reading the rest of the Psalms.

[00:04:15] The Psalms is the hymnal of ancient Israel. It's a bunch of songs that the people of Israel put together, a compilation of their greatest hits, you could say poetry, wisdom, often some beautiful structure, even in how they are devised, like the classic structure of the psalm we're looking at this morning. There's a lot to behold here in the Psalms. And let's just read saw one the first six verses here.

[00:04:42] Look at it with me.

[00:04:43] It says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the Council of the Wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law. He meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

[00:05:09] In all that he does, he prospers the wicked or not so but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

[00:05:18] Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment or sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous. But the way of the wicked will perish.

[00:05:31] So what we're looking at here this morning as we get into saw one look at the first word there. Blessed, blessed is the man. You could literally translate that. Happy if you wanted to. Happy. You want to know how to be happy. That's what this psalm is all about. And it's in the plural. So it literally could read all the blessedness. Like there's so much blessing on the man. He's a blessed narcissist upon the man. It's just plural. It's an abundance. So I'm going to give you this morning three reasons to read the Bible. That's our first blank there, if you're taking notes. I am totally, unapologetically trying to get you to read the Bible more this week than you ever have before. And I want to give you three compelling, positive reasons to do it. And the first one. Number one, it's happiness. You want to be happy? Well, you're gonna read the Bible. That's how it's gonna happen. Happiness. That's what it's talking about. Blessedness, happiness. Now, you're not going to get happy, it says, by walking in the counsel of the wicked. Or standing in the way of sinners or sitting in the seat of scoffers. You're not gonna be happy if you listen to the world and what it's telling you, which is trying to tell you to go for happiness and to do whatever feels good and to do whatever sounds right to you. That's the message of the world. Well, your happiness is determined on who you listen to. That might be good to write down. Happiness will be determined in your life by who you listen to. Who are your counselors? Whoever you. Has your ear. Whoever you incline your ear to. And you hear what they have to say. That ultimately is the person that's going to shape your world view and the person that's going to inform the way that you think and how you make decisions and what you choose to do. Throughout the day. And it says if you're out here, listen to those. And it describes them three different words, wicked sinners, scoffers. I mean, you're talking about the people of the world, the people who don't believe in God. They might even make a mockery out of God. If you're out here, listen into the world and you're just letting your ears be filled with worldly wisdom, self-help advice and feelings based kind of counsel, then. Then it says you're not going to be blessed and you can't. It says not. You've got to walk. Not in that way.

[00:07:53] There's a saying and it wasn't just from your grandma unless your grandma was the apostle Paul. That bad company corrupts good morals. Anybody ever heard that before? You hang out with the wrong crowd, you'll listen to the wrong counselors, you will end up corrupted. That's what it's saying. Comes down to who you listen to.

[00:08:13] But his delight, look at that word, his delight. You delight in things that are desirable to things that you think are are worthwhile. They're beautiful. They're attractive. His delight is in the law of the Lord. Now, before we get past that verse one there, maybe some people are thinking, why just hang out with church people? I don't. I don't make friends with the world. Well, hold on. I mean, what about your coworkers? What about people that you're interacting with on a daily basis? What about things that they're saying? I know a lot of Christians who are like, why? I'm not friends with with people who aren't Christians. So we just sit there and watch them on TV all night long.

[00:08:51] Now we just listen to him on the radio all day.

[00:08:53] Now we just watch the news because the news is full of real good perspective on how to live life.

[00:09:01] Just great takes. Coming in one after the other on the news these days. So we fill our ears with all kinds of things.

[00:09:08] But it says here's something more desirable. Here's something you should delight in. The law of the Lord and on his law, he meditates day and night. Law is not exactly a word that gets people pumped. These days.

[00:09:23] Like law, like think like how come naturally we just we just don't feel like the law is a good thing. Like it's somehow holding us back from achieving our full potential. You know what I'm saying? Have you ever been cruising sixty five on the four or five and just think it's this is awesome right now. You know, look at these people whizzing by me. Who knows how fast they're going. I'm probably more dangerous than anybody else on this freeway right now because I'm actually going the speed limit. Are the blessedness of keeping the law feel it? Ever think that I'm not speeding right now? No one could pull me over right now. I'm providing a safe environment not only for myself, but for everyone around me. Ever think about that? That's the law. The instruction of the Lord is desirable. You should delight in it is what it's saying.

[00:10:11] Like there is a way to live that is going to be a blessed and happy way. This song begins where everybody wants to end up in life.

[00:10:20] Happy, blessed.

[00:10:24] And you got to listen to the law. Or you could translate it, the instruction of the Lord, God designed life. God created you. God gave you your life. He is the best counselor to tell you then how to live that life.

[00:10:41] And so you desire his counsel, his instruction.

[00:10:45] Let's put it up here on on the screen. Let's look at it. It's here. Here it is. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his wall. He meditates day and night. So here's a guy, man. Whatever the law is, he's desiring it. And he's seeing it in the morning. And he CNN in the evening. He's beginning his day with it and he's ending his day with it. And I think the day and night kind of an idea means that it's on his mind all of the time. From the beginning to the end of his day, he can say that he's thinking about the instruction of the Lord.

[00:11:18] Who here this morning?

[00:11:20] Could say that you're a happy person, that you're blessed, that you're live in the way God intended the right way, the way that brings ultimate soul satisfaction because you delight in God's word. From morning till evening, from when you wake up to when you go to bed.

[00:11:39] Who's ready to say on that person? I'm the guy. This is me, Psalm Chapter one versus one to two. That's describing me right there. Who could claim that? How come in our mind today in the church, that's like rarified air. That's like something no one can really get to when it's describing it right. Here is the way we should all be living. How can we think this is beyond the expectation for the normal Christian person in the church today to read their Bible every day? See right away that people are looking at me like, well, that's getting a little legalistic man reading the Bible every day. Oh, it's like one of those kind of churches. Okay. Little bit intense around here. No, I'm just telling you what the Bible says. The guy meditates on it day and night. That's what it says. And here's a I talk to people about reading the Bible all the time. I'm a fan of the book. I like to encourage other people to read the book. And and people look at me like like I'm just so judgmental for even bringing it up, for even implying that they might be wrong, for not reading it. And people will say things to me on the regular basis, like I am not much of a reader. Lot of that going on.

[00:12:51] I don't do homework. I've heard that so much here in Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach does not like homework. I don't do homework. I mean, these are adults that are telling me this. I hear the number one excuse that it always comes down to. I don't have time.

[00:13:11] I don't have time.

[00:13:12] OK, so I got a fourth grader. I got a first grader. They come to me and I say, Guys, let's read this book. Let's do this homework.

[00:13:22] Not much of a reader, Dad. I don't do homework, Dad. It's not my style. It's cramp in my playing, dad. I don't do that. I don't have time. I gotta go to baseball practice. I got to play Pokemon. Whatever it is. Right. I mean, I'm going to go catch a legendary pokey mom today, Dad. I don't got time to read. We get up in the morning.

[00:13:44] Chris does. Making waffles. Hey, guys. Who's ready to go to school this morning? Gonna.

[00:13:49] Not me, Dad. Not much of a reader. This whole school thing as whole, like studying thing. Not feeling it. What would you do if your kid tried to tell you they were not a reader? If your kid tried to tell you that they don't do homework, if your kid tried to tell you they didn't have time.

[00:14:09] How would you respond? That would be so ridiculous in your mind. You would rebuke them.

[00:14:17] That would never hold at anybody's house.

[00:14:21] That's here this morning. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. We're making you go to school. Poor little kid. What do you want to play today? Here, have another Twinkie. You know, just sit here at home. Oh, wait, don't act like that. We train our children how to think. And here's what we ultimately believe. We ultimately believe that if they don't go to school and they don't learn how to read and how to write and how to do math and how to think and how to solve problems, that ultimately they're never gonna be able to get anywhere in this world. That's what we think. We think their future happiness is on the line. The prosperity of our children is on the line. And so we get uptight about how they're doing in school.

[00:14:59] We want to see report cards about how they're doing in school, like we understand when it comes to our kids that their future depends on their training, their education. They're getting into books and learning how to think. We understand that when it comes to our kids and their life on this world, we can't understand it when it comes to our own art and our life with God.

[00:15:20] And it's embarrassing the church today should be embarrassed about the biblical illiteracy that is held as common place among us. It is acceptable answers at church for people to say that they're not a reader. As to why they don't read the Bible. Nobody is born a Bible reader. It is an acquired taste. When you taste the goodness of God, you want more of it and you start getting into books.

[00:15:51] Everybody here, whether you are not a reader or you don't do homework, can you imagine an adult here this morning saying, I'm not a worker. I'm a player. I just play games. I don't do work. Now, everybody here understands that if I want happiness, if I want prosperity, I need to make what money everybody hears. Found a way to do it. You overcome whatever obstacles when our kids have a hard time learning how to read, man. We we put them in private schools. We got Christian schools. We got home schools. We got special programs for people who have real challenges like dyslexia and all kinds of things that might come up. Do we say, well, we should ramp it back or do we ramp it up when it gets hard? We're completely hypocritical in our approach to our children's education and our approach to our own scriptural education, and we need to rethink that. If you're accepting excuses as to why you don't read the Bible, I don't think God is accepting them. You can't tell God that the dog eat your homework, that you couldn't read the Bible and he's going to somehow be okay with it.

[00:16:54] No, it says very clearly here that if you want to be happy, don't walk in the way of this world, but delight in the love of the Lord. And meditate on what God's telling you to do and on who God is in his word day and night, all the time. This is what you got to think about. You've got to find a way to do it. You don't like reading? Well, we. Have people read the Bible to you on on audio.

[00:17:14] Find a way to do it. You got to get into it.

[00:17:17] And here's the incentive. Look at her story. This person is going to be like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. And all that he does, he prospers. Now, I don't know anybody here who really wants to be like a tree. Maybe that's not the best analogy for us. We didn't we didn't grow up in ancient Israel, which is kind of this desert, dry climate man, a tree growing up there with streams flowing by barren fruit, an evergreen kind of a tree that's always there. It's not withering away. It's growing. It's flourishing. That would have been a symbol of strength, a symbol of blessing, a symbol of life in ancient Israel. Do you want to be the blessed person? And then it says this in all that he does. He what? What does it say there? Shout it out. Prosper's reason number two, you should read the Bible. It prosperity. It is saying that the man who delights in the law of the Lord and on his law, he meditates day and night. This man is going to be like a tree. Well, if that doesn't get you excited, how about this word right here? Prosperity. Anybody here want to fail miserably or you want to prosper. It's saying that the man who has his mind on the law of the Lord is thinking about the instruction of the Lord. That man, when he does it. Implication being he's going to do the will of the Lord. He's going to do what he's learning from God to do. The man who does what God says prospers. That's the promise of scripture.

[00:18:45] Now, maybe you've heard about the prosperity gospel, anybody heard about the prosperity gospel? If you give money to this preacher on television, you will get money back and you will have physical health and physical wealth and you will have prosperity.

[00:18:58] That's not what the Bible teaches, that that's a lie. But there is prosperity in the scripture.

[00:19:05] And it's not saying you're gonna have physical health or physical wealth necessarily. It's saying that you're going to be prospering in life a stable, secure, righteous kind of life because you're doing what God says. There is prosperity promised in the scripture and its promise to you. You're the man who delights in the law. The Lord meditates day and night. Well, you're going to be a prosperous man. That's what it says here in verse three, the choices before you listen to the world and you will not be happy and you will not prosper or listen to the instruction of the Lord. Delight in it. Meditate on it and you will be happy and you will prosper. That's what Psalm One is saying. It's setting to pass before you.

[00:19:49] Which way do you want to go? Go to Deuteronomy, Chapter 30. Go back here in the Old Testament with me a little bit, Deuteronomy, Chapter 30 and look at it with me. Here, this is towards the end of the law. So when David refers to the law, you might be referring to the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus numbers, Deuteronomy, which are known as the law, the Torah. They're known as the Pentateuch, the five scrolls. They're the first five books. There's that's where it all begins. Moses writes them. He gives them to Joshua. That is the beginning of the scripture of the Bible as we think about it. And here at the end of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy means the second telling of the loss. The first telling of the law was an exodus when God delivered his people out of Egypt, when Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God and he gave him the Ten Commandments, and that became the beginning of the law. Well, Deuteronomy, we tell the law a second time right before the people are about to go into the promised land.

[00:20:43] And here, at the end of telling the people the law, it says this. And Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verse fifteen, it says, See, I have set before you today life and good. That's one path you can go down. Death and evil. That's the other path you can go down. Now, if you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, that I command you today by loving the Lord, your God, by walking in his ways and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and you shall multiply. And the Lord, your God will bless you and the land that you are entering to take possession of it. If you keep these commands, I'm telling you the law for the second time. If you hear it, if you do it, if you obey it, you're going to be so blessed when you go into this land.

[00:21:29] That's a promise. That's a choice that you can make to hear God and do what he says or verse 17.

[00:21:36] But if your heart turns away and you will not hear but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish, shall not live long in the land that you are going over to Jordan to enter and possess. In fact, I'm going to call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life that you and your offspring and your children may live loving the Lord, your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him, for he God is your life and length of days that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your father's, to Abraham Isaac and to Jacob to give them. Real clear. Two parts, two options that are being presented before everybody here in this room. There is life and there is death. There is blessing from God that includes happiness and prosperity. And there is curses from God that include the judgment that will come upon our sin.

[00:22:43] What is the difference between these two parts? Look back over 17.

[00:22:48] If your heart turns away and you go down the wrong path, the path of death, the path of evil. What does that look like when your heart turns away? Key phrase. Underline this and you will not hear.

[00:23:02] That's where it goes wrong. How do people end up in hell? Simple. They don't listen to God. That's. They don't hear. They stop listening. How does that work, parents, when your kids don't listen to you? You don't listen to you today on it's okay. Maybe they'll listen tomorrow. That's OK, man.

[00:23:28] I'll tell you what. It drives me crazy when my kids don't listen to me. Anybody want to say I'm end of that right now? And we get honest, Richard. Well, we've got a chart right now up at my house. It's called The Listening Chart.

[00:23:39] Right. We've got a three year old. It's like every day. Hey, when we talk. What do you do? You stop. You look and you would point to his ears. You listen. We're trying to teach them to listen, because if they don't listen, we're very concerned for their safety. We're very concerned for their obedience.

[00:23:58] We're very concerned for what might happen to our kids if they don't learn to listen to their father and mother, to authorities, to the instruction, to safety.

[00:24:08] It says you do not here, you will not here. All you got to do to fall away from God is stop listening to him. Stop inclining your ear to.

[00:24:22] And your heart will start getting hard right there, listening to God is the difference between life and death, between blessing and curses for you and your offspring.

[00:24:36] And we don't have time to hear what God has to say to us in his word. That doesn't seem to add up. Go to James chapter one, look at the New Testament with me here and James.

[00:24:49] Chapter one, just to see that this isn't just Old Testament language where it promises blessing, whereas the blessing in the scripture come from. Where does the prosperity come from? In hearing the word of the Lord and doing the word of the Lord, I guarantee you that obedience will always be blessed. Does it mean you'll be rich? Does it mean you'll be healthy? No. But you will be blessed. What do you mean by that?

[00:25:13] We mean a happiness that doesn't come from what is happening. A happiness that doesn't ride the roller coaster of emotions. A happiness that doesn't go up and down based on your life circumstance. A happiness that comes from a state of being from who you are in relationship to God, a happiness that transcends space and time.

[00:25:31] That's what we're offering to you, a state of being, of blessedness in knowing God and a promise that he will be good to you and we'll be with you and will guide and direct you as long as you live. You and your offspring, if you will. Just hear him. What hypocrites some of us might be. Always wanting our kids to listen to us and not listening to our father in heaven. Look what he says. And James, chapter one, verse twenty five. The one who looks into the perfect law again. Here's the idea that the law. It's the law of liberty. The law is actually freedom. The instruction of the law following commands and obeying them is actually the path to life that says the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer, who forgets but a doer who acts, that one who looks into the law, hears it. Does it. He will be. What does it say there? He will be.

[00:26:33] Whatever he does, he prospers.

[00:26:38] I mean, we could make the whole rest of your life pretty straightforward here this morning, if you will just get the habit of looking into the Bible and doing what it says, you will be blessed.

[00:26:51] It really is that simple. It really is that straightforward. That's the command here. So many people are heroes. We have so many half the jobs in the church. Half of Christians. I mean, I'm concerned that people are leeching off the sermons that we preach here at the church.

[00:27:08] Like, that's the only spiritual word they're going to hear from the Lord their entire week is just what we preach here on Sunday morning. Now, hopefully it's empowering. Hopefully it's life changing. Hopefully it's motivating. But hopefully it's not the only time you're hearing from the Lord in the next seven days.

[00:27:24] How disappointing that must be for you.

[00:27:27] How sad that must be to hear it all on Sunday. And we sing the songs and there's a sense of like God doing some kind of work in my heart. And I've heard it. And then I go and I don't do it.

[00:27:40] I was growing up and I used to like to watch television. That was something that I was good at. It came naturally. Watching TV never felt ever felt bad about watching television. I always felt good about it. Very natural. I could do it in my pajamas. Very, very relaxing. One show I used to love. Watch it, man. I did not want to miss it. G.I. Joe. Anybody know this show? Am I speaking to anybody right now? Real American hero. Right? Just all these dudes with like muscles everywhere with cool names like Rip Cord and Ricardo. Quick kick you like. And they would shoot guns for 30 minutes. Was really like twenty one minutes of show with the commercials. And no one would ever get hurt. Was like a fake world they made up where you could just like Cobra Commander DSTO and all these bad guys. And nobody ever got hurt. They got punched in the face and then they got back up in Otomi. And at the end because I guess it was violence for kids and somebody didn't feel quite right about it. Now this was the 80s was a long time ago. Right. But they would do public service announcements at the end of every show. Anybody ever remember these? And it was like some kid were playing hide and go seek out. Some kid goes in a abandoned refrigerator and here comes Mr. Muscles. And he's like, hey, don't hide in places that can trap you. And they're like, oh, like an abandoned refrigerator. Now I know. And then the hero is like and knowing is half the battle. Every single time. And then the music comes like swells. Knowing is half the battle. Man, what a lame slogan. Like who wants to win half the battle.

[00:29:10] Many Christians do.

[00:29:12] Oh, yeah. You're telling me I won't go to hell if I do that? Mm hmm. I like to know that.

[00:29:16] And then I don't do it. And then we think we won't go to hell at the end of it. How's that working out?

[00:29:25] Knowing deceives you into thinking that you're doing. And I'm concerned the people here at our church are deceived because they know it.

[00:29:34] But they don't do it.

[00:29:37] Just because you heard it is not enough. You got to hear, hear really this morning what the scripture is saying. The one who hears and does not forget, but goes and does it. That one will be blessed. The scripture is promising. Blessing. God wants you to be happy and prosperous, if you will. Just listen to him.

[00:30:00] He promises it to you. He promises it to you.

[00:30:04] What he really wants from you. Go back to Psalm Chapter one. What God really wants most of all is not just for you to do what he says, but he wants to have a relationship with you. Let's get that down for number three. Third reason to read the Bible. God, we'd like to have a relationship with you. Now, in chapter and verse four here, this it takes a harsh turn and we'll get to that in a minute. Psalm one and Psalm One's pretty intense, but it says this one. There's one more nice phrase in versus four or five and six. And the nice phrase is right there in the beginning of verse six, where it's encouraging you that the Lord knows the way of the righteous, that God is intimately acquainted with. He's friendly with. He has an intimacy with here the way of the righteous. There's a kind of person, the person who listens to God and does what God says, that person, they know God. They have a relationship with God. And this is something we're going to keep talking about here at this church. We're gonna keep talking about this concept. We've been mentioning it throughout our study of the Gospel of John.

[00:31:09] This idea of eternal life that when you believe in Jesus and when you are saved and you become a Christian and you begin to turn from your sin and you live for Jesus, you enter into eternal life right away, not after you die. That's a that's a part of it, that you live forever in heaven with God after you die. But eternal life is a quality of life. It's a relationship that you have with God now. And I want you to be able to say as your past or someone who cares for your soul. I want you to be able to say I have a relationship with God.

[00:31:41] And here's what it looks like in my life. Here's what it means to me.

[00:31:46] There's times that I spend with God. Here's what I do in those times. Here's how I think about him throughout the day. Here's when I talk to him. I wanted to be a real, tangible relationship between you and God. That's what God wants from you. He wants to know you. He wants you to be walking his way. And he wants to be going with you and blessing you on the way. And he wants to satisfy you, just like you as a father or a mother. Want to know your kids. Want to send them on the right way. Want to be there with them. Want them to be happy and prosperous and blessed. That's the same way your father in heaven cares about you, except he cares for you better than you even care for your own kids.

[00:32:24] And he wants that relationship with you.

[00:32:27] God wants to spend time with you, it pleases you when you delight, it pleases him when you delight in his law.

[00:32:35] When you think about.

[00:32:37] When you say a priority for me, just like it pleases your wife, when you take her on a date, just like it pleases your kids, when you do something fun with them, they always want dad to get off the couch and come and play. And when Dad comes and plays. It's a great day at the house. That's what everybody in your family wants, is they want time with you. Your father in heaven. It pleases him when you prioritize time with him as the most important thing in your life. I don't know if I'm too busy. I'm going to rearrange my schedule because in my life, God comes first.

[00:33:09] He's the one thing.

[00:33:12] I mean, I don't think there's any source of happiness, any source of prosperity without the relationship that I have with God. That's what we believe. Go go to John, Chapter 17 and let's go. And let's just look at this eternal life. This is going to hopefully be when it's all said and done, because we're going through the Gospel of John on Sundays and hopefully many people are going to believe in Jesus here at this church. I've got to talk to people who believed in Jesus this week, and it's awesome to talk to new believers. But for those of us who are believers who who enter into this relationship with God, the thing that's going to be memorable for us about our study through the Gospel of John is getting a clearer understanding and a more working definition of what eternal life really is and how I live it out every single day. And here in John's 17 verse three, it says, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Those who hear him, who do what he says. That's a pattern of life described as righteousness in the Bible. God knows those people. He has a relationship with them.

[00:34:27] What does that look like in your life?

[00:34:30] Sometimes when I preach about the relationship, people have kind of challenged me on that. They say, do you think that everybody will really have a relationship like you do? Do you think that everybody is really going to become a person who reads the Bible every day? Well, I can only hope so.

[00:34:45] I can only hope so that everyone would know God in an intimate way that would affect your daily life.

[00:34:53] It would be my greatest desire for every single soul here at this church and look at how it describes this eternal life.

[00:34:58] Go down to verse 13, it says.

[00:35:03] Well, we won't get into this whole chapter eventually, but now it says Jesus talking about going back to be with the father. Now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

[00:35:17] Catch that phrase out. Jesus is speaking.

[00:35:20] He's saying things. He's giving us this prayer here. And John 17, which I would say is the greatest glimpse where we're going to get pealing past the wallpaper of this life into eternity. What does it look like to have eternal life now? Well, it's going to look like.

[00:35:36] John, 17, is the best glimpse and Jesus says, I'm saying these things in the world that they may have my joy, the joy of Jesus himself fulfilled in themselves. Jesus wants his joy to be in you.

[00:35:51] And I have given them your word.

[00:35:52] See the connection between the joy of Jesus and the word of Jesus. I have given them your word.

[00:36:00] And the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I'm out of the world. Now, I'm not asking that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one, for they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. So how we gonna do this tricky dance? How are we going to stay in the world but be out of the world at the same time? We're not going to leave the world, but we're not going to be of the world. How are we gonna do that? Verse 17. Sanctify them, set them apart, make them your own people. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is true.

[00:36:32] That's how it's gonna happen.

[00:36:34] You will become like the world or you will become like God, and it all depends on your relationship with his word. That's what someone is saying.

[00:36:44] Now, I've tried to paint this in a positive picture. I'm trying to encourage you, right? I mean, I just think if we offered happiness, prosperity and relationship in any other context, I think people would be jumping up and down. They'd be saying, crush it 2016. I mean, they would be paid money for how they could get happiness, prosperity and relationship. This is what everybody wants in life. This is what someone is offering. It's offering you an intimate relationship with the God who created you. And you can know him. And there's probably no better part of scripture to get to know God in a personal relationship than through the Psalms. That's what mostly the Psalms are, is men expressing to God their relationship with him. And so I'm begging with you. I'm pleading with you to read the Bible with us here. And I'm doing it for the good of your own soul. But at some point, I got to stop pleading and smiling and begging, and I got to start threatening.

[00:37:46] Because I've lived in the real world long enough to know positive incentive hasn't gotten people to read their Bible.

[00:37:54] Survival gets people to read their Bible. Same reason people go to work, go to work, ever feel good? Can you imagine?

[00:38:01] People tell me, well, I don't think I should read my Bible if I'm not feeling it. Because I'm like spiritual is what they're basically saying. Right. And I want to be caught up in the spirit and I want to be going with my emotions. And when I'm not feeling it, I don't want to read it. Great. Tell that to your boss. And I'm not coming to work today. I'm not feeling it. You don't want me to do fake work at work, do you? You want me to force myself at work? You want me to be like feeling it, right? I'm not coming in today when I start feeling it. I'll let you know. Doesn't work at work. Shouldn't work in your relationship with God. Anything worth doing? Feels hard when you start doing it. Isn't that true? Anybody want to see him into that? Physical exercise, work, relationships, all kinds of things, they take effort. Even when you're not feeling that.

[00:38:59] And if you don't give the effort to get into God's work, go back to Psalm Chapter one because it takes a turn here. And this is really kind of scary when you really study this song, when you really look at it. It's drawing a distinction between the wicked and the righteous, and it's saying one is going to perish apart from God and one knows God. And in John, three, 16, when we say that whoever you know, we know that perish and eternal life there, the difference between God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Right. And then some people perish. And some people have eternal life. What's the difference in John 316?

[00:39:35] Whoever what believes in him? What's the difference in Psalm One between the man who's perishing and the man who has a relationship with God in eternal life?

[00:39:46] Hearing the word of God.

[00:39:49] I want to claim I'm believing in Jesus. Well, it's hard to see the connection of believing in Jesus when the difference between believing in Jesus is eternal life. And if you don't believe in him, it's perishing. Well, now we come to Psalm One where eternal life means I listen to God and perishing means I don't listen to God.

[00:40:06] So I think they're very similar.

[00:40:08] That's people who believe in Jesus are going to end up listening to and and hearing God. Look what it says. You're in verse for the wicked or not. So or you could translate it. Not so the wicked exclamation point. The righteous man who listens to God. He's like a tree. He's stable, secure, safe. Everything he does prospering the wicked. They're like chaff. They're blowing around in the wind.

[00:40:30] They're like at harvest time.

[00:40:31] That stuff that comes off the husks of the corn, that extra wheat, they're that stuff that's just on the ground that's getting blown around. Maybe it's getting burned. Maybe it's getting thrown away. That's what the wicked are life. Not very stable. Blown about. Easily tossed to and fro. No. Therefore, the wicked. They're not going to stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous. But the way of the wicked will.

[00:40:56] I mean, it's a threat.

[00:40:59] A blessed is the man who who delights in the love of the Lord. Not so the other guy.

[00:41:05] He's going to perish apart from God. Go to Proverbs Chapter one, you'll see that all wisdom literature draws these two paths.

[00:41:12] It gives you these two choices. It says, hey, everybody here this morning at CompassHB Bible Church, we're hold in life and we're hold in death. We're holding up blessings and we're holding up curses. Which one do you want? Here in Proverbs, Chapter one. It's begging you to incline your ear to wisdom.

[00:41:32] Proverbs Chapter one, verse eight has the verse that is on the door of our cabinet at home right now that we're trying to get our kids to listen to. It says here, my son, your father's instruction and for sake, not your mother's teaching.

[00:41:47] Oh, yeah, we want kids to memorize scripture going memorize that one kid's right.

[00:41:55] And please listen to wisdom. That's what Proverbs is all about. Give givers to know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight, receive instruction and wise dealing in righteousness, justice and equity to give prudence to the simple. I'm not much of a reader. I don't have much of an education. I'm not really much of a thinker. Well, this is giving prudence to the simple. It's giving knowledge and discretion to the youth. No one is born again a Bible reader, you become a Bible reader after you're born again. That's how it works. It makes you that way. Let the wise hear an increase in learning and let the one who understands obtain guidance to understand. Man, you want to figure it out. You want to know what it means. And it just pleads with you. Please, please, please, listen, listen, listen.

[00:42:43] And then it says this.

[00:42:46] In verse 24, it it it turns out I actually look at verse 20, let's start there. Wisdom cries aloud in the street and the market. She raises her voice, hears wisdom, shout out to you at the head of the noisy street.

[00:42:59] She cries out at the entrance of the city gate. She speaks how long? Those simple ones where you love being simple. Wow. I mean, your scripture kind of mocking people. How long will you scoffers delight in there? SCOFFING And fools hate knowledge if you turn it my reproof. Behold. I will pour out my spirit to you. I'll give you the Holy Spirit who will help you to understand the scripture. I will make my words known to you. Here's the promise from God speaking through the the person of wisdom here that I'm going to make my words known to you when you seek it. You're going to find it.

[00:43:35] But verse 24, because I have called and you refuse to listen because I have stretched out my hand. No one is heated because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a world. When when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call upon me. When their life starts falling apart, when the curses and death come, then they will call upon me. But I will not answer.

[00:44:08] They will seek me diligently, but will not find me because they hated knowledge and did not choose. The fear of the Lord would have none of my council, and despised all my reproof. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their way and have their fill of their own devices. For the simple are killed by their turning away and the complacency, the complacency of fools destroys them. But whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster. What kills the fool? What destroys the simple? What was the word that we just read?

[00:44:45] It's when you wake up on Tuesday morning and you don't feel like getting into God's word and delighting in the love of the Lord and meditating on it day and night. That complacency.

[00:44:56] That not caring. That not being stirred up in your soul. And such, it's such a it's such a kind of a catch 22 because you're telling me you don't feel like reading the Bible.

[00:45:10] What's the one thing that gets you feeling like reading the Bible?

[00:45:14] Isn't it so ironic? That the reason we don't read it is really the reason we should read it. How messed up are thinking becomes.

[00:45:29] I mean, what we have here in scripture, whether you want to go to Psalm One or whether you want to go to Proverbs one, I'm not making it up. I'm just the messenger. God is like a parent. And he is speaking to you. And if you will not listen to him, he is threatening you like a child.

[00:45:49] Stay on the side of the road. Godsake.

[00:45:53] Obey the traffic laws, God say they will keep you live, just like you would say to your kid. How do you feel when your kid runs out into the street and a car is coming around the corner? Are you OK with that?

[00:46:11] That's how God feels when we don't listen to him. There's a threat here.

[00:46:17] Hey, I'm calling out to you. I'm offering wisdom to you. I'm saying come and let's have a relationship and you're going to ignore me. Ignore me. Reject me. Do what you want. Go your own way. And then at the end, when you get what I said you would get, when you start getting blown around like chaff. When the day of judgment starts to come.

[00:46:36] When the curses start to come. When the relationships fall apart and the financial pressure starts to hit home, then you're going to start calling to me. I'm not going to listen to you, God say.

[00:46:47] I mean, wisdom is calling out and it's saying, if you don't listen to me now, don't expect me to listen to you later. Wow, what a threat.

[00:46:57] What a series thing that we all need to check ourselves with right now here this morning. Does God feel like I am a child of his? Who listens to him?

[00:47:08] And if there's if my heavenly father loves me so much. He wants to communicate with me in such a way. The least I could do to show respect. Would be to listen.

[00:47:22] Can you say here this morning? That you listen to God on a daily basis, that you hear his voice. You have a relationship with him. And it's a delight. It's a desirable thing for you to hear the instruction of Lord David went so far in Psalm 27, verse four.

[00:47:40] Let's throw that back up here on the screen. He went so far as to say the one thing. Have I asked the Lord that I will seek after men?

[00:47:50] We have settled for way less than that.

[00:47:55] Many Christians today are okay. People who call themselves Christians and are at a church like ours, they are okay with God not being the one thing they're seeking after in life. They have a different song than David. I would wonder for some of us here this morning, can we say that being with God in his presence, reading his word, can we even say that is a thing in our life?

[00:48:16] Is that even a thing? In our day.

[00:48:19] I'm not even asking for the one thing status where it's the ultimate thing. Could we even say it's one of the things in the mix?

[00:48:27] Because I believe David's saying that one thing I've asked of the Lord that I will seek after if we keep going there with that verse, look what he says here, that I want to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

[00:48:42] I don't want to miss a day. I'm all in to be with the Lord.

[00:48:46] And when I see there, when I spend those times with God, when I read his word, it stops feeling like a chore. It starts to mature my perspective. And it starts to become a delight.

[00:48:57] It starts to become a passion. And pretty soon I'm not just reading the Bible. I'm getting these other books about the Bible and I'm talking about it with other people. And I'm starting to realize that when I understand this book and I do what it says, it's a source of life for me, just like a man who now delights in work, delights in providing for his family when he comes to his house that he's paying for driving the car that he's paying for. And he sees his wife and his kids cared for. Man, the man doesn't want to play games anymore. The man's happy to do work because he sees the happiness, prosperity and relationship that it brings.

[00:49:31] We need to have a mature perspective about the word of God. That what I come in here to see in this book is is not just a book. I'm not just like a nerd who likes to study. No, I come in here to see the face of God and it's beautiful to behold. Have you seen it?

[00:49:46] Man, sometimes it's tense when you spend time with the Lord.

[00:49:50] Sometimes he exposes you and you find out who you really are. Maybe that's what you're afraid of. You don't want to deal with who you really are. But there is no greater companion than the Lord. There's one thing. We're on a quest to eliminate here at CompassHB Bible Church for every single person who goes to this church. Loneliness. We hate loneliness.

[00:50:11] Loneliness is a lie from, say.

[00:50:14] Because if you know the Lord, you are not alone and he's speaking to you 66 books from all kinds of different authors over thousands of years. He's speaking to you.

[00:50:25] And he wants you to listen to him.

[00:50:27] So we're starting to Psalms and we're starting it today and we're going to do it for the next. It's going to take us five months to go through. All right. Go back to Psalm Chapter one, everybody. OK, this is it. I mean, I'm asking you if I am your pastor, if we have that relationship. I am pleading with you here that you would read through the Psalms with us. And I don't think I'm laying on anyone a heavy burden. How long was Psalm Chapter one? Like, how long would that take you to get through and think about? A little bit. Six verses.

[00:50:59] Really? You guys think you can handle this here? Six verses, right. How about how about verse. How about chapter two. Tomorrow what we're gonna get into chapter two.

[00:51:07] How many verses we got there. Shout it out. How many verses. Twelve versus you can handle twelve verses. Just maybe one for every waking hour. That's all. That's all it took. How about chapter three? How many versus are we talking about. What a bird. And we're laying down upon your back here.

[00:51:22] I mean, we're starting out with baby steps here in the songs, guys. Right. We just want you to make it a daily habit, and we don't even want you to do it by yourself. We want you to talk about it. Want you to talk about, you know, what's crazy?

[00:51:37] If you study the history of the world, if you study history, especially of the Bible and how the Bibles worked, that there are more Bibles alive in the world right now. There are more printed copies and more digital access to the Bible in the world right now than there has ever been. And there is probably at the same time, perhaps less Bible reading than there has ever been. Have you studied this?

[00:52:00] Have you thought about this, that when people didn't have the Bible, when they didn't have their own copy, they would have to read it in public? They would have to all gather together for the reading of it. And then when one man read it, man, they would listen to it with so intensity because they knew they wouldn't get to hear maybe it again. They had to gather to hear it and they would listen to it.

[00:52:20] And then they would all walk away just talking about what they just heard, like every time the scripture was read in ancient Israel or in the early church in the Book of Acts. I mean, not everybody could just go home and have their own book and they're on their phone and on their I pad it on their computer. And Mike decorated around their house. They didn't have all this stuff. And so they only had it when they read it together and so they would read it together. And here's what they did. Here's why I think people used to be more engaged with the scripture than we are today, because it started a conversation among the people.

[00:52:51] And they talked about it.

[00:52:54] And they couldn't just be like, why didn't hear it? I don't know about it, I can't talk to you about it. I don't have time. I'm not a reader. No.

[00:53:00] Everybody expected everybody else to talk about it, like to speak it to one another to share what they thought about.

[00:53:07] And see, the more the Bible reading has become like these private devotions, the less it's actually happened.

[00:53:14] They need to bring it out back into a sense of community. We need to get this church right here. This group of people talking about a song every single day. Like, I can't live 24 hours without talking to somebody about the Psalms. And we're going to write our own commentary on the Psalms. If you've got to hand out, flip it over and you'll see there. We do a live journal every day at our Web site, CompassHB, h.b, dot com slash read. And you're going to see the Psalm of the Day on there. If you go to that Web site, you read the song, you're like. I don't know what this psalm saying. I don't want to think about it. I'm not much of a reader. I don't do homework. It sounds hard for me. Great. That's fine. Come on this Web site and let other people tell you what the song is. Say.

[00:53:56] You'll meet real life people writing out comments and they're going to be encouraging you. Here's what this song means. Here's what I'm gonna do about it. Here's what I heard. Here's what I'm gonna go do. And we can share this information with one another. Maybe some of you will even be so bold to leave a comment on there yourself and say, wow, this song really encouraged me.

[00:54:16] You know what, when the psalm encourages you and you share that with other people, guess what other people end up.

[00:54:21] Oh, man. And it spreads like wildfire and it starts to it becomes contagious. This Bible reading thing.

[00:54:29] Becomes something people want to do because they want to talk about it with so-and-so. Granted, you read that verse. We were having an argument in the green room before the service about what your favorite song was. And some people said a song was different than my favorite song. And I almost started to feel like maybe I should tell them why my song was better than their song. I almost got a little bit offended. I was like, maybe instead of Batman versus Superman, we should have like some one hundred and thirteen versus Psalm 73. Let me tell you, it's awesome about my song. No, let me tell you what's awesome about what a great conversation that would be. Just people celebrating God's goodness. So I'm going to ask you to turn with me to Psalm 119 and I'm going to ask you. Yeah. That's funny because it's a long chapter. So there's one hundred and seventy six versus in someone 90. It's the longest psalm. What it is, really is, is it's an acrostic. It takes all 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and it gives you eight verses, eight lines, starting with each one of the letters of the Hebrew off. But in all, one hundred and seventy six verses. All they say is how awesome the Bible is.

[00:55:38] And like why it's worth reading.

[00:55:39] In fact, reading it once a day would not even be considered enough according to this psalm right here. When you're talking about somebody who's meditating on it seven times a day here, someone who's rising early in the morning and staying up late night, all to focus on the law, the statutes, it'll say all these legal words, the testimonies, the statutes, the precepts, all like whatever God has instructed me to do, I just can't get enough of it.

[00:56:06] And so I'm going to challenge you to memorize one of these verses. You've got one hundred and seventy six to pick from. All right. And I want you to memorize the one that is going to be a motivation for you. A reminder to you of why you should join us in reading the songs. OK, pick one out of one hundred and seventy six. Pick one. Memorize it and say it to yourself every single day. Maybe you're going to pick verse ninety seven. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation. All the day may be memorized and that will remind you that you love God. You love his word. You want to think about it all day long. Find one of the verses in here. If you have never read the Bible before. If you think it's too hard. If you think it's something that you can't do. We are here to help you and to prove that wrong once and for all.

[00:56:55] In the next five months here at this church. OK, so we're not going to drop this. We're not gonna talk about it today and forget it tomorrow. We're gonna keep on talking about this for the next five months. So if you don't want to read the songs, we'll see in September. All right. Because this is what we're going to be doing for the next five months.

[00:57:16] And we want you to be a part of it. We want all of us to get to know God together as we get into his word. My soul longs for your salvation. I hope in your word, verse 81 says, pick one and memorize it and get motivated. And let's get into the word together. And if you don't know how to do it, come to the seminar. Not this Saturday, but next Saturday.

[00:57:38] So I'm pleading with you. Please read the songs with us here at CompassHB H.B. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much that you would reveal yourself to people like us, that you would give us songs to sing, that you would give us melodies for our hard one hundred and fifty different ways to worship you. Different things to learn about you. Hundred and fifty ways to know you here in this book. God, I'm so thankful for what? Reading the Psalms did for me in my life. And how by the end of reading the Psalms, I really felt like I knew you in a personal way. God, my heart just prays that for every single person, God, I pray that they would be motivated here if there are regular Bible reader God, I pray that this will just encourage them all the more. And they would say a men to the happiness, the prosperity and the relationship that the scripture brings and God, if they're not a regular Bible reader, I pray that those positive motivations will be an incentive for them to get into the scripture this week in a way that maybe more than they ever have before. And to join us in the study of God's word, but God, for those who think that they can continue to live without delighting in your law without heat or hearing your instruction. Without doing what you say, God, I pray that they would hear the threat in your word this morning. And that they would realize we don't just need the Bible if we're going to see a revival. We need the Bible. If we're gonna have survival in our lives. There's no other way to get to life and blessing, but through you and your work, the other path.

[00:59:16] When we do not hear you. Is cursus and death. God, I pray that you will turn us from our complacency and you will ignite a fire in our souls to love you with all of our hearts as we get into your word together. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.