The Blessed Man

[0:00] Good evening, everybody. Praise the Lord. So, first and foremost, I want to thank our pastor for giving me this opportunity.

[0:10] You know, it's an honor to be able to stand before you guys and deliver this message that God placed upon me. I'm a little nervous, but I should be, right?

[0:23] When we're handling the Word of God, it's nothing easy, so we do have to be conscious of what we're doing. So, if you guys have your Bibles, can you please turn to Psalms 1?

[0:37] We're going to be reading verses 1 through 6. Okay. When you guys are there, say amen. Amen. All right. So, Psalms 1, 1 through 6. Verse 1.

[0:48] Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Verse 2.

[0:58] But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doeth he meditate day and night. Verse 3. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.

[1:12] His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Verse 4. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff, which the wind driveth away.

[1:25] Verse 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Verse 6. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

[1:38] Let us pray. Lord Jesus, I ask you to please bless this service. Bless my lips and anoint me and help me deliver the message to the congregation. Let it penetrate their mind, their heart, and their soul.

[1:50] And their spirit, Lord, every single day. In Jesus' name, amen. You guys may be seated. So, let's break it down.

[2:01] Verse 1 is, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. So, the word bless.

[2:15] The dictionary definition for bless is made holy. But in scripture, bless also means enjoy happiness. So, blessed is the man.

[2:28] The man is also going to enjoy the happiness coming from the Lord. So, it's talking about whoever's living for God is going to be blessed and have the happiness of the Lord with them every single day.

[2:46] So, Sorry. So, one key thing is, it says, blessed is the man.

[2:58] It doesn't say, blessed is the king. It doesn't say, blessed is the president. Blessed is the rich. It doesn't say any of that, right? It says, blessed is the man. Who is man? That's us. We are all able to be blessed.

[3:10] Doesn't matter where we are coming from, right? The blessing or happiness is obtained by anyone who is willing to walk in the spirit of God. So, in this scripture, normally, we are used to reading what we're supposed to be doing.

[3:26] But the scripture is reversed. It starts off with what a blessed man is not supposed to do. So, it talks about three things.

[3:37] It talks about walking, standing, and sitting. And it's all with the wicked, the scornful, the ungodly, right? So, we have to really be able to distinguish what type of counsel we are receiving.

[3:56] Who is the person giving us the advice, right? Sometimes we're giving advice from different people, but do you ever think to yourself, is this advice coming from someone who knows right from wrong? Does it match what's in the Bible?

[4:08] Is it the right thing to do? If we ask ourselves these questions about someone's advice, maybe we shouldn't take their advice. The righteous man knows where to find godly advice, godly counsel.

[4:20] In Psalms 32 and 8, God is saying, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go, and I will guide thee with mine eye. God will teach us and always give us the best advice.

[4:32] We always go looking somewhere else for advice, except to the one who knows it all. How do we receive his advice? By reading his word. In God's word, we always find the best counsel, and it can help us provide the best counsel to someone else, because we know it's godly, and it's coming from the right place.

[4:55] So, walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. So, we start, this is talking about starting to take interest of what the fleshy things of the world is willing to offer.

[5:09] You know, we're like, I wonder what they're doing over there. So, we start walking with them. We start walking to see what those people are doing. Sorry, I lost my place.

[5:20] The greatest tool the enemy uses is social media. So, social media tries to capture your interest and tries to distract you from what's right.

[5:36] It tells you how you're supposed to dress, how you're supposed to talk, how you're supposed to walk, how you're supposed to, what's cool, what's not. That's what social media does. Why? Because it's ran by the ungodly of this world.

[5:49] The righteous man should know the path that they are on, and know that even though the path of the ungodly has more people, just because there's a thousand people marching that way and ten of us marching this way, doesn't mean the thousand people are marching the right way.

[6:05] I'd rather take the path with the less people and be blessed, be filled with the happiness of God, than go the wrong way. On the second part, it says, Nor standeth in the way of the sinner.

[6:18] We should not be standing with the sinners. We shouldn't be actively wanting to watch what they are doing. Wanting to fit in with those people just because they are a larger group makes no sense.

[6:28] If you're standing with them, it means you are interested in seeing what the sinful life is about. We have to be able to know the difference between the righteous and the wicked. It's like school.

[6:41] You got the popular kids, then you got the nerds on the side. Realistically, you know, do you really want to be with the popular kids? Probably not.

[6:51] I mean, in that mindset back then was, yeah, I want to be popular. But think about it now. Those popular kids are what? Majority of them are with the wicked and the long tail of people following the wrong way.

[7:04] Right? So always know with who you're standing and where you're standing. So the third part is, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

[7:18] Once we take a seat with the scornful people, we have now given in to the temptation and the want to actively participate in the sinful acts. You know it was wrong, but yet you wanted to walk and see what happened.

[7:29] Now you're standing and you see the act, and now you're like, let me have a seat at your table because I want to be involved in this as well. There's a lot of people in this world that are scornful, rude, disrespectful.

[7:43] And if we're sitting with these people, that means you are willing to participate in the same acts that they're doing as well. Best example, an example of the walking, standing, and sitting.

[7:54] Let's say an acquaintance invites you to a rock concert. You know it's wrong to go, but you agree to go anyways. As you're walking to the stadium, still thinking that what you are doing is wrong, now you're standing in line, waiting to be let in, and you look around, and you see people dressing appropriately.

[8:12] You see guys with earrings and piercings, you see them painted nails, and you know that's wrong, right? But yet, you still go in. And now what do you do?

[8:24] You sit down in your seat, and you enjoy the show. You have now just gave in to the temptation, and are now willing to participate in that sinful act that you knew was wrong since the get-go.

[8:37] And sometimes it's not our fault because we are paying the price from Genesis, right? We're paying the price from Adam and Eve, but we have to be able to know what's right from wrong, and the easiest way is to read your word.

[8:52] To be with the Lord, because the Lord is the word. Amen. So just remember, blessed is the man who does not listen to the voice of the wicked people and the things of the world.

[9:05] The righteous person will not actively participate in the lifestyle of sinners. We need to refuse the advice of those who hold godless values, and whose moral choices violate the laws of God.

[9:18] Verse 2, Now here we are told what to do, right?

[9:30] The first one was what not to do. Now for a righteous person, a blessed person, we want to know what are we supposed to do? So we should be delighted in the law of the Lord.

[9:41] The law is not referring to the dispensation of the law, right? With Moses, it's not referring to that. The law is referring to the word.

[9:53] This is the law. This is what we should be following every single day. So inside his word, we should be meditating day and night. So meditating, in a lot of Asian cultures, meditating is to take time and empty your mind, right?

[10:11] But for us, that's not what meditating is. Meditating is not emptying your mind. It's filling your mind with this. Filling your mind with what's in this book. Reading the word of God helps us to refresh our mind by removing the ungodly things and filling it with the word of God.

[10:33] In Romans 12, 2 says, And be not conformed to this world, but ye be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove that what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

[10:47] Here it's talking about not being conformed with this world, but we need to renew our minds. And how do we renew our minds? By meditating day and night the word of God. Water.

[11:01] Verse 3. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

[11:18] Now, we're talking about what is the blessing of the righteous man. It says, He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.

[11:28] So the weather around the world, it's not the same. Some countries have humidity, a lot of rain, so you see a lot of greenery. And some are very dry, right?

[11:40] But in ancient Israel, the typical, it was a typically very dry country. It did not get a lot of rainfall. Therefore, plants aren't able to survive for a long time.

[11:51] Only way was to have a tree or crop survive. It had to be planted next to a lasting water source, like a river. At that point, it didn't matter if it rained or not, because it still got the nourishment from its roots from the river.

[12:06] That means it's never going to wither away. It's never going to die. So we need to be like that tree, planted by the water. Our water source is the word of God.

[12:17] That is how we continue living every single day, is the word of God. As long as we're getting our water, our nourishment, we will not wither either. The blessed man shall also bring forth his fruit in his season.

[12:32] One big thing to remember is his season. When you plant a tree in the ground, it doesn't give you fruit right away. No, no, that tree needs to mature, and it's a mature in the flower, and then produces fruit, right?

[12:45] We're the same way. When we get born again, what are we? We're babies. We're babies, right? So we need to mature spiritually, and then we're able to produce our fruit as well.

[12:59] Galatians 5.22 says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith. That is the fruit, the season, that is the season fruit that will come when we mature spiritually.

[13:15] It also says, his leaf does not wither. The greens will not wither as long as we continue being in the word of God, getting our nourishment, being a tree planted by the river.

[13:32] Verse four, the ungodly are not so, but are like chaff, which the wind driveth away. So, those who, for, those who do not know what chaff is.

[13:44] So chaff is the shell of a seed of grain or wheat. It is, cannot be consumed by humans. It's worthless to man, because it doesn't provide any type of nutrients, or usable substance.

[13:56] It's so light that you can throw a pile of wheat in the air, and the wind taketh the chaff away. That is how unstable and lacking in substance the ungodly are.

[14:11] Sometimes you might think, why does the ungodly person have more than what I have? They have more money than me. They have more fame. They have more items. Yes, they might have so many things here, in the world, but when we're talking about everlasting eternity, who's going to have more things?

[14:30] We are, right? We shouldn't be wanting to follow the same footsteps that they have here in this fleshly world, because our blessings are coming, and it's not here.

[14:41] This is temporary. Our blessings are after this, right? They're going to be the ones begging to be where we are at, not us begging to be where they're at. As long as we're like a tree planted in the river, we will be prosperous than any ungodly person, because our prosperity does not last 10, 20, 30, 40 years.

[15:01] No, it lasts in eternity. And verse, everybody knows John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, and that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

[15:16] Verse five. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Now, it's talking about what the ungodly won't be doing.

[15:31] When God judges the righteous and the wicked, he will separate the two groups. The righteous will stand in his presence, which in the case is contrasted with those who fall in the presence of God.

[15:43] Those who fall are the wicked who will be sentenced to eternal punishment. The wicked are too light. They're like chaff that will lack the substance to stand with the righteous.

[15:53] In Matthew 25, verse 31, when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.

[16:05] Verse 32. And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them from one another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. The sheep and the goats are like the righteous and the wicked.

[16:20] We always want to strive to be the sheep. We don't want to be the goats. Why? Matthew 25, 33 says, he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

[16:34] Verse 34 says, Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world.

[16:46] The ungodly and the sinners are the goats of this world, and they will not be able to enter the kingdom of God. They will not be in the congregation of the righteous, because the righteous man, the sheep, will all be able to enter the kingdom of God.

[17:01] The sinners themselves, so sinners themselves are the ones that keep themselves away from the congregation. We don't force them out. We walk open arms, open doors. Everybody's welcome here, right?

[17:12] We want everybody to be saved, just like Pastor Eccles was saying earlier. But they run away themselves. They kick themselves out.

[17:23] Majority of the time, what do wicked people say about the Christians? Oh, they're a bunch of weirdos. Or like, oh wow, you can't do this, you can't do that, you have no freedom.

[17:35] That's, they always say that. They're like, they're not fun people, let's stay away from them. They're kicking themselves out from what is actually right. All they're doing is punishing themselves away from the congregation, pushing themselves away from the love of the Lord.

[17:50] If only they knew how amazing it is to live this lifestyle, not because we have to, but because we want to. We want to, we get to be different. We get to be the sheep of this land, and it's all because we want to continue being blessed by the Lord.

[18:08] Verse six, for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. So verse six is summarizing this Psalm.

[18:19] So it doesn't matter what you try to do to try to hide from the Lord. He knows the righteous from the wicked. You cannot fool God. People can play Christian. They're coming to church on Sundays.

[18:30] They're giving general offerings on Sundays. But at home, what do you do? You go back to your life. You go back to that lifestyle, right? As much as you want to trick all of us, you can trick all of us here.

[18:45] But there's one man that knows right from wrong. There's one man that knows what you're doing is wrong. So if in your spirit or in your heart, you're still willing to sit with the ungodly, then you should be considered a goat when the time comes.

[19:05] We don't want to be content living in this world with fleshy desires. We don't want to be the chaff in the ground because the wind will take you away. We don't want to live. We want to live for God and be with him in our everlasting home.

[19:17] And guess what? God wants us there too. That is why he gave himself up for us in our trespasses. But no, from now on, it's our turn to do our part. It's our turn to make the right decision.

[19:28] It's our turn to follow his commandments. We need to be like that tree planted by the rivers and always get our nourishment. We need to always strive to be the sheep of this world and help as many people as we can.

[19:39] Bring them along with us. Please stand. So, I ask for you guys today to please come forward and pray that God continues to bless us, has us as a tree planted next to that river, lets our fruits come when the season's ready, and lets us continue having people in the kingdom of God.

[20:06] And, Thank you.