The Wrong Question | Selvin Cortez |

This sermon challenges the way we naturally read Scripture by asking whether we've been asking the wrong question all along. Using Psalm 1, it reveals that most of us immediately ask, "How do I become this blessed man?" and end up striving to achieve what we can never accomplish on our own. 

The message then uncovers the striking parallels between Genesis and Psalm 1, showing that the psalm introduces "the Man" who succeeds where Adam failed. Finally, Jesus' words in Luke 24 become the key that unlocks the entire passage: the Psalms ultimately point to Christ.

The greatest blessing is never becoming the Blessed Man ourselves, but belonging to Him. Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus fulfills Psalm 1 and invites us to read all of Scripture by finding Him first before looking for ourselves.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Very summary, right? You're feeling the warmth of the heat. This is this is our series. We're starting a new series, a series called the The Summer in Psalms. The Summer in the Psalms. And this is one of those special series that's really close to my heart. I absolutely love the Psalms. I think we all have at some point gone into the Psalms and understood what the Psalms are all about. And when we look at the Psalms, the first thing we generally think of is David. And we think of David and how he wrote the majority of the Psalms. And when I say the majority of the Psalms, you're thinking, hold on a second. Didn't he write all of them? And we're going to be diving into the Psalms. He did not write all of them. He wrote the majority of them, but he didn't write all of them. And that's the thing that sometimes gets confusing. And as we look into what this series is all about, we're going to see what God is going to speak to us. And with that, we've got this idea that today today's message is actually called the wrong question. And I was thinking about the Psalms and everything that God is going to be talking about. And I've got the next the next three or four messages already lined up. And and as I've as I'm viewing the Psalms, I'm about 30,000 feet up in the air, viewing like an over not literally an overview of the Psalms. And I think the difference between using AI and when when I grew up, I grew up with something called. Okay. I grew up with the Dewey Decimal System. Amen. Amen. All the Dewey Decimal system people, shout a great big Amen. Yes, if you have no idea what that is, I'm sorry. But basically, when we went to the library, you know what a library is. Okay. When we went to the library, we had to, there was there was a cabinet and in these little drawers, and you would find, you would, you would look for the book in the little drawer, and it would have a little card, like a little cue card-size card. And on there it would be the number and the aisle and the name of the book. And with that, you would go to the to the aisle and wherever the book was, and you would start looking it up, and that's how we would find our books. That was our research. So we didn't have Google, much less AI. And so we had to ask the right question in order to get the right answer. And I think that is kind of what's happening with AI today. If you ask AI, AI for all that it's it's great, Chat GPT, uh Cloud, Gronk, all of these, all of these um systems are great. They're great if, and I would say if and only if you ask the right question. Because if you ask the wrong question, you're gonna get the wrong answer. If you ask the right question, you'll get a better answer or a correct answer. And I wonder if that's true when we read the Bible. I wonder, uh, I wonder if we want the answer right away, or if we can do like the Dewey Decimal system and enjoy the part that is the research of the word. It's not just getting the answer, it's not just what is it, what, what is there for me in this? It's about it's about the research, it's about going deeper into the word. And and I've preached the psalms and I've I've prayed the psalms and I love the psalms, and and I find myself sometimes thinking, maybe, maybe for this one psalm, maybe, maybe I've been reading it wrong. Maybe I've been asking the wrong question. And and maybe the question that we should all be asking is completely different than than how we approach it. What is the answer? And and maybe it should be who am I looking for? And and and that's the question I think that we should all ask. And and let me tell you, there is um every single week I I tell you, there's there's this is my favorite Bible verse. And every single week it's like Selvin changes Bible verses every day. Uh and every single Bible verse is Selvin's favorite Bible verse. And and and to a degree, that is true. There is just there's just one, there's there's one chapter in the Bible that I always I appreciate, I love. I can't say it's my favorite, but I love it. However, when I read it, I find myself quickly turning the page. And and and for for years, that's sort of been my relationship with this Bible verse is that I know it exists, I've got it memorized, I love it, but I flip the page as soon as I start reading it. And that's Psalm chapter one. I don't know if that's you, but for me, Psalms starts at chapter two. I always start at chapter two, I kind of skip over chapter one, and I felt like God was saying to me today, um, and and and in this in this message, even before when we started praying, go back to that to that one thing that that you skip over. Go back to that one chapter that you're always skipping over. And I'm like, God, but I I know that chapter. I I actually like starting at two. But but he kept saying to me, go back to the first one. And so we cannot start a summer in the Psalms without starting at chapter one. And so chapter one reads like this in Psalm. Psalm one, chapter one. We're just gonna f read the first three verses. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. Yeah. Awesome. Amen. Uh, what's your first immediate instinct? I'll tell you what mine is. How do I become this dude? How can I be this guy? What do I need to do to be this guy? Um, why, why, why don't I look like him? Why do I keep falling short? This is not me. And and this is where I I'm thinking, hold on, God, is there another Bible verse that you can give me that'll make me feel good? Uh because this one doesn't make me feel good. I'm reminded there was in in 2004, I believe, um in one of the Olympics, one of the Olympic uh Winter Olympics. I believe it was the Winter Olympics, the one that has the the shooting. Um and and and one of the one of the uh skiers, he's skiing the I I don't know what it's called, skiing and shooting. We're just gonna call it skiing and shooting. The the Winter Olympic Games. Uh he's he's skiing and and he's killing uh he's beating everybody. He's got a gun. He's not killing it. Um he's he's beating everyone. He is far ahead in points and and in time. He's just doing awesome. And then all of a sudden he gets to the last to the last target, picks up his gun, aims, shoots, and and and as he hits it, he hits the bullseye like dead in the middle. Like he he was that good. He got it right in the middle, and he's just thinking, I'm going to cruise, it's a landslide victory. I'm gonna cruise into the final stage of this, and there's no way anybody is going to win. Any but nobody's gonna beat me. And so he's thinking, as soon as he hit the bullseye, that everything would lift up in praise and just applause for him. And there was none. Nobody applauded him, nobody said anything. In fact, there was there was a gasp in the air. They were like, What just happened? And he's looking around, like, what's going on? Like, uh, where's the praise? Where's the confetti? Where's where's all the where's all the accolades? And it turns out that he ended up being something like seventh place, he finished. He was in first for the whole time, and he ended up being in seventh. You know why? He hit the opponent's target. He got a bullseye on the wrong target. Like he hit the wrong target and he lost so many points. The guy in second place was just laughing, he just scrolled up, hit his own target, and came and became the gold medal winner. And so I think that's sometimes that's what happens with us. We're we're we're we're like, God, give me a Bible verse, give me something that'll make me feel good. And when I when I complete it and when I do it, I'm gonna, I'm just it's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. Heaven, the angels are gonna sing my name, and and you just feel good about yourself. And when I get to Psalm chapter one, I'm like, that's not me. Everything, look, I want it to be me because at the end it says, and whatever he does shall prosper. That's what I want. But but that's not me at the beginning. Blessed is the man who walks in the council, who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. I've been there. Uh, nor stands in the path of sinners, I've been there, nor sits in the seat of scornful, I've been there. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. Yes, that's me now, and in his law he meditates day and night. Do I really do that day and night? And so I find myself with all these questions, and for years I admired whoever this could be. For years I admired this man. And I didn't know who that was, but but if you if you grow up in the church, if if if you never went on a detour, I was like, you, you're you, that's the greatest testimony ever. Because you are a psalm one candidate. Because I'm not. And I know I know some of you in this place are not. And and and when I when I when I hear of second generation and third generation Christians and fourth generation Christians, I'm like, blessed are you, because you can be this Psalm 1 blessed man. And I'm just feeling like Romans 3.23 is where I should be landing. For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. You see, sometimes I feel like that Olympian. I'm shooting on the wrong target. And and I got it wrong. I I messed up. I this song just it's not me. And I think I think that if someone is describing me, then I'm in trouble. Uh that's not me. Um and and maybe you're identifying with many many Christians might live here. We we we try to strive to get there. Psalm 1, I I want to be the righteous man that that that that doesn't sit at the seat with the scornful and that that walks in righteousness. I want to strive to to do better, to work harder, to to read more, to pray more, to worship more, uh, uh to try to become the blessed man. I want my children to follow in these footsteps. See, my my children are now are now in the second generation of Christians. I am first generation in my family. My children become second generation, and I'm praying that they become this blessed man. Or maybe I'm just asking the wrong question. Maybe Psalm 1 isn't the problem. Maybe I've been asking the wrong question this whole time and and comparing myself. See, something doesn't fit. Something about this psalm does not fit into how I want to feel. And and something isn't fitting. And so if we even if we we go back and we we read it once again, you know, we're gonna be reading this psalm. We're not going out of this psalm today. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Let's let's slow it down. Because sometimes we just read that. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scornful, but his delight is in the Lord, and in his law he meditates in it, and we read it like we're watching a movie. Like, fast forward the scenes I don't like. And that's how I feel like sometimes I've read Psalm 1. I just fast forward right through it. And then God said, Slow down. Slow down, start at the beginning. Blessed is the man. Hold on a second. Whoa. Let's stop right there. Blessed is the man. Notice how it doesn't say amen. Notice how it doesn't say blessed are those. Notice how it doesn't say blessed is a woman. It's a definitive article. Blessed is the man. The man. Which man? The man. And and and something feels eerily familiar in this verse that I've always I've always sort of sort of rejected and and and and and glossed over. Watch this. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. For his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. Watch this. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. Did you see it? You probably missed it. And that's okay because I've been missing it for years. Psalm 1 is doing two things at the exact same time. Psalm 1 is looking back this way. We'll go back this way. Psalm 1 is looking back into Genesis 1. And at the same time, we're going to see it's looking forward into the Gospels. And so when we look at Psalm 1, check this out. In Genesis, Genesis starts with a man. And that man is planted, he is seated, he is in the garden, and we see trees, and there's rivers that are flowing out of the Garden of Eden. God gives him and them eventually a command. And that command is going to lead to life or death. That man messed it up for all of us. And then Psalm 1 comes in, and Psalm 1, we also see a blessed man, a man who will become like a tree planted along the rivers and the streams. And he delights in the word of God. And everything he does is fruitful and prospers. There is life in this one man. The Bible begins with a man, and the Psalms begin with the man. And that man does three actions. That man shows us right here in Psalm 1, it says, who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of the sinner, nor sits in the seat. Did you see the three verbs that are associated to this man? Walking, standing, and sitting. Walking, standing, and sitting. This is the blessed man. Now, when it when it goes back and and and has us look back into Genesis, what the account of Genesis is showing us is a man who walked up. He walked up to a tree. And then he stood at the tree. So the walking is casual exposure. You see, we can walk around and casually sin could come across your field of view. And Adam has the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil facing him every single day. I imagine that as he walks the garden, he can see the tree. There's a casual exposure to right and wrong. Just like we have a casual exposure to right and wrong. And can we be can we be a little bit raw for a second? You could be on your phone scrolling, and casually something comes up. And now you've got a choice. Do you continue scrolling or do you stand in it? Do you deliberately engage with what just came across? And when you deliberately engage with what just came across your screen, then you sit. And it becomes a settled lifestyle. You see, Adam saw the tree, stood at the tree, engaged with the tree, took from the tree, ate from the tree. And what was his immediate action after that? He went and hid. Now I don't know if you've ever played hide and go seek in your life, but usually hiding means crawling, sitting, going as low as possible. You don't stand up to hide. Down to hide. And that's what Psalm 1 is talking about. It's talking about a man who messed it up for everyone. And then it gives us the reply. It gives us that this man, Genesis begins with a man who failed. Adam lost the blessing. Yet this man, blessed is the man. Definitive article. This man is blessed. And so the question changes. Maybe we've been asking this whole time, what should I do to become the blessed man? I think the answer is, who am I looking at? Who should I be looking for? Rather than what should I be looking to do? What should I be doing in order to become this blessed man? Versus who should I be looking for? And that's when that's when this one sentence just broke out into my spirit. And it's in Luke chapter 24, verse 44. Check this out. Jesus is speaking, and he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which are written. Watch this in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms concerning me. The law of Moses, the prophets are a collection of books. The law of Moses is called the Pentateuch. It's the five first books of the gospel, the Torah. The prophets are Isaiah, all the major prophets. Samuel, Isaiah, um, Ezekiel, and all the minor prophets. And yet Jesus is very, very specific. He calls it the law of Moses and the prophets and one specific book. The Psalms. And the Psalms. And that's what Jesus is telling his disciples right here. He's saying, the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms speak of me. So when we look at, when we look at what what the Psalms is all about, Psalm chapter 1, verse 1, that blessed man has a name. And that blessed name is Jesus. And so when we look at this, Jesus, now let's read it again in Psalm 1. I'm telling you, you're gonna have Psalm 1 memorized after this. And I want to tell you that Psalm 1 has now become one of my favorite verses. Absolutely, because now I see it under the lens that Jesus wants me to see it. You see, when we read, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Jesus never walked in the counsel of the ungodly. Jesus never stood in the path of sinners. On the contrary, he became a sinner. He walked with them. He wasn't of them because there was no sin in him, but he was with them and he touched them. One of the things that I find incredible of the of the miracles of Jesus, specifically the miracle of healing the lepers. The miracle of healing the lepers works like this. Um in the Old Testament, and Eddie, I'm sorry, but this is gonna be you today. Um in the old testament, um, Eddie, we're gonna pretend that Eddie has leprosy. I'm sorry, Eddie. Um we're gonna pretend that Eddie has leprosy. And in the Old Testament, go ahead and touch me. I felt it. I felt it. Uh in the Old Testament, if Eddie touches me, leprosy was so contagious that I would be contaminated. You see, the the the sick, the contaminated would contaminate the pure, the unsick. So so the disease would contaminate the the uncleans would would unclean the clean. Yes? Jesus does the opposite. No. So now so now Jesus comes and Jesus touches, you're not allowed to. You're not allowed to touch a leper, but Jesus comes and touches the leper. Now watch this. The unclean becomes clean because of the clean. And so that's the wonder. Thank you, Eddie. That's the wonder of the miracles of Jesus, where he can touch the unclean, and the unclean become clean because of him. Sin does not affect him. And so when we see in John chapter 8, verse 29, watch this, in relationship with Psalm 1, it says about Jesus, and he who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him. Psalm 1 is about Jesus. Hebrews 4, 15, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Did not sit in the seat of the scornful. John chapter 17, verse 4. I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. All things he does shall prosper. Everything changes when we look at Psalms and how Psalms looks backwards into the man that was a mess and that messed it up for everyone who introduced, who walked humanity into sin. And when we look forwards, Psalm 1 looks forwards to the man who is blessed. The man who who everything does uh prospers, everything in Jesus' hands prospers. That's the man, that's Jesus. That's the man that it speaks about. And I've been trying to become the person of Psalm 1 all of these years when the Christian life actually begins with a revelation. And the revelation is seeing who Jesus is. And so often, guys, we live in this sort of McDonald's Burger King your way every day. Have it your way. Um and we approach the Bible that way. And I I I've mentioned this before maybe ten times already. The greatest Bible that that I've ever read was a children's Bible. And and that children's Bible just changed my life completely. Now I've been a believer all my life, since I was six years old. And and I've re I've heard messages on Psalm 1, and every time it's always been a message of what I need to do to be that man. How I need to change my life and my habits and everything that I do to become this blessed man. And then once, right here in this church, I bought a little Bible for kids for my children when they were little. And it's called a Jesus Storybook Bible. And in that book, this it's uh it it was the only English book. Uh before outside, we used to have a uh a bookstore, and and in that bookstore it was the only English book in the bookstore, and so I bought it for my kids. It came with two DVD two CDs at the time, and and what got me about this book was the subtitle. It's called the Jesus Storybook Bible. Subtitle? Every story whispers his name. And I can tell you, as soon as I picked up that book, my knees shook. And and and I was having a hard time staying up. Because that led me to now start looking at the Bible completely different. The Bible wasn't written to me for me. It's not about me. And and that might not be the message you wanted to hear today. It's not about you. But the message of the Bible, the message of the gospel is not about us, it's about him. And and when we look at the the psalms specifically and how we're gonna go through the psalms today and and and through this series is is going to be with the lens of Jesus first. It's gonna be with the lens of seeing what he says, where he is, finding him in it. Because I believe that if you find Jesus, your life will be transformed. When you find Jesus, you don't need help, self-help books. When you find Jesus, he will work in you that which he wants for you. When you find Jesus in all things, you will become someone blessed man. The greatest blessing was never becoming this man. The greatest blessing was belonging to this man. And everything changes when we belong to Jesus. You see, the blessed man, he became a curse. The blessed man. The man that was sinless. Guys, nobody can fulfill Psalm 1. It's impossible. You can love God, but meditate on his word day and night, 24 hours a day. There's only one person that's done that. To watch Psalm 1 and not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, just one guy. To not stand in the path of sinners, just one guy. Not sit in the seat of the scornful, just one person. Delights in the law of the Lord, just one person. Meditates on it day and night, just one person. He shall be like a tree, that's Jesus. Planted by the rivers, that's Jesus. He brings forth his fruit in the season. That's Jesus. Whose leaf shall not wither. That's our eternal Jesus. And whatever he does prospers, that's Jesus. And belonging to him brings this to us. So watch, watch, watch, watch. Um The Apostle Paul. His favorite saying. Does anybody know what the Apostle Paul's favorite saying is? He wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. I know that you've read them all. What is his favorite saying? In him. I want you to read it. It's it's everywhere. Even like, even in just Ephesians, it's like there 40 times in the first chapter. Like it's it's there it's everywhere. In him, in Christ, in him, in the Lord. And when we read these, we find that now we belong to him. So watch this. Remember, remember what the what the the three verbs, what were the three verbs that that that held Adam back, and that the blessed man now does. What are the three verbs? To walk, to stand, and to sit. Yeah? To walk, to stand, and to sit. And we know that this is Jesus, but now watch this. This is where the application becomes for all of us. It is blessed is the man, blessed is the man, Jesus. And now we find ourselves hidden in Christ. And so if he's blessed, then so are we to what? To do what? To stand, to walk, to stand, and to sit. Colossians 2 6. Colossians 2 6 says this: as you were therefore received, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Walk in Him. That's one third of the Blessed Man. And that applies to all of us. We are now hidden. We can now walk in the Blessed Man. Can we stand in the Blessed Man? Ephesians 6, chapter 6, verse 10 and 11. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. That you may be able to what? Stand. Stand. Stand. And I want to invite you to stand right now. Because there's something special that's gonna happen in a moment. You see, the blessed man, the the the one who walks, stands, and finally sits, we now know is Jesus. And we know that we are hidden in him, we are found in him. When the father looks at you, he looks at you through the lens of his son. And so watch this. When you learn to be in him, to walk in him, to stand in him, look at what's missing. Sitting, watch this. Revelation 3, chapter 20, chapter 3, verse 21. To him who overcomes. Look, this is at the end of the Bible. Psalm 1 looks backwards to Adam and forwards all the way to the book of Revelation. It says, To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne. And I will also sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. You see, why does the enemy want you to think that you are not the Psalm 1 blessed person? Do you know why? Do you know why he wants you to strive to become that, knowing that you'll you could never do it? The reason he wants you to do that is because there's something that the enemy has desired throughout his entire existence that he could never get. And in fact, because he desired it, he was cast out of heaven. He desired, the enemy desired to sit on the throne of God. He said, I will make my seat among the heavens, I will sit on the throne of Almighty God, and in him was found pride, and he was cast out of heaven because he wanted to do something that was not allowed for him to do. And when he reads Revelation chapter three, verse 21, where Jesus says, I will grant you us to sit with him on his throne, he goes crazy. How can they sit on your throne and I couldn't? Why can they sit? They are sinners, they're not someone blessed man, they're sinners, they're caught up in their sin, and Jesus says, Yeah, but I died for them and they're no longer sinners. That's not you. You're not identified by what you did, you're identified by the sacrifice that the blessed man did on your behalf. You are found in him. You are found in him. And one day, and that day I pray comes quicker, faster than we could imagine. One day we will sit on that throne with him, not because we are worthy of it, but because we are found in him, and he is worthy. He is worthy. And so when you feel attacked, when you feel a season in your life that you don't understand, go to Psalm 1 and know that you are you are planted along the rivers. Know that everything you do shall prosper when you are found in him, when you see Psalm 1 through the lens of Jesus, Psalm 1 becomes alive in you. And he is the Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come. Ready for this? Seated on his throne, and the angels sing, holy, holy, holy, Lamb of God, that is the Jesus that we serve. He is the risen Savior, He is the one that makes me walk with Him, stand with Him, Sit with Him. And so when we when we go back and when we view what what standing is, what walking is is being exposed. Standing is deliberate engagement, sitting is a settled lifestyle. We saw that as a negative thing through Adam, and now we're seeing it as a positive through Jesus. We are walking in his presence casually every day. What does that mean? That means I'm not striving. That means I'm not working. I'm not doing more to get more from God. I am resting in his presence. I am walking with him. I am strolling with him. And then when his presence comes into our lives, we can stand in his presence. Be still and know that I am God. And we can sit. Remember, standing is a deliberate engagement. And that's what we're doing right now. We are deliberately engaging with the Father, with the Spirit, and with His Word, with the Son, so that we can be have sit down spiritually, so that we can be settled in this lifestyle. This lifestyle that he is calling you to. A blessed lifestyle. Where life happens, yes, but he is good. Life happens, but he is good. And he is seated on the throne above.