Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Synopsis of 11/12/23

Psalm 1:1-3 NKJV 

1 Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ^[a]ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, 
And in His law he meditates day and night. 
3 He shall be like a tree 
Planted by the rivers of water, 
That brings forth its fruit in its season, 
Whose leaf also shall not wither; 
And whatever he does shall prosper.

I.                    INTRODUCTION 

1. One of the most power things in our relationship with God is coming to the revelation of what we deserve. Some people go through their entire life not understanding their value. I believe there is a relationship between our knowledge of who God is and our understanding of what we truly deserve.
2. The more you grow in your relationship with God, the more you learn who you are in him. As a result, you realize the power of having standards.
3. Story: Bishop explains how he has been teaching his son how to play basketball, on a goal that is lower than it should be for his age group. His son had gotten real good on this goal and Bishop had been giving him praises for his achievements. Later Bishop realized that he needed to raise the goal. He did not want his son to continue playing and learning on goal that was smaller than what was designed for his age group. He realized that he had lowered the standard for his son, and he did not want to continue applauding him for achieving below a standard that he should be working to.
   1. This is what we do often. We applaud people for achieving below their standard. We have to grow up at some point. There are some things that we must grow out of. There are levels that we must reach for our standards to be where they’re supposed to be, and we begin to aim for something much bigger and greater.
   2. We want you to come to a place where you unapologetically live in your standard, and you do not lower your standards for people that are not willing to come up to your standards.
4. Today, we want to share a message about your commitment, your connections, and your convictions.
5. In the scripture today, David leans in on our relationships with others and how we value ourselves. It moves into the arena of standards. David jumps right into talking about relationships by saying, “1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ^[a]ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; ”

II.                 SOME PEOPLE HAVE TO BE RELEASED 

• Relationships matter. We can tell a lot about you based off the people that you tolerate in your life. The moment you understand this is the moment you understand who you really are. There comes a moment where you have to decide who you will allow to be connected to you. The first sign in having standards is found in your courage to release certain people out of your life.
• People associate blessings with happiness. Some people say they are blessed, because they are happy. This text is not associating blessing with happiness. Happiness is associated with happenings, which means someone has to do something for us, before we are happy and blessed. The blessing of the Lord is not tied to happenings, but rather, who God is. So, no matter if you do anything for us or not, we already know that we are blessed.
• Baruch is the Hebrew word that our word blessing comes from in this context. In this scripture, blessings deal with productivity. It is all about being Remember in the Garden of Eden when God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. In other words, you need to be productive (fruitful), before you even reproduce. God wants us to be productive, before we reproduce, because He doesn’t want us to reproduce out of dysfunction. Otherwise, we would be spreading our dysfunction all over the place.
• We are only blessed when we produce. We can actually make sense of it, when we put the word productive in verse 1. Instead of saying 1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ^[a]ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; ” it would say, Productive is the person that makes the decision about who can come in their life and who cannot.
• What are the signs that people have started impeding our production?

A.     Let Go of Anything That Could Jeopardize Where God is Taking You 

1. Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; – The B portion of verse 1 basically says, “Be careful where you walk. When you walk with someone long enough, you will start standing for what they stand for. If you keep walking with them, you will start believing what they believe. That’s standing. If you walk long enough, you will begin to believe what they believe. That’s sitting!”
2. Some people don’t produce, because they are around others that don’t produce.

B.     Let Go of Anything That Robs You of Your Peace 

1. Remember Jonah was running from God. He gets on a ship and almost immediately a storm comes. Jonah says he is the problem, and he tells them the storm will stop, if they throw him overboard.
   1. Now Jonah tells them that he is the problem, but instead of throwing him overboard, they row harder, trying to make it work. Eventually, they had to throw Jonah overboard. We do this often. We know what the problem is and instead of removing it, we try to work around it or make it work.
2. You need to be in a relationships that bring forth value. You’ve got too much to let people rob you of your peace. We have standards. Let go of anything or anyone that is robbing you of your peace. You can still love people from a distance.
3. Story: Bishop stayed at this nice hotel, setup by a church he was speaking at. He left the room to go Starbucks and study. When he returned, he noticed that his key would no longer work, so he went to the Front Desk, to try and get help with his key.
   1. The woman at the Front Desk asked him where he had kept the key and he told her that he kept it in his pocket. She then asked Bishop what else he had in the pocket, and he told her that he had his cellphone in that same pocket. Right then, the Lady realized what the problem was. She told him that the cellphone drained the power from the key. The Key lost its power, because it was too close to something it wasn’t designed to be close to. Therefore, the key could no longer open the door.
   2. Often this is what happens to us. Doors do not open up for us, because we have lost our power, due to staying too close to people that we were not designed to be close to.

III.              SPRITUTALLY YOUR PRIORITIES MUST BE RIGHT 

• You’ve got to be spiritually focused. We must delight ourselves in the Lord. Once all the distractions are gone, you realize how much you’ve been missing.
• There was no lack of energy when you were in the world. You could stay up all night and hang out all day when it came to doing things of the world, but when you got saved, you get tired.
  • We can spend countless hours doing things of the world, but when it comes to the things of God, in 15 or 20 mins, we are ready to bounce!
  • We must meditate on the word, both day and night!

A.     I’m Passionate About His Word  

1. We often settle for side dishes. Side dishes are things like the choir, the building, and even the people inside the church. All of these things are alright, but the main dish is God’s word. We should be passionate about God’s word.
2. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. Hebrews 11:6 NKJV saysBut without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. – Considering what you have gone through, you should have standards to how you receive God’s word.
   1. You have to have standards about whose table you eat at. You can’t eat at everyone’s table.
3. We choose life. Isn’t it amazing how people choose churches. Some people pick churches out of conveyance.
   1. It’s funny how we will drive 45mins to work or 20mins to buy something we really want, but when it comes to God’s word, we can’t come to church, because it’s too far away. We will actually go to a church that we are not getting fed, just because it is closer. We must be willing to go where we are getting fed, no matter the inconvenience!

B.     Feed Your Faith and Not Your Flesh 

1. The enemy wants you to feed your flesh. The enemy is always trying to pull you away from God’s best.
2. Be intentional about:
   1. Your Covering– Jeremiah 3:15 NKJV says And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. – A Pastor’s job is to feed you with knowledge and understanding. Make sure you are under a good covering.

1. Your Consistency – Anything in life you want to get better at, you have to be consistent with working at it. You have to work on it on a consistent basis.
2. Your Commitment– This is your ability to move out of theory and into practice. We must be doers and not just readers of God’s word.

IV.               STRATEGICALLY PLANTED BY RIVERS 

• You’re like a tree planted by a river. When you are a tree, you know that you are a tree. You are not a hedge; you are a tree!
• The tree is planted by the rivers of water. If you ever want to understand what God meant by something in scripture, go to the primary point of reference. This means, go back to where God first used it. In this case we go back to Garden of Eden.
• God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. Fruitful means to be productive How were they to be productive? God put 4 rivers that flowed through the garden. These rivers represent the flow of blessing and
• If rivers represent economy, think about this. Egypt was so advanced, because it was positioned by the Nile River. If you were by the river in those days, you were The river allows you to ship and receive goods. The River controlled commerce. So one could say that the river was a blessing to them.
• God plants you beside that which was designed to bless you. We prophesy that we see rivers flowing over your life. This is blessings.

A.     I’m Prayerful About Where I Am Planted 

1. We choose not to be around people that will keep us from producing. We release them from our lives and focus on God’s word.
2. We recognize where God has planted us. We are not a hedge; we are tree planted what’s flowing. As long as I am planting by what’s flowing, I will always be growing.

B.     I’m Growing Because I’m Planted by What’s Flowing 

1. It Removes Debris – The pressure from the water helps remove debris.
2. It’s Currents Can Create – Rocks take on certain forms and shapes, because of the constant flow of the water. They become what they’ve become, because they are in the constant flow and pressure of the water.
3. It Flows into Something Bigger than Itself – Rivers never get stagnant, because they are constantly flowing. They also flow into something bigger than themselves, like a sea or ocean. In like manner, whatever you produce, will not be about you, but instead the God you serve. It’s bigger than yourself.

V.                 SEASON TO PROSSPER WITH REGULARITY 

• You will bring forth fruit in your season.

A.     I’m Satisfied with My Season 

1. If you produce peaches, I don’t trip. I know my Apple season will be next. People may not like you, but one thing they can’t deny, fruit don’t lie.

B.     All I Do is Win

1. My leaves shall not wither. People don’t think it is sustainable. They are waiting on you to fail. All you do is win!