Take your Bibles this morning. Go with us to the book of Psalms, please. Brother Clint said that his class was in Psalm 1 this morning, but evidently God wants to say something to y'all this morning, and we're going back to Psalm 1. Psalm 1 today, please, Psalm 1. Be glad you saved, say amen. Amen, praise the Lord. Psalm 1. We're going to look at the first three verses this morning, Lord willing, Lord willing. Now, it won't be next Sunday morning. Next Sunday morning, Brother David Sommerdorf is gonna be with us next Sunday morning, looking forward to that. And I've talked to him on the phone, never met him in person, and so I'm looking forward to meeting him, as you know him. He'll be with us next Sunday morning, looking forward to that. But very soon, Lord willing, we'll look at the second part of Psalm 1. Today, we're gonna look at the first part of Psalm 1. The first three verses, where the Bible says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. With the help of the Lord, this morning we want to look at the thought of the blessed man. And I believe probably just about every preacher at some point in time has preached out of this passage with the same exact title and probably a very similar outline on the subject of the blessed man. And I would dare say every person in here would love to be able to say, I am a blessed man. Now I'll begin by saying this, regardless of whether you fit all of the categories we're gonna look at in these verses, we're all blessed this morning. Anything above hell is the grace of God. Whether you saved or whether you're lost, you're blessed today. We're blessed first and foremost because Jesus died for us on the cross and rose again the third day. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. If I paid for my own sin debt, it's eternity in the lake of fire. So he took our lake of fire for us on the old rugged cross so we wouldn't have to. So regardless of your situation today, you are in a sense blessed. But I wanna go into a little deeper thought here concerning what the verses are saying here in Psalm 1. In particular, the word blessed itself. That word blessed doesn't just simply mean that you have been given good things, although it involves that. The word blessed here, in fact, means happy. It means happy. In fact, the Hebrew word that underlies the word blessed here, the first few times, the first five or six times it's translated in the Bible, it's translated as the word happy. The word blessed here indicates happiness. However, it does not indicate happiness based upon happenings. It doesn't mean happy because everything in life is where I want it to be. This blessedness here, this happiness that's spoken of here in Psalm 1, this is a blessedness, this is a happiness that you can have when your bank account doesn't match your desire. You can have this happiness when you're walking away from a funeral service. You can have this happiness when it seems like nothing in your life is going right, you can still have this blessedness, this happiness. So what does it mean, and what do I have to do, and how is it described, the blessed man? I believe every one of us in here probably would say, when everything may go wrong, I would still love to have the joy of the Lord in my heart, in my soul. How does that happen? How can I have that? Well, that's why God gave us these verses. So let's look at them this morning. Let's consider the blessed man. First and foremost, this this happy man, this blessed man. I want you to notice the discernment of a blessed man. He's a he's a man of discrimination, of discernment. He's a man who has learned how to make some judgment calls. Look what the Bible says in verse number one. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. There's some things he will not do. There's some places he will not go, and there's some people he will not associate with. Notice here in this verse, consider this blessed man. In his steps, he avoids sinful advice. In his steps, which I believe the psalmist here is speaking in terms of decisions. that he makes. He avoids sinful advice. Blessed is the man that walketh not. You're blessed, you have this happiness spoken of here, if you walk not in the counsel of the ungodly. Let me ask you this morning, who do you get your advice from? Can I make a recommendation? Never go to somebody that's not right with God to get advice. That's what he said. He walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. If you're not right with Jesus, I don't care what you've got to say. If you're backslidden, I don't want your advice. You've made some terrible decisions. That's why you're backslidden. I highly recommend you young people Be careful, be careful where you get your advice from. Be careful who you say, what would you do in this situation? You better be very careful. In fact, let me call a time out here. I would spend too much time getting advice from each other. Not because I'm criticizing your spirituality. You may be good young people who love the Lord, but the fact of the matter is you have no experience. Find somebody in here that's lived life, that's been walking with God for a long time. There's some saints of God here. They can give you some good, sound, biblical, spiritual advice because they've been walking with Christ and making right decisions for a long time. You grownups, you better be careful where you get your advice from. You better be careful getting advice from people on your job, at the workplace. If that individual's not right with the Lord, if their life doesn't line up with God's word, what in the world are you getting advice from them concerning? The blessed man seeks counsel from those who are right with God and their life lines up with the word of God and they have a history, a lifestyle of making right decisions based upon God's word. It's foolish. to ask someone who is backslidden or lost for spiritual advice and life's decisions. Life is too important. Decisions are so weighty. And when you make a decision and you take that step in your life, he speaks of walking here in the council. He's talking about taking steps. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. That's why you want to seek good people, biblical people, for advice and counsel. Because you don't want to take the wrong steps, make the wrong decisions. And once you take a step, you've taken it, there's no getting that step back. You young people these days, you're going to choose a mate, who to marry. You better seek some advice concerning that. You better talk to your mom and daddy. Seek counsel from wise people. My wife, she went to her preacher and asked her preacher, what do you think about joy? And I went to my preacher, what do you think about Kelly? And then my preacher told me, Kelly's not right. Stay away from her. You know what I'd have done? I dumped her on the spot. Because he has wise counsel. He's a man who lived a life of great decisions, walking with God. If he saw something that I didn't see, or my parents, they said, she's not right. I went to the associate pastor. Brother Larry Milton. I remember I was standing in the room where the copier machine was. He's printing out some stuff, and I stand in that room. I said, Brother Larry, what do you think about Kelly? His words were, if you don't marry her, boy, you're crazy. That's all I needed to hear, Brother Larry. That's all I needed to hear. But I went to being older and wiser, had been doing this a lot longer than me, to get some advice. I didn't go to the backslider. I didn't go to the carnal person because they make stupid decisions. That's why they're backslidden and carnal. I know I've hammered this point, probably stayed here too long. But this wise, excuse me, this blessed man, he makes wise decisions because in his steps he avoids sinful advice. Number two, in his standing, which represents his deeds, he avoids sinful avenues. He stays away from sinful paths. Nor standeth in the way of sinners. That word way, the way, it's talking about a path, a direction that you go. He doesn't stand there in the path of sinners. He wants to follow the path of righteousness. This blessed man, this happy man, He avoids sinful advice, but he also avoids sinful avenues, sinful paths, places that can take him, paths that can take him to wrong places. This happy man's gonna line his life up with the Word of God. I'll say more about that in just a moment. In his sitting, which represents his deportment, he avoids scornful attitudes. He avoids scornful attitudes. Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. I do not like hanging around negative people. Always critical of other things or other people. Don't misunderstand me, we have to have discernment. We have to understand this is not right and this is right and I need to avoid some things I've got to preach negatively at times. I said there's some things we're not going to do. There's some ministries we won't associate with. But you can be discerning and not be scornful and have a critical spirit. We're not set out to destroy somebody else. God did not call us to spend our time tearing down other people and other things. Better watch who you hang out with. Who you sit with. You sit with someone who is scornful and negative and pessimistic, you're gonna end up the same way. And critical. I'm not talking about not taking the stand. We have to take a stand. But your spirit and your attitude doesn't have to be one of scorn. derision, negativity. God's people tend to be positive people because they're walking in the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord. Better be careful hanging out with somebody who's always negative. Always critical. It'll rob you of this happiness. He could rob you of the joy. So we see the discernment of this blessed man. He avoids sinful advice. He avoids sinful avenues. He avoids scornful attitudes, stays away from those things because they do not help at all. But then number two, Notice the delight of a blessed man. The discernment, that's the negative aspect. This is what he stays away from. But then you see the delight. This is what he pursues. This is what he loves. This is where you'll find his passion. Listen to me, Fundamental Baptist Church. If you want to be blessed in this sense, you want to have happiness in spite of the happenings. This has to be a reality in your life. Verse number two. has to be true in your life. Notice his delight. His delight is in the instruction of God's word. Look at verse two. But his delight is in the law. You know what the law does? The law tells you what's right, and the law tells you what's wrong. The law tells you what you should do, and the law tells you what you should not do. His delight is in the instruction of God's word. In other words, this blessed man will pick his Bible up, and when the Bible says, thou shalt, he does it. And when the Bible says, thou shalt not, he doesn't do it. His delight is in the law of God, in God's word. Let me ask you today, where's your delight? If you are seeking your passion, your pleasure, your delight, in things outside of the scriptures. Don't misunderstand me. We're not talking about not enjoying life. You can enjoy life. You can enjoy going hunting and fishing. You can enjoy going shopping. You can enjoy whatever you enjoy. You can enjoy those things. But those things change. They do not need to be the focal point of your passion and your delight. There's gonna come a day you won't be able to hunt anymore. You won't be able to shop anymore You won't be able to do a lot of things anymore You make you may put all of your passion all of your pleasure all of your Desires in this in these areas that could change There's people you be sick you be shocked how many people wake up in the morning they live for their job and Now, you should hopefully enjoy your job. I hope you enjoy what you do. That makes your job a lot easier. But when your passion is your job or your passion is other people, when your passion is whatever it is, those things can change. Relationships change. You could get fired tomorrow. The economy may bottom out even more and there's a pile of layoffs and what are you gonna do? Your passion is now gone. Well, it's in my house, it's in my car, it's in my money. You should have learned over the last few years those things are very fragile. But there's one basket you can put all your eggs in. That's God's changeless Word, His immutable Word. If every day this is your delight and this is your passion and your relationships with everything else is influenced by this in your life, this is your delight, you will be that blessed man. His delight is in the instruction of God's Word. His delight is in the meditation upon God's Word. and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Let me say this, you're gonna think about something. It's hard to not think about something unless you work in Washington, D.C., then it's pretty easy to not think about things. But normal people, it's hard to not think about things. There's almost always something on your mind. Why not put the best thing on your mind? The word of the living God. You wake up in the morning, you grab your Bible, you grab your coffee, you sit down and you read the word of God. You may not have time to read 10 chapters a day. You may not have time to read eight chapters a day. But if you can get you a portion of the word of God and then let that work on you throughout the day. Now I understand I am in an advantageous position. This is my life, this is what I do. So as I'm preparing sermons and you teachers are preparing lessons, we are at an advantage. We have the scriptures constantly before us because we know we're gonna present it to somebody. I've been meditating on Psalm 1 all week. It's been stirring in me. I've rearranged this outline, changed this outline. I changed it this morning about 9.30 before I came across the road. Adjusted a few things. It's always in me. But that's not just for preachers and teachers. That's for construction workers. That's for lawyers. That's for school teachers. The Bible is for everybody. And if you can't bite off a big chunk, bite off a little chunk and let that little chunk stir in you all day long. Meditate on God's word. Get off of Facebook, get into his book and meditate on what he has to say. You're going to think about something. You can either scroll through your phone or you can scroll through the scriptures. This will do a whole lot more for you than social media. Love, I got like three amens on that one. I assume that might be the case. Sometimes you gotta say oh me and not amen. But truth is truth. This will help you. Seeing somebody amazingly feed their cat that morning is not going to do anything for you. This will change you forever. It's a change of forever. Meditates. Ruminates, contemplates and lets the word of God influence their heart, their life, their mind. When you read the Bible and then you in turn let the Bible read you, that's what produces this in your life. I cannot emphasize your relationship with God's word enough. Do you have a relationship with the Bible? Is there something in your life that is more important to pursue than God through his word? The very first commandment is, thou shalt have no other gods before me. When your God is God, you will pursue him through his word. Through his word. Well, I'm just, I'm not good at reading. I'm not a good reader. I don't like to read. I understand. But this isn't about reading. It's about a relationship. These are the very words of God. I understand. I understand we have this portion of Scripture where we have a lot of red letters. The words of Christ. In fact, those red letters, the first Bibles that came out as red-letter Bibles, initially, they only had red letters in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and a little bit of Acts. And the reason being is they only did red letter for the words that Christ spoke while he was standing on the earth. Now, red-letter Bibles, you have Revelation 2 and 3 are complete red-letter chapters because those are the words of Christ. You have other portions that are red-letter letters because they are the words of Christ. And I appreciate red-letter Bibles. I like red-letter Bibles because it's easier to find the stuff on the page. When I'm looking for something Christ says, it's easier to find it with a red-letter Bible. However, the black words, are just as much the Word of God as the red words. In fact, Psalm 1, verses 1, 2, and 3, they're just as much the Word of God, have just as much authority as John 3, 16 does. It's the Word of God, and it's all given so that you and I could get to know Him better. It's not about reading, it's about a relationship. Let me get carnal again, go back to talking about Kelly just one more time, please. When I first met Kelly, she's about all I could think about. The fellow who's now my brother-in-law, Rusty Silver, not Rusty Silver. Rusty Maddox, Rusty Maddox, and they look nothing alike. Rusty Maddox is my brother-in-law. He's the one who introduced me to Kelly. When he first started coming to me, he said, hey, I want you to meet her. I want you to meet her. She's all I can think about. When we met, I went to bed that night thinking about her. I woke up the next morning thinking about her. I spent a lot of time throughout the night thinking about her, praying about it. Lord, is this your will? Lord, is this your will? Lord, are you sure this is your will? I'd really like for this to be your will. Can this be your will? Please let this be your will. If it's not your will, please change your mind and let's do this. I mean, that's where I was at. All I could think about. Because I wanted to get to know her. I wanted to pursue her. I wanted to be around her. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. That's why God gave you a Bible. so you can get to know him, to learn about him, to pursue him so that you would have the attitude, I want to spend the rest of my eternity with you. I want to get to know you. I want to get closer to you. If you look at this as an academic exercise, I'm just going to go and read. You're going to miss out on why you got a Bible. But if you go to the Bible with the attitude, I'm going to get to know my Lord and Savior a little better today. It's not going to be reading. It's going to be a relationship. That's why the blessed man loves to meditate day and night because he's in love with Jesus. He's in love with him. And when you're in love with him, you're going to want to think about him. You want to know him better. The best place to know him is right here in the word of God. The word of God. So we see the discernment, the delight, and lastly, the description of a blessed man. I'm going to go through this rather quickly. I'm going to spend a lot of time here. But look at verse number three. If you will avoid what the blessed man avoids in verse number one, if you'll appropriate, incorporate in your life verse two, that's what the blessed man does. He delights in the law of God and meditates upon it. Then verse three will be your testimony. Verse three will be your description, the description of a blessed man. Number one, he is a sure man. Verse says, and he shall be. This is a promise. This is a certainty. If you'll avoid the things you need to avoid and you'll fall in love with God through his word, you'll be a sure man. He shall be. You can stand upon the promises of God because you know they're gonna take place. You'll be a strong man. He should be like a tree. Go out there, try to push one of these trees over. You're gonna find it real quick. Hey, that thing's strong. It's strong. God wants you to have some strength in your life. You'll be like a tree, he says. You'll also be a seeking man. You say, what do you mean? Well, the Bible says you're gonna be like a tree. Trees grow toward the sun. The sun pulls the tree toward itself. He said, you'll be like a tree, but you're not gonna be pulled toward the S-U-N. You'll grow toward the S-O-N, the son of God. You'll seek him if you're a blessed man. You'll be a submitted man. He should be like a tree planted. Trees don't plant themselves. Somebody else had to plant that tree. That means this individual has surrendered his life. Lord, you plant me where you want me to be. You put me where you want me to be. You'll be like a tree planted. Be a submitted man. You'll be a sustained man. He should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. God'll put you in a place where you're constantly being fed and strengthened by the rivers he provides. It's one of the reasons why God sends us to church. He'll plant you in the house of God. The Bible speaks of being planted in the house of God. He'll plant you in a church and let the rivers of God's word feed you and sustain you. You'll be a spiritual man. He should be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that bringeth forth his fruit. The Bible speaks of the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, so on and so forth. You'll be a spiritual man. The Holy Spirit will produce in your life what needs to be produced. You'll be a sharing man or a selfless man. You say, where is that? He brings forth his fruit. The tree doesn't produce fruit for himself. The tree produces fruit for somebody else. Others will benefit from your life. If you'll avoid the things you're supposed to avoid, verse one, If you'll incorporate what you should, delight in God's word, verse two, then you'll be someone who is a benefit to other people. You'll be a conduit. God will bless others through you. You'll be a sharing man. You'll be a smart man. You'll have some wisdom. The Bible says that he brings forth his fruit in his season, in his season. in God's timing, when God wants you to produce. Oftentimes we get frustrated with the changes of the seasons. I'm a little frustrated. I thought moving to Louisiana, I'd get away from the cold weather. It feels like South Carolina outside. Like the Lord tricked me or something. Moving to a warmer climate and it is warmer down here, but it's cold outside too. But that's the season. It's going to get colder and spring is going to come. Everything has its own place in its own seasons. And we're not to get frustrated with the Lord because it's not our season. It's not time. Some days, it seems like people are getting saved right and left. People are joining the church right and left. God's just moving right and left. But then there'll be some seasons where is God even around? You'll have those hot summer months, but you'll have those cold, dry winters. But this intelligent man, this smart man, this happy man, he's learned God's will. And he understands, I'll have my seasons of effectiveness, of producing. Just wait till it's my season again. He'll be a stable man. His leaf shall not wither. You'll be an evergreen. Your leaves won't fall off. As pretty as that is, at this time of year, the Appalachian Mountains are flooded with people. Want to go see the foliage? See the leaves changing? Let me remind you, those leaves are dying. They're dead. The reason why the leaves changing is because of sin. Death has entered into the world. And if God can take something as negative as death and seeing that that's why the leaves are falling and make it so beautiful. Just wait till all of death and sin is removed and how amazing it's going to be. But you'll be a stable man. Your leaf will not wither. You don't want to be the kind of person where you up today and down tomorrow. You want to be that rock solid, stable individual. And if God's word is your delight every single day, that's what you will be. Then lastly, you'll be a successful man. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. I said at the beginning of the message, this blessedness, this happiness doesn't mean your bank account is going to be exactly where it needs to be. Doesn't mean your home life is completely where you want it to be. Doesn't mean your job life is exactly where you want to it doesn't mean your church life is gonna be exactly where you want it to be But if you are in God's will doing God's will and pleasing the Lord you are a success Way too many of us gauge our success by how the world gauges success I If the church house is half empty, we must not be a success. Don't misunderstand me. I'm glad it's not. I'm glad we got a full house this morning. But if only half of y'all were here, but I was doing God's will, preaching God's word. If heaven was smiling at what we were doing and God was meeting with us, it's a success. It's prosperous. It's not about the material things. It's not about the physical things. It's often not about what you can see with your physical eye. If he's happy, we should be happy. In fact, I believe that's what the passage is saying. This happy man is who he is. He is experiencing this particular happiness because he's happy with that man. with that man. Let me ask you today. Can you say the Lord, the Lord is pleased with my life. And by the way, let me say this. God's not expecting perfection. He's expecting growth. God knows our seasons. Some seasons are seasons of struggle and learning. It's not God's pleased with me because I'm perfect. That's nonexistent. The only one here that's perfect and sinless is Jesus. If you think you are sinless and perfect, well, you just lied. So that's a sin. God's not expecting perfection. Jesus provided the perfection that we did not have. But what He is expecting is growth, a relationship. Kelly and I, we cannot expect our children to be perfect kids. They're kids. But I do expect them to love me and me to love them. I do expect when we give counsel and instruction that they listen. And that's what the Lord expects. He knows you're not sinless, but are you learning him, growing and falling in love with him more? If you are, you'll be a blessed man. You'll be a success. So watch your relationship this morning with God's word, because that is the deciding factor of your relationship with God himself. every head bowed and every eye closed.