WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.080 We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church. 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:09.500 This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:15.280 redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church. 00:00:15.280 --> 00:00:22.660 Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org. 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:31.939 Today's scripture reading is from Psalm 1 as printed in the liturgy. 00:00:34.820 --> 00:00:40.320 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:43.439 nor sits in the seat of scoffers. 00:00:44.579 --> 00:00:50.500 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 00:00:50.500 --> 00:00:57.119 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, 00:00:57.719 --> 00:00:59.539 and its leaf does not wither. 00:01:00.460 --> 00:01:02.719 In all that he does, he prospers. 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:08.019 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:15.079 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:21.079 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:27.719 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. 00:01:30.659 --> 00:01:32.299 Good morning, Christ Church. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:38.620 We had a lovely retreat last weekend down in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 00:01:38.620 --> 00:01:43.079 and still just living off of the joy of that time together. 00:01:43.300 --> 00:01:49.580 But so glad to also be back here today, and especially want to welcome you if you're new with us today, 00:01:49.740 --> 00:01:52.120 or if you came last week while we were on retreat. 00:01:52.240 --> 00:01:54.580 We're so glad to see you as well. 00:01:55.800 --> 00:02:00.000 Today we are beginning this new fall sermon series in the Psalms, 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:07.400 and you may be wondering what this has to do with some of the not insignificant challenges 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:10.479 that are facing our nation and our world. 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:20.680 We are 64 days away from an election where the ideology and the ethos and the economy of our nation 00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:22.740 hangs in the balance, as it were. 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:27.840 And so why in the world are we going to meditate on the Bible's hymn book 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:31.300 and these songs of Israel and Jesus and the church? 00:02:32.219 --> 00:02:36.060 We've got universities and university towns across our country 00:02:36.060 --> 00:02:41.240 that are bracing for more tensions and more protests over the Israel-Hamas war, 00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:49.560 and so why are we sinking our roots down into this flowing stream of this prayer manual of the Bible? 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:56.780 How is this book relevant to the pressing concerns of our day? 00:02:56.780 --> 00:03:02.159 And don't we need more sermons right now on unity and on compassion and on peace? 00:03:03.020 --> 00:03:06.620 Well, I want you to consider this first word that introduces the book. 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:09.740 If you just look at it there, it's not just the first word in Psalm 1, 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:15.620 but it's the first word that introduces the entire Psalter, Psalms 1 through 150. 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:17.520 And what's the word? 00:03:19.060 --> 00:03:19.920 What's the word? 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:21.539 It's blessed. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:22.900 It's happy. 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:28.240 And Jesus uses this word in the opening of his Sermon on the Mount where he says, 00:03:28.640 --> 00:03:28.860 what? 00:03:28.980 --> 00:03:29.219 He says, 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:31.259 Blessed are the poor in spirit. 00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:39.140 Happy are you when you realize how spiritually bankrupt and inadequate you are. 00:03:39.200 --> 00:03:41.319 It's an amazing introduction to a sermon, by the way. 00:03:43.240 --> 00:03:45.099 What does it mean to be blessed? 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:47.980 What does it mean to be happy? 00:03:47.979 --> 00:03:48.099 Happy. 00:03:48.799 --> 00:03:53.299 Well, this word, when it's used in the Psalms, when it's used by Jesus, it means total fulfillment, 00:03:54.620 --> 00:03:59.479 complete well-being, absolute wholeness. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:02.039 Who doesn't want that? 00:04:02.399 --> 00:04:04.519 Who doesn't want to be happy and blessed? 00:04:07.419 --> 00:04:08.579 No one's raising their hand. 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:09.679 I want to be happy. 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:10.819 I want to be blessed. 00:04:10.819 --> 00:04:15.599 I see one other hand back there, and so we'll get together afterwards and talk about this. 00:04:15.780 --> 00:04:22.060 But I think happiness and blessedness is relevant for the pressing concerns of our time. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:28.100 Because we're living in a nation that seems to be in the throes of some pretty deep unhappiness. 00:04:29.079 --> 00:04:34.079 We're living with daily headlines about nations that are in violent conflict with one another. 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:42.680 We're seeing a whole generation of incredible mental health challenges of anxiety and depression. 00:04:42.899 --> 00:04:49.139 And so this word happiness, this word blessedness, I think is absolutely relevant to everybody sitting here, 00:04:49.219 --> 00:04:50.939 everybody that woke up this morning. 00:04:52.219 --> 00:04:53.319 How do we get it? 00:04:54.199 --> 00:04:56.979 How do we get happiness and blessedness? 00:04:56.980 --> 00:05:01.360 Well, you can read articles and books. 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:02.819 You can download apps. 00:05:03.020 --> 00:05:04.879 You can do online courses. 00:05:05.100 --> 00:05:12.080 You can sign up for all these expensive products that promise to give you an optimized self that will be happy. 00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:17.879 And these all basically say, hey, sign up for our deal. 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:18.720 Give us a lot of money. 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:31.480 And we will help you find and dwell in that sweet spot of career achievement and exercise and a healthy diet and good relationships. 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:34.420 All of which are extremely important, by the way. 00:05:35.880 --> 00:05:45.840 We can give you this formula of X amount of laughs plus ice cream plus walks with your dog plus beautiful sunsets. 00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:48.919 And this formula will be enough to make you happy. 00:05:49.899 --> 00:05:51.659 And all of those are important, by the way. 00:05:53.879 --> 00:06:01.439 But friends, I want to remind us that happiness is something that people have been looking for for 3,000 years since Psalm 1 was written. 00:06:01.539 --> 00:06:04.699 It's something that people are still searching for today. 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:11.019 Humanity has always been looking for this blessedness and this happiness, but not really finding it. 00:06:11.819 --> 00:06:13.559 It so easily eludes us. 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:19.579 Nobody sets out in life wanting to be unhappy and wanting to be miserable. 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:29.160 And, of course, we see in our own selves and we see in all the people around us people restlessly searching for rest and joy. 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:34.959 We see people desperately seeking out a sense of identity and belonging. 00:06:35.939 --> 00:06:41.180 A sense of, you know, there's got to be more meaning and more purpose than what I've found so far. 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:50.019 And so what I want us to do is today I want us to look at this poem with its alluring and even disturbing images. 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:56.480 And I want us to listen to this song with its beautiful poetry that says, here it is. 00:06:58.680 --> 00:06:59.680 Here's the thing. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:02.939 Here's God's revelation. 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:07.280 Here's God's prescription for human happiness. 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:16.299 And what I want us to look at is the way to true happiness, the chaff in the tree, and the holy habits of grace. 00:07:17.039 --> 00:07:22.619 Okay, the way to true happiness, the chaff in the tree, and the holy habits of grace. 00:07:22.699 --> 00:07:25.939 So let's talk first about the way to true happiness. 00:07:26.139 --> 00:07:29.279 Psalm 1 confronts us with two alternatives. 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:29.819 Two alternatives. 00:07:30.059 --> 00:07:33.459 If you just look at it, there's only two and there is no third. 00:07:34.019 --> 00:07:42.279 It just reduces the complexity of the search for human happiness down to this simple, direct, and very plain thing. 00:07:42.939 --> 00:07:47.259 And it says let's compare and let's contrast two types of people. 00:07:48.500 --> 00:07:51.199 There's the righteous and the wicked. 00:07:52.119 --> 00:07:55.239 There's the godly and the ungodly. 00:07:55.240 --> 00:08:02.699 There's the person who centers his or her life on God and the person who ignores and neglects God. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:09.460 Here are two types of people walking on two very different ways, two very different paths, 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:13.720 and they're going to two separate destinations. 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:21.200 And you can tell Jesus has meditated deeply on Psalm 1 because, again, in the Sermon on the Mount, 00:08:21.340 --> 00:08:27.840 he talks there about there's a wide way that's easy and many people walk on it, 00:08:27.900 --> 00:08:31.760 and there's a narrow way that's hard and very few people are walking on it. 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:35.720 And the question that the Psalms and the question that Jesus is putting before us is, 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:37.940 which way are you going? 00:08:37.940 --> 00:08:41.360 Which way are you going? 00:08:41.460 --> 00:08:44.400 And Psalm 1 says, oh, the blessedness. 00:08:45.500 --> 00:08:52.620 Oh, the happiness of the person who first knows which way and which path they're not walking on. 00:08:53.580 --> 00:08:53.800 Right? 00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:56.280 It begins with some very important negatives. 00:08:56.440 --> 00:08:59.480 Verse 1, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, 00:08:59.620 --> 00:09:03.400 nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. 00:09:03.399 --> 00:09:07.819 It begs this question, who am I? 00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:12.539 And who do I walk with and stand with and sit with? 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:14.399 What is my social context? 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:23.379 And who are the community of people around me influencing me either toward or away from a relationship with God? 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:30.399 And the way to happiness, the psalmist says, is an emphatic series of nots. 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:35.799 Walk not, stand not, sit not. 00:09:35.939 --> 00:09:44.259 True happiness requires this triple negative to the idea that all visions and all approaches to life 00:09:44.259 --> 00:09:49.340 and all approaches to happiness are equally good and equally right. 00:09:50.179 --> 00:09:50.299 Right? 00:09:50.340 --> 00:09:56.699 The vision and the pathway of life that the wicked and the sinner and the scoffer have chosen, 00:09:56.700 --> 00:09:58.420 the psalmist says, is bad. 00:09:59.320 --> 00:09:59.940 It's wrong. 00:10:01.379 --> 00:10:02.280 It's evil. 00:10:03.540 --> 00:10:08.640 And without this diagnosis, without this level of spiritual conviction, 00:10:08.840 --> 00:10:12.060 you're never going to find true happiness, the psalmist says. 00:10:13.160 --> 00:10:18.000 Well, what's wrong with these three approaches to happiness? 00:10:18.180 --> 00:10:20.160 What's wrong with these approaches? 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:23.520 Well, what does it mean to walk in the counsel of the wicked? 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:29.419 The counsel of the wicked is this whole outlook on the world without God, 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:35.100 without an awareness of or an appreciation of God or maybe even an opposition to God. 00:10:35.179 --> 00:10:42.740 And I think Psalm 10, Psalm chapter 10, verse 4, sums this, the counsel of the wicked up really well. 00:10:42.819 --> 00:10:43.079 It says, 00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:53.060 The wicked counsel says, 00:10:53.060 --> 00:10:54.560 Don't look to God. 00:10:55.660 --> 00:10:56.460 Look to yourself. 00:10:57.660 --> 00:11:01.080 Trust in your own wisdom and knowledge and understanding. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:06.180 Rely on your own reason and investigations and discoveries. 00:11:06.620 --> 00:11:10.580 Depend on your own innate powers and abilities and resources. 00:11:10.580 --> 00:11:16.480 It says, why would you waste your time with the church and the Bible and worship and prayer? 00:11:16.560 --> 00:11:20.000 Just focus on yourself and focus on your own happiness. 00:11:20.160 --> 00:11:21.280 That's the counsel of the wicked. 00:11:23.520 --> 00:11:29.280 And notice that there's a clear progression here that moves from walking to standing to sitting. 00:11:30.400 --> 00:11:32.620 And what does it mean to stand in the way of sinners? 00:11:32.620 --> 00:11:38.240 To stand in the way of sinners is to live to satisfy your desires and your appetite. 00:11:38.460 --> 00:11:44.539 And it's to go along with all the people who are living for their desires and their appetites rather than seeking after God. 00:11:45.899 --> 00:11:48.779 And what does it mean then to sit in the seat of scoffers? 00:11:48.940 --> 00:11:51.779 It's simply to dismiss that which is sacred. 00:11:51.779 --> 00:11:56.360 It's to dismiss that which is precious and that which is tender. 00:11:56.519 --> 00:12:02.559 It's to say on the basis of your own authority as if there's no authority higher than your almighty self. 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:04.240 None of that matters. 00:12:06.299 --> 00:12:09.839 And you see this progression of walking to standing to sitting. 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:23.220 It means that the grip of the self without reference to God is becoming tighter and deeper and more intractable. 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:31.580 At first you're just kind of walking in it and you say, you know, I'm never really going to be a slave to myself and my own self-interest and self-desires. 00:12:31.680 --> 00:12:33.440 I'm just going to keep moving right along. 00:12:33.540 --> 00:12:37.720 But the psalmist says a stage comes when you're standing and you're no longer walking. 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:41.820 And then a stage comes where you're sitting in ungodliness. 00:12:42.100 --> 00:12:45.100 Life without God has its hold on you. 00:12:45.160 --> 00:12:47.600 Not just your thinking, the counsel of the wicked. 00:12:47.779 --> 00:12:50.440 Not just your behavior and the way of sinners. 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:52.120 But your very identity. 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:54.639 You're now sitting in that seat. 00:12:55.580 --> 00:12:57.560 And that is your identity. 00:12:59.300 --> 00:13:00.220 You guys tracking with me? 00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:05.460 So the psalmist says it's possible to have true happiness. 00:13:05.460 --> 00:13:08.460 And there is a way to get it, but it does not lie here. 00:13:10.379 --> 00:13:12.460 Well, what is the secret to true happiness? 00:13:12.800 --> 00:13:13.660 It's in verse 2. 00:13:13.780 --> 00:13:16.600 It says, true happiness is in the Lord. 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:21.840 True happiness is in knowing the living God. 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:28.900 True happiness is finding your delight and your pleasure in the one true God. 00:13:28.899 --> 00:13:39.079 Happiness is not in following the philosophies and meditations and practices of those who ignore and neglect the Lord in order to focus on themselves. 00:13:40.419 --> 00:13:45.199 Happiness is not in shallow delights and the fading pleasures that the world has to offer you. 00:13:45.319 --> 00:13:50.459 True happiness, Psalm 1 says, is delighting in the Lord who delights in you. 00:13:50.460 --> 00:13:55.540 It's knowing the Lord who knows you. 00:13:56.580 --> 00:14:01.900 Verse 6 says, the Lord knows the way of the righteous. 00:14:03.139 --> 00:14:13.220 You see, you're blessed and you're happy when you're aware that your relationship with the Lord is so precious and it's so powerful 00:14:13.220 --> 00:14:19.420 that you say to anything that would potentially lure you away from that relationship, 00:14:20.019 --> 00:14:22.220 no, no, no. 00:14:22.300 --> 00:14:26.019 I'm going to walk not, I'm going to stand not, and I'm going to sit not. 00:14:27.560 --> 00:14:33.240 First, I have to have a conviction of what I don't want, the life I'm not going to live. 00:14:33.379 --> 00:14:38.840 And then second, I know what it is that I want, and that is to delight in the Lord who delights in me. 00:14:39.540 --> 00:14:41.960 To know the Lord who knows me. 00:14:41.960 --> 00:14:43.940 Friends, that's why you were made. 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:45.639 That's why you're here. 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:49.940 That's the reason for your very existence on this planet. 00:14:50.040 --> 00:14:58.180 Because if you have this, then there's no circumstance and there's no event that can take away your happiness. 00:14:58.179 --> 00:15:11.979 If you don't get that degree, if you don't get that job, if you don't get that spouse or that house or that good health report or the retirement that you wanted, 00:15:12.919 --> 00:15:15.879 you can still be truly and eternally happy. 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:33.019 Friends, if you lose your career, if you lose your health, if you lose your relationships, 00:15:33.019 --> 00:15:53.699 if you lose your physical life itself, you can still be truly and eternally happy. 00:15:53.700 --> 00:15:59.700 It doesn't matter what your happiness app is telling you right now. 00:16:00.420 --> 00:16:04.879 It doesn't matter what your moment-to-moment mood tracker is saying about you. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:06.620 Why? 00:16:06.620 --> 00:16:11.019 Because you know the Lord who knows you. 00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:14.399 You delight in the Lord who delights in you. 00:16:14.820 --> 00:16:17.000 And you can never lose that. 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:20.279 Don't base your happiness in something you can lose. 00:16:21.439 --> 00:16:24.679 Base your happiness in something you can never lose. 00:16:24.679 --> 00:16:33.479 If you're here today and you're exploring Christianity, I hope you can see what true happiness is and is not. 00:16:34.539 --> 00:16:38.419 And if you're open and if you're curious to seek it out, I want to encourage you. 00:16:38.459 --> 00:16:39.339 I want to invite you in. 00:16:39.459 --> 00:16:43.599 You can get in on this happiness that the psalmist is talking about. 00:16:44.739 --> 00:16:46.419 So this is the way to true happiness. 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:49.319 But let's talk also about the chaff in the tree. 00:16:50.279 --> 00:16:51.359 The chaff in the tree. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:56.960 As we're going to see in the coming weeks and months, the psalms use poetic language. 00:16:57.060 --> 00:17:02.800 The language of poetic metaphor in order to bring the truth home to our imagination. 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:05.680 We're pretty heady people, pretty brainy people. 00:17:06.220 --> 00:17:12.599 And we need poetry to kind of get the truth from here in our head down here into our heart. 00:17:12.860 --> 00:17:19.099 And so the psalmist says, I want you to picture a tree by the side of a river. 00:17:19.099 --> 00:17:24.139 Okay, and then I want you to picture a heap of chaff. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:25.859 Two different things. 00:17:25.919 --> 00:17:28.319 You got those two things in your mind. 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:33.419 A tree by the side of a river and a heap of chaff. 00:17:34.759 --> 00:17:38.679 And notice that he does not compare one tree next to another tree. 00:17:38.680 --> 00:17:42.960 As if the difference here is a matter of small variations. 00:17:43.140 --> 00:17:46.220 No, he says the difference I want to explain to you is deep. 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:47.740 It's radical. 00:17:48.440 --> 00:17:49.240 It's essential. 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:53.240 Psalm 1 is telling us what the whole Bible is telling us. 00:17:53.299 --> 00:17:57.779 Is that there's two different internal spiritual natures. 00:17:57.960 --> 00:17:59.840 And one of them has life in it. 00:18:00.820 --> 00:18:03.660 And the other one has no life in it. 00:18:03.660 --> 00:18:07.300 And this is crucial for understanding the story of the Bible. 00:18:07.460 --> 00:18:13.340 Because back at the beginning of the Bible, Adam and Eve are made in the image of God. 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:15.779 And they're set in the very presence of God. 00:18:15.860 --> 00:18:18.480 They're these noble, glorious creatures. 00:18:18.620 --> 00:18:23.200 These men and women who are in perfect communion with God. 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:25.740 But what happened? 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:28.080 They became like chaff. 00:18:29.560 --> 00:18:30.960 They became like chaff. 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:37.279 Chaff is what you have when the kernel of grain is taken out of the wheat and the barley. 00:18:37.779 --> 00:18:41.700 And in this process of winnowing and sifting and threshing. 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:46.140 You take that grain out that has the food and the life in it. 00:18:46.920 --> 00:18:49.240 It has the vitality and the value in it. 00:18:49.460 --> 00:18:51.640 And what is left over is the chaff. 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:52.360 Right? 00:18:52.420 --> 00:18:53.539 It's this empty shell. 00:18:53.660 --> 00:18:56.539 This empty husk of what once was. 00:18:56.539 --> 00:19:03.000 And this is saying that the greatest thing about us as God originally created us to be, 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:06.680 our relationship with God, has sadly gone away. 00:19:07.899 --> 00:19:08.119 Right? 00:19:08.119 --> 00:19:09.819 We've lost our life. 00:19:10.759 --> 00:19:16.019 And all that is left is just this outer covering, this empty husk and this empty shell. 00:19:16.019 --> 00:19:22.319 That's what the Apostle Paul means when he says that we are dead in our transgressions and sins. 00:19:23.339 --> 00:19:28.720 It's what Jesus means when he says the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. 00:19:29.819 --> 00:19:33.200 We are ruins of our former glory. 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:36.900 We're empty when we were made to be full. 00:19:36.900 --> 00:19:41.280 And what happens to this heap of lifeless chaff? 00:19:41.340 --> 00:19:46.220 You have this pile, this shapeless pile of empty shells and empty husks. 00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:49.400 And they have nothing left inside of them. 00:19:49.500 --> 00:19:50.720 They have no weight. 00:19:50.860 --> 00:19:51.759 They have no substance. 00:19:52.820 --> 00:19:56.360 And they're just sitting there on the ground, lying on the surface of the ground, 00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:59.460 not fixed to anything, not attached to anything. 00:19:59.460 --> 00:20:03.180 There's no life beyond it. 00:20:03.259 --> 00:20:09.700 There's no life outside of it or underneath it with which it can draw upon. 00:20:09.880 --> 00:20:13.039 So that pile of chaff is just at the mercy of the wind. 00:20:15.480 --> 00:20:21.920 Yes, this pile might look temporarily and superficially happy. 00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:22.420 Right? 00:20:22.460 --> 00:20:25.220 It's perfectly content just soaking up the sun. 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:28.100 It's just a nice little pile of chaff soaking up the sun. 00:20:29.460 --> 00:20:33.180 But that pile of chaff is incredibly insecure. 00:20:35.259 --> 00:20:43.160 Like one little puff of wind can come along and poof, it's gone. 00:20:44.100 --> 00:20:49.779 One little gust of wind and it vanishes into oblivion. 00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:53.340 But what about the tree? 00:20:54.980 --> 00:20:56.039 What about the tree? 00:20:56.140 --> 00:20:58.960 This tree, it says it's planted. 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:01.900 The tree has been planted. 00:21:02.019 --> 00:21:04.519 It's been planted by another. 00:21:05.100 --> 00:21:08.319 God has come along and He's given this tree life. 00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:10.420 He's brought about this new creation. 00:21:10.660 --> 00:21:13.579 He's newly planted this tree and He puts it in the dirt. 00:21:14.819 --> 00:21:16.660 And it's fixed to something. 00:21:16.779 --> 00:21:19.340 It's held to something solid. 00:21:19.339 --> 00:21:25.379 It's roots are grasping the soil and the rock so that it cannot be carried away by that wind. 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:42.959 And what the Scriptures teach is that Christians are people who've experienced such a deep and essential and radical and fundamental change in their inner spiritual nature that they used to be chaff. 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:47.079 But now God has made them tree. 00:21:47.079 --> 00:21:49.100 Does that make sense? 00:21:49.099 --> 00:21:54.759 This pile of chaff, it can never produce life on its own. 00:21:54.839 --> 00:21:57.980 It can never produce growth and fruit on its own. 00:21:57.980 --> 00:22:08.079 But this tree, this tree with its new life, freshly planted by God, has roots that entwine and cling to deep things, deep truths. 00:22:08.420 --> 00:22:13.660 And from those roots, from those hidden roots, everything else begins to come up. 00:22:13.660 --> 00:22:19.779 And what does the psalmist say is the location of this tree? 00:22:19.880 --> 00:22:21.660 Where is this tree planted? 00:22:22.759 --> 00:22:27.040 It's planted not just by a stream, but it says it's planted by streams. 00:22:28.500 --> 00:22:31.300 Multiple life-giving sources of water. 00:22:31.480 --> 00:22:38.700 God has put this tree in a position where it can be unceasingly nourished by an endless supply. 00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:41.519 A supply as endless as God Himself. 00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:46.079 This tree's roots are going down and down and out. 00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:52.839 And they're spreading further and further into this bed of these perennial streams. 00:22:53.359 --> 00:23:02.319 Where it can draw moisture up from this reliable supply of abundant water that's continually flowing by. 00:23:03.940 --> 00:23:07.160 Now what does this poetic picture reveal to us? 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:09.660 Well, we need to be really, really careful at this point. 00:23:09.660 --> 00:23:13.440 Because the default mode of the human heart says this. 00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:18.940 It says, if I can just replant myself into some good soil. 00:23:19.900 --> 00:23:26.440 If I can just do the work of getting my roots figured out and kind of wrapped around some new truths. 00:23:26.580 --> 00:23:30.920 If I can just send my root system out into this life-giving stream. 00:23:31.040 --> 00:23:32.980 Then maybe I can prove myself. 00:23:32.980 --> 00:23:36.120 I can prove myself acceptable to God. 00:23:36.180 --> 00:23:42.160 And perhaps I can get from God the happiness and the blessedness that I so desperately need and so desperately want. 00:23:42.299 --> 00:23:46.299 But that is what we call the gospel of self-salvation. 00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:49.099 That's the gospel of saving yourself. 00:23:49.180 --> 00:23:52.380 It's actually the gospel of using God as a means to an end. 00:23:52.539 --> 00:23:54.440 To get the thing that you actually want. 00:23:54.500 --> 00:23:55.819 Not God, but happiness. 00:23:55.819 --> 00:23:59.099 Which is pretty messed up. 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:03.220 So the gospel of grace says something very different. 00:24:03.299 --> 00:24:04.500 The gospel of grace says this. 00:24:05.299 --> 00:24:09.419 I am an empty shell of the glorious creature that I was made to be. 00:24:09.420 --> 00:24:17.400 And the truth and the reality about who I really am is that I'm just this insecure pile of lifeless chaff. 00:24:17.940 --> 00:24:21.060 That's very easily blown away by the wind. 00:24:22.340 --> 00:24:27.240 But God the Father in his mercy sent his son Jesus to be that tree. 00:24:28.080 --> 00:24:31.980 To be that tree by the life-giving presence of God. 00:24:32.100 --> 00:24:33.440 Bearing the fruit of the spirit. 00:24:33.560 --> 00:24:35.740 And Jesus lived that most beautiful life. 00:24:35.740 --> 00:24:40.120 He was that perfect fruitful tree. 00:24:41.259 --> 00:24:47.859 And yet he became like lifeless chaff that was blown away. 00:24:47.960 --> 00:24:49.099 He went up on that tree. 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:54.400 He was crucified on a tree in order to take our place. 00:24:55.400 --> 00:25:03.279 In order to come and be sacrificed as a wicked person. 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:06.559 As a sinner among scoffers. 00:25:08.220 --> 00:25:11.599 The one perfect fruitful tree became lifeless chaff. 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:13.859 Blown away on the wind of God's justice. 00:25:13.980 --> 00:25:16.039 Now why in the world did he do that? 00:25:16.099 --> 00:25:20.680 Well he came in order to take our perishing. 00:25:21.559 --> 00:25:24.319 And take our destruction as his own. 00:25:24.399 --> 00:25:29.579 In order to give us his happiness and his blessedness as our own. 00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:31.299 That's the gospel. 00:25:31.299 --> 00:25:35.659 Well he went to the cross so that he could stand in the judgment in our place. 00:25:36.359 --> 00:25:43.279 So that we could become these rooted and flourishing people in the congregation of the righteous forever. 00:25:43.379 --> 00:25:44.740 That's the gospel of grace. 00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:46.279 It's not about what you do. 00:25:46.379 --> 00:25:48.180 It's not about your own self-salvation. 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:53.460 It's about what God does and his salvation for you on your behalf and in your place. 00:25:53.460 --> 00:26:02.000 It's not a matter of simply trying harder to be less like chaff and more like a tree. 00:26:03.319 --> 00:26:03.860 No. 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:11.420 God the Father must sovereignly come to us and radically change our internal spiritual nature. 00:26:11.420 --> 00:26:18.120 From being lifeless chaff and turning us into a living tree. 00:26:19.120 --> 00:26:24.039 He has to come to us and mercifully plant us into his son Jesus Christ. 00:26:24.920 --> 00:26:29.360 So that we're now drawing all of our life and all of our nourishment and all of our sustenance. 00:26:29.480 --> 00:26:31.860 No longer from me, myself and I. 00:26:31.859 --> 00:26:35.500 But from someone else, from the resurrected Christ himself. 00:26:36.479 --> 00:26:41.679 God has to come along and graciously place us in a new position. 00:26:41.679 --> 00:26:47.099 By these ever flowing streams of the Holy Spirit that never run dry. 00:26:48.699 --> 00:26:53.019 And unless God comes and he does that for you, you will remain chaff. 00:26:53.019 --> 00:27:03.200 And so if you're here today and you're sensing in yourself, man, I think I've got some spiritual lifelessness on the inside. 00:27:04.259 --> 00:27:13.619 I think that even though I've got a lot going on out here, I'm really kind of a husk and kind of a shell of what I think I was meant to be and become. 00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:18.559 And I find myself longing for the life that you're talking about. 00:27:18.740 --> 00:27:21.019 Longing to be planted and to be rooted. 00:27:21.019 --> 00:27:23.519 Longing to be less insecure. 00:27:23.819 --> 00:27:27.480 Longing to have life and growth and fruit. 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:32.099 If that's you today and that's the conversation going on in your heart, I just want to encourage you. 00:27:33.420 --> 00:27:34.879 Tell God that that's what you want. 00:27:36.539 --> 00:27:40.859 Ask the God of grace to give you the life that only he can give you. 00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:45.220 So we talked about the way to true happiness. 00:27:45.420 --> 00:27:48.539 We talked about the tree and the chaff. 00:27:48.539 --> 00:27:53.659 But I want to close just talking for a moment about the holy habits of grace. 00:27:54.879 --> 00:27:56.259 The holy habits of grace. 00:27:57.180 --> 00:27:57.879 You guys still awake? 00:27:57.980 --> 00:27:58.460 Still with me? 00:27:59.339 --> 00:27:59.579 Okay. 00:28:01.339 --> 00:28:09.159 Psalm 1 is telling us that happiness depends ultimately on your relationship to the God of grace. 00:28:09.160 --> 00:28:18.800 And this relationship, having this relationship or not having this relationship, leads to one of two destinations. 00:28:19.019 --> 00:28:19.440 Verse 5, 00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:24.040 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 00:28:24.180 --> 00:28:27.820 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. 00:28:27.819 --> 00:28:31.359 The first word of the poem is blessing. 00:28:32.460 --> 00:28:35.359 And the last word of the poem is perishing. 00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:41.960 You're either rooted in the grace of God or you'll be ruined by the justice of God. 00:28:42.039 --> 00:28:48.599 And it's this incredibly sobering and stark picture of ultimate happiness or unhappiness. 00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:59.959 But if you've been planted by God's grace, and when you've been planted by the grace of God, the question for us is, how do we grow in that grace? 00:29:01.019 --> 00:29:03.819 How do we grow in God's grace? 00:29:03.819 --> 00:29:10.859 If we say to ourselves, okay, I know that I don't plant myself, but I actually have to be planted by another. 00:29:11.879 --> 00:29:18.500 I know that I can't give life to myself, but I have to draw life up from another source, from another person. 00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:22.000 I get that, but how does it all work? 00:29:22.099 --> 00:29:28.980 Like how do I keep all this life that's out here in this stream and down here in the soil, 00:29:28.980 --> 00:29:36.380 how do I keep that coming up into my roots and my trunk and my branches and out into my leaves and my fruit? 00:29:36.460 --> 00:29:41.480 How do I soak in and soak up the streams of the grace of God? 00:29:42.920 --> 00:29:44.220 Well, it's right here in verse 2. 00:29:44.360 --> 00:29:44.740 It says, 00:29:45.500 --> 00:29:50.700 His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 00:29:52.059 --> 00:29:57.860 His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 00:29:58.980 --> 00:30:05.240 I don't have time to unpack this fully today, and we're going to just explore this verse basically over the next, 00:30:05.460 --> 00:30:08.039 I don't know how many weeks, a little bit of time. 00:30:09.559 --> 00:30:13.019 But we're going to ask this question like, who is the Lord? 00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:16.799 What does that name even mean? 00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:22.680 When we've gotten so used to saying that name, what does it mean when we say, when we talk about, 00:30:23.180 --> 00:30:24.140 I am who I am? 00:30:24.140 --> 00:30:35.640 And why does he want us to learn how to delight ourselves and find our deepest pleasure in him? 00:30:37.880 --> 00:30:39.160 What is his law? 00:30:40.020 --> 00:30:41.300 What is his Torah? 00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:43.200 What is his word? 00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:49.059 Why do I need that word more than any other word that's on offer out there? 00:30:49.120 --> 00:30:52.059 Why is that the signal amidst all the noise? 00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:57.000 Like, why do I need this word more than I need, in this next season, 00:30:57.080 --> 00:31:01.240 the word of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal in the morning? 00:31:02.019 --> 00:31:06.220 Why do I need this word more than Instagram or Netflix at night? 00:31:06.220 --> 00:31:12.519 Why is his word, the word of I am who I am, so important for my happiness? 00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:19.860 And how is it that I sink my roots deeper and deeper so that I'm actually attached to something, 00:31:19.980 --> 00:31:24.200 that I'm anchored in a deep thing, I'm anchored in deep truths? 00:31:24.259 --> 00:31:25.420 How do I do that? 00:31:26.620 --> 00:31:33.740 And how is it that I drink up these streams of living water that the Holy Spirit is providing for me 00:31:33.740 --> 00:31:40.200 so that I never have to feel this sense of scarcity and exhaustion and internal dryness, 00:31:40.299 --> 00:31:43.539 but that I can always have, no matter what's going on in my life, 00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:47.920 on the inside I can always have moisture and life? 00:31:49.440 --> 00:31:50.759 How do I do that? 00:31:52.120 --> 00:31:54.940 How do I meditate day and night? 00:31:55.900 --> 00:31:59.660 How do I focus my attention on God all the time? 00:31:59.660 --> 00:32:07.100 Well, just let me close by saying, biblical meditation, I delight and I meditate. 00:32:07.340 --> 00:32:14.180 Biblical meditation, it's not about sitting in a lotus position and empty your mind 00:32:14.180 --> 00:32:18.160 and becoming more aware of your consciousness, though if we all learned how to do that, 00:32:18.220 --> 00:32:22.060 I think it would be better if we knew how to do that and practice that. 00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:26.320 But biblical meditation is so much bigger than that. 00:32:26.319 --> 00:32:29.339 And here's what I mean by biblical meditation. 00:32:29.539 --> 00:32:32.500 Have you ever seen a child sucking on a lollipop? 00:32:34.019 --> 00:32:37.419 Anyone have children or ever given a child a lollipop? 00:32:38.159 --> 00:32:48.519 And there's a certain kind of slow, unhurried, delicious, deliberate delight 00:32:48.519 --> 00:32:55.660 that's like lick by lick by lick and I'm done and now I want another lollipop, please. 00:32:57.139 --> 00:33:00.940 Or some of you aren't kid people, you're more dog people and I get that. 00:33:01.660 --> 00:33:04.639 But have you ever seen a dog chewing on a bone? 00:33:05.920 --> 00:33:09.740 Right, if you're that dog, you get that bone and you go to work on that bone. 00:33:09.740 --> 00:33:16.000 Like you start gnawing on the bone and then you turn the bone and you lick the bone 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:19.440 and you kind of drop the bone and you growl over the bone 00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:22.960 and you're just enjoying the bone and you bury the bone 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:25.799 and I'm going to go back later today and I'm going to get more of my bone. 00:33:28.680 --> 00:33:35.200 Biblical meditation is like that lollipop that we lick, 00:33:35.200 --> 00:33:38.120 except the lollipop that we just lick and lick and lick 00:33:38.120 --> 00:33:42.039 is the presence and the power of the Lord God Almighty Himself. 00:33:44.240 --> 00:33:47.860 The biblical meditation is that bone that we chew, 00:33:47.940 --> 00:33:49.819 except the bone that we're chewing on 00:33:49.819 --> 00:33:54.140 is the steadfast love of the living God Himself. 00:33:56.360 --> 00:33:58.120 And we're calling this sermon series 00:33:58.120 --> 00:34:00.740 Holy Habits of Grace. 00:34:00.740 --> 00:34:03.980 And the reason we're calling it that is because 00:34:03.980 --> 00:34:08.039 we don't practice the habit of meditation, for example, 00:34:08.719 --> 00:34:11.039 or all these other habits that we're going to look at. 00:34:11.079 --> 00:34:14.820 We don't practice the habit of meditation in order to get God's grace, 00:34:14.900 --> 00:34:18.940 but we practice the habit of meditation because we already have God's grace 00:34:18.940 --> 00:34:21.219 and like that lollipop, we want more of it. 00:34:22.019 --> 00:34:24.860 Like that bone, we can't get enough of it. 00:34:26.360 --> 00:34:28.940 You see, in the Psalms, we're going to learn all these holy habits 00:34:28.940 --> 00:34:30.880 of silence and solitude, 00:34:31.639 --> 00:34:34.159 of reading Scripture and meditating on Scripture, 00:34:34.360 --> 00:34:37.059 praying and practicing the Sabbath 00:34:37.059 --> 00:34:42.280 and being a part of a committed and faithful and thick community 00:34:42.280 --> 00:34:44.079 of coming to communion, 00:34:44.380 --> 00:34:47.059 of practicing acts of compassion and mercy, 00:34:47.179 --> 00:34:50.300 all these amazing holy habits of grace. 00:34:51.619 --> 00:34:53.380 And the reason we're going to talk about them 00:34:53.380 --> 00:34:56.820 is because these are things that you don't just drift into accidentally. 00:34:56.820 --> 00:34:57.120 Right? 00:34:58.920 --> 00:35:00.559 You don't wake up one day and you're like, 00:35:00.700 --> 00:35:04.700 wow, somehow I magically know how to meditate now. 00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:08.420 Wow, I've somehow become really good at prayer. 00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:10.440 By the way, people that are really good at prayer 00:35:10.440 --> 00:35:12.240 never say I've become really good at prayer. 00:35:12.600 --> 00:35:12.820 Just... 00:35:14.280 --> 00:35:17.519 These are things that you have to develop on purpose. 00:35:18.320 --> 00:35:22.160 They're things that require intentional, deliberate, predictable patterns 00:35:22.159 --> 00:35:27.659 that will contribute to your spiritual flourishing and fruitfulness. 00:35:28.940 --> 00:35:31.379 And I just want to say, as we conclude, 00:35:31.559 --> 00:35:33.819 that these habits of grace that we're going to talk about, 00:35:34.599 --> 00:35:36.779 they can enable you to flourish 00:35:36.779 --> 00:35:40.259 even in the harshest seasons of life. 00:35:41.819 --> 00:35:43.039 Here's what verse 3 says. 00:35:43.119 --> 00:35:45.440 He's like a tree planted by streams of water 00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:47.099 that yields its fruit in its season 00:35:47.099 --> 00:35:49.599 and its leaf does not wither. 00:35:49.599 --> 00:35:56.480 What that says is it doesn't matter how hot or how dry our circumstances get. 00:35:57.139 --> 00:36:00.900 We can have leaves that never wither when the drought comes, 00:36:01.539 --> 00:36:03.440 when deprivation comes, 00:36:04.119 --> 00:36:05.799 when suffering comes. 00:36:05.900 --> 00:36:08.299 We can keep bearing fruit 00:36:08.299 --> 00:36:11.139 because we're rooted in something other than ourselves. 00:36:11.380 --> 00:36:15.619 We're rooted in this abundant supply of God's eternal life 00:36:15.619 --> 00:36:20.440 flowing unceaselessly and reliably into us. 00:36:20.480 --> 00:36:21.319 Isn't that amazing? 00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:23.179 Isn't that the kind of tree, 00:36:23.299 --> 00:36:25.639 the kind of person that you want to be? 00:36:25.719 --> 00:36:29.440 Can you imagine other people coming to you 00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:33.799 and finding rest under the shade of your never withering leaves? 00:36:35.179 --> 00:36:37.059 Can you imagine people coming to you 00:36:37.059 --> 00:36:38.779 and finding nourishment and the bounty 00:36:38.779 --> 00:36:41.239 of your ever-growing fruit of the Spirit? 00:36:41.339 --> 00:36:42.480 They just come to you and they say, 00:36:42.480 --> 00:36:44.840 oh my goodness, this person is stressed out. 00:36:44.980 --> 00:36:46.599 This person's going through a tough time. 00:36:46.920 --> 00:36:48.260 But somehow there's still, 00:36:48.539 --> 00:36:50.079 there's more and more love here. 00:36:50.440 --> 00:36:51.880 There's more and more joy here. 00:36:51.960 --> 00:36:53.639 There's more and more peace here 00:36:53.639 --> 00:36:55.300 and patience and kindness and goodness 00:36:55.300 --> 00:36:56.519 and all the rest. 00:36:56.619 --> 00:36:56.940 Friends, 00:36:58.099 --> 00:37:00.300 this fruit can grow abundantly 00:37:00.300 --> 00:37:02.960 in the life of a person 00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:05.480 who's rooted in Jesus Christ 00:37:05.480 --> 00:37:09.740 but also who has learned how to practice 00:37:09.740 --> 00:37:11.420 these holy habits of grace. 00:37:12.059 --> 00:37:13.320 Has learned how to soak up 00:37:13.320 --> 00:37:15.420 these ever-flowing streams 00:37:15.420 --> 00:37:17.599 of the Holy Spirit 00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:19.860 that God has provided for us. 00:37:19.940 --> 00:37:21.980 And so as we embark on this journey 00:37:21.980 --> 00:37:25.000 of learning these habits of grace, 00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:27.539 of being a community that practices 00:37:27.539 --> 00:37:28.980 these holy habits of grace, 00:37:28.980 --> 00:37:32.119 may the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit 00:37:32.119 --> 00:37:33.920 just pour out more and more 00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:35.119 of His grace upon us. 00:37:35.719 --> 00:37:36.960 We pray these things in His name. 00:37:37.579 --> 00:37:37.760 Amen.