The Pursuit of Happiness

Transcript

GRM 1023
01/04/2009
The Pursuit of Happiness
Psalm 1
Gil Rugh


We're going to talk about happiness so turn to Psalm 1. The last study together we did Psalm 2 and I want to back up to Psalm 1, a psalm we've looked at on other occasions. But I thought as we begin a new year, contemplate what is before us, the year we've come out of, good psalm to remind us of the happiness that God provides for His people, true happiness. The world is constantly on a search for happiness, a happiness that is settled within, that gives a peace and a joy in all kinds of situations and circumstances. Many people's confidence, happiness has been shattered in these days. You watch the news and some of the interviews with people who have lost large fortunes, small fortunes, lost what they depended to have to live on. You find lives that are in despair. And yet the Bible talks about having a happiness that is settled and secure within.

Now before we get into this psalm, I want to make something clear. When we talking about having the happiness that God provides in a life, and this will be the happiness that can only belong to those who belong to Him, we're not talking about a life that is free from trouble or trial. We're not talking about a life that won't have pain, maybe great pain, disappointments, hardships and so on. But through it all you find God is sufficient. Sometimes we think that if we have true happiness and belong to the Lord that is a secure thing and it means we will escape the troubles and trials of the world. But that just is not so. We want to have a realistic view of what we're talking about when we talk about happiness.

Back up to Job, we want to look at Job 1. And what do you think of when you think of Job? You think of trouble, trial. His life has become proverbial. Even unbelievers who don't know much about the Bible can talk about the troubles of Job; whether they know much about them, they know that he becomes a representative person to talk about troubles and difficulties and trials. And you'll understand he was the most righteous, godly man on the earth during his time. That's what God says about him. In Job 1:8 the Lord God is having a conversation with satan and in verse 8 He said to satan, have you considered my servant, Job, for there is no one like him on the earth. A blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. You'll note what God said, there is no one like him on earth. Doesn't mean he was a perfect man, but he was more righteous and godly than anyone else.

Look in Job 2, a little later meeting that the Lord has with satan. Verse 3, and He says the same thing. The Lord said to satan, have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. He is a righteous, godly man, and yet he is going to experience great pain, have all his children die on the same day in the same catastrophic “accident,” experience the loss of all his possessions, have to go through the loss of his physical health. He is so despised that even the children look down on him. People wanted nothing to do with him. Even his own wife said he'd be better off dead. He's a man that had to know misery and trial.

Look in Job 14. Job speaks in the midst of his difficulties and says, verse 1, man who is born of woman is short lived and full turmoil. Like a flower he comes forth and withers, he also flees like a shadow and does not remain. What is life, Job said. It is turmoil, it is short and it is full of turmoil. We appear and we're gone, we're like a shadow. It's there, life is over, we're a memory that is soon forgotten. A life of trouble.

Now we come to Psalm 1 and we're going to talk about the blessedness of the man and talk about the true joy and happiness that belongs to the person who truly knows the living God. The world has a certain semblance of happiness. And if I can use our recent financial turmoil, we have one very prominent person, very wealthy, who committed suicide. And his suicide was in the news and on the papers. What happens? One day he is worth a billion or more dollars and the next day he is worth nothing. You know his happiness was a shell, his security was without foundation. He didn't have what he thought he had. Even though he looked like a man successful, a man accomplished. The picture I saw he had a smile on his face. But something is wrong, so you close your door and you slit your veins and you think you go to sleep. You die. Then you life up your eyes being in torment, as the wealthy man in Luke 16 who died. The world is constantly pressing us to pursue the things that will give happiness. Buy this, get that, do this and you'll be happy. And if you watch much TV you'll see now they have pills that if you're down, this pill will get you up. And there has to be happiness someplace. But it's always just next.

I was listening toward the end of the year and they were reviewing with very wealthy people in their homes. And they were asking the question, why is it these people build these fantastic mansions and then in a very little time they have them on the market to sell them so they can get another one? There is just something, there has to be something else, there is an unsettledness.

The psalm speaks to that and it's going to draw a contrast between the man who is truly happy and the man who has nothing, between the godly man and the wicked man. You understand the godly man is the man who has God's salvation, the wicked man is everyone else. Not just the person who is so overt in their sin, but the “good” person as we look at them, the religious person, the person who does not know the living God. Look how this psalm begins. How blessed is the man. He's going to describe him now in three ways, and these are parallel ways. As Hebrew poetry does, like we would often rhyme things, one form of Hebrew poetry is they say the same thing basically in different ways. One line says it this way and then the next line. So he says, who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. The next stanza, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. You're saying basically the same thing three times over. Slightly different emphases because you are using different words, different picture, but you are saying basically the same thing.

How blessed, how happy is the man. And that word blessed, our English word happy would get to it as long as you don't think of the joking, superficial happiness. But we're going to be talking about that inner prosperity, happiness, the happiness of the soul, that kind of prosperous person. You may not be rich on the outside, this is the kind of happiness you have whether you are rich or poor, whether you are influential or not, whether you are healthy or unhealthy. This is the happiness and joy that God can produce. This word blessed translated into the Greek translation of the Old Testament by the word that is used in the beatitudes in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the poor in spirit. And of course this was written in Hebrew but then when it was later translated into Greek, the word we have in the beatitudes is blessed. Speaking of the happiness, the spiritual happiness and prosperity of the man. It's a plural word, the blessednesses, and it gives an intensity—how very happy is the man. He has a true, genuine happiness that others do not have and cannot have apart from a relationship with the living God.

Characteristic of this man, he does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. First thing said about him, he does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. In other words his life is not patterned and shaped by the advice and input and thinking of the wicked. The wicked, the word here used basically mean unrest, that's its idea. Remember Isaiah the prophet said, the wicked are like the waves of the sea. There is no peace, says by God, to the wicked. They are constantly churning, there is an unsettledness. Doesn't mean they don't have times of happiness, it seems times of tranquility, life seems to be good, it comes and goes. Dependent upon the circumstances. When my health is good, when the family is doing well, when my finances are solid, when .............. (fill in the blank), I'm happy. We're talking about the blessedness of the man that God prospers. He doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, he doesn't allow his life and thinking, his purpose in life, his goal in life, the way he conducts his life to be shaped by the thinking of those who have no peace with the living God.

Now that's easy to read, but you understand we are constantly bombarded by the thinking of the world, what the world says is important, what the world says we must have to be happy, what the world says is necessary. All our advertising is built on this, is it not? What you deserve, and what you've earned, and now you can have happiness if you do this, if you go here, if you buy this. I get advertisements that tell me how I can be happy in my retirement, I feel like I'm getting pushed out the door. Now you can enjoy ......... And we do enjoy things in this life, I'm not putting that down. But we have to be careful this doesn't shape our thinking and pretty soon we as believers are living like the world around us, like the wicked who do not know the living God. And life is good because all these “good” things are there. We have to be careful that our thinking is not shaped by the thinking of the wicked, the people of this world, the people of this life, the people who do not know the living God. The truly blessed man is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. That walk is the pattern of his life. His life is not shaped by the thinking of the godless people. Again, remember we're not just talking about the overtly, the drunk, the immoral person. But the whole thinking of this world is not what shapes his thinking.

Say it another way, move it along. Nor stand in the path of sinners. He doesn't join in their lifestyle. Now again, we don't have to be like the Amish. We used to live in the Philadelphia area, about an hour out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We'd go up and see the Amish, they are unique and different. I have all kinds of pictures of the Amish that I took with my telephoto lens because they don't like to have their picture taken. And you know you do all those things, you go to their markets, and they're dressed like they would have been in the mid-1800s. We're not talking about trying to make ourselves stand out in that way. But we don't settle into the lifestyle of sinners, those who don't know our God. They don't shape the priorities of my life, the don't determine what I will do with my life, how I will live my life. There will be certain things I do—I'll drive a car, I'll take vacations, I'll buy a house. That's fine. But I have to be careful that I'm not driven to have a lifestyle that conforms to what the world says is important in the way I should live.

He doesn't stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers. You see the scoffer is the one who has rejected God. Now again, this doesn't have to be overt, he can be a religious person—I believe the Bible, I may interpret it differently than you do and uses that as an excuse to twist the scriptures. Of course the opening chapter of Genesis are myth, they are not really an account of how God created, and on it goes. The scoffers don't really know the Lord. They think by their works, by their goodness, those whose lives are not shaped by the Word of God, by a desire to be pleasing to God, by a desire to be obedient to God. They can think themselves wiser than God just by their actions. The blessed man does not sit in the seat of scoffers, he's not joined with them in their arrogance. Now you'll note this picture here. You start out with the negative. How do you know when a man who is truly blessed has that true happiness that God says takes hold in the inner soul of a person? Well you can tell by the things he doesn't do—he doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, he doesn't stand in the path of sinners, he doesn't sit in the seat of scoffers. He is not joined with the wicked, he's not shaped by the world in its thinking.

Later John the apostle will write in his first epistle, love not the world nor the things in the world. Because what is in the world? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. And we could save ourselves much grief as believers if we remind ourselves that we should not become enmeshed and controlled by the world that it dominates our lives. You know it has a way of creeping in, and little by little it begins to reshape us and we adjust our lives more and more to fit the world and less and less we are shaped by the Word of God. We all battle that because the world is a relentless pressure pushing in upon us.

The blessed man does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers. Turn over to Proverbs. You know one of the clearest parallels to this is what we tell our children. Your children are growing up, going to school, having friends, and you warn them about their friends. You don't want their friends to be people who are doing drugs, getting drunk, stealing cars. Why? They'll be a bad influence on them, right? They say, I'm going out with my friends, they'll all be doing drugs but I won't, Mom and Dad. Well if you're not, why do you want to hang around with them? I'm going out with my friends and they'll all get drunk but I won't. We say, no, you don't need those kinds of friends. Those kinds of friends will be bad for you. I Corinthians 15:33, evil companions corrupt good conduct.

Proverbs 1:10, my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Proverbs 1:15, my son, do not walk in the way with them, keep your feet from their path. Sounds like, you don't stand in the path of sinners. Keep your feet from their path, you don't walk with them. Look over in Proverbs 4:14, do not enter the path of the wicked, do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it, turn away from it. Be careful. Obviously we live in a world, you go to jobs and work next to unsaved people and so on. It's part of life. That's why the warnings are here. Be careful about being shaped by the unbeliever, about becoming too involved there in ways that will begin to condition your life. Look over in Proverbs 13.

Let me encourage you periodically through this year, take time every so many months and read through the book of Proverbs. One Proverb a day, 31 Proverbs, you'll get through it in a month. So periodically through the year take a month and read through the book of Proverbs, the wisdom there to guide us in our lives. While you're doing that you might want to put Psalms in there periodically. If you read five Psalms a days you'll get through Psalms in a month as well, maybe a little more of a challenge to do that.

Proverbs 13:20, he who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. You know again to use our children as an example. We are pleased when they have the right kind of friends. You know we have to be modeling that in our own lives as adults—what we're taking in, the influences that come into our lives. Proverbs 14:7, leave the presence of a fool or you will not discern words of knowledge. Something happens that begins to reshape your thinking and now you don't sort out things like you should. Often when our kids are young and when they get older and are teenagers they get involved with others and do the wrong thing and what do they say? I don't know what I was thinking. Because what? Our thinking gets distorted. That happens to us as adults. That's why Romans 12 says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the making new of your mind. The world presses in on us and pretty soon we want to be like the world, we want to accomplish what the world says we should accomplish, we want to have what the world says we should have, we want to do what the world says we should do. And pretty soon it becomes more difficult to have time for the Lord in our world. And then the Lord becomes an add-on and He never functions as an add-on. Our lives becomes His lives, we no longer belong to ourselves when we truly belong to Him, right? And so our thinking must be shaped by Him.

So that's where he's going back in Psalm 1. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. So we've moved from what he doesn't do, the blessed man in describing him, a happy man, to what he does do. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And in His law he meditates day and night. It's the Word of God that brings him joy and happiness, it's the delight of his life and his heart. It's not wearisome or drudgery. You know I'm one of those people who has one of those rare jobs—the less I work the happier people are. I could get a job at a church where they'd be pleased with a 15-minute sermon. I could get four sermons out of this, that's a whole month. 15-minute sermon, meet the right people a couple times a week and I'm off to the golf course. Pretty soon as our life gets squeezed in you find the pressure, I don't know if I have time for Bible study, I don't know if I have time for ............. We have to adjust our lives to the world. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, the Word of God is what he's talking about here. The Word of God is his delight, it becomes his delight as he became God's child. This is what shapes his life now, he meditates on the Word of God day and night. That's not saying having devotions in the morning and again in the evening, we're talking about it is constantly on his mind so whatever he is doing ......... The Old Testament saints had to do like we do—they had jobs, they had things they had to do. But life was shaped for believers by the Word of God as it is to be for us today. We delight in the Word of God, we meditate on the Word of God, we allow it to shape our lives.

Turn back to Joshua 1. Joshua humanly speaking had a job as a military commander, he led the armies of Israel. He had to be good at his job and he was. But foundational to Joshua's life was the Word of God. And that's what he instructed as he assumes full responsibility for leadership of Israel from Moses. And he's instructed in Joshua 1:8, this book of the law will not depart from your mouth. But you shall meditate on it day and night. Same thing we're told here, you meditate on the Word of God, you think on that. Why? So that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. He is a man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, but rather he is a man who walks according to the counsel of the living God because he takes in the Word of God, he is mulling it over in his mind. He's considering the decisions in his business life, his social life, whatever, in all of life. It is to be determined by the will of God for me as His child. Then you will make your way prosperous, then you will have success. And then you will be blessed, have happiness. Oh that means I'll be rich, I'll do well. Maybe, maybe not. Remember Job, remember Paul. Humanly speaking he said in his testimony in Philippians 3, becoming a follower of Christ cost me everything, humanly speaking. But when you look at it from the real perspective, it was nothing but dung, worthless. So we put things in perspective.

Go to Psalm 119, and while you go there listen to Jeremiah 15:16, jot it down as a verse you want to memorize. Jeremiah says, your words were found and I did eat them. I took your word in, it was like food, took it in and absorbed it into my life. Your words were found and I did eat them, and your word became to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. See that, Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. Your word became to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, oh Lord God of hosts. We see the same thing in Ezekiel 3. He takes the word of God and he eats it. The picture we have here, his delight is in the Word of God, he meditates on it, he mulls it over, it chews it over, if you will, he takes it in. His life is shaped by it, his decisions are controlled by it, his life is ordered by it.

Psalm 119, and we're just going to read a few verses here. A great psalm for you to read, some of you are studying it now, one of our classes. Verse 1, how blessed are those whose way is blameless. What does it mean to have a way that is blameless? Who walk in the law of the Lord. You see that walk? They don't walk in the counsel of the wicked, they walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart. Note verse 4, you have ordained your precepts that we should keep them diligently. We can't read every verse in this psalm that reminds us again, God's Word was given to be lived, not just to increase our knowledge. Sometimes I've had people over the years, not so much as in earlier years of the ministry, say, we want something more practical. We have so much doctrine, we want something more practical. But the Word of God is what you take in like food and it shapes your life in all ways, in all areas. There is nothing more practical than the Word of God. That's why it must be our delight. Is the Word of God delight or drudgery for you? Oh, go to church today. You know, the unregenerate man has no interest in the Word of God. Those described in the first part of the verse, the sinners, the scoffers, the wicked, what happens in our churches when we want to appeal to them? We tone down the Word of God. What do those who do not delight in the Word of God want? Let's give them that which is not the Word of God. Sadly, the church becomes shaped by the thinking of the world. What's the idea? Well, of course we're doing it for a good purpose. Our delight is in the law of the Lord, we meditate on it day and night.

Look at Psalm 119:11, your word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you. Verse 14, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. Can you say that? Some of you have taken a healthy beating in the stock market, or an unhealthy beating. I thought of the poor man who committed suicide, just use him because he's been in the news. Wouldn't it have been nice if he could have sat down in his chair with his billions gone and said, I still have the riches that matter. I'm still wealthy beyond measure because I have the treasure that is more important to me than all riches. Do we understand what we have—the Word of God. We belong to the living God and this is His truth. If you lose everything in this world the Word of God endures forever. This is true treasure. The riches you have in Christ will not pass away, will not fade away. Your health, you may have it today, it may be gone tomorrow. But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My word will not pass away. My health can fail, but I still will have rich treasure. How could you enjoy life without good health? Because I have a good God, I have His riches. Isn't that what we need, that which is permanent, unchanging? It will be here today, it will be here tomorrow, it will be here in 100 million years. It will belong to me. And on it goes through the psalm, we won't take more time to read it. Verse 15 says, I will meditate on your precepts, regard your ways. I shall delight in your statutes, I'll not forget your Word. On the psalm goes reminding us of what we have in the Word of God.

Come back to Psalm 1. This blessed man will be like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in the season. Its leaf does not wither and whatever he does he prospers. You know in the barren desert land of Palestine the flourishing tree pictured prosperity, well-being. And here you have the tree, it's planted by one of the irrigation canals or by one of the streams. And it's been able to flourish as the roots draw from the water supply. And that pictures the spiritual inner well-being of the godly person. How blessed is the man. Rich, maybe; poor, maybe; healthy, maybe; sick, maybe. How blessed is that man. He's not dependent on his circumstances. The man who has the living God as his God, who has the word of God as his treasure, he is prosperous. He is like a tree that bears its fruit in its season, its leaf does not wither. The stock market goes up, the stock market goes down; its leaf does not wither. In whatever he does, he prospers. Rich, maybe. God chooses to prosper financially some of His people, some He does not. Some He prospers and then chooses to remove him. The Apostle Paul went backwards, humanly speaking. He was successful and well off until he came to know the Savior, then he lost it all and humanly speaking died a poor man. But rich in truth. So he's like a tree planted by the waters, you have prosperity. Same picture used in Psalm 92, same picture used in Jeremiah 17 of prosperity and health and well-being.

A passage, Colossians 3:16-17, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Is that true of us? Oh, have to go to Bible study, hope it doesn't go long, hope we move it along and get out, have other things to do. Have to go to church, well, it's a busy time but we'll fit it in, it won't take that much time. And all of a sudden the things of the Lord, the things that are a true treasure, the things that are important are the things we want to get done with so we can get on to what? Think about it. How busy we get and how involved we get with the things that are what? Nothing. Heaven and earth will pass away, Peter says in I Peter 3. We ought to be careful to be living holy lives because we know all these things are going to be consumed by fire. And I want to move on from the true treasure and that which is of eternal importance and move on to what? To things that don't matter.

He contrasts the wicked in Psalm 1:4, the wicked are not so, they are not like the blessed man, they are not prospering and have true happiness and the flourishing of their soul. The wicked are not so. And you know the amazing thing? He doesn't compare the wicked to a withered tree, a sickly tree, a tree that is not doing so well. That's not the comparison. He compares the wicked to chaff, it's worthless. In biblical times it was good for nothing, burned up. That becomes the picture of the wicked. Now keep in mind we're not just talking about the person who is out doing drugs, the person who is out getting drunk, the person who is out being sexually immoral. We're talking about anyone who does not know the Lord—that “good” person as the world would look at them, maybe religious, maybe doing nice things for people, seems thoughtful. But he does not know the living God, he is spiritually destitute. You understand how serious the situation is? God says they are chaff. We talk about how valuable people are. You understand what God says here? The wicked are chaff, they are good for nothing but destruction. You say, that's the Old Testament, it's harsh. Then you go to Matthew 3 and you know what John the Baptist said as he prepared the way for the coming of Jesus the Messiah of Israel? When He comes He's going to sort out the wheat from the chaff and then He'll burn up the chaff. As Romans 3 says in quoting from the Psalms, the wicked are useless as God looks at them. Serious, serious distinction here. The wicked are not so. Oh look, they are wealthy, they are successful, they have everything, they are leading the good life. They are like chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. Later in the Psalms the psalmist will write about the time he almost stumbled. He said, I looked around and the wicked were doing so well—they prospered, they didn't have trouble, they were healthy, they made all the money. And then I went to the temple of the Lord and I reflected on reality and I considered their ultimate end. And it put life back in perspective. They had nothing. We get looking and say, wouldn't it be fun to have that. And it might be fun in one sense, I'm not saying a life of poverty is what the Lord says we must do. And even in our wealth we have to be careful that our life is shaped by the Word of God and our relationship with the Lord. It all comes from His hands, and if He chooses to take it away tomorrow He is still my God and He is still a good God and I still have everything I need giving me happiness and contentment and joy because I have the One who said He will never leave me. My wealth may leave, my health may leave, my friends may leave, but He will never leave. I have His word as my possession, its promises. What else do I need? He is giving me other things, I enjoy them, I enjoy my home, I enjoy my care, I enjoy the privilege of taking a vacation. But those things cannot shape my life. How empty is the life of the wicked man, how sad that a man one day thinks he is a billionaire, the next day thinks he has nothing and has to slit his wrists. I mean, he had nothing and he didn't know it; when he was masked by thinking he had billions, he had nothing. Like the chaff.

The wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. The ultimate day when Christ judges men, the wicked will not stand. They will not be identified with the righteous. You know what Jesus will say, depart from Me, cursed ones, into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Depart from Me, cursed ones, I never knew you. Oh Lord, we did many might things in your name and we did all these things. I never knew you. You see it's not a matter of going around and talking, it's a matter of having a true, genuine relationship with the living God. They won't be able to maintain themselves in the assembly of the righteous. When the righteous are separated from the wicked, they will see who has what.

The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, that word to know. Same word used back in Genesis, like Genesis 4, Adam knew his wife. This denotes intimacy, even the closest of intimacy in a marriage relationship. Here God knows us, He has placed His favor upon us, He has made us the object of His love and His care. He knows the way of the righteous, for you see in His salvation, in His Savior, in Christ we have come to righteousness that is not our own but is His. And that shapes our way. He knows the way of the righteous. Those who are truly righteous not live for the Lord. How is that? They don't walk in the counsel of the wicked, they don't stand in the path of sinners, they don't sit in the seat of the scoffers. Their life is not shaped by the world and its thinking. They delight in the Word of God, they meditate on the Word of God. Their life is shaped, they have a way now that is different from the way of the world. Someone may say, they look a lot alike. Yes, they both have houses, they both drive cars, they both go to work. One is living a life for the living God in obedience and submission to His Word, and the other is not. One is on his way to an eternal heaven and one is on his way to an eternal hell. One is like in his soul a flourishing tree and the other is like worthless chaff.

The Lord knows the way of the righteous, the way of the wicked will perish. Couldn't be any clearer. We've had clear distinctions drawn here, pairs, if you will, of contrasts. Two kinds of people—the righteous and the wicked. Two kinds of lives—a live characterized by true, genuine inner happiness and prosperity versus worthlessness, lives that are worthless, useless as in Romans 3. Two kinds of destinies—further blessings and destruction. I mean, the contrast couldn't be any greater.

You know how important it is as we begin a new year, it's important every day but it's a time when we often reflect. Do we have our perspective right? Do we see things as we should? Maybe I need to back up. Is the living God truly the One who has saved me. Look at your life. How is it shaped? How is it ordered? Look at the priorities of your life. What is important to you? What do you give yourself to? What shapes you? What do you order your life around? That says who you are. You are not saved by your works but your works reveal your true character. I know that I know the Lord. My life is so full with everything. Well the Bible doesn't expect us to have lives where we sit around and idle and do nothing but memorize scripture. You understand the Bible says those who were slaves were to work as hard as they could, as though they were doing all their slaving for Jesus Christ, even though they have an earthly master they serve. We're not saying, you can say that, you can just go and close yourself in a room and read the Bible. But I can't, I have to go out in the real world. Yes, that's where God placed us—in the real world as testimonies for Him, living lives shaped and molded by His truth so that we can stand out as lights in the midst of darkness—those who think differently, those who act differently. Oh, they're superficial likenesses, but when you get to the root, you get to the inner person there could be no greater difference. What shapes the life of the child of God is totally different.

Turn over to Romans 5 as we conclude. Simple statement of what God has done for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. Verse 6, for while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. You know the amazing miracle in all this? God can take the worthless chaff and make it a flourishing tree. He can take that which is worthless and useless, good only for destruction, for burning and turn it into that which is beautiful and profitable and pleasing to Him, one who will enjoy Him forever.

I have to read you a verse out of Peter. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. No listen. To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. You see, I have an inheritance stored up for me in heaven, it is reserved there. And I am one, as a child of God, protected by the power of God. My inheritance is secure and I am secure. That's why the changes in this world don't change me, don't change you as a child of God. Earthly riches come and go, physical health comes and goes. But you know what? My inheritance is secure. How much of your wealth have you lost? Nothing. You didn't have anything in the market? Yes. Well didn't you lose it? Oh, yeah, I lost all that. I thought you were talking about my true wealth. I didn't lose any of that because that's reserved in heaven for me. That's why we store it up there. You know when we begin to get shaped by the world, we put our hopes in what the world puts our hopes in, then we are impacted by what impacts the world.

Well, will you make it? No doubt. Why? I am protected by the power of God through faith. So there will come a day when I will be ushered into the glory of His presence, I will enter into my inheritance. Me, one who was at one time not a little tree, not a weak tree, but chaff. That's where we start. We have trees, we have chaff. We have that here today. You say, I can't tell. No, but in the inside there are those who are spiritually prosperous and have the life of Christ flourishing in them, and those who do not. The amazing thing is those who do not can experience the joy of salvation, the blessedness of becoming a child of the living God by recognizing their sin, their hopelessness, their worthlessness before God. God, I claim your promise. I don't come because I am worthy, I don't come because I am valuable, I don't come because I have something to bring. I come because I need a Savior, I come because Christ died to pay the penalty for sin and I am a sinner. I'm turning from my sin and placing my faith in Him alone. And you experience the power of His cleansing. He makes you new, you begin to flourish on the inside and His truth becomes your delight. Your life now will be shaped by the Word of God and the will of God and now you live a life of righteousness pleasing to God. What a transformation.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for who you are, the God who needs nothing, the God who is sovereign over all and yet in love and mercy you have provided a Savior for us fallen, sinful human beings. So confident in ourselves, so self-assured, so important in our own eyes, and yet, Lord, in reality worthless; chaff good for nothing but burning; useless to you the living God. And yet you provided a Savior who could bring about a transformation that could not be accomplished by any other or in any other way. He came and loved us and died for us, Christ died for the ungodly, the chaff, so that in Him we might receive righteousness, we might know what it is to be flourishing and prosperous not only in this life, but for all eternity. Lord, we begin a new year. We thank you for your grace, our desire that we would people that would take in your Word, that would feed upon it, that it would be nourishment for our souls, that it would shape our lives so that the beauty of your righteous character would be seen in all we do. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.