In this episode of BEYOND SUNDAY Pastor Lee breaks down his favorite Psalm. The Psalmist writes about two paths; the righteous and the wicked and explains what happens to them. Get your Bible ready, listen, enjoy, grow and share the link with someone.
Episode Transcript
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Be On
Sunday.
I am your host, Pastor Lee Day,and I pastor Christ Family
Outreach Church located here inthe one and the only Amelia,
Virginia.
Today we're going to journeytogether through maybe, just
maybe, one of my most favoritepsalms in the collection of
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Psalms in all of Scripture.
And it is the very first Psalm.
That's right, Psalm number one.
It speaks to me.
It truly does.
It gives the way of therighteous, and then it gives the
way of the wicked.
And it's as if the psalmist issaying, this is how to live a
righteous life.
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And this way over here, this isthe way of the wicked.
So now all that's left to do issimply choose one.
Now, we live in a world wherechoices are everywhere.
We can choose so many differentthings or so many different
types of things to choose from.
And but when it comes down togodly living, it's it's simple.
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We're either going to choose tolive righteous or we're going to
choose to live in the world.
It's really simple.
It's just two choices.
I think you would agree with me,or at least I hope you would.
Now, I think each of youlistening out there would very
quickly choose to live therighteous life, right?
Rather than the wicked.
But the greater decision, themore difficult decision, my
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friends, it goes beyond justchoosing to live the righteous
life, but actually living outthe righteous life.
And let's be honest, that couldbe extremely difficult to do at
times.
And let me remind every one ofyou listening that it can only
be done.
It can only be done throughaccepting Jesus Christ in our
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lives and relying on the workingpower of God's Holy Spirit
living on the inside of us.
Amen.
So let's jump right into it.
We're not going to delay anylonger.
If you've got your Bibles, openthem, if you've not already, to
Psalm 1.
And we're going to be readingtogether verses 1 through 6.
So here we go.
This is what the text says.
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Blessed is the man who walks notin the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way ofsinners, nor sits in the seat of
scoffers, but his delight is inthe law of the Lord, and on his
law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted bystreams of water that yields its
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fruit in its season, and itsleaf does not wither.
In all that he does, heprospers.
The wicked are not so, but arelike chaff that the wind drives
away.
Therefore, the wicked will notstand in the judgment, nor
sinners in the congregation ofthe righteous, for the Lord
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knows the way of the righteous,but the way of the wicked will
perish.
All right.
If I told you God was going toshow up at your local
supermarket, just hear me out onthis.
Hear me out on this.
If I told you that God was goingto show up at your local
supermarket this weekend and hewas going to be handing out
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blessings, I think if we'rehonest with one another, we're
all not just going to show up.
We're going to show up early.
And we're going to get in lineto receive whatever blessing God
is going to be handing out thatday.
And I use that analogy because,in a way, that's what's
happening right here in thetext.
No, the text is not telling youthat God is going to show up and
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hand out blessings at thesupermarket.
I get it.
Although if he wanted to, hetotally could, and he's more
than capable to do so.
But this particular passage istelling you how to be blessed.
And that is what is soattractive about it to me.
Because the text is saying, ifyou want to be blessed in life,
do this.
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And so it is definitely worthyof some further study together.
Wouldn't you agree?
You see, verse one opens up andsays, Blessed is the man who
walks not in the counsel of thewicked, nor stands in the way of
sinners, nor sits in the seat ofscoffers.
And I want to make this veryclear.
This text is not saying that youcannot go be around
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non-believers and live life.
This text is not saying that youcannot go out into a dark world
and witness in front of them orat your job.
Remember, Matthew 5, 13 through16, Jesus tells us that we're to
be salt and light to the earthas Christians.
In Matthew 5 in the 16th verse,it tells us to let our light
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shine before others.
And so we're called to live outour witness.
We're called to live out ourtestimony in this very dark
world in order that they too mayhave hope, as someone once
showed hope to us and onceexplained to us our need for
salvation through Jesus Christas Lord and Savior.
So what is the first versesaying then?
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We are called to witness to thelost.
But listen to this.
We're called to witness, but wecannot be fellow partakers with
them in their folly.
If you're taking notes, I wantyou to jot this down.
2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse17 says this.
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We are now new creatures inChrist as followers of Jesus.
And as a new creature in JesusChrist, we cannot be acting like
the old creature anymore.
As new creatures, we cannot actlike the old creature any
longer.
As Christians, we should havenew desires.
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We should have new pleasures.
The second verse says that theblessed man, his delight is in
the law of the Lord.
Amen.
That is so, so good.
The blessed man, his delight isin the law of the Lord, and on
his law, he meditates day andnight.
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So I got a little inventoryquestion for you today.
And just think about this.
Ponder on this throughout yourday.
Is God's word planted deepinside of you?
Is God's word planted deepinside of you?
Have you put it inside of you,giving the Holy Spirit something
to work with, my friends?
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Is God's word a delight to you?
Or does it feel like timeout?
You know, having to slow down,having to take time to sit down
and read it.
You may be thinking, I don'thave time to slow down.
I don't have time to sit down,to be quiet in my day and read
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the word of God.
But but that's exactly what Godis trying to do.
God is trying to slow you downenough that you can begin to
hear from him again.
And sometimes life can get sobusy, I get it.
But sometimes it can get so busythat if we're not careful, we
can get away from the one thingthat gives us strength.
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Not only are we supposed to haveGod's word inside of us, but we
should delight in that.
That we should also meditate onit day and night, as this Psalm
calls us to do.
Amen.
That what we read in themorning, we should think about
throughout our day.
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And doing so keeps us in theright mindset.
And it allows the Holy Spiritroom to minister in our lives.
And it allows God to use thatword that we plant inside of us.
It allows God to use itthroughout our day so that it
not just blesses us, but that wecould be a blessing to others as
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well.
Now let's move on to the thirdverse because the third verse
says, Blessed is the man like atree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in itsseason, and the leaf does not
wither.
In all that he does, heprospers.
Wow.
Did you hear that, my friends?
Blessed is the man.
Verse three, blessed is the man.
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He is like a tree planted bystreams of water that yields its
fruit in its season.
And the leaf does not wither, inall that he does, he prospers.
See, if you're taking notes, Iwant you to write this down.
Three words.
Here it goes.
Fruit yielding season.
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Fruit yielding season.
Let's talk about that.
Because in Matthew chapter 9,verse 37, Jesus says this.
He says, The harvest isplentiful, but the laborers are
few.
The harvest is ready, myfriends.
And the truth is, is thataccording to the text, Jesus
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lets us know that God is lookingfor people that are willing to
be used by him for his glory.
It's not that the harvest isn'tready.
It's not that the harvest isn'tright for picking.
Jesus says, no, no, the harvestis plentiful.
It's ready.
So notice the text in Psalm 1,verse 3.
It also says that the blessed,their leaf does not wither, and
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all that he does prospers.
Whoa.
I want that kind of life.
That's the life that I want tolive every moment of every day.
That God gives us the strengthto do everything that he calls
us to do.
The harvest is ready, thelaborer is ready, and the leaf
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does not wither, and all that wedo prospers.
Now there's a lot packed intothe first three verses of Psalm
1, but then there's a very quickshift.
There's a hard line that thepsalmist draws in the sand and
he turns on it really fast.
I mean, it's he's going onedirection and then boom, he
turns and he goes anotherdirection.
So he goes from talking aboutthe righteous to now addressing
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the life of the wicked.
He comes upon this intersectionhere.
He says that the wicked do nothave the victory that the
righteous have, and that theyare like chaff that the wind
drives away.
Now, I looked up the definitionof chaff, and this is what it
says.
It says, chaff is the seedcoverings and other debris that
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are separated from the seed inthreshing grain.
It then says this in thedefinition that chaff is
something comparativelyworthless.
So in this example in scripture,the righteous person would be
considered the seed, the goodthing, the thing of value.
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While the person living inwickedness would be the chaff,
something that brings no morevalue at all.
Now, if you're listening and youfeel worthless and you say,
well, man, maybe I'm that chaff.
You know, I just don't feel likeI have much purpose, Pastor Lee.
Can I just take a moment andtell you that Jesus Christ died
for you and that God loves youso much that he is willing to
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accept you into his family rightnow, right where you are, and
forgive you if you would justcry out to Jesus and ask Jesus
right now in this moment to comeinto your life, to forgive you
of your sins, and he will comein and save your soul.
Just ask him.
Lord Jesus, forgive me of mysin.
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I recognize, Lord, that you diedon the cross, and I'm asking you
to come into my life and save mysoul in Jesus' name.
Amen.
And my friend, he will.
It's what he does, it's what heloves to do.
It's it's what he came to do,it's what he died for, it's what
he defeated death for, it's whathe's coming back for, is the
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church, those that are in ChristJesus.
Now, let's let's move on.
We're we're continuing forwardin the first Psalm and the fifth
verse.
The fifth verse says that thewicked, the wicked are not going
to stand in judgment.
My friends, it is not going tobe good times for those who are
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judged and do not have JesusChrist advocating for them on
their behalf.
Advocating for them.
It says that Jesus Christ, thisis what it lets us know.
The text lets us know that JesusChrist is our advocate and he
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speaks to God on our behalf asChristians.
Oh, what a tremendous gift.
I mentioned, I mentioned kind ofthis topic in church just a
couple of weeks ago.
Have you ever considered thatyour name is in the mouth of
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your Lord?
What a tremendous blessing.
I don't know about you, but thatthat's humbling.
It's very humbling to me.
That my Lord is advocating, andthis isn't just at a day of
judgment.
This isn't just at the day ofthe rapture.
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No, when you read 1 John chapter2, 1 and 2, and 1 Timothy
chapter 2, verse 5, this ishappening right now.
This is a today verse.
This is this is taking placeright now.
That your Lord and Savior, ifyou claim Christ Jesus as Lord
and Savior and you are walkingwith God, you are living a life
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worthy of that call.
You are a child of God.
Your name is in the mouth ofGod.
He is advocating on your behalf.
He is speaking up for you.
Oh my goodness, that's that isjust that is just so amazing.
The sixth verse says that thewicked, see, this is what's
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going to happen to them.
The unsaved, those that areliving ungodly, those that are
in the world.
They are just choosing to pleaseflesh.
They're choosing to keep self,number one, in their life, in
their mind, in their heart.
They want nothing to do withGod.
They're not God followers.
Let's talk about them for amoment.
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Because the sixth verse lets usknow what's going to happen to
those types of people.
And it's very sad because itdoesn't have to be this way.
If you're not serving Christ,you can come to Christ today.
But the sixth verse says, thewicked are all going to perish.
And can I just say, friends,that hell is not going to be a
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party?
The Bible teaches us that it isa place of torment.
It is a place of torment.
And it is not going to be aparty.
So the sixth verse says thewicked are all going to perish.
But here's the good news.
Here is the good news.
John 3 16 tells us that God soloved you and me.
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For all of us.
That if if we would believe inhim, we would not perish, but
have everlasting life.
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Even Satan believes that Jesusis real.
I mean, after all, we see in thetext very early on in the New
Testament where Satan temptsJesus to follow him rather than
following after the heart of Godand doing the will of God.
So we've got to be very clearhere.
Just believing is not enough.
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Just raising your hand andcoming forward, just asking
Jesus to save your soul is notenough.
We cannot use it as a pass toget saved from destruction.
We cannot use it as a pass toget saved from hell, but then
not go live a life that Godcalls us to live.
When we get saved, Jesus Christsays that we are born again.
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And when we are born again, it'sa brand new lifestyle that we've
never walked prior to havingJesus Christ in our lives.
And when we get saved, the textteaches that the Holy Spirit
enters into us.
The word of God lets us knowthat our body is a living temple
of the Holy Spirit of God that'sliving on the inside of us.
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So our life, as we get saved andwe're born again, our life
should begin to look different.
We have been saved and bornagain.
Amen, my friends.
And so as we are called intothis ministry to walk with God,
as we're called into thisministry to serve Jesus, our
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lives have to change and we haveto begin to look more like our
Heavenly Father.
And my friends, that's reallywhat Psalm chapter 1 is all
about.
It's about choice.
It's not about God imposinghimself on people, it's just a
choice.
So this is the way of therighteous, this is the way of
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the wicked.
You get to choose.
And I'm gonna tell you, I'mgonna tell you that choosing to
walk the way God calls you towalk, there is nothing more
satisfying than that.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you so much foryour people.
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And I thank you, God, for anyonethat may be listening today that
is not yet a child of God.
Because I'm glad they'relistening.
I pray that this episode wouldgive them something to consider,
truly something to think about.
I pray that they find themselvesat an intersection today.
Just like the psalmist isspeaking of.
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Here's the way of the righteous,then there's an intersection.
Here's the way of the wicked.
Which one will you choose?
And Father, I pray that theychoose wisely.
Lord, I pray for your childrenthat have already claimed you as
Lord and Savior.
And Father God, I pray that youwould strengthen them, that you
would continue to bless andanoint and favor them, that
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their cups would continue tofill up and run over.
And Father, that you would usethem as a witness, as a true
witness, an ambassador, thatthey would represent you and
bring lost souls to the savingknowledge of Jesus Christ and
continue to lead people to thekingdom of God.
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And I ask all this in the mightyname and the blood of Jesus
Christ and all God's childrensaid, My friends, Amen, amen,
and amen.
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