Sermon Central
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Tall Strong Trees With Deep Wet Roots
Contributed by Mark Jones on May 29, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: Psalm 1 Gives God’s plan for success and happiness; the growing Christian is a happy Christian.
Tall, Strong Trees With Deep Wet Roots!
1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
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,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Are most people happy?
Dennis Wholey, author of Are You Happy? reports that according to expert opinion, perhaps only 20 percent of Americans are happy.
Six weeks before he died, a reporter asked Elvis Presley, “Elvis, when you first started playing music, you said you wanted to be rich, famous and happy. Are you happy?”
“I’m lonely as hell,” he replied.
Most people spend the majority of their lives seeking the moving target called happiness.
Kingdoms are won, kingdoms are lost, and generation after generation, civilization after civilization rises, climaxes and declines, and yet men never truly find happiness in power, prestige money or position. The quest for happiness is the quest of the ages!
As Christians, we know the answer! The answer is Jesus Christ who fills the “God shaped vacuum” that exists within the soul of every man. There is an inner longing that only Christ can fill.
The question arises, however: “why are there so many unhappy CHRISTIANS?”
Demos Shakarian, the founder of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International and a pioneer of the modern charismatic movement coined the slogan “The Happiest People on Earth” to describe the men of the FGBMI.
Shouldn’t this be true of God’s people by definition? We who have been delivered from darkness, we who have been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb, saved by Grace, sealed by and Baptized in the Holy Spirit…we who are citizens of Heaven…
shouldn’t we TRULY be the “happiest people on earth”?
So why aren’t we? Something is wrong, something is very wrong!
In another great book of Biblical wisdom, King Solomon, one of the richest, and wisest men who has lived upon the face of the earth, a man who truly knew and worshiped Jehovah had this to say about the quest for happiness.
10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my work,
and this was the reward for all my labor.
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.
Was Solomon a “happy” man?
This great man, who built the Temple of God in Jerusalem, was undone by his fleshly quest for happiness. His abuse of his power as a king, and his intermarriage with pagans led to ruin in his own life and in the life of Israel.
Is there a common thread that runs between King Solomon and The King of Rock and Roll?
Is there a common thread between King Solomon, Elvis and me?
The Word of God holds the principles to the Christians’ happiness, and they may be found in Psalm 1! Friends, there IS a way for the Christian to be consistently happy!
Tonight, I would like to speak to you not about depression, not about stress or similar things. Seasonal and other types of depression are very real, and dear soul, if you are hurting in this way tonight, your spiritual family reaches out to embrace you and lift you up to the Father for comfort and healing.
We are speaking to the Unhappy Christian, much as David did in the opening Psalm. A man who is unhappy because his soul is in a state of internal war! A man or woman who
has of their own volition, walked down a treacherous and unknown path.
Christian Friend…if this is you, God says to you tonight “C’mon Get Happy!”
Overview of the Psalm
David uses the very common scriptural metaphor of a plant to describe the life of the believer. Jesus used the agricultural/botanical metaphor often in describing spiritual life…branches and vines, fig trees, thorns and thistles, orchards and vineyards are all used to describe the full spectrum of a believer’s growth; from unproductive dead branches which were to be “cut off” to lush healthy branches bending from the weight of plump juicy fruit.
