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Blessed is the Man

Bryan Schneider

December 31, 2022

Psalm 1

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If we want to experience true blessedness in life, we need to be "people of the Book!" In Psalm 1, we are shown that God actually wants to bless us – not with…

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Psalm 1 contrasts two ways: the blessed person delights in and meditates on God's Word, while the ungodly follow corrupt counsel and perish.
God's blessing is not health, wealth, or a forced smile but communion with himself, forgiveness, regeneration, sanctification, and life in his presence.
Scripture corrects, reproves, trains, and equips God's people, so even fatherly discipline belongs to the blessed life.
Christians must examine whose counsel shapes them and test media, friends, cultural claims, and moral reasoning by God's Word.
The Word changes desires, judgments, habits, and relationships as the Spirit applies it; meditation means repeatedly reading, remembering, singing, and considering it.
The rooted tree bears fruit in season, while chaff disappears in judgment; believers are called to faithful abiding, and God supplies fruit in his time.
Practical Bible-reading plans should support delight rather than legalism, with realistic commitments, family reading, accessible formats, and habits suited to one's life.

Psalm 1 opens the Psalter with the way of blessing and the way of ruin. The blessed person refuses ungodly counsel and delights in the Lord's instruction day and night. Like a tree placed beside water, that life receives nourishment and bears fruit in the proper season; the wicked are weightless chaff before judgment. The sermon directs this pattern to Christ, who lived by every word of God and teaches his branches to abide in him with his words abiding in them. Scripture reading is therefore not a merit badge but an ordinary means the Spirit uses to correct, comfort, transform, and produce fruit.

Biblical Themes

Two ways and final judgment
Blessing as communion with God
The authority and delight of Scripture
Discernment of counsel
Meditation and formation
Abiding in Christ
Seasonal fruit and persevering faithfulness
The Spirit's work through the Word

Scripture Connections

Psalm 1:1-6 — The blessed, Word-delighting tree is contrasted with ungodly chaff that cannot stand in judgment.
Psalm 19:7-11 — God's Word revives, makes wise, rejoices, enlightens, warns, and is sweeter than honey and more desirable than gold.
Psalm 119:9-16 — The believer stores God's Word in the heart, meditates on it, delights in it, and refuses to forget it.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 — God-breathed Scripture teaches, reproves, corrects, trains, and equips God's servant for every good work.
Matthew 4:1-11 — Jesus answers temptation with Scripture and lives by every word from God's mouth.
John 15:3-11 — Fruit comes as branches abide in Christ and his words abide in them, producing obedience and full joy.
Acts 17:10-12 — The Bereans receive teaching eagerly while examining Scripture daily to test it.
1 Corinthians 15:33-34 — Bad company corrupts good morals, reinforcing Psalm 1's warning about formative counsel.

Practical Applications

Identify the voices that receive the most attention each week and compare their counsel with Scripture.
Choose a Bible-reading plan appropriate to the time actually available rather than setting a legalistic or unrealistic target.
Select a regular time and visible place, placing the Bible or audio app where the habit will begin easily.
Read Scripture with the household, especially giving children repeated exposure to God's Word and sung Psalms.
Use an audio Bible or accessible translation if reading difficulty has prevented consistent engagement.
When a day or plan is missed, begin again without treating failure as loss of standing in Christ.
Measure success first by faithful abiding and trust God to bring fruit in its proper season.

Historical Context

Preached on the first Lord's Day of 2023, this sermon follows a stated local pastoral tradition of encouraging Bible reading at the start of the year, not a command that every Christian must use a yearly plan. Its agricultural images reflect planted trees nourished by streams and grain separated from worthless husks through threshing and wind.

Westminster Standards

Westminster Confession of Faith 1.6
The whole Councel of God concerning all things necessary for his own Glory, mans salvation, Faith, and Life, is either expressely set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture; unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or Traditions of men. Neverthelesse we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word: and that there are some circumstances concerning the Worship of God, and Government of the Church, common to humane actions and Societies, which are to be ordered by the Light of Nature and Christian Prudence, according to the generall Rules of the Word, which are alwayes to be observed.
Connection to the sermon: The sermon asks where Christians go for truth and moral judgment. Scripture supplies the sufficient standard, while the prayer for illumination acknowledges that only the Spirit gives saving understanding.
Westminster Larger Catechism 155
The Spirit of God maketh the Reading, but especially the Preaching of the Word, an effectuall means of enlightning, convincing, and humbling sinners, of driving them out of themselves, and drawing them unto Christ, of conforming them to his Image, and subduing them to his will, of strengthening them against temptations and corruptions, of building them up in grace, and establishing their hearts in holinesse and comfort through faith unto salvation.
Connection to the sermon: The sermon describes Scripture changing loves, spending, humor, relationships, anxiety, and hope. This is not bare exposure to words but the Spirit making reading and preaching effectual to draw people to Christ and reshape their lives.
Westminster Shorter Catechism 88
The outward and ordinary means, whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of Redemption, are, his Ordinances, especially the Word, Sacraments, and Prayer; all which are made effectuall to the Elect for Salvation.
Connection to the sermon: Calling Scripture a primary means of grace keeps the sermon’s reading plans in their proper place: Christ uses his appointed Word to communicate saving benefits; completing a schedule does not earn blessing.

This transcript is provided to make the message easier to revisit. Minor transcription errors may remain.

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Every once in a while we need to give us a psalm that keeps us on our toes.

Let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm 1. Psalm 1. It is a tradition, and it's nothing more than a tradition, to preach to you at the first Lord's Day of every year on the importance of reading God's Word. And so this is not commanded in scripture, but it is my personal tradition and conviction to try to encourage us to be people of God's Word. Let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm 1. Psalm 1. If you're using your pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 481. Hear now God's perfect Word.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth its fruit in its season, whose leaves shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall 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 ungodly shall perish.

Prayer for Illumination

The grass withers and the flower fades, but brothers and sisters, the Word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. Father, we desperately need Your Holy Spirit to teach us, to enlighten our eyes, to work in our hearts. Lord, would we understand Your Word this morning? Father, we pray that we would be affected by it. That our lives would be changed. That they would not just be black letters on a page, but you would inscribe them upon our souls with an iron pen. In Jesus' name, amen. My parents gave me a gift. Let's see, what's the date on the inscription page? 2007, for my birthday.

Sermon

This is the year that I read the Bible for the first time, cover to cover. It was the year that our chaplain on the ship went through with six of us, Monday, Wednesday, Friday night, from 8 o'clock at night to 10 o'clock at night, and we worked through every page of the Bible and talked about all the major doctrines. And I didn't still quite understand everything that was there, to be honest with you. There are many things that are difficult to still understand. But the next year, the first year I joined a church, my pastor just suggested on the back table was a Bible reading plan.

Morning and evening. Old Testament in the morning, New Testament in the evening. The Lord changed my life in those two years. Changed the things that I loved. Changed the things that I thought were funny. Changed the way I spent my money. Changed the way I interacted with people around me. Literally changed my entire life.

Because blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scorners, but his delight is in the law of the Lord." Brothers and sisters, I want you to be blessed. I want you to be people who live abundant, spiritual, fruit-bearing Christian lives. And one of the primary means of grace by which the Lord will do this is by us being people of the book. Us being people of His Word. And so this morning I just want to encourage you to be blessed by being in His Word.

First Point

And so first I want you to realize that God wants to bless you. Look at verse 1. Blessed is the man Blessed is the man. You might think to yourself, really? God wants to bless me? Is this going to be a health, wealth, and prosperity type sermon? No. No, that's not what this type of blessing is. I want you to know that God has blessed you by giving you the greatest gift He could ever give to you.

Himself. God has blessed His people with eternity with Him. We get to spend forever worshiping Him and enjoying Him, glorifying Him. And He tells us how we do that in His Word. This is a golden thread throughout the book of Psalms, this idea of blessing. Psalm chapter 2 verse 12 says, blessed are those who put their trust in Him.

Specifically speaking of the Messiah. Psalm 32 said, blessed is the one whose transgressions is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 33 tells us, blessed is the nations whose God is the Lord. Psalm 34 says, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Psalm 40 verse 4 says, Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust. Psalm 41 says, Blessed is the one who considers the poor. In the day of trouble, the Lord delivers him. Psalm 65 verse 4 says, Blessed is the one you choose to bring near to dwell in your courts. It's not done yet. This golden thread of God's blessing continues through the psalm.

Psalm 84 verse 4, Blessed are those who dwell in your house ever singing your praise. Psalm 89 verse 15, Blessed are those who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face. Just in case you didn't get it, Psalm 94 verse 12, Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law. Psalm 106 verse 3 says, Blessed are they who observe justice and who do righteousness at all times. This thread of blessing goes all throughout the Psalms. I could read to you Psalm 119 verses 1 and 2, Psalm 128 verse 1, Psalm 144 verse 15, Psalm 146 verse 5.

Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. The Lord desires to bless His people. The Lord desires us to be with Him and to walk with Him, to be filled with His Spirit, and to love Him and praise Him. He gives us the blessing of regeneration. He fills us with His Spirit. He gives us the fruits of His Spirit. He gives us sanctification. Now, when we talk about being blessed by God, this does not mean that we are fake Christians who put on a plastic smile and everything is okay. That's not what this type of blessing is. No, it's a deeper blessing than that. I want you to You can keep your finger here, but move over to the book of Job, just one book before. Job chapter 5. If you know anything about the book of Job, well, you know that the Lord had all sorts of trials for him. Job chapter 5, verse 17. Job has lost his children. He's lost his cattle. He's lost his herds. He's lost his servants. He's lost everything. His wife has even told him, why don't you curse God and die?

But notice what verse 17 says of chapter 5. Behold, blessed is the man whom God corrects. Therefore, do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. The Lord blesses us like a father who disciplines and loves his children. This is why we had to read through all 2 Timothy chapter 3. See, because God in His Word blesses us by turning us, by correcting us, by reproving us, but also by training us and building us up because He wants you to be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. The blessed life is a life in communion with God.

Not in things. I mean, we just came off one of the hottest marketing seasons of the year. Man, you couldn't turn on the radio, you couldn't watch TV, you couldn't scroll any of your favorite social media accounts without being bombarded with buying some type of trinket or thing that would finally make you happy. Brothers and sisters, there's something far better than the things of this world.

Second Point

We can be blessed by God Himself. and enjoy communion with God Himself. So be careful. Point two, be careful who you take counsel from. Look with me at verses one and two. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the paths of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in His law, He meditates day and night.

I'll never forget when we were candidating here. Our whole family came in the spring. It was a great time. We got to know you all. And on Sunday morning, I was standing at the back, and Miss Virginia and I were talking, and it was a beautiful spring day. The corn was just sprouting. And I remember her telling me, she said, oh, it's like this all the time. And I said, oh, really? Just remembering we had been here in the winter. And she said, if you believe that, I got a farm to sell you to. Be careful who you take counsel from. Be careful who you're listening to.

Where do you look for truth? Is it that your television is always on to Fox News or maybe MSNBC? Is it that your radio is always tuned in to Glenn Beck or is it NPR? Is that you're always listening to Tucker? Or is it that somehow you're just being influenced by whatever guru is on social media at the moment?

Where do you go to to evaluate your life? Where do you go to evaluate what is right, what is wrong, what's the good life, and what's a sham? How do you know what's true? Well, we can give some silly examples of trying to figure out what's true, or what's better, or what's best.

Maybe you can talk to some people and find out whether you should get a red tractor or a green tractor. Who are you going to believe when you ask for recommendations for that? Or if you're trying to figure out whether you should buy an SUV or a van, who do you talk to to find out what's best? Or if for the perennial problem that everybody knows the right answer to, do you root for the Cubs or for the Cardinals?

You know the right answer to that one. There's a few people in here I disagree with, but that's okay, right? Where do you go to for truth? But seriously, there's some Real ones, though. To evaluate, to try to understand, not just preferences and stuff like that, but what do we go to for serious things?

What do you do when you hear about a guy, Ezekiel in the community, who runs a fully cashed business? He doesn't take credit cards because he wants to keep things off the books. Because he wants to be able to tell the IRS whatever he wants with how much money he made that year. Is it right or is it wrong?

What standard do you go by? Just what you feel? What about Drew who goes into the grocery store and as he goes through he just takes some things and puts them in his pocket? What do you do? How do you know if that's right or wrong? What foundation do you use to make that criteria by? Or a woman named Lisa who's a serial adulterer and goes and sleeps with other men other than her husband. Why is that wrong? Who says it's wrong?

I'm telling you these examples because every single one of them, there are literally articles on the internet that will try to tell you situational ethics to justify every one of those decisions. Where do you go? Who do you read? How do you know what is right and wrong, what is good and what's a sham? Where do you go for counsel? Verse 1 and 2 tells us that our delight is to be in the law of Jehovah. And in His law we meditate day and night.

And walk in the counsel of the wicked, Those are those who their life is marked by transgressions. They don't care about God's law. They're always stepping over the line. Don't sit in the seat of scoffers, those who are arrogant and mock God, who laugh at His Word, and stand in the way of sinners. That's why 1 Corinthians 15 is so important. Brothers and sisters, God Himself tells us, do not be deceived. Bad company will corrupt good morals. Who do you surround yourself with? Who are your friends? Who are your influences? Who are those who you are listening to? Don't just take things from this world, but we need to be like the Bereans and judge all things according to God's Word. If we don't, or just look like the rest of the world.

But we look to God's word. We look to God's word that Psalm 19 tells us it's precious. It's like gold. It's refined and valuable. It's sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. It enlightens our eyes. It gives us wisdom. It's a delight. It guards us and leads us. So look to God for counsel and for the way of your life. Meditate on it day and night. When it says this, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates on it day and night. This is one of the reasons why I love this plan that Pastor Snap and Pastor Hurst recommended. Because it was just, in the morning I had some Old Testament reading to do, and every night before I went to bed I had some New Testament reading to do. And it was formational.

And so I'm telling you these things, I'm not trying to bring glory to myself or something, I'm saying these things changed me. And I've seen it change some of you. As you've gone into God's Word, and you've studied God's Word, as you've read His Word, I've seen some of your lives change. I've seen you brought to hope when you were in despair. I've seen you struggling with anxiety and be able to be taken out of that anxiety as you focused on God. And you remembered His Word. Do we chew it over? Do we meditate on it? Do we memorize it? Do we store it up in our heart? Do we sing it? Do we love God's Word?

Blessed is the man who meditates on His law day and night. I think we see this most powerfully in Jesus Christ Himself. Remember in Matthew chapter 4 when Jesus went toe-to-toe with Satan himself. When the adversary, when the tempter himself came to Jesus in Matthew chapter 4, he tempted Him with all the things of this world.

And Jesus didn't have to say, oh, hold on, hold on, hold on. Where did I put my Torah scroll? I need to know how to answer Satan. No, He knew. Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word which proceeds from the mouth of God. Do we live our lives that way? If we say we're Christians, if we say we're followers of Jesus, do we actually live our lives desiring His Word?

Third Point

Well, I want you to test the quality of your work. Point three, test the quality of your work. Look with me at verses three and four. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaves shall also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. Notice the contrast here. Notice, God is purposely putting two different categories or groups of people side by side for us to see. Right? The first, in verse 3, are those who are righteous, the tree by the water, always ready to give fruit and prospering. But then verses 4 and 5, we see the wicked. The ungodly are not so, but they are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous."

This idea, many of you are far more familiar with this than I am, because you work on big, huge combines, you know about thrashing, you know about how to set all the things inside the back of that big machine in the right place, so that way just the corn gets through, or just the beans get through, and everything else gets blown out the back. I don't understand any of that. But in the ancient world, what they used to do is they would take the grain, and it would have its husk on it, and they would bring it, and they would put it into bowls, and they would thrash it, they would beat it around, and then when the wind was going, they would take the bowl, and they would pour it down, and as the grain fell out of the bowl, the wind would go, and would blow the husks and all the worthless stuff away, and what would be left was the grain. God says that the wicked are like those, that though they might look really prosperous and well right now, what's going to happen is they're going to be blown away.

The day of judgment will come. But not so with the Christian. The Christian is called to yield fruit and to prosper. The godly are the grain that remains. Now I need to point something out here in verse 3. He shall be like a tree. This is the one who meditates on God's word. who memorizes it, who takes it in, who delights in it. He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water, so he's regularly being refreshed, right? For the Christian, you men and women of God, as you are planted by the Lord, you are regularly refreshed by the waters. And that it brings forth its fruit. Now notice the next part, I think it's really important. Brings forth its fruit in season. It brings forth its fruit in season, whose leaves also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper."

We are to be like trees that are always with green leaves. But if you know anything about trees, one, they don't typically have green leaves all the time. But if you've ever seen an apple tree, and if you went to an apple tree right now, drive over to Kurt Hartliebs, he's got a bunch of them. If you go over there, I promise you, you're not going to find apples on the trees right now. It's January 1st. Why won't you find apples on the tree? Common sense question. I need a common sense answer. Why don't you find apples on the tree on January 1st? It's not the right season.

There are going to be times in your life, Christian, I need to warn you, that you're going to feel like you're not being very fruitful. You might be really struggling with your love for God. You might be struggling to be in His Word. You might be struggling to love your neighbor as yourself. But the question is, are you planted by the stream of water? ready to bear fruit when the Lord is the one who brings it.

Fourth Point

See, we often get really wrapped up in our lives with thinking we are in charge of the fruitfulness. It's not how it works. I want you to move with me to point four. We need to seek, what do you think, is it either fruitfulness or faithfulness? Our job is faithfulness. The Lord's job is fruit.

You might say, well, Brian, I'm not sure where you're getting that from. Well, that's fine. We can look there together. Let's go to John chapter 15. Whenever there's a question about things with something like this, it's always good to go to the lips of Jesus. John chapter 15. I have no clue what that is page-wise in your few Bibles. I trust you'll be able to find it. John chapter 15 verses 3 through 5.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in thine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. If you're just like a branch that's been broken off and you're just separated from Jesus and you're just over here, you will not bear good fruit. Why? You're not connected to the vine. You don't have the sap running through you. Jesus Christ is the vine, He is the root, and we come with fruitfulness by being in Him, abiding in Him.

Look with me at verse 7. If you abide in Me, notice this is important, verse 7. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."

Do you want to have long-lasting joy? Do you want to have the type of joy that will still be there in the midst of suffering and pain? Do you want to have the type of joy that comes with knowing the one true living God? It comes from abiding in Jesus' love. And how do we know that Jesus loves us? And how do we abide in Jesus' love? By being those who His Word abides in us. We need to be washed in the word of Christ. We need to know the words of Christ.

And I'm not just talking about the red letters in front of you in John chapter 15, because as Jesus was there, the day of the resurrection, as he was walking on the Emmaus road, he picked up the entire scriptures and opened it up with the disciples and showed them from Genesis to the end of the book of Malachi. Every part of it was about him. And they were ajoyed. They were overjoyed. Because they knew that they had been with Jesus. Do you spend time with Jesus in His Word?

There's a reality of seasons in your life as a tree. And yet our responsibility as Christians, Spirit-filled Christians, is to be in His Word. To abide in His Word. That His love might abide in us. And this is not some type of, you know, reformed legalism. This is Jesus speaking to us. Telling us how this works. So our responsibility is faithfulness and He will bring the fruit.

This is one of the things that Ken Smith, if you've ever read anything by Rosaria Butterfield, Ken Smith was the one who shared the gospel with her. Ken Smith on the phone is always telling me, Brian, don't worry about the fruit. You worry about being faithful. Abide in Jesus, Christian. Stay in His Word. Keep His commandments. May His Word ever ring in your ear. But I've given you a whole bunch of instruction. I want to give you some practical helps.

It's 2023. It's January 1st. That almost never happens on the Lord's Day. Normally I'm like a few days early or a few days late, but today we're right on time. Seven practical helps I have for you. The first practical help I have for you is there is a slew of Bible reading plans on the back table. Take your pick. There's all sorts. There's read the New Testament. There's read the Old Testament. There's read all of it. It's up to you what you want to do.

I want to encourage you though to avoid legalism. Right, even though there's a whole list of Bible plans back there, I want to encourage you, even if you're just reading the Gospels this year, you're no less of a Christian than the person who reads the Bible six times this year. We're not saying that if you don't read cover to cover in your Bible every single year, you're somehow less of a saint. No, avoid legalism.

But I do want to encourage you, I've printed off a ton of them, we've created a ton of them for you, to take your pick. But with that, practical step number two, practical help is, I need you to be honest about the time commitment you have. Some of you, let's face it, y'all are busy. You have a lot to do, a lot of kids to rear, a lot of chores to get done, a lot of business, a lot of committees, a lot of stuff. Be honest about how much time you have.

When you go to the back and you look at all those plans and you realize, I only have about 15 minutes a day where I can know that every single day I'm going to be in His Word, do me a favor, don't pick up Professor Horner's plan. Right? Because that's reading 8 chapters of the Bible every single day. You're not going to get it done in 15 minutes. You're setting yourself up for failure.

Be honest about how much time you have. And whatever time you do have, commit it unto the Lord. That this is the time that you're going to put away distractions, you're going to put away whatever else is going to pull you away from God's Word, and you're going to meditate on it. You're going to read it, and you're going to give this time to the Lord. Be honest about your time.

A practical help number three is to read it with your family. I'm going to especially charge fathers here, especially if you have young children at home, one of the greatest things you can do is after dinner, bring out the Bible and the Psalters. And read it with your kids. Read it with your family.

Again, I'm not telling you some type of legalism here. I'm just giving you a practical step of help. Again and again and again as I go into reformed churches and I see families that are thriving and multi-generational families who are loving the Lord, one of the key things we see is that there are fathers who are reading the scriptures to their children. Regularly. Leading their children to the family altar.

Oh, number four. is maybe you're the type of person that you, well, a physical Bible ain't going to do it for you, you're too techy for that, pick up the Bible app or YouVersion, that's fine. If you're the type of person who needs a notification that's going to bling and tell you to read your Bible, use it on an app, that's fine. It's fine. One of the beautiful things about this is maybe for some of you, another practical step is you're not very good at reading. Maybe for some of you, you have tried to read the Bible time and time again, and that you just can't get into it, but you could press the play button on the Bible app, and it will read it to you. And you could just read along with it. That's fine. There's someone in the congregation who listens to the Bible multiple times a year, just listens to it as it's being played, and just thinks about it as they're listening to it. Praise God.

Number five, or well that was, I mixed up five and six, put them in whatever order you want, is I want to talk to you a little bit about habit formation. Each one of you in your bulletins, you received, I know we have a whole bunch of paper in there, but you received a little piece of paper like this.

And I'm going to encourage you, if you're the type of person that this year you're going to try to pick up a Bible reading plan and stick to it, choose what plan you'll do. Choose what time you're going to do it. And choose the place you're going to do it in. Be specific about these things. This is just practical steps of habit formation. I just want to encourage you. This is from, literally, the science of habit making.

If you decide, this is what I'm going to do, this is the time I'm going to do it, and this is the place I'm going to do it in, and you make that habit easy, wherever that place is, I'm going to encourage you, put your Bible there. Maybe for you it's, I'm going to do it first thing in the morning, I'm going to make my cup of coffee and my Bible is going to be right next to the pot.

Great. Put your Bible there next to the coffee pot. Maybe it's for one of you, you think, I'm going to do it every night before I go to bed. Great. Put your Bible on your nightstand and commit to it that that's what you're going to do. Set yourself up, plan to be a success with this. Seventh, practical helps.

And this is a practical help I devote a lot of work to every week. At least four days a week, at about 6.30 in the morning, you can get a text message and we can go through the Bible together. Literally, I'm talking about every single week. We've done this for years now.

We'll go through, this year we're going to start in the book of Genesis. We've gone through the Gospels. We've gone through the wisdom literature. This year we didn't get as far. I got sick. We got to the end of 1 Thessalonians. We went from Acts to 1 Thessalonians. Every single morning, it's there for you. I hope that this is a help to you. If you're one who struggles with devotions, I'll help you with that consistency as much as I can. I want to encourage you with some success stories.

There's one person in the congregation who told me a while back, they said, you know, I'd never read my Bible cover to cover. And then they put an easier translation next to their bed stand or on their nightstand. And every night before they went to bed, They had their Bible plan, one that was in the back, and they actually read their Bible for the first time. They talked about how encouraging it was for them to actually read the Bible themselves. This was a middle-aged person.

Another one of you has told me about the 21-day hack. I didn't use that as a practical step here, but if you can put this into practice, that every single day, for a minimum of 21 days, you are going to be devoted to reading your Bible, the likelihood of you succeeding for the rest of the year skyrocket. And one of you was telling me recently about how that little tidbit of advice was so helpful to them. to maintain this habit now for years of reading the Bible. Devote yourself to it. Track it for 21 days. Get a little calendar and mark it off. Who knows, 21 days might turn into 221, and it might turn into your entire life.

And for those of you who are discouraged, I want to give you a little encouragement. Some of you have tried to read a Bible plan. Some of you have tried to read God's Word. And I don't want you to leave here with a sense of legalistic, oh, I got to do a certain plan. No, I want you to be blessed. Better than that, the Lord is the one who declares it here. Blessed is the man. So what you failed last year? Pick an easier plan this year. So what? The things of the past are the things of the past.

Closing Prayer

The Lord wipes away our frailties. He does not remember our iniquities. And he invites you today to a new day, to a new year, a year where you could soak up his word and be blessed as he draws you to himself. So Christian, We show our love for God in listening to God's Word. There's a blessing that He promises us if we read His Word, meditate in it, delight in it. Christian, seek His blessing this year. Open His Word. Follow after Him. Abide in Jesus Christ. I'm excited to see the fruit that you'll bear in your lives. Let's pray.

Well, Father, we thank you so much for your word that you have stooped down from heaven and you have made yourself known to us. Lord, we need your Holy Spirit. We're too fickle. Our wills are too weak. But Father, we submit ourselves to you, pleading with you, Lord, that you would bless us this year.

Thank you for your word. Thank you that it's in a language we can understand. And Father, we pray that we would enjoy it and love you in Jesus' name. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.

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