Like a Tree
Notes
Transcript
Series: A Lamp Unto My Feet
Passage: Psalm 1
Sermon in a Sentence: God wants us to meditate on His word correctly and consistently.
Flow:
Body:
1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!
2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
4 The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
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This is the first Psalm, — All Scripture is given to us from God — Psalms were meant to be said back to God — God told us what He wanted us to say to Him — The first song God tells us to sing to Him is “Happy, or Blessed, is the one who turns from evil and meditates on God’s word day and night!”
1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!
2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
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And that if we will turn from evil and meditate on God’s word we will become like a well watered and deeply rooted tree.
3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
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This year I want you to make your New Year’s resolution to be like a tree! — Not big, and heavy, and stationary. We don’t have to make resolutions to do that, that comes naturally. — Gyms make big money this time of year by people resolving NOT to be like trees. — But that’s not what I’m talking about. I don’t want you to be a knot on a log, and I don’t want you to be like a tree in general, I want you to be like THIS tree.
THIS TREE is strong and healthy. THIS TREE is not easily shaken or tossed about. THIS TREE provides shade and protection for those around it. THIS TREE produces lots of fruit that gives life to others. THIS TREE is the steady rock that so many others need in their lives. Someone that others can depend on. Someone that others know they can go to when they are being tossed around by the crazy winds of life. Someone who always has words of wisdom that lead people away from the painful and destructive consequences of sin and not towards it.
I want you to be like this tree.
God wants you to be like this tree. He said so.
Of all of the songs He wants us to sing to Him, this is the one He gave us first, because if we don’t choose to turn from sin and meditate on His word for the rest of our lives, then it doesn’t matter what else He says in this book, we’ll never take the time to read it or apply it to our lives. And how can we know what is good and what is evil in order to turn from it? God tells us in this book. So to recognize evil to turn from it, we must first meditate on God’s word and store it in our hearts. So everything hinges on reading and understanding God’s word on a regular basis for the rest of our lives.
And that is what I’m going to help you learn how to do today. Since God wants us to turn from evil and meditate on His word every day, I’m going to show you how. And it’s a very simple process. Here is the process in it’s simplest form:
What did it mean then?
How do I apply that to my life?
What did it mean then? — When you read a portion of Scripture, you always want to ask yourself, “What was God trying to teach us when He originally gave us this Scripture?” — “What did it mean way back then?” — The best way to explain this is by giving you an example of what NOT to do. Let me give you an example that I gave you last year:
When starting off reading the Bible, many people will begin from the stance of “What is God specifically trying to tell me from this passage this morning,” and what we will do is, we will begin to put things into the text that God never intended to tell us. For example. Let’s say that you are a teenager and you have some friends text you and say they are sneaking out of the house and they are going to meet you at your house and for you to sneak out your window. You of course know you shouldn’t, but since you are still a teenager you play the prayer game, where you say to God, “Ok, God, I know I shouldn’t sneak out but my friends are lost, and I could lead them to Christ, and I know that’s what you want me to do, right? So I’m going to open my Bible and read the first verse I put my finger on, and you tell me what you want me to do. Ok?”… And you open your Bible and your finger lands on Acts 10:20
20 Get up, go downstairs, and go with them with no doubts at all, because I have sent them.”
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There you go! Or maybe you landed on Exodus 4:12
12 Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.”
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You see why this method is so dangerous? Because when we are looking for something specific in the text before we come to the text, or if we try to say that God is using this text to speak to my specific situation, we will see things in the text that are not there. We will see what we WANT to see.
And I know I used an example of a teenager sneaking out of the house, but we as adults are all guilty of the same thing. We find ourselves in different situations, but we still look for that mystical element, that somehow we are getting a direct answer to our specific prayers through God’s word, that truthfully had nothing to do with our current situation. Maybe you don’t open the bible and just drop your finger on a verse, I sure hope you don’t, but we will still read a verse that was part of our scheduled reading and suddenly see something that seems to speak directly to our situation. And many times it will be because we, again, WANTED to see it. We saw something, and our brains immediately made a connection between what we read and what we are going through in life.
Now let me say that’s often a good thing. It is good that our minds can make connections between what we read and our lives. That is a very important skill. That is how we apply the Scriptures to our lives. If we don’t apply the Scriptures to our lives, then it doesn’t do us any good to read them in the first place. But we must be able to know WHEN it’s a good thing to make a connection between the text and our circumstances and when it’s not a good thing. And the rule is simple. Only try and make connections between the text and your specific situations in life AFTER you have figured out what it meant THEN. Only after you know what the text meant thousands of years ago, should you try and make connections to your life today. Never try and make those connections first, because then you may make the text mean something it never meant to begin with.
So our two rules of studying Scripture, were to first ask, “What did it mean then?” and then second to ask, “How does that apply to me?” We ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS get in trouble when we don’t first ask, “What did it mean then?” Because the rule is, “If that’s not what it meant then, then that’s not what it means now.” The Bible is big enough to address everything we need to know in life. We don’t have to try to make something mean something it doesn’t to address our situations in life. So what did Exodus 4:12 mean then? It did not mean, disobey your parents and sneak out of your house to go do things that are probably sinful. It did not mean that THEN, sooo..... It does not mean that now! Exodus 4:12 is in the context of God telling Moses to go speak to Pharoah, and Moses telling God that he can’t because he has a speech impediment and can’t speak well, and then God telling Moses that He would give him the ability to speak. That was the context. So what was the principle? Why did God include this story in the Scriptures? What is He trying to teach us? The same thing He was trying to teach Moses. That if God asks you to do something, big or small, He will give you everything you need to do what He asks you to do. He may give you abilities you didn’t have before, or He may remove obstacles that were in your way, or He may send other people to help you… the possibilities are endless, but one thing is for sure. If He asks you to do something, He will give you what you need to be able to do what He has asked you to do.
So “How does that apply to me today?” The same way it applied to Moses then. If God asks me to do something, then He will give me what I need to do it. How will that apply to my specific situations in my life and in your life? That is going to change from day to day and from person to person, but the principle is the same.
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So now that you know what to do and what Not to do, let’s take a short passage and work through it.
3 If anyone teaches false doctrine and does not agree with the sound teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching that promotes godliness,
4 he is conceited and understands nothing, but has an unhealthy interest in disputes and arguments over words. From these come envy, quarreling, slander, evil suspicions,
5 and constant disagreement among people whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out.
8 If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
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Now, of course there is a lot here, and if you were at home studying this by yourself, I would encourage you to take your time reading and underlining and thinking about what it says, I would encourage you to do that today if you get the chance. But first, our main goal is to determine what did it mean 2,000 years ago? Well let’s look at it closely. Well, you may have to go back and read it more slowly to catch the context, but here Paul is telling Timothy to watch out for any pastor who thinks that serving in the ministry will make them wealthy. Timothy was a pastor that Paul Discipled, and so Paul was warning Timothy to stay away from anyone who thinks that Pastoring is a way to get rich. Paul was telling Timothy that living a godly life, and being content with your with what you have, is worth more than riches. If you have your basic needs met, food and clothing, then learn to be content with those. Because the love of money is the reason for all kinds of evil and by craving it, some have left the faith, and ruined their lives. So now that I’ve helped give you the context let’s read it again.
3 If anyone teaches false doctrine and does not agree with the sound teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching that promotes godliness,
4 he is conceited and understands nothing, but has an unhealthy interest in disputes and arguments over words. From these come envy, quarreling, slander, evil suspicions,
5 and constant disagreement among people whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out.
8 If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
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So if we were to study this passage of Scripture for ourselves what should we take away from it? Well there is all kinds of, what I call “Coffee Cup Verses” in there.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out.
8 If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
~~~~~
Money is the root of all evil! Who hasn’t heard that?
Those are all good to remember and remind ourselves, but if we have to boil it all down to one simple sentence, what would it be? What was Paul trying to teach Timothy? He was trying to teach him to pursue godliness, not wealth. So how does that apply to me today? The same way it applied to Timothy 2,000 years ago. God wants me to pursue godliness, not wealth. God wants me to learn to be content with what I have, not to crave what I don’t have. And God wants me to realize that godliness is worth far more than gold and silver.
So what did it mean then? It meant to pursue godliness, not wealth, and to be content with what they had.
So how does that apply to me now? It means to pursue godliness, not wealth, and to be content with what I have.
And that is the correct way to study the Bible. It’s that simple. It’s not always easy, but simple doesn’t mean easy.
So what about Psalm 1? What if we study it really quickly? What are the two questions we ask? — 1. What did it mean then? — 2. How does that apply to me now?
Let’s read it. Again… we are not looking for the coffee cup verses yet, we just want to know, if we had to sum it up in one simple sentence, what would it be?
1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!
2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
4 The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
~~~~~
So what did this passage mean then? — God wanted his people to turn from evil and meditate on His word.
So how does that apply to me now? — God wants me to turn from evil, and meditate on His word.
If you study the Bible regularly, and learn to correctly apply it to your life, then OVER TIME you will become like that tree that God described in Psalm 1. Trees grow slow and steady, but OVER TIME they are immovable. Just remember that after reading God’s word, if you think that God is telling you something, ask yourself, “Is that what God was trying to tell people on the other side of the planet thousands of years ago also? If not, then that’s not what He’s trying to tell me now.”
What did it MEAN then?
How does that APPLY to me now?