Disciplines Needed for Healthy Spiritual Growth

Psalm 1

Good morning…

Who likes eating?

You can all tell I like eating. I like being fed a good meal.

Today I want to talk to you about the discipline of feeding & how incredibly important that is for our growth.

It may make you hungry… but I’m going to need you to focus & I promise to get you out of here no later than 12:30.

You may not have known that eating is a spiritual discipline but if you want to grow closer to Jesus… in every season of life… you can’t get there without being fed.

We’re going to look at Psalm 1 today & learn what we can about this discipline that is needed for healthy spiritual growth.

When you’ve found your place in Psalm chapter 1, please stand out of reverence for God’s word.

Psalm chapter 1

I’d like to read this Psalm again, this time in the NLT

Psalm 1 (NLT)

¹ Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. ² But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. ³ They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

⁴ But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind. ⁵ They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly. ⁶ For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

This is one of my favorite psalms & one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible.

In this Psalm we get a great lesson on the spiritual discipline of being fed.

We get a great picture of how we can Grow Closer to Jesus in every season of life.

We get two images of two different types of people in Psalm 1.

The first picture is of a healthy, growing believer.

The second picture is of someone who is not a healthy, growing believer.

Both of these pictures in the Psalm teach us an important lesson, to be a healthy, growing believer you need to be fed, you need to be nourished by God.

As physical beings we need physical food, physical nourishment to grow, stay healthy, stay alive.

But we’re more than physical beings, we are spiritual beings too & we can’t just be fed physically, we need spiritual nourishment.

The scriptures call our relationship with Jesus a walk or a journey, if you don’t get refueled it’s extremely difficult to make the journey.

Verse 1 begins a contrast between the first person & the second.

Psalm 1:1-2 (CSB)

¹ How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! ² Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.

What we can see from the contrast of these two verses is that both types of people are getting fed.

Everyone is getting fed with something…

The question is… are you getting fed with something that is good for you, that will help you grow?

The person who is NOT a healthy believer is being fed with wicked advice, sinful words & mocking directed at God.

Garbage in garbage out.

If we’re fed with garbage like this, we won’t grow closer to Christ, we won’t be nourished for our journey with Him.

Psalm 1:4-6 (CSB)

⁴ The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. ⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

If you’re not getting fed with the good stuff from God, it leads to a ruined life.

That is why we’re warned in

Colossians 2:8 (CSB)

⁸ Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.

What are you getting fed with?…

The first person isn’t like the wicked person though, he’s a healthy believer.

The psalmist says the healthy believer is like a healthy tree planted by a flowing stream or river.

Psalm 1:3 (CSB)

He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

The picture of a flourishing tree was a common symbol of a healthy believer.

It pops up in other places of scripture in

Jeremiah 17:8 (CSB)

⁸ He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.

It’s also in

¹² The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon. ¹³ Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courts of our God. ¹⁴ They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green,

It’s interesting in these two verses that both mention growing fruit in old age or never stopping fruit production.

That is the goal to never stop growing, never stop bearing fruit for Jesus.

So this is what we are supposed to be like as believers, like a flourishing tree.

How do we get like that?

The success of the thriving trees in these passages is all dependent on how close the tree is to it’s source of nourishment

If you look at verses 2 & 3, Psalm 1 tells us how we can be like this tree,

Kinds of Spiritual Food

That’s like an adult man hanging out in the kiddie end of the pool with water wings & a floatie.   We laugh but, this is real, there are Christians like this.   Why would you want to go back to formula when you could be having something good & tasty?   I’m hear to tell you, I’ve smelled Kevin Michael’s formula, it smells disgusting.   Anyone else smell the baby formula before you give it to your child? Disgusting! Can I get an amen?   I’d have to be pretty darn starving to even consider drinking that nonsense.   Kevin M loves it, he can’t get enough of it, it fills his tummy & that’s good he’s a baby.   He doesn’t know how good food can taste yet, but the milk is getting him ready.

The third is meat:

Hebrews 5:14 (CSB)

The fourth type of food is honey:

Psalm 19:9-10 (NLT)

⁹ Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. ¹⁰ They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.

The Bible is comfort food:

Some of the things that will happen to you if you go without eating for three days:

1. You’ll be ravenous then not so much
2. Your breath may smell

“Research has shown that breath acetone is reliable indication that you have gone into fat burning mode. You release ketone bodies through your breath—and the smell is often unpleasant” ¹

3. You’ll lose weight
4. Your body starts running on emergency power

“Researchers at Yale found that “During times of starvation, the body preserves two organs and then shrinks the rest,” ²   It runs on emergency power.

^{1 & 2} https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evwwnp/this-is-what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-dont-eat-for-three-days

Galatians 5:22-23 (CSB)

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