Here’s the Direction

Psalm 1:1 | January 12, 2020

Have you ever asked a stupid question?

Have you ever been charged for it?

Maybe you heard the story this week about Tom’s Diner in Denver – you can get charged for a stupid question.

It’s on the menu – under “Sides” – right between “Extra Dressing” and “Vegetable of the Day”.

The good news is it’s the cheapest thing on the menu.

A stupid question will only cost you 38 cents at Tom’s Diner.

About 20 years ago, Tom Messina added the interesting side option to the menu to add a little fun into the workday.

But you aren’t actually charged for a stupid question – according to Chrissy Callahan of Today.com the wait staff is instructed to add the charge to the bill of a fun and lively table.

Over the years, a few people have gotten frustrated when they see the charge, but most folks laugh and enjoy a little lighthearted morsel of humor.

Of course, some of the customers have learned to play along and try and get charged for a stupid question.

A couple of questions that have been asked:

• “Are there any dues for the turkey club sandwich?”
• “Does the ice have any water in it?”

To keeps things rolling, a few years back they added some “Healthy Options” to the menu.

Next to the cottage cheese and the soup of the day you can order “Skip Your Next Meal” or “Walk Home” – and there’s no charge for either one of those.

The world can be a very a dark and difficult and dangerous and discouraging place, so, kudos to Tom’s Diner for serving up a little light of laughter through a stupid question.

Then again, as the saying goes, there is no such thing as a stupid question – why?

Well, I suppose because of the very nature of what a question is.

I came across a definition that goes something like this:

A question is an act that seeks information – an act that seeks information.

There are 150 strategic Psalms in the Bible that contain more than 40,000 words – that’s a lot of information to seek.

Today we begin a journey through the first of those 150.

Psalm 1 has been described as a “doorkeeper” or a “bouncer” to the other 149 Psalms.

In other words, you have to go through Psalm 1 if you are going to understand and embrace and enjoy the other psalms.

What’s interesting about this doorkeeper psalm, though, is how much information is packed into six sentences.

In fact, this one psalm contains the answers to the deepest questions of life.

This one psalm contains the information you seek the most.

Listen to the kinds of questions this one psalm answers:

• Who are you?
• Where can you find happiness?
• What road in life should you take?
• Who should be your friends?
• What is your destiny?
• Where can you find someone to watch over you?
• Are you ready to die?

All of that – and more – in six sentences.

Sounds like it might be worth a look, right?

So, let’s jump in.

Listen to Psalm 1, verse 1:

1 How blessed is the man

• How blessed
• How happy
• How fortunate
• How content
• How satisfied

How blessed is the man or the woman or the boy or the girl or the teenager or the college student or the young adult or the young married adult or the single adult or the senior adult or any other human being past, present, or future.

This is a crazy simple and crazy powerful way to start off.

• Do you want to be happy?
• Do you want to be satisfied?
• Do you want to have joy in your life?
• Do you want to find meaning and purpose in your life?

Then you need to pay careful attention to whatever comes after that phrase.

How can you be blessed?

Some say you will be blessed if you just sow a seed of faith – which often translates send a gift of $100 or more and you can get a handkerchief sprinkled with water from the Jordan River – the only river that makes a person’s baptism real – and your gift will be a seed of faith and God will bless you ten-fold and give you a beautiful home in the gated community of Jabez.

Someone might say:

But didn’t Paul say the Lord’ll bless ‘ya if you give money to the church and to televangelists on TV?

Yes – kind of.

2 Corinthians 9:6

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

If you are miserly and live under the mantra that it is your money and you earned it, and nobody can take it from you then you live in the atmosphere of sowing sparingly.  

Eugene Peterson paraphrased it this way in The Message:

2 Corinthians 9:6 (MSG)

A stingy planter gets a stingy crop…

So, yes, it is not incorrect to say if you want to be blessed, you should sow bountifully – you should be a giver – especially to the work of the gospel.

The danger, though, is ignoring the rest of what Paul says – particularly what he said a couple of sentences later:

2 Corinthians 9:11 (KJV)

Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness…

You know what bountifulness means?

It means being generous.

Sam Storms

The prosperity gospel says you should give in order to get – and stops there. The Bible says you should give in order to get – so you can give even more away.

Does God want to financially bless you?

Maybe.

Does God want you to be generous no matter how much money you have or don’t have?

Definitely.

One day Jesus was watching them pass the offering plates at church and he noticed how the wealthy people were putting in large sums of money – which is not wrong if it is done with humility and joy.

But he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.

He called his disciples over for a real-time life lesson and said:

Mark 12:43-44

“Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

 

Again, Eugene Peterson paraphrases it this way:

Mark 12:44 (MSG)

All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford – she gave her all.

Does God want to financially bless you?

Maybe.

Does God want you to be generous no matter how much money you have or don’t have?

Definitely.

But does being blessed always involve money?

No.

So, how can you be blessed?

Listen to what the Psalmist says next:

1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

How blessed and happy and fortunate and satisfied is the person who does not listen to the advice of the world.

What does that mean?

Well, it doesn’t mean that you can’t take advice from people who are not Christians.

From doctors to mechanics to recipe bloggers we take advice from people all the time and sometimes they are not Christians or we have no idea whether they are a Christian or not.

No the idea here is not strategic or specific advice on unique things in life – the idea is blessed and happy and content is the person who does not casually go along with the opinions of the world and plan every aspect of their daily lives around the advice or instructions of people who do not care for the things of God and have no regard for God.

For example:

Listen to the meteorologist and take a jacket or an umbrella, but don’t structure your day around the whims of “Mother Nature” or “Mother Earth” because that is a mythic personification of the ways of nature invented by the ancient Greco-Roman culture.

Someone might say:

“Well, didn’t Christians do the same thing – invent God to give a little mythic personification to nature and the meaning of life?”

C.S.Lewis

Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one.

C.S. Lewis

I do not see how “fear” of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags.

C.S. Lewis

And if nature had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by “love” of God would never, so far as I can see, have existed.

In other words, nature doesn’t scream to humanity:

“Create something to try and explain all of this.”

Nature screams to us:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come!”

Nature points us to the Creator and that Creator is not us.

Thomas Aquinas

We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be…that which does not exist only begins to exist by something already existing.

Thomas Aquinas

Therefore, if at one time nothing was in existence, it would have been impossible for anything to have begun to exist; and thus even now nothing would be in existence – which is absurd.

Thomas Aquinas

…it is impossible to go on to infinity in necessary things which have their necessity caused by another…

In other words, God was not invented to try and explain why things exist – God has revealed himself as the only practical, logical, reasonable first cause of why things do exist.

The Apostle Paul said it this way:

Romans 1:20

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Blessed and happy and fortunate and satisfied is the person who does not plan every aspect of their daily lives in and around the advice of people who deny the invisible attributes of the one, true Creator God that are clearly seen in nature.

The psalmist uses a strong word here – he calls them wicked.

It’s almost as if he is saying it is a crime against your own soul to deny the existence of God, so, don’t follow that kind of criminal advice – don’t walk in it and plan your whole life around it.

And how could we start walking that way and planning that way?

I came across 5 categories we can use to help spot the advice of what the psalmist refers to as wicked people – I’m just going to list them quickly and they are pretty self-explanatory.

Adapted from Steven Cole

They deny the sufficiency of Scripture for dealing with the problems of the soul.

Adapted from Steven Cole

They elevate and revere the pride of man and diminish the glory of God.

Adapted from Steven Cole

They deny or minimize the need for the cross of Christ by asserting either the basic goodness of man or by downplaying the need to be saved at all.

Adapted from Steven Cole

They deny God’s moral absolutes and substitute relative human “goodness”.

Adapted from Steven Cole

They focus on pleasing yourself rather than on pleasing God and serving others.

Blessed and happy and fortunate and satisfied is the person that does not download advice like that in their lives.

But that’s not the only thing on the path to be blessed.

1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Do you catch the vibe here?

First, you are just walking through the mall and you bump into somebody that you kind of know and you start walking through the mall together.

And they start pouring out all of their ideas about life and you are listening and nodding along.

And then you keep walking and you keep listening, but then you stop in Starbucks and you both get a latte and you walk over to the stand-up bar where there’s no stools and a few of their friends are over there and the conversation gets deeper and you hang out and keep nodding along more and more with everything they are saying.

Someone said that the natural direction of sin is a sequential, downward drag.

Or in the words of those 80’s philosophers known as The Fixx – one thing leads to another.

I had to drive my parents to some of their doctor’s appointments this week and I was sitting in the exam room when the doctor said that a certain amount of plaque begins to build up around our hearts when we are in our 30’s – and I was thinking to myself, “At my age I probably got some gingivitis of the heart about now.”

Sin works in a similar way – it starts small – just a casual walk around the mall and then it builds up a little more and becomes more of a stand and deliver situation where we start to embrace the non-God-centered advice being delivered and it builds up a little more.

Blessed and happy and fortunate and satisfied is the person who does not stand in the mental mall of sinners and allow a disregard for God to build spiritual plaque on their hearts.

But walking and standing aren’t the only thing on the path to be blessed.

1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

So, now you’ve left Starbucks and your sitting in the food court with the whole crew eating sushi and they are full-on downloading you with your new way of approaching everything in life.

The picture here is one of settling down in a dwelling place.

• You aren’t just walking around sin
• You aren’t just standing in the presence of sin
• You are living in sin – and you like it

You aren’t just walking with the wicked or standing around with the sinners, now you are sitting down with the scoffers.

What is a scoffer?

It is someone who is antagonistic toward God.

They criticize Christians and they criticize the Bible.

They don’t think they need God and they think their real-life experience and their personal opinions, or their business sense are all better than some ancient Christian folklore from the Bible.

Scoffers may have grown up outside of the church or they may have grown up in church and they could still be in the church.

You want to avoid people who put their opinions or their traditions or their contemporary fads above God’s Word.

People like that will consistently scoff at the counsel and the advice of the Bible.

And people like that often have a little crowd of people scoffing with them or scoffing for them.

They don’t want to reconcile ideas and opinions with people one-on-one as the Bible teaches – they want an audience so they can stick out their chest and push their agendas.

You will not be blessed if you sit in the food court or the breakfast joint or the bar or the hallway at church with scoffers.

Scoffers are offended at the truth of God and they are offensive with their thoughts and their words and their deeds towards God and towards God’s people.

Thomas Brooks

Always look upon wicked men, under those names and notions which the Scripture describes them, such as:

Thomas Brooks

lions for their fierceness, bears for their cruelty, dragons for their hideousness, dogs for their filthiness, wolves for their subtleness, scorpions, vipers, thorns, briars, thistles, brambles, stubble, dirt, chaff, dust, dross, smoke, scum.

Yeah, don’t sit down with scoffers.

Again, catch the progressions here:

• Walk
• Stand
• Sit

• Wicked
• Sinner
• Scoffer

• Counsel
• Path
• Seat

Do you want to be blessed?

Steer clear of all of those progressions.

How can we get our minds in that gear?

Let me give you two practical pictures.

One is a cool one I came across this week.

When a submarine is placed in the water it is living in the water and it is maneuvering in the water, but what makes it a submarine is that the water doesn’t get inside.

As Christians we live in this world and we maneuver in this world, but what makes a Christian a Christian is that the wicked, sinful, scoffing ways of the world are not supposed to make their way inside of us.

So, onward Christian submarines!

And here’s a second practical help that comes from possibly the hardest moment in one man’s life.

His name was John.

John was a super successful public relations director.

His marketing numbers were beyond significant, and he had some major brand name recognition throughout a major portion of several countries.

Then suddenly it all came crashing down and he found himself on the wrong side of a prison door.

In discouragement and depression and desperation he asked some friends to go talk to his boss and see if there was any way he could help him – this was the message John the Baptist sent Jesus:

Luke 7:20

“Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?”

“I sowed my seed of faith and now I’m sitting here in jail!”

“I’m not feeling blessed or happy or fortunate or satisfied.”

Ever felt that way?

This was the message Jesus sent back:

Luke 7:22

Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Jesus doesn’t just hit it out of the ballpark – he calls the exact spot before he hits.  

In a moment of weakness, John scoffs just a little bit:

“Are you the one – or should I be looking for someone else?

Jesus sends them back with their mouths wide open.

When they got back to John’s cell, he wouldn’t be able to get a word in – over and over again they would say:

• “He’s the one, John!”
• “He really is the one!”

But Jesus sent them back with one more thing:

Luke 7:23

Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.

Blessed and happy is the person who does not scoff and is not offended when Jesus doesn’t do what they think he should do.

Blessed and happy is the person who does not scoff and is not offended when the Jesus of the Bible doesn’t match their version of Jesus.

John was doubting, but he wasn’t denying.

How do we know?

Because he turned to Jesus.

He was struggling and maybe scoffing just a little, but he knew where to turn to be blessed.

He knew where to turn to find happiness and satisfaction – not the kind of happiness that lasts for a Sunday or a holiday or a wedding day or an anniversary or a retirement party or a tailgate party for your favorite team – but the kind of happiness that guards and hugs and loves your soul after you die and right now.

John didn’t ask a stupid question – he asked the right question.

Jesus, are you the One?

A few years ago, one of my morning devotional readings had the following title:

Devotional

“Jesus Is What You Are Looking For”

There is no other way to say it.

Whatever blessing you are looking for in life, Jesus is what you are really looking for.

He really is the One.

Message by Dow Welsh |

January 12, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

more |

Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

So have you ever asked a stupid question? You don't have to answer that. Sorry. Have you ever been charged for asking a stupid question? Some of you may have seen the news from Denver this week from Tom's Diner. It seems that at Tom's Diner, you can get charged for a stupid question. That's right there on the menu, on the sides. That's right, in between the extra dressing in the vegetable of the day. Now the good thing is that it's the cheapest thing on the menu, almost the cheapest thing on the menu. You only pay 38 cents for asking a stupid question at Tom's Daughter. That's all. Just going to put you out 38 cents. About 20 years ago, Thomasina put that on the menu. He just thought toe add a little fun to the workday. Just something different to do. According to Christy Callahan of today dot com, the wait staff is instructed, not toe actually charge someone for asking a stupid question. But toe add that to the bill of a fun and lively table. Now, over the years, some people have gotten frustrated just a few here there but for the most part, the report is that everybody likes a little light hearted fun, and they appreciate the humor. And there's also folks who have decided that they want to try to see if they can get charged for a stupid question. You know they're going to give it a shot. So here are a couple of the questions that have been asked over the years. Are there any dues for the Turkey Club Sandwich? Just two today. So it's okay. Does the ice have any water in it? This'll. Water takes more water than water. Can I have some water in the ice? He thinks that role in the menu. They decided to add some healthy options not long ago. And on the Healthy Options menu you confined next to the cottage Jesus and the soup of the day. Skip your next meal or walk home, and thankfully, there is no charge for either one of those. Those those air free Those are free, you know, the world is a very dark and difficult and dangerous and discouraging place. So kudos Tom and his diner for adding a little light hearted morsel of fun into a dark world. Good stuff. But then again. As the saying goes, There's no such thing as a stupid question, right? So putting stupid question on the menu is, it's kind of stupid because of innocents. Thing is a stupid question. So why is that said? Well, more than likely, it's because of what a question actually is. I came across the definition that words it like this. A question is an act that seeks information, an act, an action that seeks information. There are 150 strategic Psalms in the Bible. They contain more than 40,000 words. That's a lot of information to seek. Today we will begin a journey through the very first of those 150. Some one someone has been described as the doorkeeper or a bouncer to the other 149 Psalms. In other words, if you're going to get to the other songs, you have to go through some one. The interesting thing about this one Psalm, though, is how much information is packed in six sentences. In fact, the answer's toe life's deepest questions are found in this one song. The answers that you want the most in life are found in this one. So here's just a few things that we will find in terms of the answers. Two questions that this psalm has. Here's the questions. Who are you? Who are you? Someone where can you find happiness? What road in life should you take? Who should be your friends? What is your destiny? Where can you find somebody to watch over you? And are you ready to die All of that in six sentences and Maur than that? All in this one song, it sounds like it might be worth a look. So So we're going to give it a look. Let's just jump right in. So I'm one burst one, Osama says. How blessed is the man, How blessed, how happy, How fortunate, How satisfied, How blessed and happy is the man or the woman or the boy or the girl or the teenager or the college student or the young adult of young, married adult or the single adult or the senior adult or any other human being past, present or future, how blessed and how happy. This is a crazy, simple and crazy, powerful way to start off this song, right? Do you want to be blessed Do you want to be happy? Do you want to be satisfied? Do you wanna have joy? Do you want to find meaning and purpose in your life? If so, then you need to listen to whatever's after this phrase. How blessed is the man. So how can you be blessed? Well, some say you could be blessed by sewing a seed of faith which oftentimes translates as give your gift of $100 amore, and we will send you a handkerchief in the mail that's been sprinkled with water from the Jordan River. The only river that makes anyone's baptism riel. And And you can do that in your gift of $100 or more will be blessed tenfold. And God will give you a house in the gated community of Jabez. Someone might say, Well, hang on. Didn't Paul say the Lord will bless you if you invest in the in the work of God, give financially to the work of God? Didn't Didn't Paul say The Lord bless you? Yeah, he did. Second Corinthians chapter number six. Now this, I say he who's so sparingly will also reap sparingly. And he who says Bountiful e will also reap Bountiful e. If you are in a attitude of miserly nous, then you have a a mantra, ungodly, non godly, non Christian mantra that says, It's mine and you can't tell me what to do it. If that's the fault process, then you are someone living in the atmosphere of sewing, sparing Lee Eugene Peterson paraphrased it this way and the message. A stingy planter gets a stingy crop. So yes, it is correct to say that if you want to be blessed, you should so bountiful you should invest in the work of God. Yes, that that is a very true state. The danger, though, is when we don't keep reading. This is what Paul says. Just a couple of sentences later, in Verse 11 I'm reading this from the King James being enriched in everything to all bountiful nous. That's just a fun word to say. What does it mean? What does it mean? Toe have bountiful nous. It means to be generous Paul sayss being and rich, being being given material things so that you can be generous. Sam Storm says this the prosperity gospel says you should give in order to get and stops there. The Bible says you should give in order to get so you can give even Maura way. Does God want to financially bless you? Maybe, uh, does God want you to be generous? No matter how much money you have, our don't have. Definitely one day Jesus was a church. He was watching him past the offering plates. And he noticed that that the wealthy people were putting large sums of money in the plates, which, by the way, is not wrong. Okay, just to be clear, you know, as long as you do it with an attitude of joy and humility. But then he also noticed that there was a widow that put in just two coins and he he pulled his disciples together for a really time re a life lesson. And this is what he said to him. Mark 12 truly. I say to you, this poor widow put in Maur than all the contributors to the treasury for they all put in out of their surplus. But she out of her poverty, put in all she owned all she had to live again. Eugene Peterson gives it this paraphrase all the others gave what they'll never miss. She gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford. She gave this guy I wanna financially bless you. Maybe I don't know. But again, does God want you to be generous no matter how much money you have or don't have? Definitely. And is being blessed always just financial is being blessed always about money? No, not at all. So how can you be blessed? Listen with Thomas is next. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the Council of the Wicked. How blessed and happy and fortunate and satisfied is the person that does not listen to the advice of the world. Now what does that mean? Well, here's what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean don't ever take any advice from people who aren't Christians. OK, that's that's silly, right? Because every week, from doctors to mechanics to recipe bloggers, we take advice from people who may or may not be Christians. So this is not about taking advice from people who aren't Christians. This is completely different. It's not about strategic information for unique situations in life. This is about saying this. How happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied is the person that does not live their daily life, pressed down by advice from people who do not love God or his ways or even regard God practically speaking. Think of it this way. Do what the meteorologist says. All right, don't get an umbrella. Go get a jacket. Whatever they saved you just go do that. That's fine. But don't rearrange your day around the Mother Nature, our mother Earth, because that's just a mythic personification that was created to define nature way back in the Greco Roman culture. No, somebody might say with that what you Christians did. I mean, didn't know. Invent God isn't got a a mythic personification. That kind of helps you guys understand nature and the meaning of life. This Louis of this nature never taught me that there exist a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways, but nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. I do not see how fear of God could ever have meant to me. Anything but the lowest credential efforts to be safe if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable cracks. And if nature had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by love of God will never so far as I can see have existed. In other words, nature does not scream. Tow us. Hey, create something to explain all of this. No nature screams to us. Holy Holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who wasit iss and is to come. Nature points us to the creator, and the creator is not us, Thomas Quanis it this we find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, that which does not exist on Lee begins to exist by something already existing. Therefore, if it one time nothing was in existence, it would have been impossible for anything to have begun to exist. And thus, even now, nothing would be in existence, which is absurd. And he said this. It is impossible to go on to infinity and necessary things which have their necessity calls by another. In other words, God was not invented so that we could have some kind of way to explain why things exist. God declared himself to be the only reasonable logical reason. First calls for why things do exist. Apostle Paul said it this way. Percent the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, his divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. So the Psalmist is saying this blessed and happy and fortunate and satisfied is the person who is able to live in such a way that they're not constantly downloading the advice of a world who will not acknowledge the invisible attributes of creator God clearly seen in nature. It's almost as if he's saying, You know what? It's a crime against your own soul to deny the existence of God. So don't don't buy into that type of criminal advice. Don't walk in it and don't plan your life around it. But how could I even happen? How in the world could we start being people who plan our life around advice that denies God? I came across a list of five categories we can use for this. This type of counsel the psalmist refers to him again is is wicked people, so I'm just going to list them quickly and they're pretty self explanatory. Here's the 1st 1 They deny this efficiency of Scripture for dealing with the problems of the soul. So Thomas is saying these wicked people, they deny this efficiency of Scripture, the solve the problems of a person's soul. We could people also elevate and revere the pride of man and diminish the glory of God. They put man first and most instead of God. First and most wicked people deny or minimize the need for the cross of Christ by this by asserting either the basic goodness of man, I'm okay. You're okay. Everybody's okay. Or by downplaying the need to be saved at all forth. Wicked people deny God's moral absolutes and substitute relative human goodness. Hutch. Human goodness, have we read in the news this week? Is there a ton of human goodness going on in the world that you can build your life upon on the fifth? Wicked people focus on pleasing yourself rather than on pleasing God and serving others. Yes, Osama says, Here's some advice. Don't download that. Don't download advice like that, and then run your daily life and your daily schedule on that type of counsel. Don't walk in that way. But that's not the only thing on the path toe Be blessed. 1st 1 how blesses the man who does not walk in the Council of the Wicked nor stand in the path of sinners Catch a bomb here. It's like you're power walking through the mall, you know, just walking, minding your own business. Now, all of a sudden, here comes somebody you know. You know him a little bit, you're not friends with him and you're power walking together, and I'll go through them all. And they're just downloading their philosophy of life, telling you everything they believe about everything going on in the media and in the world and religion and politics and everything else. And you're just walking and you're not Oh, yeah, Oh, yeah, yeah, I see your point to your point. And then you stop walking and you walk by the Starbucks and you go in Starbucks and you better get a lot. And I'll go over to the stand up bar where there's no stools and some of their friends were there. And then all of a sudden, you're standing around in the conversation. Just deepens Maur of that life philosophy own and own and own, and you're nodding a lot more and going along a lot more. You're not just walking now you're standing and you're in the conversation. Someone has said this about sin. The natural direction of sin is a sequential downward drag. It's always pulling you in the direction you don't want together. According to the eighties philosophers known as the Fix, one thing leads to another over and over and over again. I have take my parents to some of their doctor's appointments this week and and one of his appointments. I'm sitting there in the exam room, and the doctor is kind of going over some things. And he made this comment. He said, You know, some of this plaque around the heart, It really it starts in us when you know we're in our thirties. I'm sitting there going kid night. At this point, I probably gingivitis all over my heart, Man, ain't nothing. The plaque start. Get a little nervous just listening to the conversation. But you know, it seems like that that that's what sin does Senate. It kind of starts small, but then it keeps building and keeps building and keeps building. It's not just walking around with sand, it's it's standing and sin, and the plaque begins to build. And what the Psalmist is saying is this blessed and happy and fortunate is satisfied is the person that doesn't stand around the council and the advice and the ways of the world so much that it starts building up spiritual plaque around their spiritual heart, he says, blesses the person that they didn't have that kind of plaque and their soul. But walking and standing or not, the only thing on the path to be blessed look continued in verse one. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the Council of the Wicked nor stand in the path of centers nor sit in the seat of scoffers. You walk in any more units Starbucks, you in the food court, you're sitting down the whole crowd of sitting together. Y'all got plates of sushi and, man, y'all are diving in. All of that philosophy is just being poured out full own, and then you're into it. Now you ain't walking, you ain't standing, you're sitting and you're soaking it all in the language. Here in the original languages. One of settling down in a dwelling place. You aren't just walking around. Since you're just standing in the presence of sin, you are living in sin and you're okay. You're good with it, and it doesn't bother you at all. You're not walking with the wicked. You're not standing with the centers. Now you're sitting down with scoffers. What's the score for? Well, Scott, for someone who is antagonistic toward God, they are always pushing against God. They're the kind of person that criticizes Christians, and they criticized the Bible. They don't think they need God, and they think they're real life experience or or their personal experiences or their business experiences. Is all the information in the opinions that they need and all that they have is a lot better than some old book written long ago scoffers who may have grown up outside of the church. They may have grown up inside of the church, and they may still be in the church. A scar for is someone who is always trying to make their personal opinion or their tradition or their contemporary fad Maur important than God's work. They don't say God's words, not important But their thing is always Maur important than what the Bible says and how the Bible leads. People that consistently scoff at the council on the advice of the Bible, and people that scoff always have a little group around them. They have people scoffing with them, or they have people stopping for them. And scoffers almost never will obey the Bible and go one on one with a person to try to reconcile an opinion or a difference. They always want a crown so they can always push their agenda a little bit in front of others. You will not be blessed if you sit in the food court or the breakfast joint or the bar or the hallway church with scoffers, the Psalmist says. Yeah, I don't go there, Don't go there scoffers air Offended at the truth of God, they are offensive with their thoughts and their attitudes toward gods and toward God's people, Thomas Brooks said. This always look upon wicked men under those names and notions, which the Scripture describes them, such as Hang on, Do you have here lions for their fierceness, bears for their cruelty, dragons for their hideousness dogs for their filthy nous wolves for their subtle nous. Scorpions, vipers, thorns, Briers, thistles, Brambles stubble, dirt chaffing dust draws smoke scum. Yeah, I don't sit down. The scoffers, all right. Doesn't take long to pull those words together. And listen again to the progressions in this verse walk, Stan, sit wicked center Scott for counsel path. See what sin does. It drags you down sequentially. And so if you want to be blessed and stay away from those progressions, steer clear of those progressions. And how can we get our our minds in that gear? I mean, that's easier said than done. How do we get our minds and a gear that says All right. And this this'll first versus kind of got something there, you know? I gotta watch how? Walk and stand and sit. So how do we get there? We'll just give you two kind of practical ways of thinking about this. Hopefully they'll be helpful. First is when I came across this week, which is just great. You know, a submarine when it is put in the water, it lives in the water. It maneuvers in the water. But what makes a submarine a submarine is that the water doesn't get in the submarine. As Christians, we live in this world, and we maneuver in this world. But what makes a Christian a Christian is that the wicked, sinful, scoffing advice of the world is not supposed to get in. It's not supposed to become the habits of our life. Second, practical help comes from possibly the the hardest moment of one man's life. The most desperate, depressing, difficult moment of this man's life. His name was John. He was a tremendously successful public relations director. His marketing numbers were off the chart. He had significant brand name recognition in a number of countries. And then one day, everything came crashing down and he found himself on the wrong side of a prison door. And he was so discouraged, he was so depressed he was so desperate that he sent some of his friends to the boss just to see if the boss could do anything to help. And this is the message that John the Baptist sent Jesus. Are you the expected one? What do we look for someone else? Jesus, I I sold my seed of faith. Now I'm in prison. I ain't happy. I am blessed. I ain't fortunate. I ain't satisfied. What gifts? I never felt that way. I feel that way this morning. Listen how Jesus responds. This is crazy. Look. 7 20 go and report to John What you have seen and heard. A no fairy tale. This isn't a legend documented by Christian and Roman and Greek historians. Thes these things air out there. You have to work hard, do not have faith in them. You have to have greater faith to not believe the history of the things that Jesus did. Jesus that going? Report to John, which you have seen and heard the blind receive sight the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and the death here the dead are raised up. The poor have the gospel preached to Jesus said hit at the ballpark me he calls the spot Before he hit, he sends them home with a riel message in a moment of weakness. John scoffing just a little bit And Jesus sends them back. The question was Hayes, there's somebody else. Are you really the guy? Shoot. We be looking for someone else. Can you imagine these guys walking in the cell? But John never got a word in John John. John John, John, John, John. He's the one, John. Really? We're going to go over this again. Listen to the stories. We saw these things with our own eyes, John. He's really the one. But Jesus sent him back with something else. Look, 7 23 Blessed is he who does not take offense at me. Blessed and happy and satisfied is the person that doesn't scoff and is not offended when Jesus doesn't work the situation out the way you think it should be worked out. Blessed and happy and satisfied is the one who doesn't scoff and is not offended when the Jesus of the Bible doesn't match up with your version of Jesus. John was doubting, but he wasn't denying. How do we know that because he turned to Jesus? He was doubting he was struggling. He was maybe scoffing a little bit, but he knew where to turn to be blessed. He knew where he should go. He knew where he should turn to find happiness and satisfaction, not the kind of happiness that last for a Sunday, Not the kind of happiness that last for the weekend or ah, holiday or wedding day or an anniversary. Not the kind of happiness that laughs for a retirement party or tailgating party, but the kind of happiness and the kind of satisfaction that will hug your soul after you die. And the kind of happiness and satisfaction that will hug your soul right now. A few years ago, I was reading one of my morning devotional readings and had the following title. Jesus is what you're looking for. John didn't ask a stupid question. Yes, the right question. Jesus. Are you the one? Whatever blessing you're looking for in life Jesus is what you're looking for. Whatever blessing you're hoping for in life. Jesus is what you are looking for. Jesus. Really? Iss the one He Really? Yes, the one.