[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:25] Speaker B: Okay. Good morning, everybody. Again. It's great to see all of you this past week. As Amber said, we just concluded wow Week, and that is our vacation Bible school on steroids.
And each night we had over 500 kids and volunteers. And again, if you were a part of that event, I just want to thank you. Many of you are recovering at home this morning, sitting on a couch with one eye open, looking a little dreary and bleary. But I'm glad you're watching online. But I hope you were blessed from being a part of that.
And I would tell you the highlight and the most wonderful thing I could share with you is before the week ended, 33 of those precious kids gave their hearts to Christ. So isn't that a wonderful thing?
Such a great thing.
And then the kids, they raised about $800 for our orphanage in Uganda that they support. 800 bucks. Wonderful.
Something tells me they raised that money right out of your wallet, mom and dad, but I'm so glad those kids went after it. And then they gave over 2000 meals to our CRC that we feed people every week. So let's give the kids a big hand for their heart to do that.
And I do so much appreciate the ministry of our crc. We feed so many people. We have many of our staff in this room this morning. Many of you volunteer each and every week. Thousands of people. That's not an exaggeration to say thousands of people are being helped every week through the resources provided through the crc. And thank you. It's our largest home mission that we support as a church. And somebody says, well, what are the values of the Met Church? Well, when you roll in here and you see that building that represents about a $4 million building that says the value of our church is primarily to help hurting people, helping people when they're broken. We don't turn anyone away.
We connect them into services as they need. Food is kind of the entryway, but it's much more than food, the things that we provide through the crc. So can I just say thank you so much for your generous support of our church as every dollar you give a percentage of that goes to the crc. Some of you through your businesses and some of you even through foundations we have represented in our church, you give directly to the crc. And again, thank you for all that you're doing. It is making a difference in someone's life. This morning I want to talk to you as we're continuing in this series in the Book of Psalm. It's the song book of the Bible. And I want to start with probably one of my favorite psalms. And it's the very first psalm. And this song speaks to the secrets and the principles of being effective, of being successful. It speaks to the secrets of that. I'm absolutely convinced that God doesn't play favorites. I know that when it comes to knowing Jesus, he's willing to bless anyone. He's willing. In fact, the Bible says in 2nd Peter 3. 9, God is not willing. What is the will of God? Here it is. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to salvation. It is the will of God for every single solitary person to know Jesus. God didn't look down from heaven and say any mini miny mo you go to heaven, to hell you go.
The Bible says in John 3:16, for God so loved the world, it is the will of God for every solitary person on the planet to know Jesus as Savior. And once they know him as Savior, it is God's will to bless his kids. He wants to bless his children. Now, he'll bless you in different proportions based upon your ability and what his will is for you. But it is absolutely the will of God that he bless you, that you have a blessed life, that you have an abundant life, that you know fulfillment and satisfaction in life. And I love this psalm. This song speaks of the principles that can help make that happen.
And as we're going to see this morning, a lot of the impact and a lot of the difference that a life makes is tied directly to the choices that we make. You remember hearing this old statement, maybe you've heard this growing up. If it is to be, it's up to me.
Meaning that I am large and in charge of the decisions that I make. Now. So much in life is out of our control. I recognize that. But I am in control to how I respond to the things that happen to me. I am in control of how I act each and every day. And so I would tell you this morning, you control the things of your life that you can control. The things that are out of your control. You turn that over to the Lord. And you pray about it, but you don't worry about it. And I'm just suggesting you that a lot of the effectiveness of our life, and as we'll see in Psalm 1, a lot of the success in life is tied to the choices that. That we make.
My brother was telling me about these two guys out in their pasture one day, and they noticed a sinkhole. A sinkhole. And they looked in that sinkhole, and they looked down and said, wow, I didn't even notice that. I wonder when that developed. And one of them said, I wonder how deep it is.
So a friend went over and he found an anvil, and he lifted this anvil up and he brought it over, and he threw that anvil down in the sinkhole to see how deep it was.
In a little while, out of nowhere, here comes this goat.
And this goat runs, and it jumps down into that sinkhole. And they looked at each other and said, did you see that? And he goes, yeah, a goat jumped in the sinkhole. And then in a minute, he said, here comes the neighbor walking over saying, have you guys seen my goat?
They said, well, the goat just ran by us and jumped in the sinkhole. He said, you're kidding me. I said, no, we just saw it with our own eyes. He said, well, that doesn't make sense. And they said, why? He said, I had that goat tied to that anvil.
So much of life is tied to the choices that we make. The good choices and the bad choices. All of those choices imprint, and all of those choices make a difference. Are you aware that Harvard University, actually, Harvard University has a center for the health decision sciences, meaning that Harvard is studying how people make choices and how those choices impact. Impact their lives.
Because even at Harvard, they're recognizing that we are not the sum total of our circumstance. We're not, you know, victims of our circumstance. We're the sum total of our choices.
And if we're victims of anything, we're victims of our own choices. So it's important that we make the right choices. Now, as I'm laying groundwork for what I want to talk to you about this morning, I would also remind you that there are two life principles that. That are important to consider.
The first life principle that's rooted in biblical principle is, number one, I cannot blame other people for the direction of my life.
Part of taking responsibility, part of owning my own decisions is realizing I can't blame anyone for the direction of my life. Someone said, my mom didn't let me have sweets at night when I was Growing up. So now that's why I'm a serial killer.
Well, you can't blame other people for the choices you make in your life. Listen to this. People can hurt you, people can scar you, but no one can ruin your life without your permission.
You've got to cooperate with them in the process.
God won't for one thing, and the devil can't for another thing.
So the choices we make are significant. I can't blame people for the direction of my life. Here's the second principle, and that is this. I cannot live off of other people's commitments.
I can't live off of other people's commitments. It will not work for you physically. It will not work for you emotionally. It will not work for you spiritually.
What do I mean by that? I mean physically, I have to eat for myself.
I can go have lunch with you, but if I don't eat, it's not going to benefit me at all. So I have to be responsible for what I eat, and that impacts me. Wouldn't it be great, as I've told you before, if we could pay someone to work out for us?
That would be amazing. Now, I would love that. Just, hey, run an extra mile today. I'm just feeling like, you know, I need that. Give me an extra mile. And while they're running, you're eating a little bluebell, going, oh, man, go for it, buddy.
Well, they could do that, and maybe they love you enough, and in your honor, they would run that extra mile. But it's not gonna benefit you. Doesn't work physically, it doesn't work emotionally.
If I don't surround myself with the right things and the right influences and I'm not emotionally healthy, then someone else's emotional health is not gonna affect mine. So I have to be emotional. And it's true spiritually.
No one can read my Bible for me.
No one can. They can pray for me, but they can't do my praying for me.
So I'm just saying, guys, we have to come to that conclusion. That I realize I can't blame anyone for the direction of my life. And I cannot live off of other people's commitments. I have to decide what God would have me to do and pursue it with all my heart.
Now, let's look at Psalm 1, and you're gonna see these principles as they play out this morning. Psalm 1, verse 1. Blessed, happy, fulfilled, satisfied. All that is indicated in that word is that man is that woman who chooses not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, who chooses not to stand in the path of sinners. Who chooses not to sit in the seat of the scornful?
But on the other hand, take delight in the law of the Lord. Take delight in his law, meditating on it day and night. And if you do that, here's the promise. You'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, brings forth its fruit in its season. The leaf will not wither. And I love this last line. And whatsoever this person will do, whatever they do will prosper. This is a promise of God's word. And the promise of his word is tied to to these principles. Here's principle number one. It is essential that you consider the company that you keep.
It is essential that you consider the company that you keep. The Bible here says, don't walk in the counsel of those who don't know God. Don't sit in the seat of scornful people. You know, you don't hang with people who do not have a connection with God, because your association will bring about assimilation.
You and I will inevitably become like the people we surround ourselves with.
Who has your ear?
Into whose life is someone?
Or into your life that person may be pouring their advice and counsel. Who are you allowing? Access, I guess is my point, to your heart and to your mind.
He's saying that the first principle right up front. If you're going to be prosperous and successful in life, you need to stop long enough to give a great thought to the people that are closest to you, who are pouring into you.
Who are you allowing to have influence in the way you think and the way that you live. He's saying, this is so important. Listen to this principle of Proverbs 13, verse 20. If you walk with wise people, you will be wise.
But keep reading. A friend of fools will become like them.
You're either wise or otherwise.
And the people you surround yourself with will have a huge amount of influence on you. Remember that old line when you were growing up? You hear this line, I used to hear this. You can't soar with the eagles if you hang out with turkeys.
I mean, the principle is the same. Who are you associating with now? Let me tell you. Consider the people that are in your circle.
And by the way, you'll make far more acquaintances than you make friends.
But think about the people you're in life with and you're communicating with, and they're in your circle. And I would challenge you to begin to try to understand where they are in relationship with who you are. For example, you are gonna have Friends that are redemptive. Redemptive, meaning that my relationship to them or your relationship to them is so that you might have an opportunity at some point to lead them to Christ.
So your motivation for having a relationship with this person is I wanna come alongside them and be their encourager.
I want to come alongside of them and pray for them. I want to come alongside of them.
At some point, I'm praying that I have an opportunity to share my faith with them. And so the nature of that relationship is redemptive.
And I have those in my life. You're going to have those in your life. And all I'm saying is consider your circle and begin to put them into one of two or three of these boxes. You have redemptive friendships. Now, the reason that's important that you don't always receive counsel from a friend that's a redemptive friend is, is because they're a person that doesn't yet know Jesus.
So why they may have wisdom in certain areas. You can't consider the wisdom they get as being founded in wisdom from God because they don't know God.
So take a little bit of their counsel with a grain of salt because they may be coming maybe from some life experience, and maybe you can benefit from that. But before I make a major decision, I would weigh where I'm receiving this counsel. And that's the caution he gives us there in Psalm 1, verse 1.
So they're redemptive friends. Okay, here's another type friend. You have redemptive relationships, and then you're going to have replenishing relationships.
Now, boy, those are great.
You're replenishing relationships or the friendships you have in life where they're pouring into you as you're pouring into them. They're reciprocal relationships where, yeah, you're encouraging them. But in encouraging them, they encourage you.
In giving to them, they give right back to you. It's reciprocal. And you're gonna have friendships in your life that you enjoy being in their presence. You have fun around them. And one of the ways that you can determine is this friend, a redemptive friend or a replenishing friend is how you feel when you are about to go meet them for lunch or meet them for dinner.
If there's a little twinge of dread like, oh, man, it's gonna be a little bit exhausting. Cause I'm gonna be pouring into them, and they aren't gonna be really pouring back into me, then that's gonna be more redemptive. But if it's one that you're looking forward to going to dinner. Cause it's always fun. You always enjoy it. In fact, when you're with them, you don't even look at the clock.
I mean, all of a sudden, man, you don't even realize how long you've been with this person. Because you're enjoying their presence so much. They're replenishing you, and you're replenishing them. The time just flies now. You're gonna find in life that circle is pretty small. But that circle is so important.
I mean, Jesus hung out with the 12.
Well, first of all, let me back up. He ministered to thousands.
He did business, let's say, with thousands of people. But he was close to 12. But he was only close to 2.
I mean, went up on the mount of transfiguration. He told 10 to stay back, and only two went up. So the point is, your circle will get smaller as your confidence in the people closest to you, you begin to identify who they are. Because those people become your safe people. They're replenishing.
And you need some safe people in your life because that association with your safe people is going to affect how you make decisions and how you view life. And you need some safe people who will allow you the privilege and the liberty to have a bad day.
And you might say something that isn't real sanctified.
And you might react to something that you wouldn't want everyone to know. You're not gonna post it up in bold letters on social media.
And they're gonna know really what you said, and they're gonna know really what you think. And they're safe because they're not gonna, you know, they're not gonna expose you for that. You needed to vent that. And they may call you out on it and check your thinking, but that's okay. There's your safe people. I'm just saying, when it comes to who I associate with, he's saying, be careful walking, not in the council, sitting with the ungodly, standing in the way of people that don't know me. And I'm saying, conversely, we have to identify who we're hanging with to say, is this a redemptive relationship or a replenishing one? Here's a third one, a draining relationship.
And those become toxic.
And you don't know till you're in the relationship. But all of a sudden you're in a relationship maybe you thought was redemptive and then you misidentified it. And all of a sudden you're thinking, well, this is kind of this is replenishing. I'm enjoying. And then before you know it, man, it's just draining.
You realize that every time you're with them, it's all. Everything is. All the encouragement is going one way, and that's in their direction.
It never comes back to you.
You're always fixing their problems.
And they'll sit there across the table and say, enough about me. Now you talk about me.
And it's kind of a narcissistic type person. And all of a sudden you realize, I think my friend is a narcissist.
Well, move them to a different category.
Don't look at them now as your replenishing person.
You might consider them more in that redemptive category, or you might put them back over here in the draining category.
But the Bible gives us some instruction on how to deal with toxic relationships. It's in Genesis 13, and I shared this about a year ago.
In Genesis 13, you have the story of Abraham and Lot, and all of a sudden they're merging their companies together. Let's say they're merging their herdsmen and all of their flocks together. And boy, before you know it, because each had different values and each had different vision, all of a sudden, there's a conflict.
And now Abraham is trying to rectify the conflict. And in this case, the toxic person was in his own family. It was Lot, his nephew.
And there's four things he did that are significant. And I would suggest, because these are biblical principles in Genesis 13, you ought to apply them in your life. If you've got toxic people you have to deal with, first thing he did is he had a conversation with Lot.
You. You need a conversation with them.
Now, I know no one looks forward to those kind of conversations.
Some of you may have one this week with somebody you work with or somebody that works for you, and you're dreading the conversation. Nobody really loves that type of thing.
You don't go, oh, great, I've got a conflict this week. Thank you, Jesus. You know, because we dread that everybody wants to get along, do your job and do well, and you want things to go smoothly. But I'm just saying it's inevitable, inescapable. If you deal with human beings, there's gonna be conflict, and you're gonna have some toxic people that'll filter into your circle. And in Genesis 13, Abraham had a conversation with Lot, and I would give you a little bit of advice on that. It's free. Like the rest of this. I would tell you to have the hard conversation early to get it out of your way, do it the first thing in the morning.
Because if you don't, you're gonna dread it all day long. It's gonna ruin your joy for the day. It's gonna affect your effectiveness. So get the thing you dread most out of the way first.
You're thinking about who you're eating breakfast with tomorrow already right now, right? Who am I having coffee with? And if somebody invited you to coffee, you're saying, what was their motivation? Do they hear this? And they're thinking, this is what I'm getting myself into something. I'm just suggesting an idea that when you have the conversation, get it out of the way.
Now, what if that doesn't do any good? What if you don't have a conversation that goes nowhere? Because in the conversation, the motivation for the conversation is, is to make sure they're aware of how their actions or their words are affecting you. You're giving them the benefit of the doubt.
You're saying, going in, maybe they don't know that attitude, how it's affecting me and affecting the chemistry of our workplace.
One of the things we talk about on our staff is there's several things that are necessary to be effective in ministry and be on a ministry team. One is competence. You gotta be able to do the job.
The other is character. You have to have the character to do the job. You have to be a person of integrity.
Another one is chemistry. You gotta get along. I mean, you gotta play nice. I've had people who were very competent and who had enormous character, but people saturated their presence with their absence.
They just didn't get along. And I've had people. We just couldn't work with them because chemistry got affected.
People lost respect for them. And then I'm just saying chemistry is important. But don't assume the person you're having a problem with knows that sometimes you have to have the conversation and say, hey, look, here's what you're doing. And this is, I know you don't mean it. They may, but you're giving them benefit of the doubt. You're saying, this is how it affects me. And I just needed you to know, okay, what if that doesn't work? But it didn't work in Genesis 13. But he started there. So here's the second word I'd give you after the conversation. Go. Go to limitation.
Limitation, meaning that you set boundaries, you deal with them in dosages, and you determine the dosage where you say, okay, I'm gonna have to deal with this person.
This person is in my world. But I'm gonna limit the time that I'm with this person.
It's gonna be intentional and purposeful and that'll be the extent of our exchange. And I'm gonna set limitations. I've had the conversation. I didn't get anywhere with it. Now I'm setting boundaries. Limitation. Here's the third one. If that doesn't go anywhere. Separation.
Separation. That's where the herdsmen of Lot separated from the herdsmen of Abraham. That's where you suspend interaction for a period of time. And during that period of time you try to make a determination. Is solving this relationship worth it?
Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not.
You have the story of Paul and John Mark. And on one of those missionary journeys, John Mark, right in the middle of the journey, he quit on Paul.
Have you ever been working with somebody on a project or they've been on some work assignment with you? In the middle of it, they just walked away. I'm not doing this. And left you with everything.
If you've ever been in a work group at school, you know what that's like.
They just mail it in and inspect you to do all the work.
Well, Paul, John Mark just. I mean, he bailed on Paul. And you know what? For a period of time those boys didn't talk.
And here's where it ended up. It ended up with Paul saying, I've forgiven John Mark for how he treated me, but I'm not going to work with him again.
Did you know there'll be people in your life, you can love them and forgive them, but decide you're not gonna work with them anymore and that's okay.
Cause you've gone the route of separation, you said. Look, I've tried conversation, I tried limitation. Now I'm gonna go to separation. This person is toxic. And so I'm gonna have to separate from them. But because it's not working now, if that doesn't work, I'm gonna give you the fourth word. Brace yourself.
Elimination.
I don't mean kill em, I mean just move them out of your life.
Terminate the relationship. Release em to the Holy Spirit. Just say, God, I can't work with, I cannot deal with this person. Not only can I not work with them, I can't even deal with them. Every time we're together, it just goes south every time. And so give yourself permission because when you determine helping someone is hurting you, you're not doing anything for them.
And if you're one of these people that are just hard for you to Take that next step, even to protect yourself. I would tell you, just turn them over to the Holy Spirit and just say, I'm gonna pray for em. I'm gonna pray for em. Don't presume you can do more in their life by being a friend to them than the Holy Spirit can do in their lives by being their Father and being their counselor. If they're not listening to him, they aren't going to listen to you.
So you just eliminate the relationship.
Here's another biblical principle. I'll share right on the end of that and that is this.
We are to love everyone as Christ followers. But access to you and access to me is not a given, it's not a right.
You can love everybody, you can care for everybody. You can try to be there as much as you can for everybody. But access to you is earned.
People have to earn that access.
You don't have to share everything with everyone just because they've asked you questions. It may not be any of their business.
You can love them, but they've got to earn the right to have that level of access into your life. People try to jump levels.
So what am I driving at? I'm just saying when it comes to relationships, you gotta define the relationship. You gotta realize some of the people you've allowed in your life, you put em into the wrong box and you're looking to them for the wrong thing and it's going to affect you.
That's why this whole psalm begins before it ends with being a tree. That's wonderful and all these great things. He opens by saying who you hanging out with.
Don't run with these people, don't sit with them, don't listen to them, separate from them. And so it's just great advice as you think about the company you keep and the people you've surrounded yourself with. All right, here's the second thing. Knowing the company you keep. Look at verse two, and this is significant. Secondly, he talks about the communion you seek, the communion you seek.
He talks about meditating on God's Word. He talks about spending time in God's Word. He talks about desiring God's Word.
He talks about the significance of having God's Word in your life.
That idea of meditation is the idea of assimilating His Word.
I would tell you if you read the Bible, and I hope you do a good discipline, maybe if you haven't been following it, you can join us by reading through the Bible. You can go online and learn how you can be a part of that Bible reading group. We have hundreds and hundreds of people doing that.
But a practical way you might move into it is I always read a proverb with the corresponding day.
This is June 28th. I read Proverbs 28 this morning. And then I read a corresponding Psalm with that proverb based on the day. Read Psalm 28.
And I'm saying, when you read the Bible and you're meditating, you're thinking about what you've just read and something hits you, something's very profound about what you've just read. Maybe it's a principle or a verse, and all of a sudden it hits you. And let me challenge you to pause for a moment and do three things. Mark it down.
If you take notes in your Bible, maybe underline that phrase or write it down somewhere. Mark it down. If you don't, you'll forget it.
Mark it down. The second thing to do is pray it in.
Just say God. For some reason you stopped me on this verse, so I don't know what you're trying to tell me, but I don't wanna miss this.
So Lord, help me be sensitive to this word that you've just impressed me with. So I've marked it down, I prayed it in. Here's the third thing. Live it out.
Live it out.
Find a way during the course of your day to make the principle of what you read that morning a practical in your daily life. You say, wow, that hit me. I'm apply that to this person.
I'm going to pray for them, or I'm going to encourage them, or I'm going to. Whatever.
In other words, you meditate on God's word. You read it sensitive to the fact that God always speaks to his kids through His Word. That's why we call this the Word of God.
It is the mechanism, it is the method through which we, as his kids hear from Him.
The problem today is that God is not. It's not that God is not speaking, because he is. The problem is a lot of his kids aren't listening.
So in order to hear Him, I need to be close to Him. In order to hear Him, I need to spend time with him and I need to get into His Word.
That's why Paul said in Philippians, he said that I may know him and the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his resurrection.
What he didn't say is that I may know more about Him. Now that's important.
And this morning, as I'm doing the message, I hope you're learning more about Him.
And when you listen to A podcast, or you listen to some teacher or you read a book, you're learning about the subject. But Paul said, my desire is to know. Not to know more about God, but to know God is to know who this person is.
When I started dating Cindy, I tried to find out a lot about her.
Cause I was interested in her.
So I wanted to learn a lot about her. What she liked, what kind of food does she like?
I tried.
One of her younger brothers and I were pretty close friends and still are. And so I learned a lot about her.
But after we went out, I wanted to know her.
And there's a difference in knowing about someone and knowing that person.
When you know that person and you're in a relationship with them, it becomes more intimate.
For example, some of you have been married for a while, you're in a relationship with that person.
And somebody could come up to you and say, your spouse said this and maybe it's something negative or bad. And you'd say, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. What did you say they said? And they say, here's what they said. You say, well, wait a minute, tell me exactly the words that you said that they said. And they could tell you the words. And then you would ask, maybe the follow up, how did they say those words?
What was their emotion? And you would know immediately because of your relationship, if they first of all would have said what that person said they said. And then secondly, you would know if they said it the way that person said they said it, because you're in a relationship with them.
And you say, now, she might have said this or he might have said that, but he wouldn't have said what you just said. And if he had said what you just said, he wouldn't have said that the way you said he just said that because I know him.
So what's my point? My point is, man, when you're in relationship with God and you study His Word, you learn a lot about Him. But when you are meditating on that Word and you're spending time in your communion, you're communing with God, you're learning who he is.
You're. Your understanding is heart.
Your understanding that when God says thou shalt not, he doesn't say that in order to deprive you of something great. He says thou shalt not. Because he knows if you do the thing he said you shouldn't do, it's going to be worse for you.
He loves you like you love your kids.
And when you tell your kids, no, you're not telling them no. To deprive them of something that would be good for them. You're telling them no because, you know if they do the thing they want to do, it's not going to be good for them.
So the relationship is something that you form with your children, and there's trust involved in that. And that's all he's driving at when he says, spend time with him. Meditate on his word. Get to know not just about him, but get to know him.
And that's so essential, folks, if we're going to be effective and successful, if we're going to truly discern God's plan for my life. I gotta be close enough when he speaks that I hear him.
So it's the company I keep, it is the communion I seek. Here's a third thought. It's the character you reap, it is who you become.
He says, verse three, you're gonna be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. I thought about that statement, a tree planted. Here's some words that jumped out at me. Vitality.
This tree is alive.
It's living.
I mean, living is what you and I are alive to do and empowered with the Holy Spirit. We wake up in the morning and we don't wake up saying, good Lord, it's morning. We wake up and say, good morning, Lord.
He changes our outlook. We know God has given us purpose for the day. And man, when you're in verse three, because you've taken the steps of verses one and two, it brings about vitality. Not only that, brings about stability.
A tree planted, rooted by the rivers of water, stable.
You're not getting blown and tossed about with every circumstance in your life. You're not in one day and out the next. And on one day and off the next, you have stability in your life.
The third thing being like a tree it promises is fertility. He said, you are bringing and producing spiritual fruit.
You know when God created everything in Genesis, and I do believe in the Genesis account of creation, I believe one day God stepped from nowhere to stand on nothing. And he spoke everything into existence. And it stays there today because he tells it to.
I believe that when God created all things, the Bible says in Genesis, the seed was in itself.
Think about apples. God created apples with the seed in it, so that if they had no seed in it, every time we ran out of apples, God would have to come back down to earth and say, let there be apples.
So he puts the seed in the apple. So the apple produces and the apple reproduces.
That's why Jesus cursed the fig tree so that it would die because he saw it was a fig tree not producing it wasn't doing the thing that he designed it to do. And he said, well, you're just encumbering. You're taking up space.
So I'm suggesting that one of the things that happens when we're following him and we surround ourselves with great people is that we are vital and stable and fertile. And then the fourth thing is consistent. He said, the leaf doesn't wither.
That means consistency in our life.
That means whether it's raining or sunshine and whether the valley is there or the mountaintop is there. Whatever. Our circumstances were the same. We don't change.
We're consistent. And then the fifth thing it speaks of when you think about a tree planted, is prosperity.
Whatsoever this person does, prospers.
And so these are things, ladies and gentlemen, we should aspire to. These are things that we should desire. And he said, it all goes back to the company you keep, and it all goes back to the communion that you seek. And if you follow that, it will result in the character that you'll reap.
God said, you'll be prosperous. You'll be like the tree planted by the rivers of water. Now, let me give you this. As I close, the more you prosper and the more God blesses you in your life, you're gonna find that some of those people in the redemptive camp or in the draining camp are gonna be critical of you.
Sometimes people come into your world and they see you where you are.
They don't see what you went through to get to where you are.
Some of you, you live in a nice home and some of you have built a wonderful business, and some of you have a good career.
And have you ever had that moment when maybe you bought a new car and someone said, well, must be nice.
And all of a sudden you're feeling bad because you bought a new car or you have a house and you moved into a new home and you're so excited, you bring them to show them to them and go, yeah, I'm glad somebody gets a new house just like you bought the last one and there's no other cars out there.
It's like blessing you took something away from them. I'm just saying that you're going to have people like that in your life.
Here's a good reaction to them.
You could say to them, look, when you've done. When you can do what I've done, you can have what I have.
Because the thing of it is, if you're in a stage of life and you're blessed with a car, with a house, with a business, there was a price paid.
You went through something to be where you are.
I promise you, everybody in this room, if you built a business or if you built a family, or if you built any kind of a life, you paid a price to be where you are.
So don't let anyone, don't let anyone talk you down after God's blessed you.
Don't you let them despise the favor of God on their life. Understand this person is redemptive. They just don't understand. Or this person is draining. They'll never understand and realize that God is blessing you in this season because you paid a price to be there.
You say, share that principle with me, Bill. I'm glad you asked. It's free like the rest.
In Mark, chapter 10, in verses 37 and 38, Mark 10, 37, 38, the sons of thunder came to Jesus. Their mother brought the boys to Jesus and said, would you let one of my sons sit on your left hand? And my other boy sat on your right hand when you come into your kingdom. Now, isn't that like a mama of the tens of millions of people on the earth, Mama wanted their boys to sit left and right of Jesus. And you know what Jesus said?
He doesn't criticize her.
He doesn't say that's. He doesn't even say that's not possible when you read it. He says, well, they can sit there if they're willing to pay the price that, that it's going to be necessary for them to pay to have that kind of access to me.
If they're willing to go through the fire, if they're willing to pay the price, they can be here at my left hand. Have you noticed when you go to a concert or you go to a play or you go to some sort of a show, have you noticed the best seats are the most expensive seats?
And I'm not talking about secondary market stuff, that's a whole nother issue.
But I mean, because you understand, to have access, those are expensive. They're more expensive seats. To have ringside, to have stage side, be in the orchestra bit, you're gonna pay more money for those. And Jesus is saying, you can have access to me, boys, but it's going to cost you something.
He wasn't speaking of monetary cost.
What he was talking about in this case was, the closer you get to me, the more you're gonna have a target on your back by the enemy.
And the devil is gonna do everything to discourage you and defeat you, because the closer you get to me, the more the arrows of the enemy are gonna be trained on you.
When Paul was writing in Galatians, chapter six, here's what Paul said. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. And the word marks is stigmata, scars.
And what's significant about that is when armies would go to battle in that early day, kings would go into the battle with their armies, and all of the arrows of the enemy would be trained on the king because they knew if they could take the king out, if they can kill the king, they can discourage the hearts of the troops, and they might turn the battle in favor of them.
So here's the principle. If you didn't believe in the king and you were not sold on the cause, you didn't want to fight too close to that guy, you'd try to get as far away from the king as you could, maybe sit at the back of the pack. Because, you know, the closer I get to the king, the more likely I'm gonna get shot.
I heard about, during the Vietnam War, they would say in certain hot zones, they would say, never salute your superior, because when you salute your superior, you're signaling to a sniper somewhere that's someone in authority, and you just put a target on that person's back.
And I'm telling you in principle, when you get close to Jesus and you walk with him, people in places at the center of Holy Spirit activity are people in places at the center of unholy spirit activ.
And where God is at work building something in your life, the devil will be at work blasting something else in your life. And so I'm just telling you there's a price to be paid the more you press into God.
But, man, is it worth it?
God will bless you. He'll bless your family. He'll bless your business. He'll bless any church that has a heart to press into him.
So in this beautiful Psalm 1, he's saying, man, look at the company you keep, look at the communion you should seek, and look at the character you will inevitably reap.
Let's pray together.
Father, thank you for the challenge of your word.
And I pray now, Lord, as we've heard your word, that we will apply it to our hearts and lives.
As James warns that we wouldn't just be hearers of your word, but now we'll be doers of your word.
Lord, thank you for a wonderful week with the kids.
Thank you for the little ones. Who gave their hearts to you.
Thank you for the work of the CRC and the thousands of people that are helped every week because of the generous donations of people in this room and others watching online.
Thank you for the Communion and the worship that we've experienced today. And now that we've heard your word, help us to take something from it and apply it to our lives so that we this week will be more effective at serving you.
Finally. Lord, I pray for my friends who may never have trusted you as Savior that this might be the moment where they humble their heart and right where they are. They pray this simple prayer and say, Lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you come into my heart.
Forgive my sin. And Father, I pray this in Jesus name.
Amen.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
