Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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The Prosperous Life or The Prosperity Gospel Without the Heresy
Intro
The desire of God for his creatures to be happy
The First Psalm is a wisdom psalm concerned with teaching us how to be happy and prosperous
Blessed and prosperity has recently been abused in our day
It is important to let God define what it means and not us
People are not happy not for a lack of want to be blessed and happy, but because they refuse to submit to what God has declared to be blessed and prosperous
I .
Who is the Blessed Man
A. Blessed is the man...
Blessed=happy or favored by God
God blesses us, we bless God (God favors us, we turn that favor into worship)
The opening to this Psalm sounds oddly to something important: Jesus’ sermon on the mount in Matthew 5
Psalm 1 talks of a prosperous tree and general positive vibes
Jesus: Blessed are the: poor, mournful, meek, hungry
Jesus is referring to the proper demeanor of the sinner to enter the Kingdom Christ
Psalm 1 is talking about the life of the sinner who is now in the kingdom of Christ
If you don’t know Christ Psalm 1 will just condemn and frustrate you
If you do know Christ, take joy in this is what our King has enabled for us!
B. who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers
To described the blessed man, the psalmist starts with three negatives
The blessed man does not WALK, STAND, or SIT in the COUNSEL, WAY, or SEAT of the WICKED, SINNER, or SCOFFER
Counsel of the wicked
stands in the way of the sinners
sits in the seat of scoffers (jeers, mocks)
What can we say generally about this: The person is NOT blessed who defines for himself what blessing means
Who establishes his own law and abides by it (wicked, sinner, scoffer all have turned away from God’s law)
To describe the blessed man it goes from actions on the outside to the heart:
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night
Delight: Extreme satisfaction or desire
Meditate: To reflect or think deeply on (not in the eastern sense, but deep thought: at one time and through out the day)
If you want to know what someone delights in see where his meditation is
The blessed life is someone who meditates on God’s law because it has become his delight
Not because it’s their duty, or its the program they are doing that year, to keep my spouse or pastor happy
But the person is blessed when it is their delight to meditate on God’s law
What happens when (NOT IF) it has shifted away from becoming our delight and meditation?
We remind ourselves of the bounty of Christ’s kingdom
The blessed man is one who delights in God’s law, not their own law (sin)
This selfless way of understanding happiness runs contrary to our natural inclinations: ask people what would make them perfectly happy in this world: God’s law would probably not be found on their lips
Evangelizing the man playing basketball
II.
What is the Blessed and NonBlessed Man Like?
Blessed man:
A prosperous, productive tree
Nonblessed man:
Chaff
Four qualities of the productive tree
It is planted in a place where it will succeed (streams of water)
Parable of the Sower
The Father is the sower, the Father is the one who plants
2. It produces as is expected (yields its fruit in its season)
Common in our age of Christian immature to celebrate immaturity and scoff at maturity
3. It perseveres (its leaf does not wither)
A dead tree looks as if just one storm will take it down
A lively tree looks like it can survive the storms
A blessed man who is a prosperous trees can survive the storms of life
Such a prosperous tree is planted in God’s law: presence
The blessed man is one who delights and meditates on God’s law which produces a life of lively prosperity like a tree
The final part of this Psalm is what helps us to keep from the prosperity gospel heresy while celebrating blessing and prosperity from God
Most of us would shiver at the thought of following the theology of Joel Osteen
But all of us are capable of seeing God’s prosperity and blessing in physical categories only
If I have a good job, healthy kids and spouse, nice car then I am blessed, if God takes it away my leaf may wither
III.
The heart of the matter
The blessed and prosperous man is the one who will stand at the day of judgement and not be thrown into the oven where the chaff goes
Blessed is the man who does not stand in the way of sinners
If the person stood in the way of sinners he will not stand in the day of judgement
The Lord knows the way of the righteous (intimate with it for it is HIS way, the law).
The way of the wicked will perish (just like useless chaff).
This does not have to be a mystery—Are you living a life right now in keeping with standing at the day of Judgement?
Judgement will just be the natural outcome of how you are living life right now
Either blessed by God, full of life—happy obedience to instruction
Or living a life of doing it your own way which has a certain deathness about it
And finally—if you are going through a season of your life right now that your circumstances are terrible
And you are thinking how am I to be happy right now when this is happening to me
Notice Psalm 1 does not say to be blessed and prosperous you must have good circumstances
You are to delight in the law of God, and meditate on it day and night—this leads to the prosperous and blessed life
You have major illness—you must dwell on the doctrine of the resurrected body
Wife your husband is hard to live with?
You get to dwell on the submissive wife that is precious to God (Peter)
Child your parents are ungodly?
You get to dwell on obeying your parents for this is right to the Lord
Your bad circumstances are far from keeping you from a prosperous life but are used by God to make you prosper and blessed
But if you take your circumstances for obedience to your own law—this leads to death both now and in eternity
Conclusion
This is quite “the man” isn’t it
And none of us, by our own power are like this man
Nathan’s story to David: you are the man!
Pilot’s words were rich in meaning when he said of Jesus on trial before the people: BEHOLD THE MAN
Jesus IS this man
And he has established a kingdom that enables his subjects to share in his blessedness
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