The Way to Happiness
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2 paths, 2 lives, 2 destinations
“Blessed is the man”
“Blessed is the man”
To be blessed is to be happy
It is to have a “good” life
Does wealth bring this?
Does power and respect bring this?
Does romantic love bring it?
It Goes beyond this life
English Standard Version Psalm 37
16 Better is the little that the righteous has
than the abundance of many wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous.
It Goes beyond this life
Everyone wants this
The whole world seeks blessing
But they fail to realize the SOURCE of blessing
English Standard Version Psalm 37
16 Better is the little that the righteous has
than the abundance of many wicked.
17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous.
They try to find it in this world and outside God
True blessing can only come from he who made us
It is better to have nothing of this world and a little of God, then all of this world and have not God
The wrong way to blessing
The wrong way to blessing
“who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,”
“To walk”
This refers to the manner in which we live our lives
In life we are always moving forward, there is not pause
What path are we on and what direction are we going
We will be on one path or the other
Sometimes the path of the righteous and the wicked can start out looking very similar
it inevitably separates into different directions
What are we walking towards? What do we want?
To be blessed we must NOT walk according to the counsel of the wicked
Council = advice
Council can also mean to follow the pattern of the wicked
If others are doing it then it must be okay
Who are the wicked?
English Standard Version Psalm 14
2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
The wicked are those that do not seek after God
This passage also shows two paths
To understand and seek after God
To turn aside from God
To walk in the counsel of the wicked is to live like the average person
What are some things that the world considers good that would be following the council of the wicked?
You deserve it
You should live with someone before you marry them, to make sure its going to work out
You need to work hard to get the life you want
Be whatever you want to be
Love yourself
The wicked can be the Murderers, thieves, or people like Hitler
But it is also those that the world might consider good
Doctors, teachers, scientists, athletes, astronauts, scientists trying to cure cancer or diseases, philanthropists trying to end world hunger
“nor stands in the way of sinners”
Similar to the last point, this goes further than doing what the world does in that the person now finds their identity in this world
This person is now standing in and holding onto what he has in this life.
Interests or hobbies
Sports, “I’m a Broncos fan!”
Image - how I look, exercise my body, wear the current fashion.
Profession or job
Political party “I’m a republican” Go Trump!
LBGT
Sinners find their standing in this life
Their self worth
their reason for doing what they do is all in this life
But we find our standing in the Lord
Our identity is not in ourself or the things of this world
We find our identity in our Creator
The Creator is our reason for being
“nor sits in the seat of scoffers;”
This person is so consumed by the world that he scoffs at God and those who might follow Him
Not content to live like the world and to find value in the worlds wicked systems the scoffer attacks those who believe and follow God.
Being so in love with the world the scoffer lashes out at any that are not equally in love with the same thing
The right way
The right way
“But his delight is in the law of the Lord”
In contrast to the wicked that delight in this world
The Law speaks of all God’s word
Why doesn’t the author Say
Walks in the counsel of the righteous
Stands among God’s assembly
Sits in the seat of the teachers of the law.
It is NOT saying to walk with the righteous instead of the wicked
It is contrast between living in the counsel of the world or the counsel of God
Going to church instead of a bar is not it.
It is not saying to work for God and in exchange he will bless you
“God, I’ve been working hard to obey you, now its time for you to give me the things of this world that I want.
It says the blessed man Delights in God’s law
Not the man who studies
Not the man who reads
Not attending Sunday school
How can I delight in the Law
What if you don’t delight in God’s law?
6. What makes the law delightful?
What makes the law delightful?
The law reveals who God is.
For the one who seeks after God he loves the Law of God because it teaches him about God.
The goal is not just to know the bible, the Goal is to know God through His Word
What if you don’t delight in God’s law?
“and on his law he meditates day and night.”
To Meditate is to think about it
Day and night he is thinking about scripture
It is not the quantity that is read
Even a person who can not read can meditate for weeks on passages that they may have heard.
Reading 20 chapters a day is of little value if your mind thinking about.
What can be meditated on
What is God like?
What does God want me to be like?
We all, generally, spend our time mediating on something
We think things that we are interested in or whats important to us
Cars, Clothes, sports, friends
What you spend your time thinking about can reveal where your heart is
To be blessed, The Lord is to be at the center of our affection
A life of blessing
A life of blessing
What is this blessing like
What is this blessing like
“He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.”
This is the ideal tree, it is everything we could want from a tree
It does not fail to yield fruit
The A healthy tree should produce healthy delicious fruit in its season
Its leaf does not wither
This tree does not go through dead seasons
It is always green and full
The tree is planted by a never ending source of life
Water provides the substance and nutrients necessary for the tree to be healthy and fruitful
This tree does not depend on the unpredictable schedule of rain to thrive.
The tree is constantly fed from the streams of water
We likewise need to be constantly fed from that which sustains us
What sustains us? The word of God
English Standard Version Chapter 8
3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
To meditate day and night on God’s word is to be planted between streams of living water.
To hear occasional sermons or to read without meditating is to rely on the occasional sprinkles of rain.
To be truly blessed in this life you must drink deep of the word of God that gives life.
Do not
A life without blessing
A life without blessing
The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Chaff is the hull of a wheat grain, it is not edible so it must be separated. How they did this was by running a cart over the grain to break the chaff and then they would use a winnowing fork to throw both the chaff and the wheat into the air. The chaff was light and would blow away in the wind and the heavy wheat kernel would fall back down to the threshing floor. Thus the wheat would remain and the chaff be separated out.
The blessed man is compared to a fruitful tree full of life
The wicked are compared to worthless chaff with no life
Chaff is worthless
Chaff is worthless
Chaff must be separated out
Chaff must be separated
Life for the wicked is futile and accounts for nothing
It produces no fruit pleasing to God
The Destination
The Destination
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous
The two paths in life have 2 outcomes
There will be a judgement
The wicked will come before God to be judged for their life.
They will not stand - they will have no defense or excuse
Like Chaff, they will be driven away
Just as the chaff cannot stay with the wheat so the wicked cannot remain with the righteous
By contrast, the righteous will stand in the judgement.
God will declare them blameless
We shall be among the congregation of the righteous
Always in the presence of God and completely separated from evil, pain, and death
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
That the Lord knows the way of the righteous should be a great comfort to us in this life.
Though we may have doubts and fears at times the Lord knows. None who are his will be accidently sorted with the wicked. And none who are wicked will escape judgement, they all will perish.