What is the Good Life 5/01/2022
Transcript Search
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
What is the Good Life?
What is the Good Life?
The world says
Right Job
Right House
Right Car
and many other things.
The Bible says
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
What does a blessed man or woman look like?
What does a blessed man or woman look like?
We generally think of:
wealthy,
in great health and
living a long life
influential
all as indicators of God’s blessing.
But does God’s blessing always mean
we are going to have lots of money?
No!
Many rich people never think of God’s blessing as their reason for success
Yet living right you tend to save money,
I always figured on our budget, I never could have bought cigarettes every week.
With God’s blessing on our lives
does that guarantee good health? No!
Many a Christian suffers yet feels blessed by God
or claims
they grew the most in their illness,
in their suffering.
Does God’s Blessing
Always lead to long life? No!
That is not guaranteed either.
Always power and influence? No
Sometimes gods blessing takes us through times of troubles.
Job said
17 “Blessed is the one whom God corrects;
so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
18 For he wounds, but he also binds up;
he injures, but his hands also heal.
Did you catch that,
God’s corrections may wounds us,
but he also binds us up.
It’s pretty clear, God’s idea of blessing and our idea
are far apart.
God can give those things,
Wealth,
Health
Long life
Favor with others
but that not usually His blessing
God blesses people so they can bless others
Let’s look at verses 1 again
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
Notice there is a progression in the wicked persons path
They walks the wrong direction
Stands in the wrong place
Sits with the wrong people
The night that Jesus was betrayed it says this
54 Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire.
That night, Peter went on to denied he even knew Jesus 3 times.
Peter walked in with them
He stood around with them
Peter even sat down by the fire warming himself with them but
He was afraid to let them know he followed Christ so what did he do?
Three times he denied even knowing Jesus.
I can see
in that situation how easy it would be to do that.
And it brought shame and guilt on Peter, until he was forgiven for his denial.
If we are not walking toward the life God wants us to live,
imitating Christ,
Then we are drifting away from him.
Abrahams nephew Lot,
never planned to ruin his life but
when their flocks were too big to live in the same place,
Abraham gave Lot the pick of the land.
10 Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company:
He liked the lush valley but was drawn toward the city of Sodom.
12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.
Then eventually, Lot moved into Sodom.
When the angel came into Sodom, Lot was sitting in the city gates, that means he was a leader in the town.
1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
Do you know the story of Lot?
With the angels pulling him along,
He barely got out of Sodom alive.
Lot has lost everything,
His money,
His flocks
His goods,
He lost his wife
And his daughter have
no concept of trusting their future to God
NO CONCEPT OF TRUSTING THEIR FUTURE TO GOD
So in a very wicked way,
they try to build a future for themselves.
Wow, it looks like
If we don’t walk with God,
we can make many bad choices in life.
Have you ever done something you new was wrong
because a friends encouraged you?
Illus. My friend and I made a little money finding lost golf balls and selling them to the golfers.
Apparently, so did some other kids
One day they chased us off that spot where so many golf balls were lost.
So at my friends prompting
we snook back
and tried to mess up their bikes.
I knew revenge was wrong
But I let my friend talk me into it.
About 10 O’clock that night
I couldn’t sleep and
I came bawling to my mom
Confessing my sin.
She wasn’t a Christian at the time so
She couldn’t say “Ask God’s forgiveness”
So she said something about
Doing better next time.
Ahab
Ahab
Ahab is known as one of the most wicked, most evil kings in Israel.
Whose council did he follow?
Among other Councillors
3 He too followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly.
You will either be an influence on others, or they will influence you.
Sit with mockers
Sit with mockers
When Jesus was dying on the cross, he was hung between to criminals.
Both these men mocked Him.
The crowd also mocked him
but then one of the thieves had a change of heart,
what did he say?
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
How do the Righteous live
How do the Righteous live
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
They take delight in God’s word.
They meditate on it day and night.
thinking, what did that passage mean?
does it apply to me?
If so, how?
Living in the New Testament era we have quite a lot of scriptures to work through
to learn about God’s character
To learn how He would have us live.
with lessons like,
leaving our give at the altar and going to reconcile with someone who has something against you. Before giving your gift to God.
How is a man or a women like a tree?
How is a man or a women like a tree?
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
D.L. Mood once said, in God’s garden, every tree is an evergreen.
When does a tree thrive?
When it’s in good soil
Jesus told a parable about a unfruitful tree the farmer wanted to cut down, but the gardener said
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
8 “ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ ”
What was the change that might help the tree produce more
Fertilizer.
When does a healthy tree bare it’s fruit?
In it’s season
At the right time
Does the heat of summer wilt the leaves of a tree near plenty of water?
like the leaves wilt in a barren land?
5 This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
What kind of fruit might a person bare?
What kind of fruit might a person bare?
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
What other kinds of fruits might we see?
What other kinds of fruits might we see?
People serving God,
serving the church in their area of gifting
serving their community
How would you describe the kind of environment that grows a man or a women like a great tree?
Good grounding in God’s word
Good fellowship with other believers
When we have a great storm, which trees fall?
The rotten ones
The shallow rooted ones
When a draught comes, which trees wither and die
Those that haven’t tapped into a water supply
God is our source of living water.
How does the psalmist describe the other guys
The wicked, sinners and mockers?
They are like barren plants without hope
Like we read in Jeremiah.
How many of you ate food yesterday?
Me too!
How many of you read in God’s word yesterday?
Job said this about God’s word
12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.
I need to get to that point.
How about you?
Are you now a strong tree for God
planted by streams of living water
Are you like chaff, little lightweight husks that will be blown around.
Maybe your somewhere in between.
Maybe your tree
your lifestyle should be transplanted
your life changed into a better setting for growth.
What would that look like?
Are you willing to change?
Let’s pray.
can’t get away from the worldly people in this world, but instead of being their follower be ambassadors for Christ.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
Are you solid like a tree or hollow, lightweight like chaff?
If you want to bear fruit, you need to be planted
Transplanted into God’s good soil
With good, pure water of the word near by