The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Christian Meditation - Psalm 1

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.

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00:00:18.200 So we're beginning a new sermon series through the Psalms.

00:00:22.280 We're not going to go verse by verse, chapter by chapter.

00:00:25.160 There's 150 Psalms. Some of the Psalms have 150 verses.

00:00:29.320 and it would probably take us 10 years.

00:00:31.760 It wouldn't be the worst decision

00:00:32.960 that I would probably make as a pastor

00:00:34.420 if I spent 10 years preaching through the Psalms.

00:00:37.020 At the end of it, we'd probably be all right.

00:00:38.980 So it's not like that it would be a wrong decision,

00:00:41.280 but there are other wonderful books of the Bible

00:00:43.000 that I would like, by God's grace,

00:00:44.940 Lord willing to preach through as well.

00:00:47.040 So we're going to do kind of a collection of the Psalms.

00:00:49.540 We're gonna go in chronological order.

00:00:51.340 And so today we're beginning with Psalm chapter one.

00:00:53.600 The next will be Psalm chapter two.

00:00:55.520 Then I believe we're skipping.

00:00:56.700 The next one will be either Psalm chapter six or eight.

00:00:59.320 I gave you guys a preaching schedule last night.

00:01:02.100 I don't have it on me this morning.

00:01:03.380 But basically, we're doing about 25% to 30% of the psalms.

00:01:08.060 And so about 25% to 30%, we want to see from the holy, divinely inspired psalms

00:01:15.320 how we should pray, how we should worship.

00:01:18.100 We see how Christians should sing to the Lord, how Christians should pray to the Lord.

00:01:21.720 We also see how Christians should endure trial, difficulty, tribulation,

00:01:26.500 how to suffer well, how to experience betrayal,

00:01:30.480 how to pray prayers of vindication,

00:01:33.520 how to let God be the one who ultimately gains vengeance

00:01:36.840 and not us pursuing that ourselves

00:01:39.280 and how to trust the Lord,

00:01:40.940 how to experience victory in Christ,

00:01:43.840 not to be a sore loser,

00:01:45.540 but also how not to be a sore winner.

00:01:47.680 And so there's just a breadth of emotions,

00:01:49.760 there's a breadth of human experience,

00:01:51.820 a breadth of prayers,

00:01:53.100 a breadth of singing that we find in the Psalms.

00:01:56.920 And so we're going to basically spend the rest of this year,

00:01:59.100 we're going to finish our journey through the Psalms,

00:02:01.360 I believe it's December 26th.

00:02:04.800 It's the last Sunday in December that we'll finish in the Psalms.

00:02:08.260 So today, without further ado, Psalm chapter 1.

00:02:11.780 If you would, would you stand with me for the reading of our text?

00:02:14.720 This is Psalm chapter 1.

00:02:16.640 When I finish reading the text, I'll say,

00:02:18.280 this is the word of the Lord.

00:02:19.200 If you would respond by saying thanks be to God,

00:02:21.740 it would be much appreciated.

00:02:22.840 Again, Psalm chapter 1, the Bible says this,

00:02:52.840 drives away therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation

00:02:57.940 of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish

00:03:03.820 this is the word of the Lord all right please be seated let me pray briefly and we'll dive in

00:03:10.740 father we thank you for your word we pray that you would bless it to our our minds our hearts

00:03:15.620 our souls father I pray that you would give us even now by your grace and the power of your spirit

00:03:20.500 spiritual eyes to see spiritual ears to hear new hearts that are softened malleable and receptive

00:03:27.080 to your truth father i pray that through the preaching of your word today that your people

00:03:32.220 would in fact arrive at a deeper more profound more accurate knowledge of who you are what you've

00:03:39.860 done and what it is that you require from us as a right and proper response to your word

00:03:45.920 Father, I pray that we would come to see your character,

00:03:49.980 that we'd come to see your nature,

00:03:52.480 that we'd come to see your heart,

00:03:54.920 but we'd also come to see what you've done for us

00:03:57.800 in your work in creation,

00:03:59.180 but even more so your work in redemption,

00:04:01.460 that we'd see what you have done,

00:04:03.360 your salvific work in your son Jesus, in his person.

00:04:08.040 Father, we pray that we would come to see your law,

00:04:11.620 not just as something that reveals our sin

00:04:14.420 and a need for Jesus, a need for a Savior,

00:04:17.580 but also your law that is a lamp unto our feet.

00:04:20.360 It's a guide. It's a compass.

00:04:22.940 Lord, I pray that we would delight in your law,

00:04:26.520 that we would see it as good and holy and righteous,

00:04:29.200 and that we would know that when we fail to uphold your law,

00:04:31.720 that we have a Savior.

00:04:33.260 But we would, in light of being redeemed by Christ,

00:04:36.400 in light of your free gift of grace,

00:04:38.960 that we would desire as a response to love you.

00:04:41.800 And we would recognize that those who love you

00:04:44.080 Seek to obey you.

00:04:45.440 And so, Lord, I pray that we would see your law

00:04:47.760 as something that points us back to Christ,

00:04:50.260 but that Christ would then point us back to the law,

00:04:52.720 not as a means of forgiveness or salvation,

00:04:55.260 but as a guide that we could live lives

00:04:58.060 that are pleasing to you,

00:05:00.280 but also lives that are just better,

00:05:02.800 lives that are full and rich.

00:05:05.200 You prescribe for us a better way of living.

00:05:07.860 I pray that we would see all that in your word

00:05:09.600 as it's preached today.

00:05:11.040 Amen.

00:05:12.160 All right.

00:05:12.760 By way of introduction, I have a quote from the late, great R.C. Sproul, one of my favorite Baptists.

00:05:19.260 He was a Presbyterian in life, but now that he's dead, he's come to write theology.

00:05:23.580 And so, R.C. Sproul, one of my favorite Baptists, he says this,

00:05:26.920 In the Psalms, we have a collection of 150 prayers that were inspired originally by the Holy Ghost.

00:05:33.240 If you want to know how God is pleased and honored in prayer,

00:05:36.860 why not immerse yourself in the prayers that he himself has inspired?

00:05:42.220 As Christians, as we learn to pray, the Psalms function as a guide.

00:05:46.380 We see how the Spirit desires for us to pray.

00:05:50.460 That doesn't mean that it always has to be word for word quoting the Psalms,

00:05:53.660 but they do provide for us a template, a guide, a sample or example of how we should pray.

00:06:01.200 And so I'm excited for us to see more of that as we work through the Psalms,

00:06:05.100 but especially as we work through this particular text today.

00:06:09.180 So in your notes under Roman numeral number one, I've written this, the importance of

00:06:13.380 Christian meditation as it pertains to prayer.

00:06:16.180 Our text today is an intro to the Psalms.

00:06:18.100 Psalm chapter one is a meditation and the Psalms in general really are a meditation.

00:06:22.760 So some biblical scholars have called Psalm chapter one, a meditation on meditation, thinking

00:06:28.360 about how to think.

00:06:29.820 That's really what it is.

00:06:30.840 It's, it's meditating on Christian meditation.

00:06:34.140 And because the word meditation has been hijacked in our culture today, and really for hundreds

00:06:40.500 of years in various cultures throughout the globe, I want to give you a definition of

00:06:45.540 what Christian meditation is, because it's very distinct from mantra meditation, pagan

00:06:51.140 meditation that we find in our world today.

00:06:53.420 So in your notes, I've written this.

00:06:54.780 One very popular form of meditation in today's culture is called mantra meditation, where

00:07:01.300 participants continually repeat a word or a phrase. This practice is meant to transcend a person to

00:07:08.180 an effortless state where focused attention is completely absent. The goal is to become no longer

00:07:15.140 aware of anything other than awareness itself. It is believed that from this transcendental state

00:07:20.840 other forms of consciousness can be achieved that can lead toward a sense of being one with

00:07:27.140 everything that exists and therefore one with God who exists in everything. But this is the opposite

00:07:32.560 of the goal of Christian meditation. See, mantra meditation, in short, it seeks the experience of

00:07:38.480 being one with God, whereas Christian meditation seeks the experience of knowing God. Mantra

00:07:44.540 meditation, it seeks to suppress the analytical side of the mind and focus on the feelings of

00:07:50.140 the heart, while Christian meditation often causes us to actually contend with our own feelings of

00:07:57.080 our hearts. Again, in short, mantra meditation, the meditation that's become popular in our culture

00:08:03.240 today that would be associated with yoga and other cultish sex, that kind of meditation that we find

00:08:09.880 very popular in our culture today, it seeks to empty the mind. Rather, Christian meditation,

00:08:15.320 It seeks to focus the mind on substance, namely the substance of God's word.

00:08:22.280 Here are a couple of examples from the Psalms where the author, in this particular case, David,

00:08:27.140 rather than trying to still his mind or empty his mind of all analytics, all rational thoughts,

00:08:33.700 quiet his mind, there's ways that we can say, be still and know that God is God.

00:08:39.200 But I think we twist these scriptures a lot of times

00:08:41.620 to say, empty your mind, stop thinking.

00:08:46.340 And I think the reason why there's so much of that message,

00:08:48.880 even in the evangelical church today, stop thinking,

00:08:52.480 is because there's so much guilt in evangelical Christianity today

00:08:56.500 because there are so many thoughtless Christians.

00:08:59.480 So many people are content not to think deeply about the things of God.

00:09:03.380 And because they're not thinking deeply about the things of God,

00:09:06.200 any kind of message that comes from the pulpit that says,

00:09:08.740 hey, that's actually a virtue.

00:09:10.840 And people love that.

00:09:11.820 They'll flock to churches like that.

00:09:13.420 They'll flock to pastors who console them

00:09:15.560 about their thoughtlessness.

00:09:17.680 They will flock to pastors who console them

00:09:19.920 and affirm them and their lack of biblical understanding,

00:09:22.780 their lack of doctrine, their lack of theology,

00:09:26.220 and say, this is actually a virtue.

00:09:27.800 In fact, the Bible even says to do this,

00:09:29.280 be still and know that he is God.

00:09:31.100 And of course, what that text means is work yourself

00:09:34.820 into some kind of comatose state

00:09:36.820 where there's no rational thought whatsoever

00:09:39.300 and that is somehow pleasing to God.

00:09:42.380 But it's not.

00:09:43.300 The greatest commandment is this,

00:09:44.680 love the Lord your God with everything.

00:09:47.900 But it goes into detail.

00:09:49.980 It tells us, it gives us an idea

00:09:51.820 of what aspects of the person, the human being,

00:09:55.540 we should love the Lord our God with.

00:09:57.360 Our heart, our soul, our strength,

00:10:00.960 but also the Bible says, Jesus says, our mind.

00:10:04.520 And this is not kind of like a buffet.

00:10:07.540 And a lot of Christians think that it is so.

00:10:10.200 It's not a buffet where you go,

00:10:11.640 I think I'm going to have the steak today.

00:10:13.460 No, you know, I'm going to have the meatloaf.

00:10:15.700 It's not like here are four different options

00:10:18.140 for each individual Christian

00:10:19.600 and how you can love the Lord.

00:10:21.060 You know, and I've selected the heart portion.

00:10:23.680 I'm going to love the Lord with all my hearts.

00:10:25.460 And I'm going to interpret heart to mean emotions,

00:10:29.480 zeal, passion.

00:10:30.760 And so I'm going to love the Lord with all of my emotions.

00:10:35.860 And I know that there are other people, other people in the church,

00:10:38.900 other Christians who really love the Lord with all their might.

00:10:42.240 And that's great for them, and this is great for me.

00:10:45.120 That's not the command.

00:10:46.580 The greatest commandment to all Christians is to love God with everything.

00:10:51.700 It's not four different options and you get to select one.

00:10:55.060 It's a package deal.

00:10:57.360 Each of us is called to love the Lord with all of our heart.

00:11:00.540 And each of us is called to love the Lord with all of our strength, our soul, and our mind.

00:11:06.180 We are called to love the Lord not merely in our feeling, but in our thinking.

00:11:12.580 And so Christian meditation, it's the priming pump for prayer.

00:11:20.140 And as we prepare ourselves to pray biblically, to pray Christianly, to pray in a way that pleases the Lord,

00:11:27.500 we want to prepare ourselves with thought.

00:11:31.700 We don't want to just merely prepare our hearts.

00:11:33.720 We want to prepare our minds.

00:11:35.960 We want to think deeply upon the word of God

00:11:38.800 so that we might rightly pray the word of God.

00:11:41.120 So let me give you an example of David.

00:11:43.820 This is Psalm chapter 42, verse 5,

00:11:45.920 where he's actually, he's not emptying his mind

00:11:49.100 and completely surrendering himself to his heart and emotions,

00:11:53.500 but rather he's actually doing the opposite.

00:11:55.040 he's actually using his mind what he knows to be objectively true regardless of circumstance

00:12:01.460 regardless of how he feels he is using his mind and what he knows to be objectively true about

00:12:07.480 god to actually contend to fight his own emotions to fight his heart this is psalm 42 verse 5 it

00:12:15.300 says why are you cast down oh my soul and why are you in turmoil within me hope in god for i shall

00:12:23.540 again praise him my salvation now this is unique because notice uh you know in the psalms a lot of

00:12:30.860 times the audience is god a lot of times their prayers or their songs that are being sang or

00:12:38.700 prayers that are being prayed to god so the person that the psalmist the human being who's

00:12:43.840 being inspired by the holy spirit to write a particular psalm he's writing it to god it's

00:12:49.360 almost like some of you might have a prayer journal we actually take the time to write

00:12:52.680 down prayers. I think that's a wonderful practice. Um, but, but if you were to say, you know, who's

00:12:57.140 this journal written to each of these entries, it would be written to God. God would be the person

00:13:02.740 that you're writing it to. But, but look at Psalm 42 verse five again. Why are you cast down? Oh,

00:13:09.640 my soul. Who's the Psalmist talking to? Who's David talking to? He's not talking to God.

00:13:16.480 He's talking to himself.

00:13:18.860 Why are you, who's the you?

00:13:20.820 Cast down, oh, my soul.

00:13:24.180 David's talking to David.

00:13:26.160 And why are you in turmoil within me?

00:13:28.600 Why so anxious?

00:13:30.300 Why so worrisome?

00:13:32.480 Why don't you possess that calm disposition

00:13:36.120 that we saw as we prayed at the beginning of our service

00:13:39.980 in Psalm chapter two, that the nations are raging,

00:13:42.940 nothing but chaos and turmoil, doing everything they can. No one is being still. They're raging

00:13:48.840 against God and his rule, his authority. But what is God's posture? He sits. He doesn't even bother

00:13:56.760 to stand up. He is sitting in the heavens and he laughs. He's got the same kind of posture

00:14:04.320 as all the nations are coming together and doing everything they can, everything they can to

00:14:11.000 contradict and to fight and rage against God, his posture is the same posture that you would have

00:14:16.000 on a couch at home watching a sitcom. That's how God is responding. He sits in the heavens and he

00:14:23.400 mocks, he laughs, he doesn't even bother to get up from his throne. Now his laughter, like I said

00:14:28.620 when I was praying, it doesn't represent that the Lord takes pleasure in wickedness or pleasure in

00:14:33.980 evil, but what it represents is the futility. It represents the futility of man's rebellion

00:14:39.640 against God's holy and righteous rule.

00:14:42.960 God is not threatened.

00:14:44.260 He's not concerned.

00:14:45.700 He's not worried.

00:14:46.960 That's his posture.

00:14:48.320 Well, look at David.

00:14:49.080 Again, Psalm 42, verse 5.

00:14:51.280 That is not the psalmist's posture.

00:14:54.140 Why are you in turmoil within me?

00:14:57.940 David is in turmoil.

00:14:59.700 David is anxious.

00:15:00.620 David is worried.

00:15:01.900 But what does he tell himself to do?

00:15:04.180 Again, this is not a prayer.

00:15:05.960 Prayer is directed to God, right?

00:15:08.280 When we pray, we are speaking to God.

00:15:11.140 David's not speaking to God.

00:15:13.000 He's not telling God to hope in God.

00:15:15.220 Hope in God, God.

00:15:16.440 No, that wouldn't make any sense at all.

00:15:18.600 So who is he telling to hope in God?

00:15:20.580 Again, himself.

00:15:22.600 For I shall again praise him, my salvation.

00:15:26.220 I'm going to hope in him.

00:15:27.520 I'm going to worship him.

00:15:28.560 I'm going to praise him.

00:15:29.420 I'm going to thank him as though I've already been saved.

00:15:33.080 He's my salvation.

00:15:34.340 He's my refuge.

00:15:35.400 He's my rock.

00:15:36.260 He's my strong tower.

00:15:37.440 And although right now, circumstantially, I'm in a moment of chaos, a moment of turmoil, my enemies surround me.

00:15:44.620 But I know that although the result has not yet taken place, I know that it's already, it's in the bank.

00:15:52.760 It's as good as done.

00:15:53.960 I know that the Lord is my salvation.

00:15:56.540 I know that I can be at peace.

00:15:58.820 I can hope in God because he is faithful.

00:16:02.420 Here's another example.

00:16:03.360 Psalm 103, verses 1 through 5.

00:16:05.700 bless the lord again prayer is directed to god david is not saying god bless the lord god bless

00:16:14.380 god he's not telling god to bless himself he's rather again david is speaking to david he's

00:16:21.000 speaking to himself he's saying i need to bless the lord oh my soul and all that is in within me

00:16:27.620 bless his holy name bless the lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits have you ever done

00:16:34.720 I have, there are moments where I'm just, I'm in fear or maybe I'm bitter. Maybe there's something

00:16:41.780 that I was praying for and the prayer just hasn't been answered. And I'm doubting the goodness of

00:16:47.940 God. I'm doubting the faithfulness of God. Perhaps I'm even in my sin, bitter towards God because I

00:16:55.380 wanted something one way and God did it another. I remember there was a theologian who once defined

00:17:00.380 bitterness as this. He said, bitterness is the belief that God got it wrong. I think that's well

00:17:05.620 said. Bitterness is the belief that God got it wrong. Have you ever been, you know, convinced

00:17:12.300 in a moment in your own sin that God got it wrong? Well, in those moments, perhaps you've done this.

00:17:17.440 I know I've done it and it's encouraging to see that David does it under the inspiration of the

00:17:21.080 Holy Spirit. So it seems like a good practice to perform, but he counts the benefits of God.

00:17:28.120 Have you ever, you know, pros and cons list, right?

00:17:29.880 You're trying to make a decision.

00:17:31.160 Sometimes it's important to do that.

00:17:33.020 And to do that with God.

00:17:34.640 When we're doubting God, when we're bitter towards God,

00:17:38.200 when we're frustrated towards God, make that pro and con list.

00:17:41.500 And I can save you some time.

00:17:42.860 The cons, there are none.

00:17:45.280 So you can just leave that side of the piece of paper blank.

00:17:48.360 And then the pros, you can begin to list them.

00:17:51.760 And if you try to list them exhaustively,

00:17:53.860 well we'll be continuing to do that for eternity in heaven it never ends well what are some of his

00:18:01.380 benefits this is verse 3 of psalm 103 he forgives all your iniquity who heals all your diseases

00:18:08.640 who redeems your life from the pit who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy who satisfies you

00:18:15.060 with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles so again what is david's practice

00:18:23.100 The psalmist.

00:18:24.360 What is his practice when he's in turmoil?

00:18:27.380 It could be anxiety.

00:18:28.480 It could be bitterness.

00:18:30.180 It could be anger.

00:18:32.220 There's a host of emotions that you might have.

00:18:35.420 Unbelief.

00:18:36.480 What is his practice, his Christian discipline,

00:18:40.560 spiritual discipline, if you will,

00:18:42.400 when he's in those kinds of moments?

00:18:45.760 Well, it's not only or merely or exclusively prayer.

00:18:50.580 it's also meditation. And that's my point. Psalm chapter one, it's an example, a sample of

00:18:59.200 Christian meditation. In a nutshell, we could say this, prayer is when we're speaking to God.

00:19:05.360 Christian meditation is when we're speaking to ourselves. I'll say that again. Prayer, we know

00:19:10.700 that it's prayer when we're speaking to God, but the examples that I've used, Psalm chapter 42 and

00:19:15.580 Psalm 103, neither of these are actually examples of prayer. Because the author is not speaking to

00:19:22.360 God. He's not writing to God. He is rather speaking to himself. And he's not, notice what he's doing,

00:19:29.420 he's not just affirming himself. These aren't examples of self-esteem. These aren't examples

00:19:36.940 of self-assurance. These aren't examples of him consoling himself and assuaging his own guilty

00:19:44.160 conscience by saying, hey, you're really not that bad. And really, you know, you've just

00:19:47.880 misunderstood. And really the problem is not you, but it's your context. You've been surrounded

00:19:52.900 by a lot of toxic people, you know, and that's really, you know, like if there's anything bad

00:19:57.140 in you, it probably came from somebody else and that influenced you. And you're really just a

00:20:01.160 victim. And that's not what he says, right? It's not self-esteem. It's not self-assurance. It's

00:20:07.760 not assuaging his guilty conscience to make himself feel as though he has no sin, as though

00:20:12.220 he's innocent of any moral culpability. No, no, what he's doing is he is actually contending

00:20:18.240 with his heart. My heart feels this way, but my mind tells me that is objectively wrong.

00:20:29.160 It doesn't matter how I feel. How I feel may make it more difficult, may make it more challenging,

00:20:34.900 but my feelings do not dictate what is true. I think it was Alistair Begg who once said in a

00:20:41.680 sermon, you know, he went to a church and the pastor, you know, greeted the congregation and

00:20:45.980 said, how are you feeling, church? And he was sitting there in the pew just thinking to himself,

00:20:50.180 he didn't say it out loud, he wasn't trying to be divisive, but he was like, don't ask me how I feel.

00:20:55.660 He said, I don't feel good. And the fact that you just asked, I feel worse now.

00:21:00.960 I don't feel good. But even if I don't feel good, who cares how I feel? Don't ask me how I feel,

00:21:08.220 Tell me, and I love this line.

00:21:09.700 He said, don't ask me how I feel.

00:21:11.320 Tell me what I know.

00:21:13.200 Tell me what I know.

00:21:14.520 Tell me what I know from the never changing, infallible, immutable, eternal word of God.

00:21:23.660 Tell me what I know.

00:21:24.860 Tell me what's true this morning, regardless of what side of the bed I got up on.

00:21:30.140 Tell me what I can take to the bank.

00:21:32.760 Tell me what I can bet the house on.

00:21:35.040 Tell me what never changes.

00:21:37.760 Tell me what I know, not how I feel.

00:21:42.360 There's something that's so vital for Christians to understand

00:21:46.960 when it comes to loving the Lord our God with everything.

00:21:49.980 Now that's not, I don't want to go so far to say that the heart is irrelevant.

00:21:54.780 The heart matters.

00:21:56.740 I think of even Jesus, John chapter 4,

00:21:58.920 when he's having this discourse with the Samaritan woman by the well,

00:22:02.600 and she asked him about worship.

00:22:05.260 And he says, you know, a day, you know, where to worship.

00:22:07.640 And really, Jesus says this.

00:22:09.040 You know, she says, you know, my ancestors say we should worship at this mountain.

00:22:11.980 Yours say the temple.

00:22:12.740 And Jesus, in essence, if I could paraphrase Christ and exegete that text very briefly, he says this.

00:22:18.820 Your question is about where to worship.

00:22:20.440 But I tell you it's more important to ask how to worship.

00:22:23.900 How to worship.

00:22:25.640 And a day is coming where the Father, he's drawing to himself true worshipers.

00:22:31.200 And true worshipers are those who worship in spirit and in truth.

00:22:35.740 So you're asking about where to worship.

00:22:37.900 I'm telling you, you should be more concerned about how to worship.

00:22:41.580 And this is how to worship in spirit and in truth.

00:22:44.700 Now, spirit there, it's a lowercase s.

00:22:46.900 So it's not saying worship like the Holy Spirit worshiping.

00:22:51.320 No, spirit, it means zeal in that context.

00:22:55.400 It means passion.

00:22:56.980 It means the heart.

00:22:58.200 It means emotions.

00:22:59.820 So emotions do matter.

00:23:02.000 Worship with zeal.

00:23:03.700 Worship with emotions and with passion.

00:23:07.880 But also worship in spirit and in truth.

00:23:12.740 Keep your emotions informed.

00:23:15.600 Keep your emotions accountable.

00:23:18.260 Don't worship in spirit at the cost of truth

00:23:20.780 because spirit at the cost of truth is not spirit

00:23:23.420 and truth at the cost of spirit is not truth.

00:23:27.620 Genuine biblical truth does not lead towards dead, cold, lifeless orthodoxy.

00:23:34.740 Genuine, true biblical doctrine is vibrant.

00:23:39.060 It's filled with zeal, passion, emotion, joy.

00:23:44.780 It's not dead orthodoxy.

00:23:47.000 It's not dusty.

00:23:48.700 It's not crotchety.

00:23:50.240 It's not angry.

00:23:51.500 It's not the curmudgeon, you know, just showing up and always complaining about something.

00:23:56.720 That's not truth. Truth is invigorating. Genuine biblical truth. It's exciting. In the same way, to worship in spirit, it's not mystical. It's not all over the place. It's not overly dramatic. It's not constantly changing.

00:24:17.160 A true zeal is a calculated zeal.

00:24:23.140 It's a strategic zeal.

00:24:27.200 Well, really, it's kind of like the fireplace in the fire.

00:24:29.880 I think it was George Eldon Ladd who used this analogy.

00:24:33.380 The fireplace, it's like truth, doctrine.

00:24:37.060 But you can have the grandest marble fireplace in some mansion.

00:24:41.720 I mean, have you ever been in a place where the fireplace is legitimately,

00:24:45.460 you know it's like up to here you know and it's like 10 feet wide six feet tall is that you could

00:24:51.760 be burning like a whole forest in there have you ever seen like one of those grand massive fireplace

00:24:56.260 well there are some churches there's a way to have a marble massive grand fireplace like that

00:25:01.820 and there's no fire inside and everybody's looking and appreciating the mantle and the marble and all

00:25:08.760 these things the architecture of this fireplace but they're all doing it while shivering they're

00:25:13.840 cold. But there's also a way to have a raging fire. Me and Steve were talking about like in

00:25:20.400 our grill, you know, when you mess up, it's like that is way too much fire for this context,

00:25:25.320 right? The grill is this big. The fire is this big. That's not good either, right? So there's

00:25:30.380 a way of the fire zeal, right? True worshipers worship in spirit and in truth. There is a way

00:25:36.080 of having way too much fire and not enough fireplace. And there's a way of having way

00:25:41.500 too much fireplace but but too little fire or no fire and the bible calls us to worship in spirit

00:25:48.200 and in truth with zeal and knowledge or simply put to love the lord our god with all of our heart

00:25:54.240 and our mind our heart and our mind and there are times where our heart fuels our worship

00:26:01.700 there are times where there are moments where you've just you've so profoundly experienced the

00:26:07.320 faithfulness and love and goodness of God. That your emotions, your, I should say, your redeemed,

00:26:15.540 regenerate emotions for the Christian with a new heart are actually fueling your worship.

00:26:21.320 You cannot help but begin to praise the Lord and thank the Lord. And your zeal, your heart,

00:26:28.020 is kind of like the gas pedal in that scenario. It's pushing you into worship, driving you

00:26:35.180 into praise. But then there are other times where your heart and its emotions are precisely what's

00:26:40.940 inhibiting your worship, holding you back from praise. And so in those moments, we need to tell

00:26:49.000 our hearts from our minds what we know is true. So Christian meditation, I wrote in your notes,

00:26:55.060 it not only prepares us for how we should pray, but also what we should pray.

00:27:02.140 See, after fixing our minds on God's truth or fixing God's truth in our minds, we're always shown, something is revealed to us about the character of God that we can praise him for, something wrong about ourselves that we can repent for, and something that is needed which we can petition for, we can ask for, we can make a request for.

00:27:26.740 See, that's the beauty of the word of God.

00:27:28.640 When we fix our minds in Christian meditation,

00:27:31.520 the preparation for prayer.

00:27:34.520 Christian meditation, I heard one scholar say this,

00:27:37.080 and he didn't mean it in any crude way,

00:27:38.340 and neither do I,

00:27:39.440 but Christian meditation, it's the foreplay of prayer.

00:27:42.980 It's the way that we prepare our hearts

00:27:45.980 from our minds, from what we know,

00:27:48.380 we are preparing how we feel about God.

00:27:52.360 We're preparing to pray.

00:27:54.320 And so what are we doing with our minds?

00:27:56.000 Again, we're not emptying them.

00:27:57.700 It's not mantra meditation.

00:27:59.680 It's not trying to find this empty,

00:28:03.000 comatose, transcendental state, stasis.

00:28:07.920 No, rather we're focusing our minds.

00:28:10.340 We're utilizing, we're loving the Lord our God

00:28:12.560 with the mind that he gave us by using our mind

00:28:15.940 and focusing our mind, but on what?

00:28:18.800 Not on our situation.

00:28:19.920 See, we focus our minds all the time.

00:28:21.840 I kind of talked about this last Lord's Day

00:28:23.760 when I was preaching.

00:28:24.300 we are always focusing our minds almost always sometimes we veg out and just all right i just

00:28:29.440 you know we're asleep or watching something mindless doing something mindless but most of

00:28:35.380 the time we are are focusing our minds intently and and when we're worried um our minds are going

00:28:43.380 on overload right worry it's not just an emotion so it's not just like our hearts or our soul is

00:28:48.120 at turmoil. Our mind is at turmoil. The problem is that what we focus our minds on, and it's very

00:28:55.000 intently, but what we are focusing, our thoughts, our mind, our strategy, we're strategizing. We're

00:28:59.940 thinking through, you know, a hundred different scenarios, but what we're focusing our mind on

00:29:04.240 is not God often. It's not his word often, but rather it's our situation. And it's our own

00:29:10.840 strength and our own plans and our own strategy. And it's the dynamics of the situation that are

00:29:15.820 causing us turmoil and fear and then our own strength and power and how we could somehow fix

00:29:21.180 it, how we can solve it. Right? Like I've been in moments of anxiety. They are not mindless. This

00:29:28.640 is my point. They're not mindless moments. Usually when you're anxious, your mind, it's not slowing

00:29:34.520 down. It's not taking a break. Your mind is actually working faster in moments of anxiety

00:29:38.840 than probably any other moment of your life. You're thinking at a hundred miles per hour.

00:29:44.400 The problem is what you're thinking about.

00:29:47.560 So it's not that you've stilled your mind

00:29:49.680 and you've bought into kind of the mantra meditation

00:29:51.900 and emptied your mind of all rational thought.

00:29:54.120 No, you're thinking, well, you're trying to be rational

00:29:57.100 and often we're irrational.

00:29:58.860 Our minds overload.

00:30:00.360 But you are thinking as fast as you can,

00:30:02.700 as deeply as you can, as hard as you can.

00:30:05.600 But the reason why you're still anxious

00:30:07.160 is probably because you're just not thinking about Christ.

00:30:10.760 You're thinking about the situation.

00:30:13.440 You're thinking about yourself.

00:30:15.380 You're thinking about possible solutions to the situation

00:30:18.220 and what you might be able to do.

00:30:20.360 And really what it is,

00:30:21.280 is you're frantically searching for something

00:30:23.600 to place hope in.

00:30:25.780 Have you ever been there?

00:30:27.260 I mean, that's really what it is.

00:30:29.020 It's like, I feel hopeless, boom,

00:30:30.820 because of this circumstance, this situation, this problem.

00:30:34.220 And then what you're doing in your mind,

00:30:36.300 it's almost like a computer system

00:30:39.320 when it's searching for scenarios.

00:30:40.640 It makes me think of, you know,

00:30:42.040 it's like, crunch it, you know, like I'm going to crunch the numbers. It's like, hey, can you crunch

00:30:46.000 it again? Maybe something will come back this time. You know, maybe there'll be a result this time.

00:30:49.300 But have you ever seen like in a TV show or a movie where there's, you know, like some kind

00:30:53.940 of computer system that's searching for all the possible outcomes and looking

00:30:57.960 for at least one viable solution? Lack of a better

00:31:01.980 illustration, Doctor Strange, right? Doctor Strange

00:31:06.160 with the Avengers where like he's, you know, kind of like

00:31:09.380 and he looks like he's in a transcendental state, right?

00:31:12.800 It looks like some kind of mantra meditation,

00:31:14.960 which, you know, the movie's actually all about that.

00:31:17.220 But here's the irony.

00:31:18.320 When he actually, you know, saves the whole world,

00:31:21.780 he comes up, remember, he's like,

00:31:23.120 out of, you know, six million blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

00:31:24.920 scenarios, there's one where we beat the bad guy.

00:31:28.900 Well, when he's doing that, he's not emptying his mind.

00:31:31.560 He's focusing his mind.

00:31:33.160 So the weird, wacky, Eastern mantra meditation

00:31:35.620 of Doctor Strange actually is not what saves the world,

00:31:38.780 Even in the Avengers, they couldn't pull that off.

00:31:40.760 Because mantra meditation doesn't do anything.

00:31:42.620 And even godless pagans know that.

00:31:44.460 So they're like, the one time that this mantra meditation superhero character

00:31:47.980 is going to save the world is the one time that he's not emptying his mind,

00:31:50.700 but he's actually focusing it.

00:31:51.860 Because that's the only thing that actually works.

00:31:54.000 Because that's actual logic.

00:31:56.180 So we're going to have him in this transcendental state,

00:31:58.900 but what he's actually doing in his mind is he is filtering through

00:32:02.020 at an incredible speed all these different millions of scenarios

00:32:07.920 to find the one that will work.

00:32:11.320 That's what you and me do when we're anxious.

00:32:14.740 Now, we don't do it with, like, super power speed

00:32:17.440 because we're not superheroes.

00:32:18.700 We don't do it like Doctor Strange,

00:32:20.200 but that's what we're doing.

00:32:21.620 It's not six million whatever, you know, scenarios,

00:32:23.740 but we're going through six scenarios.

00:32:26.140 As fast as we can, you know,

00:32:28.880 with as much, you know, thoughtfulness as we can.

00:32:33.600 The problem is that far too often,

00:32:36.380 and especially for those who profess Christ to be Savior and Lord,

00:32:40.240 far too often in all the scenarios that we run through,

00:32:44.160 Christ isn't one of them.

00:32:47.820 All the possible scenarios, possible solutions to the problem that we're running through,

00:32:54.880 the scripture is not one of them.

00:32:59.300 Hoping in God is not actually one of them.

00:33:01.980 Hoping in God in the midst of trial, if God doesn't come through, we're okay.

00:33:05.540 that a lot of times the reality is like we know that but um it's not enough

00:33:13.160 so you tell them as you know you tell a fellow christian that it's like all right well here's

00:33:18.440 something you could do and here's something you could do and here's something you could do but

00:33:20.680 at the end of the day in an ultimate sense even if none of this works god is good and there's

00:33:25.880 nothing right there's nothing that he would allow to to in his providence in his sovereignty there's

00:33:31.840 no situation, no circumstance, no disease, no poverty, no loss, no loneliness, no kind

00:33:38.040 of scenario that would ever come to you without first having to pass through the banner of

00:33:43.480 his love. God is not going to allow anything to happen to his children that will not ultimately

00:33:49.080 be for their eternal good. Meaning anytime something happens to you that you don't feel

00:33:54.180 like is good, that's only because it's actually better. Because here's the thing, God is a

00:33:59.700 father he's a father he's not your teenage friend he's your father and as your father divine father

00:34:07.100 all-knowing omniscient father he actually cares about your long-term benefits your long-term good

00:34:12.680 right there's there are things that my daughters i mean they are very convinced would be good for

00:34:18.600 them and it probably would be good for them according to their skew definition of good for

00:34:24.920 the next three to five minutes. But see, a father, a good father, cares about eternal good, long-term

00:34:35.080 benefits, long-term good. God allows us to experience affliction because he cares about

00:34:41.140 our good 10,000 years from now. He created us to be beings that will live on with him eons and eons

00:34:49.440 into eternity. God is profoundly concerned about your levels of joy and happiness 200,000 years

00:34:59.320 ago. You're not thinking about that. He is. He's not depriving you of something because he doesn't

00:35:05.360 care about your joy. He is holding something back that ultimately is not good for you because he

00:35:10.460 cares infinitely more about your joy than you do. Did you know God is more committed to your

00:35:16.660 happiness than you are? God cares more about your happiness, not just your holiness, but your

00:35:23.940 happiness than you do. And you know why? Because happiness and holiness are inseparable.

00:35:31.100 Holiness is the means of happiness. Because at the end of the day, what ultimately brings grief

00:35:37.700 and anxiety and fear and depression is sin.

00:35:44.060 That's why you're not happier.

00:35:46.480 It's not your circumstances.

00:35:48.120 It's your sin.

00:35:49.620 And it's your sin reacting to those circumstances.

00:35:53.560 Because you can have the very same circumstances.

00:35:56.460 This doesn't pan out.

00:35:57.780 That doesn't work out.

00:35:59.600 But if you were holier, you'd be happier.

00:36:02.260 the reason why you're not happy isn't because there are bad things happening

00:36:08.760 the reason why you're not happy is because you have a bad heart and you need to continually be

00:36:16.160 sanctified and redeemed and repent of your sin and pursue the holiness for without which no one

00:36:24.060 will see the lord that's a progressive holiness ultimate that's that's hebrews quoting hebrews

00:36:29.380 because it sounds legalistic, but it's a Bible verse.

00:36:31.940 Ultimately, we see the Lord because we've been made righteous,

00:36:34.720 declared righteousness, not by works so that no man can boast,

00:36:37.780 but through faith in Jesus, his obedience,

00:36:40.640 and we're clothed in his righteousness.

00:36:42.200 That's the gospel.

00:36:43.740 However, at the same time, because we are positionally righteous,

00:36:47.740 not by works, but through faith,

00:36:49.720 we want to become progressively righteous in our sanctification.

00:36:55.780 We care deeply about justification.

00:36:57.980 Justification is the gospel.

00:36:59.380 But sanctification is the Christian life.

00:37:02.400 And we want to progress in holiness.

00:37:05.300 We want to progress in righteousness.

00:37:07.820 We want to continue to dig deep into our own hearts,

00:37:12.300 not with thoughtlessness, but with Christian meditation,

00:37:15.220 loving the Lord our God with all our minds,

00:37:17.920 deep thought, probing the heart,

00:37:20.080 and rooting up like weeds in a yard,

00:37:22.800 getting them by the root.

00:37:24.180 Those idols, those wrong emotions,

00:37:27.860 I think it was St. Augustine who said this.

00:37:30.560 He said, fear, anger, all these kind of problem emotions.

00:37:33.960 He said, it's merely the smoke that rises from the altars that we build to our idols.

00:37:39.020 I'll say it again.

00:37:40.060 Problem emotions, fear, anxiety, anger, depression, doubt.

00:37:43.300 It's merely the smoke that rises from the altars that we build to our idols.

00:37:49.200 Follow the smoke and you'll find the idol.

00:37:52.040 like when you have a huge cloud of smoke metaphorically speaking in your life right

00:37:59.900 a huge moment of anxiety a huge moment of anger outburst of anger i'm so angry i can't even

00:38:06.040 control my anger right now huge clouds of smoke if you will to keep with this illustration

00:38:12.800 a blow up of anger or or a a an anxiety attack or or whatever there may be some medical reasons

00:38:20.360 behind that. So I'm not, I'm not, we are body and soul, right? But a big part of it usually has to

00:38:26.720 do with our sin. A big part of it has to do with our sin. There's this cloud of smoke, but there

00:38:33.180 wouldn't be any smoke if there wasn't a fire. And there wouldn't be a fire if there wasn't an altar.

00:38:37.820 And there wouldn't be an altar if there wasn't an idol. There's something that we love other than

00:38:44.680 God, other than Christ, other than his promises. There's something that we're trusting, other than

00:38:51.000 his character, other than his word. See, here's the problem with idols. Idols can be toppled.

00:38:59.860 Now, we should be the ones to topple them, right? We should do the hard work, the soul-searching

00:39:05.000 work of finding idols in our hearts and toppling them over, saying, no, I will not bow the knee.

00:39:10.360 I will not erect an idol, an altar, other than true worship to the true God.

00:39:17.000 We should be the ones who are toppling our own idols in our hearts.

00:39:21.340 But here's the problem.

00:39:23.080 Often we don't because of our sin, because of our spiritual apathy,

00:39:28.540 because of our mediocre approach to progressive holiness and sanctification.

00:39:34.220 We allow idols to still stand in our hearts.

00:39:37.200 just like apathetic kings in Israel.

00:39:40.600 Some of the kings, when they came in,

00:39:42.000 when they were righteous, what would they do?

00:39:43.540 They would search through all the land

00:39:44.940 and topple every altar that was built to a false god.

00:39:48.500 All the Asherah poles,

00:39:50.480 all the altars and temples that were built to Baal,

00:39:54.360 they would take them and they would rip them apart.

00:39:59.120 And we too should do that in our own hearts,

00:40:01.000 but often we don't.

00:40:02.100 Now here's the problem.

00:40:02.940 When we aren't diligent in our pursuit of holiness

00:40:05.880 to topple our own idols.

00:40:08.580 God, who is faithful and loving

00:40:10.880 through his providence,

00:40:13.440 through life,

00:40:14.480 and those things which he orchestrates,

00:40:16.900 he ordains,

00:40:18.360 he will topple those idols.

00:40:20.220 And it will hurt.

00:40:22.780 When God topples an idol,

00:40:24.400 it hurts more than when we do.

00:40:27.300 God's the one who's ultimately

00:40:28.740 knocking that idol over either way.

00:40:30.480 But he's doing it through the means of you

00:40:32.380 in sanctification,

00:40:33.980 or life,

00:40:35.880 and his providence. Life and providence hurts, right? God sees, hey, you've erected an idol to

00:40:42.640 financial security. Let me go ahead and knock that over for you.

00:40:49.520 Lost your job? Let me knock that over for you real quick. I got evicted from your place.

00:40:56.380 Let me, hey, I love you. Let me just go ahead and knock that over, right? Oh, we owe on our taxes

00:41:02.340 this year, and we thought we were going to get taxes back, and it's a $7,000 swing in what we

00:41:06.580 were preparing. Right? I mean, you just go through a million different scenarios, but the point is

00:41:10.260 that's God's love. That's God's love. He topples idols, and my point in all that is just to say

00:41:18.980 he's going to do that through sanctification, getting us to actually repent, us to knock over

00:41:23.740 that idol ourself, or he's going to do it through his providence. Either way, he is committed to

00:41:27.640 those who are genuinely born again, Christians, his children, adopted, spiritual sons, as a loving

00:41:32.700 father, he is going to do whatever it takes to ensure, to guarantee our happiness. He's more

00:41:39.080 committed to your joy, your happiness than you are, and he's committed to your long-term happiness

00:41:43.040 because that's the way that fathers think. Fathers don't just think about what would make my daughter

00:41:48.060 really, really, really like me in this moment. Because that's not loving your daughter, that's

00:41:53.100 loving yourself. And I can tell you, as a father who is not God, but rather a man who is sinful,

00:42:01.620 man, I am tempted to do that sometimes. My wife, literally, she calls me Dada Sucker Man.

00:42:07.700 And the kids know that. Like, they will come to me often more than her if they want something.

00:42:12.380 Jane is learning it. She sees me by the pantry. She knows there's candy in there, and she knows

00:42:16.520 that Uncle Joel is the most likely character to open a bag of candy and share it. Now, that being

00:42:22.820 said, sometimes it's innocent, sometimes it's sweet, sometimes it's kind, but sometimes it's

00:42:29.700 love for myself. It's not love for the kids because I care more about the kid liking me

00:42:35.300 than me liking the kid, right? Sometimes we actually, we don't love people. We love people

00:42:41.740 loving us. There's a difference. Loving people, loving others is different than loving others

00:42:49.940 loving you. See, God is committed to our own happiness, our own joy, and he knows that holiness

00:42:58.680 is the means of getting there. He does it through sanctification, granting us the gift of repentance

00:43:03.100 in our hearts so that we will topple down our own idols. And sometimes he does it because we're

00:43:08.640 refusing to repent in that moment. He does it through providence, taking things away, stripping

00:43:14.380 things, allowing situations

00:43:16.320 and life and moments to come

00:43:18.360 to pass through the banner of His love

00:43:20.600 knowing that it's ultimately

00:43:22.540 going to hurt, but it's

00:43:24.420 ultimately for our good.

00:43:27.380 Now my point in all this

00:43:28.360 is to say, these are

00:43:30.380 the kinds of things that we need to be aware of

00:43:32.380 when we go before the Lord

00:43:34.220 in prayer.

00:43:36.300 These are the kinds of things that we need to be aware of

00:43:38.560 when we come to worship the Lord

00:43:40.420 in spirit and

00:43:42.480 in truth.

00:43:45.160 These are the things that we need to be aware of when we sing to the Lord, pray to the Lord.

00:43:49.460 We need to be mindful and count His benefits.

00:43:53.400 There are moments where before you're ready to pray, before you talk to God, you might need to talk to yourself.

00:43:59.620 I think that's the lesson for today.

00:44:01.300 If nothing else, what I want you to see is that if we were to follow any guide for Christian prayer, prayers that please the Lord,

00:44:11.300 why not use the prayers that the Lord Himself wrote?

00:44:14.380 All Scripture is God-breathed.

00:44:16.360 All Scripture is inspired by God.

00:44:18.860 The Psalms are Scripture, meaning this is God's Word.

00:44:23.120 And in God's Word, we have Holy Spirit-inspired prayers.

00:44:27.660 We have God-inspiring prayers to God.

00:44:32.100 That should be our God.

00:44:33.320 That's the best example we're ever going to find for how to pray properly.

00:44:37.980 And I think one of the things that we see in the Psalms is that before the psalmist begins to pray, talk to God, he begins to meditate and talk to himself even at times.

00:44:53.060 See, what we see, blessed is the man who walks in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

00:45:07.980 See, meditation, it provides stability.

00:45:11.200 The trees that are planted by streams of water

00:45:13.160 will thrive even if there's little rain.

00:45:16.000 The streams of water, I believe in this text,

00:45:18.160 they represent the word of God.

00:45:20.300 And putting down roots,

00:45:22.020 being a tree that's planted nearby these streams of water

00:45:25.100 with roots reaching into the streams of water,

00:45:28.200 I think that that's representative of meditating

00:45:30.720 on God's word, his law, day and night.

00:45:34.860 Meditation, Christian meditation,

00:45:37.040 not thoughtless, not mindless, but again, taking the mind and focusing it, feasting it on the Word

00:45:43.520 of God, that kind of meditation provides fruitfulness. Not just thoughtfulness, but

00:45:49.420 fruitfulness. Notice in verse 3 of Psalm chapter 1, it says, he, the blessed man, what does he do?

00:45:57.060 He's meditating on God's law day and night, and not out of painful obligation, but he delights

00:46:04.260 in the law of God. He sees it as good, righteous, and holy. He loves the Word of God. He's thinking

00:46:09.700 deeply about the Word of God. And what's the result now? That's verse 1 and 2. Verse 3, the result is

00:46:15.740 he is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields fruit in its season and its leaf does not

00:46:22.440 wither. You could preach a whole sermon just on that. Yielding fruit in season, but leaf never

00:46:28.520 withers. See, the Christian, the blessed man, the spiritually mature, sanctified Christian who

00:46:35.460 meditates on God's Word day and night is like an evergreen tree. The leaves are always green,

00:46:42.300 but even an evergreen tree isn't always producing fruit. There is a way to be spiritually alive

00:46:49.580 and yet fruitless at the same time, in season. See, it doesn't promise, notice, it doesn't promise

00:46:56.200 that if you meditate day and night on the law of God,

00:46:59.360 and not just begrudgingly, but because you love God's law,

00:47:02.700 you've come to see God as holy.

00:47:04.180 Therefore, you've come to see his law

00:47:05.840 as not just the right thing to do, but the good thing,

00:47:08.880 the thing that produces life.

00:47:10.280 That's why I gave all that framework

00:47:11.900 about God's holiness and happiness being one and the same.

00:47:15.280 God caring more about your joy than you do.

00:47:17.360 All of that, if you see God like that,

00:47:19.620 you see his law like that.

00:47:21.040 If you see God as someone who's concerned

00:47:22.860 about your holiness, but also your happiness,

00:47:24.880 and that holiness and happiness are not at war with one another

00:47:27.720 and his law is simply a road map for accomplishing holiness and happiness in your life

00:47:33.220 because he loves you and cares for you.

00:47:35.440 If you come to see all that, then you don't just follow God's law begrudgingly,

00:47:39.660 gritting your teeth and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

00:47:42.520 You meditate, think about the law of God day and night

00:47:45.540 because it's your favorite thing to think about because you delight in it.

00:47:49.680 You love God's law because you love God and you love God, why?

00:47:53.880 Because you've come to see his love for you.

00:47:57.580 That he's not just concerned about you being righteous,

00:47:59.700 he's concerned about you being happy.

00:48:03.060 Right, 1 John 4, 19, we love because he first loved us.

00:48:06.180 When we see God's concern for us,

00:48:08.920 that he loves us more than we love ourselves,

00:48:12.060 we love him.

00:48:13.180 And when we love him, we trust him.

00:48:16.640 We trust him to provide the strategy for our happiness.

00:48:20.260 instead of us coming up with all of our own strategies and scenarios ourselves.

00:48:26.440 And that strategy that he presents to us in his word is his law.

00:48:30.820 And when we see his goodness and we see his wisdom,

00:48:35.140 it becomes something that we can't help but think about deeply

00:48:39.100 and meditate on day and night.

00:48:41.200 We become lovers of his law.

00:48:43.420 We delight in his law.

00:48:44.640 And don't you always find yourselves thinking about the things that you love?

00:48:50.260 At the end of the day, that's all we think about is what we love and, I would say, what we hate or fear because it's threatening what we love.

00:49:01.640 We're profoundly committed as human beings to our own welfare, our own benefit, our own happiness, our own joy.

00:49:09.580 And we think about the things that we love and we think about the things that are standing in our way and how we can somehow fix the situation.

00:49:17.500 and if we don't find ourselves often and frequently and deeply thinking about god it is simply a

00:49:24.700 revelation of our affections at the end of the day we simply love something else more than christ

00:49:32.300 so all that being said god we can we can trust him and we we love because we see his love for us

00:49:38.560 we love him we trust that he's committed not just to us being righteous but us being happy

00:49:42.060 And because he's committed to that, we trust his law and we delight in his law.

00:49:48.080 And anything we delight in, we're going to think about often.

00:49:50.860 So we're thinking about God's law day and night because we delight in his law.

00:49:54.340 And the result is we are like trees.

00:49:56.480 And that's what I was getting at, evergreen.

00:49:58.120 The leaf never fades, meaning there's never a moment that you're spiritually dead.

00:50:02.600 Your vitality is there.

00:50:04.000 But notice verse 3.

00:50:06.900 he is like a tree planted by streams of water

00:50:09.620 that yields its fruit in season

00:50:11.280 and its leaf does not wither.

00:50:13.380 A spiritually mature person, a righteous person,

00:50:15.820 the blessed man who delights in the law of God day and night,

00:50:18.700 that person, that person still,

00:50:22.300 even though its leaves are always green,

00:50:24.240 even though there's always spiritual life,

00:50:25.780 that person is not always going to be bearing fruit.

00:50:29.520 Healthy trees, living trees,

00:50:32.640 still God has ordained for trees and crops

00:50:36.320 and animals and everything else, God has ordained seasons.

00:50:39.880 That's the way he created the cosmos.

00:50:41.760 It's the way he created his creation, the world,

00:50:43.960 and it's the way he created you and me.

00:50:48.040 God has created trees to produce fruit in season.

00:50:52.920 And then there are other seasons where they are dormant.

00:50:56.320 It doesn't mean they're dead.

00:50:57.840 The leaves are still green.

00:50:59.880 It's still vibrant.

00:51:01.780 There's still spiritual life.

00:51:03.860 And yet, as far as we can see, what's visible to us, there may not be a lot of fruit.

00:51:10.620 I'm sure that's been your experience.

00:51:12.780 And the reason why I pause for a moment and say that is, what we often think is, I think we conflate these things.

00:51:18.320 We think if there's no fruit, then my leaves aren't green.

00:51:22.640 Right?

00:51:23.040 If there's not apples in the orchard, the trees are dead.

00:51:27.380 said well there could be a healthy orchard with healthy trees with vibrant leaves but

00:51:33.780 apple trees they just they only put out apples at certain times and so so too it is with us

00:51:41.640 you might be in a season right now where there's not a lot of fruit and that doesn't necessarily

00:51:47.620 mean that there's not a lot of spiritual vitality in life that's my point you can be spiritually

00:51:53.880 alive and not have a lot of fruit, right? It's not like Jesus, you know, the Son of God became

00:52:00.760 righteous and finally began to have an intimate relationship with his Father when he began his

00:52:07.320 earthly ministry. Jesus had an intimate relationship with his Father his whole life on

00:52:14.900 earth. He was spiritually alive, spiritual vitality, perfectly holy, perfectly sinless

00:52:21.100 from the womb, from conception.

00:52:25.080 And yet his fruit

00:52:27.000 exploded at the end of his life.

00:52:30.520 And there were other seasons of Jesus' ministry

00:52:32.660 where nobody even knew he was the Son of God.

00:52:36.000 Nobody had any clue what he was going to do.

00:52:39.140 It's the same way with us.

00:52:40.600 Meditation, it's not just thoughtfulness,

00:52:43.020 it produces fruitfulness.

00:52:45.140 So, in conclusion,

00:52:47.020 Proverbs chapter 18 verse 2 says this,

00:52:48.900 A fool takes no pleasure in understanding

00:52:51.060 but only in expressing his own opinion.

00:52:53.800 So I wanna read a quick excerpt and I'll close

00:52:56.800 from Reforming Marriage by Doug Wilson.

00:52:59.160 I like this.

00:53:00.100 I think it's really, really good.

00:53:01.680 And I think, you know, Doug doesn't mean it.

00:53:04.820 He's not saying this in relation to the text

00:53:07.360 that I've just preached,

00:53:08.420 but I think it's a good example,

00:53:10.920 a good example of a Christian man or woman,

00:53:14.060 the blessed man or woman who loves the law of God

00:53:16.560 and is committed to thoughtfulness,

00:53:18.880 committed to Christian meditation,

00:53:20.680 thinking about God's word, thinking deeply about God's word, even contending with ourselves,

00:53:26.340 giving ourselves a biblical pep talk before we begin to speak to God in prayer. This is what he

00:53:33.460 says. The evangelical world is throwing away its theological heritage because of doctrinal

00:53:38.620 faithfulness in Christian homes. It is true that pulpits across our country are filled with

00:53:44.580 a swamp of antidotes and sentimentalist yop, yippy skippy worship, and make it up as you go

00:53:52.220 along theology. But the heads of Christian homes, this only happens because the heads of Christian

00:53:57.240 homes have been willing to have it so. As the expectations for men in the evangelical world

00:54:03.220 have gotten lower, men have not objected. They have actually breathed a sigh of relief.

00:54:09.920 But a man who speaks for his house, as Joshua did, me and my house will serve the Lord,

00:54:13.840 he must be a man who teaches his house and he must be a man who refuses to submit his family

00:54:19.640 to the foolishness of unbelief. Whether the unbelief is dressed up in liberal or pop

00:54:24.940 evangelical clothes makes little difference. When Jesus teaches us that his sheep will not listen

00:54:30.360 to the voice of a stranger, he is assuming the sheep are right if they do not follow when the

00:54:35.040 voice of the shepherd is absent. So the first thing necessary is that a husband must establish

00:54:41.800 his home as a confessional home. This means he must know what he believes, and he must communicate

00:54:48.000 and teach this confession of faith to his family. Related to this is the necessity that the

00:54:54.640 confession be detailed. A man who is just saved may only be able to confess that Jesus is Lord,

00:55:01.740 and this is enough, many would say. It is certainly enough for salvation, but it is not enough for a

00:55:07.300 man who is called to be an instructor of his household. For though by this time you ought to

00:55:12.540 be teachers, you still need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God

00:55:17.900 and have come to need milk rather than solid food. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 12. See the Bible teaches

00:55:23.620 that a minimalist approach to doctrine should be an embarrassment for an older Christian.

00:55:28.860 The fact that many today glory in having a truncated theology is an occasion for grief

00:55:34.400 and sorrow. The question is not, how little can I know and still get to heaven? The question for

00:55:39.820 husbands and fathers is, given my time, resources, intellectual ability, etc., how much can I learn

00:55:46.860 and how much can I teach my wife and children? A man may not be a vocational theologian, I like

00:55:54.060 this, but in his home he must recognize that he is the resident theologian. He may not be a

00:56:00.740 vocational theologian, but he must recognize that in his home he is the resident theologian.

00:56:07.560 A husband must be prepared to answer his wife's doctrinal questions, and if he cannot, then he

00:56:13.220 must be prepared to study so that he can remedy the deficiency. Second, he must know why he

00:56:20.520 believes as he does, so that he can communicate and teach this to his family as well. This is

00:56:26.120 impossible apart from a consistent reading of the Bible over and over again. In addition to his Bible

00:56:32.360 reading, an evangelical husband must be committed to reading books of solid doctrinal teaching

00:56:37.380 written by sound qualified men. Not only must he reflect upon the word directly, but he should

00:56:43.220 take full advantage of all the teachers which God has given to the body of Christ. And lastly, as he

00:56:49.180 studies his Bible, he will of course grow in his understanding of the greatness of the sovereignty

00:56:53.620 of God in all things, and as he does so, he must be humble enough to set aside any erroneous

00:56:59.100 doctrines that he has previously held. He must be willing to apologize to his family

00:57:04.200 for leading them astray at that point, and he must teach them afresh and anew. Under

00:57:10.040 no circumstances may a godly husband and father cling to error, even if these changes must

00:57:18.920 be made at great cost. That's what we're talking about. Blessed is the man who delights in the law

00:57:25.760 of God and meditates on it day and night. Christian men are thinking men. They think about God's word

00:57:31.840 day and night. They are men of zeal who worship God in spirit, but also men of thought who worship

00:57:40.040 God in truth. And they recognize that call on their life that as a spiritual head of a household,

00:57:46.980 you're called not only to be responsible for yourself, but others.

00:57:51.120 And that doctrine matters what we believe,

00:57:53.100 and it also matters why we believe it.

00:57:55.960 And the blessed man, who's like a tree, right?

00:57:59.300 He's stable.

00:58:00.300 Other people can count on him.

00:58:01.900 That's the last thing I'll say.

00:58:02.780 Other people, they can lean on him.

00:58:04.240 He's not falling over.

00:58:05.560 He's not hollowed out with termites.

00:58:08.540 He's not weak.

00:58:09.740 He's not breaking and rotten.

00:58:13.340 He's strong.

00:58:14.260 He's a pillar.

00:58:14.760 You can trust him.

00:58:16.980 The blessed man.

00:58:18.120 Why is he stable?

00:58:19.560 Why is he spiritually alive?

00:58:21.040 And why is he bearing fruit in season?

00:58:23.340 Because he meditates.

00:58:25.480 He thinks.

00:58:26.960 He's thoughtful.

00:58:28.040 He knows what he believes.

00:58:29.600 He knows why he believes it.

00:58:31.520 He's teaching that to others that he's responsible for.

00:58:34.680 And when he comes to recognize that he is held to something that is not true,

00:58:39.020 that he got it wrong, what does he do?

00:58:42.000 The blessed man is a thoughtful man, and he's a humble man.

00:58:46.980 He apologizes.

00:58:48.840 There is no glory in a man or a woman for that matter

00:58:52.720 holding to something wrong, recognizing it's wrong,

00:58:56.800 and trying to find some kind of way to sneak out the back door.

00:59:02.280 Godly, righteous men and women,

00:59:04.860 when they come to realize that they held a wrong view,

00:59:07.700 they own it.

00:59:09.100 And you know why?

00:59:09.880 For two purposes.

00:59:11.180 For the purpose of modeling humility,

00:59:12.960 but also for the purpose of clarity.

00:59:16.980 One of the reasons why Christians in the evangelical world are so confused today

00:59:21.060 is because Christian leaders won't actually admit that they changed positions.

00:59:27.820 Right? COVID-19, great example.

00:59:31.080 Romans 13, submit to the government in everything.

00:59:34.360 How many pulpits said that?

00:59:36.300 Right? And love your neighbor.

00:59:38.060 And loving your neighbor, I mean, my neighbor has a soul.

00:59:40.640 So love their soul by actually the church still gathering,

00:59:43.560 administering the ordinary.

00:59:44.460 No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:59:45.460 That's not loving your neighbor.

00:59:46.320 love their body

00:59:47.360 and love only their body

00:59:49.220 because that's all that matters

00:59:50.080 because at the end of the day

00:59:50.900 if churches stay shut down

00:59:52.140 for 10 more years

00:59:53.020 but people live

00:59:53.940 a little bit longer

00:59:54.640 that's what's most important

00:59:57.420 right

00:59:57.620 that's what my Bible says

00:59:58.960 it says your soul

00:59:59.620 doesn't matter at all

01:00:00.420 and your physical health

01:00:01.180 is the end of all things

01:00:02.920 right

01:00:03.340 that's what

01:00:03.720 no

01:00:04.560 but that's what we did

01:00:05.880 and that's not what pagans did

01:00:07.500 that's what pastors did

01:00:09.560 and there are churches

01:00:11.300 that still haven't opened up

01:00:12.460 it's been a year

01:00:14.280 15 days to slow the spread how did you celebrate the annual anniversary of 15 days to slow the

01:00:20.740 spread isn't that hilarious and so my point is to say that's a great example of Romans 13

01:00:28.580 Romans 13 love your neighbor love your neighbor and then by God's grace and I thank God for this

01:00:33.560 a lot of churches and a lot of pastors have changed their position in terms of action the

01:00:39.180 churches are now open. They're taking a stand against the civil magistrate in certain states,

01:00:45.440 especially like California, saying no. Christ is the head of the church, not Caesar, right? They've

01:00:50.660 changed their position. They've changed in their actions. They've changed in their life. But here's

01:00:55.040 the problem. They have not verbally admitted to their people that they made a change, because

01:01:02.520 that would involve admitting to their people that they were previously wrong. And here's what's

01:01:07.020 lost, when we won't, when we repent in deed, but not in word. Full repentance is word in deed. When

01:01:12.580 we repent in deed, but not in word. Here's the problem. What happens is this. Not only do we fail

01:01:18.500 to meet an opportunity to model humility, we also fail in our doctrine, in our teaching, to model

01:01:24.740 clarity. Because if you don't admit, hey, I was teaching one thing, and I said, this is our

01:01:30.560 church's position. We're going to do this, and this is why, and here are the texts, and here's our

01:01:33.760 doctrine. Here's our view. And now I'm doing something completely different. If you never

01:01:37.920 verbalize that, right? If you make the change in your teaching and your action and everything

01:01:45.340 your church is doing and even what you're saying and what you're preaching, but you never verbalize

01:01:49.260 and say, hey guys, you might have noticed this is literally in direct contradiction to what I was

01:01:54.820 teaching six months ago. See, a lot of pastors won't say that. And here's what you do. You don't

01:01:59.680 just lose an opportunity as a leader to model humility, you also lose doctrinal clarity.

01:02:05.660 Because your people think, oh, both of these things, they don't contradict each other.

01:02:10.920 Right? Like doing this is what pastor so-and-so said to do six months ago, and now doing this

01:02:17.020 is what, and these two things, I guess they're somehow cohesive, and somehow they go together

01:02:21.880 and they're not in contradiction to one another. They're not in, you lose not just an opportunity

01:02:26.260 for humility, you lose clarity. Part of the reason the evangelical church is so doctrinally

01:02:32.900 anemic and lacking so much clarity is because Christian men, Christian leaders, have not loved

01:02:39.340 Christian meditation, thinking about God's Word, but also they have not loved humility. And so when

01:02:45.320 they're wrong, they don't admit it. You can show up to a church. I mean, it's a fun but also tragic

01:02:50.580 game to play. You can show up, keep your little journal, and in most American churches, you could

01:02:55.780 find over the course of a year, if you just take

01:02:57.820 some notes, you can find probably

01:02:59.540 100 to 200 contradictions from

01:03:01.780 the pastor's mouth. The same guy.

01:03:04.180 You know who disagrees with most

01:03:05.920 evangelical pastors more than anybody else?

01:03:08.320 Themselves.

01:03:10.320 Just wait until, like literally, like two

01:03:11.800 Sundays later, and they'll say something that

01:03:13.480 objectively, like perfectly

01:03:15.780 contradicts what they preached the week before.

01:03:18.900 Because they don't have

01:03:19.940 a systematic theology.

01:03:21.600 They have not yet cared enough to find

01:03:23.760 how the whole of God's word

01:03:25.160 works together. And so they preach one thing, then they preach another thing, and it's

01:03:29.820 contradicting. There is no systematic doctrine. There is no cohesiveness. There is no serious

01:03:35.480 thoughtfulness. And the people, it's not just that they missed an opportunity to exercise

01:03:40.300 humility, display humility, but they missed an opportunity to show people clarity. Their

01:03:46.480 people are confused. Their people have no idea. They have no idea. Well, this is true,

01:03:51.660 but this is also true.

01:03:52.700 But do you see how those things contradict each other?

01:03:55.000 Do they?

01:03:56.840 And so my point is to say,

01:03:58.640 we need to humble ourselves.

01:04:00.080 We need to love God's word.

01:04:01.400 We need to meditate on it day and night.

01:04:03.500 We need to pursue these things,

01:04:05.280 know what we believe,

01:04:06.220 know why we believe it,

01:04:07.520 know that not everybody's going to be

01:04:08.740 the world's best theologian,

01:04:10.500 but you are the resident theologian

01:04:12.280 for your home,

01:04:13.640 the people that you're responsible for.

01:04:15.460 Teach them what you believe,

01:04:16.720 why you believe it,

01:04:17.440 and when you're wrong,

01:04:19.360 part of being a leader

01:04:20.120 is not just loving doctrine.

01:04:21.580 It's loving righteousness.

01:04:23.260 It's loving humility.

01:04:24.400 When you're wrong, own it.

01:04:26.160 And you don't have to pay penance.

01:04:27.920 Owning it doesn't mean that you have to go

01:04:29.160 and tell everybody you're wrong for the next 10 years

01:04:31.120 and flog yourself and all.

01:04:33.000 You don't have to, none of that.

01:04:34.540 All you have to do is say it once.

01:04:35.960 Hey, so you might've remembered I said this.

01:04:38.360 That's wrong.

01:04:39.300 It's actually that.

01:04:40.800 Thanks so much for listening.

01:04:42.140 But real quick, before you go,

01:04:44.160 do us a small favor, take a moment

01:04:45.980 and leave us a five-star review if you enjoyed the show.

01:04:49.020 This is undoubtedly the best way that you can help us get this biblically faithful content to as many people as possible.

01:04:56.820 Thanks so much.

The NXR Podcast - June 12, 2022

SUNDAY SERMON - Christian Meditation - Psalm 1

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