Well, good morning church. Thank you for being here. And hey, listen, before we jump into the word, I think we all owe a really big appreciation for Mr. Seth Bundy for bringing the word last week, man. Man, oh man, that kid. I can say that at that point in my life, that kid, uh, man, I can't wait to see the decades of ministry, uh, that God is gonna do here at this church. Well, hey, listen, now that Memorial Day is behind us, that really means that we have officially entered into summertime. Summertime. What does that mean? That means VBS, that means beach camp. That means kids camp. That means time away with the family. And that also means that today we are starting our summer series, that, as you just saw with the bumper, that we're just simply calling the Summer of Psalms. All right?
The summer of Psalms. So this is what I need you to do today. If you have a copy of scripture, and I hope you do, I want you to go ahead and turn with me to the Book of Psalms. All right? Pretty easy to find. If you got a paper copy, just open it up to right about the middle. All right? It's right in the middle. If you've got an electronic copy, there's only five books that start with a P. All right? So just look in the very front and you will find it. Here's what we're gonna do this summer. This summer, we're actually gonna walk through seven of the hundred and 50 Psalms that we have in the Bible. All right? Seven of the 150, you say, well, Matt, what about the other 143 of them? Well, I'm glad you asked because this is what I want you to do, all right?
I want you to really commit to this. I want you to, on your own, look through, read through and pray through the other 143 Psalms over this summary. So, Matt, that's a lot of reading. I get it. All right, I get it. It's 143 of 'em. And if my math is right, if you'll start them tomorrow, okay? If you'll start them tomorrow, you can finish them by the time we finish this series, all right? If you will read three of them a day, alright? Three of them a day, you can actually be delinquent and miss 15 days, all right? You can miss 15 days of summertime, alright? If that puts it into perspective or read 2.3 of them every day, and then you can do it all. All right? So listen, here's why I tell you to do that. Number one, I can just promise you, if you'll commit to do that, the Lord will do a work in your life.
In fact, if you'll commit to do it every morning of your life, if you'll just get up, I mean like five minutes, maybe eight, for some of you, you're slower readers, all right? Maybe eight minutes early, all right? If you'll just read them, ask God to show you his presence, show you his power. Here's what I can promise you, he will begin to do it. He'll begin to do it. So let's do that this summer. All right? We're gonna be walking through seven of them together. Well, Matt, what if I read one that you've already read? I think it's okay. All right. I really do. I think it's okay for you to do it. You say, well, Matt, why Psalms? Why Psalms this summer? Lemme give you a couple reasons. Number one, I am a huge fan of just really preaching through the whole council of God.
What does that mean? That means I want you to get a feeling of all of the Bible, all right? It'd be really easy just to key in on those 15 great passages and just recycle those. It's all there. And I want us to all know as much as possible. And then secondly, I think it's a great thing. I think it's a perfect study for us because it actually, the Book of Psalms actually mimics and matches a lot of the emotional times that we're living in today. It really does, and it's really good for us to track with David and track with a couple of the other Psalms writers to see how we can deal with these emotions. Now, I'm not sure if you're feeling it, but the last year or the last season of life has been an incredibly emotional, like a supercharged emotional season.
Amen. Are you feeling that as well? I think we're seeing it personally, and I also think that we're just seeing it globally, right? That there's these old emotions that are coming up. There's these new emotions that are bubbling to the surface. There's so much hate, so much divisiveness, so many questions, so many sides being picked, and teams being made so much heaviness. I mean, you can't even have a debate with someone anymore without them thinking you hate them. And the reality is, is that many of us are finding ourselves in an emotional state that, especially as a Christian, we just don't know how to deal with it. So this is what I wanna do this summer. I wanna show you that this summer, that God in his sovereignty has given us this book of Psalms that deals with so many of those emotions. There's good ones and there's bad ones.
There's long-term one, there's short-term ones, and that God is the creator of all of these feelings that we're having. And here's the good news about it. They all have a purpose, and they all have something that they can do to give God glory and also give us joy. So here's what we're gonna do this summer. Alright? I'm putting all my cards on the table. What we're gonna do this summer is we're gonna connect our hearts with the heart of God. We're gonna connect our emotions with the one that has given us those emotions. And here's my prayer, here's my prayer. I've been praying this all month long, kind of getting ready for this series, man. I'm praying that at the end of this, we're able to pull some life giving truths about God's love and God's peace, and God's presence and God's joy. We're able to pull some of those into our lives and that we can live as God has created us to live.
That's the goal of this series. And today, here's the goal, alright? Today we're gonna start in what I think is the most logical place to start today. And we're gonna start in Psalm chapter one. All right? Psalm chapter one today. And we're gonna actually look today at what I think is one of the most, one of life's most sought after emotions, and one of most one of life's biggest questions. And that is, today we're gonna look at this idea of what does it take to be happy? Alright? What does it take to be happy? I mean, here, here, here's the question, right? Can we truly be happy in life? I mean, can we, or lemme get a little bit more personal for you? Are you happy right now? In fact, I just want you to raise your hand this morning if you No, we're not gonna do that.
All right. I don't wanna do that. Why? Why? I think it'd be pretty depressing. All right? I might just cry in the fetal position right here, right? If that's the case. But, but here's the deal. Happiness is a huge thing. In fact, I talked to a a, I talked to a incredible church leader just a couple weeks ago. I'm not gonna say their name, that looked at me and we were talking about the subject, we're having coffee together. And he said, man, I'm not sure that I've ever truly been happy. And man, you might relate to that. Or you might be on this side of the fence. And you might say, well, Matt, listen, here's the deal with my life. Either I am incredibly happy and way up here, or I'm in the depths of despair. All right? 'cause that's where some of us live.
Some of your families right now are looking at you right now. All right? Because that's where a lot of us live. Or let me ask you the question, question a different way. And I know I'm kind of, kind of building this question. If life didn't change at all for you in this very moment, from this point forward, if your situation didn't prove, if your marital status never changed, if your career didn't, didn't kind of progress, or your body never felt any better, let me ask you, ask it like this. Could you be happy with life? You know, I'm pressing hard into this because the question of happiness is really and truly one of our most innate, our most, I guess you could call it primal or basic questions that every single one of us have asked at some point. In fact, let me prove it to you anytime.
I wanna know what people are thinking. Anytime. I wanna know what, what is trending. Anytime. I wanna know what most people are asking in life. Here's a little hack or a little trick, how you can figure that out. If you'll open up your computer, and if you'll go to Google, and if you'll begin to type something in, all right? Just even begin, just a couple of words. What will happen magically is Google through all of its power, I don't know how it works, will begin to autofill what most people are asking. So last week, I got my computer out, I started typing in it. And I want you to see, when I typed in the word, how can I be? Look at the first thing that popped up on this screen right here. How can I be happy? Why? 'cause I think it's one of the biggest life questions that's ever been.
But here's the deal. I wasn't looking at how to be happy. I was actually typing how to be skinny from vacation. And look what came up, uh, in, in my Google. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I really, I really, well, maybe I was all right. There it is. Listen, happiness, happiness is a, is a huge deal. And, and here's the point, because some of you're asking, Matt, what, what is the point with happiness? I thought we were gonna talk about the Bible. Okay? That is the point. In fact, I want you to see something in Psalm chapter one, verse one. I want you to see that the entire book of Psalms actually starts out with this idea of happiness. Look at it with me. Psalm one verse one, here's what it says. It says, blessed is the one. Blessed is the one. So I can see you mad us start talking about being happy.
That's talking about being blessed. Listen, newsflash, the Hebrew word astray is the word for blessed, is the word happy, all right? It is the word happy, blessed, and happy. You can use either one of them here. You know what this means for me? And this note means for you as a believer in Jesus, God wants you to live the happy, blessed life, Matt is just to name it, claiming it kind of message. No, just hold on a minute. I'm gonna smash that in just a minute. But here's what I am saying. God does want you to be happy. He wants you to be joyful. He wants you to find all your joy and peace and happiness that you could ever have in him. He wants you. And actually, scholars would tell you about this psalm and about the rest of the Psalms because the whole book of Psalms starts off with how to be happy.
It's actually one of the biggest themes that the whole book is gonna deal with over 26 times. Does this theme theme get dealt with in this book? So the question is not, does God want you to be happy? That question is obvious. Yes. The question is, how can I be happy? How can I be happy? Now, I know a bunch of, you're like, well, Matt, I know the answer to this question. 'cause anytime a Bible study leader, a life group leader, or a pastor asks a question, just answer with Moses or Jesus. And I always get it right, right? Well, yes, but there's a lot more to this Psalm than that. And here's why. Because happiness is hard. Can I get an amen with that? Happiness is hard. It's hard. I I, I was reading an article this week, um, by, by a sociologist that, that, that I got kind of, kind of drawn into a little bit.
'cause I thought I was gonna agree with the premise. And, and here's what they said. All right? They said, when, when we're young here, I want you to think about this for me. When we're young, happiness seems to be inevitable, doesn't it? It seems to be inevitable. You say, Matt, what do you mean by that? It means that you will find happiness at some point. When you're young. Your mentality is, if I just have patience, if I just hold on, if I just keep grinding, if I just keep going, I will meet that girl. I will meet Prince Charming, I will get rich. I will have all the joy, right? That's kind of how we feel when we're young. I'm still with, I'm still there. Maybe one day I'll graduate out of it, but that's it, right? But then they swung the pendulum and said this.
But by the time you're old, all right, by the time you're old, I ain't, I ain't casting any what old is, but you know, go with me, right? It says, when you're old, we begin to migrate from this thinking that happiness is inev inevitable to this idea that happiness is unattainable. Are you feeling where I'm stepping right there a little bit. Maybe some of you started to cross that bridge a little bit, right? See, when you're young, you're like, man, one day, one day, one day. And when you're old, you kind of cross this bridge and you're like, nah, there's never gonna come a day. You ever met that person? There's a couple of 'em around, isn't there? It's never gonna happen for me. It's never gonna get there. You know, I, I've even heard some social scientist describe this. The difference between a person that thinks about life as a Hallmark movie and another person that thinks about life is Hamlet.
You say, Matt, what do you mean by that? Here's what I mean. In Hallmark movie, everybody gets the girl, the town is saved, the Christmas tree is lit. The old end keeps going, right? Everything wins. But in Hamlet, spoil alert, if you haven't read it, it's old. It's time. Everybody dies, right? Everybody dies. But that's how some of us look at it. So when you're young and naive, it's kinda like Hallmark. When you're old, it's kind of like Hamlet. But here's the principle. 'cause I don't agree with that social scientist. I agree with what God says about it. I want you to write this down and we're gonna flush it out in scripture. Here's the principle. It says this, the Bible says that happiness is neither, neither inevitable or unattainable, but it is fully possible. Here it is here it is only through God. That's what the Bible says.
And that's what this Psalm mentions. In fact, lemme read it to you, Psalm chapter one. Now look, if you're new to the Bible, the P is silent. Alright? If you say Psalms, we know you're a rookie. Alright, here it is. Okay? Here, it's Psalms chapter one, verse one. Here's what it says. It says, blessed is the one who does not walk in the step of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or take or sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose here it is, whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season. And whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do here it is prospers, but not so with the wicked. They're like chaff.
The wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners. And the assembly of the righteous for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. Now, at its core, what these six verses do, what this Psalm does is it actually contrasts the Godly with the ungodly. It contrasts those who walk with God. What does it say about them? It says that they have a life that is planted. They have a life that its roots are going down into the nourishment of God. They have a life that bears fruit year after year after year. And no matter what happens around it, it will find life. But it contrasts that with the ungodly on the other side that are like chaff. They're like chaff. Now you say, Matt, what is chaff? Chaff is actually the husk that goes around.
In this case, it would be described as the wheat seed. In other words, what you would do is you would grow the wheat, you would throw it into a large basin, you would beat it with a large tree or a or, or a large mallet. And it would separate itself. And to separate the wheat from the chaff, you would put it in a basket, throw it in the air, and the wind would blow the chaff away. So it says that the Godly is the person that is planted in God getting nourishment, but the ungodly, because of the everything around it is just being blown away and forgotten. And here I, I think it's David. All right? We can debate that later, or we can still be friends if we disagree. I think this is David right here, David. And this metaphor is actually showing us how that those that know God can be happy in a way that those who do not know God can never find satisfaction.
And actually what David does is he gives us these two things that people look to in their lives to give them happiness that never work out. In the end, you see, Matt, what are they? Well, lemme give you two of them so that you can think about them this week. Two things that never truly bring happiness. David says that happiness will never ever last. Here it is, number one, I put it in your notes when your happiness is based upon your circumstances. That's what David just said in the scripture, right? Why? Why would he say that our happiness is not based on our circumstances? Well, number one, we live in a fallen world, right? We live in a sinful world. We live in a world that has lots of outside influences that are always taking shots at us. And secondly, David rightfully assumes and describes that all of our lives, especially his, will go through some particular seasons.
He calls them and our lives. And some of you know exactly what I'm talking about, right? In fact, let me read verse three and let me read it over you again so I can show you that we all go through seasons. He says this, that person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season. And whose leaf does not wither? And whatever they do prospers. What does he do? He describes here that there are, here it is, that there are these spring and summer seasons in our life when everything seems to be good, where all of it's cooking on all cylinders, where all joy, when the sunshine is coming up every morning, David says, but there are also David is pointing to right in this. There are also seasons in our lives that are winter seasons where we almost freeze to death.
We almost die because of the cold. There are drought seasons. He would say that actually we feel like our soul is being starved out, and our emotions in our life is being pushed to the side. Hear me, hear me write. And I know this is so counter-cultural in American culture especially, but hear me write. Listen, what David is saying is, is that you can't cut out or remove all of the winter or the drought seasons from your life. You just can't do it on this side of eternity. You can try as hard as you want to, but they will come. Therefore, if your happiness is dependent upon you and only you getting those seasons out of your life, your happiness is gonna be fickle. Your happiness is gonna be short. Your happiness is only gonna come around every now and then, and it will never hold you up.
That's what he's saying about circumstances. I love actually how Tim Keller puts it in his book, um, walking with God through pain and Suffering. He, he says that that really modern approach to happiness is, is when we remove all of the suffering, right? When we just remove it. That's the modern approach. Well, what do we do? We avoid pain. And if we can't avoid it, we sedate it. If we can't eliminate it, we, we sedate it and we drug it. When we can't do that, we try to discomfort our way and we can't do it all. That's a great goal, but we just can't. But listen to this quote that Tim says. He says this, he says, no amount of money, power, and planning can prevent bereavement, dire illness, relationship, betrayal, financial disaster, or a host of every other troubles from entering your life. He says this, he says, human life is fatally fragile and the subject to forces beyond our power to manage.
And actually, when he said that, he didn't know that about two years later he was gonna die of cancer, but he said this till the day he dies. You know what he means by this? He's saying, listen, no, nobody ever succeeds at removing all of the bad seasons from our life. That is not how we find happiness. If our whole strategy for being happy is getting and saying, in the spring seasons of our life, we're never gonna be there. Listen for us. If your happy strategy is trying your best only to have the best marriage, the best job, and a good retirement, man, those are great goals. But your eternal happiness is not based on those. But that's how the world treats it. Yeah. That's how the world treats it. And that's actually how the world tells you. You should be happy from the external circumstances, right?
In fact, this week, and I know some of you're gonna lose, lose like all respect of me this week, I had a little time on my hands. So I, um, I was looking at this whole idea of being happy. And I was like, man, how, how can I be happy? Right? How can I be? So I asked my friend, Claude, my AI friend Claude, how I can be happy, right? I mean, after all, it all is, all of the earth's collective wisdom is in this machine, they tell me, right? So I just asked it this week, Claude, gimme the top ways to be happy and listen to what Claude told me. He said, Matt, number one, he calls me by Matt, by the way, which is really freaky on one level, but it's kind of cool in the other when we're friends, he says, Matt, be optimistic.
That's his number one thing. Be optimistic about tomorrow because tomorrow's gonna be better. Aw, Claude, thanks. I really appreciate the pep talk there. But what if my wife is a huge mess, right? And then he tells me that, all right, here's the second thing he said, Matt, if you want to be happy, he said, follow your gut. <laugh>. Follow your gut. Oh, sure. I mean, the Bible tells me that my heart is deceitful among anything else, right? But let me follow my gut. Has that ever led any money to despair in the room? Amen. There it is. He says this. Number three. He says, Matt, if you wanna be happy, just own yourself. I don't even really know what that meant. But then he said, don't apologize for being you because you're awesome. I was like, oh, thanks God. Uh, thanks for telling me that I really needed that today.
I needed that encouragement. But what if in the fact I'm not awesome? 'cause I'm not A lot of the times. Here's what he said, number four. He said, Matt, if you want to be happy, make enough money to fulfill your basic needs. Oh, oh, that's great until you lose your job. Or that's great until you live the life that I do and realize that everybody I meet that is unhappy mostly has all the money they need to meet all their basic needs. Claude, that doesn't work. There it is. Here's the next one, Matt. If you wanna be happy, treat your body like it deserves to be happy. I love that one. That one just gave me, I ate a big lunch that day. Here's number, number number six. All right? He said, he said, Matt, if you wanna be happy, stay close to your family and friends.
Aw, but what if they're the reason I'm not happy, right? I'm not saying that it is. I'm just saying there it is. Number seven, he says, Matt, if you wanna be happy, have deep and meaningful conversations. What if that's the reason I'm depressed? 'cause I don't wanna do that. Right? And here's the last one. This is my, this is my favorite one. Number eight, Claude said, Matt, if you wanna be happy, just smile. Really just fake it. I mean, Claude, come on here. But, but seriously, here's, here's the point I wanna make with this. If that's the best that we have in all humanity, every single one of those things are circumstantial. Every single one of those things will fail me. And every single one of those things listen closely to me, is based off the world giving me something that it will not always give me.
That's David's point. In fact, write this question down that help you process through this this week, is your happiness dependent on your happenings? Because if it is, listen, church, if it is, you will struggle. If it is, it's not going to laugh. And if it is, hear me right? Lemme challenge you. You need something deeper than your happenings that you can drive yourself into, that you can drive some roots into that can endure. Not only the spring and the summer seasons that all are good, but the winter and the drought seasons, when everything is bad, if your happiness is based on your happiness, you will get drowned out out you will. Man, I love what David says about this later. He, he kinda goes farther into it In Psalms chapter four, verse seven, listen to what he says about God. He says, God, you have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and their wine abound.
You know what this means? Church. This means that even in the good times for those people that are having good seasons, we serve a God that when we drive our roots into him, he gives us more joy than even the best day of those who don't know Him. Listen, I'm begging you this morning, don't find your joy in circumstances. Circumstances are fickle. Circumstances will always come and go. Circumstances are always going to play with your emotions. And listen, it's actually in some of those drought and winter seasons of your life when you're forced to drive your roots down into Christ, that you will find the greatest joy in who our savior is and his name is Jesus. Number one, your happiness will not last if it's based on circumstances. But number two, here's the number two, and it says this, your happiness will not last when you have no anchor point outside of yourself when you have no anchor point.
This is what he says right here. In fact, I want you to see it in verse three. And he's describing the truly happy person right here. Watch what he says about them. He says this in verse three. He says, that person is what is like a tree planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in season. And whose leaf does not wither wherever, uh, whatever they do prosperous. I want you to key in on a phrase just for a second, like a tree planted. Like a tree planted. Why? Because the inference here is that there are deep roots that can anchor you to who God is. Now, this is big. Why? This is big. This is huge here. Let me tell you why. Because one of the biggest cultural myths, students, listen to me in this just for a minute, if you don't hear anything else today, is this.
One of the biggest cultural truths that we can ever kind of get away from is this belief that happiness comes from complete freedom. Complete freedom. You say, what does that have to do with anything? Man, I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, you do. Here's what some of you're thinking right now. If I can just get away from my parents, if I can just get outside my parents' rule, if I can just make my decisions for myself, if I can just define reality for me, if I can just untether myself from all of this meaning and define my own life, then I can be free to make my own rules and then I will finally be happy. Anybody ever thought that before? But it never works. It never works. In fact, CS Lewis puts this like a fish that decides it's just tired of the confinement of the water.
So it flops itself up onto the shore. Is the fish free from the water? Oh yeah. It's free from the water. Is it not? Yeah, but that fish is dying, right? Why? 'cause the fish was created for water. Listen, we weren't created for freedom. We were created to tie ourselves to the person that created us. And his name is Jesus. That's the point of the text right here. In fact, I want you to see this. We were never meant to be totally free. We were never meant to be totally happy until we drive our roots into God. Watch how the Bible impacts this. In verse four, he says this, he says, not so with the wicked. They are like chaff that the wind blows away. In other words, he's saying, listen, when we're not anchored to something outside of ourselves, there will come a point in our life where wind, where circumstances, where struggle we're suffering or something comes around and we will just be blown away into culture, we'll be forgotten.
Nothing we did mattered, we are going to be blown away. Why? Because our life had no anchor. It's like chap, it has no real presence. It has no real significance. But he keeps going even further in verse five, if we didn't get the point there, he says this in verse five, therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment. In other words, if it's not bad enough to know that if we're not anchored to God, we'll just be blown away when something comes. It's even worse to know that at the end of our life, when we stand before God, because listen to me closely, there will come a time when we all die, we stand before the king and we will either hear the word forgiven or condemn. And what the psalm is telling us here is this is putting this two sides, these two distinct and clear ways to live in front of us this way over here that is godly, that is pressing our roots into the gospel, pressing our roots into who God is, pressing our roots and tethering ourselves.
So the one that created us that will be remembered and will be forgiven. But there's this side over here that's basically saying, I just want freedom. I just want my own way. I just wanna walk in my own way. And it's saying the ungodly will continually live and even more insignificance. There will be no fulfillment even when they're in pain. And when they die, they will go even more into judgment. He, well, Matt, that's pretty rough. It is on one front, but it's not on the other. And here's why. Because the offer is there for us to walk into a relationship that is rooted in Jesus. And God has never rejected a person that is called out to him and ask them to save. He's never done it. Amen. So the offer is there. Either walk in the fickleness of being blown away by the wind or walk in the truly life that has driven ourselves in to God.
But how do we do it? How do we find this? How do we drive ourselves S to God? Lemme give you a principle and then we'll flesh it out and we'll be done if you want to be happy. Here's what David says in the rest of this text. He says this, he says, let your thoughts, your behaviors, and your belonging be fully shaped by God. Now, I want you to leave that up there just for a second. Leave that principle because here's what I know about this principle. This principle can show you what your identity truly is and where you're truly driving your roots. You see, Matt, how do you, how do you know that? Well, I want you to look at the three things that are there. I want you to look at what scripture says about this. Because what this does is it shows us how to truly walk in and put our roots in God.
In fact, look at verse one. Watch what it says. Look at this warning and instruction. It says this. Blessed is the one who does not walk in the step with the wicked. He's talking about. That's the way your thoughts are going, right? Your thoughts are in step with the wicked. Watch what this, he says this, or stand in the way that sinners take. That's how you behave, right? That's your behavior in life. Or the third one, or sit in the company of mockers in the Jewish culture, where you sat is where you belong, right? The the rich sat with the rats. The poor sar sat with the poor. The women sat over here, the men sat over there. This where you belong. So the thinking here is that your thinking, your actions and your belongings are all what make up your true identity. And if you wanna know if you're driving your life into the gospel, it's those three things that will determine who you really are.
Who you really are thinking actions and behavior. And where they come together in your life is what your life really is. So how do we make sure that those three things are pointed and driven in to God? It's really, really easy because here's what David does. He gives us two things that our lives have to be marked by. He gives us two things. There's two primary tools that God uses to get these three things into place. Lemme give 'em to you real fast. Number one, he says, if you want your life to be rooted in God, he says, it has to be rooted in the word of God. In the word of God. Church. Lemme say this, everything you need to live this life is in this book. It's in it. You don't need a new revelation. You don't need a new word. You don't need a new thought.
It is all there and it's all given to you. It's in fact. Look at verse two. If you don't slow down, you'll miss this. Watch this. He's talking about the blessed life, the happy life, the life that can walk in the presence of God. Watch what he says, he says, those people watch, but those whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. You wanna know how you can walk and the happiness of God. Number one, you have to be serious about the word of God. Word of God. In fact, I want you to circle the word delight right here. Circle the word delight. Why? Because this is the key. This is the key to this whole passage. You say, man, what does delight? Man, I was trying to think about this this week. I was like, man, what does delight, how can I kind of describe what delight means? So I'm sitting by Melissa, uh, and and she's reading. I was like, Hey babe, how? How? How would you describe the word delight? And literally, without even looking up, she just said, chocolate <laugh>.
So I guess that's it, right? It's just chocolate. But here, but here's what he's saying in this. You see, many of us, our relationship with the word of God is not a delight relationship with the word of God. Our relationship with the word of God is kind of like out of out of duty, right? Are you feeling where that is? It's kind of out of, this is what I should do outta discipline. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing because no matter how you approach God's word, God will always move in you. But what I am saying is this, if we can move from being in God's word outta discipline, and if we can move into God's word outta delight, God will begin to put some roots down in us that we have never been able to figure out in our lives. You say, Matt, how do I do that?
Well, you do it by coming to God in a way that you are asking God before you even get into His word, to go ahead and change you, to go ahead and move you to go ahead and to start your growth in him. You see, for some of us, the word of God is just a religious duty. Something we do to put on our, don't feel guilty about lists, right? But what's the difference When God becomes your delight? It actually begins to free you from the seductions of what the world puts in front of you. Do you know that it's only, you'll only escape the pleasures of the world when you find greater pleasures in the word? It's so true. But how do we get there? How do we move from drudgery to delight? Lemme tell you how he just gave us the word right here in verse two, through meditating on the word through meditating on the word.
Listen, biblical meditation is not Eastern meditation, all right? It's not sitting with your feet crossed with your hands up or anything weird like that. Eastern meditation says that you need to empty yourself. Biblical meditation says that you need to fill yourself with him. Alright? That's the difference you see. Well, Matt, how do I begin to kind of move from drudgery to delight in this meditation thing? Well, I would just say, first of all, you just need to confess to God that you truly want him to move in you. But where you ever open God's word, your first confession should be God. Whatever is in me, however I'm living, I need you to speak today. And then secondly, I just need you to begin to see God's word for what it is. How do you meditate on God's word? Lemme give you something that just kind of helps me.
It's not in your notes. Number one, I just read scripture. I read it over and over and over again. I'm not talking about a cursory fast reading. I'm talking about five, maybe six times. Just read a small block of scripture over and over and over again. And then what do you do to meditate? You think about it deeply, deeply. And I'm not talking about like, oh my goodness, I gotta hurry. The turning light is on and I'm driving to work deeply. I'm talking about deeply, right? What does it say about God? What does it say about mankind? What does it say about me? How does it connect to the other text? And where is it pushing me? And then what do I do after I've read it? A couple times after I've thought about it deeply, I begin to press it into my world. I've been press it into my life.
God, what are you showing me? How are you showing me I should live? How are you showing me that I should be walking? And then from that point, I just pray, God, show me how to live this out. Show me how to walk this out. Show me how today this can give me your power. Church. That's meditation. Meditation is not, oh man, lemme hurry up and read this verse so I get my check mark on my Bible reading tool, right? No, when you delight in the word, you dive into the word and you get serious about his word, you begin to meditate around your word. And before you know it, what happens in your life is what used to be a drudgery becomes a joy and becomes something. If you do miss it, you're actually hating that you missed it and not hating that. You have to do it.
That's the difference. Number one tool, if you wanna see happiness in your life, is to get serious about the word of God. And here's the second one. This one's short. And it's to get serious about the people of God. The people of God. Listen, this is the church in, in fact, if you look at Psalm one, watch what it does. He says, blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinner or sit in a seat of scoffers. So what is he saying? He's saying, Hey, don't stand in the way of sinners. Don't find your place with these scoffers. What's the opposite of that? The opposite of that is to get connected to the people of God. That's the opposite. When he says, don't walk with these people, it the other side of that, the converse is to walk with the church.
Listen, I don't need to say this as honestly as possible. Sermons may inspire you, but it's your community that shapes you. It's your community. Your friends are your future. That's what I mean by that. In fact, I've said this for years in student ministry and in adult ministry, you show me your five best friends and I'll show you who you're gonna be in three years. It's just how it is. Parents, listen, your kids', friends are their future, your kids' friends are their future. So parents, listen, if you are not doing everything you can to drive your kids into the word of God and into the people of God, parents, that's on you. How this thing ends up. And I, and I get passionate about that. But listen, they're kids and it's our role. We're temporary stand-ins from God to show them what the church is and who it's.
So if you're not driving them to get involved with students, if you're not driving them to get involved with a life group, if you're not driving them to go to events that can spur them on in their faith, I can guarantee you this. The rest of the things you're driving them to are fickle. And one ACL away from not mattering anymore. It's the word of God. It's the people of God. And this community of faith should be your tightest people. Why not? Because the world is all evil, but because it's this community of faith, when you do fall down, when you do feel the wind blowing you, when you do feel, your life is beginning to be like chap. It's this community of faith that can walk beside you, pick you up, dust you off, speak a word of encouragement over you, sing a verse of Psalm over you and say, our God is bigger than that.
It's the word of God and it's the people of God. Church, there's more joy in God than we will ever think about having in anything else that we enjoy. In fact, lemme finish with this verse. Psalm 16, verse 11. David later on says, you make known to me. He's talking to God the path of life. And you, God, you'll fill me with your joy and your presence with eternal pleasures at your your right hand. Do you know what happens? When we began to see the world for what it is, and we began to plant ourselves by the stream. So water, we began to be filled and nourished by the person of God, by the Word of God, by the people of God. And what does God do in this? He fills me with what kind of joy and pleasures. Eternal. Eternal, what kind. Eternal, the most intense joy for the longest time.
But here's the thing, you will only know this when you take yourself off of the circumstances, when you quit trying the fool's errand of just being free and you plant yourself by the nourishment of the river of God. You wanna be happy this week? Turn off the news and drive your soul into the gospel. You wanna be happy this week? Get serious about the word of God and the people of God. You wanna be happy this week? Ask God. God, whatever's in my life that I'm filling it with that is not you. Let it grow strangely down in the light of your glory and grace.