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All right. We're there in Joshua one. I had a really interesting question this week, about, I'll share with you what it says here in Joshua one, look at verse number eight. It says, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shall meditate therein day and night. The title for the sermon this morning is Bible meditation, Bible meditation. So this week I had a great question on how do we meditate on the Bible? It's something that I have preached, essentially, I have spoken about it while I've preached different sermons. And I just thought I must have preached a whole sermon on Bible meditation at some point. And so I went looking and I just couldn't find any evidence that I have ever preached on it, which kind of surprised me because this is such an important part of our Bible reading, how we approach God's word and how it helps us nurture and grow and develop as Christians. And so Joshua, of course, is the book where Moses passes on his leadership onto Joshua. Joshua is now leading, um, the children of Israel into the promised land. And they're going to go into, they're going to fight. They go into warfare and God tells them to, uh, to use his word as their, their leading, as their guidance. And as we look at there again in Joshua one eight, let's just read the whole thing. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shall meditate therein day and night, uh, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written there in, for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous. And then thou shall have good success. So of course, from Joshua's perspective, being prosperous and having good success is them going and conquering the land and inheriting the land, dividing the land into the tribes and, and the successes they would have on that land as a nation. But we can of course take this principle upon ourselves and we want to have good success in our lives. We want to be successful believers, Christians, people that are being guided by his word. And so we definitely learn here is that we need to meditate on his word day and night. As I said, the title for the sermon today is Bible meditation. Now, uh, maybe one reason we don't really hear about this all that much in the Christian world is because that word meditation often is associated with, you know, the Eastern religions, such as, you know, Zen Buddhism or something like that, where, you know, meditation is kind of like the emptying of your mind. You, you just cross your legs and you get into some yoga position and you just empty yourself with all knowledge or something like this. Right. Uh, Bible meditation is the complete opposite. Instead of emptying your mind, you're feeling your mind with God's word is what you're doing when you're meditating upon his word. And, uh, so it's a, it's a very different way of understanding meditation compared to maybe other religions. So, you know, when it comes to God's word, there are essentially three ways that you can approach God's word. Number one, you can just do your general Bible reading, right? Reading God's word. And I would encourage you, you need to read God's word. In fact, we're given many instructions in the Bible to just read his word. And, um, you know, that's important. And I would encourage you to try to get through your Bible cover to cover at least once a year, at least maybe twice a year. You know, if time's allowed, you know, all you have to do is read the Bible 15 minutes per day and you'll read your Bible cover to cover in a year easily. All right. Now that is generally how a lot of people approach the Bible. They just got to read the Bible and they measure their success in God's word by how much they read the Bible. And there's nothing wrong with that in of itself. Obviously the more you read God's word, the better understanding you're going to have overall, but it's not, that is not the only way to measure your success with reading God's word. When you just read the Bible cover to cover, you get through your, I don't know, your four or five chapters a day, you're going to develop a pretty good high level view of the Bible. You're going to understand, uh, the bigger picture of God's plan with humanity from Genesis to revelation. Again, that, that high level, that big level view of God, uh, you'll understand who God is in, in my, in, you know, uh, from his love to his anger and his wrath and yet his mercy, you'll have that big picture. You know, again, from just humanity's point of view, from when God created us to the time he takes us home, you have that big picture from eternity to eternity. And, uh, that's a good way of understanding the Bible. There are many that have never, many believers that have never read their Bibles cover to cover. And when you don't read the Bible cover to cover you, you miss out on the big picture. You know, many times when people read the Bible cover to cover, they just, they read chapters, they read books that they've never read before. And they're surprised by the contents. It's like, wow, that's in the Bible. It's like, yeah, yeah. That's you. Did you not read the Bible? Of course, those things in the Bible. So again, it's that high level view. And then you can have a much more focused view or where the Bible speaks of study in God's word. And for example, I'll just read to you from second Timothy two 15, which says study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You see studying God's word, uh, brings about a division, a dividing of God's word. You're breaking down that big picture view to smaller portions. And second Timothy is of course, reading to pastors. Pastors need to study, to show himself approved, to divide the word of truth. And so as like today I'm coming and I'm dividing, I'm not just preaching a big high level view of the Bible here. We're dividing the Bible and we focus right now on meditating, meditating upon God's word. So I've divided the Bible on meditation. And so I'm trying my best to give you bite-sized chunks of the Bible, where you can understand, digest and appreciate maybe a certain topic or a certain chapter of the Bible. And so instead of it being a high level view, it's a more detailed or smaller portion view of the Bible. And of course studying God's word is essential as well. And maybe this is another approach that you take many times when it comes to the Bible, you may have certain interests, certain doctrines that you're, you want to know more about certain topics. You want to have a greater understanding of, and so you might go to a, I don't know today, you can go to like, you can use Bible software, you know, or even chat GBT use AI. We can might say, Hey, you know, uh, what Bible verses are there on topic? Give me a topic, a topic of marriage, right? I want to know what God has to say about marriage and divorce and remarriage. And, and so you sort of focus on that one topic. That's you kind of studying God's word. You're very actively trying to figure out, you know, uh, you know, um, about a certain topic that is of interest to you maybe on the end times or, you know, whatever it is that you may have on your heart. Um, or, you know, when someone gets up to preach, often someone has, you know, an idea they would like to preach about a certain topic and there'll be like, you know, so they'll start to study God's word on those topics. So they'll start to divide God's word and break it down to those smaller portions. Now, when it comes to most of our interaction, the Bible, I think that reading God's word and studying God's word are probably the two main things that you essentially do with God's word, but you need to understand that meditating on God's word is really essential as well. Like all three are important. Okay. The first two are very intellectual approaches to the Bible, you know, understand that high level then understand that more detailed level of certain doctrines or positions. But when you meditate upon God's word, it's not just intellectual. It goes down to the heart. It, it, it, it creates great roots into you and you end up with a much deeper understanding of God's word. Again, not so much, of course, intellectually, but you know, just, just deep within you, knowing better of what it is that I need to change. What is it that God is, is asking of me, or what is the Holy Spirit teaching me that I need to change in my life? What characteristics do I need to alter? How do I have to think, you know, do I need to think differently on an issue of, you know, I have that renewing of my mind. You know, meditating is really, God, what do you want from me? Like, yeah, I know the big picture. Yeah, I know the doctrine, but what does that mean to me? You know, what is that between you and me, God? It's a, you know, yeah, it's a much more focused or a much more deeper understanding of God's word and, and how it changes you, how it applies to you. And so what we learn here in Joshua one, let's look at it again, Joshua one, eight, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shall meditate therein day and night. And this is why you want to meditate on God's word. That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written. Okay. First, first thing to do. All right. So it's not just knowing, but it's doing. Oh, now I get it. God, like, I see, you know, what you have to say about me as a husband. I know what God's word says. I know what husbands are ought to do, but now for me to meditate upon those words, Lord, I need you to speak to me directly as to what I need to change in my life. I like to do all, observe to do all that is written therein. And then it continues for, for then thou shall make thy way prosperous. Ah, another advantage of meditating upon God's word is God can make my way prosperous or profitable. You know, think of prosperity. I'm not teaching a prosperity gospel here. I'm not saying you're going to end up with big bucks. So who knows, maybe God's word and your great steward, stewardness with the wealth that God gives you can make your way somewhat prosperous. But we're talking about profiteering from God's word, you know, being a better Christian, a better believer overall in your life. And then it says, and then thou shall have good success. Ah, meditate upon God's word gives me success. And so I don't know anybody who would say, pastor, I don't want to be successful in my Christian life. I don't want, I don't want my ways to be successful in what I do. I think we all want success, right? Obviously we don't want success to drive our pride. We want the success to come by the leading of God's word, following his ways and proving what he says to be true. And so meditation, meditate upon God's word is an essential part of our Christian life. In fact, I would say, you know, just my own personal experience with meditate upon God's word. That's really when I feel like I've engaged the great teacher that lives within us, the Holy Spirit of God, that teaches us the deeper things of God. You know, when I just pause and I think about the passages that I'm reading, rather than just reading again through my chapter, rather than just being interested in a topic, I'm asking God, what is it that you want to change about me? Like I said, is it something you need me to change what I'm doing? Is it the way that I think toward a certain issue? Oh Lord, are you just trying to reveal yourself in a greater way to me? Are you just trying to show me who you are in a much deeper level? And, you know, I just, again, my view on this is, this is where I really get to the heart of God or God gets to my heart and he opens my understanding at a much deeper level, something that is just between me and him. Okay. So I believe this is something that is very vital to our Christian development, very vital to your way being prosperous, very vital for you to have good success. All right. So come with me now to Psalm 1, come with me to Psalm 1. Psalm 1, you can move away from Joshua, but Psalm 1, now Psalm 1 is very similar to what we read there in Joshua 1. Okay. It talks about meditating upon God's word. But of course the Psalms or the songs of the Bible are much more poetic in language, much more, you know, expressive in words, but it's teaching the same thing. And I want you to notice what it says here in Psalm 1, 1, Psalm 1, 1, the Bible says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sit up in the seat of the scornful. Verse number two, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. All right. So there it is, right? The very beginning of Psalms, one of the very first things that we learn about is that we ought to meditate upon his word day and night. In fact, this idea of meditating or meditating on God's word is primarily taught in the Psalms. It's taught in other books of the Bible, like we saw in Joshua. Okay. But the Psalms by far has more about meditating upon God's word and it continues. What is the advantages of meditating upon God's word day and night? Verse number three, it says, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth his fruits in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. There it is again, the prosperity prosper. All right. The one that meditates upon God's word day and nights is like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Meaning it's always going to have the, you know, the nutrients and, and the, and the, the water to help that tree grow. You know, it's not going to wither away. It, you know, it's going to be fruitful. Its leaves are going to be, you know, the, the, the fruit's going to grow and that tree is going to be like a successful tree planted right there near the waters. Well, that's what meditating upon God's word will do for your life. If you apply this, you will have great success. You will have great prosperity in the things of God. So Psalm one just confirms what we saw that earlier in Joshua one. Now we're going to spend a bit of time in the Psalms, but before we do, can you come with me to Mark chapter 12, come with me to Mark chapter 12, Mark chapter 12, please. I want to show you some words of Jesus Christ here. Many times when Christ is interacting with say the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the chief rulers, the scribes, and, and the lawyers, he says this many times in the Gospels. And I want you to pick up what Christ says here in Mark 12, look at Mark 12 and verse number 24, Mark 12 and verse number 24. I'll give you the quick, it's not the, I don't want us to lose focus of what this is about, but you know, this is when Jesus is challenged about a woman that's got, you know, potentially hypothetically gets married to seven brothers. And then, you know, they all passed away. They all passed away. She became a widow. She marries another brother, all seven brothers she marries. And then the challenge is, well, who will she belong to in eternity? In the resurrection, who would she belong to? Right? And then Jesus responds in verse number 24. And Jesus answering said unto them, do ye not therefore err because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God. He goes, number one, they don't know the power of God because either the Sadducees and the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. And that is the power of God, our resurrection. They did not believe in that. But not only that, he says, you don't know the scriptures. You know, you make an error in your ability to understand marriage on the earth and eternity because you don't know the scriptures. And you know, when Jesus says this, the Sadducees do know the scriptures. You need to understand that. The Pharisees, these are the religious leaders. These are the ones with the actual, you know, the writings and the scrolls. They've got access to the scriptures. They're the teachers of the scriptures. Of course, they've read the scriptures. But Jesus saying, look, you're making an error. You're making a mistake. You don't know them. Even though you've read them, even though you've got access to the scriptures, you actually do not know the scriptures. Cause then he says in verse number 25, for when, um, for when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but as the angels, which are in heaven and as touching the dead, they are that they rise. And then he says this, have you not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush, God's spake unto him saying, I am the God of Abraham and of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living ye therefore do greatly err. He goes, this is why you're making a great error. Have you not read what God said to Moses? Now again, of course they've read it. Okay. It's not, God's, Jesus is not saying you've never read it. Of course they've read it. Okay. You know, optically these Sadducees and Pharisees, they're seen as the Bible experts. If anyone knows the scriptures, it ought to be them. But what I want you to notice here is that even though they've read the scriptures, they've not understood the scriptures. Then they're, you know, they're in error, says Jesus Christ. And so this is why meditating upon God's word is important. Reading God's word is important. Okay. But you know, it's possible to read and yet not understand. That's the point I'm trying to drive you here. Okay. It's possible to read and yet not understand because sometimes you just need to stop and say, Lord, teach me, Lord, let me absorb your word. Lord, I've been trying to get through five chapters a day to keep the devil away, but I've not really stopped and thought about what you're saying to me. What is it that this great teacher, the Holy Spirit wants to highlight to me in your word today? Now come back with me to Psalm. Now come with me to Psalm 119, please. Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Now something you've probably heard me say many times is that when I preach and I might preach for an hour, 40 minutes to an hour, I never want you to necessarily, I mean, if you can, great, good on you, but I never expect everybody to absorb everything I teach. Okay. It's too much. Or to apply everything that gets said behind the pulpit. It's too much. I often say when I preach, when you hear a sermon, take one thought, take two thoughts, and just apply those things. Don't worry about everything. You don't need to change your whole life overnight. The Bible says little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept, growing in the Lord requires step-by-step growth. Okay. Cause what happens is when people try to apply everything at once that they burn out. You burn out. I just can't do it. It's too difficult because a lot of the change is happening outwardly, but not inwardly. All right. So I've seen this many times. Okay. It's like, wow, you just got saved. And two weeks later now, you know, all the doctrines and you can correct every pastor and you know exactly how everyone should speak, act, and think, you know, it, they're trying to absorb weights, but no, no, no. Growth is step-by-step. Just one little thing here. One little thing there. Now you grow, you apply those things, get those things cemented. It's the same with your Bible reading. I'm not saying don't read your five chapters a day, whatever you do. I'm not saying that, but are you going to, are you truly absorbing all five chapters? Every verse of every chapter every day, of course you're not absorbing at all. Okay. Now, you know, some things you do understand and some things you won't understand. And at the end of the day, it's still feeding you. God's word is like our spiritual food. We need to absorb it. You know, whether you understand or not, it's doing you some good, right? You might eat, you know, your parents might say to you, eat the broccoli, eat the carrots. How does that help me in life? You may not understand, but it helps you. It's got certain vitamins and things that you need in your growth, right? God's word is like that. But in order for you to change and to grow and to prosper and succeed, you need to get down to those bite-sized areas and say, God, reveal something to me here. Lord, I just read my first, my five chapters before, you know, and I just realized I absorbed nothing. I've been there. So I'm assuming if I've been there, you've been there. We read your five chapters, whatever it is, right? Whatever it is that you read. And you're like, what did I just read? Have you ever, I've been there many times, many times, right? And I realized that I'm just reading, but I'm not really absorbing. I'm not meditating. I'm not stopping and asking God, God, what are you trying to reveal to me today? Can you show me something? And I tell you, one of the most, some of the most beautiful times with the Lord is when I just stop at his scriptures and I say, Lord, can you show me something here? And I look at it. Something jumps out at me. And I start to think about it, meditate, absorbing God's word and Lord, what do you want to teach me? And I start to think about it. And then I get the truth. And I said, oh, wow. I didn't see this before, Lord. It's not that I heard a sermon and I learned it from a sermon. It's not that I read a book and learned it from a book or read some Bible commentary and I got a Bible commentary. This is just you and me, God. And I just stopped and you taught me now, God. What a great teacher our Lord God is. And when you're able to discover those things in God's words, you and God alone, it's so beautiful. Like you uncover these gems in the Bible, these, you know, you're digging deep with God and it's like, wow, God, you've shown me. You know, this is just something special between you and me, God. Thank you. And sometimes when God reveals this to me, some weeks later, it's probably going to appear in a sermon somewhere. Because that's part of, at least my job as a pastor is of course, teaching God's word. And, but it's such a beautiful interaction with God when you can have that one-on-one time and He shows you something that you've never seen before. And you know, I see it, God. I see what you're trying to show me now, Lord. Okay. And anyway, I'm going to turn to Psalm 119. Because as I said, the Psalms speaks more about meditating in God's word than any other book. And the biggest chapter, not just in Psalms, but in the whole Bible is Psalm 119. And it really delves into this idea of meditating God's word. In fact, Psalm 119 is all about God's word, about the precious words that He's given us, His statutes, His precepts, His wisdom. And I'll just show you verse number 15 here, Psalm 119, verse number 15. It says, I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. How can we build a better respect of God's words or God's ways? Well, meditating upon His word will build a greater respect for the ways God has for you. Drop down to verse number 46. It says, I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. Now, is that you? Do you think you could one day if you put before kings and authorities that you'll be able to speak God's testimonies? Some of us might say, I don't know Pastor, I'd be a little bit timid by that. You know, I don't think I'd be able to speak God's word boldly to people of great power and authority. Well, if we continue to verse number 48, it says, my hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes. Wow. I noticed something here that when you meditate upon God's statutes, you love His word even more. You grow in love and then you grow in boldness and you're able to speak about God's word to anybody, anybody you come across. You won't be ashamed or you won't be timid. Meditate upon God's word strengthens your love and your ability to proclaim His word to just about anybody. Look at verse number 78, Psalm 119 verse 78, let the proud be ashamed for they dealt perversely with me without a cause, but I will meditate in thy precepts. So the Psalmist said, look, there are people that hate me. There are people that are proud against me. They have dealt perversely against me without a cause. They hate me for no reason. And you know, for some of us, when people despise you for no reason, it really bothers us. Oh, why would they think that about me? The Psalmist says, you know what, I'm just going to meditate in your statutes. Instead of getting bothered, instead of having thin skinned every time someone's out to get me, you know what? I just rather meditate in His word. That gives me comfort. That gives me strength. That takes my attention away from people that seek to harm me. Look at verse number 97, Psalm 119 verse number 97. Oh, how I love thy law. It is the meditation all the day. You know, I mean, I've already kind of covered this, but yeah, of course meditating upon the law of God, you know, makes you love it, increases in your love. And the Psalmist says, I do this all the day. So he reads a portion of scripture and he thinks about it all day long. All right. I guess he goes to work and thinks about the scripture, you know, when he's got time and he rests his head on the pillow, he thinks about that scripture. He thinks, Lord, what are you trying to reveal to me in these passages? You know, how do you want me to change in accordance to the words that you've given me? It can take time to meditate on His word. It can take days and weeks sometimes for God to give you that final revealing of the deepness in His word. Look at Psalm verse 98. Oh yeah. So he meditates on the word all the day. Thou through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients because I keep thy precepts. Wow. He goes, I can outsmart my enemies. I know more than the people that have taught me. I know more than the ancients. I know more than the people that have gone before me. He says, why? Because he meditates upon the word of God. Wow. So meditation upon God's word also gives you great wisdom. All right. Makes you smarter. Increases your IQ, increases your intelligence, increases your ability to retain knowledge when you meditate upon His word. Look at verse number 147. 147. I prevented. That word prevent is to come before or to proceed. I prevented the dawning of the morning. I cried. I hoped in thy word. So he goes, look, before, I guess the Psalmist, when he's in anguish and in troubles, he goes, before the dawn, before I see the lights in the horizon, I prevented. He gets up earlier than the lights. And he cries the Lord. He prays the Lord. He hopes in the word of God. Look what it says in verse 148. Mine eyes prevent the night watches that I might meditate in thy word. The night watches, you know, when you had the watchman on, on a city, there'd be night watches. There'll be people at certain times of the, of the night. All right. It's your turn to get up and watch and protect the city. The Psalmist says, even before my night watch comes, before my, before my shift begins, I meditate. I prevent, I prevent the night watches. Before the night watches, I meditate in your word. Before I, I start my day, before I start my mornings, before I start my, my work, my, my, my night watches, whatever it is, right, whatever, I meditate in your word. He goes, and this gives me hope. I hoped in thy word. I increase in hope. You know, I increase in my expectations upon you, God. And I do this, I, I, his intention. I'm not going to, you know, get, get busy to work. I'm not going to get busy in life before I first meditate upon your word, because this gives me great hope in life. So I want to show you brethren that there are many advantages. And the Bible speaks greatly upon meditating upon God's word. So if your practice is your 15 minutes a day to read through the Bible, good, do it. All right. Read your four chapters, your five chapters. But what I want you to do is, and sometimes this happens, sometimes when you're reading, something just jumps out at you. Something just, oh, that's interesting. I want you to start thinking about, that's the Holy Spirit. And I believe it is the Holy Spirit drawing your attention to that certain passage. Say, why did that just jump out at me? Well, I got to get through the next chapter. No, no, it jumped out at you for a reason. Meditate upon it. Think upon it. God, what are you trying to show me? There are times that I read my Bible, nothing's jumped out at me. Or you, like I said, you read it and you're like, I don't remember what I read. So before I start reading some other chapter, I'll go back to what I just read and read it slowly. Why did I miss it? Why did I miss anything here? You know, am I brain too busy? You know, is my mind on other things, on what I'm going to have for breakfast and what time I need to get to such and such place? I need to empty my I need to empty my mind of those things and fill my mind here with God's word. Let me meditate upon what I just read. And Lord, and I pray to God, when something doesn't jump out at me at all, say, God, can you reveal something to me, please? There must be something here that you want to show me. Can you show me what that is? I don't need to know the whole chapter. I don't need to know the whole passage. Just one little thing, Lord, can you show me something great in your word? And then I meditate upon it. I think about it. You know, as a pastor, I guess I have more time to some extent. But you see that sometimes you can meditate upon things all day long. Think about it constantly. You know, Lord, what are you trying to reveal to me? What do you want me to change? How do you want me to see this differently? How do you want me to apply this? You know, to observe, to do all according to what is written. You know, how are you going to provide me great success and prosperity, Lord, by applying this teaching to my life? You know, talking to God and being led by him is such a great thing. And the Lord rejoices when you stop and you meditate upon his words. Can I show you some other psalms? Look at Psalm 19. Psalm 19, in verse number 14. Psalm 19, we sometimes sing it, you know, more to be desired are they than gold, yea they're much fine gold. Talk about God's word. And then in Psalm 19 and verse number 14, it says, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. So Lord, when I meditate in my heart about your words, I want it to be acceptable to you. Lord, I don't want to come with some idea, some concept that is not yours. I don't want to fill my lack of knowledge with my own reasoning and logical arguments. Lord, I want it to be acceptable in your sight. Lord, what is right? How can you lead me in the right ways according to this passage that I just read? As I meditate upon this in my heart, Lord, I want it to be acceptable to you. Can you come with me to Psalm 49, Psalm 49, verse number 3? I just want to show you all these psalms, you know, and I didn't include all the psalms that talk about it, but Psalm 49, verse number 3, Psalm 49, verse number 3, it's very similar to what we read there in Psalm 19, but Psalm 49, verse number 3, my mouth shall speak of wisdom and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. The reason I read these two verses, so if I wanted to show you that that meditation is of the heart, it's a much more deeper understanding and appreciation of God's Word than just intellectual, okay? It's good to be intellectual, you know, God gives us the wisdom and he wants us to speak his wisdom, but we always know that he wants us to be a doer of his word and that's when you go, God, what do you want me to do with what I've just read? How do you want me to apply this, Lord? I need to meditate upon this with my heart. What are you, it's heart to heart, God, your heart to my heart, God, what are you trying to show me? This is between you and me, Lord, as I think and meditate upon you. Sometimes, I'll be honest, sometimes, many times, God just is showing me who he is, just a better appreciation of who God is. Oh man, yeah, I know God, I know he died for me, my Father, my Heavenly Father and his Son and the Holy Ghost that works through me and teaches me, but sometimes I just need to know more of who he is. Sometimes, when I talk to my wife and we, you know, she expresses some things and this and that, every now and again, I'm like, oh wow, I didn't know that about my wife. You know, it's something a great reveal about who she is, you know, just by conversation or by actions or whatever. So okay, that's something I learned, but you know, you can learn more about God as time goes on, you know, our infinite God, our eternal God, there's so much more to know about him and he shows us a little bit more about how he sees things or thinks about things or his just own personal nature or his just great love for you and his mercy towards you and your value in his eyes sometimes and just makes me feel loved, like God, you love me, I'm your child, thank you Lord. You know, he reveals something to me from his Word, this meditation of the heart. Look at Psalm 63, Psalm 63 verse number five. Psalm 63, I want to show you this, that the meditation is not always just intellectual, but it's that knowing of who God is. Psalm 63 verse number five. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches. Meditate on thee. You know, so Lord, I'm meditating on you. Lord, show me more of who you are and as I read your word in you, this is your word, this is your nature, Lord, and now I need to just meditate upon you. You know, sometimes we read passages of the Bible and that can be hard to grasp. You know, God, did you really command the children of Israel to go and wipe out the Canaanites and destroy them utterly and all their cattle, man, woman and child, Lord? That's hard for me to understand. Let me meditate upon that for a while, Lord. What are you trying to tell me about who you are? You know, like how do I understand you in a greater capacity, Lord? I'm just giving you some examples, right? Look at Psalm 77. Psalm 77 verse number 11. Psalm 77 verse number 11. The Bible says, I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy doings. Well, sometimes meditation gives us a better grasp of God's workings. What he does, why he does what he does, what he has done and what he will do. Meditation gives us a better understanding of how God works. You guys are probably familiar with this term. God works in mysterious ways. I had that, someone said that to me yesterday. God works in mysterious ways. And so we can never know what he's up to. No, no, no, no, no. That's why you got to meditate upon him. That's why you got to meditate upon his works. How do I know his works were, many of his works are in his word, but also the works that he's done in your life. You think about that, you contemplate that. God is telling us what he does, right? Oh, it's mysterious. No, no, just meditate upon. Just think about it. God's revealing who he is and what he does and why he does it in his word. And he wants us to know that. He doesn't want it to be a mystery forever. He wants us to come and get a better grasp of just who he is and why he does what he does. And again, when you learn more about God, just in your own personal one-on-one with him and your own meditation, it's beautiful. It's like you're discovering a greater depth of him. You know, again, not some concept of philosophical man, but by his word, what God's revealing of himself through his word. Can you come with me to 1 Timothy 4? 1 Timothy 4. This is all introduction so far. It's a three hour sermon today. Probably not. Introduction. And then we'll get to some practical side of that. Like I want you to understand, I'm not sure how to teach this, how to meditate, unless I just show you how I do it. Okay. So that's kind of my goal after this. But 1 Timothy 4, verse 14. You know how the Bible spoke about meditate upon God's word brings prosperity or profiting. And what we're going to see here is the term prophet being used in 1 Timothy chapter 4. Now again, the book of Timothy is written to pastors, right? And pastors need to meditate upon God's word. Like that's obviously, that's an expectation on pastors at the very least, right? People that read, we don't want to be like the Pharisees and the Sadducees that seem to read, but have no understanding, you know, of the things of God. But 1 Timothy 4, 14 says, neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on the hands of the presbytery. So this is a passage that's been ordained, and he had the laying of hands put upon him. And then verse 15, meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. Okay. So if I meditate upon these things, the laying hands of the presbytery, a greater, what I believe this refers to, and I've preached on this before, is a greater awakening, greater understanding of God's word. I don't know how else to tell you this, and people think it's crazy, but I thought I knew the Bible very well until I got ordained. And then I got ordained, and somehow the Bible was even more understandable. I can't even relate to you what I mean by that. Okay. But it wasn't until I had the laying of hands upon me, ordained as a pastor, and I went, wow, man, the scriptures have come more alive all of a sudden, much more open to me than ever before. And I thought about this. I was like, well, makes sense if I'm going to teach God's word. If that's my primary mission to feed the sheep, you know, feed God's people, I better have a better grasp overall about what I'm reading. And so meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all. Just important for pastors is that when you look at your pastor and you say, well, does my pastor, does his life appear to benefit from the things of God? From the Bible, from the leading of God's word, from the teachings there, you know, is his life shaping up to be what a Christian's life should look like? An example of, you know, Christianity and an example of family, an example of love, an example of sacrifice, an example of wisdom. And I'm not trying to, I'm not saying those things, you know, I hope, you know, as I continue to grow and, and develop, but you know, meditating upon God's word is supposed to bring great profit into your life where others are able to say, wow, God's word really has helped this person. This God's word has really helped mature and define and, you know, make this person who God wants them to be. Not only is that true for pastors, but that ought to be true for all of us. The more you meditate upon God's word, the more obvious I should see the profiting of that in your lives. The growth, the understanding, the outpouring of God's love, the fruits of the spirits, the ability to speak with boldness and wisdom God's word, to be able to reach the hearts of the lost and to see them saved. God's profiting is available to all, but it requires that meditation. Now I'm going to give you some examples of this. If you can come with me to Psalm 133, Psalm 133, just an example of how I would approach meditating upon God's word. And I can only do so with little portions of scripture here. All right. And I want to walk you through how I do this practically. Okay. And I'm not saying you have to do this exactly like me. All right. But just how I do it, maybe give you some pointers. And maybe you are like, maybe you already meditate upon God's word. Maybe you do this very successfully in your life. And maybe I'm just reminding you of a key, a few key things here. But I chose Psalm 133 just because how short it is. Right. So let's read verse number one. So let's say I'm just going from my Bible reading, like it's my time to read from the Bible. I'm up to Psalm 133. All right. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments as a dew of Hermon. And as a dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. All right. So I might just read that and I'll be like, okay, I don't know about you, but what would jump out at me if I was reading this is just, okay, what is this ointment upon Aaron? I don't know. Like, I'd be like, you know, I'd be looking at and cause I've done this, the reason I'm doing like, I've gone for this already. So, you know, I'd be reading this and I'd be like, okay, like what's the significance of Aaron's beard? Like, okay. Aaron was anointed with oil and I guess it went on his beard down and this, you know, it went upon, descended upon the skirts of his garments. All right. The lower edge of his garments. So you've got this oil upon his body. Like, like for me, I'd be like, what is that about? I don't know. I don't know if that's how you guys approach the Bible. I'm like, what is, what is that about? Like, okay. Ointment. That's a strange thing to bring. But for me, that's where it would jump out at me as something like, oh, that's, that's a bit strange. Or maybe not strange. God's word's not strange, but like just interesting. Right. Okay. And so I would look at that instead of going, all right, now it's time for me to read Psalm 134. I kind of want to understand this better. Like, and then be like, God, can you like, what are you trying to, what is this? Like, why, why would you include this in your scriptures? You know, and then I'll be like, okay, well, what's the, what's the main theme here? I just go back to verse number one. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Oh, okay. So it seems to be then this is about unity. You know, brethren being united together. And then I think about, you know, this is where I'm asking God, can you just help me understand that? I think about, okay, when am I together with brethren? Church. Church is like the number one place that the primary place when I'm gathered together with brethren. So it's hard thinking about like this. Okay. So unity. Okay. Yeah. I know God wants us to be united, you know, unity. And I think about the church and I think, okay, well, Lord, the church is the body of Christ. And in the Bible, many times God speaks about there being one body or the body is one. And when the Bible says that the one there is the body should be in unity, should be unified, you know, without schisms, without divisions. And then I think about, well, there is not one single person in this church that will see exactly an eye to me exactly on everything in the Bible or in life. Some people think that's where you can get to that point. It's impossible. You and I, and if you're married to somebody, you know, you and your wife or you and your husband never see eye to eye exactly on everything in life. All right. Because we're different people. We think differently. We have different experiences. We have different backgrounds. All right. We have different personalities. But even though we're different and we can see things differently and sometimes approach the Bible differently and even doctrinally sometimes can be a bit different. I see that unity is something that is pleasant. And when I go to church, I want church to be a pleasant place to go to. I don't know about you. That's what I want. I want to get away from the world. I want to get away from the brainwashing, the defilements, the fears, the concerns. And I want to come to a place that just gives me great pleasure. And church is that place for me. But I realized that in order for that to be the reality, we need unity. And as I said, the Bible says that the body is one and the body ought to be united. Okay. And then I think about the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments. Okay. So this oil, this ointment, that is symbolic of unity then. Because unity seems to be the theme of this chapter. So the oil represents unity. And the oil runs down the whole body from top to bottom, from the beard down to the skirts of his garments. All right. Well, if church is a body and we ought to be united, then unity ought to be from top to bottom. We are all members of one body. Unity ought to be amongst everybody. Right? If I want church to be a pleasant place, I ought to be unified. We ought to be unified one with another. Oh but pastor, we think differently on this and that and this and that. Look, of course, when it comes to the fundamental foundational things of the Bible, we need to have agreements. Like the body must have a skeleton. Something that can get us moving forward and with the same goals in life and the same mission and the same vision for our church, we need to be able to stand true on obviously the most important fundamental doctrines of the faith. But there are times that we're not going to see eye to eye on things. There are times that how you think family should be, you're going to be in this agreement with another family at church or whatever it is, right? But I want this place to be pleasant. I want it to be unified. I want unity to run like oil upon everybody and that we all get along, even though we sometimes see things differently. And then I think about the rest of the verse, verse number three. As a dew on hermon, I don't even know what hermon is, maybe a mountain, a location. As a dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. Oh, unity has now been described as dew. Okay. The watering that runs down from the mountains to the crops, to the flowers and brings blossoming of flowers, growth. Okay. Even life forevermore. Oh, interesting. So what's going to give us a fruitful, blossoming, pleasant church, a growing church? Unity. But we all must be united. We all must be in agreement. So I start to realise when I, and this is me, this is how I ask questions, I'm asking to God, I'm asking of myself, do I understand what is being said here? You know, I started with, I don't know what this ointment running down Aaron's beard is all about. But as you meditate upon it and think about it, before I just get to Psalm 134, because, you know, whatever, what are you trying to show me here? Oh, I should seek unity with all my brothers and sisters in the Lord at this church. Even when we don't see eye to eye. You know, secondary issues, the tertiary issues, the matters of opinions or where our conscience may differ one to another. You know, I should be able to discuss those things and still have unity with my brethren and not have divisions and schisms or criticisms, just because that person sees it differently to me. Unity is important. If we want New Life Baptist Church to grow and flourish, we need unity. And if sometimes discussing these tertiary doctrines causes conflict, well, you know what? I'm just going, I'm going to choose unity instead. And if that's going to cause conflict and that they can't handle it, or I can't handle it, then I'm just not going to go there with that brother or sister in the Lord. You know, there are some brethren that I can go there. We can go deep and ruffle each other's feathers, but we still have great love and unity one for another. Right? We both acknowledge we're just trying to understand God's Word better, but there are some, and normally babes in Christ, when you see things a little bit different, oh, you must be a reprobate then. You must be a false brother then. Like, dude, relax. Unity. Do you want unity or do you want division? Do you want church to be pleasant or do you want it to be unpleasant? So I don't know. I read that and by my meditation, I'm going to say, you know what? I'm going to strive for unity at church at all costs. Not at the cost of the truth. Not at the cost of the fundamental doctrine of the faith. You don't say what I'm saying, but you know, all other reasons I'm going to seek for unity above all other things. Can I give you another example? Let's go to Jeremiah 20. Jeremiah 20. I'm not teaching on unity. I'm trying to teach you on meditation. Understand guys? I'm trying to teach you how I ask these questions of God as I'm reading. Right? And maybe this has a little bit more to do with me as a pastor or this can be to anybody, you know, anybody that's serving the Lord of your lives. And you know, I get asked questions sometimes. Pastor, I'm just not, is something wrong with me pastor? Because I'm just, I'm not that excited about the things of God anymore. Like I was before. I've lost interest somewhat, Lord, a pastor, you know, I've maybe stopped reading the Bible. I've just, is something wrong with me? You know, and then I would read something like Jeremiah 20 in verse number seven, Jeremiah 20 verse number seven. Oh Lord, these are the words of Jeremiah to God. Oh Lord, thou has deceived me and I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I and has prevailed. I am in derision daily. Everyone mocketh me. Jeremiah is not in a good place with God at this point in time. He thinks God's deceiving him. Everyone hates Jeremiah. It's like, God, you want me to preach your word and everyone hates me for it. Is this some kind of cruel joke? Have you deceived me? Like that's what Jeremiah is kind of saying, right? You're stronger and you've prevailed. God, you win. You won. All right. I'm a loser. Yeah. You show me I'm a loser. You show, show me that I'm a failure. Lord serving you brings me nothing but problems. Verse number eight, for since I spake, I cried out. I cried violence and spoil because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me and a derision daily because every day people mock me for preaching your word. Verse number nine, then I said, I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name. Jeremiah, I quit. I'm not going to speak. I'm not going to preach anymore. I'm not going to speak about God anymore. I'm done. Boy, you know, Jeremiah is known as one of the major prophets of the Bible. Jeremiah has got a huge book in the Bible. He's played a huge chunk in the scriptures that we have available to us. And I want to show you, and this is where I would meditate upon things. When I feel a little bit discouraged as a pastor, a little cast down, wondering, you know, do I continue? Do I quit? Do I stand down? Do I what? Lord, there must be something wrong with you, Pastor Kevin. No, it's humanity. We're weak. All of us. I'm sure there have been times in your life where you're just like, I'm just not, doesn't seem to be working for me anymore. This whole Christianity. I just lost interest. You know, my interests are in other things these days. And I don't know, it just seems like a joke. I do my best to live a righteous life and I don't seem to get it anywhere. I look at the wicked and they hate the Lord and they seem to be doing well in life. You know, I don't know if you've been there or, but I want to show you that Jeremiah has been there. A great man of God like Jeremiah has been there. Let's continue verse number nine. He goes, but his word was in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones. And I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay. He goes, I tried to quit, but the fire in my bones to preach God's word was too much. I got tired of forbearing. I got tired of quitting. And he gets himself back in the ministry. So I would look at that passage like that. And I'd be like, you know what? There are times that even the greatest men of God give up, seemingly give up and fail, feel like a failure, feel like it's all a joke. But he goes, you know what? Now the fire of God's word keeps me going. So I would meditate on that. And that a passage like this would encourage me where I might feel a little discouraged on a Saturday. All right. And then to come on a Sunday and preach and open God's word to you, I need to be reminded that I am just a human being. Right. And, but you know, God's word needs to be proclaimed. God's word is always true. It's always powerful. It's like a fire. Whether you feel like it or you don't feel like it, your feelings have nothing to do with the power of God's word. And when you're discouraged and downcast and you can be reminded, boy, man, you know, I'm not a Jeremiah. I'm not like this. And even they struggled sometimes. And so it's normal. You meditate upon this God, it's normal. It's the weakness of man. Lord, can you get me back on track for you? I need to get fired up for you, Lord. Can you bring the words that I've learned and thought about as a fire in my bones? Keep me going God. That's another example of meditation. Going from discouragement to encouragement, a bit different instead of just gathering information. Okay. Like, Lord, you want me to persevere. You've given me these examples where men have struggled, great men have struggled. So Lord, this encourages me that I need to get up and keep moving forward for you no matter what. One more example, please. James chapter five. James chapter five. And this has been quite a recent one for me, maybe in the last two months. Okay. James chapter five. James 5 14. James 5 14. The Bible reads in James 5 14. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And if you have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. And so the Bible says that if there are people strong with sickness, obviously we're not talking about a 24 hour cold. We're not talking about just the general things, upset stomach for a period of time and you get over it. It's about some serious sickness that's been, you know, you just can't overcome for whatever reason. It is right to call for the elder of the church or the elders of the church and have them pray of them, anointing them with oil. Now I've done that. I've done that many times with brethren in different churches. And I've read that and the brethren that I've read this to, and we've read together, we've all read that. And so we do it. We know the instructions that God has laid out. But I want to show you the difference between reading and just meditating upon something. Okay. Because we've read that and we've applied it. And I've shown you before, but about a third of the times that I've done this, people have been healed instantly within 24, 48 hours, pretty instantly, a third of the time. A third of the time, people have reported back, pastor, I've gotten a little better or I did get better, but it took time, took weeks, what, you know, some time like, well, it wasn't immediate, but you know, there's, there's been some benefit to it. And the other third of the time people have said, pastor, nothing's changed. You know, I'm just as sick as I was when I first began. Now I know I'm not always faithful, but I know God is always faithful. And I know God cannot lie. And God wrote James 5 for a reason. And it's there. But what would bother me as a pastor is God, why? Why sometimes immediate healing, which blows my mind away, it's like, it's not me, it's the power of God. Like the Pentecostals, you say, this is sounds Pentecostal pastor, the Pentecostals never claimed they fail. They're always healing everybody. They're raising people from the dead, apparently, right? I'm saying that it works sometimes. We have people in this church that will tell you it worked. And then there's other times that it's taken a while. Why? Or not a, not a complete healing, that's somewhat a healing. And then others people, some, not, never, nothing's ever changed. And it bothered me. Like, why God? Why is this the case? I don't fully understand. I'm trying to do what you tell me to do. And God, I know you never lied to me, but you've got this in your words. And I do it as best as I know how God, I try to do that prayer of faith. Sometimes I even fast to get myself in the right mental and spiritual state in life. But then I realized, you know what, I'm not meditating upon these words. And I would read it and I would read it and I'd think about it. And I think about it for years now. It's been years. And only the last few months, it's finally dawned on me. It's taken me a long time. You see, when we read verse number 15, and it says, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick. For some reason in my head, I interpret it as, and the prayer of faith shall heal the sick. And I think most people that we've approached this to have also read it that way. And the prayer of faith shall heal the sick. We know it says save the sick, but for some reason in our heads, we read heal the sick. And then I just hold on. It says save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And if you have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. I'm telling you, I've meditated upon this and I've just never noticed the save the sick. It sounds crazy because I've read it. Have you not read to Jesus? Well, yeah, I have read Jesus many times, but I've realized I've not meditated upon it as much as I should have. And when I finally stopped and thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, save the sick. And I believe the King James Bible is the perfect preserved word of God in English. God, why don't you say heal? Oh, because they're not always healed. Save means deliver, to deliver someone. It can refer to healing, of course, but to deliver is to preserve, protect. Deliverance doesn't necessarily have to do with a literal physical healing. Many times people suffer sicknesses and it's not even bodily so much that's concerned them. Physically, they're able to do much of what they can do. Maybe it's somewhat pain, but it can be more mental. You know, the mental and the exhaustion and the concerns of that sickness. And I realized, Oh Lord, then this tells me that even though there hasn't always been healing, there has been saving. Because I know you don't lie. And I know you're faithful to your word, Lord, but there's always been saving the sick. Meaning God is able to deliver you, help you, protect you, preserve you, keep you going. Even if he chooses, the physical healing is not what he wants for you. You're not going to languish and give up and fail and be cast away because of the sickness. God will uphold you. He'll protect you. He'll preserve you. He'll get you in the right mental place. The right spiritual place for you to soldier on even in the midst of your sickness. And there are times that God decides, I'll do the healing as well. But you see, if I didn't stop and meditate upon these words, I would have just kept reading, heal the sick, heal the sick. Even though I'm reading, save the sick, my brain's going heal, heal, heal, heal, heal. And then I'm wondering, why isn't it happening always, Lord? And I'm getting frustrated. And I don't know how to answer the questions that come from the brethren. And all it required was a little bit of meditation. A lot of meditation, actually. For it to finally click and go, oh Lord, I see what you're trying to say. I've read beyond what you said. I've added my own words here, Lord, to what you've said. I'm sorry, Lord, but thank you for revealing this to me now. And again, when you find that truth, that seems so simple on the outward. Like now that you see it, anyone can see it. But for some reason I couldn't see it. But when you discover these gems and these things just between you and God and you and him alone. And I've shared this with other brethren. They're like, yeah, Pastor, I never realized that. I thought he did say heal the sick. It's like, wow, Lord, you know, you can truly reveal great truths to us. Meditating upon God's Word is essential to your growth, to your development, to your good success, to your understanding, to your wisdom, to your appreciation of who God is and what he does. And so the title for the sermon today was Bible Meditation. I hope that helps you think about God's Word a little differently. Just get in for your chapter a day to keep the devil away. Okay. That you start thinking, God, what is it truly that you're trying to speak to me through your words? What are you trying to change? What, you know, how are you trying to cause me to think or to consider that of who you are and what you do? And I'll tell you, it's some of the most beautiful interactions that you can have with the Heavenly Father. All right, let's pray.