The Playlist For Life

Sermon Summary:

In this powerful message, we’re invited to explore the path to true happiness through the lens of Psalm 1. The key lesson is that genuine joy comes not from pursuing happiness itself, but from pursuing holiness. We’re challenged to ‘deny the world’ by being mindful of our associations and influences, while ‘delighting in the Word’ of God. The imagery of a tree planted by streams of water beautifully illustrates how a life rooted in God’s wisdom can flourish and bear fruit, not just for ourselves, but for others. This message encourages us to reflect on our spiritual ‘playlist for life,’ reminding us that our choices and focus determine whether we’ll stand firm like a fruitful tree or be blown away like chaff. As we navigate our faith journey, we’re called to be bridges between the righteous and the wicked, allowing our lives to point others to Christ.

Watch The Service Here

Sermon Points:

Deny The World

• Watch Where You Stroll
• Watch Where You Stand
• Watch Where You Sit

Delights In The Word

• Desire The Word
• Digest The Word
• Declare The Word

• Depiction Of The Word
• The Tree Is Planted
• The Tree Is Purposed
• The Tree Is Productive

Are Your Flourishing or Floundering?

“IN RESCUING OTHERS FROM AN UNNECESSARY DEATH, WE RESCUE OURSELVES FROM A MEANINGLESS LIFE”
– EVANGELISM

Destruction of the Wicked

• Bitter Truth
• Borrowed Time

Key Takeaways:

• Deny the world: Avoid walking in step with the wicked, standing with sinners, or sitting with mockers
• Delight in the Word: Find joy and guidance in studying and meditating on Scripture
• Be like a tree planted by streams of water: Grow strong roots in faith and bear fruit for others
• True happiness comes from pursuing holiness, not worldly pleasures
• Christians are called to be bridges between the righteous and the wicked, helping others find God

Watch other Sermons Here

Scripture References:

• Psalm 1:1-6

Stories:

• The parakeet named Chippy who lost his song after being sucked into a vacuum cleaner
• The movie “Happy Feet” and the penguin Mumble who stayed true to himself
• The story of Peter fishing with Jesus (Luke 5:5)
• The tale of three trees and their aspirations, ultimately fulfilling greater purposes than they imagined

Transcript

Amen. Can we give God a hand clap of praise? Amen. I know it’s early in the morning, but if you’re just grateful that he woke you up this morning, can we give him a real hand clap of praise? I mean, I know Texas lost, I know your cowboys are not in, but can we give God a hand clap of praise?

So grateful to be here to worship with you all today. You don’t know it, but I’m your family. I’m your nephew, your cousin, your grandson, your, your uncle, however you want to call it. First Baptist Church of Arlington is my family. I’ve been able to worship with you all and serve with you all as camp pastor at Camp Encounter and it has been a blessing to my Life.

Your pastor, Dr. Wiles, is a blessing to my life. Can you give your pastor and your pastor’s wife, Sister Wiles hand? Amen. We worship.

We don’t worship man, but we do honor great men and so we honor them for that. And we thank God for this opportunity, thank God for this orchestra and this time of worship. I get to travel around working with Texas Baptist and you don’t always get good worship. I’m just being honest with y’all today. And so a lot of times I just put on my headphones, my beats and I get my worship on in the car before I go into the church knowing that it might not be.

I could talk like this at First Baptist Arlington can. I am Oza. And so I thank God for, for that. I understand you are in a series, I believe a five year or three year series of flourishing together rooted in Christ. And my assignment this morning is Psalm 1.

Flourishing together rooted in Christ. And this is my assignment. I’ve been told that this is your assignment this week also. So maybe we should just worship together as we look at this. Psalm 1.

When you find it, just let me know by saying word up. Psalm 1 and we’ll look at verses 1 through 6. No one said word up. When you find it, let me know. Amen.

I’m glad you’re here with me. Psalm 1. And we’ll look at verses 1 through 6. Psalm 1 vers 1 through 6. Are y’all ready?

Here we go. Blessed or happy is the one who does not walk and step with the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, 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. Everybody say day and night. That person is like a tree planted by the streams of Water which yields fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, whatever he does prospers. Not so for the wicked.

They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in 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. I want to just talk briefly from this thought. The Playlist for Life.

And I want to put a subtitle on that and call it track one, the Happy Song. The Happy Song. Father, we thank you today. Lord, we pray that you would speak to us now. Lord, we pray that you would inform us by your word and that you would transform us by your spirit when we would leave this place.

Lord, let us know without a shadow of a doubt that we have run smack dab into God. Speak to us in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. The Playlist for Life. The Happy Song.

There’s a story about a bird named Chippy in a rural town in a pet store. Chippy. His name was Chippy because he was a happy bird. He was a happy bird. And he would sing songs, and people would come from all over the community to hear encouraging songs from Chippie.

Chippie was a joyous bird. He was a happy bird. And he would encourage the townspeople by the songs that he would sing. One day, the owner of the pet store decided to clean out Chippy’s cage. Went over, he got the vacuum cleaner, and he begins to vacuum Chippy’s cage.

And as he’s vacuuming Chippy’s cage, he sucks Chippy in. As he sucks Chippy in, he’s in a frenzy. He runs to the vacuum cleaner and he opens the vacuum cleaner, and there’s Chippy full of dust, dirt and sud. Can y’all see Chippy as Chippy is there? He grabs Chippy and he runs Chippy over to the sink, and he turns on the water, and the water comes out freezing cold.

And he washes Chippy down. Can y’all see Chippy there shivering? So he runs and he grabs the blow dryer and he blows on Chippy and he blows Chippy over. Chippie has been sucked in. Chippie has been washed down.

Chippie has been blown over as a result of Chippy being sucked in and washed down and blown over. Chippy lost his song. Chippie lost his happiness. Chippie lost his joy. And when they interviewed the owner of the pet store, they said, what do you think should happen with Chippy?

What do you want to happen to Chippy? And the Owner said, I just want Chippy to get his happy song back. The reality is, is that we don’t have to look at a bird to understand brokenness. We don’t have to look at a bird to understand that life can life sometimes. And we don’t have to look at a bird to understand that life can suck us in, life can wash us down, and life will blow us over.

If you’ve lived in any amount of time, you’ll understand that you can be sucked in by life, you can be sucked in by divorce, you can be washed down by a dysfunctional family, you can be blown away by death. Life will suck you in. Life will wash you down. Life can blow you over. And there’s someone here today where life has been unfavorable, perhaps in your life.

And maybe you’ve lost your song. Because the reality is, is that all of us at the end of the day, want to be happy. All of us want to be happy in life. All of us want happiness in life. As a matter of fact, when you look at this text, when you see the word blessed, you can replace it with happiness.

It’s used 26 times in the book of Psalms. It’s used, just to name a few, in Psalm 32, 1 and 2. It’s used in Psalm 34, 8. It’used in Psalm 65, 4. It’s used in Psalm 8, 9, 15.

This word happiness. Everyone wants to be happy. And when we look at this book of Psalms, y’all, it’s a playlist for life. It’s a book of songs. It’s the book with a messianic message through music that moves and mens.

Psalms is a book ofsngs that s produce a soundtrack with supplement, support and substance through Scripture. It’s the Hebrew hymnal. It’s an album with an aim to give assistance in alignment. Psalms is my jam because it helps me when I’m in a jam. Psalms is tough because it helps me in tough times.

As a matter of fact, David wrote almost half of the Psalms. And I’ve heard it said like this before. If there was Prozac back then, we wouldn’t even have half the Psalms that we have, because Psalms takes care of every emotion known to man. All of us want to be happy. And when we look at track one, it takes care of this emotion of sadness and happiness.

It. It. It teaches us how to be happy. It teaches us how to live the happy life. Because after all, all of us just want to be happy.

We want to be happy, especially in America. We have songs that say we want toa be happy. Pharrell Williams, he came out with a song a few years ago. It was so hot that it was the number one song in over 20 countries. It had 325 million views.

This happy song, it just talked about, no matter what life brings, you can still be happy. One of my favorite artists, don’t judge me, Frankie Beverly, he has a song that says happy feelings. As a matter of fact, we’re so happy in the states that you can sit at a restaurant and you can. You can sit and have your dinner and have your date night, and before you know it, there’s a crowd of people that are singing happy birthday. They might be singing happy birthday in the traditional form.

They might be singing Stevie Wonder’version of Happy Birthday or 50 Cent. If you don’t know it, just Google it.

We want to be happy because we have songs that talk about being happy. But watch this. We also have shows that talk about being happy. My grandmother, her name was Julia Pearl Johnson. She lived in Abilene, Texas, 54o9 Questor Street.

Every Saturday, she would watch a show, and the theme song said something like this. Sunday, Monday, happy day, Tuesday, Wednesday, happy day. Because we want to be happy. Not only do we have songs, not only do we have shows, we even have sayings and statements that we say that deal with happiness, don’t we? We have statements like happy go lucky.

Even in our declaration of independence, it says life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have sayings like, happy wife, happy life. Y’all could talk back to your boy. We, we. Even if you’re a good Baptist, you’ll know about this when you leave work and you’re frustrated.

They have what’s called, I’m told, happy hour. And that happy hour, it will put you in your happy place. And when you’re in your happy place, you can do your happy dance. This is just what I heard on the street, y’all. This is just what I heard.

We have movies that talk about being happy, and we even have it to where if your child is having a bad day, you can take them to McDonald’s and get them a happy meal.

Research says that almost 80% of Americans are unhappy. They’re unhappy with their lives, unhappy with their career, unhappy that they don’t have a spouse, unhappy that they chose the wrong spouse. Don’t look. Just keep looking at me. Unhappy with their health, unhappy with their looks.

Almost 80% of Americans are unhappy. Everyone wants to live the happy life. I like this text because this text helps us not to pursue happiness, but this text teaches us that if we pursue holiness, as a result, we’ll have happiness. I like this text. This text teaches us that if we would follow these steps, if we would do these things, we could be on our way to a happy life.

Number one. The text says, if you wanna live a happy life, you need to deny the world. Everybody say, deny the world. IND the text in verse one, blessed or happy is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord. Here’s what the psalmist says.

The psalmist says in this first track in this happy song, he says, you can be happy in life, but you need to understand that you’re gonna have to deny the world. Here’s what the psalmist is really saying. He’s saying, watch where you stroll, watch where you stand and watch where you sit. I say it again for the people in the back. He says, watch where you stroll, watch where you walk, watch where you stand and watch where you sit.

In other words, the psalmist says, watch your step. Everybody say, watch your step. He says, you need to be careful not to not. Not to walk and step with the wicked or the ungodly. You need to be careful not to stand in the way that sinners take.

And you need to be careful not to sit in the company of mockers. He says, if you want to be happy in life, you need to understand. You need to watch your step. He says, watch the counsel that you get, watch the advice that you get. Watch the council.

But not only watch thesel that you get. He says, watch the community and the circle that you’re in. And oftentimes we teach this to students, but it really works for all of us. You better be careful who’s feeding you. You got to be careful who’s in your ear.

That’s the what the psalmist says, let me give you some Bible. 1 Corinthians, chapter 1533 says, do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Luke, chapter 9, verse 23 says, Then he said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him what deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is destroyed or lost? Here’s what he says in 1 John, chapter 2, verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is in the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. Are y’all with me? First Baptist, Romans, chapter 12. Y’all know this, even if you flunk Sunday school.

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Here it is. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I like how Jesus says it in John, chapter 17. He says, I’m coming to you now.

But I say these things while I’m still in the world so that they may have full measure, the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world anymore that I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. Even Jesus says, you are in the world, but you’re not of the world. He says, watch your step.

It’s a. It’s a. It’s a decline. When you look at the text, he says, don t. Don’t stroll.

Then he says, don’t stand. Then he says, don’t sit. It’s almost the frog in the kettle. When, when. When you.

When you want to kill a frog, you put them in water on the stove, and you just turn the temperature on real low. And then you gradually turn up the heat. Y’all remember this. And before you know it, the frog is in the heat and he dies. Because it’s a gradual killing.

He says, be careful with the people that you’re around. Be careful what you listen to. And here’s what I discovered in church. I don’t mean to make anybody upset, but I discovered that you can even be in the bad, in bad company, even inside the church. Says, be careful of being a human garbage can where people know they can come and gossip and tell you stuff.

Be careful about the circle. Be careful about the community you’re around. Says, don’t stroll with them, don’t stand with them, and don’t sit with them. He says, don’t sit with the mockers like this. It’s kind of like one of my favorite movies is Shawshank Redemption, one of my favorite movies.

And in that movie, you have Morgan Freeman, and you have Tim there, and he plays this. This character, Red. And they’re in prison. And as they’re in prison, one of the guys, he gets his papers, his release papers to get out of prison. He had been in prison for some 50 years, and he’s on his way out, but instead of getting out of prison, he commits suicide.

And so. And so Morgan Freeman, he’s there sitting talking to the guys on the yard, and they’re saying, what is wrong with this man? Why would he kill himself? Why would he commit suicide? He was on his way to the outside.

Morgan Freeman, I know it’s Hollywood, y’all, but he said something that just blew me away. He says, these walls are funny. He says, first you hate them, then you get used to them, then you depend on them. That’s really the way of sin. That’s what sin does in our life.

First we hate it. And if we’re not careful, we’ll get used to it. And if we’re not careful, when we start sitting in it, we’ll actually depend on it. The Psalmist says, you need to make sure if you want to live a happy life, that you deny the world. Some of y’all are gonna tune me out right here, but I have five kids, ages 21 to 13.

Everybody say, Lord have mercy. And when you have. When you have five kids, y’all know how it is. Anytime a great movie comes out, they drag us to the movie. And normally I got to get a bunch of snacks and all of that because I’ll fall asleep when I’m watching a movie.

But a movie came out some years ago called Happy Feet. It was a good movie. It was a movie about penguins. And they had this community of penguins, and they would all sing songs. They had beautiful voices.

They all could sing. I mean, they were jamming the entire movie. I mean, they were singing. They had great voices. Y’all remember that mov?

I can’t believe it’s almost 20 years old, this movie. And everybody’s singing. But then. But then there’s this couple that has a child, and they name him Mumble. And they name him Mumble because he can’t sing like everybody else.

The whole colony of penguins can sing. And he’s the only one that can’t sing. All he has is these happy feet. As he dances with these happy feet, he gets talked about, he gets ridiculed. But what I like about Mumble is Through the movie, for a minute, he tries to fit in, but then he understands he’s just made different from everybody else.

And he uses the very gift that he has to actually change everything around him. And that’s what God has called us to do. Even though he says, don’t stroll with the sinners, don’t, don’t, don’t stand with the wicked, don’t. Don’t sit with the scoffpers, he’s saying, be in the world, but don’t let the world bring you down. You ought not act like the world.

The world should start acting like you because you’re acting like Christ. That’s what the psalmist is saying in Psalm 1. He’s saying, you can be happy, but you have to get to a place in life when you’re okay with denying the world. Everybody say, deny the world. Not only do you need to deny the world to live a happy life in this happy song, it teaches us that we need to delight in the Word.

Everybody say, delight in the Word. Here it is in the text, he says, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night? I like this. He says, the happy person delights in the Word. The happy person desires the Word.

The happy person will digest the Word and the happy person will declare the Word. He says, happy is the person that delights in the Word and meditates on the Word day and night. It’it’s in the Word. Everything we need in life is in the Word. He says, I need you to meditate on the Word.

This word in Hebrew, it carries this idea that you should, you should mumble or moan when you’re eating the Word. It’s like an animal chewes on his cud. It’s like when you give a baby food and they’re in the highair and when you feed them the food, they say and they kick their feet, that it’s this idea that, that when you chew on the Word that you, you talk to yourself. It’s this idea that you talk back when you’re. When you’re in the Word.

My family, they. They know I get to preach a whole lot and always preaching somewhere. They even hate it when I go to the movies. I think they invite me because I’m paying for the movie. And when we get to the movie, there’s an illustration and something.

When the psalmist says, meditate on the Word, it’s not reading the Word all day long. You got to work your job, right? You need to have A job, right? Not reading the Word all day, but it’s meditating, it’s chewing, it’s talking back to the Word. And they hate it when I go to the movies because every time I go to the movies, something will happen in the movie and it will remind me of a scripture.

And I’ll say, ooh, I’ll just be in the car and I could be listening to something. My wife will be in the passenger seat. Something will come on. I’ll say, o, I’ll be laying in the bed. That happened last night.

I was laying in the bed. And as I’m laying in the bed, I was actually reading Psalm 73. We didn’t get to go over it. If you want to read that in your quiet time, it’s really the story. It shows you this reflection and this example of that Psalm, those first couple of verses.

Not to stand, sit, or stroll with the sinners. But when you hear the Word, what the Psalmist is saying is you get excited and you kind of have to say something m or ouch. Or the Word is so rich that the Psalmist says the Word. And delighting in the Word actually makes you happysalm119 I like how it reads. It says, how can a young person stay on the path of purity?

By living according to your Word. I seek you with my whole heart. Do not stray from me, from my commands. I have hiden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise to you, O Lord, and teach me your degrees.

I love this. Because the Psalmist is saying, you ought know the Word. It’s saying, you ought stowe the Word, and then you ought show the Word. You should know the Word in your head. You should stow the Word in your heart, and you should show the Word in your living.

He said, you should desire the Word, you should delight in the Word. You should digest the Word. You should declare the Word. You should demonstrate the Word. Everything we need is in the Word.

I like this because it’s the Word that carries me through. It’s the Word that helps me. It’s the Word that keeps me. I was in my office this week as I was looking at this Psalm 1, I was looking at this meditating on the Word as I was going through all of these Scriptures that talk about the Word changing our lives and how the Word keeps us and how the Word encourages us and how the Word is the playbook to life. As I was in my office, I looked over and I saw this Bible.

This Bible was given to me when I became the director of African American Ministries. My last position at Texas Baptist, I was the director of African American Ministries for four years. And as I served in that position, it was really a great honor to serve behind some great men. Dr. James Culp was the first African American director at Texas Baptist, and he was the director of African American Ministries.

After Dr. James Culp came Dr. Michael Evans, who is now pastor of Bethlehem and the mayor of Mansfield. He was the next director of African American Ministries. Then it was Dr.

Charlie Singleton who became the director of African American Ministries. After Charlie SINGLETON, it was Dr. Roy Cotton Sr. Who became the director of African American Ministries. And then came Oza Jones.

And as I came in, Dr. KP’s daughter Michelle came to me and she said, oza, all the other directors knew my dad personally. All the other directors knew my dad and spent time with my dad. You’re the first director that didn’t know my dad. You didn’t get to spend time with my dad.

So she said, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna give you the closest thing to my dad. I’m going to give you his Bible, the very Bible that he preached out of. This Bible is over 40 years old, and y’all’torn up and it’s worn out. The pages are falling out. She even gave me all of the notes that were in there, the original notes.

This is not mine. This is Dr. Kulp. And she, she. She gave me this Bible.

And when I go through the Bible, there’s some pages that had to be taped up. The spine is gone out of the Bible. There’s highlights everywhere, and there’s notes everywhere. And I get to know who Dr. Cope was by just looking and reading through his Bible.

And what I’ve discovered is, is the Bible that’s falling apart is the Bible that holds a life together. My question to you today, my question that I had to question myself, is, when I leave here, when I go and meet Jesus, can people tell from my Bible that I love the word of God?

I love the Word. The psalmist says, you can live a happy life. You’ve got to deny the world. Got to delight in the Word. Then the text says, not only do you need to deny the world, not only do you need to delight in the Word.

He gives us this depiction of the work, as he gives us this depiction of the work. It’s in verse three, he says, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in season, and is leaf also not wither? And Whatever he does prospers. He gives us this depiction of the work that has been done, the denying of the world and the delighting in the Word. He now gives us this picture and he shows us what we look like.

He shows us what we look like when we’re rooted. He shows us what we look like when we’re flourishing. He shows us what we look like after we’ve denied the world and. And delighted in the Word. He says, we’ll be a tree that is planted, will be a tree that is purposed, and will be a tree that is productive.

He says, once you deny the world and once you delight in the Word now you’ll have this depiction of the work, and you’ll be planted, you’ll be purposed, you’ll be productive. The question for us today is, are you flourishing or are you floundering?

Are you flourishing or are we floundering? I’m intrigued by the trees that we find in the Bible. One of the trees that I looked at was in Luke, chapter 13. It’s really in context. It’s a picture of Israel.

And there’s this parable that Jesus uses, talks about a person that owns the garden that represents God. And he talks about there’s a gardener that represents Jesus and there’s this tree that represents Israel. And it’s really talking about the repentance of Israel. And I just want to be clear that I’m not talking about you can lose your salvation. When I say this, I’m just looking at the tree.

You can’t lose your salvation once you give your life to Jesus Christ. But the. The principles of this tree I still find true that the gardener or the owner of the garden came looking for fruit on the fig tree. He had come for three years, and on the third year he comes and he’s looking for fruit, and he still finds no fruit. So he says, let’s cut it down, because it’s just using up the soil.

It’s just in the way. It’s not a productive tree. It’s a problematic tree. Let’s. Let’s cut this tree down because it just uses up the ground.

And the gardener who represents Jesus says, no, give it one more year to be productive. Let me dig around it and let me fertilize the tree, because this is a floundering tree. It’s not a flourishing tree. But then when I look In Luke chapter 19, there’s a story that you all learned in VBS, you learned in Awana’you, learned in Sunday school about Zacchaeus he was a wee little man. And a wee little man was he.

But not only was he, we. He was wicked. He was a wicked man who was taking the money. He was the IRs. Come on, somebody.

He was the IRs. And nobody liked Zacchaeus. But the Bible says that one day Zacchaeus fights through the crowd. And as he fights through the crowd, the Bible says that he reaches the spot, he climbs up a sycamore fig tree. And as he climbs up the tree, this tree had to be planted.

This tree had to be purpose. This tree had to be productive because it held a grown man, even though he was a little man. He climbs the tree. And as he climbs the tree, Jesus is walking by. And the Bible says when Jesus reaches the spot, he looks up at Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus is so short, no one has probably ever looked up at him in life. But Jesus looks up at him while he’s in the tree, he says, Zacchaeus, down he goes to Zacchaeus house, even though he’s a wicked man. When Jesus goes in the house, when they come back out, we don’t know what the conversation was. All we know is that Zacchaeus gave everybody their money back. And so when Jesus goes in the house, he changes Zacchaeus.

All because there was a flourishing tree that Zacchaeus was able to climb. Are you a tree that bears fruit for others, for refreshment? Are you a tree that’s a bridge for others to see? Jesus, I’ll say it like this. And rescuing others from an unnecessary death, we rescue ourselves from a meaningless life.

God has called us to flourish. Not just for us, but God has called us to flourish because there’s a people that are depending on us to be a bridge so that they can get to Jesus. In Tarrant County’about 2 million people. Tarrant County’about 1200 churches. 60 is the average membership across the country.

Now, after Covid, they’re saying 40 in person and 20 online. That means there should be about 1700 members per church. But the fact that the average church is 60 members, that means that there perhaps could be 1.9 million people unchurched or lost right here in Tarrant County. Our being happy and flourishing is not just for us to be happy, but it’s to take people, others to a place that don’t know who Jesus is. It’s for us to take the wicked that the Bible talks about who are goingna go to a place of destruction.

It’s for us to build a bridge for them to get to Jesus, it’s for us to flourish and be happy so that others would be happy. My wife, we watch a lot of movies, we watch a lot of tv. Y’all pray for us.

My wife, she grew up in a hard life. She grew up in Bedford Stuyves in Brooklyn. She had a hard life. She’s such a strong, strong woman. When we watch movies, she always makes sure, even if we’re almost finished with the movie, if it’s not a happy ending, she’ll turn the movie off.

In other words, my wife, she always wants to watch a movie that has a happily ever after. God has called us to flourish so that the wicked that are doomed for destruction, we can give them life through Jesus Christ so that they can have a happily ever after. This is the happy song. God has called us to deny the world, to delight in the Word, to be a depiction of the work, and to reach those that will be destroyed because of their wickedness. Father, we thank you today.

Lord, we thank you that through this process of being happy, you allow us to flourish so that we’ll be refreshment to others. Father, I pray for the person that’s not happy because of life circumstances, perhaps because of unfavorable conditions in their own lives. Or maybe they feel like chippy. They’ve been sucked in, washed down and blown over. They’re not happy.

Father, I pray that they would. They would take this word and this word would be rooted in their hearts. That not the things around us that make us happy, but we can be happy according to Psalm chapter one, by delighting in the word that you have left for us. Father, I pray for the person that might be in this wicked state. They the ungodly, the person that doesn’t know who Jesus is, or the person who has never given their life to Jesus.

I pray, Lord, that you would speak today, Lord, that they would give their lives to you. That they may have’happily ever after in the afterlife, in eternity with you. Lord, we thank you. This is our prayer. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.