4 Keys To A Fresh Start || The Blueprint with Dr. Dharius Daniels

Well, what's up everybody and welcome to the blueprint. If you are watching this live, I want to say first of all, happy new year. What a privilege to be blessed with the opportunity and that's what it is, an opportunity to experience a new year. It is a gift from a generous, gracious, compassionate, strategic God.

And if you and I are still here in this new year, it means that there is still work to do. And I'm incredibly excited to have this opportunity, man, to see all that God's going to do in and through our life in this new year. I am super grateful.

You know, let's just do that. Let's just greet one another in the chat. Just tell everybody, "Happy new year." Happy new year. I'm happy because God has graciously gifted us with a new year and 2025 was not without its challenges and its adversity. Uh but I am grateful, watch this, that even if God did not rescue us from it, by his grace he kept us in it.

Am I talking to anybody whose personal testimony is he's a keeper? He's a keeper. Yes, he is. And because he is consistent in his character and in his nature, not only was he a keeper, he will be a keeper. It's it's what Dr. Kenneth Ma calls eternal isness.

He never was was, and God already is everything he will be. He just is. He is [snorts] a keeper. We're so grateful to have you with us. If you're here for the first time, man, we call this the blueprint Bible study because we believe there are three ways you can live your life.

Culture's way, church's way, or the king's way. The way of the world, the way of religion, or the way of the rabbi, which is Jesus. And uh sometimes church's way and king's way are aligned. And sometimes the church that bears Jesus's name uh it represents the people and the practices that represent him the least.

So anyway, we're grateful to have you with us. We believe the Bible is the blueprint to third way and that is not just right, it is better. It is God's best for our life. And um I typically teach in series and I'm going to be starting a series next week entitled night school.

And so we're going to use God's word to disciple you and I on how [snorts] to properly steward night seasons. And so we're going to be exploring biblical characters in the book of Genesis. I think we'll be in Genesis about seven or eight weeks. And so I want you to be prepared for that.

It's going to be um I I I pray an insightful series. But uh what I want to do today is I want to really want to speak specifically to the season that we're in. And um as we embark on a new year, I think many of us um many of us may have some need for what I want to teach on today.

So we're going to explore one scripture today. Well, few verses of scripture in Psalms 1. Psalms 1 verses 1 through3. And today I want to talk to you about four keys to a fresh start. Four keys to a fresh start. Here's what Psalms 1 says. I'm reading from the New King James rendering.

It says, "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, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law, God's law, does he meditate day and night."

And that person will be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper. I want somebody right now I want somebody right now to just put in the chat, I receive all of that.

Somebody's gonna put all that. I receive all of that. all that. So, so I want to talk to you about four keys to a fresh start. Here's a qu I want to ease into this introduction, family, with a question. It's a question for your reflection. Have you ever in any area of your life felt like you needed a fresh start?

I'm simply asking, have you ever looked at the reality you were wrestling with or seasons you were sorting through spiritually, emotionally, relationally, financially, physically, and thought to yourself, I need a doover. I need to be able to press the reset button. If the answer to that interrogative is yes, I don't want to minimize your pain, but I do want to normalize your predicament.

I don't want to minimize your pain because you may be struggling spiritually, you may be struggling emotionally, you may be struggling relationally, you may be struggling physically, you may be struggling professionally, you may be struggling financially and it may be dire and you may feel desperate and you may be dealing with extreme disappointment and discouragement because you realize that maybe you have not properly stewarded one of your most valuable assets and less time and not [clears throat] only do you have less of the results that you want, you feel like you got less time to fix it.

I don't want to minimize that pain, but I also want to normalize your predicament. I I want to let you know you're not the only one. [laughter] And I think I think it's important to do that. I think it's biblical to do that because the enemy here it is.

I I know the enemy likes to use the instrument of isolation. He um who was it? Elijah dealt with it and God had to remind him, hey, you're not the only one. I've got thousands that have not bowed their knee to Baal. He likes to use isolation and and he likes to use isolation to kind of orchestrate the exacerbation of your circumstance in your mind.

To exacerbate means to make worse. And so he likes to use isolation to orchestrate the exacerbation of your circumstance in your mind. Does that make sense? He wants to magnify how bad it is in your mind because you are doing however your mind is doing, right? You you are wherever your mind is.

You can be on a beach in Tahiti, but if you are dealing with some situations and circumstances that are stressing you at home, you are wherever your mind is. You can be on the beach and your mind still be captive to the circumstances and the situations that you are dealing with in another part of the world.

And [clears throat] the enemy likes to use isolation to orchestrate the exacerbation of our circumstances in our mind. He wants us to feel like we're the only one. And even when Peter is writing to those spread out through throughout the diaspora in first, I think it's in first Peter, he says to them, he says, "Hey, I don't want you to think it's strange concerning the fiery trials that have come to test you."

What is he doing? He's not minimizing their pain, but he's normalizing their predicament. He said, "Don't think this is strange." He says, "Because you got brothers and sisters spread all out through the diaspora that are dealing with similar circumstances and situations. And I want you to know, even though I'm not trying to minimize your pain, I want to normalize your predicament."

All throughout scripture, we see examples of individuals who were in need of a fresh start. Adam and Eve needed a fresh start after they ate the fruit that was prohibited in the Garden of Eden. Noah needed a fresh start after he mismanaged his success. See, that's a part that's a part that's a part of Noah's story that God made sure was put in scripture because the Bible says in the book of Romans, those things that are written before time or before time were written for our learning.

So, we learn from things that Noah did that he should have done and we learn from things that Noah did that he shouldn't have done. We learn from things that Abraham did that he should have done. We learn from Abraham from things Abraham did that he shouldn't have done.

God put it all in scripture so that when we have these imperfect seasons and these missteps and these mistakes. We don't minimize it, but we also but we do normalize it. Yes, Noah built the ark. Yes, Noah obeyed prophetic prompting. Yes, Noah put his family in prophetic position.

They got in the ark before the rain came. Yes, Noah did all of that. But after they got out of the ark, the Bible says he planted a vineyard and yes indeed and he got a little too excited with the vineyard and he just got tow up. That's what you say when I grew up.

Tow up from the flow up. He was litty. He was out of there. He had he was lavishly enjoying the libations and [laughter] and so he needed a fresh start after that. Abraham after the Hag Hagar debacle needed a fresh start. David needed a fresh start after Basheba. Peter needed a fresh start after he denied Jesus.

Ladies and gentlemen, Paul, who wrote twothirds of the New Testament, needed a fresh start after he had spent a significant portion of his adult life persecuting believers. So if they needed a fresh start, think it not strange that you need a fresh start. You see, scripture is not a collection of stories about perfect people.

It's the story of a perfect God who gives imperfect people a fresh start. And I don't know what cycle you may be facing. I don't know what pattern uh or predicament uh you may be experiencing. I don't know what missteps or mistakes you have made. I don't know the degree of despair or disappointment that you are dealing with, but I do know this.

If I'm reading my Bible correctly, God is the God that orchestrates, arranges fresh starts. And if he can do it for Adam and Eve, if he can do it for Noah, if he can do it for Abraham, if he can do it for David, if he can do it for Peter, if he can do it for Paul, he can do it for you and me.

I want somebody that believes that to just put in the chat, "It's on the way." Come on now. Don't Don't play with it. Say it. Say, "It's on the way." Say it. This is not an exercise in futility. I'm saying put it in the chat so that you convince your soul, so that you convince your mind, so that your heart is persuaded that God is a God that still orchestrates fresh starts.

[snorts] It's on the way. So the question isn't can you have a fresh start spiritually, emotionally, relationally, come on here, physically, financially, professionally. The question isn't can you have a fresh start? The question is how do I experience a fresh start? And this is where Psalms one becomes a gift to us because Psalms one contains some content that gives us some instruction and some education on how to experience a fresh start.

And you may be wondering, Dr. Daryus, where do you see this in Psalms 1? I don't see this in Psalms 1. I heard what you read when you read Psalms 1. And there is nothing in Psalms 1 that speaks to a fresh start. As a matter of fact, fresh start is fresh or start is not even in Psalms one.

So, how does Psalm 1 speak to a fresh start? I want to show you how Psalms 1 speaks to a fresh start. Can I show you how Psalms 1 speaks to a fresh start? Let me show you how Psalms 1 speaks to a fresh start. First word in Psalms one is blessed.

You saying, "Doug, Darius, I thought I thought you were about to explain how Psalms one helps me experience a fresh start." I did. Blessed. Yeah. Blessed. That's the answer. Blessed. You see, here's why I believe this word blessed says a lot to us about a fresh start. Because a fresh start is not an end into itself.

A fresh start is a means to an end. What do I mean that? You don't want a fresh start just to have a fresh start. You want a fresh start because you don't like the state of your spiritual, emotional, relational, financial, physical, or professional life. [laughter] There's something spiritually, there's something emotionally, there's something relationally, there's something professionally, there's something financially, or there's something physically about your state of existence that you don't prefer that you believe is less than God's best.

And because of that, that's the reason you want a fresh start. You don't want a fresh start or a new start and be in the same state. Come on. How many would actually be happy, satisfied with a fresh start and you ended up in the same state? So a fresh start isn't actually what you want.

What you and I want is what a fresh start will give us. Are you here? And ultimately what we want the state of our emotional, our spiritual, our emotional, our relational, our professional, our financial or physical life, we want the state of those areas of our life to be blessed.

That's why we want a fresh start. We want it blessed. We want our spiritual life filled with zeal and accuracy and soundness and wonder and awe and curiosity. We want to talk to God and hear God talk to us. We don't want to be limited to living by our five senses.

We want to live with our six senses. We want spiritual strength to handle the stress and the pressure associated with the responsibilities we've been assigned to carry. We want spiritual stamina to endure and not wear out and wear down [clears throat] prematurely. Come on. We want spiritual sensitivity for decisions that we have to make that are complex and complicated.

We want to be able to discern the difference between a door and a trap because some doors are trap doors and and [laughter] opportunity and inconvenience that is sent to us by the adversary. We we want that spiritually. That's a blessed spiritual life. emotionally. We want a soul that prospers unashamedly, unapologetically.

We want John's greeting to be our reality. When John says, "I wish above all things that you would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers." So, we want the fruit of the spirit to describe the condition of my emotional life. Joy, peace, temperance, kindness, goodness.

Come on. For the kingdom of God, life done the king's way, isn't me to drink, but righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost. That's what we want. That's blessed. We want to [clears throat] come on. We want a relational life with the right people in our life, right people on the bus of our life, sitting in the right seats.

We want a professional life that's aligned with God's intention for our life, where we make value, where we add value to the street, the sector of society that we've been called to serve. And we extract value from that in terms of not just fulfillment but also finances physically.

We want to be doing the best we can can in the season we're in with the resources we got available. That's what we want. [clears throat] Is that what we want? If if you're unashamed to say that, say I want it. Come on. Let's say that unashamedly. Unashamedly. Why? I want it because scripture suggests that the father wants that for me.

And there's this stream of Christianity that I really want to push back against. And and my hope is you're not influenced and being discipled by this stream of thought that, watch this, that almost glorifies suffering. There's a difference between letting God get it get glory out of your suffering and you glorifying suffering.

You seeking suffering because you believe that that that suffer, watch this. that the seeking of suffering is actually what makes you more spiritual. No, we should we should let God get glory [clears throat] out of our suffering, but suffering isn't the only way God gets glory. Come on. So, it's okay to say, "No, I see in scripture that the father wants this for me.

So, I want it for myself. I want my soul to prosper, blessed. So, I think this is an this is an incredibly appropriate segue into what this word actually means here in Psalms 1 because it's one thing to use the word. It's another thing to know what the writer meant when he used it, right?

It's one thing for us to assume what the word means. It's another thing for us to explore what the writer meant when he wrote the word. And the Hebrew word for blessed means this happy, flourishing, and deeply satisfied. Happy, flourishing, and deeply satisfied. Now, I'm not going to bother this, but the word here, look it up.

Look, here is the Hebrew understanding of this word happy, flourishing, deeply satisfied. Now, time won't allow me to address this, but it but what what what is being described here is actually the condition of the soul. It's not what God does for me, it's what God does in me.

Blessed is the man. Got me? Ble. Blessed is the man. Blessed is the woman. Blessed is [clears throat] the person. And so ultimately, here's what we want. Our deepest desire is biblical happiness, flourishing, and deeply in deep satisfaction. [clears throat] That's blessed. And this text, watch this, gives us four keys to unlock this condition of our soul.

Got me? Cuz ultimately, we want a fresh start. Not just to have a fresh start. We want a fresh start because we want to be happy. We want to be flourishing. And we want to be deeply satisfied. The New Testament uses the word contentment to describe that. And it says godliness with contentment is great gain.

Meaning you can have an expression of godliness that is absent of [clears throat] contentment. You can be saved and unsatisfied because your spiritual maturity determines the degree of contentment you're going to possess. So this text gives us four keys to this condition of the soul called bless where we're happy, flourishing, and deeply satisfied.

Cuz that's why we want a fresh start with our resources. We want to be happy, flourishing, and deeply satisfied with our relationships. We want to be happy, flourishing, and deeply satisfied. With our uh um um wealth, physical wellness, we want to be happy, flourishing, and deeply satisfied. With our professional life, we want to be happy, flourishing, and deeply satisfied.

And the text gives us some insight on how to experience that. Here, watch this. Here it is in verse one. It says, "Blessed, happy, flourishing, deeply satisfied is the man." This is not gender specific or it it's inclusive of male and female. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.

That's the first step in the text [snorts] to this blessed life, to this condition of the soul called blessed. Happy, flourishing, deeply satisfied is the person who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Somebody put this in the chat. Whoever has your ear has your future. Did you hear what I just said?

Whoever has your ear has your future. The text says, "Blessed is a man who walks not in the counsel, the advice, the perspectives, the worldview, the opinion, the instruction of the ungodly." Now, the text didn't say, "Blessed is the person who walks not in the counsel of the uncchristian."

Because just because, listen to me, just because someone is Christian doesn't mean all the counsel, advice, perspective they're giving you is actually godly. Just because they're right with the Lord doesn't mean the instruction they're giving you is right. Walks not walking, watch this, walking or stepping in scripture is a metaphor for choices or decisions.

Psalms 37:23 says, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way." So the steps to walk you have to step right. So steps are systematic and sequential patterns of movement that take you from one place to another. So the systematic and sequential patterns of movement that take me from one place to another are ordered by the Lord.

So the Lord wants to order my steps. Here are four ways that God orders our steps. He orders our steps by principles in scripture. Right? So, if I'm dealing with uh [clears throat and cough] adversity or if I'm dealing with if I'm dealing with ops, if I'm dealing with enemies, if I'm dealing with individuals who seem to be intent on um me not flourishing, the princ there are principles in scripture that tell me how to handle enemies.

So, so the decisions that I make are ordered by the principles in scripture, right? You pray for those that misuse you. You don't return evil for evil. You turn the other cheek, which doesn't mean subject yourself to continual abuse. It means exercise temperance so that a person's actions don't drive your reaction.

That you don't allow their dysfunction to take dominion over your decisions. You don't. You got me? So turning the other cheek isn't about subjecting yourself to continued dysfunction because Jesus didn't do that. I can show you instances where mobs and crowds came and he got away. So the point that I'm making is God orders our steps by principles in scripture, but he also orders our steps by prompings in our spirit.

Remember in the book of Acts where Paul says to uh uh I think Paul's going to see Fesus and he says um sers I perceive that basically I'm paraphrasing that this voyage won't end well. He didn't say God told me. He said, "I proceed." There's this prompting, this intuitive hunch.

God orders our steps that way. God also orders our steps by sending people into our life who can give us guidance and counsel and direction. And God also orders our steps by some predicaments that we face. When Jonah got swallowed by the whale, that was God speaking. That whale was a word.

Anybody has anybody ever got a word from a whale? you you in a whale of a circumstance and you like I hear you Lord where my where's the honest people tonight say I I hear you Jesus so so the Lord wants to order our steps our walking and David says don't walk according to the counsel of the ungodly he's which means if I want to be happily happy flourishing and deeply satisfied I have to be able to discern if the counsel that I'm getting spiritually, emotionally, relationally, professionally, physically, financially is godly.

Pause, audit, reflect, say, lia. Think about it. When you look at the area of your life that you want a fresh start in, here's the question. Where's the advice coming from? If you're single, where's the advice coming from? I know their podcast and their books and their sermons, is it godly?

Not is it coming from Christians, it's is what they're saying anchored in scripture financially. Is it is it godly? Oh, the Bible has so much to say about all of these areas. So don't walk according to the counsel of the ungodly. So I got to audit where I'm getting advice.

Audit where I'm getting advice. Audit where I'm getting advice. Here's the second thing in the text though. It says, "Blessed is a man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path of sinners." So a path is a direction. It's a way of life.

It's a modus operande. It's the way a person typically does things. A and the text says don't stand in the path of sinners. And sin family is the ultimate success sabotager. It is the ultimate success sabotager. It is the enemy of flourishing. It is operating against divine design.

It is the equivalent of putting your iPhone in a stove. That is not what the creator created it for. It is not the manufacturer's intentions. It's ignoring the manufacturer's instructions. And this is why sin breaks God's heart because sin breaks us. It may not break us immediately, but it will break us eventually.

And the writer says, don't stand in the path. Don't stand in the path. Right? You may step in the path because you're imperfect. But he says, don't stand there. He says if you want if you [laughter] want if you want if you want to be happy flourishing and deeply satisfied spiritually emotionally relationally professionally financially physically don't stand in the path of sinners in that area of your life.

So emotionally like what am I doing with my mind relationally? What am I doing with my relationships? Am I violating God's principles relationally and still expecting that relationship to be happy, to be flourishing, and to be deeply satisfying? Now, we may not experience the ramifications of this immediately, but we will experience them [clears throat] eventually.

Don't stand in the path eventually. eventually eventually as the scripture say there's a way that seems right unto man but in the end eventually it leads to destruction. So he says, "All right." Okay. So not just no don't just audit your advice. Audit your activity. Put that down.

Number two, audit your activity. Come on. Let's no judgment. Let's just be honest. Okay. Relationally, financially. Am I going against divine design here? All right. Third thing he says in the text, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. All right. I can't obey this command if I don't understand it.

What does scornful mean here? Who are the scornful? Here's what it means. Uh I think one translation says mockers. [clears throat] Because scornful, here are five traits of the scornful. They ridicule what is sacred or serious. They ridicule it. They make fun of it. It's amazing to me. It's amazing to me how people do this like with institutionalized religion.

It's it's particularly Christianity. It's so weird. It's so weird to me. It's like if if if there are things about Christianity itself or the way Christians practice Christianity that you find inattract unattractive and unappealing, then God has given you the right not to accept it. Right now, we all have to deal with the consequence of our choice.

And sometimes we don't see the consequence of that choice in this life. We see it in the next one. We don't see the ultimate consequence of this that choice in this life. We see it in the next one. But God gives people the right to reject him. So a person has that right.

Here's where a person is scornful. It is when you ridicule people who don't share your view. Does that make sense? It's it's almost like so I lead a local I lead a a church. It's called Change Church. And so it's almost like someone saying it's almost like a scornful person is saying all the people that call change home we just stupid.

Somehow you have some epiphany. You from Chad GPT no somehow you have some epiphany and some insight and and the rest of us have just drunk the Kool-Aid. We're just dumb. We're just dumb. We're just non-discerning. That's the scornful. The Bible says you're not going to be blessed.

I mean, you're blessed, which is happy, flourishing, or deeply satisfied if you're sitting in the seat of the scornful. They are they are constantly ridiculing what is sacred. Two, they're using cynicism and sarcasm as a lifestyle. It's like they're always negative. This is one of the things too that I think has to be there has to be or there needs to be I'd like for there I like to see some um expounding and expansion of the understanding of discernment.

I even think the word discernment in many Christian circles is really it's it's a sanctified word where you a spiritual word we're spiritualizing cynicism. It's not like biblical discernment, right? which is the ability to see beyond the five senses, right? Like discernment is almost like you can only discern what's wrong.

I'm sorry, that's brokenness. You can never discern what's right. It's like you can only discern something off about them. And I'm not saying that's not part of it, but you but a person can never discern there's something right about somebody else. Oh, this is a trap, but never like this is an opportunity.

So, a person that uses cynicism as a lifestyle, scornful. Three, a person that treats spiritual or moral truth with contempt. That Bible that word not my God. Not my God. So, when a person is saying not my God, they're right. Not their God. See? See the difference? That's the God they made. is not the God that made them.

I can't remember one. I think it was a uh I can't remember who it was, but it's one um I think it was a church father, an early church father who said something along the lines of God made humans in his image and humans tried to return the favor favor.

So God made humans in his image and humans turned around and tried to make God in theirs. Four, makes light of God, the wisdom and righteousness. Four, that's four. Makes light of God, wisdom, and righteous. Five, the scornful, find entertainment in tearing others down. This is Christian gossip, which is very profitable and lucrative nowadays, and it would not be if it wasn't supported by Christians.

That's the scornful guys. This is what the word means, right? This isn't even like this is I mean it is like this is this is this isn't interpretive. Like I'm not interpreting this is like like part of what we would call ex Jesus drawing meaning out of scripture.

Like there has to be uh an etmological analysis. What does a word mean? Right? Like and so some of that becomes inarguable. What does it mean? This is what scornful means. So sitting in the seat of the scornful can be watch this. It can mean a couple of things.

It can mean sitting like them which is becoming this kind of person or it can mean sitting with them. Meaning someone who people who are like this are in your circle and your exposure to the scornful will end up making you like the scornful. It means that if these people are in your relational ecosystem then you're not going to be happy. you're not going to be flourishing and you're not going to be deeply satisfied.

So the question is spiritually is the are the scornful in your circle emotionally are the scornful in your circle relationally are the scornful in your circle are your friends scornful? Um am I making sense? Like so if you have a biblical and high view of marriage but then there are people in your circle who like marriage this you with your husband you with your like you're not going to be happy.

You understand? You're not going to be happy flourishing or deeply satisfied. The Bible's clear. We become like who we walk with. Proverbs 13:20. Walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of fools suffers harm. So audit your associations. That's number three. Write it down. Audit your associations.

So, don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Don't stand in the way of the sinner. Don't sit in the seat of the scornful. Watch this. But here's number four. Verse two. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law does he meditate day and night.

That's the fourth thing. Day and night. If I want this blessed state, this condition of my soul to be blessed that shows up spiritually, emotionally, relationally, financially, professionally, physically, there has to be a meditation on the word. Here it is. Because you cannot do not do the first three things without doing this fourth thing.

This fourth thing is what equipss and empowers and enables you and I to do the first three things. So, I I won't be able to not walk in the counsel of the ungodly if I don't know what godly counsel's like. And I won't know what godly counsel is like if I'm not meditating on the word.

I won't be able to not stand in the path of sinners if I don't know what is sinful and what isn't. And meditation on the word is what gives me insight on what is sinful and what is not. Am I making sense? I I won't be able to discern who is scornful if I'm not meditating on the word because the word becomes the filter through which I put the character traits of people that I'm that I that I am in relationship with.

Because the Bible says that I should know them not by my feelings toward them or their feelings toward me, but I should know people, not judge people, but know people, not just prophets, but people by their fruit. His delight is in the law of the Lord. When we say the law of the Lord, we mean God's revealed will for human flourishing.

And the Bible says, "Meditate on that." Meditate on that. This is not the first time we see the word meditate in scripture. Joshua 1:8, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night." We also see this activity attributed to Isaac in Genesis 24:63.

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. So the question becomes from a biblical perspective, what does meditation mean? Because some people run from meditation because here's something I don't even have time to deal with all of this, but some of the things Christians argue about and run from is because they their knowledge of it is the use of it that made it popular, not the origin of it.

So when you say meditation to Christians, some that are well intended but just not biblically educated, some very zealous but just not anchored. Oh no, that's meditation, that's idolatry, etc. because they believe the the kind of meditation that's been popularized is the origin of it when there are biblical origins of meditation.

I just showed you Joshua 18. God told Joshua meditate. Genesis 24:63 it said Isaac meditates. But many of us associate meditation with eastern meditation which is simply the emptying of the mind. But biblical meditation is the filling of the mind with God's word. Got me? It means to rehearse, to repeat, to rehearse, to repeat, to rehearse, to repeat, to rehearse, to repeat.

There are four steps and stages of biblical meditation. There's repetition. So, I'm reading and speaking and rehearsing scripture. Then there's reflection. I'm thinking deeply about the meaning and the application of scripture. Then there's rumination. I'm chewing on it like a like a like um a cow that's chewing cud.

I'm going over it over and over and over again and then I'm responding with it. I'm turning truth into prayer, worship, and obedience. And so when I when I'm dealing with situations and circumstances that are threatening the stability of my mind, then I respond with truth that I've been rehearsing in my mind.

Am I making sense? So, it is like, man, if you're dealing with a a a a financial or or any sort of resource challenge, you're meditating on and my God shall supply all my need. My God shall supply all my need. My God shall supply all my need.

You're you're you're meditating on you're repeating it. You're rehearsing it. You're ruminating on it. You're reflecting on it. You're responding with it. Meditate. And the Bible says when I do these four things, right? So after I audit my associations, I got to watch this. I I've got to acquire the right information.

And that comes through meditation. Not just study, which is reading scripture, but meditation, which is letting scripture read me. Not just study, which is getting into scripture, but meditation is letting the scriptures get in me. They're rehearsing and they're repeating. And let's be honest, if we look at what you're thinking and saying spiritually, emotionally, relationally, financially, physically, professionally, very often if we look at what we are thinking and saying, very often is not reflective of God's word.

But if we will not take the counsel of the ungodly, if we will not stand in the way of sinners, if we will not sit in this city of the scarmful, if we will meditate on the law [clears throat] of the Lord, then we will be verse three like a tree planted by the rivers of water.

That speaks to stability that brings forth its fruit in this season. That speaks to productivity. Whose leaf will not wi wither. That speaks to resilience and stamina. You know, a dry leaf, if you put it under pressure, it crumbles, right? So when we're dry, we put under pressure, dry spiritually, we crumble.

And whatever he does will prosper. Because when you don't when you and I don't take the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of the sinner, sit in the seat of the scornful, when we are actually consistently meditating on the law of the Lord, one, it's going to it's going to drive what we do.

So we aren't going to there are certain things that we would do that we won't do, and the things that we do do are more likely to prosper. This, my friends, is a blessed life. And I don't know about you, this is what I want my 2026 to be like.

And God by his grace has given us four keys to do just that. I want you to make a commitment that this is going to be the year you lean into these keys and you're going to watch God do exceedingly and abundantly above all you ask or think.

Well, listen family. I want to I want to end by praying out. Uh before I pray, I want to encourage those of you who um who are really going all in on your spirituality this year, not just to watch this one time. I think this needs to kind of be a go-to probably at least every three months. remind yourself of this um so that it is kind of anchored in your soul and uh it will it'll provide an anchor for your life so you won't drift away from these truths.

Um it Hebrews 2 talks about drifting and uh I think we're all prone to drift and uh it's a metaphor of the sea. Currents take you away and we can get caught up in the current of life and we can drift. And so I'm going to pray for [snorts] a degree of supernatural anchoring for us this year.

Um Lord ths are coming up now. This is our first blueprint of the the year. Um, thank you for each week, those of you who understand the the biblical principle of generosity and sewing back into the field that you're harvesting from. And so, ways to give. If you're watching this live or if you're watching this 2:00 in the morning and uh this is adding value to you spiritually, I want you to I want to encourage you to value the thing uh that's adding value to you and help us get this third way message out to as many people as possible.

All right. So, I want to pray over you and I'm going to dismiss you. Next week, new blueprint series called Night School. We're going to allow God's word to disciple us on how to properly steward night seasons. Those seasons of life need to be stewarded well. You're going to have some in 2026.

Uh but you're going to come out. You're going to see the light in the darkness. Father, thank you for your word. I pray for a supernatural anchoring on your people. I give you praise for all that you've done and all that you're do going to do in 2026.

Give us the wisdom, the courage to put into practice these principles that you've released to us today. I commit your people in this year into your care in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Take care. God bless. See you next week. >> ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing))