I'd invite you to take your Bibles to Psalm chapter 1. Last week we had had an introduction to the book of Psalms. We saw that Psalm chapter 1 can well be considered the doorkeeper to the Psalms. We have a choice to make as we enter through the doorway of the Psalms. We're either going to be hearers of the Word, hearers only, or doers of the Word. We're either going to be the blessed man who follows in the godly path of seeking to be obedient to God's Word as we enter into the Psalms, or we're going to be the ungodly man who is just a hearer of the Word. As we look into the doorway here to the book of Psalms, Psalm chapter 1, We're looking at part two of our message, The Steps of a Blessed Man. We took last Wednesday to look at the practice of the blessed man negatively viewed. The blessed man, the man who is following in the paths of the Lord, is first described negatively. We saw that there's nothing wrong with negatives in the Scriptures. God gives us negatives. Oftentimes, the best way to find out what we should be is by studying what we shouldn't be. The Scriptures gives us both. Let's not forget that the Word of God tells us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And the Word of God says it's profitable for what? For doctrine. But it talks about reproof. Correction. Those are negatives. But then there's the instruction in righteousness, isn't there? That the man of God might be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So therefore, we had seen last week, negatively speaking, the three things that the blessed man stays away from. We saw last week that the blessed man If he's going to be in the place where God can bless him, he needs to stay away from the wrong advice. It says he walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. The word counsel meaning advice. We saw that the blessed man not only stays away from wrong advice, but he stays away from wrong associations. It says he stands not in the way of sinners. And then thirdly, We saw that the godly man, the blessed man, stays away from the wrong attitudes. He doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful. We studied a little bit about the scornful person. But now we're going to look at the paths of the blessed man, positively speaking, in verse 2. And I want you to notice that when we're looking at the positive aspects of being a blessed man, a blessed woman of the Lord, a blessed young person for the Lord, the two things that are emphasized in verse 2 both have to do with the Word of God. Immediately, folks, we must be confronted with the truth that we will not ever amount to anything by God's grace. if we stay away from this book. And I guarantee you that Satan has fought everyone in this room, tooth and nail, from getting into this book and taking the time that you know you need to have in this book. And if we're honest with ourselves, we can think of a myriad of things that come to our minds the minute our feet Our flat feet hit the floor out of bed. Our minds are racing at all of the things that we need to do. Amen. And some of you are thinking throughout the night of all of the things that you need to do. And and when you hit the floor, the devil presents to you the tyranny of the urgent. Don't forget this. And don't forget that. And he works through our minds. There are two things that the blessed man practices with reference to the Word of God. These are the positives now. We've seen what he stays away from, but you know, the Christian life has positive things. We don't live in a vacuum. We take out the trash, but then there are good things that we need to place in our hearts and minds. And there are two things that the blessed man practices. The blessed man, The practice is, number one, what I call assimilation. The word assimilate means to take in and make part of you. He assimilates. I want you to notice, positively, the blessed man not only stays away from the wrong advice, wrong associations and wrong attitudes, but positively speaking, He assimilates the Word of God. Notice the wording on the first part of verse 2. His delight is in the law of the Lord. The word delight is the Hebrew word kefetz, which means His pleasure, His hunger, His desire is the Lord and His Word. I wonder if we wake up in the morning And the greatest desire, the greatest yearning that we have is to commune with our Savior. Or is the first thing in our minds to check our email. Somebody once said, better check your knee mail than your email. Or perhaps the very first thing in our minds is to get the coffee pot on and watch the news and find out what blew up who or whatever. and what's going on in the Middle East. But the Word of God says the blessed man, his delight is in the law of the Lord. In other words, he finds joy in spending time in God's Word. He finds joy in life as a result of obeying God's Word. You know, I took the word delight, and I'd like for us just to look at four things that we should delight in. and I'd like for us to just go up in the Word of God in the Old Testament at four places where the word delight is used and we're just gonna camp in this little phrase for a little while on the fact that you know the Bible says that we are to delight and have pleasure in the things of the Lord his delight is in the law of the Lord so let's take a look at for things that God says we should delight in. Well, the first is a giveaway, isn't it? Chapter 1 and verse 2. What is the first thing that we should delight in? Let's hear it, folks. Delight in the Word of the Lord. Exactly. Now, let me take you to another passage. Psalm 119. Don't lose your place in Psalm chapter 2. But let's turn to the longest chapter in the Bible that deals with the Word of God. And in Psalm 119 verse 24, notice what it says, Psalm 119 verse 24, Thy testimonies also are my delight. And notice what else it says, and my counselors. How about having a counseling session with the Lord tomorrow morning? Do you need that? Do you want that? How about counseling with the Lord? You know, He doesn't charge $50, $50, $60, $100 an hour. Some people are going to analysts and psychologists and $150 a pop, and here the Lord doesn't keep hours. He's our constant friend and counselor and savior. Isaiah tells us he is wonderful. He's also our counselor, our prince of peace, our everlasting father. Oh, what a joy it is to have our counselor. But notice the word of the Lord is spoken of as a delight. Now, let me ask you a question. Why is it that so many Christians are delighting in the wrong thing? Why is it that we have a tendency to be slipshod in the Word of God when the Bible says we're not going to get off a square one? You know, people talk about the Monopoly game and getting moving on the board, get off a square one and get traveling. And people talk about moving through the board. We're not going to get off of square one in the basics for the Lord if we're not delighting in the Word of the Lord. So that's the first area that we need to delight in. Look at Psalm 112 just a few chapters back. Psalm 112. It doesn't bother me that we're going to stretch this to a Part 3. of Psalm, but here it says in Psalm 112, notice what the Word of God says here in verse 1. Praise ye the Lord! Blessed is the man that fears the Lord, that delights greatly in His commandments. So you see, the Scriptures use the word delight with reference to what we should the attitude we should have towards the word of the lord so how are we doing in our little uh... physical exam spiritual exam uh... you go for a physical checkup you go for let's have a spiritual clinic uh... spiritual checkup what's our acumen when it comes to the word of god well pastor john i'll tell you it's like this i go to a christian school Some people that are listening to my voice, they go to a Christian college. And some people may be working on an advanced degree. Well, you don't understand. I'm taking 18 hours and 12 of them are in Bible. So that's the time that I have in the Word of God. But you know, sad to say, the Bible can become a textbook. There can be preachers that are listening to me, that the only time they ever cracked the Bible is to prepare and crank out messages. But there's never a time, Lord, it's you and me. Lord, I want to spend time with you. Not to prepare sermons and to see what I can give to others, but Lord, I need this for me. And I'm speaking to Sunday school teachers, I'm speaking to pastors, I'm speaking to Bible teachers, even seminary Bible teachers, that are more concerned about preparing lecture notes than they are learning to hear from the master teacher in their own needs. And how we need to realize that, you might be going to a Christian school, you might be homeschooling and you have your Bible classes, but you know, are you spending time apart from the academics? to be with the Lord. It might mean getting up out of bed earlier to do it. Are you willing to do it? You see, the Lord is not an academic exercise. And there are some people that, you know, as far as just spending time with the Lord, it's just not happening. And the relationship is missing. And I have a question for you this morning. Do you really know the Lord and are you in love with Him? I don't have to go into the analogy because you've probably often heard it. And I would imagine that most of you when you met husband and wife when you were first dating, you wrote each other. I remember I was speaking with Melody's mom and she told me how that shortly after they were married, he was called off to World War II. and they wrote each other every single day every day they wrote each other through the boot camp and all the way through but they wrote each other every day and they read those letters and they read between the lines and they re-read them and they thought well maybe there's something that I missed maybe there's some hidden subliminal meanings behind these sentences. Maybe he's not telling me everything. Let me read it for the 14th time until the next one comes. But yet, how often do we find our delight in the Word of God? Now, I have a question for you tonight. Is the Spirit of God speaking to you in this area that there needs to be a midstream adjustment, a little changing on the gauges of our priorities? Say, okay, Lord, You brought me here tonight, and I came here tonight, and if you're going to knock me upside the side of the head, and you're going to tell me that this has to change in my life, I'm going to leave here and accept it and say, Lord Jesus, I need to hunger after you. I need to delight. My delighter, my delighter, Lord, is askew, and I need to kind of get it back in line. Now, let's see another area that we need to delight in. turn to the book of nehemiah i know that it's been a while that we've been in nehemiah we we had nehemiah visit us one time in church didn't we wasn't it uh... nehemiah that came by the visit with us and unfortunately if i if i recall correctly i was i was up in in uh... pensacola at the time and i missed out on nehemiah but i heard the tape So I did have an opportunity. I just missed the dress rehearsal. But I know that you're wondering, Dick, what in the world is Pastor John talking about? We had Nehemiah visit us and deliver a wonderful message and a challenge on some of the things that he experienced in the building of the walls. But in Nehemiah chapter 9, verse 25, Can anybody tell me what these brethren delighted in, in verse 25? Notice, they took strong cities and a fat land, possessed houses full of all goods, speaking of the goodness of the Lord, wells digged, vineyards, olive yards, fruit trees in abundance, So they did eat. This is speaking of how well and how good God treated His chosen people. And then the chosen people turn around and they live in the world and they trodden Him underfoot. But notice what it says. It says, So they did eat and were filled, became fat, and delighted themselves in what? Thy great goodness. So what's the second thing that we should delight ourselves in? Number one, the word of God. Number two, the goodness of God. And you know, the goodness of God, the children of Israel took for granted. My next question, my next wake-up question to all of us spiritually is this. You know, we're always complaining and looking on the negative side of things. Look at the goodness of the Lord and how good He has been to us in so many areas. Folks, let's look around us. Let's go to the hospitals. Let's go to the veterans clinics. Let's go to the handicap sites and look around us and then turn around and be ashamed of ourselves for complaining the way we do and feeling sorry for ourselves and always looking down in the mouth you know that the profession that uh... is characterized by depression are the dentists and you heard about this the dentists are the number one occupation in suicide because they're the most prone to depression they're always looking down in the mouth and you know sometimes we we christians are spiritual dentists were always down in the mouth but notice By the way, don't let that surprise you. How would you like to have everybody greet you? Every child that comes into your office is deathly afraid of you, and they're crying before they even know who you are. That would make a lot of dentists feel depressed, okay? And down in the mouth. But the goodness of the Lord, and the Lord is good to us. He is so good to us. And for those that may be listening to me tonight that do not know Christ, as personal savior Romans 2 for says the goodness of God ought to lead us to what repentance the very fact that God hasn't sent a royal lightning bolt I'll tell you what people are talking about that that the asteroid that that came a hundred and forty thousand miles I'll tell you what the way as wicked as this world is we deserve that right between the eyes is the truth of the matter but the goodness of God that thing away, when you consider the light years from whence it came, it would have been like millimeters. But the point is, the point is this, that God has given men extra time to hear about His Word, to repent and receive Him as personal Savior. What's the third thing that we ought to delight in? Let's take a look at Psalm 94. We are to delight in the Word of the Lord. Number two, we're to delight in the goodness of the Lord. Thirdly, look at Psalm 94 and verse 19. Psalm 94 and verse 19. We want to take plenty of time for prayer this evening, so we're going to look at these four areas to delight as our part two in our message. But in Psalm 94 and verse 19, notice the third area we are to delight in. It says, "...in the multitudes of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul." We are to delight in the comfort of the Lord. Isn't it wonderful that we have living within us the Comforter, the Paraclete, the One called alongside, not only alongside the one called within us and the Holy Spirit comforts us how many times I've been down to the dumps about this or that or whatever and as I'm riding down the road the Lord encourages me and I know it's his Holy Spirit he uses it through he uses the Word of God to do so we're going to be looking in a few probably next week at what it means to meditate upon the Lord. And this is how the Holy Spirit works as we meditate upon His Word and take His Word with us. But, you know, we ought to delight in the comfort of the Lord. We don't need to find comfort in a bottle of gin. We don't have to find comfort in material things. We don't need to find comfort and fulfillment by trying to be accepted by the crowd. We don't have to find comfort in food. We find comfort in the Lord. And He's there to comfort us and encourage us in the things of the Lord. Fourthly, the fourth thing we are to delight in. After all, the Word of God says, A godly man, we are to have delights. The delights are in the things of the Lord. The Word of the Lord, the goodness of the Lord, the comfort of the Lord. Then Psalm 37, one of my favorites, and I know from being with you since the middle of 2000, I know a lot of you like Psalm 37. It's a wonderful, wonderful verse. Some of you, this is your favorite when it comes to reading these and sharing with those that are in the hospital. Look at verse 4. Delight thyself. What's the fourth thing we are to delight in? The Lord Himself. We are to delight in the Word of the Lord, the goodness of the Lord, the comfort of the Lord, but then we are to just flat out delight in the Lord Himself, the Person of the Lord. Delight thyself. also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Now, a lot of people like to quote 4B, Oh Lord, give me the desires of my heart. But you know, if our delighter is right, we're going to have the right desires. And we're not going to seek or ask for things to consume them upon our lusts. And if the Lord does not see fit to give us what we ask for, we are to do what verse 3 says. Trust in the Lord and keep on doing good. The Lord will take care of us, you see. And it's interesting that verse 4 has the word also in it, which takes us back to verse 3. And we need to delight in the things of the Lord. And we need to delight in those things that bring Him the joy. Well, I'm tempted to go further, but I'm going to stop right here. Let's stop right here. We've looked at the word delight. We've seen the four areas that we all need to improve upon in delighting. We need to delight in His Word. We need to delight in His goodness and ask His forgiveness for the many times that we have failed and we've overlooked and developed tunnel vision. And we need to repent of that. And I use that word very, very carefully. It's something that needs to be repented of as sin. Even tonight when we go to prayer, God may lead some of us to just flat out say that, I just want to confess to you, before you and before my friends right here, Lord, that I need an attitude adjustment. And maybe you've been flailing at everybody around you, making everybody miserable because you're miserable. And the reason why you're miserable is that you've lost sight of your compass, and you don't know where north is, and your delighter is malfunctioning. uh... we need to delight ourselves in the comfort of the lord he's the comforter and we need to delight ourselves in the person of the lord himself uh... let's fall in love with our savior again maybe some some of us need to get alone with god and like jacob of old wrestle with the lord and say lord i'll not let go until you bless me i realize that jacob you know he he was a rascal and god needed to teach him a few lessons just like us. But you know, sometimes we just need to say, Lord, I need to know you and develop a relationship with you. You'll be surprised how it'll transform your home, your relationship with others. It'll put a spring to your walk, a smile to your face, and a renewed appreciation for the priorities of life when we get our vertical compass straight with the Lord. And I'll tell you what, the problems that come our way, you know, it can so easily get us off center, can it? It can so easily knock us out. And let's bow our heads and close our eyes. And I'm going to ask the Lord to speak to our hearts in a needed area that perhaps we've dealt with. There may be some here that say, Pastor John, all four areas. Lord, I'm out of whack in all four areas. I just encourage you to just tell the Savior about that. And I'm talking to children in homeschooling. I'm talking to kids in Christian school, public school, teenagers that may be listening to this message through other means outside of our church, adults. You've allowed things to come into your life that have really, the truth of the matter is, All of the problems that you're facing right now, you know where the solution begins? Your walk with God. Draw a circle and step in it and say, Lord, start here. Father, speak to our hearts. We're about to go to prayer. And Lord, we certainly want our prayers to be those of sincerity and in truth. I come to you acknowledging that, Lord, all of these areas are areas that we're lacking in. Lord, You've walked on me even in preparation of this message in these very areas. And Lord, I've confessed to You my shortcomings. And Father, may Your Word further spread into hearts and lives and help us, Lord, to truly honor and glorify Your name by our response even to Your Word today. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.