TEXT: Psalm 1

SUBJECT: Kids’ Sermon #41: What the Happy Person Does

Kids, listen up! I prepared this afternoon’s sermon for you. And I prayed the Lord would use it to bless you—to save you if you’re not a believer and to make you more like Jesus Christ if you are. I’m going to ask questions along the way so pay attention and think hard.

The First Psalm is about one thing. What is it?

Does God want you to be "Blessed" or happy? Is it possible to be happy—even if you’re sick? Or if you’re having trouble at school? Or if your parents fight? Or, even if someone you love very much died?

Can you be happy in your own way? Or only in God’s way?

Last month, we saw what the "Blessed man"—or happy person—does not do. He doesn’t,

This means he doesn’t listen to wicked advice—either from a friend at school or on TV or the Internet. He doesn’t enjoy the company of bad people—people who lie or curse or steal. And, he doesn’t mock at God or his parents, his teacher, or his pastor. He doesn’t make faces at them, roll his eyes at them, back-talk to them, or cut them down when they’re not there.

These things might make you laugh for a while—but they’ll never make you happy. If God says they won’t, you can be sure they won’t.

Happiness, though is not all negative. There’s a lot more to it than what you don’t do. It’s found mostly in what you do. Psalm 1:2 tells you two things the Happy Person does.

To "delight" in something means to like it or to enjoy it very much. When I was a little boy, I enjoyed three things very, very much: comic books, cartoons, and…eating! When I got a little older, I liked baseball, fishing, and…eating! Can you tell me something you like very much? What do you most enjoy doing?

It’s good to enjoy things like comic books, cartoons, baseball, fishing, eating, swimming, going to Disneyland—and the last day of school! These are gifts of God. I Timothy 6:17 tells us why He gave them to us,

It’s good to delight in these things. As long as they take second place to Something Else. The happy person may like these things very much. But he likes Something Else even more. What is it?

The word, Law can mean one of two things. In some places, it means the Rules of God (like the 10 Commandments). But I think it means more than that in Psalm 1. Here it means the whole Word of God. Including the Law, the Gospels, the Psalms, the Stories, the Letters, and everything else in the Bible.

The Happy Person may enjoy many things. But there’s nothing he loves more than God’s Word! Many verses in the Bible teach this. But two of the best are in Psalm 119. The first is v.97; the other is v. 162. The third is Job 23:12,

David and Job were men who had a lot of problems—family problems, sickness, the death of loved ones, wars, cruel friends, the attacks of Satan, and more. Yet they were Happy Men. Because their,

You remember what "the Law" is, right? It’s the Word of God or the Bible. To "to meditate" on it means to think hard about it.

Have you ever heard of a passing thought? A passing thought is a thought that pops into your mind for a minute, maybe, and then pops out again. It’s like a traveler, just going by and never coming back. That’s not meditation!

No, mediation means thinking hard about something. In Proverbs 15:28, the same word is translated, "study". In Isaiah 8:19, the word is "mutter". Have you ever studied for a test in school? That’s a lot different than thinking about it—study takes a lot more effort and concentration. Have you ever tried to memorize a Bible verse or a poem or something? That’s very hard for me. When I have to do it, I not only think about it, but I mutter the words over and over again, until I get them right. That’s what it means to meditate on God’s Law.

It’s more than reading the Word, though that’s important. It’s more than thinking about what you read, though you ought to do that too. It means focusing on the Word, remembering it, and trying to understand exactly what it means.

How much does the Happy Person meditate on God’s Law? He does it

This doesn’t mean he thinks about it every minute of every day and night. But it means he thinks about it at during the day, during the night, and whenever he’s got a spare moment.

Most kids—and adults—think they’re too busy to meditate on God’s Word day and night. But they’re not—nobody is! King David was a very busy man—busier than anyone here! But he found time to meditate on God’s Word,

David had wars to fight and a kingdom to rule, court cases to judge, and a very big family to take care of. Yet, off and on all day long, he thought about God’s Word.

He did the same thing at night, Psalm 119:148,

David was a king and had soldiers to guard him and his family at night. Now, staying awake at night was hard for them, and so they changed the guard every hour or two. And David heard the soldiers come and go—not because he was watching TV or doing homework at the last minute—but because he was turning God’s Word over and over in His mind.

I suppose your parents put you to bed at night; I hope they pray with you, read a Psalm maybe, or tell a Bible story or two. But, after they leave the room, and before you doze off, you should think about God’s Word. Which Word? Any one will do. If you’ve memorized the 23^rd Psalm or the Lord’s Prayer or John 3:16, just think about it for a few minutes before falling asleep. Nothing makes your sleep sweeter than a little taste of Meditation.

Before I go on, let me ask you two questions. Please don’t answer them out loud, but think about them and answer them to yourself:

1. Do you delight in the Law of the Lord?
2. Do you meditate on His Law day and night?

Now, I know you’re not perfect—nobody is. And kids have a hard time keeping their minds on anything for very long. But, still, you need to know the truth about yourself: Do you enjoy God’s Word and think about it very often?

Unless you do, you can never be happy. You can have good friends, money, and a lot of nice things. But you’ll never have happiness. You cannot have it. Because it can only be had God’s Way. And that includes loving His Word and thinking about day and night.

How can you love God’s Word—or love it more than you do? How can you start meditating on it?

First of all, you’ve got to be saved. You cannot love God’s Word until you love God Himself. And you cannot love God until you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ. To "repent" is to feel sorry for your sins and try to do better. To "believe in Christ" means to trust Him for your salvation.

Don’t get me wrong here! You don’t become saved by loving God’s Word or meditating in it. No, you love the Word and think about it only when you become saved. So, maybe you don’t love the Word because you don’t love God. And you won’t love Him until you’re saved. That’s Number One!

In the second place, if you want to love God’s Word and think about it, you’ve got to read it carefully. It’s hard to think about a book you’ve never read or read too fast or without thought. The Bible is full of great, exciting, and beautiful thing, things you’d love…if only you read the Bible.

Finally, if you want to delight in the Law of the Lord and in that Law meditate day and night, pray that God will give you that love and help you to think about it every day. Maybe you’ve got little love for it and hardly ever think about it…because you never asked.

God wants you to be happy. Your parents want you to be happy. Angels want you to be happy. Everyone in heaven wants you to be happy. I want you to be happy. And you want to be happy, too.

But remember, if you’re going to find happiness, you can only find it in God’s Word. You know why? Because that’s where He gives it to us! If your teacher says, "Lunch will be served in the cafeteria", but you go to the bathroom for it, what will you end up with? Nothing.

And if God says "Happiness will be found in My Word", you won’t find it anywhere else. So, go to where the happiness is. Go to God’s Word. And find your joy.

Amen.