We Need to Work on Our Meditator First!
Psalm 19:14
DATE: 19 Nov, 2006 AM
PLACE: BBC Ballincollig
I. Introduction (Psalm 19:14)
A. When I completed the last message on “Worship in Heaven”, I thought I was finished with this series. But God thought otherwise. I could not escape the burden that I had only touched the hem of the garment so-to-speak of this great subject of the worship of God Almighty. So here is another truth about Worship!
B. We have learned there is a right way, and a whole lot of wrong ways to worship God. There is a lot of false worship by religious people, and there is even a lot of wasted worship by carnal believers. Why?
1. Because real worship is not a head thing – not just an act of the mind!
2. Real worship starts and finishes in the heart – write this down!
3. Sounds simple – but it is so rare today!
C. Let me say this:
1. Yes, Praying and talking to God is a vital part of true worship
2. Yes, Reading our Bibles and listening to God also is very important
3. But if you take a good look at any of us, we would dare say, that worship is nowhere near vibrant in our lives! It certainly is not showing – not clearly evident!
D. I want to fix that over the next two Sundays!
II. Background (Psalm 19:14)
A. The Core of Who I am is found in My Heart (Pr 23:7)
B. There is a Problem With My Heart (Jer 17:9)
C. All of My Life’s Problems are Heart Problems (Mark 7:18-23)
D. To Be Changed, a Work Must Begin in My Heart (Romans 10:9,10)
E. But That is Where Many of Us have Stopped!
1. We still struggle with our past
2. We still wrestle with sinful thoughts, desires, temptations
3. We still fail to live victoriously, even though we are born again, and Christ is living IN us
4. How can it be that Christians do NOT know how to live above sinful desires, nor how to worship passionately
5. It’s all because we only let God work superficially – we let Him work on the outside, but not really much on the INSIDE
a. Maybe we will change our clothes
b. Maybe we set aside a little time on Sunday mornings
c. Maybe we will stop watching filthy movies
d. Maybe we will try and stop cursing and using profanity
e. But our heart remains the same!
f. And ultimately, so many fall away – why?
g. Because the CHANGE PROCESS must be done in the heart!
F. Let’s Learn How God Continues the Change Process
III. Message – The Write-Way to Worship God is from the Heart
A. The Amazing Human Heart.
1. What an amazing thing this body is – every part is supernatural – but especially the heart!
2. The adult heart pumps about 5 litres of blood each minute – approximately 2,000 gallons of blood each day – throughout the body. That’s 51,100,000 gallons in 70 years. That is as much water as goes over the Niagara Falls in 6 minutes!
3. Your system of blood vessels – arteries, veins and capillaries – is over 60,000 miles long. That's long enough to go around the world almost THREE TIMES!
4. The heart is an incredibly powerful organ. It works constantly without ever pausing to rest. It never gets tired! Try squeezing a rubber ball with your hand once every second - your hand soon gets tired, but your heart beats more 100,000 times each day, that’s more than thirty million times every year. That’s also more than 2.5 billion times in a life-time! It never stops for rest or repair.
5. But that heart is only physical – it will perish. It is NOTHING like the heart of man that the Bible refers to that Jesus wants to dwell in
B. There is Another Heart in Every Person - The Hidden Heart (Eph 3:17)
1. This thing that the Bible calls “the heart” is that part of us that loves, and hates, and feels, and hurts, and most importantly, that part which meditates
2. According to the Bible, the mind thinks, and stores things that it learns, but doesn’t really meditate. It doesn’t reflect about things that it is thinking about – it is mainly a big computer. It is not as important as the heart!
3. Let me demonstrate:
a. We KNOW the truths of the Bible (in our head), and yet struggle to live those truths – something is missing
b. We KNOW the power of God (in our head), but then deny it by our lives – something gets lost in the translation so-to-speak
c. We know things in our heads, where we believe, is in our hearts!
4. Somehow, we have not let the words of Christ (Col 3:16) sink down deep (richly) into our hearts, into our meditators, and so our hearts never get the refreshing, cleansing powers of this Book in them like Jesus said we needed!
5. The simple truth is
a. We will never change the way we act, until we change the way we think!
b. We will never change the way we think until we change the thing that we think most with – the heart
c. And we will never change the heart without a “right, Biblical, truthful, careful, passionately-in-love-with-Jesus kind of meditation!”
6. What does that have to do with worship? Well, we will never fully worship the Lord until our thoughts in our HEARTS are finally lined-up with God’s thoughts in His heart! More about that next week!
C. Meditation is a Work of the Heart
1. The thinking in the heart is more powerful than the thinking of your mind (Prov 3:5,6)
2. The Mind is a Great STORAGE unit, but not a great Meditator
3. Your Heart is your Meditator – where you do your best or worst thinking (Ps 19:14; Gen 6:5,6)
4. The Goal of the Bible is to Change not just our Mind (Rom 12:1,2), but the thinking of our Heart (Ps 139:23,24)
5. To meditate means:
a. To meditate is not a feeling of the heart – it is a thinking in the heart – we say, “What’s on your heart?” when someone is distant, thoughtful.
b. To ponder (Luke 2:19)
c. To slowly think something all the way through, testing it by the truths of God’s words, not by how we feel – no knee-jerk reactions
d. To reflect on – get as much light on what you are thinking as possible before making your conclusion
e. To chew-on – like a cow chews on the same bite of grass FOUR different times before it passes to its small intestines for absorption in its body! That’s meditation. Thinking about something that God says, and then thinking about it again, and then again, and then again!
D. The Importance of Right Meditations
1. Jos 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
2. Psa 1:1,2 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3. Psa 5:1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.
4. Psa 49:3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
5. Psa 63:6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
6. Psa 104:34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.
7. Psa 119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
8. Psa 119:23 Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
9. Psa 119:48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.
10. Psa 119:78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.
11. Psa 119:97 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
12. Psa 119:99 I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.
13. Psa 119:148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
E. How to Rightly Use Our Meditator – This is just an Introduction to what I will show you more fully next week!
1. Set Time – force yourself to start this right habit – mornings!
2. Small Bites – just two chapters, one in Proverbs, and another where you are reading currently
3. Scribble Your Thoughts – use a Daily Journal
4. See the Real Conflict (Isa 55:7) – think AGAINST what you normally think
5. Say Some Great Truth All Day Long – repeat what you learned all through the day (Philp 4:8)
F. If you want the promised blessings of God on your life, let the word of God work first and longest in your heart, not just in your mind!!!
IV. Conclusion
A. The Core of Who I am is found in My Heart
B. There is a Problem With My Heart
C. All of My Life’s Problems are Heart Problems
D. To Be Changed, a Work Must Begin in My Heart
E. That is Where Many of Us have Stopped!
F. But We Have Learned Today Our Heart/Our Meditator Can Be Revived – Can Be Reclaimed from its Past, its Pains, and Its Power over God’s Work in us
1. Set Time – force yourself to start this right habit – mornings!
2. Small Bites – just two chapters, one in Proverbs, and another where you are reading currently
3. Scribble Your Thoughts – use a Daily Journal
4. See the Real Conflict (Isa 55:7) – think AGAINST what you normally think
5. Say Some Great Truth All Day Long – repeat what you learned all through the day (Philp 4:8)
G. The little effort on our part WILL pay off BIG!
V. Next Week – The Write Way of Worshipping God – Part 2
Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church
Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland