The Road Less Traveled | Insights from the Psalms

Pastor Greg Laurie recommends a great film about the 40th President of the United States. We have a movie that's going to tell you the story of this man who changed the world. Ronald Reagan was a man who believed in Jesus Christ. You're going to be inspired by it in this brand-new film starring Dennis Quaid. It's called Reagan, and it's our gift to you for your gift of any size.

Available on DVD and digital download at harvest.org. What are you delighted? The happy person delights in the Word of God. Coming up today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says the more we elevate the importance of Scripture, the more our lives will be lifted to a higher elevation.

What a great way to start your day. Before you read social media, before you check your emails, you need to read the Bible before you do it to get your heart and mind in the right place. Start your day with the Word of God. End your day with the Word of God.

In the average home, you'll find four Bibles, or more accurately, in some homes there are four Bibles there, but good luck finding them. What a shame, because the Bible leads us to joy. It can keep us from sinning.

It's full of free counseling. It offers hope and freedom, and comforts us in affliction. Hopefully you can grab one of your four Bibles, as Pastor Greg Laurie leads our study of the Psalms today on A New Beginning.

And for a repeat of today's study, go to Harvest.org. All right, let's grab our Bibles, and let's turn to Psalm 1. We're starting a brand new series in the book of Psalms. And the title of my message is The Road Less Travel.

The Road Less Travel. So, do you want to be a happy person? If you want to be a happy person, there are certain things you should do, and there are certain things you should not do, and they're laid out for us here in Psalm 1. So why don't we read it together? And by the way, I'm going to read from the King James Version. So from the King James, we read these words. Psalm 1, verse 1, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth fruit in his season. His leaves shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Now in contrast, the ungodly are not so.

They are like the chaff, which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

So here are some points from what we have just read if you're taking notes, and I hope you are. Point number one, the happy person walks the right way. The happy person walks the right way. Verse 1, Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. So walk. Most of us walk.

Some of us run. But what's so great about this word walk is it just speaks of a cadence and a consistency. It's not a spectacular thing to do, but it's something that speaks of the Christian life on more than one occasion. The Bible compares our relationship with Jesus to a walk. Colossians 2 says, As you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord, so walk in him.

This is the idea this is the idea of just consistency. It's walking with God. If you want to be a happy person you need to walk with God. So the happy person walks the right way. Number two, the happy person thinks the right way.

The happy person thinks the right way. Look at verse 2, His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in it does he meditate day and night. Now law of the Lord could just as easily be translated to word of the Lord. Or to put it another way, He meditates in the Bible day and night. Okay so that's the secret. Don't live in this ungodly way but meditate in the word of God. He delights in it. I love that. It's not something you have to do.

It's something you want to do. C. H. Spurgeon, a great preacher from days gone by, made this statement and I quote, man must have some delight, some supreme pleasure. His heart was never meant to be a vacuum. If it is not filled with the best things it will be filled with the unworthy and disappointing.

End quote. What do you delight in? You take joy in it. Some people delight in eating.

Ah eating. Others delight in exercise. I don't understand those people but they do. Others delight in criticizing. It's almost like a sport for them. Oh they love to criticize.

The only exercise they get is jumping to conclusions and running down others. Some delight in the word of God. And the happy person delights in the word of God day and night. You start the day with the Bible, you end the day with the Bible. What a great way to start your day. Before you read social media, before you check your emails, you need to read the Bible before you do it to get your heart and mind in the right place. Start your day with the word of God. End your day with the word of God. You know sometimes when I'm going to sleep I'll just go over scriptures that I've memorized.

You know like the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who've sinned against us and lead us not into temptation. That just sort of sets my mind in the right place. That just sort of sets my mind in the right place. Or Psalm 23. Or someone, blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. So you reflect on scripture as you're going to sleep at night. You meditate in it day and night. Now when we use the word meditate we might misunderstand. In eastern meditation one empties their mind wearing lululemon sitting in a lotus position. But in biblical meditation one fills their mind with the Word of God.

Totally different. I'm not emptying my mind. I'm filling my mind. Another way to translate the word meditate would be to chew. To chew something. To enjoy it. To ponder it. To contemplate it. To internalize it. He meditates.

She meditates on the word day and night. You know we need to learn how to listen better. I find when I take notes it jogs my memory. That's why I encourage you to write things down. Or you can put them on your phone.

You know type them in. Just you know do that and don't be doing other things. But you know then I'll read them.

All right now I remember that now. But the problem is with my handwriting because I type more than I write now. I used to have extremely legible handwriting. Because I was an artist and I was doing cartoon strips and so my you could really read very easily what I wrote. Now when I read what I write I think what am I a doctor now? I can't even read my own words. It's I've forgotten how to write well. But um take notes of what you're hearing. It will jog your memory.

And we need to listen to what Scripture says. You know read the instruction book. Let's say you decided to go skydiving. How many of you have ever gone skydiving? Raise your hand.

Glad to see you're still with us. That holds no allure to me. I mean if my plane was on fire and I had a parachute I'd give it a go. But apart from that I can't imagine why I would want to jump out of an airplane voluntarily.

I did hear about a guy who went skydiving and he listened very carefully to what the instructor said. Then he jumped out and he pulled his chute and nothing happened. He pulled it again. Nothing happened. And he went to the backup chute.

Pulled that. Nothing happened. Now he's panicking. And much to his shock as he's coming down as he's plummeting from the sky another guy's coming up. Going up and they briefly see each other in the sky. And the guy who's skydiving says, hey buddy do you know anything about operating parachutes?

And the guy says, no but do you know anything about lighting a gas stove? The happy person walks the right way. They don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand on the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful. The happy person thinks the right way.

They meditate in, ponder, contemplate, memorize the word of God. And then the happy person is rooted the right way. Look at verse three. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth fruit in his season. His leaves shall not wither and whatsoever he does will prosper. You're rooted the right way.

You're planted. Jesus said if you continue in my word then are you my disciples. And the word continue is also translated abide. You say I don't know what that means. Is that like the dude abides in the big Lebowski?

No not really. To abide means to stay in a given place. It's like you plant a tree and you keep the tree there. Let's say I planted a tree in my backyard and I thought, I don't know. This isn't a good place. I ripped it up. Put it in my front yard. Planted it. I don't like it there.

I think the backyard was a good choice. Rip it up. Put it back in my backyard again.

Change my mind again. That tree is going to die. If you want a tree to flourish and bring forth fruit you need to leave it in a given place and let it sink its roots deeply. The same is true in the Christian life. Here's our problem.

We get rooted up. I'm in a church. I'm actively involved. I'm serving the Lord. Oh I don't want to go to this church anymore. Let's go to another one.

Rip it up. Now we go over here. Oh I don't like this anymore. Oh I used to read my Bible. Now I don't do it anymore. And you know you're always uprooting yourself.

And this is why you're having all these problems. But abiding is what Jesus told us we should do. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. It's such a blessing to hear from listeners who take time to express their appreciation. Pastor Greg when I rededicated my life to Christ two years ago I knew I needed a Bible. I prayed that God would lead me to the one best for me. And that's when I came across your New Believers Bible.

When I received it I read it front to back and it was amazing. I really appreciated reading the notes you wrote Greg, your explanation of the context of certain verses. I then discovered your preaching and I started listening to your podcasts and watching your sermons.

I really love your sense of humor and how genuine you are. Thank you so much for everything Pastor Greg. Has Pastor Greg heard from you? Why not drop him an email and tell your story? Send it to gregatharvest.org. Again that's gregatharvest.org. Well today Pastor Greg is pointing out the benefits of letting our minds meditate on the Word of God.

Let's continue. John 15. Jesus speaking, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. From a Greek translation it would sound something like this, Jesus speaking. If you maintain a living communion with me and my word is at home in you, you can ask it once for yourself whatever your heart desires and it will be yours. It actually says that.

So we immediately gravitate toward the latter part of that verse. Oh wow whatever my heart desires. Hold on. Condition. If I maintain a living communion with him and his word is at home in me.

See that's going to change what I pray for. Abiding in Christ. And what does that produce? You'll bring forth much fruit. But what does that mean?

What is fruit? Well one answer is given to us in Galatians 5 22. It says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If you become a Christian you should be a more loving person. Honestly I'm not that impressed with your theology if I don't see spiritual fruit in your life.

I've met people that know their Bible very well and they love to criticize other people but I don't see love in their life. I see intolerance in meanness in harshness and I say where's the spiritual fruit? Not just the spiritual knowledge. Hey we can have both.

And we should have both. And the more I grow in the knowledge of scripture the more fruit I should have in my life. But as a believer I should be a more loving person but sometimes I'm the last one to see the fruit.

Sometimes another person can tell you if you're growing better than you can see it yourself. The best way I could probably find out how you're doing spiritually is ask your wife or your husband or your kids. How are they doing? Are they a godly man?

Is she a godly woman? Well yes. Oh great. Fruit takes time to grow. If you pulled a chair up in front of a peach tree and said I'm going to watch the fruit grow today that's going to be boring.

You will not see any discernible growth whatsoever but if you were to set up a camera and do some time-lapse photography you would see rapid growth. So as you abide in Christ as you sink your roots deeply into him you will produce spiritual fruit in your life. That's something we should all want. So you walk the right way. Not on the counsel of the ungodly nor standing in the way of sinners nor sitting in the seat of the scornful. You think the right way meditating on God's word day and night and you're rooted the right way.

You'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water and you'll bring forth fruit and your season and your leaf shall not wither and whatever you do shall prosper. That's the happy life. That's the holy life. That's the road to heaven. It's not the popular road. It's not the easiest road. But it is the best road. It is the road less traveled. But it's a road you want to be on. I titled this message The Road Less Travel. And that's based on a quote. This I have not memorized.

Here it is. Robert Frost wrote a poem. The title of the poem is The Road Not Taken. And he says, Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled and that one has made all the difference.

That's it. So you're like in the forest. There's two roads. There's the easy road. There's the more difficult road. There's the popular road. There's the unpopular road. There is the narrow road that leads to life and there is the broad road that leads to destruction. I decide which road I'm going to put my life on. Jesus summed up the Sermon on the Mount as follows.

Whoever hears these things of mine and does them I'll tell you what he's like. He's like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the storms came and beat against that house and it stood because it was built on the rock. But whoever hears these sayings of mine and does not do them he's like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand and the storms come and beat on that house and it falls. It's like building sand castles. You know I've come to the conclusion that the idea of the beach is better than the actual beach.

You know what I'm saying? I like the idea of the beach. Let's go to the beach.

That's a great idea. So you get down on the beach and you lay out your towel and you set up your beach chair and you've got if you're like me your backpack I've got some books some water a sandwich my sunglasses some music to listen to some headphones of some kind and now I'm sitting there this is so great I love the beach but now I'm hot and I'm sweating okay so I need to go in the ocean but the ocean in California is so cold to me always even in summer it seems cold so I'm in the ocean and I see some guy has set his beach towel up next to my beach towel. He has a whole beach to choose from. He's set up right next to me and his beach towel is touching my towel.

No touching. What are you doing? And now I come back in and he's on his phone on speaker and I'm hearing the whole conversation.

Why? And now somebody else over here has set up and they're listening to music too loudly and now I just saw the seagull is flying off with my lunch wearing my sunglasses. Then I discovered the best part of the beach is leaving it. But one thing I do enjoy when I'm at the beach if I'm with my grandkids at least when they were smaller we'd build sandcastles. I build really primitive sandcastles. It's just okay here here's a tower and here's some shells and now I take the sand and I let it go through my hands with the water and a little moat we're done.

Other people build elaborate sandcastles that takes forever but you know the tide is going to rise and that sandcastle will be gone. That's what it's like to build your life without Christ. So here's how Psalm 1 ends. Verse 4. The ungodly are not so.

They're like worthless chaff scattered by the wind. They'll be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly for the Lord watches over the path of the godly but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

There it is. There's your choice in life. The happy road or the road to misery. The road to heaven or the road to hell. The life of the godly or the life of the ungodly. The life built on rock or the life built on sand. You can be planted or you can be rootless. You have a choice in life but I think of so many people who made the wrong choices.

You know them. Maybe you're one of them but here's the good news. Even if you've made some bad choices it's not too late to change. It's not too late to come to the Lord and say, Lord I've made a mess of my life. I've missed opportunities. I've wasted time. I've wasted so many things but I'm coming to you and I'm asking you to help me and to change me and forgive me. That's why Jesus died on the cross. Listen.

Psalm 1. There's only one person who has ever lived someone perfectly and it's me. Let me explain. That was a joke.

It's not me. No one has but Jesus lived it perfectly. He never walked in the counsel of the ungodly. He never walked in the way of sinners or sat in the seat of the scornful. He did meditate in God's Word day and night. He was like that tree planted by the rivers of water that brought forth fruit in his season but then he went and died on a tree so to speak.

The Bible says cursed is every man that hangs on a tree. Jesus died on the cross for our sin so we could be forgiven in life and so we could spend eternity with him. Jesus says narrow is the way that leads to life and few there are that find it. Yes it is the road less traveled but it is the best road and as far as I'm concerned it's the only road.

Are you on this road? Do you know when you die you will go to heaven? In the beginning of this message I talked about the Lord's return. I believe that Jesus could come back at any moment.

If he were to come back today would you be ready to meet him and if not would you like to be? We're going to close now in prayer and I'm going to extend an invitation to anyone here anyone watching wherever you are if you don't have this relationship with Jesus Christ it can start for you now. If you need to get right with God I encourage you to do it right here right now.

Let's pray. Father would you speak to the hearts of those that do not yet know you. Speak to the hearts of those who have known you but have gone astray and they need to return to you.

Bring them to yourself now we pray. Amen. An important prayer from Pastor Greg Laurie with those who want to make a change in their relationship with the Lord today. And if you'd like to make that kind of change Pastor Greg will come back in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning wraps up. And then thank you for partnering with us to help these daily studies continue.

Your investments have eternal benefits. Why not make this a part of your personal ministry to partner in an effort that's making a real difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers and for prayerfully considering how God might lead you to help tangibly. Online you'll find us at harvest.org and there you'll see the way we'd like to thank you for your donation right now.

That's harvest.org or write us at A New Beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or call us at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call again at 1-800-821-3300. Well Pastor Greg a few moments ago you spoke of the need to get our hearts right with God.

Yeah. Could you help someone who wants to do that right now? Yes I'd be delighted to. This can be the moment where you change your eternal address literally from hell to heaven. I'll pray a simple prayer and I would just ask you to pray this prayer out loud if you like after me just pray these words. Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for me and rose again from the dead. Jesus I choose to follow you from this moment forward in your name I pray amen.

I know it's such a simple short prayer but you just called on the name of the Lord and you know what he heard that prayer and if you meant that prayer in your heart he answered that prayer. Now let me help you to get started on the right foot in your new life in Jesus Christ the greatest adventure awaits you the life of walking with God. I want to send you what we call a new believers pack that includes the new believers bible and a whole lot more and let me be the first to say to you congratulations and welcome to the family of God. Yeah and again that free new believers bible along with the other items in our growth pack just let us know you prayed along with pastor Greg to receive Christ today we'll be glad to send our new believers growth pack your way free of any charge call us at 1-800-821-3300 call anytime that's 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and click know God. Hey everyone I want you to know about our app called harvest plus think of it as a harvest version of Netflix we have all of our resources in one place we have our movies like Steve McQueen the salvation of an American icon Johnny Cash or redemption of an American icon a rush of hope and much more than we have our television program daily devotions and much more so go and download the harvest plus app well next time pastor Greg takes us to what he calls the crown jewel of the book of psalms psalm 23 good reassurance is coming next time join us here on a new beginning with pastor and bible teacher Greg Lord