Finding Stability In An Unstable World

Well, anytime you visit somewhere, you've got to do a quick couple boxes to check off.

So first of all, greetings from Crossway, Milwaukee.

We've enjoyed whatever kind of level of fellowship we can have throughout the years.

In particular, since the last time I was here, I've been able to have lunch and coffee with Mike Salvati and Matt Sear.

And it's been a great blessing of a time.

Those men love this church.

And it's a great encouragement to me to be here once again.

Another box I need to check off is Eric Tully.

Kirk Miller sends his greetings wherever you are.

If he's not here, send it to him, Eric.

All right, very well.

I feel like a little bit, you know, like when Paul sends a letter to show up at a church and he's like,

greet this person and this person.

I'm assuming maybe they did some of that.

So that's from Kirk in Milwaukee.

And then my family, it's just a great pleasure to be here.

So my wife over there, Dan, my name is Dan, and then Danica, Dan and Danica.

And then our three kids are with us, Tally or Talatha and then Selah and Dupree.

So it's great to be here.

Let's jump into the word.

I'll tell you my goal right up front.

My goal is that all of us here would be stirred up to pursue a life in the word of God.

It's very simple.

So I'm not trying to convince you of the profitability of the word of God.

Now, if you're not convinced of that, I hope that you will be convinced of that throughout this time.

But I'm not, my goal is not merely to convince you of a fact, but that God would stir up our hearts to pursue a life in the word.

That we would see that as valuable and worth sacrificing other things in life to have a life in the word.

So I find one of the interesting things about the human race is that we like to be terrified sometimes, right?

If it's for entertainment, we like instability.

You know, that's why people go to, let's say, Great America, right?

I mean, people pay exuberant amounts of money to feel totally out of control, right?

I mean, that's what you do on a roller coaster.

You're terrified.

That's why you're screaming.

That's why you like to watch those things on YouTube as somebody is, like, passing out on the roller coaster.

Because they're terrified.

And we enjoy that for whatever reason.

We like tubing behind a boat because it makes us feel out of control.

We like bungee jumping.

Or when you're a kid, you like, my four-year-old loves it if you come around the corner and just, bah!

You know, first he jumps back and he lets out this huge scream and then he says, I love that.

You're like, what is wrong with us?

Like, right?

There's something about us that we like that.

We enjoy it.

But that's, of course, if it's for entertainment, right?

I mean, if that actually comes into our home, like, in daily life,

like a feeling of instability,

that we don't want.

But the reality is that that is life on this world.

That's life on this side of eternity.

It is a roller coaster.

And much of it is experiencing some of those quick down, you know, on a roller coaster.

And you're just terrified and you're waiting and it's going down.

That's what life is like a lot of times.

You know, you're struggling in a relationship or financial crisis.

Or just fear of a doctor's appointment or fear of putting the kids in school over and over again.

I mean, we could come up with this long list of this just scary world.

It's scary because you're limited.

I'm limited.

We can't control things.

We don't like that.

Now, our psalmist this morning gives us the solution of where to find stability in this unstable world.

And it's very simple.

His claim to us in the text is that God's word gives God's people strength and stability.

Both in this life and in the next.

That's the way the psalm goes.

God's word gives God's people strength and stability in this life and in the next.

Now, this psalm, you may know, comes to us as the first chapter of psalms.

That was pretty simple, right?

Psalms is a book, as you guys have been going through, this is a book of poems.

It's a way of helping us to encounter our emotions.

What does it look like to worship God and come underneath his authority in heartfelt faith in this roller coaster of life?

And that's why you read so many psalms that there's ups and there's downs.

There's times of confusion and chaos and defeat.

And there's times of great victory and happiness.

And it's all about how do we come underneath God's authority and worship him?

And isn't it interesting that he starts off, the book of psalms starts off with a focus on the very law of God.

The worship of God through the book.

So as a wisdom psalm, he's presenting two paths, two ways of life, as you will.

There's the way of the wicked and there's the way of the blessed.

This is a wisdom psalm, we would call it.

And he's not trying to get you to just see that there's two paths, but he's urging us and begging us to pursue the blessed way.

So he's going to paint a picture of what is the blessed way?

How do we pursue it?

And that's how I understand he would have us to leave the psalm.

So we're just going to walk through the psalm, most of it, so at least we see the claim.

Who is this blessed man?

How does he become blessed?

It starts off right there, verse 1.

1 and 2 is kind of showing a negative relationship and a positive relationship with something, right?

He starts off, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor does he stand in the way of sinners, nor does he sit in the seat of scoffers.

Now notice the progression there.

He doesn't walk or stand or sit.

There's a progression in what he's talking about.

And you could summarize this as he doesn't kind of mingle with sin.

Now I don't think that doesn't mean he doesn't like hang around with sinners, otherwise Jesus would not qualify as the blessed man.

But it's engaging in the activity.

It's not only just standing with him, but sitting, and this is who I am.

He says the blessed man has a negative relationship with that.

He resists it and turns from it.

And then he throws in a contrast.

Now before you read verse 2, you should ask yourself, well what's the opposite of that?

So blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.

Instead, he what?

I mean if I didn't go left, I went right.

If I didn't go up, I went down.

If I don't walk in the counsel of the wicked, you would think you would say, I walk in the counsel of the righteous.

That's the contrast.

But he doesn't.

He focuses on something else.

He says, I don't, he doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked.

But he delights in the law of the Lord.

Now he's going to get back to a way of the righteous.

He gets to it at the end of the psalm.

And I think it's because it's delighting in the law of the Lord that actually gets him on this path.

But so verse 2, the contrast is the blessed man delights in the law of the Lord.

And on his law, he meditates day and night.

So we should at least ask, what is the law?

The Old Testament uses that term several different ways.

It could be referring to the Levitical code.

These are some of the ceremonial things you're supposed to do, the law that's given in Leviticus.

Or it could mean sometimes it's referring to all of Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible, as the law of Moses that God gave through Moses, the Pentateuch.

Or it's referring to the general instruction of God, the teachings of Yahweh, which eventually gets compiled into what the New Testament then calls the Scriptures.

Now, I understand that to be the way, this last way, the general pursuing the law of the Lord, the instruction of the law.

When Yahweh speaks, he gives it to us and packages it in words, writing.

Now, that in itself is a mind-blowing thing.

Because, I mean, if you've read your Bible, do you know what happens like on page 3?

The people reject God.

They don't want God to be king over them.

And yet God, he kicks them out of the garden, but he promises that one day he's going to restore this.

By, like, page 6, God actually says that his heart is grieved because he created man.

Because man's intention of his heart is evil all the time.

So he destroys the whole world with a flood, save eight.

And God would have been perfectly holy, perfectly just, if he just saved those eight and left them.

And said, now, go figure this out yourself.

I'll be over here.

But that's not what Yahweh does.

He pursues the sinner.

And he gives them a writing.

And then he shows them, this is the way of relationship with me.

This is the way of worship.

This is who I am.

This is who you are.

This is the way the world works.

I mean, this is mercy.

The law of Yahweh.

He has given it to us.

So the blessed man is one who delights in the law, meditates on the law.

But let me just say here, there's an assumption going on that's not spoken.

The assumption is he reads it, right?

I mean, you can't meditate on the law of the Lord and delight in it if you don't have any kind of relationship with it, right?

He reads it or listens to it.

Whatever it is, he's around it to consume the word of the Lord.

Now, I realize for my own self, I need to be careful a little bit in my own heart as I talk on a topic like this.

Because this has been my burden for the church since like day one of coming to faith in 2001 when I was 23 years old.

So I actually was living in Racine at the time.

Started attending this church in Kenosha.

And it was a very charismatic church.

And I have no doubt that those people love Jesus.

None whatsoever.

They gave me my first Bible after I came to faith.

And I blessed the Lord for them.

But I would sit there.

My whole world was going tipsy-turvy.

I mean, it was radically changing.

And I'm still living with some of the guys that I kind of run around with and partied with.

And through the years I've played ball with.

And so I'm still living in this apartment.

It was a total chaotic mess.

And here I am is seeking to now follow Jesus.

Who I believe actually died in my place and rose from the dead.

And he's raining on high.

And he's coming again.

Like I was believing this stuff.

And I would show up to these services.

And I don't remember exact timing.

But let's say the service was an hour and 15 minutes.

Roughly an hour and five minutes of that was singing.

And running through the aisles and speaking in tongues and such.

John, I'm not even knocking that.

My point is I would leave not having some emotional experience.

And thirsting in my soul saying, I need to know this book.

Don't these people realize where I'm coming from?

I believe in Jesus, but I don't know what this book is talking about.

I'm a fool.

I need to know this book.

They seemed more interested in pursuing some emotional experience than actually understanding what the book said.

And so then I started attending this conservative church.

That would stand up right here and just say, this is the authoritative word of God.

We read the word of God.

We love the word of God.

And I would say, yes.

And I remember the pastor preaching for 40 minutes.

And I say, yes.

I need this.

And then I look around and people look bored out of their mind.

And I couldn't figure out what's going on.

And I would ask people in the church just very basic, basic questions about the Bible.

And they had no clue.

And I could not figure out what was going on.

I mean, here I am sitting at home.

Instead of going out to the bar and getting drunk.

I mean, this is my early stages of walking with Jesus.

I'm getting drunk at home and reading the Bible, right?

This is really early, right?

I'm telling you, there's a lot for God to work on me.

And I remember the nights of just several days in almost.

I mean, I started in Matthew.

And I got to a section.

I don't know if it was Matthew or Mark.

But I remember sitting there.

I was so bitter towards my dad.

My dad left when I was nine.

I hated the man.

And I remember reading the words of Jesus when he said, when he talked about the forgiveness

that we have received through his shed blood for all the sin that we've committed against

God that I've received from God.

And he turns to then his disciples and he said, if you don't forgive, then you will not be forgiven.

And I remember a night sitting there where God took this 500-pound weight off my shoulders

so I didn't have to be so bitter towards my dad.

I mean, I'm reading the word, seeing God transforming my heart through the word of God.

Now, the weight was 2,000 pounds at the time, so 500 came off.

But that was a glorious 500 pounds.

And so I'm experiencing the word of God is changing me from within.

And yet these people in the church, they seem to care less about the Bible.

And I could not figure that out.

Now, that stirred up a lot of self-righteousness in me.

So that's why I say I have to be careful with this in my own heart.

But it also gave me a deep burden.

Brothers and sisters, the living God, the law of Yahweh, who redeemed you through Christ,

has written a book about who he is and about how we can find life in him and live in this world.

And we will study this book forever.

So there's this basic assumption that the psalmist is making.

We read the book.

We need to be people of the book, to open the book.

But then he actually raises the stakes, actually.

He doesn't say he just doesn't read the book.

He says he meditates on the law of the Lord, verse 2.

The word meditate, you know, other places it's translated as growl.

It's about the lines growling.

It's the picture almost like of a man kind of, you know, working his vineyard.

And he's kind of, blessed is the man.

He's not seeking.

He's grumbling underneath his breath.

And he's repeating the word of God.

And he's thinking through it.

And he's saying, his delight is in the law of the Lord.

God's word.

He's grumbling.

He's growling.

So there's this meditation that he's consumed with it.

But what does the beginning of verse 2 say?

He delights in it.

There's a pleasure he finds in the word.

In other words, he's not talking just about reading the Bible or being able to say a few facts of the Bible.

He's actually saying people that the blessed man loves the law of the Lord.

There's a delight that happens.

I eat broccoli.

I eat cauliflower.

And my wife has actually found ways to cook it that I mostly like it.

And she roasts it with some garlic and coconut oil.

I like it.

I'll even eat it as leftovers.

It's decent.

But I don't delight in this stuff.

I mean, I delight in pizza or lasagna or something.

Those are the type of things.

Like, you tell me we're having pizza tonight, I'm going to be distracted for half the day.

I'm going to think about it.

Because it's coming up, right?

I delight in it.

It kind of savors the mouth.

This is what he's talking about.

There's this hunger for the word of God, the law of God, the instructions of Yahweh.

So this, I mean, just a basic question.

Does that characterize you sitting here?

Do you have a delight for this book?

Now, my guess is all of us here on some level would say I don't.

I mean, if we're honest, at times.

Right?

I've met one person in my walk with the Lord that has told me they're never without a hunger for the word.

And I don't even know if she was telling the truth.

Maybe she was.

But I certainly don't all the time.

Now, if you're here this morning and there's never been a delight,

then that's good reason to question what's going on in your heart, actually.

Like, are you actually one of God's people?

Because the blessed man who is one of God's people has some sort of a delight.

Now, the more important question than whether or not you delight in the law of the Lord,

because I think all of us would say, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

The more important question is to say, does that concern you?

Because if you say, if you answer that question, you say, no, not really.

Actually, I don't really care that much.

Yes, I don't delight in the Lord, or I don't delight in the word.

I don't care.

That's a problem.

You probably aren't one of God's people.

But if there's even a flicker in you that says, you know what?

I don't delight in the law of the Lord all the time.

I don't like that.

I wish I had a delight.

But frankly, I'm distracted.

But man, I wish I did.

I wish God would do that for me.

That is a great sign.

That's a miracle, right?

I mean, we are all born dead in sin.

We don't want God.

Even if God was standing there in a pillar of fire by day, or a pillar of fire by night,

a pillar of cloud by day, even if a man rose from the dead, we would say, nah, I'm really

not interested.

If you have any sort of a desire for the, to have a delight in the law of the Lord, it's

because God has put that there.

We should bless the Lord for that.

So this, as you read the psalm and question yourself, you're not supposed to feel condemned.

If you don't feel it, you're supposed to say, oh, there's something there.

Bless the Lord.

Give me more.

Give me more.

Well, then he gives you a wonderful picture of the result of this.

So Psalm 2, as I understand, is kind of the banner statement of the psalm.

The blessed man delights in the law of the Lord, and let me show you what happens to him.

Gives us a word picture, verse 3.

He says, the man that does that, this is the result for him.

He, well, he's like a, how do I describe him?

He's like a tree.

Not just any tree.

Not, you know, not a tree planted out in the desert.

That tree's going to fall down soon.

A tree that's planted right by a stream of water, that yields its fruit in its season,

its leaf does not wither, and all that he does, he prospers.

So it's, you know, I don't know trees that much.

This is a way that I've thought about it, though.

This is about two months ago.

I was sitting, Sunday afternoon, I'm sitting at our kitchen table doing some work or something,

and I hear this screeching of tires.

I look out our front window, and I see a car coming kind of sideways on the road,

and then it goes out of my view because the window's not big enough,

and all of a sudden I heard a...

I thought for sure this car just drove into my neighbor's house.

I don't like medical things or blood or anything like that, but I thought, man,

I thought I was going out to pull bodies.

I throw on my shoes, and I take off out the door to see what happened,

and thankfully they didn't drive into the house, but they drove right into a pole,

like a light pole.

So they're going 30 miles an hour, and the people were totally fine.

Going 30 miles an hour, it hit the light pole,

and, you know, it's one of those where it's kind of like cement and stone put together,

the pole, right?

So what do you think happened to the pole when that car hit it going 30 miles per hour?

I mean, didn't have a chance.

I mean, it totally fell, right?

Now contrast that with two years ago, I think it was,

we were woken up in the middle of the night with sirens everywhere,

and there was a high-speed chase going through the south side of Milwaukee

and it ended in our neighborhood, tragically.

So a car, it was actually a truck, going 70 miles per hour through our neighborhood,

hits the tree so hard that the truck itself, the driver died on impact,

the truck actually split in two, hitting that tree.

A truck going 70 miles per hour, and guess what happened to that tree?

He said, did something just hit me?

Nah, I'm going back to bed.

It's still standing there today.

It lost a little bark, but that's it.

70 miles per hour, a truck barreling in it, and the truck stands because it has strong roots.

This is what the psalmist is trying to get us to think about.

Trees, when they're planted by water, there is nothing going to take that thing down.

You can go to Seven Bridges Park just south of Milwaukee along the lake,

and if you go right by the lake through the trail, there's these trees that stand up on a high hill,

not quite as high as the ceiling, but very steep to these trees,

and there's steps all the way down.

And you know what the steps are?

They're actually the roots of the tree.

Because the roots go so far because it's trying to get down to the water,

and the tree stands tall and strong.

I mean, if you walk along the sidewalk, you'll see how many sidewalks you'll see like this.

Because tree roots have lifted up sidewalks.

They destroy foundations of houses.

I mean, this is a powerful picture that he's trying to give of a promise of the living God telling his people,

look, if you meditate on my law, you are going to find stability and strength in this life that nothing else can give.

Nothing else will give it.

You will be like a tree.

That even if a truck hits it at 70 miles per hour, you will laugh at it.

This is unbelievable.

Now, if you want a living example, you just got to read further in the Psalms.

This is the way I understand they kind of organize the Psalms.

The first one says,

Blessed is the man who comes underneath the authority of God's word,

who delights in the love of God.

Second Psalm ends with,

Blessed is the man who takes, you know what it says?

Refuge in the Son.

So, blessed is the man who comes underneath the authority of God's word,

who delights in the law of the Lord.

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in the Son.

And then look at Psalm 3.

Psalm 3 is about,

written by a man who had an adulterous relationship,

and it caused total havoc on his household.

His son kills one of his other sons,

and David now is on the run.

He's out in the wilderness,

terrified.

And yet,

you read these words in verse 5.

I lay down and slept.

I woke again,

because the Lord sustained me.

I will not be afraid of many thousands of people

who have set themselves against me all around.

You think he'd be sleeping at a time like that?

David is being hunted by thousands of people.

I wouldn't be sleeping a wink.

I can hardly sleep if I have a,

you know,

a hard conversation coming up tomorrow.

And here's a man,

delighting so much in the law of the Lord,

coming so much under the refuge of the Son,

and he sleeps,

like a baby,

out in the wilderness.

But, you know,

this is not the only place

that God promises this about his word.

Let me show you a couple other places here.

If you have your Bible,

go to 1 Thessalonians 2.13.

1 Thessalonians 2.13.

So here,

here's the Apostle Paul.

He says,

writing to the church in Thessalonica,

he says,

we also thank God constantly for this,

that when you receive the word of God,

which you heard from us,

you accepted it.

But you accepted it not as the word of men,

but as what it really is.

It's the word of God.

Here's the phrase,

which is at work in you believers.

Now, theologically,

this is a very important statement here.

He says,

he says,

you receive the word of God,

which is working in you,

but not you as everybody.

He says,

you believers.

He says,

when you receive the word of God,

intake it,

it goes to work in you,

who believe.

You might think of it this way.

Maybe you want to,

maybe no,

I don't know.

But think of,

you give my four-year-old

two dishes of ice cream,

you're expecting a response,

right?

You're expecting that ice cream

to go to work in him.

It's going to change him,

fundamentally,

for the next couple hours,

right?

Here,

he says,

the word of God,

when it goes in you,

who believe,

that word goes to work in you.

It's going to change you.

Well,

how is it going to change you?

It's going to make you stable

like a tree.

Well,

let's go to Psalm 19.

We'll see some actual ways,

promises,

of what God says,

this will do to you.

Psalm 19.

Psalm 19.

Verse 7.

The law of the Lord,

here we have this phrase again,

the law of the Lord,

the instruction of the Lord,

is perfect.

Here it is,

reviving the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure.

Here's another one.

Making wise.

The simple.

And he keeps going,

and the precepts of the Lord are right.

Here it is,

rejoicing the heart.

The commandment of the Lord is pure,

enlightening the eyes.

Now,

do you think there's a single person alive

that wouldn't want those four aspects?

Like,

your soul revived?

You want your heart to rejoice?

You want to be wise?

You want to have your eyes enlightened?

Is there anybody here that doesn't want that?

No.

We all want that.

Here,

God is promising to his people,

the word of God will do that for you.

You want wisdom?

In the word.

You want to have your heart rejoicing?

Open the book.

This is what the psalmist is saying.

There's no,

I understand,

that's why he says verse 10.

More to be desired,

are they,

the scriptures,

the words of God,

the precepts of the Lord,

than gold,

even much fine gold.

That's a stunning statement.

The psalmist is saying,

look,

I'd rather have the word of God

than a lot of gold.

In our day and age,

we would say,

man,

I'd trade in my 401k for that.

That's a stunning statement.

I'll sell my house so I can have a Bible.

That's amazing.

It's if we're convinced that that's what's going to give me wisdom,

we will feel that.

The problem is,

we don't actually think the word of God will do that,

right?

Or take Romans 15,

4,

you don't have to turn there.

It says,

everything that was written in earlier days

was written for instruction

so that through endurance

and the encouragement of the scriptures,

we might have hope.

There's another place.

God claims all that was written in earlier times.

He's talking,

in particular,

the Old Testament there.

All of it.

Genesis to Malachi

was written so that you and I would have hope.

Every single piece,

even the genealogies,

once you learn why they're there,

that is meant to instill hope

that makes you like a tree.

2 Timothy 3.16,

all scripture is breathed out by God.

It's the very breath of God.

And it's profitable for us.

It's useful.

For what?

Well, he tells us

to teach us,

to reprove us,

to correct us,

to train us in righteousness

so that we're equipped

for every good work.

Another promise,

there again,

he's talking about the Old Testament.

The Old Testament

is useful for you.

It will train you.

It will equip you

for righteousness.

Ephesians 5.26,

talking about Jesus

sanctifying the church.

I love this phrase.

He says,

having cleansed her

by the washing of the word.

I love the picture.

It's a picture of Jesus

taking the church

that's all full of blemishes

and he takes the word

and he scrubs her.

What a picture.

The word of God

is meant to purify us,

to change us.

1 Peter 2,

I love this picture.

Verse 2,

it says,

he's just talked about

the enduring word

and it says,

like newborn infants,

long for the pure spiritual milk

so that by it

you may grow

in your salvation.

This is this picture

of this baby.

If you've ever seen a baby

who longs for milk

it's quite the sight.

I mean,

they're trying for the milk,

right?

They're just doing

anything they can

to get the milk

because why?

Somehow that little package

understands that

if it doesn't get milk

it's going to die.

Peter calls up this image

that the Christians,

that's what we should feel.

That's why God says

to his people,

man does not live

by bread alone

but by every word

that proceeds

from the mouth of God.

That's why we need it

because we need food

if we are to live

and we could go on

but these are

very clear promises

that God says

this is what my book

will do for you.

It will make you strong.

It will make you wise.

It will give you eyes

to see rightly.

It will give you hope in life.

It will give you stability.

It will keep you from sin.

It will cause you

to pursue holiness.

I mean,

what a picture.

And then verse 4

of Psalm 1,

if you're back there,

he contrasts it.

It says,

the wicked are not so

but they're like the chaff

that the wind drives away.

So for us

non-agricultural folks here,

the chaff would be

the part of the wheat

as they're harvesting.

You throw it up

and the grain parts,

the heavy parts,

fall back down

into the bucket

or whatever

and the chaff,

it falls off the seed

and the wind comes in

and it blows the chaff away.

Or for city folks,

you might say,

the wicked are not like

the righteous

who are like a tree.

The wicked are like

that plastic bag

that's floating around

and it's going to be

down the block

in about 25 seconds.

That's what the wicked

are like

because they have

no foundation.

In this rollercoaster

of life,

they have nothing

to actually stand on.

And then he goes on

and he talks about

the judgment to come

which is the very same thing.

The wicked will not stand

in the judgment

nor will sinners

but those who are the righteous

who I understand

in verse 6,

the righteous,

as you read the Psalms,

are not those who

have made a righteousness

of their own.

They have received

the righteousness.

I mean,

this is the gospel here.

This is all throughout Scripture.

Man is made right by God

through faith.

He's received a righteousness

not his own

and then he lives it out.

He walks in it.

And the righteous

shall stand.

So what does this mean for us?

I mean,

I think the claim actually

of the text is very simple.

God's word

makes God's people

strong and stable

in this life.

I hope we can all say,

I mean,

this is sort of obvious

that one of the greatest gifts

you could give yourself,

your spouse,

this church,

your kids,

is a life

in the word of God.

It's one of the best things

you could do for yourself.

It's one of the best things

you could do for your neighbor.

It's have a life

in the word of God.

I'm talking about

a functional life.

The word of God

makes a definitive difference.

You know,

it's something that actually

you think about.

It comes up in conversation.

And so let me just speak

to different categories here.

If you're a youth here,

if you're a kid,

I'm telling you

one of the greatest things

you could possibly do

is start reading your Bible.

You don't have to understand

it all the time.

You don't have to have

a powerful experience

all the time.

Just open the book

and say,

God,

teach me about you.

That is one of the greatest habits

you could possibly form

in yourself.

kids,

you do not want to be

the next 55-year-old

that I've talked to many

that know nothing

about the word of God.

They have no stability.

Kids,

do you want to be wise

when you grow older?

It's not from intellectualism.

It's not just by going

to a nice school.

It's not by having nice toys.

It's the word of God.

There have been many people

who have gone to great schools

who perish in the end

and that are not wise.

And there have been many

who starve to death,

who have been persecuted,

have been killed

for the faith

and are wise

beyond our years.

Kids,

the greatest thing you can do

is to pursue

the scriptures

and learn about our God.

Young

adults,

which I think young

for me now

is like through

ages 29

or 35,

I don't know,

I turned 41 this summer

so this feels weird.

Young adults,

maybe you don't feel young

but to me,

I guess you do.

Through your 20s,

you know,

you're in your career

or starting career

and maybe you're getting married

or thinking about it

or maybe you're staying single,

whatever it is,

you feel like you're on a path

and life is busy,

life is crazy.

do not for a second

assume

that you'll put off

the word of God now

and you'll come back to it

when life slows down

because it's not slowing down.

It'll only get crazier

and the greatest thing

you can give yourself

right now

is to say,

you know what,

if that job

is going to move me away

from the word of God,

the job goes.

That's what the psalmist says,

Psalm 19,

I prefer the word of God

over all the gold

and yet we live in a culture

that tells us to consume,

it tells us it's okay

to put the things

of the Lord on hold.

That is so prevalent

in the American church.

We put career first

and I don't think

that would hold up

in the scriptures.

Now parents of young kids,

I mean what a gift

you can give to your kids

to raise them

not just knowing

about the Bible

but demonstrating

a life in the Bible.

If you have young kids,

this is what you could do tonight.

You could ask them today.

It's like,

son, daughter, whatever,

I want your honest thoughts.

What do you think

mommy and daddy

think about the Bible?

Like, show us

what we think.

Do you think mommy and daddy

love the Bible?

You know what?

They'll probably say yes

because we train our kids

to kind of think

in these terms, right?

And then you say,

how?

I mean, I hope

you are demonstrating

to your kids

that the word is good,

that they see it,

that when life is confusing,

the word of God

comes into the conversation.

Here's something

I learned early on too

in the faith.

You know,

a lot of discussion

goes on,

the question like,

why are so many kids

walking away from the faith

when they get to college?

They leave in mass numbers.

They leave the church

when they go to college.

And so the big discussion

is why does that happen, right?

And you have

these different answers.

Well, maybe it's because

we sheltered them too much.

We didn't help them

experience the world enough.

Or maybe we didn't teach them

enough about, you know,

science and, you know,

they go off to the education

and they kind of lose sight

of, you know,

up and down.

We didn't train them enough

in that sense.

And, you know,

that all might be

right and good.

I don't know.

But here's the question

I never ask,

or I don't hear.

It's like,

what did the home look like?

I can tell you

the ones that I know

in general,

I wouldn't look at the parents

that say they had

a growing, vibrant life

in the Word of God.

They loved the church.

They gave themselves

to the work of the Lord.

And yet,

this is a basic principle

of life, right?

Kids will love

what parents love.

Right?

I love softball.

I go out and hit softballs.

I go out all the time

and hit softballs.

I play a lot of softball.

I have a YouTube channel

and I do softball stuff on.

I have a station

out in my garage

where I go out

and I'll hit 400 swings

in the winter.

I did 350 yesterday, right?

I just love to hit off the tee.

So I go out earlier in the week

and my son comes out with me.

He hits for a half an hour

off the tee.

He's four.

Like, why does he do that?

He wouldn't do that

if I wasn't out there doing it.

He does it because dad's out there.

Kids love

what their parents love.

And so I'm speaking

in generalities here,

but so we ask,

like, why do kids go off

into school

and they don't walk

with the Lord?

Well, duh.

We've trained them

that you go to church,

you act something,

but at home,

the Bible never shows up.

Now, if you're here

and you're not bringing

the Bible in,

again, this is not meant

to guilt us.

This is to stir us up

that it's worth it.

It's worth sacrificing time

if you have to sacrifice career,

if you have to downsize your home,

if you have to sell

one of your cars.

It's better to have your kids

leave the home

walking with Jesus,

reading the scriptures,

delighting in the law of God

so that they will be strong

and stable

in this life

and in the next.

And God says

it's in his word.

It's not in nice clothes

or education.

It's in his word.

Or if you're married here,

I think one of the greatest

things you can do

is figure out

as husband and wife,

how do you commune

with God

in his word together?

I think that would be

a worthwhile pursuit

and sacrifice

to figure it out.

It's going to look different

across couples.

So there's not like

a prescription here

that it has to look like.

But I think personally,

experientially,

for our own marriage

and for others that I know,

this will transform

your marriage

more than anything I know.

In fact,

it will transform

your intimacy

more than anything I know.

Because suddenly

where you're going to find

is that the couple

communes with God

through the word

that they're finding

their deepest joy

in God together.

They don't have to find it

in their spouse anymore.

And suddenly a lot

of the tension

kind of falls to the side.

And those are the places

where real conversation

can happen.

Is your community

with God

through the word.

Now if you're older here,

I do want to say a word.

Especially,

whether or not

you are in a place

where you know

the scriptures,

you're six years old

and older,

or you don't,

now is the day

to pursue it.

And now is the day

to find some younger folks

in the church

and gather them around

and say,

let's pursue this together.

I want to walk with you.

And if you don't know anything,

fine.

Just help them see

why they don't want

to go that path.

And say,

look,

I made a lot of mistakes.

If I could go back,

I wouldn't do that anymore.

But by the grace of God,

he's going to change me.

He is changing me.

I'm not who I was

and I'm not who I'm going to be.

But let's pursue it together.

This is the day.

Find some young folks

and equip them

in the word together.

So let me end here

with just a couple

quick pointers

of things

that I think

could be helpful

for how do you

pursue a life

in the word.

Not all the,

I mean,

there's a lot of practical things

you can do

for sure

and that's a worthwhile

discussion.

But here's a couple things.

One,

I think,

learn the promises

of God

about his word.

And I don't mean

just know them

but functionally

try to internalize them

and say,

God,

you say

your word

will give me hope.

Would you convince me

of that?

Convince me

that it's true.

Convince me

that that will give me

more hope

than having more money

or having a relationship

or having whatever.

That your word

promises that.

I gave you a few before.

Let me rattle off

them again.

So there's Psalm 19,

7 through 10.

Great place to go.

Romans 15,

4,

2 Timothy 3,

16 through 17.

Ephesians 5,

26,

1 Peter 2,

2.

And even if you

just grab those,

those are great places

to go

to just memorize them,

learn them,

say,

God,

teach me these,

convince me of these.

Second,

learn to push yourself

with grace,

not legalism.

So the last thing

right now

that anybody should

go home

is just like

try to like

just barrel through it

and think they can

just push through it

and pull up their

bootstraps

and check off boxes

and just keep reading.

This is where I think

the promises come in.

So you and I,

most of us are going to

have days where

we don't want to read

the Bible.

In fact,

I don't want to want

to read the Bible.

I just want to go

about my day.

that's when you have

to grab the promises

and learn how

to pursue this

by grace.

You say,

you grab one

of the promises

of God

and you say,

Psalm 19,

you say,

God,

I don't want

to read your word

right now.

Frankly,

I don't understand

it half the time

I read it

and I don't think

it's going to be

worth my time.

But yet,

God,

you're much wiser

than I am.

I mean,

you created the world.

You're the one

that spoke me

into being.

And you say

that your word

will make me wise.

I'm going to read

this paragraph

for the next

three,

four minutes

trusting that promise.

Would you do that

for me?

And you read it.

You read it

not because you're

just trying to

be some good Christian

but you say,

God,

I need you now.

Let your promises

stand true.

So that's a second

thing to do.

And then third

is to lower your

expectation.

In general,

lower your

expectation both

for time

and experience.

So if you're

not reading

the word of God

at all,

what I would

say to you

is pick it up

five days a week

for four minutes.

That's it.

Or something.

Just do more

than you were doing

yesterday,

which was nothing.

So do it for

two minutes tomorrow.

Whatever.

Do something.

Just move.

Move one foot

in front of the other.

Lower your expectations.

I don't think we just

stay there.

We want to grow in that.

But lower the expectations

but especially then

in experience.

I would say

most of the time

I read the Bible,

nothing big happens.

And this is actually

one of the biggest things

that as Danica and I

grew to read together.

helped.

So Danica grew up

in the church

and she kind of

had this feeling

like she should be

reading all the time

and there was

for whatever,

whether it was

from somebody else

or from her own self,

there's this kind of

thought process

that she should

understand everything

and have this

powerful experience

unless she's doing

something wrong.

Right?

And so here we are,

we're married.

I have a lot of passion

for the Lord.

I have a great passion

for the word of God.

I've gone through seminary.

I'm pastoring

and we're still trying

to figure out

how do we read

the word of God together

and so finally we started

getting in a groove

and this happened

day after day after day.

We would get to the end

of our reading time

and then she'd be like,

that's it?

I'd be like,

well yeah,

we gotta go,

time's up.

You know,

we got things to do.

And then the next day

she'd be like,

well what do you think

this means?

I'm not sure,

it could mean this,

it could mean that.

I don't know.

It's a good thought.

That's it?

And this happened

over and over

and over again.

What happened,

it lowered her expectations

to see,

oh here's this pastor,

he's not having

these powerful times

every day.

I mean,

I might have

a handful

every year

of times

where I read the word

and I'm just like,

I've never seen that

in my life.

I just heard

the voice of God

piercing me

like nothing

I've ever felt.

It happens

every once in a while.

But most of the time

it's like the drip

of a faucet.

Drip,

drip,

drip.

And you know

what happens?

Tree roots

lift up cement blocks

day after day

after day

after day

after day.

That's what a life

in the word

looks like.

So let me

close here

by reminding us

this is not

about guilt.

If you are feeling

any kind of guilt

about not reading

the word of God,

then I certainly

have not done

a good job

and you're hearing

wrongly.

If you don't

read the word,

if you're slothful

towards it,

this is a time

for us to repent.

We confess to the Lord.

We are dull

to your voice, God.

And then we grab

hold of the gospel

and we trust it

and say,

even for that,

even for my slothfulness,

Christ has died

for me.

And the fact

that I have a desire

to even want to desire

to read the word

has been planted

there by you.

And so by golly,

God, give me the grace

to pursue it.

Give me the grace

to pursue it.

This is not about guilt.

This is about asking God

to shape us

within.

Let me pray

or let us pray together.

God, I ask that you

would convince us

all more deeply

about who you are

and what the word

of God is,

the very breath of God.

Maybe we would see

the benefits of it

but that it would

stir us up

to read it.

God, what would you do

in this church?

I mean, thinking about

a church full of homes

that are pursuing you

in the word.

What would a church do

in a community

that is enjoying

the scriptures together?

So let it be

in this church.

So let it be

at Crossway Milwaukee

and Crossway Bristol

and other churches

in this city.

God, give your people

in Kenosha

a desire for your word.

In Christ's name,

amen.

Amen.