SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's how you finish off the Christmas season.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jessica and Choir and Orchestra.
SPEAKER_01: What a great time it's been this Christmas season.
SPEAKER_01: And it's good to have one last taste of all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, my wife is going to make me start taking down the Christmas tree this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: So I hate it when it all goes away, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: And so it's great to have one more time where we get to sing Noel and praise to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We get to reflect on the fact that Jesus has come.
SPEAKER_01: And so now as we begin the new year and we start looking forward, I want to talk a little bit about the impact that is the result of Jesus coming.
SPEAKER_01: See, we've been singing and praising that Jesus came to bring hope to the world and to bring salvation and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And if he came to do that, then that means something in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus came to save us, if Jesus came to draw us into relationship with him and bridge that gulf between us and the Lord by removing that barrier of sin and bring us with him.
SPEAKER_01: If this was an eternal plan of God designed from the very beginning of Genesis, worked throughout the book, the Old Testament books of the Bible to point out that Jesus was coming, if he worked all that hard to do all of that to make it all happen, then it must have an impact in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: It must have some purpose for us in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: God must be wanting to do something in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And as we look forward into 2024 this year, what I really want to challenge us this year is individuals and as a church to establish a vision, a spiritual vision for 2024.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a vision for your spiritual life for this next year?
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that God wants to do something in your life supernaturally?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm chapter 1 this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to unpack this Psalm a little bit, but I want to put it in that context of you beginning the process of establishing a spiritual vision for your life this year.
SPEAKER_01: Now, everybody talks about New Year's resolutions and all that sort of stuff, and we've all been there.
SPEAKER_01: We make these resolutions.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm going to lose 10 pounds by February.
SPEAKER_01: And so then I keep eating the rest of the Christmas candy that's left over, and then it's on clearance at Walmart, and there's more of it.
SPEAKER_01: And for some reason, Hershey Kisses taste better in red and green wrappers, right?
SPEAKER_01: And all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And then it's Valentine's, and you got to take your wife out for cheesecake and cake and pie and ice cream and throw a little bit of steak in there somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: And you got to do, and you just, and then we blow it off.
SPEAKER_01: Like, forget all that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Forget all that.
SPEAKER_01: But it is an awesome time to be thinking about something new, and it's a great time to be thinking about repurposing our focus.
SPEAKER_01: And I really want to cast it for you this way.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of that resolution business and all of that, think about what you're going to pursue this year.
SPEAKER_01: What vision does God have for you in your spiritual life?
SPEAKER_01: And what does He want to do with you?
SPEAKER_01: Because, see, Jesus came to save us so that God could work in and through our lives.
SPEAKER_01: There is a purpose, there is an activity, there is a supernatural power that comes into our lives when we give our lives to Jesus, and that has a purpose for us.
SPEAKER_01: We don't come to church each week, we don't engage with the church family and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Just because it's a nice place to be and it's comfortable and we're encouraged when we come and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, save us from that boring definition of a Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: There ought to be something supernaturally spectacular that you want and even through faith expect God to do.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see this incredible psalm right here.
SPEAKER_01: And it's familiar to a lot of folks.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been in church any amount of time, it's familiar to you.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes what happens is the more familiar we get with something, the more we lose the incredible beauty and richness of it.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to unpack this psalm with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm chapter 1 begins this way 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.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, his is the happy, the man who does this.
SPEAKER_01: His delight is in the Lord's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
SPEAKER_01: He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever he does prospers.
SPEAKER_01: The wicked are not like this.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of wicked leads to ruin.
SPEAKER_01: Vision, a spiritual vision, an expectation that's driven by imagination and faith and impact.
SPEAKER_01: A spiritual vision should be inherent in our spiritual identity.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the point of this song, now you know the word psalm means song.
SPEAKER_01: And the point of this song is this: this incredible picture of what God does in the life of someone who follows him, painted in the image of this tree.
SPEAKER_01: That's the central part of this song.
SPEAKER_01: It's the point of it.
SPEAKER_01: God is trying to give us this picture of the fact that it means something that you're a follower of him.
SPEAKER_01: That he works in your life and he has this purposefulness and he has a point and he has an impact that is incredible in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so the linchpin of understanding this psalm is driven in this incredible picture.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this song is this song is so powerful.
SPEAKER_01: This entire, just these six verses right here, it is so rich and it is so filled.
SPEAKER_01: Only God could have authored this song.
SPEAKER_01: That's how powerful it is.
SPEAKER_01: And it comes from his heart, and I think it casts a vision for us that we need to latch on to and have a desire for in our lives as well.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, here's the way it begins.
SPEAKER_01: Look how this song begins in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: How happy, how happy is the one.
SPEAKER_01: And that word happy there actually is a much more expansive word in the original language.
SPEAKER_01: It is, it could be translated blessedness, or actually it's in a plural form.
SPEAKER_01: So it's blessings and blessednesses.
SPEAKER_01: If you think about when Jesus spoke in Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, and he began with the Beatitudes, we've done a series of those throughout 2023 on our Triangle Podcast, and he talks about the blessed condition, the happiness, the joy, the fullness of life that comes when those characters are ours.
SPEAKER_01: And so he begins this psalm.
SPEAKER_01: The very first image is this plural sense of abundant life and blessings.
SPEAKER_01: The last verse in this song says, For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: You see, it is at the beginning and the end, this work of God moving in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: He has blessings for you that are plural and beyond description.
SPEAKER_01: And he watches over our way as we move in the direction with him of being a part of what he's doing in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And in that frame, he now paints this incredible picture.
SPEAKER_01: He is like a tree planted.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that original language there is really beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: You get a sense of it in the English, but it's even more in the other.
SPEAKER_01: You get a sense, this is a tree that's not just growing there in the wild.
SPEAKER_01: It is a tree that has been planted there.
SPEAKER_01: And it's clear in the original language, this means it was intentionally planted like someone who is a farmer planting an orchard.
SPEAKER_01: Or it even could be with the connotation of transplanted, that it was changed, it was found over here, and it was put here on purpose by this stream where it can draw all of these resources and flourish.
SPEAKER_01: This is a picture of God taking a person who follows Him and having a vision for their lives that He has created and that He is working to accomplish in them.
SPEAKER_01: He chose this tree.
SPEAKER_01: So that it can do what He purposed for it to do when He planted it there.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's pretty incredible.
SPEAKER_01: I can't even wrap my mind around how powerful that message is.
SPEAKER_01: That's who you are when you are a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That God is saying, I have chosen you and planted you, and I have planted you for a purpose and in a place, and I'm going to resource you, and I'm going to use you, and I want you to flourish.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why I've put you there.
SPEAKER_01: Man, it's just an incredible picture.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in our identity as a follower of Christ, we need to understand that we are created by God in his image, saved for his purpose, that he has a plan for you, and that he wants something dynamic to happen spiritually in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at what he says again.
SPEAKER_01: You're like a tree planted beside the flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season.
SPEAKER_01: Bearing spiritual fruit is inherent in the identity of every follower of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There is no such thing as a Christian who is simply a nice looking bush that you get nothing out of.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: There's no such picture of that in Scripture for Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Every time God uses an agricultural example in Scripture, he uses a fruit-bearing tree or plant or vine.
SPEAKER_01: For example, Jesus, in teaching his disciples and his followers in John chapter 15, he says this.
SPEAKER_01: You're a vine, and when you as a vine are attached to the branches, who is Jesus, that's where the life source flows into that vine, then you're going to bear fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't bear fruit, we're going to cut you off as useless.
SPEAKER_01: But if you do bear fruit, which is your identity as a grapevine, then we're going to prune you and work on you so that you bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Because your purpose in being as a believer and follower of Christ is the work that he has designed and planned to do through you in your life.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he uses the image of a fruit-bearing tree.
SPEAKER_01: Not something that you look at, but something that has impact in the world around it.
SPEAKER_01: Something that provides, something that provides life and food and sustenance, something that is highly valuable.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus told a parable where he, again, uses an agricultural example in the New Testament, and it is about a fig tree.
SPEAKER_01: Now, personally, we love fig trees in my family.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we deeply love fig trees.
SPEAKER_01: But they create kind of a conflict in our world.
SPEAKER_01: My wife eats the figs just right off the tree, which is really a problem because God designed figs to make fig preserves.
SPEAKER_01: And since I'm spiritual and the pastor, I understand this truth, but my wife gets confused with that.
SPEAKER_01: And she'll eat all the figs before we have a chance to actually preserve them into fig preserves.
SPEAKER_01: God loves us and made figs just for us to make fig preserves.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus understood the power of that, so he used an illustration of a fig tree.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, A guy owned a vineyard, and he had a fig tree in there, and all the other fig trees were producing fruit, but this fig tree didn't produce fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And so the guy that owned the vineyard comes to the gardener and he says, Listen, cut that thing down.
SPEAKER_01: It's wasting my time.
SPEAKER_01: It's taking up space, it's using resources without value.
SPEAKER_01: Its identity as a fig tree is to bear figs, and if it's not bearing figs, then it's broken.
SPEAKER_01: Get rid of it.
SPEAKER_01: And the gardener says to the owner, no, let me just work on it some more.
SPEAKER_01: Let me fertilize it.
SPEAKER_01: Let me break up the ground or let me help it.
SPEAKER_01: And let's see if we can't get it to do what it's supposed to do.
SPEAKER_01: Because it is a fig tree and it's supposed to bear fruits, and it can if we work with it.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a spiritual parable where God is the owner of the vineyard and he expects the plants to bear fruit the reason that he planted them.
SPEAKER_01: We're the trees, and the question is, are we bearing fruit or not?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is the gardener, and it's his work around the tree, impacting the tree, and working in the tree that equips the tree to help it do what it was supposed to do.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 2, and it talks about salvation.
SPEAKER_01: For by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says this, because we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that he has prepared beforehand for us to walk in.
SPEAKER_01: Our identity as a believer is to impact the people and the world around us by bearing spiritual fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Your identity as a believer, if you're a follower of Christ, what that means is you were chosen and you were planted, and he loves you, and he created you to flourish, and he gave you the identity of bearing fruit, and he's put everything in your life that would allow you to bear that fruit, and he has a plan for the fruit that you will bear.
SPEAKER_01: A spiritual vision is inherent in our spiritual identity.
SPEAKER_01: That fruit has got to have involved in it the salvation of others and the advance of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: There is no definition of bearing fruit that does not include us leading people to faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that gets lost so often in life.
SPEAKER_01: Our purpose in being is to be a part of the advance of the gospel and to see people saved.
SPEAKER_01: As we are working and cranking up towards these mission partnerships, it is so vital that we understand we must see the vision that God has for us and the responsibility that He has for us as a church to advance the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The opportunity that we have to help that fledgling church in El Salvador.
SPEAKER_01: Really, the incredible opportunity that we have to join with brothers and sisters in Christ in a place like London, England, where the gospel is desperately needed.
SPEAKER_01: A vibrant baptizing church with a history of evangelism and a history of prayer, we can go step into that opportunity and help build that network of evangelistic pastors to bring the gospel to a key, worldwide, influencing city.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to see that that is who we are.
SPEAKER_01: We are to be fruit bearing in our lives individually and as a church.
SPEAKER_01: Your love list, that should be a part of your spiritual vision.
SPEAKER_01: You should realize I am here, and God has planted me in this spot, and He's planted those people around me for a purpose and for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: God saved us for so much more than, gee, I'm not going to hell, and now life is fun and I enjoy church.
SPEAKER_01: Like, praise the Lord, we enjoy church.
SPEAKER_01: We want to enjoy church.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of miserable if church is not good, right?
SPEAKER_01: But it's not here for us.
SPEAKER_01: We come and we get fueled and we get excited and all of that, but really what's happening is we are a part of a platform that God planted here well over a hundred years ago, many generations ago, because he knew that the river valley was going to grow and be a city and be an influential city in this region and in our state, and there needed to be a lighthouse here to point the way to Jesus, and that's why we're here.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we're here.
SPEAKER_01: And so in January, we're going to we're going to study prayer, and then we're going to have daily prayers that we're going to pre we're going to pray together, and we are reinvigorating our prayer ministry.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about that as all these things got to be together.
SPEAKER_01: We're not just building bigger, you know, hallways and bigger Sunday school rooms or avoiding the stairs.
SPEAKER_01: We are reaching people in all what we're doing.
SPEAKER_01: And so part of the prayer room and moving that and all of that, we're going to invigorate our prayer, our prayer ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God has planted us here for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: And we need to find out why he's planted us here and what he's going to do with us.
SPEAKER_01: We need to walk with him and pursue him so that we get a bigger vision of what we can, what we can accomplish through the power of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you don't just make up a vision.
SPEAKER_01: God is the one who planted that tree there.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who, it says, watches over the way of the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who has purpose in all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, the person who follows the Lord, his delight is in the Lord's instruction through his word.
SPEAKER_01: We are to pursue him, and prayer is how we do that.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll start talking about that next week.
SPEAKER_01: But in all of that, the reason that we do that is we should have a vision for more spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why don't we have that vision?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he gives some thoughts here.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says here in verse one.
SPEAKER_01: How happy is the one who does not do this.
SPEAKER_01: Walk in the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway of sinners, or sit in the company of mockers.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice this picture that he gives.
SPEAKER_01: One part of this.
SPEAKER_01: Is getting bigger, and one part of this is slowing down.
SPEAKER_01: And he's built this beautiful sort of way that it gets bigger and smaller at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: Watch this.
SPEAKER_01: We go from walking to standing to sitting.
SPEAKER_01: Walking to standing to sitting.
SPEAKER_01: But then look at how the negative description of sin escalates, advice of the wicked, the pathway of sinners, and then we sit in the seat with the scornful.
SPEAKER_01: You see how that happens?
SPEAKER_01: As the negative influence gets worse, we go from advice to standing in to sitting in the scorners.
SPEAKER_01: He goes from the wicked to the sinners to the mockers.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're not just sinning against God anymore.
SPEAKER_01: We are mocking God and mocking those who follow him.
SPEAKER_01: You see how that works?
SPEAKER_01: And here's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you allow those things into your life, it has an impact on you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, just I kind of wrote it out in my head this way.
SPEAKER_01: It makes sense to me this way.
SPEAKER_01: Input creates influence, which creates identity.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked.
SPEAKER_01: Input.
SPEAKER_01: When we're taking input from the world, when we're receiving information in that helps define how we're going to make decisions, when we draw that in from the world, it is the opposite of what we should be doing when we're pursuing the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, it crushes that sense of what Jesus could do and wants to do in us.
SPEAKER_01: It dampens the passion of pursuing Him.
SPEAKER_01: That input has a negative impact.
SPEAKER_01: Think about it this way.
SPEAKER_01: How many things do you look up on YouTube or Google and get advice that way?
SPEAKER_01: How do I do this?
SPEAKER_01: How do I do that?
SPEAKER_01: How do that?
SPEAKER_01: It's fine if you're wanting to, you know, take a clog out of the kitchen sink.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going to figure out how to unclog the disposal, which we've had to do, you know, things like that.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're looking at things like, how do I do this with my kids?
SPEAKER_01: How do I influence this with my kids?
SPEAKER_01: How do I teach my kids this way?
SPEAKER_01: If you are getting more instruction from YouTube or Google or influencers on Instagram or wherever, instead of the word of God, you are walking in the advice of the wicked.
SPEAKER_01: If we go to work and we're trying to find out from people that we were placed there to evangelize because they need Jesus and they've struggled in their lives and they got all this stuff, they should be coming to us for advice, not us going to them for advice.
SPEAKER_01: You were put there to influence them closer to Jesus, not to allow them to speak advice into your life.
SPEAKER_01: And then it escalates from input to influence.
SPEAKER_01: We go from walking in the advice of the wicked to now we have gotten into the path of sinners, and we're going to stand there and we're going to consider this and we're going to evaluate this and we're going to be in this flow of how sinners live.
SPEAKER_01: So we've gone from input to influence.
SPEAKER_01: It is now influencing us.
SPEAKER_01: And we are now in the flow of the influence of sinners.
SPEAKER_01: We are in the pathway of how they live, the pathway of how they manage their money, the pathway of how they do married life, the pathway of how they do their kids, the pathway of how all of that life flows.
SPEAKER_01: There is a secular way of life that flows that is not godly, that is not drawing us closer to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It may not even be evil, it may just be life, but it is not drawing us closer to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It is not creating a passion for a spiritual vision or giving us a sense of vision.
SPEAKER_01: You see, but input is what creates that influence, and now we're allowing ourselves to be influenced away from the picture of life that God has for us.
SPEAKER_01: And now look how it escalates.
SPEAKER_01: Input creates influence, which creates identity.
SPEAKER_01: Now we will sit in the company of mockers.
SPEAKER_01: We have made our home with those who say no to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We are settling in to the place where we're not following the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Input creates influence, what creates identity.
SPEAKER_01: And in our identity as believers, if following the Lord is to be like a tree planted by the flowing streams and bearing fruit, and even in difficult times, it gives that picture whose leaf does not wither in all of those times.
SPEAKER_01: If we're going to be that person, it cannot involve the input and the influence that creates an identity of someone who does not see what God wants to do in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have a spiritual vision for your life, if you're not pursuing what God wants you to have in life, then you've got to check the inputs that are going into your life and the influence that is creating your identity.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you can take that input, influence, and identity, and you can apply it here in the beauty of this passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: His delight is in the Lord's instruction.
SPEAKER_01: Where is he getting his input?
SPEAKER_01: He is getting it from God's word.
SPEAKER_01: He is getting it from God's interaction in his life.
SPEAKER_01: And then it says he meditates on it day and night.
SPEAKER_01: You see how now we're standing in that pathway.
SPEAKER_01: We've gone from receiving the information, the input of it, to now God's word is influencing us because we are standing in the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: We are meditating on it day and night.
SPEAKER_01: And now it becomes our identity.
SPEAKER_01: Input creates influence, which creates identity.
SPEAKER_01: He is like that tree planted by God beside the flowing streams that bears fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither.
SPEAKER_01: Input creates influence, which creates identity.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual vision should be a part of our spiritual identity.
SPEAKER_01: And if it is not, we've got to go back and check the inputs and the influences and look in the mirror and see where identity definition is now.
SPEAKER_01: If spiritual vision is inherent in our spiritual identity, then we have to understand that our identity determines our direction.
SPEAKER_01: It determines the direction in which we go.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I love there are directional pictures in here.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, that path and that follow in that direction.
SPEAKER_01: What you have here is a beautiful picture of juxtapositions.
SPEAKER_01: He puts things in contrast in incredible ways right here.
SPEAKER_01: Look at how he, again, the frame around this tree.
SPEAKER_01: Happy is the one who does not.
SPEAKER_01: Happy who does not.
SPEAKER_01: You see, those are put in juxtaposition against each other.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he does in the last verse.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
SPEAKER_01: He puts them in juxtaposition against each other.
SPEAKER_01: So you have here this picture of the righteous versus the unrighteous.
SPEAKER_01: Happy is the one who does not walk in the way of the wicked, stand the pathway of sinners, send to see the mockers.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, that's another verse of the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of that, this, a picture of the righteous, his delight is in the Lord's instruction.
SPEAKER_01: He meditates on it day and night.
SPEAKER_01: You see a juxtaposition of the negative active actions of sin and the positive actions of pursuing the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about standing and sitting in company of sinners and mockers and all of that, versus delighting in God's word and in his instruction and pursuing it and meditating on it day and night.
SPEAKER_01: You see the juxtaposition of the two different identities and the impact of those identities.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3, the identity of the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: He's like a tree planted beside flowing streams, bears fruit in his season, his life does not wither.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever he does prospers.
SPEAKER_01: The wicked are not like this.
SPEAKER_01: You see, he's comparing two opposites.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, they are not planted, they are not rooted, they are not invested in God's word.
SPEAKER_01: They are not strong with a wheat, a leaf that does not wither.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, they're like leaves or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: A tree that's died and the dead leaves, and they just blow wherever the wind takes it.
SPEAKER_01: Our garage, I hate cleaning out the garage.
SPEAKER_01: I love a clean garage, but I hate cleaning out the garage.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all feel me?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we have this garage, and our house sits, if it's facing that way, our garage is faced this way, and it got kind of this curve, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I just firmly believe that whoever built our house, we were not the original owners, they did this on purpose, and they're still laughing at every person who lives in the house.
SPEAKER_01: Because the main garage is this way, and then there's an angle on this garage, and we've got these cool little brick walls right here that are real pretty, but what it does is it creates this little cove.
SPEAKER_01: And my neighbors next to me have this beautiful tree planted in their yard.
SPEAKER_01: And it sheds these leaves every year.
SPEAKER_01: And the wind blows them into this cove in my garage, and I cannot get them out of there.
SPEAKER_01: And it creates like a wind tunnel.
SPEAKER_01: And I get in the garage and I have my wind blower and I'm blowing the leaves out, and just as I get to the lip of the garage, the wind in this wind tunnel blows them right back into the garage.
SPEAKER_01: It's just frustrating as I'll get out, right?
SPEAKER_01: I have only thrown my blower twice.
SPEAKER_01: I'm really proud of that.
SPEAKER_01: That I've only gotten mad twice, right?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because those leaves, whatever blows it, is wherever it goes.
SPEAKER_01: And whatever wind may be blowing the leaf harder, the leaf follows that wind.
SPEAKER_01: You get it?
SPEAKER_01: The influence is the wind, the leaf has no strength, no value, no whatever in it at all.
SPEAKER_01: And so the person who is listening to the advice of the wicked, and their input is from the world, and they are standing in the way of sinners, and they are sitting with the mockers, and they are not following God, and they are not invested in his word, they are blown wherever the wind blows them.
SPEAKER_01: And if you think I'm stretching a point, then I would invite you to write in the margin of your Bible Ephesians chapter 4, which says that in Scripture, the role of pastors and leaders in the church and all of that, we are gifted to the church for the purpose of what?
SPEAKER_01: For the purpose of building the body of Christ to do ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we are trying to grow to be mature in the full measure and stature of Christ, like a tree planted by the river.
SPEAKER_01: And if you are not, and you are immature, then it says you are like a leaf blown in the wind by every doctrine of philosophy and every trickery of man.
SPEAKER_01: The consistency of these pictures and messages, and God's word is incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's the deal: identity is what determines the destination of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Are you taking in the input of God's word?
SPEAKER_01: Are you resting in his instruction?
SPEAKER_01: Are you pursuing him?
SPEAKER_01: Is that giving you the influence in your life that your identity is?
SPEAKER_01: God wants to do something in my life in 2024.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to use me to reach somebody for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He wants me to go on a mission trip.
SPEAKER_01: He wants me to start teaching Sunday school.
SPEAKER_01: He wants me to invest in students or children's ministry.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to use me in the place where I work.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to use me in my school.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to use me in my street.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have that input?
SPEAKER_01: Do you have that identity?
SPEAKER_01: If you do, then you are the picture here in Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: But if your inputs are from the world and your influence is from the world, and you do not have that identity, then you're going to be the picture in Psalm chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, I want to give you this.
SPEAKER_01: So what do we do with that, Pastor?
SPEAKER_01: Well, pursuit, pursuit is what establishes your identity and leads to either spiritual vision or futility.
SPEAKER_01: Pursuing God, pursuing Him is what establishes an identity of being happy, of blessed, of being the person that God is watching over your way, of being the person planted by the tree, planted like a tree by the river.
SPEAKER_01: Pursuing Him, that pursuit is what establishes your identity, and from that is what flows either spiritual vision for next year or futility.
SPEAKER_01: Look what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Happy is the man who does not do this, but does this.
SPEAKER_01: And what is the this that he does?
SPEAKER_01: His delight is in the Lord's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
SPEAKER_01: You see, that identity of who Christ wants to make us to be should drive us to pursue him.
SPEAKER_01: If you write in your Bibles, just draw a line and connect the dots between this.
SPEAKER_01: His delight is in the Lord's instruction, and at the end of verse 3, whatever he does prospers.
SPEAKER_01: Just connect the dots right there.
SPEAKER_01: You see, if your input is God's word and seeking him, and in fact you delight in that, that's why I've used the word pursuit.
SPEAKER_01: You establish your identity by pursuit.
SPEAKER_01: He delights in the Lord's instruction and he meditates on it day and night.
SPEAKER_01: That takes work.
SPEAKER_01: And you cannot be a growing Christian without doing your part.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear me.
SPEAKER_01: Anything that is good that happens in our lives, it happens because Jesus did it.
SPEAKER_01: But the question is, are we pursuing him or not?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how much Jesus you have, but you have all the Jesus that you want.
SPEAKER_01: Pursuit is what establishes our identity.
SPEAKER_01: It is pursuing him because that is how he then works and inputs in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: It is our pursuing of him that makes us surrender to him.
SPEAKER_01: It acknowledges that he is the one who plants the tree.
SPEAKER_01: He's the giver of life.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one that bears fruit.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one that gives that instruction.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one, as it says in verse 6, that watches over our way.
SPEAKER_01: It is his instruction that we need, and that's why we delight in it and we meditated on it day and night because it is his work in us.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, I'm a relatively smart guy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but I'm not, you know, I'm okay.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm fairly creative and I've seen a lot of stuff in life.
SPEAKER_01: I could go in my office and draft up something cool and put some alliterations and slogan on it and throw it out here and sell it to you as the vision for our church.
SPEAKER_01: I just, I could do that.
SPEAKER_01: I have that ability.
SPEAKER_01: I can't do a lot of things, I could do that.
SPEAKER_01: But what is the point of that?
SPEAKER_01: What value would that bring?
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we acknowledge that anything that happens good in the church, it happens because Jesus did it.
SPEAKER_01: In our heritage, anything that's happened in those times when people were getting saved in the moves of God, that all happened because God did it.
SPEAKER_01: In our next stage of life, if we see people saved and we impact the River Valley and we impact London and all of that stuff, it's going to be happened because God does it.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've got to pursue him individually and collectively as a church.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got to find out how God is going to bear fruit in the tree that he's planted here.
SPEAKER_01: And we individually have got to figure out how does God want to plant, how does God want to bear fruit in each of our trees that he has planted us where we are?
SPEAKER_01: How do you pursue?
SPEAKER_01: It's simple.
SPEAKER_01: You choose to pursue through adding and removing.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to work through some New Year's resolution process, here's what you do.
SPEAKER_01: You ask the Lord, you pursue him, what does he want you to add and what does he want you to remove?
SPEAKER_01: Happy is the one who does not.
SPEAKER_01: What does he want to remove?
SPEAKER_01: What input, what influence does he want to remove?
SPEAKER_01: Instead, his delight is in the Lord's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
SPEAKER_01: What does he want to add?
SPEAKER_01: As you pursue through God's Word, as you study God's Word, as you call out to Him in prayer, He will speak to you and tell you what He wants to add.
SPEAKER_01: He will guide you in what you should remove.
SPEAKER_01: What are the inputs and the influences that are affecting your identity in Christ that need to be removed?
SPEAKER_01: Who are the voices that you should remove?
SPEAKER_01: Man, if you I mean this in all love.
SPEAKER_01: If you spend more time on Twitter or whatever your social media platform is and watching Fox News than you spend in the Word of God, you are in the pathway and being influenced.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing wrong with platforms, and I'm an information junkie, and if you want to talk politics, man, we can go to lunch and I got all you want.
SPEAKER_01: But listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: If the greatest input in your life is not the time you spend in prayer and scripture pursuing God, however you do that in your life, then you need to remove some influences to create time, energy, and the habit of adding in following God's word and seeking his vision.
SPEAKER_01: If you get this picture of the tree, and man, you want to bear fruit, and God stirs that in your life, that's the whole point of this psalm and the point of this message is that you should realize that God has put you there to bear fruit.
SPEAKER_01: He has put you there to bear fruit and impact the lives of people around you with the picture of who Jesus is and what he does in a life and the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor, I'm in a tough season right now.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this picture of this tree is so strong that its leaf does not wither.
SPEAKER_01: And so maybe God has you in a time where the power in your life is to show that circumstances are not stronger than Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But you gotta pursue.
SPEAKER_01: When you pursue and add and remove the right things, your inputs are good.
SPEAKER_01: Your influence, it becomes powerful.
SPEAKER_01: It becomes your identity, and you see and hear that God has planted you like a tree and he watches over your way.
SPEAKER_01: That begins with the first decision to accept Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, in just a moment, God's people are gonna pray, then we're gonna stand and sing a testimony of what it means that God works in our lives, and we're gonna invite you to come and trust him as your Savior.
SPEAKER_01: How do I do that, Pastor?
SPEAKER_01: It's exactly what we've been talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Sin separates us from God, and our sin must be punished.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus loved us so much, he stepped out of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we sang about at Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: Stepped out of heaven, lived a sinless life, died on the cross so that his death could be a substitute for ours.
SPEAKER_01: He rose again, conquering death and sin, so that he could offer you salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And when you surrender your life to him, that's when he steps in and he gives you the identity of having a plan for your life, of working through you, of making you a tree, he plants.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never accepted Christ as your Savior in a moment, I'm gonna invite you to come.
SPEAKER_01: If you're already saved, I want to encourage you as you begin the new year, pursue, add, remove, so that you can hear God as He casts that vision.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I want to do.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we love you and we thank you.
SPEAKER_01: This is such a rich psalm, and Lord, please step in through the Holy Spirit, through the living, powerful word of God, and putty the cracks I've messed up.
SPEAKER_01: Light a picture of the richness of this psalm and what it means.
SPEAKER_01: God, use it to stir your people, to remind them just how much you love them.
SPEAKER_01: The incredible supernatural reality of what you have done and want to do in their lives.
SPEAKER_01: Collectively, as we're doing that as individuals, do that in us as a church.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, I pray that you will use that picture, the power and the life-giving strength of your word to touch the life of someone who may not be saved, who's looking for hope to be healed or to be loved.
SPEAKER_01: And they see this picture of what you want to do in their lives and draw them to you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we ask you to give folks a freedom to respond to you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the saving name of Jesus we pray, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.