It seems as if corruption and scandal is everywhere these days. Goodness and faithfulness are rare commodities in our day. If goodness and faithfulness were sold on the mercantile exchange in Chicago, their very rarity would cause their prices to soar to unprecedented heights. Scandals are everywhere you turn.
As the world prepares for the Olympics, many wonder if Russian athletes will even be allowed to participate. Numerous Russian athletes are banned from the Rio Olympics because of a state-sponsored doping scandal. Russian security services tampered with and altered sealed urine samples of its athletes. By some estimates, as many as one-third of the Russian athletes are banned from competition.
But corruption isn’t just limited to the athletic fields as top Volkswagen executives engaged in a massive fraud to sell diesel cars that violated emission rules, known as the “diesel dupe.” More than 500,000 diesel cars were sold in the US that contained software designed to cheat on emissions tests. In fact, the software could test when the car was being tested, and it activated equipment that reduced emissions. Volkswagen has agreed to pay $15 billion to settle claims in the United States and $50 million to Texas alone.
All this leaves us with a question, “Is there anyone who is good anymore?” Is there anyone who is faithful? We’re in a summer sermon series devoted to bringing the change into our lives that we’ve always longed for. So far in our study, we’ve looked at love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness. You may say, “Pastor, I don’t think I can take on anymore. I haven’t mastered love yet!” I can certainly understand this. Yet today, we look at how to develop goodness and faithfulness in ourselves and in others.
We will combine the two because goodness and faithfulness have to do with integrity. It’s a series devoted to advocating living life with the fruit of the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)
Kamran was a violent man who sold drugs and weapons in Iran. Yet, one day, a friend gave him a New Testament, and for five consecutive days, Kamran devoured it. He soon gave his life to Christ. Soon, his friends and family witnessed a transformed life. And where Kamran used to sell drugs and weapons, a church now met in his home. A radical transformation took over Kamran’s life. Those who have the Spirit of God living in them have a moral beauty that shines forth in a dark world. These are nine character qualities that are a result of the Holy Spirit taking over your life.
Today, I want to ask, “What are goodness and faithfulness?” What trips us up from becoming good and faithful? What are the obstacles that prevent us from being more faithful and more good? And what do we each need to do to see these qualities in our lives?
Today’s Scripture Passage
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;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:1-6)
1. A Rooted Life
The very first psalm deals with a profile in godliness or goodness. Did you should know our English word “good” comes from the Old English word God. Notice there’s a clear-cut distinction between the righteous man and the wicked man, as evidenced in verse 6: “for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (Psalm 1:6). You’ll notice the Bible calls a good man a tree firmly planted (verse 3). So here is the godly man, the good woman, or the faithful person. Please take a moment and note that the righteous person is described negatively and then positively. Note the order for the Bible describes what a good and faithful person is not before going to describe what the good and faithful is.
There are three things I want you to notice about the good and faithful man or woman of Psalm 1. And I want you to notice the good and faithful person’s resolve, their resources for goodness and faithfulness, and lastly, the result of a godly man. Another way to see this … the good woman doesn’t do certain things (verse 1)… … the good woman does do certain things (verse 2)… … and the good woman reaps the benefits of her goodness (verse 3).
1.1 The Resolve of the Rooted
Psalm 1 loves triplets, for there are parallels: “walk, sit, stand” and “wicked, sinners, scoffers.” “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked…” (Psalm 1:1a). Now, this does not mean that the godly person does not associate with any sinful people. No, that’s not the way this is to be read. This has more to do with lifestyle issues and the deliberate choice of who you hang with.
If you were to stand on this first pew here and I were to grab your hand, it would be easier for me to pull you down (because of gravity) than for you to pull me up.
When you are resolved, you do not go along with the lifestyle choices of sinful people.
“…nor stands in the way of sinners…” (Psalm 1:1b)
“…nor sits in the seat of scoffers…” (Psalm 1:1c)
So the resolve of a godly person is this: he doesn’t walk, doesn’t stand, and he doesn’t sit. Walking with the faithless and standing with the faithless will only lead to sitting with the scoffers. Think of the metaphor of a screw for the screw tightens and tightens as you progress in Psalm 1. And soon, you’ve spent your life in the company of the godless.
The company Google recently hired an in-house philosopher several years ago. The technology giant that you ask questions of every day felt the need to branch out of technology to find someone who would think long and hard about ethics, about right and wrong. So they brought on Damon Horowitz to help them sort through the prickly questions of technology. Horowtiz has since moved on to teach Philosophy at Columbia University, but he gave a TED Talk about the need for all of us to have a moral operating system. A case in point was the phone of the San Bernardino terrorist and wife who killed fourteen people in December of last year. The technology company Apple fought a legal battle in an effort to prevent the FBI from cracking the security function of the iPhone. It turns out the FBI paid a third party more than $1 million dollars to get access to the phone. The advent of such technology presents ethical dilemmas. Think about those who built the nuclear bomb of the WWII era. Don’t we want the people building with great technology thinking about what we should be doing with the technology? We have mobile operating systems, but the Google philosopher advocates a moral operating system.
I want to ask you a question that I want you to sit up to hear, “Do you have convictions?” Do you have settled and rooted convictions that are always there? They’re nonnegotiable, no matter what you are tempted with and no matter what you’re enticed with. We need a generation of people who feel their way around life with deep-rooted convictions.
The Resolve of the Rooted
1.2 The Resources of the Rooted
“…but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). A tree needs water, and where does the tree in Psalm 1 get its refreshment from? The water is the law of the Lord. The roots have their source in the Bible. A good man doesn’t take his cue from “wicked, sinners, scoffers” instead, he takes his cues from “the law of the Lord.” “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked…” (Psalm 1:1a). This has to do with a worldview, it has to do with where you get your source of information in terms of how you live your life.
Do you have the ability to think in a discriminating way? Who are you listening to? Where are you getting your advice? Does it square with what this Book says? To “delight … in the law of the Lord” is to live on a spiritual island where the water all around you is the anti-god thinking of much of our world. You see, whatever shapes your thinking will shape your life.
“The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.” (Psalm 12:6)
The Resolve of the Rooted
The Resources of the Rooted
1.3 The Results of the Rooted
“He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3). Now the word “blessed” appears twenty-six times in Psalms, and it describes someone as happy or fulfilled. The Bible pictures the good and faithful person as “a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season.” There’s a stability that comes to the rooted. For no matter where you plant this tree, it will flourish. This is a faithful person’s life. But what about the faithless person’s life?
1. A Rooted Life
2. A Volatile Death
There are really only two ways to live: “for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (Psalm 1:6). There are two ways to live, and there is not a third way. And the results of both ways of living are contrasted by where they spend eternity. This is the story of the faithful vs. faithless. It’s the story of the godly vs. the godless. To be godly is to have your roots in God but to be ungodly is to be indifferent to God.
FIFA, the worldwide organization behind international soccer, has recently been mired in a corruption scandal. After awarding the 2022 World Cup to the tiny but wealthy country of Qatar, the FBI launched an investigation into the bidding process. The World Cup is the most-watched sporting event in the world, generating billions of dollars. The investigation that included wiretaps combined the resources of the FBI and the IRS and has indicted thirty-two officials so far.
After comparing the good and faithful man to a firmly planted tree, the Bible compares the wicked man to chaff: “The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away” (Psalm 1:4). What’s the difference between a tree and chaff? Where the faithful are rooted trees, the chaff is connected to nothing. Chaff is the straw sleeve you receive when you go through a drive-thru. Chaff in the Bible is an image of something useless. The wicked are the opposite of those who are good, and the wicked have no roots.
The Rolling Stone reported that a Houston teen pinned a suicide note to his clothing before hanging himself from a tree. The note read, “This is the only thing around here that has any roots.” To live a life without God in your thinking is to live a rootless life. It’s really to live a useless life. There is a profound longing in Americans today for good and faithful people.
Let me pause and make a call for goodness right here and right now. The Bible places a “full-on press” in call for us to be good: “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God” (3 John 11). “And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful” (Titus 3:14). “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9) One last one, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).
The Bible pictures both God and people in a search for faithfulness: “…a faithful man who can find” (Proverbs 20:6b)? The Rich Young Ruler approached Jesus and called him a good teacher. Jesus’ response is telling for He says, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18b). There’s a profound lose of goodness and faithfulness in our contemporary culture, and all of us feel it. Yes, it seems as if everyone is corrupt these days, doesn’t it? It seems like some pastor has diverted funds or some corrupt politician is consorting in a backroom taking kickbacks.
“Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart, they speak” (Psalm 12:1-2).
I discovered there’s even a corruption world map in preparation for today. The people who put this map together (see on your screens) is a group called Transparency International. Yellow is safer, and increasing redness shows a lack of honesty and integrity. The people at Transparency International have discovered a correlation between nations with the least amount of corruption and most peace. Or, those nations with the most corruption have the least peace. When laziness, dishonesty and corruption become common place, nations grind to a halt.
Old Faithful
Of the more two hundred geysers in Yellowstone National Park, one stands above the rest. My family took the better part of an afternoon to watch it spew from the earth which we were there. It was beautiful! The geyser isn’t the largest and its waters do not reach the greatest height. Yet, it is by fare the most popular attraction. This geyser’s popularity is due to one thing alone – its dependability. People will stand in long lines under a hot sun because according to a precise schedule it shoots a stream boiling water than 170 feet into the air. You can practically set a watch by it. That’s why they call it Old Faithful.
Psalm 1 is really a poem on how to have a successful life. It’s a story about the faithful verses the faithless. The path of success of the faithless is laid out: “for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (Psalm 1:6). The path of success for the faithless is a path right over a cliff. Maybe not in this life but remember all of us are resurrected for a second life. God will not be fooled or snookered.
End of Message
What trips us up from becoming good and faithful? What are your obstacles from preventing you from being good and faithful? The Bible says, “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one…’” (Romans 3:10).
A godly man is like a tree and a tree doesn’t plant itself. Instead, a tree has to be planted. You don’t make yourself a Christian. You become a Christian when you accept what Jesus has done for you. What did he do for you? There are two ways to live and you’ve come to the fork in the road.
