Discussion of "The Ever Blessed Man"

[0:00] Would you pray with me?

[0:11] Father, we love you so much. Thank you for tonight. Thank you for this time together, God, and thank you for the day that we've had. We are so grateful, Lord, that we had an opportunity today to gather together, that we got to commemorate your son's death and his resurrection.

[0:26] And Father, we just pray that you would bless us tonight. We pray that your word would speak to us that it would be powerful, and God, we pray that we would be obedient to it. Help us not to leave this place the same way that we came in.

[0:36] We love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Fantastic. So, we're going to be looking at Psalm 1 again, and like Pastor Mike always does, we want to go through the text together.

[0:50] But I thought, why don't we all just read the text together? So I'll let you find Psalm 1, or you can say it from heart, but I'll give you just a second. And then if you would, just follow me, and we'll all go together.

[1:02] Is it ESV? Yeah, I'm going to say it in the ESV. Yeah. So the Pew Bible is in the ESV, if that's helpful. And Paul, thank you for that. If you don't have the questions, would you please raise your hand, and Paul can get them to you?

[1:17] Perfect. Okay. So let's read Psalm 1 together. Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

[1:34] But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

[1:49] And all that he does he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

[2:04] For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Amen. So let's look at our first question then.

[2:17] The question, and frankly, I just think whoever provided these questions was brilliant. I mean, these things are spot on, you know. But, you know, question one. The blessed man delights in the Scripture.

[2:28] Why do you think this often cannot be said of us? And I'm making an assumption here. My assumption is that your experience of the Christian life is similar to my own, which is that so often it is easy for me to delight in things other than the things of the Lord.

[2:48] But maybe I'm wrong in that assumption, and I'm just really sinful. I don't know. I just think today's culture with media, with everything around us, with the way jobs are in this country right now, with just, I mean, everything keeps us so busy, so focused on, I've got bills to pay, I've got family to take care of, I've got friends to see what they're up to, I've got friends who are hurting, and maybe I'm, you know, I've got friends who are sick, and you've got to check on my mother.

[3:27] And, you know, there's just all sorts of stuff that distract us. Yeah, he's fine. And so I think sometimes, though we can say how important Scripture is to us, a lot of times it's easy for us to forget or just not to set aside that time to be in the Scripture to fill us with that joy that will start to overflow, that when somebody looks at us, says, hey, something's different, you know, there's a joy about them.

[4:06] Yeah. Whereas so many times we just get wrapped up in everything of life that we forget to fill ourselves with the joy. Yeah, no, and Cameron, stay there for a second, brother. What do you think is the connection between delighting in the Scripture and spending time, considerable time, in the Scripture?

[4:25] Where do you think those two come together? Let's just say that again. I didn't quite. Where do you think the connection is? Because you mentioned time. We don't set aside the time.

[4:35] Where do you think that connection is with delighting in the Scripture and setting aside time to do that? I think you kind of pointed to it this morning of what do we consider our counselors, right?

[4:49] What are we taking in? Because a lot of times we're a reflection of what we're taking in, right? Yes, indeed. So if I'm taking in YouTube and ESPN and the Yahoo News page, well, what's going to be my conversations?

[5:06] It's going to be stuff I've taken in. And so a lot of times what comes out of us is stuff we know, stuff we're comfortable with, stuff we're comfortable talking about.

[5:17] But if we're not spending time in the Scripture, sometimes we struggle to converse about it. Absolutely. And so I think when we're spending that time in the Scripture, it's more fresh.

[5:32] It's more right there in front of us to come out in conversation. Yeah. No, I think you're absolutely right. And thank you, brother. And I'm going to say this.

[5:42] It's going to embarrass him, but I'm going to say it because it's true. When you talk with our brother Evan, Scripture's going to enter the conversation.

[5:52] Just give it five or ten minutes. It always happens. And brother, I had this in the sermon originally, but I was running out of time, so you got copied and deleted, so you weren't in there. But when I was thinking about it, I was thinking about myself and how, man, I'm so great at talking about Star Wars movies and Roman legions and just random stuff.

[6:14] But so often I have so many conversations and God's Word is completely absent. And then, brother, you're a fantastic example for me, but I think for all of us, because whenever I speak with you, God's Word is always present in the conversation.

[6:28] It just flows out of you, and I want to be like that. Does somebody else have something to say about why you think it often cannot be said of us that we delight in Scripture?

[6:41] Sister, what do you think? Okay, sometimes I can say it like this would apply to me at certain times, which it shouldn't, but I find myself sometimes not so delighted in Scripture as I am in other things, and that's the difference.

[6:54] We don't delight in the Scripture as we should. We're more excited in watching TV or going to games or doing this or that, and, you know, I need to refocus on that sometimes.

[7:07] Absolutely. Thank you. Well, and I think going with what you just said, Yolanda, and what Cameron has said as well, as I was thinking about this question, it made me think of the parable of the sower in the seed that was cast, and Jesus said that some of the seed is choked out by thorns and that this represents the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.

[7:32] So Jesus was talking there about the gospel, but it shows that the cares of the world can choke out that which is spiritually good, and I thought about it for myself. In seasons when I get stressed, when I feel overwhelmed so often, my time in the Word, man, it just slides.

[7:52] That's exactly the time when I should be spending more time in the Word, not less, but in my flesh, it's like, oh, I don't have time for God's Word today. I need to focus on this work thing, and it made me think of something that Martin Luther said.

[8:07] I think he said, so much to do and not enough time to do it. I need to pray for three hours so that I can get it all done, and it was just like, wow, talk about a radically different perspective.

[8:24] Wes, were you going to say something, brother? Yeah, there's an accent. Something, basically in sales, and one of the things that they seem to need to do is if you want a new car, or if you want a new house, or a boat, something like that, you take a picture and put it up on your refrigerator for some place, problem, and you see all the time, you're going to start grapitating towards that and doing the things you need to do to get that new logo or whatever that you want.

[8:48] So when you think about our problems and things that distract us, the more time you spend on that, we are really going to gravitate in that direction. And I find that when I, not so much like when I'm reading it, it's like trying to understand what's going on.

[9:02] When I meet a fellow Christian, I start talking about it I get excited. And they're like, okay, it's enough, they start walking away. But to spend more time in the world, that's just a matter of, Francesca Pestelli has a song called When the Crazy Kicks In.

[9:18] She's talking about it first thing in the morning, that's when you want to read it. The stuff that's going to place you spin in and all that happens. Trying to keep up what's going on with your day. And so what it does, it's helpful to get it done first.

[9:29] Otherwise, it's kind of like exercise. People exercise first thing in the morning. Earlier in the day, tend to still be doing it a year later. as people, because, now I'm running out of time, I've got to eat dinner, and it's late, I've got to walk the dogs, and I can do it.

[9:43] So, it's one way to try, try to get in the word and read the word, faithfully, and then make that something you just get into and try to get out of the day.

[9:54] Interesting. Interesting. Yeah, no, I think it's a good point. And we see in Psalm 1 that this man meditates on the word morning and night. So, it's not necessarily the time of day as much as it's all day.

[10:04] But, brother, I agree with what you said. For a couple of years, I did my devotions in the evenings because I'm a night owl. And I just found, just like you said, that it's so easy for something else to come up and suddenly it's too late.

[10:18] And it's like, well, I'll read the word tomorrow as opposed to getting to the word first and making that the priority when the day begins. I think our technology has made us lazy.

[10:29] We get spoon-fed and flashes of images and headlines and so forth and so on. And I think sometimes we think that the Bible and the things of God should be that easy too.

[10:44] We should be able to just pop it in and pop up a verse on our phone and read it once and we're good for the day, that type of thing. And it says to meditate and that takes more than what we normally do to get to pull in information.

[11:01] That's a good point. You're absolutely right, brother. I think so often we get frustrated when we read God's word and it's kind of confusing the first time we read it and it's like, I deserve to have this make sense to me right now, immediately.

[11:15] It's like, why do we think that's true? Why do we think that we shouldn't have to put significant time and effort into understanding what God's saying to us? That's a great point. So, guys, what do you think are some potential antidotes to this problem?

[11:29] Oh, yes, absolutely, brother. You know, I find myself and I know I'll be 70 next month that I find my attention strength is going short.

[11:45] and I can be sitting in my day of reading God's word and I hear my dog bark or I hear something and I'll get up and people see what it's going to be and I'm looking back and Paul says that if we do your mind find that's hard to stay focused.

[12:06] Yes. and it's frustrating to be reading a lot of people saying you're in church and trying to listen and for some reason you're coming a thought in your mind put that a price out there absolutely I lose concentration or I lose my whole focus for being doing what I intend to do so thank you oh brother thank you so much for your honesty Jerry I I have felt the exact same way so many times I don't know if it's as much that you're getting older as much as you're human because I've dealt with the same thing and so many times I'll be reading the word and a thought comes to me out of nowhere that's a horrible thought and it's like where did that come from I wasn't thinking about that I was reading the scripture so I think one we're deceiving ourselves if we think that at times that's not spiritual warfare happening right there I don't know if you remember if you read Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis talks about it's two demons talking and they say one of the best things you can do is to try to distract this man as he's reading scripture you don't have to do something dramatic just get him to think about something else you're not alone brother and thank you for saying that okay guys so what are some potential antidotes to the problem of not delighting in scripture come on Wes something downtown is working for me is

[13:37] I'm a cool life lawyer and I'm not speaking in the pool and I'm getting some downtown and I've got two different words of the Bible in front of me and then having a commentary on the sign and it's not just reading through it and making sure you read all the words that are in the tax time you can say I'll bet the Bible in the year which I don't know is the best for anybody that's not a very good but when you see these different things you get more not only but make give that guilt to really rejoice in what's being said because the top more comes clear with the two different commentaries on what's going on to study Bibles and stuff like that and then another thing I think is good is pray to God show me what you want to hear and just ask him for it he said if you ask what it is that he'll give it to you I'll ask him for delighting the words that God will understand and I want to be delighted what you're saying ask him just ask him before you get started good thoughts thank you shirt tailing there with Wes but I in the past when going through a dry spell or the scriptures just not speaking or I start finding excuses

[14:44] I have to confess that and then I start asking God help me fall in love in your word again help me fall in love with it again and help me fall in love with it again and he has never failed to answer that thank you for that who one of I'm always louder than everybody else I'll let you tell you something what okay what one of the things for me that I have to remember what is an antidote is I don't know how to know everything yes but I do need to know something that I can fall on whenever the times come and so you know get you get your bible out know where to go in the word for certain things I mean if you're struggling with bad language which is my biggest naughty then I go to

[15:50] James and I read James and I read James and I read James and that chapter over and over that's my thing and or if you know whatever it is whatever your need is if you have fear you know learn and every time that thing comes to you and wants to make you afraid say it out loud and say it out loud and sometimes you have to shout it and say it over and over and over and over and over and you know his word does make things flee from you that are trying to put you down and trying to keep you down and trying to destroy your witness and things so that to me is an antidote is to know what you know and know it right and then share it okay and would you feel that knowing more about God's word helps you to delight in it more yes absolutely absolutely whenever you go through stuff you all know you know you have those things those promises to fall back on and that's a delight

[17:00] I mean whenever you're when the world would look at you and say you need to be you need to be wearing black and walking around because your mama died blah blah blah I ain't sad I am not sad thank you mother because I've got the promises sure and what I what she sees with her eyes I look to with faith and one day it'll be mine and I know that and so I delight in those promises I delight in the promises over my children I delight in promises over this country yeah fantastic you have to you have to grab hold with two hands and fingernails sometimes but since we're in his hand yeah you won't let be plugged from it for sure right well and I like what's been said so far I think it's really helpful Wes which you said was being active in our study

[18:02] I think so often we've heard read the word read the word read the word and guys absolutely yes don't ever not read the bible but sometimes I think we're almost passive in it and I was the idea came almost like a little bird opening its mouth and it's just like put food in my mouth and it's like no work for it dig into the scripture and the more you dig the more delightful it becomes sister you said pray and ask that God would help you to love it and he has not failed and then Amy your thought was know more about the word know it well and it makes it more delightful and I think the thing I would say to that is that the more it's like the more you look at the word let me how would I phrase this the more you look the more you see I think is what I would say and the more you see the more wonderful it becomes brother what were you going to say yeah I don't it's not necessarily an antidote per se but I know that just accountability in general it's yeah the problem maybe a lot deeper than that in my heart why I'm not delighting in the word of God but accountability so meeting with you for coffee and you asking me hey Evan what are you studying in God's word or casual conversation before church or at the fellowship dinner we do as a body or other things like that or having people in our local body who know what's going on in your life and are hearing the way the Lord is working in your life

[19:33] I think one help hold us accountable and also encourage and spur us on to also be praying the Lord and help us to delight in him yeah man fantastic thank you for that it was going to be something that I got to because I don't know about you when I've gone through dry seasons I feel embarrassed I feel shame to tell other people about it even though that there's no condemnation now for those of us who are in Christ Jesus and I think the enemy wants us to feel that way it's like oh I'm not reading the word or I'm not delighting in it I will keep that a secret as opposed to bringing it for my brothers and my sisters and saying I am struggling would you pray that God would reignite the passion of my heart for his word and thank you for that accountability okay so here's a question when we're struggling to delight in the word when it is a challenge for us to make time for it do you think that we should just not do it because well we're not delighting in it so we should stop or do you think we push through it no no I don't actually Caitlin makes it for me I always like the food that's on the table it's fantastic it's always good and I'm very grateful absolutely and it's the same with work who loves going to work every single day nobody but you go anyways you have to and there are going to be days when we don't feel like reading

[21:16] God's word but that doesn't matter guys let's push through it what are you going to say brother I was going to say it's like any command in the Bible and I've said it many times in Sunday school but it's okay to start out with just I'm doing it because God said to do it and sometimes we have to start out that way and then God brings the delight later and the understanding later is why we're doing what we're doing but sometimes it's okay to start out as he commanded it I must do it brother you said it perfectly maybe we could phrase it duty sometimes precedes delight absolutely that's exactly right so let's look at question number two now it says that there are many ways that we can meditate on God's word a few examples are scripture memorization praying scripture journaling scripture etc etc what are some practices that you have utilized in your devotional life and how has this helped you fantastic so we're talking about delighting in the word right there are a lot of times

[22:37] I'm getting to this so a lot of times we don't delight in the word I think because we've not really been taught how to do it how to dig in the scripture I mean I shared this with our school teachers I mean I was a missionary overseas for two years before I realized no one is feeding me spiritually I have to do it by myself and all of a sudden I didn't have a workbook and so I had to learn what does that look like to be fed by the word of God and so we have this idea of reading scripture I am sitting out with my pen and my notebook and I took a copy from 18 and that's what it looks like if I have my notebook and my pen then I'm probably not reading scripture but memorizing scripture or in large chunks of scripture

[23:37] I mean mainly at five years old when we memorized the book of James and you guys could do it but praying through scripture and things like that sometimes we just don't have ideas I mean just this last couple months ago at Super Summer they said hey we're going to do worship a little bit different and instead of singing a song which everyone's like we're not singing a song we're going to read through some songs and we're like that was mind blowing for people but I think we misunderstand so often that depth going deeper in our walk with the Lord is more knowledge it's not it's more obedience and that's what gets exciting is when we read scripture and we put into practice don't merely listen to the word and so deceive ourselves do what it says and so then it gets real exciting because now our faith is working alongside our actions and it's becoming complete and so it gets exciting and so like I said

[24:46] I've memorized scripture I've worked chronologically I've done in-depth Bible studies for different topics my favorite of all things is to read chronologically through and not take notes I'm just listening to the story I mean I will have the story in my mind and my ear as I work doing monotonous things that don't require mental activity and just listening to the word all day long that counts that counts in scripture time you don't have to be sitting in a dark room you don't have to access so I'm sorry no for sure thank you for that and guys I want to say this we are a primarily literate society we have when we think of the Bible we think of sitting and reading the Bible to this day there are millions of our brothers and sisters globally who are not literate the only experience of the word they have is listening to it through audio but like we were speaking earlier of today once upon a time

[25:47] I mean God's people they didn't have their own personal scroll if you've ever seen Hebrew scrolls that are in a synagogue I mean they're massive they're this big they put it out and they open it you don't have that in your own house or even in our culture once upon a time there was the family Bible the whole family shared one and your experience of the word would be your father reading it out loud to you or even once upon a time in England every village had one Bible and it was chained to the front of the church so that you could come and read it if you had spare time and like imagine that imagine how many people would be standing around and do you think that the guy reading would be like hey I'm almost done just give me some space or do you think he would have read it out loud I think he would have read it out loud so just to say we have the capability to listen to God's word today on our phones on our computers it's fantastic such a useful resource and I think it is easy to feel like somehow that's inferior that's not really doing your devotions that's not really reading

[26:59] God's word it's just listening to it and I would say that's not true that is actually our culture saying that you have to be physically looking at the words for it really to count and I don't think that's true and I say that just to say you have freedom listen to God's word read it doesn't matter take God's word into your heart what were you absolutely yeah I I heard a story of a missionary who gave a copy of the bible to an islamic imam and came back two weeks later and the imam said this book is fantastic. I read it twice. And it was like, what? But how many of us can't even say that we've ever actually read through the entire Bible in our lifetimes? I don't say that to put guilt. But I do think it's a question that's worth asking. Was somebody going to say something? I thought, yeah, please, brother. I find that the great scripture is a good area from my previous problem that I had. This piece of paper here has five pictures on it, many more.

[28:47] This is five. This usually hangs on my mirror in the bathroom. But I know that those parts like rampant. But I probably never. Anyway, when I find myself in my next building, you know, we can't concentrate. Keep my mind focused. These verses, I go to the prayer and pray these verses.

[29:14] I personalize it. Yes. My own meaning. But Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. Matthew 6, 33.

[29:26] Philippians 4, 13. 1 John 4, 46. Ephesians 16. I draw strength in the verses. Yes.

[29:37] And that's one thing that does you know, God, who I am in God. Absolutely. I forget that there's a higher power of strength in me that God has given me.

[29:51] I can love. And so, pray in Scripture, though. Yeah, fantastic. Brother, I'm glad that you said pray in Scripture. A friend of mine in college was talking about praying Scripture.

[30:04] And he said, isn't it kind of like it's a pleasant thing to have somebody quote your own words back to you? It means they were paying attention.

[30:14] And they thought that your words were important. And he's like, let's do that to God. Let's quote God's own words back to him. I promise you, that doesn't bother him. What were you going to say? All right.

[30:24] I have been an officer, and now I'm just a member of community Bible study for, gosh, 10, 12 years now.

[30:38] And it's a study that is not, it's multidenominational, but it's the word. They take a book or whatever, and they use that.

[30:48] And I had one lady several years ago, she was kind of a simple-minded person. Yeah. That's a nice way of saying it. She had some problems.

[31:00] Sure. And she had problems concentrating and understanding what the Bible was telling her. And then one day, she came in, and she was in a glorious state.

[31:15] I said, what's up? She said, I found out a secret. I found out that if I read the Bible to myself, I understand what it's saying.

[31:29] Hmm. And I don't get distracted. So, one of the things that I did last year, because I was having trouble too, Jerry, I mean, I get distracted.

[31:45] Or those enemies come in and, you know, say things that they shouldn't, that get you clear off track. But I find that if I read it out loud, A, nobody's going to bother you, because they know what you're doing.

[32:06] And B, it does help to, you know, the hearing of the word, even if it's you doing it, is life and food for your soul.

[32:20] And so, I suggest that if anyone is having that same sort of a problem, read it out loud. Sometimes, well, I'm not going to go there.

[32:32] Okay, never mind. I can say, thank you for that. And I can say, I have done the same thing. And I'm really glad you brought it up. I had actually forgotten that years ago, I was doing the same thing.

[32:42] I would read silently, and then when I get distracted, I would start reading out loud for a time, maybe for half a chapter, and then, okay, I'm reading silently again until I'm distracted again, and just keep doing that.

[32:54] Get up there, brother. What are you going to say? You can't hide. You're too tall. I don't know. I think for me, just having a study Bible is amazing, but it's being intentional and not just, you know, so many of the notes, like I have a John MacArthur study Bible, like so many of the notes say, you know, oh, this is, you know, explains it a little bit better, but it's kind of like, you know, what's, you know, if I'm reading John, it's like, oh, this is, you know, something similar found to something in Isaiah.

[33:26] I don't just go, okay, and I keep reading. I make myself intentionally turn to Isaiah, read that chapter that it's mentioning, just trying to piece all of it together because I love what, how Kinder describes it.

[33:41] It's a story, right? Yep. So if we can continually put those pieces together and see how those pieces are interacting with each other because the Bible is the living word.

[33:52] Yeah. So it's constantly interacting with itself. And so if we can intentionally use those resources that we have in the world we live in today, we talked about how resources can be a distraction, but that resources can also be a great sense or a great source of information and connection.

[34:11] And so it's just being intentional about using those resources and using them properly to get a whole sense of the big picture. Yeah. No, man, thank you for that.

[34:21] So I was a preacher boy in Bible college, which means you're 18 or 19 and you get taught what a commentary is and immediately you just fall in love with commentaries.

[34:35] So I remember time and again, like, I'm going to read the word. So I would get out like four or five commentaries and spread them out on my bed and then I would read a verse and then I would go to each commentary and completely confuse myself.

[34:47] It is possible to overwhelm yourself with resources. It's possible to open up that study Bible and be like, well, so that's what the map of Phoenicia looks like, you know, and it's like, oh, I got to go to work.

[35:00] Well, next time, you know, like we have all been there and we know that resources can be a distraction, but brother, you're so right. They can be so helpful and thank you for sharing that.

[35:12] I was just going to say, for me, it's consistency. I have a prayer plus in my bathroom when I get ready in the morning, I pray for all of my family members, all of my nieces and nephews that are away in Germany because it keeps me praying for one and my other thing is the consistency for me now is I've picked out songs to go through that and just kind of pick out and learn from all of the songs and so I try to stay with just one thing and be focused with it, but prayer, by parallel, for me, was really lacking and so I have a lot of picture of them or a reminder or if someone asks me to pray for them, then I just put a little sticky note up there in my closet and then I remember them when I'm praying.

[36:03] So to me, it's consistency and I think I can get out of that really easily. Yeah, fantastic. Thank you for that. I love fitness. I think fitness is fantastic and there's all these workout plans.

[36:16] There's all this nutritional information. There's incredible different devices for working out but I think Wes would probably confirm this. Kettlebell. Kettlebell, but it's consistency, isn't it?

[36:29] It doesn't matter what the implement is. It's consistency. It doesn't matter what the diet is as much as it's discipline to stay on the diet. Even if your method isn't perfect, if you're consistent over time, you're going to get good results.

[36:43] If you pick the perfect method in the perfect diet and you do it every seventh day, what type of result are you going to see, Wes? Absolutely nothing.

[36:55] Evan? Yeah, kind of to follow up on a few of those, one thing that I'd seen Hannah do back in college with some of the girls that she got to meet with on a regular basis in discipleship and a lady that she got to meet with who discipled her.

[37:10] One when, I guess practically speaking, memorizing larger chunks, they did actions that would help them remember, as well as putting sticky notes in the car so that as they were driving or as they were going, they were saying it.

[37:24] You mentioned exercise. There was a guy in college that I had run with a little bit and we would go back and forth saying verses as we ran. Someone in college showed me, they made these little leather packets and you just put note cards in them and just have them with you as you go.

[37:42] So if you're waiting in line to get in the elevator or walking from your car to the workplace or wherever it is, you can pull that out and be memorizing it. So just a few practical things that make it more manageable.

[37:54] Yep, absolutely. Thank you for that, brother. Yeah, I can say for myself, when it comes to meditation, scripture memorization has just been such a blessing. And then also I can say, for me personally, it's been praying scripture, specifically praying psalms.

[38:12] And yeah, I don't know when I started doing that, but it was so funny because I'd grown up in the church but I'd never heard anybody talk about doing that. The psalms, they're poems, they're songs, but they are the prayers of God's people and they've been given as a gift to the church.

[38:29] And it's so funny. It just clicked one day, it's like, these are prayers and I can pray these ones and these ones are in the Bible so these are good prayers to pray. Yeah, so I'm going to pray these.

[38:41] Brother. I was just going to say, I think I love hearing all the different ideas about how to learn to delight in the Lord and delight in His Word and that type of thing.

[38:54] And to kind of piggyback on what I think Kendra was sharing is that there's not one set way. And I think sometimes we fall into the trap of, oh, I heard this speaker or I read this book and it's all about journaling.

[39:08] If I don't journal then I'm not spiritually mature. Yep. And I will tell you, I've never journaled in my life and I'm not going to start now. And it reminds me of what Henry Blackvey said in Experiencing God years and years ago when I went through that and he talked about Moses at the burning bush and he made the point that if Moses were alive today he would write a book How to Find Your Burning Bush.

[39:36] Our relationship with God is not a formula. Yeah. I think I love hearing all these different things because not one thing works for everybody and not one method works for everybody.

[39:48] And we need to get away from feeling guilty if we don't use a certain method that somebody's pushing. but we need to find a way to make it real to us and to make it something that infects our life daily type thing.

[40:04] Brother, thank you for that. I think you're 100% right. Guys, we have liberty in our Christian faith. Some of us love to read. Some of us love to write.

[40:14] Some of us love to listen. Some of us love to memorize. Some of us love to journal. There's freedom. What I would encourage is to think of maybe one thing.

[40:25] Just one. Doesn't have to be big but something that you haven't done before or haven't done recently and just give that a try. Because just like Paul said, I mean, there's been a lot of great ideas that are out here and it's like, okay, what if we all just chose one?

[40:40] It doesn't need to be the same one. We're not the Soviet army or something like that. We're individuals but just choose one and just try something a little bit differently. All right, so question three.

[40:54] What are some more streams of water that nourish us in the Christian life? How have you tapped into these streams and how have they impacted you?

[41:04] So I think this is going to be similar to some of the things that we already said but when I was thinking about streams of water as I was preparing the sermon, I think the most important one is the word itself.

[41:15] I do think that that is the stream and it follows right after the description of the blessed man delighting and meditating in the word. But also, I think a stream of water is prayer and then another one was Christian community.

[41:30] But I do think that there are some others though. Do you guys have any thoughts about what some of those are or could be? I've been really encouraged by Timothy Keller's sermons and they're just available in podcasts and so it's been great for me because sometimes when I hadn't had time to sit down in the morning and then I was about to start an audio book or something in the afternoon it's like I haven't been in the word today and I can't necessarily sit down right now but I can listen to a sermon and so that's been a really big blessing.

[42:04] Excellent. Thank you. Oh yeah. Come on Michael. Race west. You got there first. Michael by a nose. Something for me that I've been more intentional about is I have a 45 minute drive now to work every day and so something that I've been doing is just streaming pastors on my way to work and something that's impacted me in that way is I think about it more when I'm at work versus the days where I'm just listening to music I'm actually focusing on God throughout the day when I'm actually in reading or listening to these sermons and things like that and it definitely changes my whole day of how I look at it whether it's you know with the downcast attitude of I just drove 45 minutes and now I have to work it definitely changes my whole day my whole attitude as I go throughout that day.

[42:59] Michael thank you for that and brother before you go I just wanted to ask what are some of the pastors you've been listening to or ones that you would recommend for us? David Platt John Piper those are the guys mostly that I listen to but I also listen to a former pastor that I had when I was in Kansas City at Northland Baptist Church he's a professor of theology at Midwestern so he's another guy that I listen to fantastic thank you for that Michael's recently moved his job location so he's got that 45 minute drive on 75 which we all know is incredibly boring and instead of feeling sorry for himself man he's redeeming that time way to go brother I was going to say on the radio it was really great to listen yeah they've got a lot of really great pastors to preach and I almost I don't even really like listening to Christian music on the radio it's just it's really it's really there's something new in your parents I didn't know that before they've got a lot of some new lineups and new pastors on there too but a lot of really top line creatures on rock radio all through the day and you can get through the Bible with Jay Furner McGee still and that's a five year thing and he goes all the way through the Bible he just started this five year tour about two months ago anyway he can just pick up a lot of stuff and just catch a little bit even if it's a five minute ride someplace you hear something and you're okay you know

[44:27] I remember that I just encourage you to go back and look it up later yeah fantastic brother thank you yeah I mean I'm it's so funny I wrote down some ideas but I didn't write down preaching and this is why we need each other I mean that's a great idea I'm a reader so I love reading biographies and those have been some of the I think cornerstones of why I have become you know part in ministry and those things but the you know Jim Elliot story Adam Aaron Johnson brother Andrew I think we've read that like ten times gospel yeah the hiding place I mean to watch these believers walk out their faith in difficult circumstances it's encouraging to us absolutely and I have that written down it's like and we can read we can be we can have a relationship with believers who have come before us

[45:32] I mean Caitlin has just been reading so much C.S. Lewis this year and it's amazing just the impact that C.S. Lewis has had on her life and on her thinking even though C.S. Lewis died long ago it's incredible I mean these are still streams of water for me I love Augustine and I've read his confessions multiple times and each time I read it it just staggers me because it's like this guy lived 1600 years ago and he's saying the exact same things that I say that I struggle with just like you said brother about struggling with this distraction it's like Augustine we'll talk about that but he lived in the 400s it's amazing what were you going to say I'm going through a spiritual guidance I'm reminded of the verse that Jacob in the fourth chapter of John when he's speaking to the that they did well and he says crucifixion of water that I give to him for men first but the water that I give him will become in him a fountain of water bringing forth and be going to life amen thank you yeah

[46:39] I'm going to turn on the next time if you see you said nowhere you have never time to sleep I'm late yeah me too Jerry you rest in the Lord guys I think another stream for us we mentioned it earlier is the communion of the saints it is Christian fellowship and I think a part of that is discipleship relationships this goes to accountability but boy that is a stream of water it is so essential and I think that's one of the reasons why discipleship type relationships are so significant I know for me I was a young missionary in Bosnia all by myself I had no idea what I was doing and a guy from a different missions agency took me under his wing and his presence in my life

[47:39] I mean absolutely nourishing I had been nursing some strange doubts in my mind and when I had somebody mentoring me in the faith discipling me all my doubts went away it was amazing how that worked well I have a bunch of you know I'm part time because I'm here and in the morning I used to come up here 6 or 6.30 in the morning I'm having a radio on a CD player and guys like McCartner and Jacob and some others but anyway I used to listen to to Christian talk show of course Russell passed away but anyway I just I lost my train of thought but anyway it helped me work when I'm here also the question before

[48:49] I use I'm into the Parns or David's Bible it takes a few pictures of old Christian and then with songs and properties in between it goes through the whole Bible that way I'm a little bit behind I get distracted too anyway one time I got so far behind I asked what are you going to do just give up I gave it up in the past I decided I'm just going to keep light in the way and I'm going to probably retire from a second job in the year but I'll still keep this job for a while but I'll have a good time but you know what when you think about time when I come home I'm tired all I do is sit down watch TV my cat in my lap you know and I'm thinking I'm going to watch the same thing over and over that's our big thing we like to come over and over again when

[50:01] I tell Pam I said stay and work together but anyway that's what I had said thank you brother yeah I think just in interest of time oh brother you're already standing were you standing to speak or stand to okay get in there brother you mentioned something about accountability the church we were members of before we moved here I was part of accountability group about four or five men and we'd meet every Thursday morning no no set pattern we would each we come in and we find a piece of piece of scripture we like we write it down we come in and we all learn it or get committed to memory before the next time we meet but we would sit there and talk and we would share with each other as time went on we opened up more and more about our own things and that's something

[51:02] I know that women have that ability to seek out somebody they can sit and share their life with men seem to I can't do that I can't do that but that's one of the things we had there and you know something I'd love to see again but one of the things I do when I'm studying or reading scripture if I have a piece of scripture that I see that I really like I will stop and I've got a stack of three by five card and I'll write that scripture on there and I've got several stacks and at times I'll just stop and take one of those stacks out and just go through those and as I'm sitting out there yeah fantastic thank you for that you put a date on each card when you do it okay trying something new you know just in interest of time we're going to keep going but I think that we could probably hang out here for quite some time so how does the way the

[52:03] Bible speaks of prosperity contrast with the way that the world understands prosperity why is it sometimes a challenge to think biblically about success I know this is a big question and time is fleeing from us but I think it's an important one yeah come on Cameron oh it's Ted he says how does the way the Bible speak of prosperity contrast with the way that the world understands prosperity the world prosperity all you got to do is look at today like you're talking about Elon Musk and all these others their prosperity which one it is I think it it was 200 something million billion dollars Oprah Windrush what 3 billion dollars now that's the way of prosperity I've got all this but God's way of prosperity is far different from there prosperity for us is that closer relationship with him where we are just filled with joy from just having the presence of the

[53:18] Lord around us absolutely thank you brother Cameron what were you going to say pretty close to kind of what what Ted was saying but I yeah I think when you when you kind of look at that but you almost take it a little a little deeper the world when it talks about prosperity it's it's a it's a selfish kind of thing right it's it's the amount of wealth I can attain and when the Bible speaks of prosperity it's it's Christ centered right it's it's the complete opposite of selfishness he is our treasure right it's a humility it's it's a it's a humble practice right that that we know that our our place isn't here that Christ has done everything for us he's paid the ultimate price not hey look at all the prices

[54:21] I can pay so I think when you get down to the base of it it's just this total spiritual difference right there's this self centered how much can I make versus the Christ centered he is our prosperity fantastic thank you for that as you were speaking brother my mind was was just lighten up it made me think of I believe Genesis 12 God comes to Abraham and he says Abraham I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward God says I am your reward it's not like I'm going to reward you with other stuff it's like no you get me and the same thing for the tribe Levi did not because the Lord himself was Levi's inheritance and I think as a kid I might have looked at that and be like man Levi got ripped off and then it's like oh no it's the other way around because Israel got conquered time and again but Levi man their inheritance was

[55:22] God himself what were you going say brother! you know the glad of these that we have a tremendous spiritual thank you here's some of the things that's in our bank account we've been adopted we've been accepted we have redemption forgiveness wisdom inheritance to seal the Holy Spirit life grace citizenship in heaven to menace the wealth that we have in the kingdom and oh how many times will I have a question absolutely brother thank you for that

[56:26] I got it I got it you know how you put that word in there and it comes back to you first Timothy chapter six is about well when you get down to the second part of verse two the heading here says false teachers and true contentment so look it up but the verse that came to me was verse six it said but godliness with contentment is great gain and that is the difference this the first part of that verse of those verses talk about the different doctrines the person who preaches the word for worldly gain he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy dissension slander evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth imagining that godliness is a means to gain fantastic thank you for that so yeah just read that first first timothy six that would be a good one when you want to know what the difference is because and there's in there you've heard that and it's quoted in the world too for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and we confuse prosperity for what prospers us for sure okay thank you just because time is running out actually has already run out we're just going to look at number five quickly so how does seeing

[58:26] Christ in psalm one impact the way that you read and apply it I think for me when I see Christ in psalm one it's it's more the way the whole bible points towards Christ and who he is and sometimes when we read a passage we read something about you know whether it's David or Samuel and sometimes we forget that Christ is in every bit of the word that we read and sometimes it's for us to go and seek it out to see where Christ is in that story and that's why I love the gospel project because that's the whole idea is that it points towards Christ and the story of you know from Genesis to Revelation it all points towards him and his story and that redemptive work that's coming and the redemption that's already happened for us after that so

[59:28] I think that impacts me the most is where is Jesus in this story what is he doing in the lives of these people to redeem them yeah fantastic brother thank you for sharing that somebody else have something I think for me and I talked about some in the message!

[59:48] today! I heard of our faith maybe I was misunderstanding what preachers were saying but I also think no maybe I was understanding it so much of it just seemed to be try harder do better and that was incredibly burdensome and it was dry and there was no life there and then just later in life just being taught to see Christ throughout scripture it's a book that points to!

[60:19] I think he teaches these two believers that the Bible points to Jesus himself starting to see the word Christologically just made it come to life and so it's like even reading the psalms I think Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the psalms those are the prayers of Jesus and when we read them it's the voice of Jesus that we hear and it's like oh wow that's profound that's wonderful and suddenly the Psalms are more alive to me than they've ever been before.

[60:53] Yeah, I think it is a book about Christ. And when we see him in it, I think it honors him. Let's pray together. Lord, we love you.

[61:05] Thank you so much for loving us. Thank you for your word. God, we need your help. God, I pray that you help us to love your word more. I pray that you help us to spend more time in it.

[61:17] God, I pray that you help us to focus on it, Lord. As Jerry said, and I think all of us could admit, so often our minds are distracted and filled with other thoughts and other ideas.

[61:28] God, we pray that you help us to focus on your word this week. And Lord, we don't want to just be hearers of your word. We want to be doers also, Father.

[61:38] Help us to obey what we read. God, I pray that you would make it alive to us. And give us opportunities, Lord, to tell other people about it. We bless your name.

[61:49] We thank you so much for the blessings that we have in Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.