Rather than speculating on things that we can't see in the future,
we're focusing, this week, on things that we can see.
And what I can see from Scripture is
what God says about the person who's into the Word of God.
Now, maybe you're like so many,
me included at times, that think,
"Yeah you know what? But when I read the Bible,
I don't always feel like I get anything out of it."
It's interesting. We want immediate gratification.
Because we live in a culture
that wants a good return on their investment.
In other words, if I'm going to spend time reading God's Word,
I want to get something out of it.
Well, God says that you do.
You just don't always see it
immediately in your life.
It's kind of like how Chinese bamboo grows.
Chinese bamboo grows for four years
underneath the surface,
without a single sign of visible growth above the soil.
But then in that fifth year, do you know what happens?
It has explosive growth.
In fact, it grows 90 feet in 30 days.
It grows so fast you can actually see it
and hear it growing.
Now does that mean the first four years
were worthless because you didn't see any visible growth above the soil?
Well, no.
It was sending down roots,
making it possible
to sustain that incredible, explosive growth in the fifth year.
That's the way that it works with reading God's Word sometimes,
Where we read the Word and we don't necessarily see it
but the growth is happening.
Now, what does God say
for the person who is into the Word of God?
Psalm 1 says this.
Meditates on his law day and night.
So, what does it mean to meditate?
It's interesting. In Eastern thought,
the idea of meditation,
is to empty your mind of rational thought.
But Biblically, the idea of meditation,
is to fill your mind, the exact opposite.
With, with spiritual thought.
In fact, that word meditate, is a rich word.
Elsewhere in the Bible, it's translated a little differently.
It's translated as "growl".
So, in Isaiah 43 it says, "As a lion growls over its prey."
So the word meditate is translated as growl there.
What's behind that?
Well, just think this through.
Maybe you have a dog at home.
What happens when you give the dog a treat
or give the dog a bone?
That dog gets consumed by that bone. Right?
Nothing else in the world exists except for that bone.
And you just hear him growling with throaty growls of delight. Right?
He gets lost in it.
That's what God wants us to do when it comes to his Word.
He wants us to meditate on it.
To get lost in it. To be totally consumed by it.
And what happens when we do?
The Psalm goes on and says this
That person yields its fruit in season.
What does that mean? It means that
God is going to give you the words to speak
at the right time.
I think back to when I was a very young pastor.
I like to think I'm still a young pastor, but when I was even younger,
and, and I was setting up
the, the church for a guest preacher
who was coming in to preach for a Thursday night at 7 p.m.,
because we had a service at that time.
And I remember talking to the ushers and my cell phone rings,
and I will always remember it.
It was 6:43, because I looked at the time,
and it was the preacher saying,
"Uh Dave. Yeah. Sorry. I'm not going to be able to make it."
Okay. Contrary to popular opinion, you cannot write a sermon in 17 minutes.
So I just kept greeting people and I started the service
and I got to the sermon and I said some words.
And here's my tip. If you ever need to preach a sermon,
and you don't have one prepared, make it short, right?
So I preached for maybe 10 or 12 minutes
and the service was over and I was greeting people on the way out
and this woman came out and she had tears in her eyes.
And she shook my hand, took my hand, both hands and she said
"Thank you Pastor.
"That's exactly what I needed to hear tonight."
And I thought, really?
Wow, that's awesome.
What did I say? Because I really don't remember.
But God gave the words to speak.
A person who's into the Word of God will yield their fruit in season.
Let's bow our heads and pray.
Lord open now my heart to hear.
And through your Word to me draw near.
Let me your word e'er pure retain.
Let me your child and heir remain.
Amen.
Thank you for watching today.
Today, in the video, we talked about meditating on God's Word.
Really chewing on, you know, Bible passages.
My question for you today is this.
What Bible passage really caused you to meditate?
To, to really chew on and take to heart?
Comment below and God bless your day.