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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the psalms.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you and so would you join us. Grace and peace. We are in praying the Psalms and today is Psalm chapter 1. David writes these words, blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the lord and who meditates on his law day and night.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do, they prosper, not so with the wicked, but they are like the chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. By way of reflection, I just wanna draw our attention to a few things.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:1st, this psalm, the beginning psalm to this whole book, seems to present 2 ways of being human in the world. And what makes all the difference is what we choose to meditate on. It says there that blessed is the one. The the word there is asre, which can mean, the one who has the good life, which is, I think, is something we all would pursue, is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the company of mockers. You You can notice the progression from walking all the way to sitting, almost like communicating this sense of progression, but also movement, but also you get stuck in the way that you sit with mockers.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Wicked meaning people who I think would identify good as evil and evil good. Those who stand in the way of sinners, this idea you've you've missed the mark. In other words, you spend time with people who are aiming their life in the wrong direction. And then lastly, you end up sitting in the company of mockers. That word there is communicating this idea that someone's cynical, someone who has very little ability to look for hope in the world.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But then look at the one who has the good life. The one who is blessed is the one who delights in the Torah or the teaching of God, and their delight leads them to meditate on it. As I said, there's 2 ways of being human in the world, and what makes all the difference is what you and I choose to meditate on. Notice what we delight in or whatever you and I delight in, we will meditate on. And ultimately, what you meditate on, in other words, what you focus your attention on, will cultivate delight in your heart.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so reflection, I want all of us just to be mindful of the things that we meditate on or that we think about, whatever consumes your mind, wherever your, kind of, thoughts go when you have a free moment, are you just daydreaming in the car? Where does it go? Because the psalmist is beginning this journey by saying those who delight in the teachings of God, they become like a tree. A tree of life that actually kind of calls back to Genesis 1 where all of life was rooted in this source that God had placed in the garden. And it says that in every season, there's fruit.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In all that you do, you prosper. And then not so with the wicked, but they're like the chaff. So the foolish person is is easily tossed by wind, and they're unable to stand before God. And so there's an invitation for us as we think about now responding to God in prayer, just to be thinking about the way that Jesus is saying to us, to draw our attention to what we meditate on today. And so, Lord, we commit to you our thoughts.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We commit to you the way that we delight and we ask that our focus, our whole being would be focused on the fact that your word is good for us. And so would you make us like those who are planted by streams of water so that we might cultivate fruit and bear fruit in every season. In Jesus' name. Amen. Grace and peace.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Check out Psalm chapter 2.