I want to continue sharing on the subject of Christian meditation Christian meditation and how that this is one of the most vital if you will best practice in my own personal life and I have seen so much fruit come out of the discipline the Christian discipline of meditating on the Lord and what does that mean what does that look like and so I want to continue sharing on this we saw in our last session that our hearts and the meditation of our hearts is the secret place where God meets us Jesus said Matthew chapter 6:
6 and while all of us can have physical places that are a secret place where we get alone with the Lord and try to shut the things down of the world in our minds and open our hearts up to the Lord you can find the secret place anywhere because it's your heart it's your heart and meditation is a discipline of the heart it's not memorization like we saw last week where it's just a mental exercise but it really is a spiritual exercise and discipline where we're learning to set our mind on things above not on
things below so let's look at this passage in Psalms 19 again verse 14 and I just love the way the Solomon says this let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart meditation is of your heart let the words of my mouth which is a part of meditation one of the definitions of meditation is mutter is to mutter let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our of my heart be acceptable to you or acceptable in your sight oh Lord my strength and My Redeemer so believe it or not everyone
meditates all the time whether they know it or not one of the reasons that it's important that you understand that is because I'll start sharing down this line and inevitably somebody will come up to me and say yeah you talk about meditating day and night you're the preacher of course you need to meditate day and night I got to work for a living boy I don't like that one by the way how many of you know again that your mind was created to be thinking all the time you cannot not think it's impossible now some
of us act like we're not thinking but it is it is impossible to not think your mind was created to go 24/7 it's going and you have to learn how to set it on the things of the Lord you have to learn how to have the meditation of your heart listen be acceptable unto the Lord see there's unacceptable meditation and then there's acceptable meditation and meditations of the of the heart the word meditate again let's go quickly through this but the word meditate means to ponder to ponder and to ponder is to go into deep
thought when you're pondering something you're thinking about it deeply you're absorbed by it you're focused on it it you're reflecting on it I like to say you're thinking about your thoughts instead of just having thoughts come and go you're arresting your thoughts and you're setting those thoughts and realigning those thoughts with God's thoughts and God's ways and that's what meditation meditation is it is to ponder it is to to if you will think about what God just said to you and be absorbed by it the second definition of meditation that is huge is imagination imagination
your imagination brothers and sisters is a gift from God I don't know if you've really ever sat down and thought about how precious your imagination is and your ability to see things your ability to visualize your ability to perceive something and you're actually using your imagination every day and many people have no idea what they're doing but they're actually meditating how many of you know ladies when you go shopping you're imagining things you're seeing sales 10% off 20% off when we go hunting we're imagining things and a woman shopping is hunting she's hunting for a
bargain she's hunting for a sale she's hunting for a discount and even in the giving and receiving of directions you're using your imagination you use your imagination when you cook you're using your imagination when you lose your keys or in my case your car where did I park that thing you're constantly imagining you're constantly seeing you're constantly visualizing we just need to learn how to make sure the meditation of our heart is acceptable to God versus now unacceptable to to God it literally means again Vision dreams did you know every time you're dreaming you're imagining
when you have hope that's an imagination and a part of your imagination The Architects that have put together our new church and the facility and what it's going to look like they they had to get into my imagination and our campus pastor's imagination and then they had to imagine and put all that into pictures into something we could see that's already in our hearts but as we're faithful to God and obedient to God he's going to be bring substance faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of Things Not Seen when you go
out into the four year you're going to see this beautiful facility you're going to see beautiful classrooms you're going to be seeing and that's us helping you with your imagination and Faith TAPS in and brings substance to our imagination I had the privilege at some kind of art show this was years ago I can't remember the details but I saw this magnificent Chief Indian and full headdress of a chief Indian that was carved out of a log that was carved out of a log and it just fascinated me it Arrested me it was just amazing
to me that somebody could do that and I had the privilege of the artist being there the artist was there and I got so excited and to me I couldn't imagine how you could do that and how gifted that is and just remarkable and so I had the privilege to talk to the artists and say how did you do that how did you do that because I couldn't imagine and the little imagination I did have was totally messed up to my amazement the artist said well here's what I do I look at this log and
I see The Indian in the log and I cut away everything that's not of the Indian do you realize when God looks at you he sees the Indian in you Christ in you the hope of glory and all God is doing is cutting away everything else that's not of Christ in your life and the good news is God like this artist with passion and care and love for his creation God the ultimate artist of the universe looks at you and me and he sees Jesus in us he sees what he pre-ordained us to be before
the foundation of the world and while man is looking at my outer appearance and all the wood God is looking at Christ in me the hope of glory and cutting away lovingly passionately and mercifully everything that's not of Christ in my life Hallelujah man I'm glad God's got an imagination Hallelujah cuz some of you look at me and I don't even want to articulate what you see but I tell you when God looks at me he sees something totally different amen when he looks at you he sees something totally different than your parents saw than
your friends see and that the world sees imagination came from God he's the ultimate creator of the universe he's the ultimate artist of the universe he's the ultimate architect of the entire universe and now we're created in His image and in his likeness and meditating is just imagining the good things of God in our lives I've taken Romans 8:2 hate and when something bad happens to me and your imagination tries to get away from you and you start seeing negative unacceptable imaginations of your heart I begin to discipline my heart and watch in my mind
God just work it together for my good God what good do you have for me you didn't do this to me you you have nothing but good will toward me but this hurts and this is bad and it's trying to affect my imagination and give me me pictures lord of the good give me images of the good that you're going to bring out of even this this bad in my life and so that's what that's what your imagination does so you've got Ponder you've got to imagine and then the third definition of meditation is to
mutter is to mutter and to mutter is to speak in a low tone to mutter listen carefully is to verbalize what's in abundance in your heart that's why I say everybody meditates yeah everybody going around murmuring and complaining you're meditating you're seeing nothing but the bad you're visualizing nothing but the bad you're three weeks late on your car payment and all you can see is them possessing your car you can see that that truck coming out jacking your car the front of your car up and pulling it off and you're just murmuring you're just complaining
you're just uttering and verbalizing the abundance of your heart and it's producing worry and anxiety and fear thank you for that Thunder Applause yeah people mutter all the time under their breath how bad things are how the weather is so bad right how the it's either too hot and it won't be but just a few weeks later it's too cold just meditating on the negative meditating on how bad things are seeing and visualizing nothing going your way that's meditating and I guarantee you there's people that do it day and night and still work thank you
thank you no seriously thank you I I did a full full circle and you may not know it but I just nailed you Hallelujah because people will say well I just came I got to work I got to focus I got to concentrate I'm not saying we don't focus on our work I'm saying you can be muttering you can be if you will articulating verbalizing what's in abundance in your heart and be thanking God for his promises while you're working just like people murmur and complain about their problems while they're working matter of fact go
to Psalms 1 Psalms chapter 1 and this this blesses me beyond measure for me personally but it should bless everyone within the sound of my voice of the Christian discipline the best practices of a believer in the meditations of your heart in learning how to meditate on the goodness of God meditate on the works of God many Psalms we won't have time to get to everything but many Psalms talk about how we are to on our bed even meditate on the wonderful works of God you need to meditate on the work of the Cross you
need to how many of you know you're New Creation you're born again spirit is a work of the Cross you need to be meditating on who you are in Christ what you have in Christ what you can do in Christ instead of who you're not after the flesh I was dominated in my mind I was dominated and pondered the negative after my flesh I imagined nothing and could see nothing but my flesh and the weaknesses of My Flesh and I muttered all the time I complained all the time I remember my parents even trying to
discipline me on complaining and I was an expert at it they had modeled it perfectly they were even complaining about my complaining murmuring and complaining about my murmuring and complaining and so I had to I had to after I had an open vision of the Cross and God recalculated my entire life I had to discipline my mind and retrain my mind to meditate and the meditations of my heart be now acceptable to the Lord and that's in Thanksgiving and that's in praise and that's in seeing the work of God imagining God's word is true on
what you've been made now in Christ Jesus what you have in Christ Jesus and what now you can do in Christ Jesus look at Psalms 1 blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path or way of a sinner nor sets in the seat of the scornful but his Delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night look at all these benefits he'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water how many of you know trees planted
by the rivers of water endure the Winds of adversity that brings forth his fruit in his season a person that learns to to discipline the meditations of the heart has fruit and is bearing fruit in its proper season who whose Leaf also shall not wither wouldn't you like to be an evergreen in the kingdom of God instead of being four different seasons and we don't know which season is even going to show up at church do you act like you really got that without me explaining it but it's like dear God it's summer and there
are no leaves on your tree it's like winter has set in I like this whose Leaf also shall not wither now this is the most important part that I want you to get today and whatsoever he does whatsoever he does shall Pro Prosper whatsoever he does shall prosper meditating itting going into a cave crossing your legs and humming 2 47 meditation is not isolation from my vocation but it's learning to discipline my heart and the meditations of my heart in my vocation and because of the discipline of my heart and the meditation of my heart
being acceptable God blesses my vocation amen this isn't just for the preacher is what I'm trying to say it doesn't matter what you do you're fulfilling God's Will and all of us have a vocation and we cannot isolate we can only separate from the world and we can only find that secret place in our own hearts and make that choice to call out to God and say Lord let let the words of my mouth let my muttering and the meditation of my heart heart be acceptable in your eyes I I will be like a tree
planted one of the problems with Christianity Today is people don't get planted in a good a good church the house of the Lord so much transplanting happening that people minimize their fruit I'm not saying God doesn't move us from one Church to another it takes too long to explain every main thought even or massage every principle that you share there's times there's no doubt God will move You from One Church to another church but all this transplanting and never getting planted is affecting fruit in people's lives you can take a tomato plant if you plant
it let's just say it'll give 25 Tomatoes let's just hypothetically you'll get 25 Tomatoes expect 25 tomatoes out of it well if you transplant it you nearly cut that harvest in half and only get 12 13 or 12 and A2 I didn't do well in math but a half a tomato in my brain right now doesn't look very good on a vine so it's either 12 or 13 tomato what if you transplant it again and you transplant it again and what if the tomato plant is following the glory cloud and the glory cloud is on
this church today or this weekend but the glory Cloud won't be there next week it'll be over here at this church you know one of these days if I was here all the time you would figure me out and when you don't like what I say you would just clap because you would know I'll move on cuz soon as you get quiet oh I found my secret place that I need to dwell for a moment because people have no concept anymore of being planted of being an evergreen of bearing fruit in our seasons and the
disciplines of the Christian faith are not just religious the disciplines of the Christian faith are not legalism Grace is is not opposed to discipline amen Grace is opposed to earning something from God Amen it's these disciplines that make a huge difference in our lives and we need to be honest a lot of people go to church and they'll sit they'll listen it'll have an effect on them but they don't Ponder what the holy spirit is saying to them they don't leave with their imagination engaged on what is God doing in my heart muttering Truth versus
lies thanking God for his faithfulness and his work in your life versus complaining about what's going wrong in all your circumstances and etc etc this is a Christian discipline that will prosper you no matter what you do whatever he does shall shall prosper look at this I hope I I I got the notes right look at Psalms chapter 1 in The Message Bible hopefully we got this we got this right for the notes because nobody's carrying probably a a message Bible uh with them it's going to take me a minute to find my message Bible
hopefully they have it oh yeah now read this with me kind of not out loud but read this as I read it to you yep that's it how well God must like you now I like that already I could I could spend a day right there because I had an attitude that God loved me but it's because of his nature and he had to but he really doesn't like me right and man when I begin to meditate on wait a minute God does love me because it's his nature is who he is but he likes
me yeah man you can't meditate on that all day long and mutter that all day long while you're working and while you're going throughout your day you just father thank you today that you do love me but you like me you know Lord I know I know it's not theologically right but I know I'm your favorite that's I I know you have my picture in your wallet that everywhere you go God you got my picture in there just don't show it to the devil job never mind let that go let that go you'd have to
know the Bible to follow that yeah and see people would think well that's arrogant well that's self-centered well that's self-absorbed see what they don't know is that I know what you don't know he's got your picture in his wallet too am amen amen see I know things you don't know even about you God likees you too cuz he's no respector of persons I'm sorry I got I got bogged down in the meditations of my heart out of the abundance Matthew 12334 out of the abundance my mouth just spoke there I couldn't get past that how
well God must like you now look at this you don't walk in the ruts of those blind as bats I have to read that slow Lord don't let him understand what I confessed how many of you know that the world is blind as a bat and I'm not condemning the world for being blind as a bat when I was in the world I was blind as a bat you don't stand with the good for nothings that's the coffee shop that didn't fly I don't I'm talking about even when I was a young Pastor in the
Methodist Church all the preachers on Monday would meet at the coffee shop and run their churches down run their people down how bad the service was and man I finally got booted out of the good for nothing Club because I had nothing but good to say I said man we had a wonderful service those people were precious Allelujah their lives were changed it was a mini Revival you think the other preachers would clap but oh no all the good for nothings can see nothing but bad I love that don't stand with the good for nothings
you don't take your seed among the know-it-alls y'all never met a know-it-all they're disgusting you know it's amazing how everybody wants to know everything but nobody likes I know it all right arrogant self-centered there's no smoke in the room unless it's coming out of their chimney that'll hit you later instead you thrill to God's word you chew on scripture day and night you chew on it you're a a tree replanted in Eden bearing fresh fruit every month never dropping a leaf always in Blossom man I love that you chew you chew on the scriptures he
he replaced meditate with chew because that's what meditation is you're chewing on the things of God you're chewing on God's love for you you're thinking about it you don't feel loved you feel like a date dropped on prom night sometimes and you got to chew on God loves me when it feels like nobody loves me God loves me no matter what I'm going thank you I just chew on God loves me day and night I'm a pseudo Rancher I have four horses I have two cows I have 15 chickens I'm a Rancher and the cows
I used to have like eight cows and a bull and because I travel so much the bull would break out of the fences and get on my neighbors and then I'd get a call your bull is in my pasture and I would just feel terrible because I can't I can't get back anyway that that's too much information we only have two cows now and no bulls and and the cows they will they will all day long graze and they can listen they can eat up to 50 pounds of grass and they only have one stomach
but they've got four compartments in the one stomach and what they'll do is they'll graze all day long and then they'll sit under a tree and chew their cud just sit there chewing for hours they actually upchuck throw up [Laughter] they all day long and they break the the grass down and the minerals and the nutrients and the vitamins and then it would go into another compartment of that one stomach and then it would get in their bloodstream and get into their muscles and can anybody say praise the Lord for prime rib they have to
feed on the land and then meditate on it all afternoon chewing on it breaking it down and assimilating it throughout its system in order for the fruit the byproduct of that grass that we get to enjoy down the down the road when I grew up as a kid in Orlando Florida my dad had a garden year round because of the weather and uh our family had a green thing demon on it and this is when I know people know how to hear because I'm going to say this and I guarantee you some of you aren't
going to hear it right uh and my heart goes out to you you'll get better at having an ear to hear but when I say green things I'm not talking about lettuce green beans Green Tomatoes I'm talking about green things mustard greens turnup greens spinach greens Green things and my dad had this demon on him and he would grow these green things all year round and my mom God rested her soul she wasn't a very good cook anyway uh but I hated the green things I'm talking I hated them you know you don't remember things
when you're a baby in a diaper but later in life mom told me that I used to hide the green things in my diaper that's how bad I hated them I like the red things the yellow things oh I love the brown things that was usually eat but the green things I didn't like them when I first got married Sue was learning how to cook for me and the things I enjoyed and she was from the North Indiana I was from Florida the South and I couldn't believe she didn't know what okra was she didn't
know what blackeyed peas were how can you be alive and not know what blackeyed peas are and so she was conscious of our diet and wanted to put green things on the plate and so she asked me about this and I said look if you want to put green things on my plate to make me happy put $100 bills on it that make me happy and so mama would say and and my parents weren't Christians they were good people they weren't Christians and the only scripture my mother knew was eat such things that are set
before you and she'd quote that all the time and she'd say Dwayne I didn't like that either like the guy I talked about last week well Mama had this tone Dwayne I didn't like either Dwayne the green things have things in them that the brown things don't have and I would say yeah bad taste they didn't appreciate my wit at all and so she go no no no there's vitamin A's and B's and D's and when you eat it Dwayne and you chew it all those vitamins get all over your body that sounded spooky to
me I don't want a bunch of letters of the alphabet running through my body but how many of you know mama was right that as long as those green things stay on the plate I can memorize them I can learn everything about them students listen up I can quote them I can sound like a green thing experts called a Pharisee but until I take them off of that plate and I chew them and I digest them they don't benefit my body whatsoever many people have not got this concept that you can't just hear the word
of God faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God but your faith is dead until you act on it you can be bookm Bible book smart you can know the religious phraseologies but every one of us have to take the word of God and chew on it meditate on it and somehow another there's something miraculous about God's word once it takes root in your heart you will bear much fruit amen amen go to Ezekiel I was going to quote these but I think people need to see them I saw them and it
it revolutionized my understanding of the word of God and how to relate to the word of God Ezekiel chapter 3 God makes an amazing statement to this prophet and I promise you it will benefit you if you can connect to the truth of what it means to meditate to chew on the word of God to leave a service to leave a conference to leave even your secret place where God speaks to you and meets with you in the secret place that there are things God will say to you but you're going to have to meditate
on it you're going to have to chew on it you're going to have to think about it ponder it reflect on it in order to get the life out of God's word that he intends for you to get until the word goes from the from the letter of the word to the spirit of the word it won't have the full impact God intends for it to have on your life did you get that it has to go from the letter God said and the letter is important and what God Said is important but what did
God mean and how does that word from God apply to you then you're equipped properly to help somebody else we want to jump from a church service of hearing and just the letter to helping someone else and we create damage many times because what we're trying to say is not alive on the inside of us yet it's in our stomach but you got to throw it up you got to you got to chew your spiritual cud I know you said but what did you mean I know you said if my hand offend me cut it
off but I really need to understand the meeting cuz I want to write some more books are you out there right it's one thing to know God said if your hand offend you cut it off if your eye offend you pluck it out it's another thing to know what he meant Amen to chew on it to make meditate on it to ponder it to imagine it to mutter it where it gets all over your life oh that's good look at this Ezekiel 3 he told me son of man eat what you see eat this book
oh I'm sorry I just get I see pictures can you see him the scroll ripping it and eating it he just told you eat what you see that's a part of meditation and eat this book then go and speak to the family of Israel until we eat until we feed until we are drinking the milk of God's word and eating the meat of God's word we need to be cautious and careful what we're saying to other people I'm not saying we shouldn't be saying to other people I'm not saying we shouldn't be witnessing and sharing
the good things of God I'm saying have you ate it first before you try to cram it down someone else's face many times we're trying to force feed people something of the kingdom of God that we have chewed on yet amen am this is helpful you may not understand it yet but this is helpful right then go and speak to the family of Israel as I opened my mouth he gave me the scroll to eat saying son of man eat this book that I'm giving you make a full a full meal of it I love
you but a lot of Christians they just want desserts at church all the time give us the desserts because there's a lot of deserts in the kingdom of God Amen but how many of you know you need to eat some meat you need to drink some milk when Israel sorry when when Israel was told hey eat the lamb for the Passover the Passover meal in Exodus chapter 12 God said you got to eat all of it you got you got to eat all of it all of it right all of it you mean like all
of it yeah all of it we just want the ham we just want the backstrap Hallelujah and of course all the desserts and of course in the in the kingdom of God be not drunk on wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit a lot of us just want to get into the wine seller y'all aren't getting this yeah make a full meal of it so I ate it it tasted so good I'm in The Message Bible bless my heart maybe that's why y'all aren't getting it my bad moreover he said to me verse one
son of man eat what you find eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel so I opened my mouth and he caused me to eat that scroll and he said to me son of man feed your belly and fill your stomach with the scroll that I give you it's not enough just to get it in our stomach like the cow you got to chew on it he goes on to say so I ate and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness then he said to me son of man go to
the house of Israel and speak my words to them so the thing I'm trying to get across even with our family members boy this I'm not out of time bless my heart this time many times children struggle with parents because they're telling them one thing but they haven't fed on it long enough to change their hearts change their lives and model to the children what they're trying to say to their children children amen so you'll learn if you if you would have gave me a standing ovation right there I would have never brought up parenting
and children again no no no no it's too late too late are you getting what I'm saying let's let's help you get it this way have you ever had someone talking to you the Bible and the whole time they're thought talking you're thinking my God you need to revisit that right come on go to go to the Book of Revelation chapter 10 John's on the the island of patmas here and uh experiencing one of the deepest greatest revelations in the whole word of God the revelation of Jesus Christ and his overcoming Church look at what
did I say uh Revelation 10 go to verse 8 I think let me look verse eight then the voice which I heard from Heaven spoke to me again and said go take the little book which is open in the hand of the Angel who stands on the sea and on the earth so you've got this Angel that's standing on the sea and standing on the on the earth and this Angel has a little book so I went to the angel and said to him give me the little book and he said unto me take and
eat it take and eat it and it will make your stomach notice where it goes first into the stomach it'll make your stomach bitter but it will be sweet as honey in your mouth oh my god did you see the spiritual cud I'm so disappointed I've got to get better at this did you not see eat it is not going to be a pleasant word how many you know some of the things God says to us do not cause you to break out in your happy dance he says it's going into your stomach and it's
going to be bitter but look at this again take and eat it and it will make your stomach bitter but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth in other words you put it on the inside of you and you chew on it and it goes from bitter this is a hard word but oh God loves oh this is awesome this is going to set people free oh it just seems so bitter because of the culture and this is going to be just an offense to the culture but if I speak it in
love as I chew on it I see oh this is sweet it's going to set people free we're going to help a whole generation understand there's two genders and you need to know your gender to fulfill your destiny and don't let the world in identity confusion destroy your destiny it's sweet sounds bitter when it goes into your stomach at first but you chew on it long enough and you see the power of it you see the goodness of it you see the plan of it the God designed me and God created me and my Divine
Design matches my Divine Purpose so the devil wants to confuse our Divine Design and our children's Divine Design to keep them from their Divine Purpose and so when we speak the truth in love that we've digested and chewed on it it'll be it'll be sweet in our mouth then I took the little book out of the Angel's hand and ate it oh I used to read that and I saw a little book and poor John trying to chew up a book how many of you know you need to get that picture right you didn't know
that either you need to get that picture right that the word of God is the book and we don't chew literally and eat literally the Bible we Chew in our hearts in the secret place the word of God and then he rewards us openly in this life hallelujah amen I took the little book out of the Angel's hand and ate it and it was sweet as honey in my mouth but when I had eaten it my stomach became bitter and he said to me you must prophesy again about many people's Nations tongues and Kings before
you prophesy before you speak and your words would be spirit in life I want you to to chew on it meditate on it day and night I want you to get all the nutrients out of it all the vitamins out of it all the minerals out of it in your inner man where you're not speaking the letter any longer but you're literally speaking and your words are spirit and Truth the way we feed on the things of God is meditating on them day and night the way we feed on today's message message is to find
something that God is saying to you personally and don't let it Escape don't let the fowls of the air the devil come and snatch that word out of your heart before it has time to take root before it has time to be watered I'm planting others and the Holy Spirit Will water the seeds as we yield our hearts and the meditation of our hearts to the lord well I can truly say publicly there is nothing in my Christian disciplines or my best practices even in Ministry that have affected me as profound as chewing on the
word of God as feeding on the word of God and I just can't encourage you enough to start disciplining all of the students start disciplining take something make sure you take something out of all your classes I I used to go to to to school and I would spend the same amount in school as you're spending in Bible school and I would spend another six hours every day going back over what I was taught a to make sure it's in the the Bible and to my amazement some of the things I was taught was in
the Bible that'll hit you later and then B what is God saying to me feed on it meditate on it chew on it and I was pastoring by my second year of Bible school I was in full-time Ministry one year after going to Bible School because that first year I meditated in those things day and night they got on the inside of me and then they became a part of my person see I don't think we understand the word still being made flesh Jesus was the word God made flesh but do you realize the Holy
Spirit wants to take God's word and you feed on it to where that word becomes flesh in your life you're supposed to be Paul said you are an epistle talking to the church you are an epistle read and known of all men amen God wants to take the word of God sewn in our hearts and so transform us that that word becomes a part of us I may have just jumped off the cliff for some of you a little bit too deep but I'm telling you it's not the word on those pages that is changing
lives it's the word coming off of those pages and becoming a part of who you are now in Christ Hallelujah just changing lives that doesn't happen casually amen it happens meditating in the word day and night well did any body get anything today Hallelujah [Music]