What Jesus Did: Scripture

All right, this morning we are going to be in Psalm chapter 1.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

Looking at as coal, describe the practice that spiritual

discipline of scripture. So Psalm chapter one, We need

like a cup holder right there. All right, so Psalm chapter one.

I love brisket. I really do you folks here know,

I do love me some barbecue beef, rib.

I don't it's not that. I don't like, I'm just in

different and not real excited and kind of scoff at a ham

sandwich. Right.

I think about a ham sandwich like my typical ham sandwich

that I eat is going to be like that cheap 98, Cent Walmart

bread. That's got no nutrition to it.

The mustard when it comes out it's going to spray a little bit

of that juice that comes before the mustard on the bread and

then the hand that we get because, you know, we're

Thrifty, my wife likes a good deal, it's the ham that comes

rectangular that has multi colors of ham in it, and a

little Thin layer of like slime on it.

You know what I'm talking about. And when you look at that, when

you look at that, when you look at that ham sandwich, you're not

looking at a going. Oh, I can't wait to eat that.

It's just, it's just fuel to get through your day, right?

It's just but when you think about brisket, Talking about

something different and the reason I'm talking about

sandwiches and food is not just to make everyone hungry and

really impatient for me to get done with the sermon, so we can

go eat. The reason I say this is because

some not some of us, I would say, the majority of us have a

tendency have a tendency to look at the scripture, more like a

ham sandwich. Then we do brisket, we tend to

see the Bible more as like a ham sandwich that we have to deal

with a ham sandwich that we would throw in the trash.

If anything better came along. And our lives, bear this out.

It's why it's why you? And I struggle to make the

discipline of reading the Bible, a reality, in our life.

It's why we struggle to spend time in the students why we

struggled to enjoy the Scripture?

It is, we use vaulted and lofty language about the Bible.

We talk about it, like it's brisket, don't we?

It's God's word, right? It's Fallible inerrant.

It is glorious. The Bible is everything in all

of its glory and yet despite our lofty language despite the

language that would we would use for something like brisket, we

end up treating it, and it ends up being in our life, something

like a ham sandwich. And for a moment, I want to just

take a minute and wrestle with that reality and just think

about why it is that we feel that way because there's good

Good reasons why we feel that way.

We're it's not it's not like that.

Just comes from nowhere. It's not like it just comes from

some malice against God makes sense.

It's a 2000 year old book written during the Bronze Age

with stories. That sound more like Marvel

movie plots than your day-to-day life.

It's weird. There are commands in it.

That makes zero sense. That even seem morally repugnant

there are rituals that are just plain disgusting and weird like

sprinkling blood all over the place.

There are names, we can't pronounce.

There are little, it's written in languages that are dead to a

people that no longer exists to a culture.

And in a culture that no longer is this, it's just foreign, it's

weird and it's really long, and in a lot of places, really

boring. So it's no wonder that we're

tempted to think it's like a ham sandwich than brisket.

It's no wonder that we talk about it.

Like it's honey on our lips but treat it and in our lives,

easily dismiss it and set it aside for a few more minutes of

sleep. Or for whatever next video pops

up on your feet and YouTube or Facebook or wherever you're at,

It's not surprising that we would do this.

Now it's not my desire here this morning.

I'm not my intention to stand up here and demean or devalue the

Bible to you. That's not what I want to do.

In fact, I want to do the opposite of that.

But I want to get to the heart of why it is that we struggle

with the discipline of scripture, when I get to the

heart of it and that requires us looking this demon in the eye

and contending with the reality that we do.

Not believe what we believe about the Bible.

That's pretty much what it is. We just don't believe what it is

that we believe about the by. We believe it's God's word, but

we just, we don't believe it. It and that if you read the

scripture carefully, you'll know that this is this is a common

theme throughout scripture. People believe things that they

don't really believe. This is why Paul in Ephesians

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, praise to the church that he just talks about as

being in Christ and the love of Christ, he prays that they would

know the love of Christ. Why would he pray that?

People who know the love of Christ, know the love of Christ.

Because they don't believe what they believe and that's that's

our situation here. We don't actually believe what

we Proclaim to believe about the Bible and so if that's the case,

it's not going to be helpful for me or anyone to stand up here to

give you some new strategy for reading the Bible.

Here's 12 steps for reading the Bible.

Well, this year, it's not going to help you to just get a course

on hermeneutics to be able to read the Bible better.

It's not going to help you for me to stand up here.

Shane you into it, either we have to get to what's at the

heart and what is in our hearts is that Our experience and our

interaction with the Bible seems far less impressive than the

words. We use to describe it and we

have to be able to manage that, and we need God's help.

We need God's help badly, to help us perceive that the bible

really is what we say about it and experience that to some

degree. So that we can be changed and be

helped in our pursuit of discipline ourselves with it.

So, that's my goal this morning, it's my goal.

I want to spend time. As we look at Psalm chapter 1.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

I want to spend time. Trying to do this to help you

see maybe just one degree more in your life that the Bible is

brisket. It's not a ham sandwich and I

believe that if we can do that, if we can grow in our, in

believing what we believe about the Bible, that will make all

the difference for you in terms of your discipline and reading

the scripture, because here's the reality.

I will never get up at 3 a.m. to make a ham sandwich and look at

it and longed for it all day. But I will every day of the week

get up and trim a brisket at 2:00 in the morning and then

I'll smell the wood and I'll think about it all day and I'll

check the temp and I'll wrap it and butcher paper.

And then I'll do a little happy dance when it comes out of that

butcher paper. And I take the first bite, that

is how the Bible is experienced by David through the Psalms

that's how God wants us to experience it.

That's what is for us and I want us to get one step closer there

so someone will help it. So stand with me as we read

God's word. And hear what someone has to

say. 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 it's 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 You could be seated in God's presence.

Let's pray and ask the Lord for help this morning as we think

through this. Lord, we ask now that the words

of my mouth would be used by you empowered, by your word and by

your spirit to cause our hearts to perceive all the riches, the

sweetness, and The Delectable nests of your word this morning.

We need your help in Jesus name. We ask this.

Amen. So Psalm 1, if you as you read

it with me teaches us that the scriptures brisket it's not a

ham sandwich. It teaches us that it's all we

have been salivating for throughout our whole lives and

my hope is that as we consider it, you'll come to believe is a

little bit more. Psalm 1 is a Hebrew poem, it's a

Hebrew poem. And as a poem, it's one of those

reasons we tend to see the Bible more as a ham sandwich because

it doesn't even rhyme. I mean, how many times have I

heard this complaint about the Bible?

It's got poetry. That doesn't even rhyme again.

It's because it's written by a very different culture with very

different ways of expressing things.

In this poem, in this, and in Hebrew poetry, in general, it's

right words. Don't rhyme.

It's not only because it was written in Hebrew, is also

because of the design of Hebrew poetry is not intended to do

that. Instead, what you find or weird

things that we don't see a lot, we don't use this word a lot,

it's called a parallelism. And here we have a triplet,

triplet triplet parallelism where Paul is comparing things

and mayor. Not Paul.

I said, Paul didn't I did not Paul.

I'm in New Testament too much. We see we see the writer of this

Psalm making comparisons and using repetition to make a

point. And in, in this Psalm, he's

making drawing a contrast drawing, a contrast between two

different kinds of people, he's setting up, a contrast of

dichotomy, two different lives, the blessed life, and the wicked

life, the blessed, man, the Blessed woman, and the Wicked

Man, The Wicked Woman. And we Find that the blessed and

the wicked have two different kinds of lives.

And so let's, let's let's see. This verse 1.

The very first line is blessed. Is the man, this is talking

about a blessed person. Could also be translated as

happy. Could also be translated as

joyful, this is the happy life. This is the joyful.

Like this is the blessed life, the blessed, man.

Filled up with satisfaction a person's settled in their own

skin. They're blessed.

Their life is good. Things are well with them and we

see the degree to, which it is in verse 3, that they are

flourishing in their life. This is a blessed person whose

life is marked by flourishing fruit and prosperity.

We see that. Clearly in verse 3, he is like a

tree strong rooted planted by streams of water.

Where there's plenty and provision and sustenance.

The that yields its fruit in its season it's productive.

It's Leaf, does not wither, it doesn't shrink up and shrivel

up. There's no winter and imagine

that no winter, no time, of not producing, it is healthy.

And all that he does he prospers.

This is amazing. This is this is the life we all

long for. This is the life we dream about

this is brisket, this is what we do.

Happy dance for this is what we long for we pursue this.

We all want this, and this is what Adam and Eve had in the

garden, in the beginning of the scriptures, prior to their

fallen sin. They had this productive life.

And what you see here is basically the image of a garden.

You basically see the Image of this identical Paradise here,

and this is what marks the person who the blessed person

this is what marks their life. The blessed man, not only lives

in Paradise, but he produces and brings that new create that

creation, the new creation to the world around him prospering

and bearing fruit. What simply could be better than

that. What could be better than that?

What kind of life could be? That it's so good.

It seems beyond reason and yet we see this contrast then in

verse 1 as well. It's no, not only talking about

the blessed man, but he talks about the wicked and you see

that comparison there. And here we see, one of those

Hebrew parallelisms where he describes the wicked in three

different ways. He does not walk in the counsel

of the wicked stand in the way of Sinners, nor sit in the seat

of scoffers and we see this parallelism, three.

Lines. That are basically saying the

same things with a little bit different wording to give nuance

and to give color to what he's talking about.

About the wicked and verse 4. He comes back to this and he

says the wicked are not so Wicked sinner scoffer, these

terms Sinner and scoffer kind of these terms kind of work.

Like, like nuancing different colors of what it means to be

Wicked. A sinner is someone who Rebels

against God Rebels against Authority, they twist, and

pervert truth, and then scoffer gives us a little bit different

color asked offered. We don't use that word very

often. It's not very Common word that

we use. But essentially what it means is

someone who turns their nose up at something with a little bit

of disgust, my wife and I were out having a drink with some

friends. And as we're sitting there in

this bar on the TV up behind us are behind.

The couple were sitting across from, I see a TV screen and a

press conference comes on and in this press conference my beloved

Cubs catcher. Willie.

Willie, Contreras is sitting there and he now has on a

cardinal shirt. He got traded, I didn't expect

it, I didn't, I did. I knew it happened.

And I grieved in my heart about it, but I wasn't prepared to see

it. And when I did, my wife will

tell you. I scoffed, I was like, ah, ah,

turn it off. Get it away.

I can't see it. That's coughing.

And what you've, what? And the silly illustration.

But the point is that someone who scoffs looks at something

with a degree of disgust, they look at something and they feel

an inner sense of And this describes the wicked person,

they not only rebel against God, the Intolerable against his

purposes but they find it gross, God's gross, his ways are gross.

I don't want anything to do with them and then Verses 4 through

6. Explain to us what that kind of

life. Looks like.

What it produces if the blessed person is basically in Paradise,

what does the wicked person's life look like it.

It's what would says there in verse 4.

There are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Which means essentially that their life is meaningless, it's

it's in vain, chaff is the little husk little husk, very

light husk that lives on the outside of a grain of wheat.

And when it is lying on the ground, a slightest Breeze, will

pick it up and carry it away, like it's nothing.

It's like a Mist. It's nothing.

It's light. And in, it's inconsequential and

it's what he says. The wicked's life is like it is

Inconsequential. It is vain, it's accomplishes

nothing productive. Unlike the blessed man.

But then he says in verse 5, he goes on and says they're not

going to stand in the Judgment. In other words, they may be

rebelling against God but they're going to be brought to

their knees. Nor sinners in the congregation

of the righteous. And here what you have is an

image of community people gathered together and they're

not going to be among them, they're going to be out in

darkness separated from Community isolated and alone.

And then verse 6 the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the

Way of the Wicked Will perish God doesn't know their way

because he's not been down their path.

They don't know, they aren't on the path.

That God knows and death creeps into their life death surrounds

them. That's what the that phrase.

The Way of the Wicked Will perish.

They're not among the congregation, they're sent out

of the garden, their life is not in Paradise, but it's outside of

the presence of God and isolation and alone.

And they disappear as if they're innocent nothing.

This is this, a nightmare. This is an absolute nightmare of

a scenario. And we've all known maybe have

been or even are this person. people in our Lives who we the

very common phrase that we use today, is someone who's toxic

The kind of person that scoffs at their friends and their

family, and it God, the kind of person that stirs up division.

The relationships are marked by quarreling.

The relationships are marked by retreating and isolation, and

they live in kind of Darkness alone and sad and feel and

experience the meaninglessness of this.

There's no Oh, there's it's not. It shouldn't be surprising to

us. That Jesus would describe hell

this way as outer darkness, and isolation and alone.

So, you have this picture. Then this contrast the blessed

man in Paradise. The Wicked, Man.

In a kind of hell. And you got this horrifying,

scary contrast. What we haven't touched on is

what leads to these two different outcomes?

What we what we haven't mentioned and you probably

already know by implication is how these two outcomes come to

be. And what's interesting is the

way this song describes it because it describes it as a

kind of attention that a person has in their life, what they

give their attention to Is what leads to these two very

different outcomes in their life to these two very different

kinds of experiences in the world two.

Very different kinds of attention.

We see that the blessed man does not give his attention to the

things and life and input of the wicked.

His attention is directed something somewhere.

Very different in verse 2. It tells us that his attention

is given to the law of God, which is another way of saying

the Bible the scripture. and when when the scripture here

gives us this idea of focusing, our attention I'm reminded just

to give us a the degree of attention that is being depicted

in this Lane, in this in this text is, is well, it can really

only be illustrated by my father again and I promise that my

sermons are not just going to be commentary on my father's

hunting experiences. It's not where I'm going.

But this just is too rich and too helpful to avoid and he's

not here to be embarrassed by this.

So, he'll have to listen and hear.

My father experienced this in his own life, he as is a deer

hunter, if you weren't here last week, he was in his deer stand

with his bow and he was using his bow to hunt deer during the

rut, which is basically time when deer mate and the Bucks.

The male deer get very interested in the females and

they're very, very upset when they hear another male deer and

their area and they want to fight them.

And so hunters will carry with them, what's called a grunt

call, which mimics the sound of a male deer.

So that they say other bucks will come in and fight one

another, and it gives them an opportunity to get a shot.

Well, my dad has his has his grunt call on his around his

neck. So he can have it at the ready

to use and he's using it. And he's telling me I called

this deer in forever. It came in from ever forever

away, it gets in front of him and as it doesn't, he's got his

bow drawn back. Focused attention.

So tight on this deer. He drops the grunt call from his

mouth and does not realize because his attention is

focused, the grunt call Falls over the string, and as he

releases the arrow, his whole body goes with it.

And the arrow goes down into the dirt.

Nearly comes out of the deer standing mrs.

The deer. Never has a shot, doesn't get

it. It's just a tall tale that he

tells everybody with great distress.

And I could just I just had this picture of my dad going through

all of this in the tree and it just makes me laugh.

But the point is in that story. And what we see here in the

scripture is that We give our attention to things that matter

to us. And we give very focused clear

attention to the things that matter to us.

We don't give very much attention to things like ham

sandwiches, which is why I don't throw the bread in the trash.

When that little juice comes out of the mustard bottle, I just

eat it and deal with it but brisket There's a lot of

attention their attention that would get caused me to fall out

of a tree if I'm not careful. Like my father and same with

deer hunters, they experience the same thing, attention

focused directs and shapes our life in a certain direction.

It shapes our life in ways that we can't imagine in here what we

see very clearly in verses 1 through 3.

Is that the blessed man has a different kind or different.

Aunt different point of focus with his attention.

Then does the Wicked Man his attention is given to the law of

God, the law those scriptures, he gives disciplined Focus

attention to what God has said rather than scoffing at it

turning his nose up at it and finding it, gross or

unpalatable, he Delights in it. Rather than rebelling against

it, he accepts it and conforms to it.

He stands with the law of God, look at, look at how he talks

about the way in which the blessed man does not engage with

the attention of the wicked. Notice the words, their walks

stands sits. You get the picture there of a

person's whole life, every posture available to them.

Our whole life is given attention and rather than

walking standing and sitting in the counsel of the wicked.

He is walking standing and sitting in the word of God in

God's law. And we know this, because of the

way, it's modified in verse two that he thinks about it, he

meditates upon it day and night. It dominates his attention at

2:00 in the morning, he wakes up and like me going after brisket,

he thinks About the law of God, he relishes and he does.

He finds in it? Something, sweet and glorious.

His attention is given to it full attention.

And he does this over time. He does this over time in his

life, takes shape because of it, and he becomes as it were a mini

version of the Garden of Eden, a new creation, a little outcrop

of Heaven on Earth is what comes he bears fruit?

He's filled with delight. He's filled with joy.

He's filled with happiness and this dominates his life.

So know this, know this, if you want a life of flourishing and

joy in Jesus, there's one way delighting yourself in God's

word meditating on it day and night disciplining yourself,

daily reading meditating upon devouring tasting consuming the

scripture as if it's brisket. But there's 33 implications that

I'm going to run through and I've got plenty of time to do

it. Yes.

Three things, three implications.

This has for us. This is great.

Sounds great. Let's meditate on the law of

God. We still feel like it's ham

sandwich. Set a lot of great things,

right? Oh man, it's gonna lead us to

Paradise. it's still feels like a sandwich.

What do we do with that? We need to know Jesus is the

blessed man in whom we find our blessedness.

Jesus is the blessed man of Psalm chapter 1 and we need to

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

hear that. All of us fail to give proper

attention to God's word as we are.

And we're too often encumbered by the death of our attention,

being diverted to things in this world.

We know it because we feel it because we the, I mean, the

Facebook algorithm or the Algorithms on like, they know

what we find to be brisket and it just it just sucks Us in,

right? And if it were up to you, if it

were up to me, we would never find flourishing and joy because

reality is our default mode. In our flesh, is to scoff at

God's word. Look at it like a ham sandwich.

And move on to what we think to be bigger and better things.

That's that's that's the reality of our lives.

So many of our lives, but there's good news.

There's good news here because we are not God does not leave us

in a hopeless condition where the Way of the Wicked would

Define us apart from God's grace that this likely would be our

end. All of us, but there's good

news. God has not left us in our

ignorance. He has sent his son Jesus.

Who delighted himself in the law of God?

Jesus practiced, the discipline of scripture, he studied it from

his youth, we know this from the gospels, Jesus engaged in Bible

study in his youth to the point where, as a kid, he was going

into the temple and debating, the leaders of the Jewish

Community, teaching them what to believe, and teach about the

Bible, he memorized it. We know that because, as he's

out doing battle with Even in the desert, which is like one of

the most epic chapters of the Bible, Jesus is literally

battling Satan in the desert, and he does it by quoting

scripture at him, because he memorized it, he knew it, he

debated the scripture, he taught the scripture, he used it to

bring healing to people raise people, from the dead deliver

them from demons. He used it when he was hanging

on the cross paying for our sin, he disciplined.

Himself in the scripture and he didn't just discipline himself

in it. He spent time meditating on it

and chewing on it and savoring it.

Like it was brisket in his mouth like honey on his lips He used

it to say, he used the scripture to save us from sin.

And he is the Fulfillment of this.

He is the blessed man and we know this because Jesus rises

from the dead as new creation. And from him comes the fruit of

Salvation that we all get to walk in New Life.

New Hope New Hope. Flourishing forever flows from

him. He is the man of Psalm 1.

Psalm 1 is Jesus, which is Hopeful for us because what that

means is we don't have to approach someone as if it

depends upon us to realize the hope of it.

We don't have to take that world upon our shoulders because if we

did, we just fail and what's so helpful theater and help me with

this, this last week. Luke 24:44 this passage in Luke

Luke 24:44 Luke 24 · chapter mention

chapter 24. I've always known that Jesus is

the Fulfillment of the Old Testament and the Fulfillment of

the Psalms. But I always just miss this

little nugget in Luke 24, verse 44, is it up on the screen?

Luke 24:44

Look you here. These are My words that I spoke

to you while I was still with you, this is Jesus talking that

everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets.

And what the Psalms are fulfilled, Jesus fulfilled this

for us and he wants you to know that you might feel discouraged

that you would not be the blessed man in this text and

you're right. You're not on your own.

But there's glorious news. Jesus is and he invites, you

into his flourishing with him. To transform you and change.

You and bring new life and New Creation out of you.

As you come to him, your Delight in God's law, then is a

delighting in Jesus, and finding your hope, and your flourishing

in your happiness and him. Not as the means to your own

self attained joy. And rather than this relieving,

you of the discipline of God's word, it frees you to engage it

knowing that your flourishing is already guaranteed and that it's

already one for you in Jesus. So you never have to fear being

caught up with the wicked. So, you can Feast freely and

glut yourself on God's word without fear here.

Psalm one should not stand over you as a Christian as some angry

schoolmarm threatening you, it's calling you to joy in Jesus.

Which is amazing. The second implication is this

that it is good and it is right to pursue the Bible as a means

to pursue a life of flourishing. It's good.

And it's right to be motivated by wanting to flourish by coming

to the scriptures. Why read the Bible?

You might ask. One answer because it's your

duty. Sure it is.

It's not just that. There's more than that, God

created you for the purpose of delighting in him.

He created you for the purpose of enjoying him, he created you

so that you would flourish. And what this means is that you

can, and you should have a motive behind reading your

Bible, you can, and you should have a motive for doing that

when I cook brisket, I don't cook brisket just so that

there's food on the table. I do it because I look forward

to that little happy dance. When I take the first bite, And

God wants you to do that. When you read the Bible, it is

not just something God says to do just do it and shut up and do

it. He does it because he wants to

bring joy and flourishing in your life and you can accept

that as a legitimate real motive in some Christians, have a very

hard time with that. They think they need to have

some, some lack of self-interest when reading the scriptures are

obeying God and God never in the Bible just says do it and

doesn't give you some kind of self-interested motive.

It's some weird actually. It's from Emanuel cotton.

Anyway, we won't go into all that you don't care about the

flaws. Philosophical history of it.

But there's a reason why we westerners don't want to think.

We want to think that we can't have self-interest when we

pursued obedience to God and it's not biblical.

It's a secular philosophy that has infected the mind of the

church that's really harmed us. And what you need to know is

that God designed you to have a self-interested motive in

obeying him and engaging him and it's your joy in him.

The two are not different things, they're not separate

realities. He's as if your joy in him was

somehow fight against his glory for himself there.

One reality, they can be one married reality, and what God

wants you to do. When you see the scripture is to

look at it and say, oh I get a happy dance with that, I that's

honey on my lips and that brings him more Glory than if you just

merely obey him because well that's just what you got to do.

John Piper says, it better than me.

But that's that's that's what it is.

So do you want to be happy? Do you want to flourish then

make reading the Bible, a discipline in your life?

Jesus doesn't just say pick up your cross and follow me.

He says, do you want to live then?

Pick up your cross and follow me.

Do you want Paradise then? Pick up your cross and follow

me. That's why the covenants are

filled filled with blessings. If you obey them, it's why God

is constantly putting his drug before.

And it's also how Jesus obeyed God, when Jesus is on the cross.

He's not merely saying, well, this is just what God does. he's

saying, no, there's joy out in front of me that I'm going to

pursue and so in Hebrews 12:2, God wants you, he demands that.

Hebrews 12:2

You come to him, finding joy and Paradise in him.

And so engaging, the scriptures is not just a duty for you to do

engaging, the scriptures here as verse 2 says, is a delight It's

a delight. There is a brisket kind of.

Happy dance in it. Then last.

And I think this is, I hope this is helpful for someone this

morning. This is a process.

It is not something that happens in a moment in a person's life.

Look there at verse 20 verse 3. He's like a tree planted by

streams of water. My wife and I, we planted a tree

and our yard a few years ago, that's things still is not

throwing shade in my yard. We gotta wait years for that to

happen and it's irritating frustrating and there's a little

bit of anxiety when is it going to happen and is this winter

going to be the one that kills it off, right?

But it grows a little bit, just not enough for me to feel

satisfied with it. No, this this is how God is

shaping you in his word when you come to it and you're like, what

the heck, am I reading? What are all these silly names

in these long genealogies? What in the world is up with

Paul saying in 1st Corinthians chapter 9, that threshing out

the grain? The doloxan threshing out.

The grain is being allowed to thresh the grain.

While he does his work is the reason why pastors should be

paid. And that's what Moses really

meant when he wrote that law. I've been studying the scripture

for 20 years, more than that and that is the craziest thing I've

ever heard. Where did Paul come up with that

idea? I can make no logical sense of

that, it frustrates. It's me and I'm like, Paul what

are you doing? I can't.

I don't I don't know how to deal with it or when you read read

some of the Psalms imprecatory Psalms, where they're calling

for the destruction of enemies or you just read Joshua and

you're like whoa there's a lot of blood there are you just look

at the Tabernacle and God's please with blood being spilled

it? Like these things are hard.

And God puts us in a situation where we don't find all of the

glory at one moment. There's a process.

We're like little trees. That frustratingly.

Grow small little bits over time.

And so if you're struggling with finding the scripture to be

honey, on your lips to be brisket in your mouth.

Be patient. Be patient.

God seems to be weirdly interested in doing things that

I find irritating, which is not giving me everything I want in a

moment. He is very comfortable.

Happy for you to struggle through it and to come through

it. And the reality is, that's a

really good thing because what that means for you is that there

are millions upon Millions. Of little taste of brisket for

you forever to enjoy. I am I've learned to be really

happy that I don't understand for its Corinthians 9:9, but I

know that one day I will and I'll do a little happy dance

when I figure it out. I know that just like feed and

when he brought up, Luke 24 24 last week.

I knew that the Psalms fulfilled were fulfilled in Jesus, but

when he said it, I literally and everyone at my community group

contested, I literally Get a happy dance in our living room.

I was excited. It was like, oh my gosh.

There it is. I knew it, but I didn't know it.

And what this means is that God is giving us something like an

adventure of exploring him and knowing him and experiencing

little incremental bits of the reality of who he is.

And every little bit of it, satisfies our soul.

And at the same time transforms us into those works of New

Creation, which is Is just incredible.

It's literally the best of all worlds.

So, Be patient. You're on a long exciting,

never-ending Adventure ride. and you'll forever get to take

greater take in greater and greater glories as you as you

not only learn more as you read the scriptures but as you are

transformed into the image of God, through the scriptures, And

that if you haven't already concluded, this is better than

brisket. It's better.

It's better than anything in this world.

So why is a church where we going to discipline ourselves in

the reading of scripture? It's not just because we want to

look like academic Scholars who've mastered an ancient book,

it's because there's joy and New Creation in it.

So let's pursue that as Jesus did and be like him in that way.

Let's pray and ask his help to do so.

God, we confess that we are tempted to just be frustrated

sometimes with your word because it's hard and will admit that

sometimes reading it feels boring. we know, we know though

that it's not, it's our ignorance and our foolishness

and are just hardheadedness and Smallness that lead us to these

conclusions, but I pray this morning that your spirit would

give us just even one degree further unawareness of all the

glory that there is, so that we would be encouraged to delve,

even deeper and more profoundly into your word.

Together, in Jesus name, we pray and ask this.

Amen. Tell me about the smell.

What's the smell in this apartment?

Tell me about the smell. What's the smell in this

apartment?