Blessed, August 2nd, 2026

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Well, good morning, church. This is the day that the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it. Would you do me a favor? Tell somebody around you, just tell them, I'm glad you're here today. Tell them, I'm glad. I'm glad you're here today. Glad you're here today. Amen. I believe it's important any time we gather, both in person and online, that we not only come to be encouraged, but to be an encouragement. And you never know who needs to hear those words. And to you watching at home or wherever you're watching from, I'm glad you're here today. And so we're glad that you're connecting with us virtually, to those online and, of course, those in the room. If I haven't met you yet, my name is Justin Billson. I serve as one of the four teaching pastors here at Fellowship, and we are beginning a new series in this month of August, leading up to our Vision Sunday, which is the time when all of our campuses collectively, we're broadcasting to all of our campuses and thanking God for what he has done in the past, this past coming, the past ministry year,

and then look forward to cast vision for what God, we believe God is going to do in the coming ministry year. So I'm excited about Vision Sunday coming up in a few weeks. But leading up to our Vision Sunday, we are going to walk through several of the Psalms, beginning today with Psalm 1. Next Sunday, we'll look at Psalm 84. And then the following Sunday, we'll look at Psalm 112. As we search the scriptures to see what does God's word have to say about living a blessed life. I'm sure if you would ask those in culture, and if you would ask authors and podcasters and different people would have different perspectives. But I'm glad that God's word gives us a clear measuring line on what it truly means to live a blessed life. And so we're going to talk about that over the next few weeks. So I want to invite you to join me in Psalm 1. We're going to look at Psalm 1, verse 1 through 6, the entire Psalm here today. As you're turning there, I do want to make you aware. You should have received one of these cards when you came in. If you didn't, you can grab one when you leave. Every two years or so, we present men to our church as elder candidates. If you're new with us or maybe this is your first time here today, I'm glad you're here. We as a church are elder-led. We're an elder-led church. Some 50-plus elders across all seven campuses, godly men who are caring and shepherding for those in our body. And so every so often, we have need of more elders on our different campuses.

And so we present these godly men to you. We're not voting them in, but we are affirming them. And so what we're going to ask that you would do is read over the bios, read over what God is doing in their lives, and would you prayerfully affirm them. And then if for some reason you have scriptural concern that we need to know about or you need to address, you can let us know. There's information there. And then you'll see the email throughout the next few weeks on the bottom of the bulletin as well if for some reason you don't have it. But we want to make sure if there are things that we need to know, scripturally and biblically-based concerns, we would love to be able to hear those from you. But again, between now and August 31st, we ask that you would prayerfully consider affirming these men so that we'll commission them as elders of Fellowship Bible Church in the month of September. Now, some of you may be wondering, okay, Justin, I'm reading through this list, and none of these men are elder candidates at West Little Rock Campus. Here's the thing. You may not know them specifically, but I need you to know that these are not just men who are serving at one particular campus. Yes, they're assigned, and they're serving at that campus, but we're asking that you would prayerfully affirm them as elders of Fellowship Bible Church as a whole. And so again, there are times where we have need for more elders here at this campus. There are times where we don't. But at the end of the day, these men, regardless of what campus they are attending week in and week out, are serving as elders of Fellowship Bible Church as a whole. And so we want to be praying for them, praying for their wives as well and their families,

because this is important to us. This is serious, and they have been vetted extensively. You can trust that. Again, if you want to know more about who they are, you can see the information there. And I didn't do this in the first service, but I'm going to ask just because I believe what the Word says, that we honor. and give honor to whom honor is due. And as a teaching pastor alongside my other teammates, we have the honor of serving alongside some great, godly, humble, and I don't say that lightly, humble men. And so I'm gonna ask, if you're an elder in the room, would you just stand, please? We wanna honor you. If you're an elder of Fellowship Bible Church, would you stand? We just wanna honor you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And again, these are godly, humble, imperfect men who love our church, who love you. They pray for you diligently. We pray for you and desire to shepherd you. And so thank you so much.

Again, many of them are serving behind the scenes in ways that you know and ways that you don't. But again, we wanna honor them. So if you have more questions, I'll be around at the end of the service. You can talk to our elders as well. But just wanted to make sure that I take a moment to explain why this matters, because it's important to us. And again, we take this seriously. So thank you for partnering with us in this. Amen. Listen to the words now of Psalm 1. The writer says, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his light is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, he meditates day and night. He's like a tree planted by streams of water. It yields its fruit in its season. And its leaf does not wither, and all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. This is Psalm 1, verse one through six today. As we begin this series, again, across all campuses,

entitled Blessed, we wanna talk today about delighting in God. That's what we're gonna talk about today from Psalm 1, delighting in God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the joy that we have today to be able to gather in this space, a sacred space that we call our church home. We thank you that your presence is not confined to this building alone. We know that your presence is all around us, and we thank you that wherever we are, we're in your presence. But Lord, there's something special by being able to come in this place and to be encouraged by one another, to encourage one another, to sing with, to sing over, and even to have others sing over us, to lift our voices and to praise you, to celebrate your goodness and your grace. And now to sit at your feet and to open up your word and ask that you'd speak to us. Lord, we need your word. We need your word. We live in turbulent times. We know that, we see that, but we thank you that your word is true. Your word is life and light to us. So Lord, let this word come alive today. Let it challenge us.

Let it change us. Let it convict us in the areas that we need to grow. Thank you that your word never leaves us the same. We open our hearts and minds to receive what you wanna say today. Speak, Lord, through this word and through this series. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Church, you may or may not know this about me. Little fun fact about Justin Bilson. I love a good movie. I love watching movies in the comfort of my home. I love watching movies with my kids. I love watching movies by myself. Yes, I'm that person. I will go to the movies by myself and have a grand time, right? I love watching movies with my wife. And the thing I love about my wife is, and I don't know if this is true maybe for your spouse, my wife, if she finds the perfect spot on the couch and the blanket is around, it's a nap coming. I mean, it doesn't matter how good the movie is. She's gonna have a good nap, right? We love watching movies in our home. And as great and wonderful as it is, I also am a fan of going to watch movies in theaters. For me, it's an immersive experience. I get my popcorn. Even if I'm not hungry, I still gotta get a little small popcorn, right?

Cause you just, it feels weird watching a movie without having some popcorn in your hand. I get popcorn, I get my soda, I find my seat. I lock into the film. I'm in my happy place. I love movies. If you ever get a chance to go to the movies with me, or if you know anyone who knows me, they will tell you that I have one rule when it comes to going to the movies. I cannot, under any circumstances, miss the beginning of the movie. Cannot miss the beginning of the movie. I don't necessarily need to see all of the trailers, but I don't wanna miss the beginning of the movie because for me, the beginning sets the tone for the rest of the story. The beginning sets the tone for the rest of the story. Which is true when you think about it for not only movies, it's true for books, for TV shows, even conversations. You need to go back to the beginning to get context. It is important, and it is also true for. our texts today. Because if by chance, and again, we're not doing a sermon series on the book of Psalms, on Psalms, but if you want to know what Psalms is really about, you need to go back to the beginning. That's why it's important that we understand that this Psalm, Psalm 1, is not just the first psalm listed in the 150, but it is also considered by scholars

to be the introductory psalm, what Warren Wiersbe calls the preface psalm. This psalm has within it several themes that are carried throughout the rest of the psalms, themes like the call to walk in obedience to God's word, the blessing that comes to those who live by it, and even the judgment that comes to those who reject it. These are the major points that are found in this psalm, as well as throughout the psalms. And what strikes me is that out of all of the types of psalms to begin with, psalms of praise, psalms of thanksgiving, psalms of lament, we see that this begins with a wisdom psalm, wisdom psalm, a call to remember that God is the source of wisdom, and he makes his wisdom available to us through his word. This is the heart of a wisdom psalm, and Psalm 1 is a call, a beckon, clarion call to walk in wisdom and to delight in God by meditating on his word, because those who do so are blessed. Again, in Psalm 1, we see the call to walk in wisdom and delight in God by meditating on his word, because those who do so are blessed. I don't know if you know this, that word blessed in the ancient Hebrew language, it means divinely favored, it means happy, it means fortunate. And one of the other things that I thought that was intriguing in the text

is that this word blessed here in Psalm 1 is written not in singular, but it's written in Hebrew in plural. Why is it important, Justin? It's important because it helps us to understand that the person in Psalm 1 does not just have one blessing, but he is blessed with many blessings, these abundant blessings that he enjoys, not because of his works. No, that's why one scholar says it like this, that Psalm 1, I love this, is not a celebration of works or an exhortation to practice legalism, but it is a picture of obedience, covenant faith, discipleship, and submission to God. And I love that because it affirms the central truth of the message, which is right there at the top of the bulletin in the fill in the blank. Here's the central point of the message. Here's the message in a sentence that the promise of a blessed life is only possible through Christ. This promise of a blessed life does not come to me because of what I earn or because of how hard I work. No, it is only possible because of, in, and through Christ. It's not our works, it's not our good deeds, it's not how much money we have saved, it's not how much money we have invested, it's not how big our house is, how nice our car is, how many places we can travel.

It's not in the temporary things, but it is in the eternal finished work of salvation. This is how we walk in this blessed life. And the psalmist says that it is demonstrated, you walking in the blessed life is demonstrated through your delight. Text says, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. It's interesting, I found a definition that helped me make sense of this word delight, that it's more than just a surface emotion. Look at this definition. It's not in the fill in the blank, but just look at this definition. It says that delight is a heart-level desire expressed through obedience, commitment, and devotion. Delight is a heart-level desire expressed through obedience, commitment, and devotion, which again signifies that delighting in God is more than just a surface emotion. No, it is a deep desire of the heart. And the psalmist says when you have this deep desire of your heart to delight in God, you become like the person in Psalm 1. Person in Psalm 1 does not walk according to the counsel of the ungodly, does not walk according to the counsel

of those whose teaching and lives are not in line with scripture. We walk according to the word of God. As a church, we walk according to the word of God. We submit to the authority of the word of God. We stand on the foundation of the word of God, and we are led by his spirit. And how beautiful today is it that we talk about elder candidates because these men that we're presenting before you are also men that believe in the Word of God, stand on the foundation of the Word of God under the authority of Scripture and are led by the Spirit to be a part of a church that is led by men who are led by the Spirit. Text also says that we do not stand with those who walk in the path of sin. The psalmist is not making an argument to suggest you should never, ever hang around unbelievers. You should never hang around people who are lost. No, that's not what he's suggesting. What he's saying is that when you truly delight in God and His Word, then your surroundings change and who you allow in your circle of influence and your circle of friends changes because our delight in God shapes our desire for godly relationships. My delight in God and His Word, it shapes and transforms my desire for godly relationships. That's why the psalmist says that we delight in God.

He mentions these two things, but then he also says, which is interesting, he says we do not sit in the seat of a scoffer. It's probably not a word you regularly use, but a scoffer is one who is boastful and arrogant and proud and they think more highly of themselves than they should. They look down on others. They sit in the seat of pride. Sitting in the seat of a scoffer is dangerous because Charles Spurgeon, he says this, look at this. He says, the seat of the scoffer may be very lofty, but it is very near to the gate of hell. Therefore, let us flee from it, for it shall soon be empty and destruction shall swallow up the man who sits therein. Ladies and gentlemen, these are sobering words because they remind us that as Christians, as believers, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are not to sit in the seat of a scoffer, to sit in the seat of pride or arrogance, but we are to walk humbly or to extend grace because grace has been extended to us. And we're to delight in the fact and the truth that we delight in the God who delights in us. Isn't that good news today? That you and I delight in the God who delights in us and the one who makes us able to delight in him through the work of Jesus Christ. And we can delight in him, not as slaves or as sinners, but we can delight in him as sons and daughters.

That is who we are. We delight in him and we do this, the psalmist says, by delighting not just in his goodness, not just in his grace, but we delight in his law. According to Justin, the thinking about law, that's probably not something I would just say I delight in. But when the scripture says his law, it's talking about his word. It's talking about his word, his standards, his principles, his truths. We delight in his law. And here's the thing. Notice the psalmist says we delight in his law, not the law, because to delight in any other law is legalism, but to delight in his law is freedom. To delight in any other law is legalism, but his law is freedom because he says in Matthew 11, come to me because my yoke is easy. My burden is light. My law does not lead to condemnation. It leads to life. So when we consider what Jesus said in relation to Psalm 1, it proves the point. It proves the central message of the sermon that the promise of a blessed life is only possible through Christ. And we see that displayed in our delight. What do I delight in? And we also see it through what we meditate on.

I don't know if you're like me, but when I think of the word meditate, maybe certain images or pictures come in my mind. I've even thought sometimes when you say meditation, maybe I have a flash of a picture of Eastern meditation in my mind. But here's the thing that I love. When you search the scriptures and look up the words in the original translation, do you know what the word meditate means? It literally means to talk to yourself about something over and over, which is good news for you and I in the room who like to talk to ourselves. Let's be honest. Some of you, you're like me, you'll put your AirPods in and you're not talking to anybody. You're just talking to yourself. You just don't wanna look crazy. So you have your AirPods. I've done it before, I promise you, right? But here's the thing, to meditate on God's word is to talk to myself about it over and over and over again. Here's the question, church, what are you meditating on? What are you talking to yourself about over and over and over again? Are you meditating on God's word or are you meditating on something else?

I had to sit with this question this week because as I processed through it, I was convicted because yes, I do, by God's grace. daily want to meditate and meditate daily on God's word. Here's the thing, church, let me be transparent. I also wrestle with a distracted mind. I wrestle with a distracted mind. Let me give you an example. There are times, early morning prayer, and maybe you can relate to this. There are times in early morning prayer where I'm praying, one day in particular, last week's praying for the kids and Lord, bless Harper and Hampton. Bless the steps they take. Bless their relationships, praying for their future spouses, praying for their friends, praying for the decisions that they make, praying for them as they get ready to go to school. And right when I said school, my mind said, wait a minute, did I pack their lunches this morning? Yeah, no, I packed their lunches. No, my wife says she got it last, okay. Lord, thank you. He has to say, go to school. Wait a minute, does Hampton have her uniforms for school? And now my mind is drifting all over the place, right? And so what I have done in those moments is if I'm not careful, I can start to feel guilty before God

because my brain is not focused. But what I've had to learn, even over the past year, what I had to learn and am still learning to do is to acknowledge what's going on in that moment and literally, verbally say, Lord, I thank you that you created my mind. You know my mind tends to wander, but I thank you that your word re-centers my mind. And I thank you for my anchor verse in Psalm 46 and 10, to be still and know that you are God. And I say that enough to myself until it anchors my wandering and my drift mind. What's your anchor verse? What's the verse that you say? What's the verse that comes from your heart when your mind is adrift, when you're anxious, when you're worried? What's the verse that centers your heart and mind? Psalm 46 and 10 is that verse for me. Philippians 4 and 6 is another verse. But the reason why I remember and remind myself of Psalm 46 and 10 is because it anchors, it re-anchors, it re-centers my heart and mind. And then it reminds me, hey, Justin, guess what? The very things that you're thinking about, God's word has something to say about those things. When I'm thinking about my marriage, I can remember God's word because Ephesians 4, 32 reminds me that I'm to be kind and tenderhearted, loving and forgiving.

So my prayer as a husband, Lord, help me to be more tenderhearted and kind to my wife. Lord, I'm thinking about my kids, but thank you that your word has something to say about my kids. Thank you, Lord, that you have given Sherita and I these two beautiful children, Harper and Hampton. Thank you that Psalm 139, 14 reminds us that they are fearfully and wonderfully made and you know every step that they take. Lord, I think about our church. I think about the ways that you're moving. I think about the ways that you're growing our church. And I thank you that our church does not rest on my shoulders alone because you said in your word in Matthew 16 and 18 that you will build your church and nothing can stop you building your church. I need you to see that this is what meditation is. I am applying what the scripture says to even the things my mind is drifting on and it re-centers my heart and mind. I've got my anchor verses and I'm also applying scripture to what I'm thinking about. I'm meditating, I'm talking to myself over and over. This is important, church. And that's why this year in particular, we wanna grow, we always wanna do this, but this year we wanna place in a focused attention on growing in practice, look at this, growing in the practice of meditation on God's word

by committing to memorizing passages of scripture. Spoiler alert, I know it's not Vision Sunday yet. Normally we give the initiatives for the coming year on Vision Sunday, but just wanna give you a brief heads up, a brief spoiler alert. I am so excited as a church. We are going to be walking through about 10 verses of scripture next month that we wanna memorize together. All of our campuses, all of our campuses going to be doing this from our kids all the way up. We're going to be memorizing at least 10 verses of scripture. Each month we'll have a different verse of scripture. I'm excited because again, this is not just memorization for the sake of memorization so we can pat ourselves on the back and say, look at me, how many scriptures I memorized. But the goal of memorization is that it helps us to meditate on God's word. Some of you, you're already excited because you love scripture memorization. Others of you are like, ah, ooh, I don't know how we're gonna do this. But here's the good thing, you're not doing it alone. We get to do it together. So you'll hear more about that on Vision Sunday. But I'm excited because again, as we're talking about growing deeper in God's word, we want to be intentional of course, all of our lives,

but even over the next year, we want to intentionally place emphasis on spending more time in God's word. Because at the end of the day, the psalmist says when we do that, there's some blessings that we can enjoy. What are these blessings? Three blessings. He says that we can enjoy, number one, that when we spend time in God's Word, number one, God's Word refreshes us. God refreshes us through his Word. That's why he says, like trees planted by streams of water, we are refreshed. I don't know if you're here and you need to be refreshed today, but know that God's Word can and does refresh us. We're refreshed by God's Word because our lives are rooted in it. Like those roots of a tree, we are refreshed by his Word. God's Word blesses us. God blesses our lives and makes us a blessing to others. It's interesting to me that the text doesn't say that like trees, we yield results. No, it says we yield fruit. Because at the end of the day, the results would be just for me, but the fruit is to be a blessing to others. What do you mean, Justin? Have you ever found a scripture that blessed you so much

and you wanted to send it to everybody because you wanted to be a blessing to them and to bless them with what blessed you? Our lives are called to not just be blessed, but to be a blessing to others. And then number three, I love this. God sustains us in every season by his grace. In every season. Those who meditate on the Word of God and delight in God, yes, you will have hard days. Yes, you will have difficult seasons. Yes, you will have tough times. But the psalmist says that you will thrive by God's grace in every season. That's why he says the leaf does not wither. And in all he does, he prospers. Because God, by his grace, sustains us in every season as we delight in him and we meditate on his Word. Okay, Justin, I hear all of that. That's good, that's great. But what's the takeaway from a message like this? Someone, even as short and as brief as it is, is power-packed. I love this song. I thought, and I said, Holy Spirit, Lord, what do you want me to raise to the attention of our church? How can we wrap this message up? And as I thought and I processed through that question, I realized that where the Lord was leading me and where he wanted to lead us today

is this, to sit with this internal tension that says, God, I delight in you, and yet there are things in my life that can distract my focus and dull my delight. God, I delight in you, I do. And yet I also know that there are things, if I'm not careful, in my life that can distract my focus and dull my delight. So here's a question to wrestle with today, church. What are the things? What are the things in my life and yours that can, if we're not careful, distract my focus and dull my delight? Three things that I want you to consider today. The first one is this, anxiety. Anxiety, in particular, anxiety that is rooted in fear and doubt. Anxiety has a way of distracting your focus and dulling your delight in God. Justin, how do you know that? I know that because in my own life, I find it hard, dare I even say impossible, to truly delight in God and be anxious at the same time. I cannot fully delight in God when which he is calling me to and be anxious at the same time because I don't know about you, but when Justin becomes anxious, instead of me running to the Father to trust him with what he is doing,

I try to grasp on to things around me that I can control or fix or solve. My wife laughs at me because anytime I start cleaning up at home, she's like, you anxious, aren't you? I start throwing stuff away, it'd be Barbies on the floor. I'm throwing, she's like, leave Barbie alone. Put, leave, leave Barbie alone, right? But what we all do, those who struggle, especially if you wrestle with anxiety, the thought is, let me reach for something I can control. Let me reach for something I can put my hands on and fix because now it brings me a sense of calm. But then I'm reminded again, but wait, I'm not in control. And then the fear sets in and then the worry sets in and then I feel flooded, but here's where God's word breaks through all of that. Second Timothy one, seven, God has not given me the spirit of fear. Philippians four and six, be anxious for nothing. If you wrestle with anxiety or you know someone who does, mark those scriptures down and read them this week. Meditate on them this week. Second Timothy one and seven, Philippians four and six. Second Timothy one and seven, Philippians four and six. Second Timothy one, seven, Philippians four, six. Be anxious for nothing. He's not given me the spirit of fear. Ladies and gentlemen, anxiety is real and it can,

doesn't have to, but it can if we're not careful. Delight our, it can. fill our delight in God if we're not careful. But that's why the word tells us, be anxious for nothing. Bring that anxiety before God and trust in him. Can I give you another one? This one's hard, but let's embrace this one together. Not only can anxiety if we're not careful, busyness, busyness can keep me from experiencing God's presence. Busyness can keep me from experiencing God's presence. We live in a culture, and I know this goes without saying, but we live in a culture that is ruthlessly busy. Especially if you're in the season of life my wife ran with young kids, we're always busy. And I get it, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong, inherently wrong with being busy, because many of our lives lend to that busyness. But here's where the danger comes. The danger comes when busyness keeps us from experiencing God's presence, because we don't make time to slow down. That's why one scholar says it like this. He says, our adversary majors in three things, noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in muchness, he will rest satisfied. Maybe the tool the enemy's using in your life in this season is hurry. But you're always in a hurry,

and you are not able to truly experience and rest in the beauty of what God has for you, because you're always, your heart, not just your day, but your heart is always in a hurry. Church, I want you to sit with that and consider for a moment, how different would your life be if you made time to slow down and experience God's presence? Slow down and experience God's presence, not just in corporate worship, but even in personal worship, when you're in your car, when you're at home, when you're around doing what you're doing, spending time in God's word, reading the scriptures, in community with others. And even, I'll add this in, just because this is how I relate, and this is where I feel and sense God's presence, in nature. One of the things I love doing, don't let it be a rainstorm, outside, or it's raining, I am sitting on the patio. I love sitting out on the patio in the rain. I love being in nature, I sense God's presence. And it's beautiful when it's not 55 million degrees outside. But I love, and again, I don't know what that is for you, where you've sensed God's presence. Yes, obviously here, we wanna continue to gather in on Sunday mornings, and gathering in our small groups, and gathering personally,

wherever you sense God's presence. But again, the point, church, is we need to learn to slow down. Because God is trying to invite us. God is inviting us, beckoning us, experience my presence. I long to experience his presence when we get to heaven, but I don't wanna be so busy and in such a hurry that I miss it here. And sometimes that means I have to be willing to say no to some things. Because right now, I don't need a life that's more busy, I need to make time to slow down and experience God's presence. And then the last one, not only anxiety, not only busyness, you ready for this one? The loss of awe. The loss of awe. Loss of awe and a familiarity with sacred things. Have you ever had a season in your life, maybe you're in one right now, you ever had a season in your life where you felt like you were living on autopilot? You felt stagnant in your faith journey, your spiritual practices felt routine and empty, it felt, coming to church felt like a checkbox item. You had no motivation to pray, no motivation to read your word, no motivation to give or serve, and you find every excuse to not spend time in community because you just wanna be alone, you wanna isolate.

I don't know if you've ever been there, I don't know if you are there. If you are there, my prayer for you right now is that God would breathe fresh wind in yourselves. And my encouragement, my challenge, I implore you as much as everything in you wants to back away from community, please don't. Because if there was ever a time you need Christian community in those hard seasons, you need it now. God has given you the gift of community, don't forsake that beautiful gift. Church, there are so many things, anxiety, busyness, the loss of all, that can distract our focus and dull our delight. And that is why when we look to Psalm 1, we recognize it as an invitation. God is inviting us, draw closer to me, fellowship, draw closer to me, son, daughter, draw closer to me. Delight in me, meditate on my word. And meditate on my word through memorization. Again, not memorization just for the sake of memorization so you can pat yourself on the back and say how good of a Christian I am because I memorized 10 scriptures. No, I use and I apply my word. I apply and I practice the spiritual discipline of meditating on his word and memorization is an opportunity for me to grow in meditation. Because when I meditate on it and I memorize it,

then I sing about it and I pray his word and I look for evidence of his word all around me and it comes out of me and it overflows. And that's what I want. That's what we want as teaching pastors, as elders. We want all of us as a church that God's word would overflow out of us in greater ways this year. Fellowship, God is calling us. Hear my heart, God is calling us to spend more time in his word this year. And so maybe that means, and myself included, maybe that means we've gotta turn off the Netflix, we've gotta turn off the TV, we've gotta turn off the social media, we've got to put away the distractions and zero in on his word, make more time. Maybe for some of us, you gotta get up early, which means you gotta go to bed. I don't know what that is for you, but God is calling us to spend time in his word, more time in his word this year. Because when we do as we do, we are changed. So here's how I wanna end. I wanna pray this prayer over you and then as I read it, I want us to pray it together. Because I realize that yes, if we're not careful, spending time in God's word and the desire to spend time in God's word, if we're not careful, we can treat it like another thing I have to do. I want us to see it that way.

And I also want us to recognize that we need God by his spirit to give us a hunger for his word. Because some of us have so many things on our plate that it feels like spending time in the word is a quick checkbox item, but Lord, no, I want a spiritual appetite for your word. So that's why here's the prayer. Let's put it on the screen. I wanna read this over you and then I want us to read it together and we'll close. The prayer is this. Father, give me, by the power of your spirit, give me a spiritual appetite for your word and let it fill my heart and mind with your truth today and every day. In Jesus' name, amen. If you wanna pray that prayer and you're ready to pray that prayer and understand the implications of praying that prayer. Because when you ask him for an appetite for his word, he'll give it to you. But are you willing to make it a priority as it should be? Let's pray this prayer together. Father, give me a spiritual appetite for your word and let it fill my heart and mind with your truth today and every day. In Jesus' name, 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.