but not enough where I can't preach. I assure you that. So we'll stick with that. Are y'all all right this morning? You act a little stiff-necked or something. I don't know what's going on, but loosen up a little bit. It's Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to you. And I hope you have a good day. Spend some time with your family. Maybe your father's not with you, but you're a father, then you can celebrate that as well. So just enjoy your father while you've got him. So mine's no longer here. Enjoying why you got him. All right, let's go ahead and get into the scriptures here this morning. I'm giving them time to make their way on down to Children's Church. There's a whole slew of them that took off down that way. About half the church got up. You think we had a church split, you know, they went to the other side. Y'all worship over there and we'll worship over here, right? We're the good side, right? They're the naughty side. That's the way it works, isn't it? In a church split, whatever side you're on is the good side, right? That's the way it always is in a church split. At least that's been my experience anyhow. All right, Psalm chapter number one. Psalm chapter number one. Sure do appreciate you being here this morning. Psalm chapter number one. Hope you have a good day today. I went through my outlines trying to find something that kind of fit what we're talking about here today as far as Father's Day goes, but this is about as close as the liberty that I can get to it. And so I want to read the first six verses out of Psalm chapter number one. I'll try not to keep you long this morning. Psalm chapter number one, if you dare say amen. Psalm chapter number 1 and verse number 1, the Bible says, But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season." Notice it says, his fruit in his season. He's talking about a tree. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." Here in verse number one, the Bible says, blessed is the man. Now that's a great statement right there, isn't it? I mean, if you really stop and you really analyze that and you look at that, blessed is the man, blessed is the man, blessed is the woman, blessed is the child or blessed, you know, the boy or girl, but blessed is the man. What a great, great statement that is. When we back up and you look at the book of Job, you've got the unhappy man. When you come across the book of Psalms, you've got the happy man. You've got the book of Proverbs, that's the wise man. You've got the book of Ecclesiastes, and that is the worldly man, or the carnal man. And then you've got the Song of Solomon, and that would be the heavenly man, or it'd be a type of Christ, it'd be the heavenly man. So the word blessed means happy. It means happy, but we don't have to have what other people have, a new version to tell us what blessed means or blessed means. We know it means happy. We can leave it exactly like the King James Bible reads. It didn't say happy, it said blessed, didn't it? Blessed is the man. Can you imagine reading that there and it says, happy is the man. Just don't have the same kind of ring to it, does it? It doesn't have the same kind of tone to it as blessed. I mean, can you imagine, they happied the Lord. Instead of they blessed the Lord, they happied the Lord. I mean, can you imagine trying to read that? I mean, it's fine exactly the way that it's written. No need to change it, no need to change it at all. So we see that the book of praises, the book of Psalm begins with blessed is the man, the blessed man. So in the first part of the book of Psalms chapters one through 41, the word blessed appears 45 times. And the word blessed goes along with another word that we use, which is beatitudes. Now the word beatitude is not found in your Bible anywhere. Beatitude is not there, but the beatitudes are in the Bible. what we call and refer to the Beatitudes is there. In Matthew chapter number five, it's there in the Sermon on the Mount. Now there's seven chapters in the book of Psalms that begin with the word blessed. In chapter number one, verse one, you find the blessed man. In chapter 32 in verse one, you have the forgiven man. In chapter 41 in verse one, you have the considerate man. In chapter 112 verse one, you have the God-fearing man. In chapter 119 in verse one, you've got the undefiled man. In chapter 128, verse one, you have the right walking man. And then in chapters 144, verse one, you have the strong man. So you have seven chapters that begin with the word blessed in verse number one in the book of Psalms. Now, there's some biblical reasons why you and I are blessed. Now, we could say right off the bat, well, we're blessed because we're saved. Our name's in the Lamb's Book of Life. We're gonna get a brand new body one of these days. We're gonna be called out of here in the rapture, and we're going to heaven to spend eternity with Jesus Christ, our Savior. We could say that we're blessed. I mean, we can say that, but now here's some biblical reasons along with that as to why we can say that we're blessed. We're blessed because the Lord will not impute sin to us, according to Psalm 32 and verse 2. We're blessed because our trust is in the Lord, Psalm 34, 8. We're blessed because we make the Lord our God in Psalm 40 and verse 4. We're blessed because God has chosen us in Psalm 65 and verse 4. We're blessed because our strength is in God, Psalm 84 verse 5. We're blessed because God chastens us and teaches us out of his law, Psalm 94 and verse 12. We're blessed because we fear the Lord and delight in his commandments, Psalm 112 verse 1. We're blessed because God hears us. Proverbs 8 and verse number 34. And that's a blessing right there that God hears us. That no matter what you go through and your struggles and your trials and your problems, God does hear you and me. I'm thankful for that one right there. But then we're blessed because we keep God's laws and judgments. I'm not saying we keep the Old Testament law, but we keep God's commandments. There's commandments for the New Testament Christian as well, and that's in Isaiah chapter 56 and verse number two. And then we're blessed because we endure temptation, James chapter one and verse number 12. So what I want to preach on this morning is blessed the man. Blessed is the man, that's what I wanna preach on. Number one, if you'll look with me, I like expository messages, don't you? I remember years ago, early on in the ministry, I was preaching topical messages and I'd go through the Bible and I'd find a topic and I'd preach on it. And I like doing some of that preaching as well. But then as I went on and time goes on, I started learning how to expound a passage. And this is called expository. So you're going to see that as we go through the verses here in the passage. But notice number one, the Bible says in verse number one, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. So blessed is that man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. So someone here has sought ungodly counsel and they've walked in that ungodly counsel. So when they received this ungodly counsel they began to walk in it and they were not blessed. You see, the way to be blessed is by not walking in that ungodly counsel. I know that I'm being repetitious there, but that's what the verse actually says. So worldly counsel will ruin your walk with the Lord and your faith. Now, what should we seek? Well, we should seek godly counsel. That's the kind of counsel that we should seek. The first place that you should seek counsel from is from the Lord. I mean, you do this. How do you do it? Well, you do it through His Word, and you do it through prayer. That's how you seek the counsel of God. God's not just going to send you a postcard. He's not going to write you an update letter or something like that and give you counsel. God wrote you a letter. It's a book. It's the King James Bible, and He gave it to you and me, and He told us to read it, and that was where we would get our counsel. You see, you would be amazed at the answers to life's problems that you could find if we would just simply go to the word of God. David said, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And so the word of God is yours for when you are in a dark place, when it's dark and you don't know which direction to go, you can open up the word of God and it is a light that will lighten up your path so that you can walk. You see, you know, I've gotten up in the middle of the night before and it's been dark. And I'll get up and I'll go, maybe I'll go to the kitchen or wherever I may go. And you know, and I know that there's something there, but it's so dark, you know, you think you could walk it, you know, by the back of your hand. But especially if you got a nine year old, there's some things that are just there that you didn't expect to be there. Like a little matchbox car or, you know, it used to be little Legos at one time were in the floor. Now those things hurt. You step on those and man, it's, it's all out, you know, grabbing the foot and it's full throttle. You know, but sometimes you stub your toe. You know why? Because you're walking in the dark. And a lot of Christians that don't seek counsel from God and God's word, it's like they've closed their Bible. It's like they're walking in the dark and they're walking around and they have absolutely no idea where they're going. But if you'll open up the word of God, you can get counsel from God and God can lead and guide your direction in where you go. And so we ought to go to God's word for counsel. Go to the Lord in prayer for help. And then another place that you can go to is you can go to your pastor. He's your under shepherd. He's the overseer. He watches for your soul. Now preachers may not be doctors. You come to me and you say, I got this problem. I couldn't tell you what to take. I'm on some medicines I never heard of before. I mean, he said, well, have you ever been on this? I ain't never heard of it. OK, I'm going to put you on that. OK, so you know, obviously what you're going to do is research it and you're going to say, OK, all right, so this is a safe drug. OK, there's some side effects to it. But, you know, risk versus benefit and all of that, you know, you try to do that kind of a thing. And so, but I'm not a doctor as far as a medical doctor. I couldn't help you physically and your health and things like that. But when it comes to the spiritual side of the thing, I can help you. Preachers can help you. And you wanna know why they can help you? Because they got a book that offers the answers to your problems. And maybe even the preacher has had some experience in that area. Maybe he's counseled people before that's in that same situation so he can offer some things that maybe you didn't think of before. I mean, so many people down through the years have given up on the Lord. And one of the things that a lot of them had in common is they never sat down and talked to the pastor. I've had people to get up and walk out and never talk to me. I'm like, what's the deal? I don't even have a clue what's going on. And then you find out the 10 or 15 things later on. Six months later, you find out they had a problem with this, this, this. Why didn't you sit down and talk to me? I'm a human being just like everybody else. You know, we can sit down and we can talk. There's no problem with that. But I'm not saying that I could even have stopped them from leaving. When people have made up their mind, then they're gone, they're just gonna be gone. And you know, maybe I can help, maybe I can't. But what I'm saying is that the thing that they had in common is they didn't sit down and talk to me. Giving up in the Christian walk has never solved anybody's problems. And maybe what it's done is caused a few extra. It'll cause a few extra. That thing will build up and build up. And there are people that at one time that was greatly being used of the Lord. And what happened to them? Well, maybe they sought some bad counsel. Maybe someone set a bad example and they followed it. The Bible said, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. So when you walk in the counsel of the ungodly, you're not gonna be blessed, you're not gonna feel blessed. And so the first place we ought to go is we ought to go to God for counsel. Another place we can go is we can go to the preacher for counsel. The third place you can go to is you can go to other godly Christians for counsel. Now, not carnal Christians, not worldly Christians, not carnal Christians. Carnal Christians hardly have anything figured out themselves. I mean, they've got all kinds of problems themselves. They can't hardly help themselves, let alone help somebody else. You've got to use caution though. You've got to use caution when it comes to seeking counsel or you can get advice that does not line up with the Bible. So you have to be careful about that. And so you can seek counsel from God. You can seek counsel from God's man. You can seek counsel from God's people. And once you've determined your direction, then walk only in godly counsel. Walk in that godly counsel. After you've sought God's throne, after you've sought God's word, after you've sought God's man, after you've sought God's people, walk in godly counsel. Now maybe you've committed some terrible sin and maybe everybody knows about it. You know what you ought to do? You ought to confess it and get it under the blood and get the forgiveness that you need. Get the forgiveness that you need, that you desperately need and move on for the glory of God. Now, I mean, I know there's a price to be paid for sin. I realize that when we sin, there's the repercussions or repercussions of our actions and things like that. But don't allow the devil to hold that thing over your head for the rest of your life and be ineffective for God. But what you need to do is get some counsel, go to God, confess that thing so that you can once again be blessed in your life and be effective for the Lord. You see, if you go back, let's say to Cain, if Cain would have sought counsel at that time, maybe he wouldn't even have killed his brother. I don't know. Cain got jealous. But maybe if he'd sought some counsel, maybe he wouldn't have killed his brother. You see, you are typically not going to stay out of trouble by constantly seeking ungodly counsel. What our children need is they need a mom and dad that's going to back up what they say. It's Father's Day, so we might as well talk about that, right? They need some fathers that can be some examples of what's right instead of what's always wrong. They need to hear the preacher is trying to keep them from making mistakes that'll ruin their lives. That's why every now and then I may get on your nerves a little bit with some of the things I say, but I do that with a purpose. It's a purpose to keep you from making mistakes that you don't have to make. You see, God has a perfect will for everybody's life. God has a perfect will for your life, and it's up to each and every one of us to seek it and to find it and to walk in it once we have found it. You see, being in God's will doesn't happen by accident. You're not just gonna accidentally be walking along and stumble into the will of God. It doesn't work that way. You'll stumble into a ditch every time. That's just the way it works. The odds of accidentally falling into the will of God are basically zero. You have to work at it. You have to seek at it. It's something that's sought after to find the will of God. And you and I do the will of God on purpose. So blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Number two. Blessed is the man that standeth not in the way of sinners. That's what he says in verse number one. Now, some Christians stand in the way of a sinner. What am I talking about? Standing in the way of them getting the truth. Standing in their way of getting the gospel. I've heard this story multiple times. Let's take the restaurant business. And it's a Sunday. Oh boy. If you work in the restaurant business and you have to work on a Sunday, bless your hearts all I can say. Because you have to put up with us. Is that right? You go out and eat and you get to put up with it. I can remember story after story. There was somebody was trying to get their friend, their co-worker to come to church. And they'd been trying and trying for a very long time. And they both had to work on this Sunday together one time. And so they were working on this particular Sunday and then here comes this one guy and he's all dressed up and he gets what he considers bad service. So he starts cussing at the waitress. But this guy, you know he just come from church. And if he didn't, at least that's what it appeared to be. It's on a Sunday, it's right after church service. But anyway, then you've got all the church crowd that's there. So then there's this other guy that comes in and he's wearing a suit and a tie and he's all decked out. And he's the pastor of a nearby local church. I wouldn't dare say his name. I know this to be a truth. The person is a very reliable person. They wouldn't lie about this. But this preacher comes in there with a bad and rotten attitude and gets all upset and gets angry because they messed the order up. Now, I understand it. It's food, you're hungry, it's Sunday. If anybody understands it's Sunday, you know, no sooner than church lets out, I feel like I got to turn around and come right back. And sometimes I don't even know whether I'm coming or going on Sundays. I get that. I understand that. But it does not give me the right to lash out and act out at the waitress who's trying to provide for her family. doesn't give me the right to do that. But you know what happened because of that? That girl, she said, well, I'm not going to go to church. If they come in here and act like that in here, then why would I want to go to church with them when they act like that? And that turned that girl off and she never would go to church. I'm telling you, it does matter how we act. Sometimes if we're not careful, we stand in the way of sinners. So listen, if you're not gonna invite them to church and you're not gonna be a witness to them, then bless God, stay out of the way of the ones that are trying to win them. Stay out of the way. The Bible says, blessed is the man that standeth not in the way of sinners. So the question is, how do you act when you're out in the world? I know we all have bad days, don't we? We all have bad days. I mean, I have bad days too. I get it, I understand it, but a bad attitude shouldn't be the norm for you or me. You know, you're a child of God. And no matter what goes on around us, there's something different on the inside of us. We don't have to act out that way. Sometimes you just have to put on that smile when you don't feel like putting on a smile. You say, I ain't gonna be a hypocrite. Yeah, be a hypocrite. You know, sometimes you have to do that. Sometimes you have to shake somebody's hand when you don't even wanna shake people's hands. Sometimes you're gonna have to be kind to people when you don't feel like being kind. You see, we're talking about your testimony. I mean, could you hand them a gospel tract with our church's name on it after they've dealt with you? You ought to be able to, amen? It's a little bit quiet. I'm getting a couple of amens, but I'll be getting more than that. I don't know, maybe I ought to park right here for a little while. I wasn't planning on it, but maybe I ought to park here a little while. I don't know, maybe the Lord's dealing with somebody's heart and you're like, oh yeah, I do need a change. Well, that's good. That's what I'm here to do is to try to help you with that. But could you hand them a gospel tract without feeling like a hypocrite? I mean, how we speak to others and how we treat others does matter. I believe it does matter. I believe it's a reflection on the Lord, is what I believe. Some Christians stand in the way of sinners getting the truth. Now, you could kind of twist this thing and you could kind of say that it's you and me acting like a sinner, so it's not only standing in the way of somebody getting the truth as far as standing in the way of a sinner, but it could be like you and I standing in the way like a sinner. Acting like a sinner. Being like a sinner. Though you're not, you're saved. Your name's in the book of life. You're not supposed to be that way. You know what the Bible tells us? The Bible says to put off the old man and put on the new. Amen? That's exactly what the Bible says. And we're told once that we're saved, old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. We're told we are a new creature in Christ Jesus. We're not to be like unsaved people. It's not that we're better than they are, but what it is is that we've been saved and we've been changed. We no longer go out on Fridays and Saturdays and get drunk, right? do drugs and things like that. We no longer party like the world parties and snort crack and fornicate and those types of things. Jesus saved us, Jesus changed us and he took us out of that life of sin and placed us into a life of holiness and righteousness and we ought to walk therein. So the Bible said, blessed is the man that standeth not in the way of sinners. Are you standing in the way of a sinner like a sinner? A question that we should ask every now and then is this, how is my relationship with Jesus Christ? How's your relationship with Jesus? How's your fellowship with the Lord? How's your fellowship with the Lord when nobody else is around? That's a good question. I mean, when you're all by yourself and the husband's not around, the wife's not around, the kids are not around, nobody else is around, how's your relationship with the Lord? How's your commune with him? Do you even commune with him? How's your relationship with the Lord when nobody else is around? Listen, it's easy to come to church three or four hours out of the week and pretend like we're something that we're not. And you know what I mean? I mean, we can be wrong with God and act like we're right with God for three or four hours. Most people have grown up in church and they've learned how to do that. So that's an easy thing to do is to act like that. And then when you walk out, we act like the devil the rest of the time. Some people can fool the preacher. They can fool the deacons. They can fool, frankly, the entire church. But there's one person you can't fool, and that's God. You can't fool God. You can't get by with it with God. You can't fool Him. If we were honest with ourselves from time to time, we would ask, am I where the Lord wants me in my fellowship with Him? But now let's be honest this morning. People nowadays want to go to church, and they just want the preacher to tell them how to live for God. Their relationship with the Lord is basically built upon their relationship with their pastor. It ought not be that way. What happens one day if God takes me out of here? What are you going to do then? What do all the churches do that don't have pastors? You know, I mean, then those folks are hurting if your relationship with Jesus depends upon a preacher. Now, I ought to aid in that. I ought to be able to help you in that relationship and not hinder it, but it shouldn't be incumbent upon me to tell you how to live. You ought to know how to live. And if you've been saved very long, You see, mainstream Christianity is so lazy that they would rather the preacher to tell them how to walk, how to talk, and how to dress. But God wants a personal one-on-one relationship with you so that He can tell you how to walk, so that He can tell you how to talk, and so that He can tell you how to dress. It ought to be God the one that tells you that. I shouldn't have to tell you how to dress. That's not the way it works. You know, that's not the way it works at all. You see, in a relationship, you have to put effort into a relationship. No matter what relationship it is, whether it be a spouse's relationship, whether it's a relationship with your mom and dad or your children or family or friends or coworkers, that's something that's gonna take work on your part, right? It takes effort. And the same thing is with God the Father. It's with the fellowship with the Lord, is that if you want a relationship with Him, you're gonna have to work at that. You're gonna have to maintain it. It's gonna take some effort. And so what it does is, what happens is people come to churches like ours, and it's where the preacher preaches that the responsibility of your relationship with the Lord is your personal responsibility, and people don't like that. People just want to be told what to do and then be cloned and go on their merry way. That's not the way it works because what God has for each and every one of you is different than the other person. We don't all have the same walk. We don't all have the same abilities. We don't all have the same talents. So what God does is God takes all those things and uses them. We're not just a bunch of clones like, you know, the government wants to try to make us out to be. That's eventually what they want to try to make us all just fall in lockstep. You know, the Orwell's 1984 seems to be coming to pass. It seems like he was a prophet of some sort or something, wasn't it? At least, you know, prophesied about the day that we live in, man. Just some crazy stuff are going on with this AI technology. You know, what they wanna do is they wanna try to tell you what you oughta think and how you wanna feel and all that stuff in certain situations. We Google everything nowadays and so we get all the answers. What if their answers is not exactly right? What are we gonna do then? What about Google don't even have, you know, don't even have a personality or a... what's the word I'm looking for? You and I got a conscience. I mean, how do you answer? There's certain things that you and I would do because our conscience would lead us to do it that AI hasn't, AI just has cut and dried answers. That's what AI has. There's no feeling, no emotion, no nothing in it. You see, but what you and I have got is something different. And so how is your relationship with the Lord? Are there things that you know that the Lord is not pleased with in your life? I mean, listen, now, you may get mad at me for asking this, and I haven't even mentioned what those things are. I just asked the question, are there things in your life that God is not pleased with? I don't even have to go any further than that, and you already know that if there's things in your life, you're convicted of it right now, without me having to go into all the little details of every little sin and run the list of all of them, which, by the way, most of the time when we preach on sin and stuff like that, what a lot of preachers do is they preach on the outward sins. Why don't we ever preach on the inside sins? I'll tell you why, because that's the ones we can hide. It's easy to preach on the outward sins because everybody sees those. But what about the ones on the inside like pride, wrath, anger, malice? How about all those things, jealousy, envy? You see, where did preaching go on that? See what I mean? It's easy to preach on the outward sins because then all you got to do is clean out the outside up and make people think you're right with God, but you could be just as full of hell on the inside. Amen. Amen. How is your relationship with Jesus? After all, isn't that what the preacher's job is, is to help you with your relationship with Jesus Christ? Amen. Some flat out refuse to hear the preacher though. But again, I'm not talking to the rebellious crowd either. I've learned down through the years that I'm going to preach to those that want to hear the rebellious crowd. You know what? They're going to have their way. Let them have it. That's all you can do. I'm talking to the ones that want instruction. The ones I'm talking to this morning are the ones that want correction. And that's what the Bible has to offer is instruction and correction and righteousness. I think that's what he says over there. The ones that want and desire to have the right walk with God. I'd like to see the rebellious listen. I'd like to see the rebellious take instruction, but why am I gonna waste my time? You know, one of the things that you can do is you can sit around and waste your time arguing with people and never do nothing for God. And, you know, at a certain point, why would I sit around and argue with somebody all the time anyway unless my pride is just getting in the way and I'm trying to force them to be something they don't wanna be or force them to change? So what you do is you give somebody the truth, and if they don't accept it after two or three times, just let them go. That's what the Bible teaches, and so that's what we should do. So we should ask, what can I do for my Savior? Well, we don't just serve God in church, do we? Some people have this idea that the only time you serve God is when you go to church. No, it didn't work that way. That's not the way serving God. You're going to serve God more out there than you do in here. But now, if you wanted to do something in the church, get with your pastor. Find out if there's something you can do. Could you be more involved with your church? Could you step up when the church has church activities? Well, listen, I mean, being involved in church activities doesn't mean that you have to control it. You just step up. Whatever happened to just a servant's heart? I mean, nowadays it's either all or nothing. Somebody thinks they've got to control it or I'm not doing it. You know, I just quit. I've been bit and I quit. It doesn't work that way. I heard a good analogy the other day. The preacher asked, he said, how many sheriffs do we have in this county? And he asked it a couple of times. And then the answer is one, right? That's how many sheriffs we have in this county. We just have one sheriff. You see, the problem is, is that somehow, you know, in jobs, no matter where it is, is in business or in government, there's a leader. But somehow when we come to church, we all of a sudden think that it changes and that everybody can do whatever they want. But it doesn't work that way. You have to have order in the church. There has to be structure in the church or the whole thing just explodes. It just messes up if there's no order to that thing. So once you find out what to do, give your all to Jesus, but be faithful to that thing that Jesus has you to do. Staying busy and doing something for the Lord will help to keep you out of trouble. Y'all have heard it before, I'm sure, and I Don't Mind is the devil's workshop. It is. And I Don't Mind is a devil's workshop. You sit around and you begin to think and you meditate on things, and boy, your mind will go places that God did not intend for your mind to go. And you'll begin to get these feelings and these emotions that'll pop up and it'll back up that thought, and that thought from the very beginning was demonic. But because you've got these emotions, they're pumping that thought, and you're gonna justify that emotion, or you're gonna justify that thought because of your emotions, and you're gonna head yourself into a ditch. Just trying to help you this morning. You see, the Bible said, blessed is the man that standeth not in the way of sinners. Are you standing in the way of a sinner? I mean, think about it. I mean, when you go and fill out a job application, probably one of the things you don't want to list is your qualifications is, I can gossip real good. You know, that's probably not what you wanna put on your application or your resume if you fill out a resume or something like that. Probably what you ought to do is you probably ought to take that part-time or full-time job of gossiping and trade it in to put out the gospel. So trade gossip for gospel, right? That's what we ought to do. And so aren't you glad that Jesus Christ took those filthy jokes out of your mouth? That he took away the gossip? That he took away the cuss words out of your mouth? You see, mom, growing up, her method may have been, well, I'll wash your mouth out with soap. But really, the right and true way to do it is to wash it out by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's how you do it, it's Jesus Christ, he's the answer. Blessed is the man that standeth not in the way of sinners. And then number three, notice in verse number one he said, blessed is the man that sitteth not in the seat of the scornful. Now the word scornful, or the word scorn, it means extreme disobedience to orders. So he says, blessed is the man that sitteth not in the seat of the scornful. You know, I kind of picture a seat. It says a seat of the scornful. So I kind of picture a seat and somebody wants to always be scornful. They always want to be in extreme disobedience. Maybe some people will go to church and they'll say, I don't care what that preacher says. I'm not listening to him. OK, that's fine. I mean, it's your business. It's a free country. You can do what you want to do. I mean, you can do your own thing. But you know what I've done? I've done my job. I've got up here and told the truth, I've given the truth, and I've done my job, and I'll go home and I'll feel just as comfortable with what I've done as I mowed the yard yesterday. I'm comfortable with the way I mowed it, I'm comfortable with the way I preach. Now, I won't lose one second of sleep over it because I know I'll have done what God told me to do. You might say, well, I don't care, I'm not listening. You know what that is? That's scorn, that's extreme disobedience. I mean, are you not reading your Bible when God commands you to read your Bible? That's disobedience. Some people say, well, all that church wants is money. It's a funny thing. I mean, we'll go to Walmart and we don't say that. And we'll run over to Lowe's in the mall. You get on that cell phone and get on Amazon and you don't mind one bit that they're asking for money. By the way, let me just remind you, I've never asked anybody for any money. This church is not standing at the door putting a gun to your head saying, you got to give if you want to enter. We don't function that way. I think as a church out in Texas, I think it's Joe Osteen's church. As a matter of fact, I don't think they take up an offering. You just pay as you walk in. You just give it a certain amount as you walk in. But the thing is that the church is not about money. I mean, if your attitude is the church is all about money, then keep your money. I mean, we don't want your money if that's the way you're gonna give. God doesn't want your money if that's the way you're gonna give. Do you know what God says? God says to be a cheerful giver. That's what he says. And if you can't give cheerfully, then you're given for the wrong motive. There'll be people today that'll get out and they'll drive all over this country and they'll spend $100 in gas, but they'll complain about a church spreading an offering plate, passing around an offering plate. There'll be people that'll smoke 50 or $60 worth of cigarettes this week, but they'll complain that the church passes an offering plate around. I mean, it's a crazy thing. All of a sudden, I ain't going to church down there. They pass an offering plate, and I can't afford to give, but they can afford to smoke, and they can afford to drive all around. I mean, listen, but again, keep your money if that's your mentality. I mean, that's fine. You see, the problem is priorities. I think we've got our priorities mixed up. I don't think it's that a lot of people can't afford to give. I think we just got our priorities mixed up. I think that's the problem. You see, many times the problem is not enough money. Matthew 6 verse 33 said, Now if you read that passage, all these things shall be added unto you. That's physical possessions. All these things will be added unto you. But what did he say in the beginning of the verse? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Seek the things of God first and then God may bless you with those things. So what are we seeking first? Are you seeking things first or are you seeking God first? You see, our continual disobedience will eventually bring God's judgment. Do you know that 1 Samuel chapter number 15 and verse 23 says, he said, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Isn't that something? Do you know what they did to witches in the Old Testament? They stoned them. Thank God we don't live in the Old Testament. But he said, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. So what could you do for somebody that's rebellious in the Old Testament? They stoned him. You see that? I mean, if you wanna be the blessed man of verse number one, then let's be the man of verse number two. Notice he says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. So he delights in the law of the Lord. What's that? That's God's word. We ought to delight in God's Word. You ought to thank God you've got a Bible. That's why we're blessed today is because we have a Bible. Job said in Job 23 and verse number 12, Job said that I take God's words, his word, and I steam it. I put it up higher. I value it more highly or costly than the food I put in my mouth, which is saying something right now in the day of inflation, right? It really is. It's saying something right now. Food is more expensive than it ever has been. But in that verse, Job thought more of God's word than he did about the food that he put in his mouth. And then comes along David in Psalm 119, 162, and he said, I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth great spoil. I rejoice. You rejoice at God's word as one that findeth great spoil. Imagine you finish pumping your gas and And as usual, if you're like me, the thing tells you, you know, your receipt's inside. That's the way it always works. I pull up to the pump and, you know, nowadays you have to prepay, right? So you either go in or you pay at the pump. So I pay at the pump. And I'm thinking, well, I'll pay at the pump, get my receipt, hop in the vehicle and take off. It don't work that way. Now I'm paying at the pump. All right, so now I got to go in and stand in line. And can I have my receipt, please? You know, it's just frustrating. You know, it says, you know, to see the cashier for the receipt or something like that. Anyway, let's say you finish pumping your gas and the machine told you you got to go in and get your receipt. And on your way on the back side of the vehicle, you look down and there is a Powerball ticket laying there. Now, what are you going to do? Are you going to pick it up and throw it in the trash? Or are you going to take it in and check the numbers? Uh-oh, what am I going to do? I'm in a pickle, huh? Don't play spiritual, you're gonna check the numbers. You go probably like everybody else in the building, you're gonna check the numbers. It might be somebody checked it and threw it away, but maybe somebody dropped it, right? So you go in and let's say it's a $100,000 winner. What would you do with that? I mean, would you say, well, praise the Lord. No, you wouldn't. You'd be like everybody else. Woo-hoo! Yeah, all right! You'd be rejoicing, wouldn't you? And that's what David said. David said, I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth great spoil. You found great spoil and you're rejoicing over it. You know what you've got? You've got the Bible, the word of God, and it's got great spoil in that thing right there. And we ought to be rejoicing over the greatest spoil that was ever given to mankind, which was his word. Do you realize where most people are at? I mean, God saved us and gives us his word and shows us the unsearchable riches and many times it means very little. And until you begin to understand the value of the Bible, you'll not understand the value of your relationship with Jesus Christ. Until you understand the value of the Bible and the unsearchable riches that are found there in that thing, then you'll never be able to see your person as the blessed man that God has you to be. Now there's three things that are true of a man like this one. It's found in verse two and three. But he says in verse number two, he says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night. Watch this. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. And that's something. His root will grow deep and it'll spread. It'll be extreme warm weather that will not kill his leaf. He says, "...that bringeth forth his leaf in his season. His leaf also shall not wither." And watch this, "...and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." We're talking about the man, the blessed man, the happy man that does what? That doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. that doesn't standeth in the way of sinners, nor does he sit in the seat of the scornful." That's the blessed man. Are you blessed this morning? Let's all bow our heads.