Blessed, August 16th, 2026

have this important announcement to give you. This is your blessing, Lord. Amen, thank you! gehört zu Gott, G-d. Cambodia. Indiana. Philly. John, incarnate. Amen. What an incredible blessing. Amen! Well, good morning, fellowship. It's good to see you this morning. I want to say good morning to the chapel and to those who are with us online, somewhere around central Arkansas, maybe around the state, around the country, maybe even around the world. We're glad that you're here with us this morning. And if you have your Bibles, I want you to go to Psalm 112. That's 112, Psalm 112 this morning. As we finish out our blessed series, going to be looking at this beautiful passage in Psalm 112 and so if you don't have a copy of God's Word, it's okay. We're going to have that on the screen for you here in just a few moments so you can follow along with us. If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Brandon Bernard. I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Fellowship Bible Church.

And so if you're a guest with us here in the room, if you're online with us, we certainly are glad that you are here with us. It means a lot that you would spend some time with us. And we pray that your hearts will be encouraged today in the Lord and through the Scriptures and by the power of His Holy Spirit. You know, we are one church in multiple locations, seven campuses around central Arkansas. And so we do want to celebrate today because actually today is the actual day that we're launching weekly gatherings in North Little Rock, all right? So let's give it up for that. Let's thank God for that. So we have been praying and we've been meeting once a month, but today is the day we actually start meeting weekly. And so we are so thankful for what God's doing in the North Little Rock area and how He's going to use Fellowship North Little Rock to make a difference in that community. And so we're thankful for that. We're also an elder-led church. So sometimes people say, who's in charge of fellowship? And the answer ultimately is Jesus, okay? He's in charge. But we are led by elders. So the four teaching pastors, we come under the elder leadership

and we are elders as well, but we are led by elders. So over 50 elders on all of our campuses, men who love the Lord. Certainly not perfect, but they love the Lord and seeking to serve His church. And so you received an elder candidates form. If you're a part of Fellowship Bible Church, remember here, we want you to make sure that you look at those candidates and there's a place on the bulletin to be able to affirm those men who have been serving already for quite some time here at Fellowship, but we wanna affirm them. And so it gives you a chance to do that, even for the ones that aren't on this campus, if you will. When you're an elder at Fellowship Bible Church, you're not just an elder at a campus, you're an elder at Fellowship Bible Church. And so we're thankful for that leadership and how God uses that spiritual authority to help guide the church here. And so we wanna encourage you to do that. And I wanna pray for us as we dive into God's word this morning and hopefully His word dives into us. And so it encourages us and challenges us and changes us. So let me just take a moment and pray for us this morning. Father God, thank you so much for waking us up today. Thank you for putting breath in our lungs.

Lord, your word says, that let everything that has breath praise the Lord. And so I pray that's exactly what we'll do today. We will do exactly what we were made to do, to give you the praise that you deserve. We praise you in the mountain, we praise you in the valley. We praise you in the fields of plenty and we praise you when it feels like it's extremely hard. God, we'll praise you today because you're worthy of it all. And we thank you that we have access to you, that we can even pray to you this morning, that you've made a way. Jesus, you've made a way. The Holy Spirit, you've made a way for us to be able to talk to the Father. And we thank you so much for that beautiful gift. And I just pray for everyone that's here this morning. Lord, I pray for those that don't know you, that they would be encouraged, that they would be enlightened, their minds would see who they are and who you are and be brought to a saving faith in you, how much they are loved. I pray for those who know you, Lord, that you would encourage their hearts this morning, those who feel victorious right now, those who feel defeated, those who feel strength right now, those who feel weary right now,

God, that you would meet each one of us and you would strengthen our hearts in you, that you would refresh our souls through the power of your word, by the power of your Holy Spirit. We pray for North Little Rock as they gather this morning, Lord. We thank you for how you're moving and working in that community. And we just pray for more and more people to be connected to you, connected to your word, connected to your people and transformed in their hearts. We pray for our elders as they leave this church, Lord, that you would give them wisdom to help lead us in ways that. that honor You and glorify You for the good of our church, for the good of our cities, or for the good of our state and our world. We love You. Would You take Your Word now? Would You speak truth into our hearts? It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. So we've been talking about blessed, like the blessed life, and I don't wanna revisit necessarily in detail the last two weeks. I mean, we know that the way that the Bible talks about being blessed and the way the world talks about being blessed is not the same, okay?

If you don't know that, please know that, that the way the world talks about being blessed and the way the Bible talks about being blessed is two different things. But we're talking about the blessed life, the satisfied life, the deeply rich and full life, what that means with God, that we are blessed. And so the first week we talked about blessed is the one who delights in God's Word. So if you have a bulletin, you can kinda see. I didn't even make you fill in the blank, okay? I was trying to help you out. Blessed is the one who delights in God's Word. We were just saying, look, we wanna be the kind of people that delight in His statutes, that delight in His commandments, that delight in who He is. We wanna delight in the Scriptures. We want God to give us a craving and an appetite, just like you have an appetite for things that you may already be thinking about for lunch or whatever, you have an appetite to say, I'm hungry, I want that, that God would give us as His people an appetite for His Word. That we would delight in His truth. I came across something when I was studying that that was so remarkable to me. There are several words in Hebrew for delight. And one of the words for delight that I came across, I was just stunned at what it meant.

Now, it's not on the screen, okay? Because there's places in the Scripture where the psalmist say, I delight in Your Word. I delight to do Your statutes. I delight in Your commandments. But I found a little verse tucked away in Isaiah 66 that I think I'd read before, but I'd never really seen, if that makes sense to you. And it's not on the screen, so you just have to listen. But here's what it says in Isaiah 66. He's talking about Jerusalem. And he says this, for thus says the Lord, behold, I will extend peace to her. I will extend peace to Jerusalem, like a river, and the glory of the nations, like an overflowing stream. And you shall nurse, you shall be carried on her hip and bounced upon her knees. I'd never read that, I don't think. And in this verse, it's talking about Jerusalem says, you shall nurse, and you're gonna be carried on her hip, and you will be bounced upon her knees. Now listen, I don't know if you had the joy as a kid to be bounced on someone's knee, okay? If you haven't had that as an adult, I wouldn't recommend starting now, but it's an amazing, it's an amazing thing. If you have grandkids, if you have kids, if you have niece and nephew, whatever, like if you play with kids, like bouncing them on the knee,

that's amazing. My grandfather, I had one grandfather named Pop, and he served in the army, he was a master plumber. He had Buck tattooed on his forearm. He was a man's man, he was a big guy. And let me tell you something, when I rode on his knee, it felt like you were riding a Bucking Bronco, man. It was a fun ride, and I loved it. And in Isaiah 66, where it says, you'll be bounced upon their knees. Do you know what that word bounce really means in Hebrew? Come on, delight, that's what it means. When the psalmist says, I delight in your statutes, I delight in your word, one of the words is, it's like being bounced upon someone's knees. It's this joy that comes. It says, blessed are those who delight in God's word. Second week, we talked about this, blessed is the one who delights in God's presence and worshiping with his people. We talked about delighting in God's presence and worshiping with his people, that we actually want to be with him, because that's what love looks like, that you wanna be with someone. And if the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, then the one that we should wanna be with the most is the Lord.

And we can be with him anywhere. We can be with him on a walk. We can be with him in nature. We can be with him in the word. But we certainly wanna be with him in the house of God. Blessed are those who dwell in the house of God, ever singing his praises, that we admit that this gathering, that being together as believers, it's good for our souls. It strengthens us in God. It strengthens us as one another's, as we share that in the scripture. Blessed is the one who delights in God's presence and worshiping with his people. That's what we talked about last week. And this week, here's what we're talking about. Blessed is the one who fears the Lord and delights in obeying his commandments. So this takes it a step further. It's not just delighting in his word, it's actually delighting in doing his word. It's not just actually delighting being in his word and being in his presence, it's actually delighting being in his word and being in his presence and actually doing what he says. That we don't just delight to read it, we actually delight to do it, to follow his commandments. that we actually fear the Lord. It says, blessed, happy, satisfied, flourishing, joyful, deeply contented is the person who fears the Lord

and delights in obeying his commandments. That's where we're going today. So Psalm 112, beginning in verse one, I'm gonna read all 10 verses, says this. Praise the Lord. And in my version, it says it with an exclamation mark. Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man. Now this is obviously talking about the person, right? Not just man, it's woman. But blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. There are way too many people who don't understand that fear and delight actually go together in the scriptures in a very powerful way. We're gonna look at that this morning. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. This person who fears the Lord and delights in his commandments, he's actually gracious, and he's merciful and righteous. It is well with the man, right, the person who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice.

So this person, this man or woman, they're actually generous, they're just. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. Look at verse seven. He's not afraid of bad news. He's not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. He is distributed freely. He's given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. What that means is that strength and dignity are his life, her life, right? And then it says this, the wicked man sees it and is angry, and he gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked will perish. Wow. This is an amazing song, an amazing passage with amazing lyrics. And because of my time constraints today, I can't go into detail in every part of this, but I think that there are some amazing things to point out in this passage of Scripture. And really the main thing is this, delight in obeying God's commandments

is rooted in fearing the Lord. So when you ask this question, how does one come to delight in obeying God's commandments? Like, how can you even do that? How can you say, I want to obey God's rules. I want to obey God's heartbeat, his commandments. How do you even come to that point that you would say, I delight to do that. I want to do that. I don't feel like my kids, all five of them, little sinners who are in our house and grown up and who have accepted Christ, I love them. I don't feel like they've been consistent in saying, just tell me what to do and we will love to do it. And we just want to, we just love to do it. We just, we love to do it. But I have seen them be obedient and at the core of it, what happens is, is when there's a healthy love and a healthy trust, obedience follows. Because when you really trust someone, you know that they're working for your good. They have your best interest at heart. When you can completely trust someone and you know that they love you, it becomes easier. It becomes delightful. It actually becomes joyful. It actually takes pressure off of you to do what they say because they have your best interest at heart and they love you.

It's amazing how that works. And of course, Julie and I, and neither can you, none of us can do that perfectly, only God can. But delighting and obeying his commandments, it's actually rooted in fearing the Lord. And when you look in the scriptures, this word fear, it means to fear, it means to tremble, it means to reverence, it means to stand in awe, it actually can mean to enjoy. So there's a lot of people who read this passage or read different passages in the scripture and go, fear the Lord, and they automatically think that we should be afraid of God. That we should be crouched down in some position that we are afraid of God. Let me tell you something, there are places in the scripture where that's exactly what it means. You better know that he can split the cedar trees in half. You better know that he can cause the tides to rise. He puts the stars into place and he tells the sun when to set and when to rise. Like you better know that he is absolutely worthy to be feared because he can break you in a moment. with His breath, and we absolutely should fear and tremble. But there's also something beautiful to the fear of the Lord that causes great delight. It causes us to stand in awe of God, that we're in awe of His power, we're awe of His majesty, we're in awe of His beauty, we're in awe of what He has done. We're in awe of His Son, Jesus Christ,

that we are in awe of God, that we fear Him, that we delight in Him, that we reverence Him. Many of you are familiar with C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia. You just can't speak on the fear of the Lord and not really talk about this one part in the movie. Aslan is the lion, the great lion. And in that movie, there's a lion that says this. It's talking about Susan, and she says, Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion. Ooh, Susan said, I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion. And Mr. Beaver says, Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the king, I tell you. I love that. She's all nervous about it. She says, I can't imagine meeting a lion. Is he safe? And Mr. Beaver, no, he's not safe, but he's good. He's the king, I tell you. Look, there's something about fearing the Lord and delighting in Him and obeying His commandments are rooted in fearing Him. That's the beginning of wisdom is what the scripture says, that the fear of the Lord, that you and I need to have a fear of the Lord. That's why for those of you who are here today

who aren't believers, who are listening to this message, you're in this room, you're in the chapel, you're somewhere driving, you're somewhere sitting around and you're listening to this message and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ. By the way, if that is you, man, we're glad you're here. We're glad you're here. We're glad you're listening. Because we believe that Jesus Christ is the answer. He's the one who came to forgive you of your sins. He's the one that can give you peace. You need a Savior and you're not it. You need a Savior and the world's not it. You need a Savior and Jesus is the Savior. He's the one. He's the one. He loves you. And this morning, what you can do is you can fear the Lord and you can give your heart to Christ. For the rest of us who know Christ and we've been changed by His grace, we can grow in our fear of the Lord, that we are growing in fearing Him and delighting in Him and trusting in Him and standing in awe of Him. First John 5, two, three, says this. By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

I love that. We know that we love God when we keep His commandments. We know that we're fearing Him, that we're delighting in Him when we actually do what He says. And we come to find out that His commandments are not burdensome. When will the church wake up and realize, when will believers wake up and realize that God's commandments are not a kill joy? They're actually meant to enhance our joy. That God is not actually oppressing us and pushing us down, He's actually lifting us up. And by keeping His commandments, there is great delight and joy. We gotta dispel the myth that God is this cosmic kill joy. No, He's not. He's actually giving you His commandments to actually enhance your joy to the greatest joy you'll ever know. Psalm 128, one through four, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways. You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands. You shall be blessed. It shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus the man shall be who blessed, who fears the Lord. I mean, he's just saying this.

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways. Like this is a promise. This is a truth that comes from Scripture. Psalm 103, 11, and 17. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him and His righteousness to children's children. Psalm 147, 10 through 11. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor His pleasure in the legs of a man. But the Lord takes pleasure in who? Who does the Lord take pleasure in? Who does the Lord take delight in? He takes delight in those who fear Him and those who hope in His steadfast love. Isn't it interesting that today we're talking about delighting in the Lord and there's actually Scriptures that says that the Lord delights in us for those who fear Him. Look, I could give you a whole lot more Scriptures on this, but just know this, just take it from me this morning. I'm telling you the truth, that there are many, many places in Scriptures that say over and over and over again, blessed is the one who fears the Lord. You'll be a shade for your children. You'll be a refuge for your children.

There's a fountain of life for those who trust the Lord. You won't be snared by your enemies for those who fear the Lord. It just goes on and on about how beautiful it is to fear the Lord. And here's what we know from this passage. Blessed is the one who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. And then it says that there's a difference. There's a delightful difference about someone who fears the Lord and obeys His commands and delights in doing that. So let's talk about kind of three different things here. The delighted heart. Let's talk about the delighted heart. The delighted heart actually desires differently, right? So the one who delights in the Lord and delights in doing His commandments, you actually desire differently. Your desires change, and that's important. I have an elder here who's a good friend, and we meet a lot, and this sentence comes out of him a lot. He says, desire is king. That desire is king. Like, desire rules your heart. That's why some of us make the sins that we make, the choices that we make, is because we're following some kind of desire in our heart to satisfy something in us. That's why you look at what you look at sometimes

and say what you say sometimes and do what you do sometimes. Because desire is king, and when those desires rule your heart, when the desires of this world, when they rule your eyes and they rule your hearts and they rule your minds and they take over, they affect you in profound ways. Desire is so strong, the heart wants what it wants. And the Scripture says that the one who fears the Lord delights in obeying God's commands, and they have a transformed heart, a heart that desires differently. And so we need God to change our desires. And the way he changes our desires is when we, by his grace, begin to fear the Lord, tremble before him, delight in him, stand in awe of him. And the more that we do that, through the songs that we sing, being in his word, being with other believers, serving the Lord, praying, our desires begin to change. Look at this beautiful combination in Nehemiah chapter one, verse 11. It's in the middle of a prayer, and it says, oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and the prayer of your servants, watch this, who delight to fear your name. I just, I didn't realize that delight and fear

could go together so much. Who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy on the side of this man. Servants who delight to fear your name. I mean, what if that was what was said on your tombstone? Here lies, boom, your name, a servant of the Lord who delighted to fear his name. Wow. Does that describe you as a believer? Psalm 63, three through eight, the psalmist says, because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live. In your name, I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. When I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night, for you've been my help. In the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me. What you see is someone whose desire is different. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. My soul is satisfied than the best meals I've ever eaten. My soul is satisfied than the best pleasure I've ever felt. My soul is satisfied because your love is better than life, and I fear you, and I delight in you.

It's a different desire. You desire differently. Let's look at Luke chapter 19. This is a New Living Translation. It's a story of Zacchaeus. I know that our Maumelle campus pastor, Matt Morgan, preached on Zacchaeus, even dressed for the part, right? Ah, but he, and you can tell him I said that. He got a lot of mileage out of that. You know he did. Verse five, it says this. When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus, and he called him by name. Zacchaeus, quick, come down. I must be a guest in your house today. Zacchaeus quickly climbed down, took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy, but the people were displeased. He's gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner, they grumbled. Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord, and he said, I'll give half my wealth to the poor. And if I've cheated people on their taxes, if he cheated people, he absolutely cheated people. Not if. And if I cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much. And Jesus responded, salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham, for the son of man came to seek and save those who are lost. Let me tell you something.

Here's a man who feared the Lord. Jesus came to him, invited him to come to him, and said, I'm coming to your house today. I'm coming to be with you. And because of his fear of the Lord, because of his delighting in his commandments, his desires changed. He said, I'm gonna give half my wealth to the poor. If I've cheated someone, I'm gonna give them back four times the amount. What we're seeing there is a genuine heart change. His desires are changing, even as we read that. That's what happens. You desire. differently. But here's the second thing, the delighted heart lives differently. The delighted heart lives differently. So it's not that your desires just change, it's that you actually live differently. So the man, the woman, the student who fears the Lord, who trembles before his name, who recognizes his power, but also stares at his beauty and is in awe of his majesty and what he can do and who he is, the one who fears not only desires differently, but lives differently. It's making a connection between trusting God and obeying God.

Trusting in the Lord means obeying and obeying the Lord means trusting. He's making that connection. That when you trust in the Lord and you fear his name, you obey him. And as you're obeying him, you're trusting in him. It's a beautiful thing that works together. Micah 6,8, he has told you, oh man, what is good? What does the Lord require of you? But to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. Look, this is what's good. This is what's good. This is how you live. You act justly, you love mercy, and you walk humbly with God. And really that verse, he kind of looked at it in reverse, the verse in reverse, right? You walk humbly with God and that causes you to be merciful and it causes you to love kindness and act justly. Like that's what happens. When you walk humbly with God, when you fear him, you delight to do his commandments. When you fear God, you want to act justly. You want to love mercy, love kindness. That's what you want to do. Why? Because you are getting it in droves to you from God through his amazing grace.

Now again, I told you, I don't have time to preach all of this passage. I wish I did. But as you look at verses two through six, he just says a few things and I actually put it on your bulletin so you don't have to fill in the blanks, okay? I made it easy for you today. See, because you're still in summer mode. You're not ready for school. So it's like you got to have a little help there, right? It's a blessing to future generations. I've met many people at fellowship who want to leave a legacy to their kids and grandkids. They want to leave a legacy. Let me tell you this. You want to leave a legacy? Fear the Lord and delight in doing his commandments. So what about the lake house? What about the bank account? What about the things I need to provide for my family? Let me tell you something. If God gives you the resources to do that, that's awesome. But let me tell you the greatest thing you do for future generations. The greatest thing you do for future generations is to fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commandments. It's what it says in verse two. I wish I could keep talking about that, but it's a blessing to future generations.

Gracious and merciful. Look, the person who fears the Lord and is gracious and merciful, please tell me where we don't need more grace and mercy. Your marriage needs more grace and mercy. Your parenting needs more grace and mercy. Your grandparenting needs more grace and mercy. Your friendship needs more grace and mercy. Your work relationships and the way you do your job needs more grace and mercy. Who doesn't need that? Well, when you fear the Lord and you delight in his commandments, let me tell you what he produces, grace and mercy. You're gracious, you're mercy, you're righteous. You want to do right. Certainly not perfect, but you want to do right. Look at this, you're generous and just. That's verse five. You're generous and you act justly. You're not worried about what everybody else is saying, what everybody else is doing. You're worried about what the scriptures say and you're worried about honoring the Lord and seeking to give him glory. And I'm telling you, the man and woman, the student who fears the Lord and delights in doing his word, they are generous people, generous. And they are just, they care about justice.

Not for their own namesake. Let me tell you something, there's a lot of people in this culture who say they're fighting for justice and really all they're doing is fighting for their own name to make themselves look good. But God's kind of justice, it's the right kind. But here's where I need to spend the last few minutes of my message. Because the one who lives differently, let me tell you something, this person is courageous and confident in the Lord. I have prayed and I will keep praying, I am begging the Lord to make me a Psalm 112 man. I wanna be a Psalm 112 man who's courageous and confident in the Lord, that I trust in him. Look at verse seven, it blows me away. 112, verse seven, we're talking about the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in doing his word, and he's a man who's courageous and confident in the Lord. He's a man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his command. Look what it says, he's not afraid of bad news. He's not afraid of bad news, his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady, he will not be afraid. Do you see that? This is talking about the man or the woman who fears the Lord, delights in his command.

in doing His commandments, that you're not afraid of bad news. It doesn't mean that you don't cry about it. It doesn't mean it's not hard. It doesn't mean it's not frustrating. It doesn't mean you don't have questions about it. It doesn't mean that it's gonna be a dark night of your soul. It doesn't mean that you're gonna go through the vows, the deepest, darkest vow you've ever gone through. But what it does say is that the man or woman who fears the Lord will not be afraid of bad news. We got a bunch of people who worry. I know, I see one in the mirror every day. But this says that the one who delights in the Lord, delights in doing His commandments, is not afraid of bad news. We need believers to be strengthened in their soul to be the kind of people that says, I'm not afraid of bad news. Why? Because my heart's trusting in the Lord. I may not understand everything that's going on. It may hurt like hell if I can say that. It's gonna be able to do that, but my heart is firm and I'm trusting in the Lord. I'm not afraid because my foundation is solid. It's solid. Because who God is, and I'm courageous and I'm confident because of who God is, I've literally,

I've literally watched friends in very difficult places who have put their trust in the Lord, who've been held together through praise. They've been held together through delighting in God's Word and who He is in the darkest of days. I sat in the home of a dear friend, Frank Ramey, when he was dying of cancer. Frank Ramey was a Psalm 112 man. He was a Psalm 112 man. He could barely communicate to me. And I was praying with him, I was talking with him, talking about the Lord, and this is what Frank said to me in his dying days. He looked at me and he said, I'm good. I'm good. You know what that is? That's a Psalm 112 man. That's a Psalm 112 man. Not afraid of bad news. You know why? Because his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. Is that the kind of person you are? Psalm, Proverbs 14, 26 says, in the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence and his children will have a refuge. In the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence. So the Psalm 112 person is courageous and confident. You're not perfect, you're not without struggles, but when you fear the Lord and delight to do his commandments you have confidence, you have courage in the Lord.

All right. Last point is this, the delighted heart finishes differently. So the delighted heart desires differently and the delighted heart lives differently and the delighted heart finishes differently. The blessed and the wicked, they finish life differently. I mean, verse 10 says this, the wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked will perish. Listen, this is the opposite life of the blessed life. It's the bitter life. It's the futile life. It's the useless life. The one who does not fear the Lord, the one who does not delight in his commandments, the one who does not put his trust in the Lord, in Christ, the one who does not delight in him, you will finish differently. And the way it is is you will die in your sins and you will spend eternity in hell apart from God. And that may sound unloving, but it would be more unloving not to tell you the truth. Say it every time. Don't mean it disrespectfully at all, but I'm saying this, the way of the wicked, I'm actually not saying it, the scripture's saying it, the way of the wicked will perish. Their desires will perish. It's not gonna last.

They finish differently. They're bitter and it's useless and futile. And God forbid there's anyone in this room, God forbid there's anyone in the chapel, God forbid there's anyone listening to this message online who's living a futile life because you refuse to bow your knee before Jesus Christ. You refuse to see how great his love is for you. You refuse to see how much forgiveness he's willing to offer you, how much grace he's willing to give you, how he's willing to change your life and give you the delight and joy you've never known. I beg you, do not continue on the journey you're on. The delighted heart finishes differently. And we know this because of the one who paid it all for us. He finished differently. He went to the cross for your sins and my sins. He died on the cross and he was buried in a tomb. And three days later, Jesus came back to life. God raised him from the dead. And because of that strength, because of that... Truth, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have hope in this life and in the life to come. For those who trust in his name. He finished differently. This is not on the screen, I just want you to hear it. These are two Old Testament passages that speak of Jesus. And I want you to hear what it says. In Psalm 40, verse seven and eight,

it's a messianic psalm pointing to Christ. Then I said, look, I have come, as is written about me in the scriptures. It's talking about Jesus. I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart. This is Jesus, in the Old Testament, pointing to him, saying, I take joy, I take delight in doing your will, God. How about Isaiah 11? This is out of the New Living Translation, Isaiah 11, and here's what it says. Again, not on the screen, just listen to this. Out of the stump of David's family will grow a shoot. Yes, a new branch bearing fruit from the old root. Know what it's talking about? It's talking about Jesus. And the spirit of the Lord will rest on him, and the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, and the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and he will delight in obeying the Lord. He will not judge by appearance, nor make a decision based on hearsay. He'll give justice to the poor. He'll make fair decisions for the exploited. The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked. He will wear righteousness like a belt and truth like an undergarment.

And in that day, the wolf and the lamb will live together. The leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all. And the cow will graze near the bear, and the cub and the calf will lie down together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hands in a nest of deadly snakes without harm. Nothing will destroy or hurt in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with the people who know the Lord. And in that day, the heir to David's throne, Jesus Christ himself, will be the banner of salvation to all the world. Yeah. Yeah, the reality of it is, is that... Yeah, thanks. Isaiah 11 is saying, listen, this is the Savior who delighted in doing the will of God. He feared God, even as the Son of Man, even as the Son of God, as God in the flesh. He delighted to do his will, and his will was to go to the cross for our sins, that we might be forgiven, that we might have peace now and for all eternity, that we might be blessed. Blessed is the one who fears the Lord

and who greatly delights in doing his commandments. Does that describe you? Does that describe you? And if you need prayer this morning, stop by our Connection Center. If you don't have time to do that, fill out the bottom thing of the bulletin, stick it in the giving box so that we might pray for you, but that you might fear the Lord and delight in doing his word. Let's pray together. Father God, thank you so much for this morning, and thank you for your great love. Would you make us Psalm 112 people? Would you help us to be men and women, young men and young women who fear you, that our knees shake a little bit before you, that we tremble before you because of your strength and of your might and of your power, and that we stand in all of you because of your tenderness and your grace and your forgiveness and your mercy and your goodness, and that we take joy in you because joy is the serious business of heaven because you're all about joy. Jesus, we know that you gave us this example and we pray that you would make it so in our lives. So Lord, we look to you in this moment. So Lord, we look to you in this moment, and we ask you to help us be people who fear you

and delight like a kid being bounced on someone's knee, like sitting down at the table of amazing meal, experiencing a sunset with someone that we deeply love. Those are just foreshadows that we would be the kind of people who take great delight in not only your word and not only in knowing you, but actually doing what you say, that we might be people who trust and obey. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Thanks again for listening to the word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com slash contact. Have a great week.