The Fork In The Road

TITLE: THE FORK IN THE ROAD

SCRIPTURE: PSALM 1

(Points adapted from 2019 sermon by Rev. Krushal)

We are blessed to be able to share together as a Church family this First Sunday of a New Year. We must admit as we move into this third year of our nation as well as the world dealing with this Pandemic, we are truly blessed and grateful to God to see this Year of our Lord 2022. I believe the past two plus years have challenged many of us to confront decisions we never thought we would have to make in our lifetime. I am sure we will be faced with many more decisions and challenges in this New Year. It is good to know as believers we do not have to face these decisions alone.

• We don’t know what tomorrow holds, but we do know who holds our tomorrows

As we consider this familiar text this first Sunday of a new year, let’s first identify who this Psalm is written about. It begins by saying “BLESSED IS THE MAN….” Who is the blessed man? The description given of him is simply this…that he is a man. There are moral qualities given, but the only thing said of him, in the first, place, is - he is a man. Here is something very suggestive, for he is a person subject to the common sorrows of humanity. If we hear of a person greatly blessed by the sense of Christ’s presence, and so enabled to walk in holiness and much usefulness, we cherish the delusion that he must have been better than the ordinary run of men, certainly not such aa one as ourselves.

But how great is the mistake and misconception! God fashioneth all hearts alike, and if there be distinctions they are of grace, not of betterness by nature. The most blessed man is still a man.

• He must suffer Pain

• He must deal with Sickness

• He must endure Losses and Crosses

• And yet in it all be a Blessed Man

Being a man, he is also subject to infirmities, perhaps of a quick temper, or of a high and haughty spirit. He may be tempted to be harsh in his Language or Embracing sin of another kind.

• Still being a man, he must have some infirmity, and yet, none the less is he blessed

• Do not dream that the best of men are yet without fault

• They will confess to you that they have

• I JOHN 1:10 “IF WE SAY THAT WE HAVE NOT SINNED, WE MAKE HIM A LIAR, AND HIS WORD IS NOT IN US”

The text reveals the difference lies in how we handle The Fork in the Road. Each day and throughout the day, we come to many forks in the road – decisions that we have to make. Many of those decisions we might consider momentary. They won’t have a huge, long-lasting impact on our lives. But other forks are rather monumental because of the impact they are going to have on our lives or the lives of our families.

• Should I join the military or go to college after high school?

• Should I start my own business, or should I just stay where I’m at?

• Should we move or should we stay?

• Should I ask her to marry me or wait?

• Should I buy that new car or keep driving what I have?

• Should I have the surgery or try some other form of treatment?

Those are all decisions I think you would probably put into the monumental category because of the impact they are going to have on you or others. But there are other times when those seemingly momentary forks in the road turn into the monumental, significantly impacting your life or the lives of others.

PSALM 1 places before us such a Fork in the Road. This Psalm is the first of 150 Psalms that God inspired its authors to write for God’s people of every time. The topics within these Psalms range from –

• Prayers asking for God’s deliverance from the enemies of God’s people

• Psalms of praise and thanks for God’s protection and goodness

• There are psalms of confession of sin that call upon the Lord to grant forgiveness

• Psalms that paint stunning pictures of what the Messiah Jesus would suffer in order to secure that forgiveness of sins

While the topics may vary, there is one thing that all of these Psalms have in common. They are all the word of our God, the things that god wants us to hear -- to know -- to love -- to follow. Psalm 1 asks us --

• “What will you do with these Psalms?”