A New Year Resolution, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ found a lot of God decided the reason is almost everything is in Ecclesiastes, Solomon decided to live his life without God as I and he basically said it is my conclusion about solving none of joining us today on this additional fellowship in the world Fellowship in the Words the radio ministry at Fellowship Bible church located in Metairie, Louisiana Pastor Bill Gebhardt now again he shows us how God's word meets our work this week thousand, and for many of you that only another attempt at New Year's resolutions. I do believe, by the way that this year will have one resolution in common.

I think all of us and that is that we really hope that this year is not like last year. Would like 2021 to be different in 2020. What I want to talk about today is this whole idea of resolution. May we make a lot of them and there's nothing really wrong with him. There nothing wrong with losing weight or being healthier. Getting yourself out of debt.

You know, there's nothing wrong with that.

The quit smoking that would be a good idea, but all of those are temporary and have very little value.

And like most of us if you've done them in the past it not been very successful way back when I was a student at the seminary of the big thing that was happening among the students and a lot of the graduates were pastoring was journaling. That became a very important thing for pastors to do journaling start writing down your thoughts. So I think for three years on my resolution was the journal when I bought a journal each time and I never once in three years entered anything on February 1 every single one of them was gone and I realized after three attempts that that's is not my thing. And I'm not going to really be able to journal what I want to talk about today is that you could make a resolution this year. In fact, you should make a resolution this year and I should to change your life and make everything different in your life that has lasting consequences and benefits for making this resolution. Once you open your Bibles to Psalm chapter 1 the first Psalm in the Psalter is an interesting Psalm because it's the first and it's viewed by basically Bible scholars and exegetes as the Psalm is the doorway to the whole book of Psalms. In fact it almost has a proverbial Proverbs idea behind this song. It has no superscription and then tell you who wrote it or anything like that but it is an interesting song.

You'll notice that it first two words are how blessed and I've told you this before but both in the old and New Testament. Blessed means happy writers not it's not a religious word.

It's not. I bless you that it's happy.

It says how happy now that you give us a good inclination. By the way is if I took a pull, how many of you want to be happy to see how many choices of you made in your life to be happy.

I mean we live in a country with life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. We all want to be happy. That's what we want to do the choices I make to make me happy. Another nonobvious good choices. They always don't make us happy at all but this one says how blessed is the man. How blessed are the Hebrew doesn't say that by the way, the Hebrew says something just a little bit different. The Hebrew says blessed O blessed is the man.

The word Blessed is used twice it be like an exclamation apartment point in English. It's just the idea by repeating the word, it means it's really if you want to be really really happy you need to do with the Psalm says to do what the Psalm will tell us is basically in life. There's just two ways to live. That's it two ways you can either live the way God would ask you to remember you can live like the ungodly live in. The choice is yours. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people choose the second and not the first and so they're not happy. That's not the way it works. So he says here how blessed is the man he said who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Now there's two kinds of people in this song. There is a blessed man and the wicked whenever you and I think of the word wicked eyes are bad for us. With regard to this song if I say to you wicked you think Hitler Jack the Ripper. These are wicked people. That's not what the psalmist means that all the psalmist means when he says wicked. He means ungodly. That's all affect all ungodly means is people who choose to live their life without God. I make my choice and I'm going to live my life without God got to in that sense, the wicked are so he says how happy you'll be. If you don't do something here were back to this idea of happiness. Why it's such an important thing for me, I think, to preach the Psalm now is over all these years it's it's very very sad.

In the truest sense as a pastor to know how many of you are unhappy just said I see it all the time and I've seen it over all the years just unhappy people and that Larry Crabb in his book got inside out. He says this he said he's a Christian psychologist. He said I have a friend who will describe them. I would describe as a committed Christian, a very gifted counselor and an unusually clear thinker and he said have very little difficulties in his life.

Everyone agrees that he's a solid well-adjusted Christian and then after an hour of reflective rambling in my office this man quietly asked outlawed. I wonder what it would be like to feel really good for just 10 minutes Crabb was on the say that for a lot of us really honest with ourselves we admit that we struggle with the same thing in his question was why are we happy.

Why I think the Psalm will tell us a lot about that. Why don't we happy people were supposed to be but were not. He first talks about this idea in the first point I want to make is true happiness is not found in a life that leaves God out.

True happiness is not found in the lead a life that leaves God out. No, for a lot of us. We don't quite believe that delete and hence God decide to put a particular book in the Bible, the book of Ecclesiastes and the reason is almost everything you dream about that's going to make you happy is an Ecclesiastes, Solomon decided to live his life without God is that I do that and he had this great wisdom this gift of wisdom that was given to God. He had unspeakable wealth.

He was considered to be probably the wealthiest man going so you don't now if you had unspeakable wealth Bill Gates kind of wealth you know you be happy right probably not. But what well maybe not that. But what if I accomplished a lot.

He said I built cities I did all kinds of things. But what about if I had pleasure.

What if I had pleasure when a thousand wives and concubines so is like life was full of pleasure. He said I didn't. I didn't have a stereo but I did have lively musicians and singers with me all the time I've my whim and he goes through all this list and Ecclesiastes and he basically said here's my conclusion about all of it. It's all vanity. None of it work is just all dust in the wind just blows away.

None of it last. None of it. Yet he has in excess everything you and I think what I have at a minimum, really be happy if you live your life over nothing. Your materialist remember when you're young and you thought of once I get something on that to be really happy and it was more so II can still remember my first new car mean, I've always been a cargo for the first new Windows likenesses. This is arriving. My last several new cars way nicer than the first one just a car driving while diminishing returns. That's the way this works and so he says there's a downward pull here though. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly of the wicked walking means living how happy is the man who does not listen to the ungodly, as they try to make choices in their life and how to live. This is epidemic among Christians is one of the most consistent things that I went into as a counselor with unhappy people will my mom says and that's what I think my my best friend at what she told me this is what she wouldn't stand for that. She said this is what should do we listen to this. We listen to this kind of stuff. So I mean even in a bigger philosophical way as a culture, if you were to say what is the essence of a man.

Floyd would say he psychological that's what he is, what it wanted to know what's in the heart of the man as he psychological mothers a lot of psychological aspects of but at our essence were not psychological beings, spiritual beings, is a very different kind of thing. The solutions in our life are not psychological solutions in our life, our spiritual their different and so if you look at the whole world of psychology or psychiatry is an amazing thing. First of all let me say this, the American view of life is that working just ask yourself that I would see over the last 20 years on a continuing climb suicides are going up consistently. The amount of money that Americans spend on psychotherapy is staggering. The amount of medications that we take the Coke are in the billions of dollars in housing helping not. This answer is not to be psychological.

See that's the problem that we run into. But we listen to this. So how else do we listen to the counsel of the wicked are the ungodly. I see this all the time in the context of bad marriages is an amazing thing to watch and it's sad.

Couples commit in their having a very poor marriage often, what ends up happening in the poorness of the marriage, the contemplating divorce. Now that's an interesting thing there. And then as we continue to investigate and I know the way to investigate. Is there any biblical brown for the concept of a divorce. Yeah yeah you can stretch and make a biblical case for adultery.

You can, because in the Old Testament you could be stone for that usually ends the marriage after the other person stone, but the truth of the matter is, is that Jesus entered a culture where the Jewish men decided there were a lot of reasons you could divorce your wife shouldn't have hardly any. She could divorce you for what you out a lot. And Jesus said that's wrong. You can't. He said you can't divorce your wife, except for poor anemia, which is in the word adultery because he uses that in the context he said, except for that you don't have any grounds I do with couples that have none of those groups that have no biblical rhyme to stand on it all. And inevitably, what ends up coming out is, here's my reasons for I'm not happy, therefore I'm not. I'm not happy.

My mom said that's what you doing the girl work so that I get out of thereto. If you're not happy with that come from. Show me the text shown in the word of God. When God said that you grant so whom I listening to when I say that my listening to God and my listen to the culture. You see, and I do. I listen to the culture and it ends up happening. So you see this all the time. I see it, often with forgiveness issues so many of us have a better spirit. We been wronged by a lot of people in her life. I everybody is and so you become bitter because your unforgiving now does God speak at all about forgiving when it see Paul said, you and I are to forgive, exactly the same way Christ forgives us, is Christ forgiving you a few times a few thousand. See what I mean he's free he's forgiven us other conditions on his forgiveness. No, usually not at all now in our culture. What we learn. If you wronged me or hurt me. Then one time, then shame on you, but if it happens twice shame on me three or four times. That's outrageous. I'm not going to let you hurt me again.

So how many times the Jesus told Peter to forgive 70×770 that's what God said about missing that this people to get there given me trouble is he is one of them. As a matter of how I look at things book of Proverbs is as a man think so is and that's what happens to us. This gets into our thought process notice. Secondly, secondly he says this he said because it hit, nor does he stand in the path of sinners that word Stan means a confirmed in an action in a course or an action he's he's now aligning himself with the ungodly and that's how I live my life and that's how I make my choices.

The word sinners are simply those who missed the mark, which is all of us who sin.

From that point of view. Again, this becomes epidemic we start taking a sinners view the ungodly view of life for us.

Let me illustrate this.

I got a text from someone this week and I'm not mentioning names of anything but they had pictures of four men there and these four men are nationally known men that we would all know, and these are meant to get very high favorable rank blanket ratings in the evangelical community. These are men of great power okay and these men have got a lot of their power because they stand for a couple things they stand for strong marriages. That's what they stand for and strong marriages of only a man and a woman and they have very, very strong family values and that's how we love them those for men of had 13 marriages and publicly refund off release for affairs. These men who stand for strength in their marriage of had 13 that's called Bible hypocrisy. That's all that is. That's hypocrisy.

And yet we said we admire how they stand, why they don't live at all.

The unbelieving world looks at us and says you know what's wrong with you.

You talk the talk but you don't walk see you have and I don't have a platform we live this way I can tell someone about the good news of Jesus Christ and how change your life now and forever when he says your life looks exactly like mine, you do the same things I do.

And the sad part is he is right.

Everybody from George Gallup to Barnett who have done poles seek evangelical Christians live exactly the same as her unsaved neighbors.

No different, but we talked differently.

Hypocrisy. We end up standing sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. What happens to us when we live this way to sit in the seat of scoffers.

We become cynics.

That's what we become. We become cynical just like that. In fact, in Proverbs and Proverbs chapter 1. Listen to what Solomon writes. Solomon says this, he says, how long will naïve ones, will you love being simpleminded and scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge so much that it's so easy to be a scoffer so easy to be a cynic is not the way of God is to waive the culture. That's the way the culture thinks having you could turn cynicism into a TV reality show you good anger and new station by simply being a cynic just everything you hear your skeptical of anything about when you see anything or anything on TV. How many of you have will trust the weather say that many we become cynical about me. So we start scoffing and I think with interesting about at this conference all the way back to God and his word and so you even find fleet believers today that was savings we have to change in these areas. This is 2020. The Bible is an old book written in all times and I don't think it means anything. Now we have different views now. You do have different views now with the views of God. These are the views of the culture when he calls hear the wicked sinners and that in the scoffer. He said that's the way this whole thing works. So he says. True happiness does not is not found in a life that leaves got out, it can't be make sure when you're making a choice. You ask yourself the question, does God say not what does my colleague say what does my neighbor say what does God say now notice.

Then he moves on and he says true happiness is building God's word.

Verse three. He's going to talk first about verse two first about the responsibility he said, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his life, meditates day and night. That's the responsibility. His delight is in the law of the Lord that were law the Lord is Torah is simply the Old Testament can mean specifically the law, but I think he's talking Torah, God's revelation of what we would call the Bible. Now he says is what he doesn't say, but it's his duty to look at the Bible. It's his obligation to look at the Bible. Citizens delight is pastor Bill Gebhardt. If you ever miss one of our broadcast or maybe you just like to listen to the message one more time.

Remember the good a great website called one place.com that's one place.com and you can listen the Fellowship in the Word online event website you will find on with today's broadcast but also many of her previous audio programs as well have Fellowship in the Word. We are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help his radio ministry continuous broadcast on this radio station by supporting a monthly fourth is the one-time gift support for ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word. 4600 Clearview Pkwy., Metairie, LA 7006 if you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format that is of the sermon, the pastor will deliver during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible church visit our website SBC Nola.org that SBC and LA.O RG at our website you will find hundreds pastor Bill sermon you can browse through our sermon archives defined sensors are looking for, or you can search by title.

Once you find the message you're looking for. You can listen online or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listening room. And remember, you can do all this absolutely free of charge.

Once again our website is SBC Nola.org forecaster Bill Gebhardt and Jason Denhardt. Thank you for listening to fellowship in order