The Blessing Of God's Word

March 22, 2026

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
I want to jump into this word today.
I had done a number of sermonsjust on the word.
Really had two left.
I'm gonna do this last one.
Today, Rogan was making fun ofme and said, What is this?
Y'all know what this is, right?
I'm gonna get you mad.

(00:21):
But this is gonna make sense ina few moments.
But I want to talk about thatword.
And how many of y'all know weneed the word?
Amen?
We really do.
And so I want to invite yourattention first to our
meditation text, Matthew chapter4, verse 3 through 4.
We can compare our hearts andread this together.

(00:41):
Matthew 4, verses 3 through 4.
Let's read.
Here we go.
The tempter came to him andsaid, If you are the Son of God,
tell these sons to become bread.
Jesus answered, It is written.
Man shall not live by breadalone, but on every word that

(01:06):
comes from the mouth of God.
Amen, amen.
Amen.
That's a good word that we canmeditate on.
And our primary text for todaycomes from the first song of the
Psalter.
The new American Standard, andit reads like this.
How blessed is the man who doesnot walk in the counsel of the

(01:29):
wicked or the ungodly, willstand in the path of sinners, or
sit in the seat of scoffers.
But his delight is in the law ofthe Lord.
And in his law he meditates dayand night.
And he will be like a treefirmly planted by the streams of
water or the river water, whichyields its fruit in its season.

(01:52):
And its leaf does not wither,and whatever it does, and
whatever he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so.

(02:51):
I want to talk about theblessing of God.
Seven years ago, several yearsago, not seven, several years
ago, I had an interestingexperience with evangelism and
the word of God.
Having a conversation with aperson who at the time was not a

(03:13):
Christian.
Raised in a faith that wascontrary to the historic faith,
though it had elements andlanguage of Christianity.
But at its core, it was notChristian.
So we were discussing adifferent subject when the
subject of faith emerged in ourconversation.

(03:37):
And this person asked mestraight out, Do you think I'm a
Christian?
Now I knew in the moment, if Ihad answered with the emphatic
no, I probably would have lostthem or any prospect of them
coming to Christ.
Truth is, it wasn't about what Ithought.
I wanted them to hear what Godhad to say.

(03:58):
To the contrary, though, if Ihad said yes, how many of y'all
know I'd have been lying totheir face?
So I said to them, before Ianswer that question, I need you
to read the book of Matthew.
And then come back and ask methat same question again.
Of course, I had completelyforgotten about the

(04:19):
conversation, hadn't seen thisperson in quite some time.
Years later, I would get anemail from this person, and they
stated that they took mychallenge, and they began to
read the book of Matthew.
When they got to about Matthew26, they said they realized they
were not a Christian.

(04:39):
And they accepted Christ astheir personal savior.
They told me not only are theyserving the Lord, but they are
chasing the call that is ontheir life.
I'm not sharing this to bragabout anything I've done.
Instead, I want all of us to seehow God speaks to us through his

(05:01):
word.
Want us to experience theblessing of God's word.
That it's real.
The old preacher was right whenhe said, When we open our
Bibles, God opens his mouth.
So that's what I want to dotoday.
I want to raise that issue thatwe would have a similar
experience.

(05:21):
That's the sense of this text.
Psalm 1, this familiar word.
This person is blessed becausethe word of God speaks to their
life.
Verse 2 says, He meditates onthe law.
He meditates on Torah.
That's Genesis, Exodus,Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

(05:41):
He meditates on the teaching dayand night.
And what I notice is he's notreading the word, he's
meditating on the word.
There's a difference in readingthe word and meditating.
I think much of our frustrationis because we're trying to read
it.
God says, if you read it, you'renot gonna hear me.

(06:04):
You gotta meditate on thatthing.
What do I mean by meditation?
Of course, I want to be clear,I'm not talking about meditation
practices in Easterndisciplines.
Not talking about Zen Buddhism,I'm not talking about age, a new
age, I'm not talking about yoga.
I have a very good friend,pastor friend of mine.
He believes in yoga, so I'm nothating on my yoga Christian

(06:27):
folk.
Amen.
But guard your mind, guard yourmind, guard your mind.
My point is when we talk aboutmeditation, I'm not talking
about emptying ourselves toachieve some sense of
self-awareness.
I'm not talking about somehidden nirvana that can be
found.
I'm not talking about onenesswith the universe.
I'm talking about peace thatonly comes from the Almighty.

(06:51):
Isaiah said it, he said, Thouwilt keep him in perfect peace.
Come on, somebody whose mind isstayed on thee.
So by meditation, I mean, andI'm very specific here as I
define it, I mean baptizing.
And I'm using that wordbaptizing because I'm not
talking about dipping your toein the word.

(07:13):
I'm talking about submergingourselves in the word,
submerging our minds, ouremotions, our heart, pondering
the word as it seeps down in theopening and the crevices of our
soul.
Last Sunday we talked aboutworry and how Rick Warren
defined worry as negativemeditation.

(07:34):
You know, if you play over anegative thought in your mind
long enough, it'll worry you tothe grave.
Well, imagine what we what wouldhappen if we conversely do the
same thing with the word of God.
If negative worry will put us inthe grave, how many of y'all
know positive worry on God'sword will put us on a heel?
And so meditation is constantlyturning something over in our

(07:57):
minds.
Turning over again and again theword of God.
For God so loved the word, heloves me.
When I feel down on myself, Igotta turn it over in my mind.
No, he loves me, he loves meuntil it gets deep down in my
soul.
Ever get a tune stuck in yourmind?

(08:20):
I got some music lovers in here,don't you?
I had one get stuck in my mindthis week.
I'm gonna see if it's stuck inyour mind.
Don't worry.
About it, it's stuck in yourmind too.
Cause every little thing isgonna be see, it's stuck in your

(08:42):
mind.
I hear you, I hear you, man.
See?
Tell your neighbor, you alreadydo meditation.
You already do it.
Heard another song to my wife'scousin.
Strumming my pain with hisfinger.

(09:02):
Sing in my life.
Come on, somebody.
There you go.
They already meditate.

(09:28):
Y'all do more than meditation.
Tell your name.
I know what it is now.
I know what it is.
Learn heel.
She's a beast, y'all.
Yeah, amen.
Meditation is an immersion.
Here's my thesis statement.
Meditation is an immersion intothe word of God to experience

(09:51):
the very presence of God.
In the same way we immerseourselves in our song, in our
ritual.
Come on, y'all.
We must be willing to immerseourselves in the word of God.
Don't just dip your toe in.
Don't just get wet once a month.
No, you gotta deep submergeyourself into the word of God.

(10:12):
Don't just do a surface reading.
Get into it.
Tim Keller may have said itbest.
He said it like this meditationis building our own burning
bush.
So when we hear God's voice, wetoo will kneel and take off our
shoes in his presence.
That's meditation.

(10:34):
It's kind of like, it's kind oflike uh, you know, if you try to
learn a foreign language.
Anybody here know a foreignlanguage well?
I ain't talking about, you know,bits and pieces.
Whenever we would travel out ofthe country, I try to do a
little duolingo for four or fivemonths.
The last time we traveled outthe country, we went to, what

(10:56):
was it?
We went to France.
That's what it was.
So I'm thinking I can converse alittle bit.
I got over there as like I wasan infant when it came to the
French language.
Because I learned in that momentthat if I'm really gonna learn a
language, I can't just do asurface reading of it.
I really can't get one littleapp 10 minutes a day.

(11:19):
No, y'all, I got to immersemyself in the language, the
culture, the people, the food.
I gotta completely devote myselfto it if I'm gonna learn it and
know it and feel it.
And I just believe if youimmerse yourself in the word of
God, come on, somebody.
Won't He give you peace?

(11:39):
Won't He give you joy?
Won't you hear His voice?
Oh folk are right, hush.
Someone is calling my name.
That's because they have beenmeditating in God's word.
Let me go and hit this thing andget on out of here.
Three things very quickly.
What are the blessings of God'sword?
Number one, the word gives youstructure.

(12:01):
Meditation in God's word buildsstructure into our lives.
To be more specific, it spillsmoral fortitude and fibers in
our soul.
It builds moral guidelines.
He says, How blessed or blessedis the man who walks not in the
counsel of the ungodly, norstandeth in the way of sinners,

(12:21):
nor sits in the seat ofscornful, of the scornful, the
scoffers.
In other words, the word of Godhelps me to distinguish between
right and wrong.
Helps me to distinguish betweenlight and darkness, good and
bad.
Because how many of y'all knowjust because it looked good to
you don't mean it's good foryou.

(12:42):
I got somebody in here, got agrandmother, amen.
Listen to Isaiah the prophet.
He says this in Isaiah 5 and 20.
Woe to those who call evil goodand good evil, who put darkness
for light and light fordarkness, who put bitter for
sweet and sweet for bitter.
And you know we live in a daywhere folk want to give us a lie

(13:02):
for truth and truth for a lie.
And the word of God reminds usthat right is right and wrong is
wrong.
The word of God reminds us thatthis is light and this is
darkness.
That even in dark times, howmany of y'all know we can still
shine a bright light?
Don't miss the deceptive natureof good and evil.

(13:24):
Here, notice the progression inthis text.
It starts with walking and thenit moves from standing, then it
moves to sitting.
And I raise that because a lotof Christians think they
understand how the devil attackstheir life.
They think the devil comes inshock and awe.
No, baby, that's not how itworks.
Paul says he dresses himself uplike an angel of light.

(13:46):
He'll make it look good to you,but it's after it's bitten you,
you discover it was not good forya.
He'll make her look like MotherTeresa, and you find out over
time you're dealing withJezebel.
He'll make him look like Mosesor Samuel, and you'll find out
later you've been talking toFreddie Krueger.

(14:08):
He'll make it look good, but itcomes out like something that
y'all not hearing me today.
And the word of Goddistinguishes what is good and
what is bad, and what is rightand what is wrong.
And that's why David says, Howshall a young man cleanse his
ways?
And he wasn't just saying ayoung man, he's talking about a

(14:30):
young woman too.
And he's talking about an oldman too.
Talking about an old woman too.
How shall people cleanse theirway by taking heed according to
thy word?
Thy word have I hidden, I'vemeditated on it.
I hid it in my heart that Imight not sin against thee.
The word gives me structure,gives me guidelines, gives me

(14:54):
boundaries, and a culture thatthrives on boundaryless living.
Number two, the word gives mestability.
He says, I delight in the law ofthe Lord.
Um, I'm gonna meditate on it dayand night.
He's gonna be like a tree firmlyplanted, and the tree is being
compared to the stalks of wheat.

(15:18):
The tree produces fruit, but thestalk of wheat produces chaff.
And the idea is that the wordgives you substance on the
inside.
And without the word, it givesyou a shallowness.
You know, you can look at astalk of wheat and you can look
at a tree and you can assumethat both are stable until they

(15:38):
produce something.
You can look at somebody on theoutside and everything looks
fine.
But the moment they startproducing words, you can you can
assume that's fruit coming outtheir mouth, but that's chaff
coming out their mouth.
It's a word about substance.
It removes artificiality fromyour life.

(16:00):
Anybody can't stand fake folk?
I'm just asking the question.
Probably the most disturbingthing for me, and I ain't trying
to be self-righteous and thinkI'm better than somebody, but I
can't stand a fake Christian.
If you don't love the Lord andyou don't know him, just admit
it.
Man up and woman up enough tosay, you know what, I don't know

(16:23):
him.
Because God wants folk who arewith him 100%.
And what the writer is sayinghere, the word will give you
substance in your life.
It keeps that artificiality andthat superficiality out of your
life.
I was watching something on uhMartin Marvels.

(16:44):
That's one of my little favoriteshows, Martin Marvels, and they
just give you all kinds ofinformation about how things are
made and stuff and what haveyou.
And when what I discovered, Ididn't know this.
They were comparing iron tosteel and how both metals were
being made.
And they were talking aboutiron, that iron for quite some

(17:08):
time was a was a staple in interms of what society would use,
but irons corrode and iron'siron becomes brittle over time,
particularly if water engagesit.
And so they discovered that ifthey turned up the Kelvins on
the fire when they made iron,and if they turned it up to

(17:29):
3,000 Kelvins, and if they putit up to 500, 5,400 degrees
Fahrenheit, not only would itdry dry uh pull out all the
impurities, but it will alsopull out all the carbons.
And that which was iron isamazingly transformed into
steel.

(17:49):
And steel doesn't act like iron,it doesn't get brittle, it
doesn't corrode, it can handlethe toughness of life.
And when I saw that, I said, Oh,that's just like the word right
there.
God knows there's some steel inall of us, and he's trying to
remove all the stuff we think weneed, that he can bring the
steel out of our soul so we canhandle the difficulties in life.

(18:15):
Ah, it gives us substance on theinside, but then also the word
builds rootedness.
A tree firmly planted by theriver water, planted by the
streets.
What does that mean?
When you got the word in yourlife, small and insignificant
stuff don't bother you like itused to.
Small and insignificant peoplethat used to get on your nerve,

(18:38):
you just brush them off and keepon going with your life because
you realize your purpose isbigger than to waste time with
insignificant stuff andinsignificant folk.
The tree is firmly planted.
So it's kind of like wheneveryou see a hurricane and you see
these newscasters that I havegreat respect for, everybody

(19:02):
running from the hurricane.
The newscaster is headed to thehurricane because he wants to
report or she wants to report onthe hurricane.
And I don't care what kind ofhurricane it is, it can be down
in Florida, keep it down inFlorida, amen.
Down in Florida, it can be inthe Caribbean, I don't care what
kind of hurricane it is.

(19:23):
You'll see cars passing by,you'll see buildings falling
apart.
You might even see some peoplegoing by, you'll see boats, but
you will never see a palm treeflying by that screen.
The palm tree, you'll see itsleaves kind of waving, and it'll
be bending, but it ain't gonnabreak.

(19:45):
And seem like the leaves arewaving, like it's praising God
in the midst of what it's goingthrough.
See, when you got the word inyou while everybody is fussing
and angry about what they'regoing through, does anybody
know?
God'll give you a party in themidst of what should have you

(20:06):
crying and falling up.
Huh.
But then it bears fruit.
I gotta deal with that.
It bears fruit, it's fruitful ina fruitless season.
Don't miss what he's saying.
It bears fruit in its season.
Implication every tree doesn'tbear fruit in its season.

(20:28):
Why?
Because sometimes trees gothrough brutal winters.
The winter is so brutal that thetree did well just to survive
the winter.
And some trees survive it.
But the tree that meditates onthe word of God, not only does
he survive it, he bears fruitwhen his season comes.

(20:51):
The winter should have killedthe season.
But because it had roots in theword, and here's what I learned
about trees that trees, youknow, they they naturally sink
their roots deep into theground, but the colder it gets,
the deeper their roots go.
Oh God.

(21:12):
See, see, some plants, thereason why they die, their roots
are not deep enough in theground.
But the reason why some treesmake it, because they can test
the temperature in the season.
And as it gets colder, they havethe sense to know I gotta go
deeper with my roots.

(21:32):
I wish I had a witness in heretoday.
When things get tough, whenthings get rough, that's not the
time to run from God.
That's the time to think yourroots deeper.
Instead of the Lord of God.
And God will not only preserveyou, but when your season comes,

(21:53):
you better food, but everybodyelse is better.
Everybody knows God is doing it.
Let me wrap this thing up.
We're meditating on the word ofGod.
It'll give you stability.
But then lastly, it'll give yousuccess.
Because he says, in whatever hedoes, he prospers.

(22:14):
Don't miss what's going on here.
He meditates on the law of theLord day and night.
Meditates on the law of the Lordday and night.
And in whatever he does, heprospers.
The word, and I said this onfirst Wednesday, the word many

(22:34):
times work as a hyperlink.
So when you hear certainphrases, it ought to cause you
to think back to somebody else.
In this case, it calls us tothink back to Joshua chapter 1.
Because the same instruction wasgiven to Joshua.
You shall meditate on the lawday and night.

(22:57):
And if you do that, you shall beprosperous.
And the point is that Joshua wassuccessful as a commander for
the Lord because he did it God'sway.
And that's what the point of thepsalmist is trying to say.
That whether it is the man ofGod or the woman of God, when we
begin to meditate on God's wordand we allow God's word to

(23:20):
become a part and fiber of whowe are, that's when we begin to
do it God's way.
We don't question it, we don'tsit down and have a committee
about it.
If God said it, that settles it,I'm gonna do it God's way.
I'm gonna trust his way.
And therefore, because I trustthis way, God is going to

(23:41):
prosper me.
The wicked is a warning that youwant to do it God's way versus
your way.
Because when I do it my way, howmany of y'all know it goes a
wicked way?
That's all right, that's allright.
But when I do it God's way, ithas a way of prospering me, it
has a way of keeping me well.

(24:01):
And so, my word to all of us isthat for this year, for our
thing, we need to become apeople of the word.
Which is why, Roby, I broughtthis Bible up here.
Since you were so interested inthis Bible, and and and it's
gonna make sense in a minute.
So many times, most of the timenow, when I preach, I preach on

(24:23):
my iPad, and I have myscriptures on my iPad.
So I do a lot of stuffdigitally.
But but this, for y'all thatdon't know, this is a Bible.
This is what a Bible looks like.
And the reason why I brought it,because it reminded me of a
story I came across years ago,and I ain't hating on cowboy

(24:44):
fans.
God bless you.
I ain't hating on you.
But I gotta tell this story.
So the story goes that legendarycoach Vince Lombardi was
preparing his players to play acertain season of football.
This was before they had won allthose championships.

(25:04):
And the season before, they hadlost horribly to the
Philadelphia Eagles.
They were winning that game inthe fourth quarter, and Green
Bay unfortunately had acollapse, and they lost the
game.
So at the beginning of trainingcamp, he's trying to set the
tone.
He wants to make sure thisbecomes a championship team.

(25:27):
And so guys show up to camp,they're looking for new drills,
they know it's gonna be harder,they're expecting Vince Lombardi
to come at them.
He sits all the players down.
And then he walks over and grabsone of the footballs, and he
picks up the football and hesays to the men, gentlemen, this

(25:48):
is a football.
If you play by the game, if youplay the game the right way, you
will experience victory andsuccess in the game.
And then he gave each playertheir playbook.
And they started from page oneand they went over the
fundamentals of tackling, thevery basics of blocking.

(26:11):
We're talking about stuff fromPop Warner, y'all.
He went through all thefundamentals because he wanted
them to understand if you justget the basics, you're gonna be
successful.
Pastor, where are you going withthis?
Well, this is a Bible.

(26:33):
And if you just follow thebasics, you will experience
victory and success in yourlife.
It opens in Genesis and talksabout the beginning of
everything.
It closes in revelation, andGod's gonna wrap it all up.

(26:53):
And I dare you to follow theprinciples in this book.
And then anybody that knows it'sgonna bless you, it's gonna keep
you, God will keep him inperfect peace.
Who's not?
It stayed on thee.

(27:14):
That's my word today.
We gotta be a part of his word.
Don't just read it, we gottameditate on it.
So let me wrap it up this way.
I want to share, I'm gonna shareat least one, one meditation
from my own life.
I'm my current time with God.

(27:36):
Usually I'm reading through thescriptures or reading some
complimentary document or a bookor what have you.
And so now I'm trying to do abird's eye view of each book.
Where I'm going through eachbook, but I'm just getting a
bird's eye view.
You can do this by gettingwhat's called a Bible overview

(27:58):
or a Bible introduction.
And what that book will do, it'snot gonna go into every single
detail of each book, but it'llgive you basically a bird's eye
view of the book.
It'll give you the summary,it'll give you the basic theme,
and it'll give you thehighlight.

(28:19):
And so I'm going through everysingle book of the Bible, and I
want to just get a highlight.
Well, the last one I wentthrough was the book of Esther.
And I've been meditating on thisthing for three weeks.
I can't look, it's like the songstuck in my head.
I can't get it out of my head.
So the story of Esther, she's anadopted child.

(28:42):
She don't know who her mom anddad is, and she becomes a part
of the king's court, and she'selevated to the queen of Persia.
Present-day, what's that?
Present-day Iraq or Iran?
One of the two.
Maybe no, it's Iran.
Be Iran, so it wouldn't be Iraq,Iran.
Thank you.
Iran, not Iran.
Iran.
There you go.

(29:04):
We need to say it better thanthat.
And so she's a she's the queen.
And of course, Haman has thisplan.
He's uh he's an official and hewants to annihilate the Jews.
And so her uncle, Mordecai, whoraises her, says, Look, we we
need you to step in.
And who knows, maybe this thereason why God put you in power.

(29:28):
And so she becomes a part of theone that foils the plan, and and
and Haman suffers destruction.
And to this day, the Jews fromthat book practice a feast
called the Feast of Purim.
P-U-R-I-M, based on the story ofthat book.
Now, the overall theme is thisof the book, and this is what

(29:48):
got me.
Throughout the entire book,there's no mention of Yahweh or
God, but his hand is all throughthe book.
And here's what I've beenmeditating on.
Just because you can't see him,doesn't mean he's not behind the

(30:13):
scenes of your life.
I've been chewing on that forthree weeks.
And like a song stuck in mymind, I can't get it out of my
mind.
That's been my prayer.
So here's my prayer.
Lord, help me to trust you whenI can't see you, to know you're

(30:37):
working in the unseen places inmy life.
That's enough, y'all.
Let's close.
Come on, doc.
Let's prepare our hearts for theLord's Supper.
What I'm trying to do, this iswhy we're doing what we're doing

(30:58):
on First Wednesday.
Um this is why we do themeditation verse.
Uh Paul said it like this workout your salvation with fear and
trembling.
He doesn't say work for yoursalvation.
Because none of us can work forour salvation.
For Paul also said, For by graceyou've been saved through faith,

(31:21):
that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, leastanyone should brag about it.
That's what boasts mean.
And so salvation is somethingthat is purely of God, but we
have a responsibility to work itout.
And that word work out isenergy.
It literally speaks exercise itout, put it to work.

(31:46):
And so meditation is one way towork out our salvation.
Meditating on God's word.
There are plenty ways you canwork it out.
One of the ways is to work itout, to learn the voice of God.
That's why we study the word ofGod, not to show that we're
smarter than somebody else, orwe more spiritual or better than
somebody else, but hopefully andprayerfully to learn the voice

(32:08):
of God, the presence of God, sothat I understand when God is
speaking to me and when he isnot.
That's my word.
Let us be prayerful about that.
Let us dedicate ourselves tosome type of daily meditation.
He meditated day and night.

(32:29):
Day and night.
You can at least do day.
He did day and night.
The psalmist said he prayed, hepraised the Lord seven times a
day.
You're gonna get at least one ortwo in.
Come on now.
Am I right, Shay?
At least one.

(32:49):
That's my word.