How To Be Blessed

In a moment, I'm going to invite one of our members, Miriam Montgomery, to come up.

She's going to read scripture for us.

But before that, I'm going to pray for us as a congregation.

I'm going to bring our petitions before God, the one who knows all our deepest needs.

Let's pray.

Lord, we rejoice that you, the almighty God of all the universe, all-knowing, all-powerful, everlasting God,

you invite us, mere creatures, to call you Father.

So, Heavenly Father, we ask that you'd hear our prayers as we bring them before you this morning,

laying before you the burdens, the fears, the hopes, the requests of your people.

Lord, this morning we pray for all those who are suffering from illness and pain.

Lord, we pray that you would guide those who are caring for them,

that you'd bring healing to them according to your perfect will.

We pray for the families of those who are sick.

We ask that you would draw close to them, bringing comfort and peace that only you can provide.

Lord, we pray for those in our congregation and across the city who are lonely.

Lord, draw near to them, be a comfort to them.

We pray that you would make us people with a heart for the lonely,

so that we can be used in your service to bless others.

But we know, Lord, that you are the friend that sticks closer than any brother could.

Lord, we pray for anyone here this morning who came to church purely out of a sense of duty

or a way of coping with their guilt.

Lord, would you give each of us true joy this morning as we come to worship our God?

Would you show us what it means to worship you with delight,

delighting in your law, delighting in the Scriptures,

not because we want to learn the Scriptures per se,

but because the Scriptures reveal to us who you are, what you're like,

how we are to live our lives in a way that brings honor and glory to your name.

Lord, we pray for those this morning who are here trying to determine where real truth lies.

Lord, would you meet with them today so that they would see you in your word,

that they would see themselves in the light of your law.

Lord, show them and remind all of us of our need for a Savior.

And Lord, would you give us an experience of meeting with Jesus this morning.

Lord, we pray for all the young people in our congregation.

We pray for those who've just gone down to Kids Church,

those who are sitting with us in the service for the remainder of our time together.

Lord, please guide them from unwise counsel that would lead them astray,

lead them away from the paths of righteousness that you've laid before us in your word.

Lord, we pray that you would open up their hearts,

that you'd reveal yourself to them even when they're young and tender in years.

Lord, we pray for all the people in the congregation traveling this summer.

Please take care of them as they go.

Give refreshment to those who are on holiday and bring them back to us again in safety, we ask.

Lord, we pray for all those in the congregation who serve in so many different ways,

some more visible than others, but all to your glory.

Lord, would you encourage and strengthen them in their service this morning and throughout the year,

knowing that when they work for the church, they're working to your glory.

Lord, we pray for all the churches in this city and across our country where the word's been faithfully proclaimed today.

Would you bless those who lead and teach, bless those who hear,

so that your great name would be praised.

And Lord, for all of us here at St. Columbus this morning,

take away from us the pressures of the week past and the week ahead,

so that we can have our minds and our hearts set on worshiping you with our whole hearts.

And we pray, Lord, that you would hear our prayers as we come to you in the name of our beautiful Savior Jesus.

Amen.

I'm going to invite Miriam to come up and read scripture for us.

Miriam's going to read Psalm 1, which if you've got a church Bible, is on page 448.

It's also in your bulletin and it'll also be on the screen.

Thanks, Miriam.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers,

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

Amen.

This is God's holy word.

Well, years ago I worked in a supermarket,

and one day there was a guy looking for some help,

and he said, excuse me, and I said, hey, how are you doing?

And he looked at me for just a quarter of a second longer than I thought was normal,

and he said, I'm blessed.

And it struck me,

because that is not the way that we typically describe ourselves,

I think, when we walk around the supermarket just now.

In fact, we don't really hear people talking about being blessed

and blessing very much at all outside of church,

unless maybe if somebody sneezes and we say, bless you.

But even then, we don't really know why we say that.

Well, I do.

I looked it up.

It's just superstition.

So when we look at this word blessed in Psalm 1,

we need to take a moment to make sure that we know what we're talking about here.

So in the Old Testament, the Bible,

the Old Testament was primarily written in Hebrew, the majority of it.

And the word for blessed here,

or the word that's translated as blessed in the Old Testament,

is actually, there's a couple of different words that are described

or translated into English as blessed.

And the one that we have here is translated in other places as happy or happiness.

So we could say, happy is the man who.

And that's much easier for us to recognize, isn't it?

Because we use happy all the time.

I'm happy to help, is what I said when I was working in Asda.

Or, I'm very happy for you.

Or we say, you have to do what makes you happy.

We understand happiness in terms of moments and feelings.

But we also understand that there's degrees of happiness.

There's things, kinds of happiness that we treat as like dopamine hits.

So we say, something happens, you feel good, and then that goes away again.

And then something else happens, and then you feel happy,

and then it goes away again.

But there's another kind of happiness.

A true, deep, and lasting happiness.

A happiness that doesn't ping up and down like a Geiger counter in an action movie.

One that underpins you, that grounds you, that roots you,

that gives you hope and joy,

even as you navigate life's most challenging hurdles.

And this brings me to the second reason.

I said there was two reasons that this man saying blessed stopped me in my tracks.

The second reason is because I want that happiness.

I think we all do.

When we look at Psalm 1, Psalm 1 tells us, tells you today,

you can be happy.

None of us want to live an unhappy life.

It's why we work hard at school.

It's why we get stuck in at work.

It's why we forgive our friends when they mess up.

It's why we buy our wife flowers.

It's why we purchase art, read novels, go to nice restaurants,

play five-a-side football, listen to soul music.

We're all involved in the pursuit of happiness.

And that's a good thing.

And the Bible's big on happiness.

God made us to be happy.

He made us for a true happiness.

Not dependent on our circumstances, which can change quickly,

but on a life in relationship with Him.

Psalm 1 doesn't just say that real happiness is possible,

that it's available for us.

It also teaches us how to have it.

So let's go through this psalm together under three headings.

The righteous way, the righteous life, and the righteous man.

First of all, the righteous way.

The great English preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said that Psalm 1 is a text upon which the whole of the Psalms make up a divine sermon.

A divine sermon.

God preaching to us.

And what Psalm 1 presents to us are two different ways of living.

The way of the righteous and the way of the wicked.

And we don't just see this in Psalm 1.

This is the story throughout the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

We're repeatedly shown this image of two paths.

Adam and Eve had a choice to make in the garden.

You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,

for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

That's what God said to Adam and Eve when they were in paradise.

And then later on in Deuteronomy,

when God's people are right on the edge of going into the land that God had promised to them,

for years and years, God says to them through Moses,

he says,

I've set before you life and death, blessing and curse.

Therefore, choose life.

And then later on again in the Old Testament,

the prophet Jeremiah,

he sets up the same dichotomy.

This time he does it through the image of two men.

And one trusts in God,

one trusts in mankind,

and he becomes like a shrub in the desert.

And the other trusts in God,

and is like a tree planted by water,

which is almost identical language to what we have today in our psalm.

You see, the psalms are not mere poems.

They're theology that we sing.

So I'm going to say it right here in the middle of Edinburgh.

At fringe time, at festival time,

there is a right way to live.

And there is a wrong way to live.

I know that's incredibly unfashionable.

I know it's controversial to say something like that in some quarters.

But it's true.

Psalm 1 tells us.

One way leads to happiness,

because it leads to relationship with God.

But the other way leads to judgment,

because it's a way of rejecting him.

Let's look at the language of verse 1 together,

because it gives us a clear list of don'ts,

for if you want to walk in the way of the righteous person.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

Notice the progression that we have.

First, we don't walk in the counsel of the wicked.

The wicked here is not necessarily serial killers.

This is talking about anyone who chooses to live their life apart from God.

When I was young, my mum used to say,

if you fly with the crows, you'll get shot with them.

I don't know if anyone says that anymore.

But it means if you hang around with people who are doing wrong,

you're going to become judged in the way that they are.

Notice that Psalm doesn't just say not to walk with people who are ignoring God,

but it says don't walk in their counsel.

As believers, we have to be careful not to walk in the way

that people who don't trust God walk.

Of course we do.

But that begins by not taking their bad advice,

not taking their counsel.

Don't be taken in by the rules that the world,

people in the world make for their lives.

The standards that they think that they should live by.

Right and wrong, according to society,

it's not necessarily right and wrong, according to God.

I think there's a time in everyone's life,

anyone who was brought up in a house

where your parents attempted to walk after the ways of God,

who tried to raise you to know God,

there's a time in your life where you're going to step outside that home.

And the confines and the care and the love of your parents,

the influence that they have over you,

you're going to be confronted by ideas and advice

from people who are firmly opposed to God

and people who are just ignorant of who God is,

what he is all about.

And the thing that we have to be careful of

is that often that advice can be cloaked

to appear like wisdom.

Sometimes this perceived wisdom

isn't about telling us what to do,

but it's telling us what we can and can't have our faith in.

Maybe you've heard arguments like

you can't believe in God because of science,

which is a twisted argument

that doesn't actually hold up when you interrogate it.

But if we're not in the scriptures,

if we're not trusting in God,

then it's easy for us to be swayed.

Or maybe you've heard people say things like,

yes, the Bible says right and wrong,

but that's just not an acceptable way to live

in modern society.

This wisdom, it's not true wisdom at all.

Notice that walking,

after walking in the council of the wicked,

we progress to standing in the way of sinners.

You see, if you let these voices,

the voices of the people who don't know God,

who don't trust God,

who don't want anything to do with God,

move you in that direction,

sooner or later,

you're going to be standing with them.

You're going to be doing the things that they're doing.

You're going to be one of the crows

who's likely to be shot,

to go back to my mum's old adage.

Until finally,

you're sitting with them,

permanent and comfortable

in the way of scoffers.

You see, the danger is that

if you let yourself be swayed

by people who don't know God,

you just end up becoming them.

scoffers are like the ones,

are the ones who pour scorn on believers,

people who trust in God.

And these scoffers are saying now,

you're one of us,

pull up a pew,

come sit with us.

The picture is somebody

gradually moving

into rebellion against God.

And so this morning,

we have to remind ourselves,

we've only just got to verse one.

We have to say,

hey,

are we walking in the council

of the wicked today?

Do you recognize anything

of that in yourself?

Are you living by advice

that you've seen

in places other than from God?

Because it seems intriguing.

Because it seems interesting.

And today the pressure is so intense,

you don't have to walk

outside your door.

Your radio, your TV,

your smartphone,

all these things are desperate

to offer you counsel.

And so often that counsel

is counsel that is not

good for your eternal soul.

Do you find yourself

being swayed by it?

Maybe you find yourself

this morning in a position

where you think,

I know that this isn't right.

I know this isn't good for me,

but I've been drawn in.

Or maybe you find yourself

thinking,

it's okay,

I've got a handle on it.

I can switch it off

anytime I like.

Or Psalm 1 reminds us

that we must follow the voice

that is going to lead us

to God.

Because when we listen

to any voice,

there's a danger

that that voice

will lead us somewhere.

You've got to ask yourself,

who am I being most shaped by?

How am I being influenced

by what I consume?

In the news,

on social media,

am I being discipled

by scripture

or by sin?

Because Psalm 1 teaches

that while happiness

is available,

God wants happiness

for your life.

Sin will not make you happy.

Scripture doesn't just

describe the dangers,

it also gives us

the solutions.

Part two,

the righteous life.

So we move on

to verse two together

and it tells us

a blessed,

a truly happy person

delights in the law

of the Lord.

Delight is the thing

that your heart

most desires.

The thing that you want

more than anything else.

So while the warnings

about the wicked path

were about walking,

standing,

and sitting,

godliness

is about your heart.

This verse emphasizes

law twice,

it says God's law twice.

Law here includes

God's law as we find it

in the book of,

in the first five books

of the Bible,

in the Ten Commandments,

but it extends

to the whole of scripture.

Every word that we're given

is a word from God

and good for us.

So how can we make,

so how can God's law

make us happy?

There are lawyers here

and I'm sure that you enjoy

studying law,

but the rest of us,

we don't enjoy

studying law books.

Well, first of all,

the reason God's law

can make us happy

is because God's law

reveals so much to us

about God himself.

It shows us what God

is like.

It shows us the things

that matter to him.

It shows us the things

that he wants for us.

When we think about the law

as revealing God

as he is,

it changes things

dramatically for us

because we're not

believing in the Bible.

We're not delighting

in the Bible alone.

We're living for the God

of the Bible.

The law brings us happiness

because it brings us

closer to God.

Who he is,

what he's like,

what he's done for us.

We don't worship the Bible.

We worship the God

of the Bible.

This is an illustration

that I heard credited

to Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones,

who was one of the great

preachers of the 19th century.

And he spoke about a man

who had to go away

on business.

He went on a long journey.

And if you're under 40,

you're going to have to

use your imaginations

that there's a world

that existed

without smartphones.

This guy's gone

on a long journey,

and he's taken with him

a photograph of his wife.

And he doesn't put

his photograph of his wife

in his hold luggage.

Of course he doesn't.

He needs to keep it near him.

He puts it in his wallet.

He puts it in his breast pocket.

So it's close to his heart.

And when he goes to bed at night,

he takes it out

and he looks at it.

And he thinks about it

and he dwells on it

and he longs for it.

But this guy's not longing

for a photograph.

He's longing for the thing

the photograph is the picture of.

He has a photograph,

but he's longing for his wife.

And that's the same principle

as what Scripture does for us.

We love to be in Scripture.

We want to read the Scripture.

The Bible is so important

to our lives,

but not for the sake

of the words on the page,

for the sake of the God

who's behind those words.

Psalm 1 is pointing us

to the law.

But it's pointing us

to the law

so that we can see God.

His word allows us

to be closer to him,

rest in him

while we're traveling

through our arduous journeys

in life

so that we can have happiness

knowing that he's there.

Second reason that the law

is a delight

for the righteous person

is because it shows us

how to live.

So if we want to get blessed,

truly, deeply,

eternally blessed,

then we follow God's law

to get it.

You see,

God's law is not like

national laws.

You should keep

the laws of the land.

Of course you should.

The Bible tells us

that we should keep

the laws of the land.

But the best abiding

by the laws of the land

can do for you

is keep you

from trouble.

But Psalm 1

doesn't begin

by offering us

immunity from punishment.

It begins by offering us

blessing.

So the righteous person

meditates on God's law

day and night.

And that doesn't mean

checking in twice a day

like brushing your teeth.

It means

all day,

morning,

night,

every moment

in between.

And we know

that meditation,

therefore,

in this case,

can't be about,

you know,

a class

in a spa

where you sit

for 10 minutes

and empty your mind.

But it's also

not just reading

the Bible.

It's lingering

on what the Bible says,

turning those ideas

over in your mind,

letting yourself

be infused by it

every day.

I don't think

modern life

is set up for this.

When I've drank

too much caffeine,

I switch to

decaf coffee bags

and on the box

it says

to leave it

for four minutes.

Man,

four minutes?

Four minutes

seems like a lifetime

when you're waiting

for your coffee

to brew.

I think that's

silly,

but it's symptomatic

of our culture,

right?

We want everything

now.

We're so rushed,

we're so pressured.

We don't have time

to contemplate God's word.

We don't have time

to carry it with us,

to think about it.

We're constantly

bombarded

by messages

and interference.

I think that by nature

what we want,

what people in our day,

maybe every day,

I don't know,

but in our day,

what we want is

a planner

for the day

that looks something

like read Bible,

collect dry cleaning,

pay cancel tax,

meet Brian for lunch,

kids' football practice,

read Bible.

And we want that

so we can go

tick, tick, tick, tick

and we can clear them off

because once it's done,

it's done

and we can forget

about it

and move on.

Maybe that is actually

quite a good way

to handle the tasks

that you have

in your life.

But it's not

meditating on scripture

as it's described here.

The Hebrew word here

for meditates

not about 15 minutes

of quiet time

in the morning

and then 10 minutes

of quiet time

at night.

This word can also

be translated

as moaning

or to mutter.

This isn't a nice

tidy slot

that you fit

somehow

into your day.

This model

of meditation

is a whole

life posture

towards scripture.

So practically,

it might mean

reading the Bible

in the morning

and then

bringing it

before your mind

all through the day.

When you're in the queue

of the supermarket,

when you're getting

your lunch,

instead of waiting,

instead of instantly

going to your pocket

to see who's emailed you

since you left the office

or to see who's text you

to see what's going on

later on today.

Maybe it's thinking

about God's word,

the word that God

gave to you

that morning

for that day

to carry you through.

I promise you

that God knows

what you need

to be happy

much better

than your Instagram

algorithm does.

And look what

that heart posture

leads to.

Verse 3 tells us

the righteous person

is like a tree

planted by streams

of water.

So in verse 1

we were walking,

then we were standing,

and then we were sitting,

but now we're planted.

Planted

is much more

than sitting.

It's deep,

it's rooted,

it's grounded

and connected.

The other thing

about being planted

is that it's deliberate,

it's being deliberately

put somewhere.

And then even

the word streams,

this can be translated,

I think,

quite accurately

as a channel,

a water channel

or a canal.

So even

these waterways

that come

to refresh you

are deliberately

placed there.

Do you see

what this means?

This means

that God himself

plants his people

by streams

he himself

provides.

So being planted

is not just about

not being moved,

having roots

so you're not blown

around in the wind.

It's also about

being nourished.

A tree that's not

planted

beside streams

of water

is so vulnerable.

To survive

you have to pray

that the rain comes.

But the blessed tree

has the security

of being beside

constantly flowing

streams

of fresh water.

There's no need

to be anxious

about where the next

rain shower is coming from.

Your day-to-day

circumstances

when you're rooted

in God

are inconsequential

to your overall

blessedness

because you're

planted

beside streams

of water

that he himself

provides.

And so free

from the anxiety

of circumstances

with the constant

feeding and blessing

that this

water provides,

the blessed tree

brings forth fruit.

fruit in a person

we know

from the New Testament

manifests

as things like

love, joy,

peace, patience,

kindness,

goodness,

faithfulness,

gentleness,

self-control.

This is the fruit

that the blessed person

who meditates

on God's law

produces.

These are the evidences

that God

through his spirit

is working

in your life.

Changing you.

Become more

like the character

that you read about,

the character of God

that you read about

in his word.

Not only

do the Psalms

tell us

that the blessed person

prospers,

that the blessed person

brings forth fruit,

but they prosper

in everything they do.

Everything that they

turn their hand to

is a success.

It's nothing to do

with gaining wealth.

It's nothing to do

with getting a promotion.

It's nothing to do

with adoration

from other people.

But a flourishing life

living by God's law

does mean

a better life.

It really does.

It makes you

a better husband

or wife.

It makes you

a better parent.

It makes you

a better neighbor.

This is in complete

contrast,

we see,

to those who are not

in relationship

with God.

The Psalmist tells us

that they're like chaff.

That's the waste product

that's produced

when grain

is threshed.

They're empty husks.

There's nothing to them.

They have no roots.

They don't bring forth fruit.

They're just waiting

to be blown away

by the wind.

We see the righteous

become increasingly

stable

and the wicked

increasingly unstable

until the wicked

meet their ultimate end,

which verse 6 tells us

is destruction.

You have to be careful

not to think

that living by streams

of refreshing,

flowing,

pure water

means that our life

is therefore

going to be easy.

That's not

what we're saying.

But,

the one who trusts

in the Lord

remains fruitful

even during

the harshest of rites

because God is with them

and they take refuge

in him.

We know this.

If we've been

around church,

if we've read the Bible,

we know this.

We know this is the case.

We know that God's law

provides refreshing

and blessing.

We know that sin

leads to damnation.

So why are we still sinning?

Anyone who's here

who's compromised

their faith in some way.

Maybe you've reported

inaccurate figures

on your tax return.

Maybe you've laid

somebody off at work

to appease your boss

even though

what they did

wasn't really anything

worth getting rid of them for.

Maybe you told a lie

to avoid getting into trouble

from your parents.

That was a choice

that you made.

You did that thing

because you wanted to.

Maybe you didn't want

to compromise.

You didn't want to have

to compromise

on your faith.

But you wanted the thing

that compromising

could get you

at that moment

more than you wanted

to walk

in the paths

of righteousness.

righteousness.

the praise,

the promotion,

the pacifying somebody else

at that moment

was more important to you.

You wanted that thing

more than you wanted

to walk with God

at that time.

Look, I think

all of us

are maybe feeling

uncomfortable

when we think

about that truth.

I am.

Who's ever

walked

and not been

strayed

by the influence

of those

who don't love the Lord?

Who's ever

perfectly delighted

in God's law?

Well, don't despair

because someone

isn't pointing

accusingly

at you.

It's pointing

hopefully beyond you.

Which brings us

to our final point,

the righteous man.

Someone once said

that classic literature

are all the books

that everyone

wants to have read

but nobody wants to read.

Sometimes we feel

that about scripture.

We want to have read it.

We want to want

to read it.

But we simply don't.

We want to meditate

on God's law.

We want to be

the kind of people

who have that discipline

but it just evades us.

We don't have

that desire

that burning

aching

to be in God's word

like we know

that we should have

that the Bible describes.

It's because

our hearts are corrupted

and our desires

are distorted.

Even though we want to

even though we want

to want to

we can't.

Who could?

And if you read

the Bible like this

it's either going

to crush you

with the weight

of expectation

or you're going

to be eaten alive

by guilt.

But the Bible

isn't about us.

It's for us

but it's about

Jesus.

You see

it's not you

who resisted

every temptation

to walk

in the counsel

of the wicked.

It's not you

who never sinned.

It's not you

who delighted

perfectly

every moment

in the Father's will.

It's not you

who always

bore

healthy fruit.

It's Jesus.

The New Testament

book of Hebrews

tells us

Jesus took delight

in the law

of the Lord.

That's why

he's constantly

withdrawing

to lonely places

so that he could

be in communion

with his Father.

Even at the most

arduous points

in Jesus' life

when the devil

takes him

into the wilderness

and tempts him

it's scripture

that comes out

of Jesus' mouth.

When he's on the cross

the most agonizing

moment of his life

it's scripture

that Jesus speaks

because he loves

God's law.

Jesus is the blessed

man of Psalm 1.

And the Bible

tells us

Jesus is our wisdom

and he's our righteousness.

When we're in him

when we trust in Jesus

he fulfills

the demands

of the covenant

obeying perfectly.

He does it for us.

And yet

to our human minds

the unthinkable

happens

doesn't it?

The righteous man

suffers

the fate

of the wicked.

On the cross

Jesus bore

the judgment

that was due

for the wicked people.

Jesus bore

the guilt

and the shame

that was ours

to have.

God

experienced

the curse

of the godless.

Why did he do that?

So that sinners

like you

sinners like me

can receive

the blessing

that belongs

to him.

Paul says

Christ redeemed us

from the curse

of the law

by becoming

a curse for us.

See Psalm 1

finds its ultimate

fulfillment in Christ.

He was the tree

that was planted

by streams of water

but he also hung

on a tree

and was refused

water

and he did that

for us.

Jesus is not

simply our example

then.

He's our substitute.

He stood

in judgment

in our place.

One commentator

wrote

in Christ

we hear Psalm 1

not as a manifesto

for self-righteousness

or as a sentence

of miserable moralism

but rather

as glorious

gospel.

When we understand

Psalm 1 like that

it saves us

from three

big errors.

It prevents us

from trying

to portray

a superficial

righteousness.

Jesus had harsh

words for the scribes

and the Pharisees

in his day

who tried to act

as though

they had everything

sorted out.

We're free

to be honest

before God

because of what

Jesus has done.

Secondly

it saves us

from the futility

of becoming

a zealot

becoming a person

who

overwhelmingly

tries

to fulfill

all the things

that Psalm 1

demands

by strength

of our own will

our own determination

because that's crushing

and thirdly

it saves us

from despair.

We can never

attain

this level

of godliness

through our performance.

Jesus has attained

it for us.

In Jesus

the true righteous man

we're free

of all these errors

and now because

we're united

to Christ

through faith

his walk

becomes our walk.

His standing

becomes our standing.

His righteousness

becomes ours

and this is how

we can begin

to become

the kind of people

Psalm 1 describes

because the Holy Spirit

works in us

increases in us

not so that we can

earn his blessing

but because we've

already received

blessing

through Christ.

God give you

this song

because he wants

you to be truly

happy

and he knows

your only path

to true

and everlasting

happiness

is through his

son Jesus.

Let's pray.

Lord God

we thank you

for the truth

and the wisdom

contained

in your holy law.

Lord

we lament

that we do not

love your law

in the way

that sometimes

we wish

our hearts

wish that we

could

but we rejoice

that you knew

this.

This is not a surprise

to you Lord.

You sent your son

Jesus

to come into the world

to fulfill

the law

perfectly

to obey

your demands

fully

to die

in the place

of sinners

so that we can

be reconciled

to you.

Lord we

praise your

glorious and

great name

this morning

and we ask

that you would

hear our prayers

in Jesus name.

Amen.