Episode 236: Two Roads | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

Take two. Are we on? Yes. Alright. I always get mad, then I realize it's my fault. It's never ever. It's never been Brian's fault ever. You guys, we're in Psalm one. If you don't know where to find Psalms, just open your Bible to the middle and point your finger. You're probably real close to it.

I'm going to start out and read a quote. It allegedly was Steve Jobs who wrote it on his deathbed. You know who Steve Jobs is? The guy that founded Apple. He's a bazillionaire. Do you know that guy? I looked him up last night and I thought he's like one of the top two or three richest people that ever lived. It's not true. He's like barely in the top 20. Do you know the richest person that ever lived was? Just a little extra before we get into the sermon. Genghis Khan, Tim, $300,000,000,000, Steve Jobs really didn't have that much. Today's money about $45 billion. Strangely, he made four times the amount of money on Disney than he did on Apple. So anyway, that's just a little extra.

But here's what he wrote allegedly. I think he didn't actually write it, but I'm going to use it anyway because it's a great quote. Right? This thing came out in 2015. Steve Jobs died, I believe, in 2011, which gave me the idea that he actually did not write it. But it's profound nonetheless. Here we go. Somebody read it.

I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others' eyes, my life is the epitome of success. However, aside from my work, I have little joy. In the end, my wealth is only a fact of life that I'm accustomed to. At this moment, lying on my bed and recalling my life, I realized that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in have paled and become meaningless in the face of my death. You will realize that your true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world.

The Illusion of Material Success

That's pretty sobering, whoever wrote it. And even if Steve Jobs didn't write it, which is likely, think about Ecclesiastes 2. We think it may be Solomon, right? But he basically said, I denied my eyes and my heart. No pleasure did I deny myself. Basically, there's never been a man like me. I mean, I was so wealthy, I had all things, I built things. He said, wine, women, song, all of it. I had everything that so many people want. And he says, but in the end, it was meaningless. It was vanity. And so even if Steve Jobs didn't say it, this whole idea of blessing gets turned on its head, even in Ecclesiastes chapter 2.

The Two Roads of Psalm 1

Let's dive into the text. Psalm 1 is basically, there's two roads. And for those who've been baptized today, I want you to know, as a believer, you can walk with Jesus or you can decide not to. And so you really have that choice. Walk with Jesus and stand under his word and be blessed, or do your own thing and be not blessed. In fact, you will be judged.

And let's see what the text actually says.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

And so the first question I would have is, do you want to be blessed? Another word for this Hebrew word is actually, do you want to be happy? A lot of Christians think the Bible never wants Christians to be happy. You look at many of their faces and you believe that they don't want to be happy. But it says happy. It's actually plural. It's like happy upon happy upon happy is the man that. Blessed upon blessing upon blessing upon blessing is the man that. And there's something that he doesn't do and there's something he does do. Something he doesn't do, something he does do. Do you want to be happy? Do you want to be happy? It's a fair question. Do you want to be happy?

So the Lord shows the way of real blessing, of real joy. The first thing is, here's what you shouldn't do. If you want to be happy, don't do these things. Now there's a progression. It says,

He who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

Help me. The blessed man, the happy man or woman, does not do what? Doesn't walk, then doesn't stand, and then doesn't sit. I get that.

Now, when y'all went to college, y'all studied. I didn't. I had fun. I know what it is the first time to go by the frat house and see all that debauchery. Can you say debauchery? Debauchery going on. Oh, that's right. It’s Kid Sunday. Sorry. You see it and you walk by it and go, Oh my, oh my, look at all that.

But the next thing that happens very quickly is instead of walking by and going, Oh my, look at that, what do you do? You kind of stand there and take it in and go, Wow. Oh, yeah, that looks good. Then what's the next step? Because it's kind of like you're being sucked down into it. You walk by, you stand in it, and then finally you sit in the seat of scoffers. Those who scoff against the Lord, that hate him, hate his word and openly mock.

Here, the psalmist is basically saying, hey, you want to be happy? Don't do those things. It's just like a light switch. It's on, it's off. You do those things, you're not going to be happy. You may be happy for a season, but eventually you're going to be miserable.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel or advice of the wicked, doesn't stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. Okay, that's all great and I believe it, but what's the problem with that? What's the problem? What are we gonna do? Go into the castle? Right? Just teach our kids God's ways and never go out into the big, bad, ugly world. Right? You could get that from this passage. Because it says, don't walk in the counsel of the wicked, don't stand in the way of sinners, don't sit in the seat of scoffers. Well, maybe we just go into our own castle, to our own little Christian community.

The problem is, if we all go into our own castles and our own little Christian communities, guess who's inside the castle? Sinners. So, it doesn't even work. It doesn't work. And what about when Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel, right? Preach the gospel. Make disciples of all men. Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything I've commanded you. You can't do that from the castle.

So the clear call of the Great Commission is we are to be amongst the people, sinners, as Jesus was. We just don't want to sit under their advice and their counsel. And if they move to mocking, we move on.

What to Do Instead: Delight and Meditate

So blessed is the man who doesn't do these things. But in verse two, there's also something positive. It's not just don't do this, it's also do this. Again, it's not do this so the Lord will love you more, it's do this so you can be happy. Do you want to be happy?

What is it he says to do? If you want joy, if you want to be happy and not pretend happy—because the scripture says in laughter, there can be much sorrow. So we're not talking about being laughy, chappy, happy. We're talking about having this deep inner joy and peace that you can even have in a time of hard suffering. But what is it? We know what we're not to do. What are we supposed to do?

Look at verse two. It says,

This blessed or happy man, his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on God's law, he meditates day and night.

And so those of you who've been baptized today, you have that choice. The thing you should do, can do, or blessed to be able to do by God's grace and mercy is to spend time in the law of the Lord. Not just the first five books, because that's just the law. But commentators say the law of the Lord is actually more than just the first five books of Moses. For Christians, it's all God's word.

And so if you want to be happy, it says, you should delight yourself in God's word. Delight yourself in God's word. The second thing it says, and not only do you just like read it—it's one thing to read it— but he says no, there's more. I want you to actually delight yourself in God's word. Read it, delight yourself in God's word.

Now here's the problem. It's kind of like going to the gym, isn't it? Some of you do that every day. You've been doing it for fifty years. Good for you. Some of the rest of us go, occasionally. You go up the rack, sir, your car has been expired for four years. And people say, you really need to go work out, you need to go to the gym, and you know you should, but you don't because you don't want to. Right? But we have this choice to delight ourselves in the law of the Lord.

But what I want to tell you is, you'll never do it unless there's an easy way to jump on board. And so the easy way, and I've told you a hundred times and you'll hear it after I'm long gone. If you are going to spend time allowing God's word to interact with you, to give you hope and encouragement and joy, if you do that, you're going to have to have a time of day to do it.

I know in the days where I don't get up first thing in the morning, if I don't get up and do it first thing in the morning with my coffee, it ain't going to happen. I'll mean to do it. I'll really mean to do it, but you know what? Noon will come, five will come, 9:30 pm will come, I get in my bed and go to sleep.

So do you have a time? What's your time? Or did you let Satan steal it from you? Did you ever think about that? You have twenty-four hours. You're probably awake. How many hours? Sixteen, seventeen hours a day? You have some time in there. You could be with the Lord and meet with him and experience that joy. Or have you allowed Satan to steal it?

So there's a time. What's your time? There's a place. And by place, I don't mean in this building. I mean, where you live. Where's your place? We just got back from the beach and I loved it. We ate great seafood and had time with the littles. And what I was astounded to learn is, when you have four kids aged six and under, trying to find a quiet place anywhere in a house where you can spend time with the Lord is next to impossible. So you gotta trick them. You gotta do it before they wake up or after they go to bed.

Do you have a time and do you have a place? I understand, young parents, I understand it's tough, but you gotta have one. Time and a place. What's the last thing? A method. There's a hundred ways to do the Bible. There are audio Bibles online. There's the One Year Bible. There's the Book of Common Prayer. Some people go, oh, this I can't do all that stuff. Oh, great. We'll just read one chapter a day. One chapter of the New Testament, Psalm, and a proverb. Start there.

Time, place, method. So the blessed man does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, doesn't stand in the way of sinners, sit in the seat of scoffers. However, positively, he delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on God's word. He lets the word of God do its work on him.

And it says, verse three,

He is like a tree.

I remember seventeen years ago, we had a Young Life leader, Shelly Prado, also known as Michelle Prado. Shelly Prado, she's just a cute thing, man. I just—I mean, she's a great girl. And she came up there and she did this. Be the tree. And I thought, that is so clever. Be the tree.

God is calling us to be like this tree that's planted by the river brook with deep roots. And in Psalms, it says in verse three, Psalm 1 verse 3,

This blessed man or woman is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

And so the Lord is calling us the same thing he said in Jeremiah 17. He goes, I don't want you to be old, dried up, withered up. You know what? You ever gone on vacation? You have plants on your deck? Do you have plants in your house? And you forgot to tell somebody to water. And you come back, especially the ones on the back deck in August or early September, you come back from vacation and they're dead as a door now. There's not any amount of water that's going to bring that thing back.

God doesn't want you to be dried up, shriveled up, non-fruit-bearing. He wants you to be alive and to bear fruit, to have a vibrant relationship with him. He wants you to be like that tree by streams of water that does yield fruit, and that does not wither. And then I love at the end of verse three, it says,

In all that he does, he prospers.

God blesses the work of his hand. This is a televangelist prosperity gospel. This is God saying, in my view, right, the blessings I’m going to give you is to prosper you so that you will be made like my son, Jesus. That's what I want to do. I don't want you dried and shriveled up.

So if you want to be happy and not dried and shriveled up, you spend time letting the word do its work with a time, a place, and a method.

The Fate of the Wicked

So sadly, look at verse four. We've heard all this about the blessed man, what he doesn't do, what he must do, the result of it. But then in verse four, it's really sad. It says, but the wicked are not so. The wicked are not so. They don't have these blessings. They don't have the life. They don't bear fruit. They don't prosper in the same way in the things of God. They don't prosper. The wicked are not so. But they're like chaff that the wind drives away.

Do you guys know about chaff and wheat? I'm sure you must have stumbled upon this at some point in your Sunday school career. You heard about threshing floors in Israel? Threshing floors, just a flat place, sometimes there's stone underneath it. Farmers would bring their wheat, they bring the wheat, and they put it in a big pile. And it all looks like wheat, doesn't it? Kind of like us home roasters put our beans in our little roasters, and it all looks like coffee beans, right?

So they put the wheat there, it all looks like wheat. Ben Kwashi told me in Nigeria, the women do this while the men advise, he says, they throw the hay up with their implement. They throw it up, and then the breeze takes the chaff and blows it to the side. The good stuff, the wheat, the stuff you actually eat, falls back down to the threshing floor. You do that five or six times, the chaff's gone, all the good stuff remains.

And so the picture painted for the wicked is they're going to be blown away like chaff. There is in the Bible. God is love, and he's awesome, and he's friendly and he's kind and he's generous and he's good. But he's also holy, and there's a judgment for those who refuse him. There's a judgment. There are wheat and there are tares. There's sheep and there are goats. Go read Matthew 25 if you don't believe me. And there's chaff, and then there's wheat.

God wants you not to be like the chaff. It says, the wicked are not so, but they're like chaff that the wind drives away.

The Judgment and Conclusion

It says, therefore, so what's the result or payoff for this? It says,

Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous. The wicked will not stand in the judgment. There is going to be a day. And this is not like, let me scare you into the kingdom because that does not work. When we were in the seventies, we had these movies where, you know, the Lord comes back and like somewhere here, and somewhere there, and I mean, just kind of hellfire, damnation, scare everybody so they run to Jesus.

My experience is that scaring people into the kingdom doesn't work very long. It's God's kindness that leads to repentance. But there's also an acknowledgment that there's wrath awaiting all who refuse this gift. And so when I read Psalm 1, I'm encouraged in one way and I'm discouraged in another.

Blessed is the man. I want to be a happy man. I want us to be happy people. I want us to be blessed people. But it kind of sounds like on an initial reading, the way I get to be blessed is doing this and not doing that. It sounds very works, righteousness. Earn it.

And that's what I thought. But I turned and see if I can find the passage. Be terrible if I couldn't find it. Let's go to— is it Titus? I moved my little marker. That was a problem. Let's go to Titus chapter two because you rightfully could say, Quigg, I want to be this blessed man or this woman. I want, I want to prosper. I want to bear fruit for the Lord. I don't want to wither. I don't want to dry up. And you go, well, is it all on me? Because that just sounds like something I got to do. Do good, be good. But this is what the scriptures say, and I think this is so important.

Titus 2:11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. And the same grace of God trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. While we wait for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.

And so do you see who's doing the work? Who's doing the work? The Lord himself is doing the work. It's the grace of God that gives you the ability to make a time, a place, and a method. It's the grace of God that allows you to minister and reach out to those who are lost, but not take their counsel or advice or sit to you to become a scoffer.

Friends, what do you want to be? Do you want to be happy? Or do you want to be miserable? The Lord's just saying the truth. It's not a quid pro quo. It's just the way it is. If you want to experience his happiness and his joy, then be that blessed man. Be that blessed man.

Listen to Psalm 1. At the end of the day, it's the grace of God that gives you the ability to even begin to want to walk with the Lord. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.