I. What Was I Made For? 00:00
Lord Jesus, we just declare today that you are worthy of our praise. We pray that you’d open our minds and our hearts to hear your word as it’s spoken this morning, and that we would be changed by our encounter with you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
So today we’re going to start a new series for the next few weeks here. It’s a three-part series. It’s got a beginning, a middle, and an end, so if you feel like there’s more to come, there’s more to come. We’re going to talk through an idea that caught me as I was praying through our readings today. You know, Epiphany is about the revelation of who Jesus is, that God has made his dwelling among us. And so as I was reading through these things, one idea struck me as I was praying over these readings. As we wrap up Epiphany (and we’ve had so many great words in this season), I think God just wants to solidify something as we move into Lent. Because you can feel that there’s a momentum with the church calendar that God has designed, that we participate with. And so you start thinking about, “Oh yeah, Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, fasting.” But let’s not lose the preparation that God is doing for us in Epiphany. There’s a really beautiful design. And so this series will actually end with the story of the Transfiguration, which is where we’re heading in Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus as God in flesh. So keep that in mind as we talk this morning.
The question we’re answering: what was I made for? Now, those discerning among you might have the song from the Barbie movie in your head. I say “discerning”; I don’t know if that’s the right word. But those who know the Barbie movie might remember that Billie Eilish song, “What Was I Made For?” And I am not a plastic girl doll or a plastic boy doll of any kind, but it is a question that every human has had in their hearts from the beginning of time. In fact, in that movie, at the end, if I’m not mistaken, Barbie decided she was made to be a mother. So there was some wisdom even in the midst of all the plastic. You have to keep your eyes open. God will speak in wonderful ways.
Today I want to truly talk about this, and we’re going to answer this question, like I said, over the next few weeks. So I’m not getting to the end today. This is the beginning. One option, one worldview proposal that has been common throughout human history, is that we’re made for happiness. We are made to make ourselves happy. Now, I’m phrasing it particularly that way because every one of us knows that that’s a load of crock. There’s nothing in that statement. If all we’re made for is to make ourselves happy, then there are a million ways you can do that that will lead to what? Misery. Every time you put happiness in the highest place, you end up with its opposite: misery and hell. And so, instead of that, the Bible offers a different story.
II. Blessed, Shalom, Eudaemonia 03:32
Blessed, or shalom, goodness. Aristotle put it this way: eudaemonia. I just like saying that word. I don’t know, it sounds smart. But it’s true. Something that people started to recognize is that making yourself happy, or having pleasure, was not central in this life. If you’re shocked by that this morning… I’m shocked. I don’t think any of us needs to be told that our life is about so much more than the temporary, fleeting emotions that come and go, that are blown about like the wind, like a boat on the waves tossed back and forth. That’s not the center of our life. But this idea of blessedness, of shalom, of eudaemonia, gets closer to the truth. It’s more than joy. It’s more than happiness. It’s meaning. It’s fulfillment.
We’re going to talk about that this morning, because that’s the proposal through all of our readings. “Blessed is the man,” “blessed are the poor,” blessed are all these things. All these “blessed” statements are claiming something about the world, about how you become human within the world. And so in this moment we’re going to just talk about the psalm this morning. There was so much good stuff throughout everything that informed everything, but we’re just going to use the psalm as our structure today.
And so we’ll start in Psalm 1, verse 1: “Blessed is the man” (Ps 1.1). This word blessed is referring to a state that has very little to do with our temporary happiness. In fact, think about those words I’m talking about, eudaemonia and shalom. I did some research, and I’m going to do the really cheesy valedictorian-speech thing where I define words for you. In the Merriam-Webster dictionary it’s defined as… well, it’s a little bit richer than that, but we’re going to start here, because I think it matters. The way that we use our words can get lost in the confluence of all the different ways people talk. And so we’re going to start here with shalom: “a state of complete wholeness, harmony, and well-being that manifests when everything is exactly as it should be, physically, spiritually, relationally, resulting in prosperity, fulfillment, righteousness, and peace.” That’s a lot deeper than just peace as it might commonly be defined. It’s when everything is as it should be.
Now, there’s an assumption in there: the world was created to be some kind of way. We are not randomly configured atoms and automatons interacting, chemicals firing. We’re not that. Actually, the world has a designer, or better yet, the world has a Storyteller, and we are in the middle of a divine purpose and a divine story. So “What were you made for?” is a question that has an answer. If we’re just chemicals and atoms (and I don’t believe anybody here really believes that), but if we are, then we have no purpose. We start from nothing and we end at nothing. But instead we’re saying this morning that everything has a state of goodness that has been designed, a story that is being told through us and in us.
And so when we think about “Blessed is the man,” you might start to think about how that manifests in our lives. And that’s where I want to bring up eudaemonia, because Aristotle developed this idea, and here’s kind of the definition: goodness and excellence that is beyond mere happiness, a state of complete human thriving and well-being that can only be achieved through (and this is Aristotle’s definition) a lifetime of rational and virtuous activity. So basically, you can make your life good if you’re really smart and you work really hard at being good. A little bit unsatisfying for those of us out there. I don’t know. I mean, I’ve tried to make my life good. I have done my best to be very smart and very good, and it’s never good enough. And I think all of us know that. We know that there’s something flawed in the idea that we can make ourselves good.
And so I’m going to change this a little bit. When we’re talking about eudaemonia, when we talk about blessedness, shalom, it’s all by the work he does in us. So we’re just going to keep that in mind, because this whole series ends at the Transfiguration, at the revelation of who Jesus is. So keep that in mind. But we’re told ways of being, ways of living, that will guide us to more fully experience God’s story in our life.
III. The Counsel of the Wicked and the Way of Sinners 08:21
And so the psalmist is concerned with setting out… it’s really great that we have Psalm 1. It sets out the model of what it looks like to enter into that goodness, that rightness with God and with man. And so it starts with “Blessed is the man,” and it continues with a warning:
1 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; Ps 1.1
And even thousands of years ago, when this was written by David, he knew the human heart, because every one of us has experienced this exact journey. It’s put poetically: “walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.” But I have a quick example (I could have used about a million and a half things), a quick example of how this works in our brain, how this works in our spirit.
Let’s imagine, for instance… and I hope some of you guys know this. I drive a lot for my work. I drive like forty hours a week. Not “I drive to work and then work forty hours a week”: I drive for work about forty hours a week. I am in traffic in LA, in San Francisco, all these places. And there’s this beautiful lane. It’s called the carpool lane. But they don’t give me a buddy when I drive. I am in the car alone. But that carpool lane is there, and you’re in stop-and-go traffic, and you see the carpool lane just flowing like a beautiful river of life. And the thought comes into your mind. The counsel of the wicked jumps into your mind: “I could go in there. I could go in the carpool lane.” There are signs everywhere telling you you cannot go in the carpool lane, but they’re just signs. It’s just words.
So, all of that said, you imagine this scenario that could potentially happen in somebody’s life, hypothetically, where you decide, “I’m going to go in the carpool lane.” Well, you started in the counsel of the wicked, but you ended up in the way of sinners: the carpool lane without a buddy. And you’re sinning. You’re in the way of the sinner. But you don’t get caught. Everything goes good. You get there ten minutes faster than you would have, or in my case it might even be an hour faster than you would have. Everything works for you. And then you start jumping in that carpool lane. You are going on the way of sinners, and you are scoffing at all those stupid people sitting in traffic.
This is the journey of sin in our life. It looks good, it feels good, and then we think everybody else is dumb for not doing it our way. We are meaning-making people, and so we draw the wrong conclusions sometimes. Now, God in his gracious goodness has structured reality such that you will encounter it at some point in time. You will get pulled over, or you will have this moment where all of a sudden everything falls apart. So don’t even enter the counsel of the wicked. Don’t even look at the river of life… I mean, not the real one, but the carpool lane. Don’t even look at the carpool lane. Don’t start in the counsel of the wicked, because it leads to the way of sin, which leads to sitting in the seat of the scornful, or the scoffer. That’s a settled place in your heart that you have embraced. And then maybe you get pulled over, and instead of learning your lesson, you think cops are wicked and evil because they kept you from your carpool lane.
It happens. We justify our sins to the point that we’re mad when somebody else points out our sin. So don’t enter the counsel of the wicked, and if you find yourself in the way of sin, be careful not to end up in the seat of the scornful. Get out of there. It’s not a good place to be. That goodness and that excellence, that’s the shalom where everything is exactly the way it should be. All of that spins out when you go in the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners, and the seat of the scornful.
This is why there’s such animus against marriage, against large families, against prudishness, as they say, or against people who don’t drink. There’s a scoffing that happens when you embrace your sin. You’re not able to see goodness, period. I was going to say “in others,” but, like, period. When you embrace sin and you end up in the seat of the scoffers, it’s impossible for you to recognize goodness. Over time you end up twisting everything. So when you see the person who’s doing the thing that you know you should be doing, instead of being judged by the goodness within them, being encouraged or invited into new goodness, you scoff: “Why are you such a prude?” Or, “Come on, why don’t you drink alcohol?” I mean, alcohol in itself is not evil, and neither is sex, but in the right context. God gave us these things to be enjoyed properly.
But I just am pointing out something. You notice that there’s this anger at large families, because something in you says, “I’m supposed to be a dad,” or, “I’m supposed to be a mom,” physically, spiritually, otherwise. You’re supposed to be a dad or a mom if you’re in this room today, and I can even tell you which one you’re supposed to be; I just have to meet you. But here’s the point: don’t enter into the way of sin, because it will distort your ability to see the goodness of God in the world, the invitation. Because goodness is a judge, but it’s also an invitation. It’s an invitation to that shalom that we all crave, that we all long for.
IV. His Delight Is in the Law of the Lord 13:35
Okay, let’s move on. Verse 2. It gets better here:
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Ps 1.2
As a child, I could not understand this verse. This verse was a challenge to my very being. They say in Proverbs, Scripture tells us, that folly, or foolishness, is bound up in the heart of a child, and the rod of discipline drives it far from him (Prov 22.15). Well, I was born with a double dose of folly, and my parents administered a double dose of the solution. Let me tell you, they tried really hard. But I fought every rule, everything that was put on me. It’s like in Psalm 2, where it says that the wicked want to throw off the yoke (Ps 2.3). That was how I was as a child. I thought the law of the Lord was oppressive: “Stop telling me what to do.” That’s how I was born. That’s how we’re all born, to some extent or another, some more than others, as I’m trying to say.
But there’s a transformation that can happen, and in my life it did. At some point the switch happened. I wrote here: the diligent application of discipline and love began to shape my heart and desires over time. Now, let me just say this: my parents did not see this coming. But I did change. There were moments where they called out and said, “When is he going to learn? He just did this yesterday.” And so when you think about these things, and you look at the ways that we are born, the ways we are shaped, and the ways that we are disciplined, there is a moment of transformation.
In fact, my dad talks about it, in my heart in particular. And he had nine children. He still loves to talk about how terrible I was. No, but there’s this idea… it’s like a testimony in him: “If God could fix him, all my other kids are going to be okay.” But he says there was a moment where it felt like all of a sudden we were on the same team: both he and I were against the part of me that was aiming down, against the part of me that was embracing rebellion, against the part of me that wanted my own way, and both he and I were aiming up in my life. And that transformation took a long time, but it ended up looking like “his delight is in the law of the Lord.” Slowly, surely, step by step, I began to enjoy goodness.
But I had to learn that. We are not born with that naturally. Now, we have some of that. You might do a good deed and you’re like, “Oh, I’m pretty good,” but then you fall right back into badness, because it’s about you: arrogance. But over time, if you’re committed, if you learn the law of the Lord, if your parents teach you (but now most of us have to make that choice for ourselves), if you learn the law of the Lord, you will find in it delight. You’ll begin to want the things that God has for you. The carpool lane will no longer be a temptation. You’ll be just happy doing the right thing.
V. Know the Law of the Lord 16:42
Okay, how do we do this? That’s a great question. And, you know, most ethics and morality and virtue books are written about how to become the people who love the good, let’s call it that, who love the law of the Lord. So I’m not going to give you a ton, but I’m going to give you a couple of things that you can think about here.
Number one: know the law of the Lord. What does he do? He meditates on the law day and night. Keep it before you. Actually engage with the word of God. It is active, and it is able to sift the wheat from the chaff in your heart. It will help you love the law of the Lord. If you’re ever a person who’s like, “Man, every time I open up my Bible it is just dry. I don’t even remember what I read. How can it possibly benefit me?” I’ll say two things. Number one: I don’t remember what I ate yesterday. I probably could remember one thing, but I don’t remember most of what I ate yesterday, and it still fed me. So that’s not a good excuse. But number two: ask God to set your heart alight when you read his word. Think of the road to Emmaus. As Jesus was walking with these disciples, they didn’t know it was him, but they said, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he opened up the Scriptures?” (Luke 24.32). You have the same Spirit in you that raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 8.11). He can make the Scripture alive to you. Try a little faithfulness. It goes a long way.
VI. The Stories We Read and the Stories We Tell 18:46
Okay, number two: the stories we read and the stories we tell capture our imagination and our heart. I did say “the stories we read.” I understand: the stories we read, the stories we watch, the stories we listen to. I know most of our content is probably not the written word anymore. But the things that we hear, the stories, become a part of us. “You are what you eat” has some relevance here. What you consume will shape you. In fact, my own story wasn’t just about my parents’ discipline. I read The Chronicles of Narnia, and I saw what evil did in the lives of the children in those books, and I saw what good did, and I wanted to be like the good people. I wanted to have a relationship with the God who loved me that went beyond my own selfishness. It called to my heart as a child.
Guess what? If you’re always consuming evil stories, it’s going to be really hard for you, because you will be changed by what you encounter. We just need to be aware of that. I mean, literally, there’s a pipeline, impossible to imagine, of information that is just dumped on us day and night, fed directly into our eyeballs from our glowing rectangles. It just comes, and it just overwhelms us. I don’t have time to get into all the different ways, but I just want to encourage you to think about what you consume, because it matters. When it says “on his law he meditates day and night,” that doesn’t just have to be memorizing Scripture. It could be that he talked to his brother who had a miracle in his life, and it encouraged him. The law of God is evident all over. In fact, the good stories have the law of God written into them without ever mentioning the law of God. They just show you what happens when a good man is good or when an evil man is evil. Okay, things to think about.
And then I did say “the stories we tell.” The story you tell about yourself is possibly the most important story that you will ever encounter in your life, because your story should be his story. That’s the journey of Christianity: we get consumed, subsumed, and transformed into the story of Christ in our life. Meaning, when I think of my childhood, I think about how I was fallen, and God sent me Ed and Mia Harris to rescue me from my fallen nature as a child. And they introduced me to Jesus through the rigorous application of discipline and other methods, to bring me to a place where I love God. That’s parenting. They introduced me to Jesus over and over and over again, through their words, their actions, their discipline, everything that they could do. And eventually I got a hint, and I was transformed.
I was in relationship with God from the time I was born. There’s that thing in these evangelical circles occasionally where they say, “When did you get to know Jesus?” And I’m like, “I don’t remember not knowing Jesus. I just grew up with him.” Now, I was closer or farther away based on my heart, not his. But I’ve always known Jesus. So that story has become my story, about how Jesus has rescued me again and again from my own foolishness, and how he has a purpose and a plan for me, and that I’m doing his work, not my own. When I’m driving in traffic, how do I avoid the carpool lane? Well, I’m doing God’s work right now. He put me there. He called me to do my job, to provide for my family, to provide for my company. These are good things that God has given me.
VII. Obedience Before Understanding 22:08
Okay, last thing I’ll say about this, and don’t worry, there’s not too much more coming: obedience often comes before understanding. Try it God’s way. See what happens. As Father Powell says, “Let’s run an experiment.” He loves experiments. “We’re going to try something and see what happens.” That’s how you learn. That’s how you grow. “Hey, God told me to do this. I’m going to try it. I don’t get it, and I’ll see what happens.”
Okay, those are three things: know the law of the Lord; the stories we consume and the stories we tell matter; and understanding often comes after obedience. So let’s try an experiment. Let’s do it God’s way and see what happens.
VIII. Like a Tree Planted by Streams of Water 23:17
Okay, verse 3. This is what will happen if you take all those things seriously:
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. Ps 1.3
This is blessed. This is shalom. This is eudaemonia. This is awesome. This is the promise that we’ve been given. We will have what we need. We will stand tall, strong, rooted, and nourished. That’s the tree imagery there. There’s so much to go into that we’re going to skip right past it to the fruit, because there are two types of fruit that we’re supposed to bear as this tree.
Number one is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5.22–23). The number one type of fruit is about who you become as the blessed man. And God willing, that’s what they want to put on your tombstone: “Those are good things. Man, that man was good. That woman was faithful.” All of those things are things that you want to embody in your life.
But there’s another type of fruit: the fruit of multiplication. God made us like him and is making us like him. He made us like him, but he’s also making us like him, and we are to make others into who we are becoming. It’s kind of complicated how I wrote it, but the idea is, God said, “Let us make man in our own image” (Gen 1.26), men and women, of course: “Let us make them like us.” And then we came and we’re like, “We want to be our own thing. We’re going to do our own thing, God.” And it didn’t go so well. And so God sent Jesus to say, “No, this is who you’re supposed to be,” and to invite us to be that. And that’s the Spirit’s work in your life, to make you like him. And so then your fruit is that you become like him, the fruits of the Spirit. But then you also make other people like him. You invite them to be in Christ. You invite them to be a part of it. Even better, you actually make other people, like my son over there, Rowan, to be like him. That’s pretty incredible. Multiplication. Fruitful. I have five children, praise God, and my job is to make them like him.
These are the promises that come with blessedness, shalom, eudaemonia. What were you made for? To do that: to become like him and to make others like him. That’s the fruit that comes when you love his law, when you don’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful.
IX. Its Leaf Does Not Wither 25:29
And guess what? When you do that, its leaf does not wither. We have a culture that is obsessed with youth, anti-aging, and permanence: “I want to exist the way that I am forever.” I mean, I could just tell you all the… I think I saw Madonna the other day. It was like a jump scare. It’s like, what is going on here? She wants to remain forever. That’s not our job. Our job is the opposite. We’re to die every day, and to change, and to transform. In fact, the obsession with youth and permanence and the fountain of life: it’s all found in its truest form on the cross. That’s where the fountain of life comes from, the cross. Not just from Jesus’ death, but from us joining him. And then we’re resurrected, and guess what? Your leaf shall not wither. You will have eternal life. We are eternal and ever renewing. It’s amazing to think.
But the main point I want to draw out of this is that we need to adjust our time frames. We are so worried about what’s happening today, tomorrow, and next week, or, if you’re really good planners, five years from now. God’s timeline is eternity. I think one of the fruits of the Spirit is patience. He is doing in you, over your lifetime, what will impact you for eternity. Trust him. Work on his timeline. It means you do have to care about today, because what you do today affects eternity. But it means that what you care about today will be forgotten in eternity. So the things that weigh on you: “Oh, I can’t pay that bill.” You think you’re going to think about that in heaven? No. So when you adjust the timeline, it means that our life is actually more meaningful, not less, because the things you do today affect you for eternity. But it also means that you don’t have to be afraid of the things that are happening today, because you have eternity to work it out with God.
X. In All That He Does, He Prospers 27:58
Okay, and then the last line here that we’ll talk about today: “In all that he does, he prospers.” Now, this is my last thing that we’re going to address today. There’s been a lot of talk about the end of the world. There’s been a lot of talk about disasters. Let’s see, I’ve got a good list here: AI, which we’ll talk about more; nuclear war; climate catastrophe; World War III; and the slower, more insidious worry about the ending of our way of life. There’s fear on all sides. I literally had two separate people who live in different states call me and say, “Hey, I’ve been thinking about the end of the world lately.” It’s interesting. It was within a week of each other, and we had really fascinating conversations. I was like, “My friend just called me about this.” They don’t even know each other. But it’s in the waters, all the stories that are being told about how we’re going to end ourselves. That’s the big fear: that we are going to become the people who create the thing that ends everything.
A while back we were talking to a guy who’s very connected and knows more than we do about the potential dangers in the world, and has a really good plan for how he is going to solve those things. He’s very prepared, and he was sharing: “You’ve got to have a plan,” all these things. And it was great. It was very informative, interesting. God bless those people who can see further than us and can prepare us for it. Wonderful. But as we were talking about it in the leadership, and I was talking to my friends, we came to this one conclusion, which is: building a strong local community centered on the worship and participation in Christ, building up one another in love, and being woven together in our work and life, would give us the greatest resilience no matter what disaster struck. In short, I would do this if I was going to prepare for the end of the world.
Because trees grow together, and their roots get interwoven, and they become strong. And I haven’t even mentioned the best part: our trees are planted by the river of living water. We are not our source, but we are connected to the source. And so as we connect with one another, bear fruit with one another, make other people bear fruit with one another, as we do all of these things, we will build a resilient community of Christ-worshipers who will last for eternity, no matter what comes. Because whatever we do shall prosper. Even the end of the world will prosper. In fact, Jeremiah made that very clear: even when the drought comes, they will have fruit (Jer 17.8). No matter what strikes, we will prosper, because it’s not about us. It’s about him, the God who designed the whole world, the God who loves and has a plan and is writing our story.
So if you’re preparing for the end of the world, come to church, go to a home group, pray for one another, read the Bible, love God and each other. That’s how you prepare for the end of the world. You can do all the other stuff, and God will call you to various levels of preparedness in your life. But love one another and love God. It’s very simple. It’s very difficult.
Augustine put it beautifully: the blessed man is stable in a flood of temporality. The difference between the blessed man and the evil man is that the evil man will blow away like the chaff which the wind drives away (Ps 1.4). We live in reality. We live in permanence. We live in eternity, because we follow Jesus in the way of the cross. And that is what we’re made for. Amen.