I've been in ministry now for 27 years. I started pastoring when I was 21. And when I was 28, I started studying on this subject on meditation. I was actually reading a little book on how to study God's Word, and it was just a little book by John Piper. And he just had a little part in there about meditation. And he says, if you can do nothing else, meditate. And that was probably, out of all of my years in ministry, probably the most important lesson that I have learned is about meditation. And so when Pastor Tim asked Ben and I to get together and we began to talk about what would the topic be and fellowship came up and discipleship and I was very excited about that. And then as we got to talking, we realized that really for us to disciple, really for us to do anything for the Lord, it really does have to stem from our quiet time with the Lord. And so out of that discussion became the realization that we probably do need to do a session really just on our private time, our solitude with God. And so that assignment was given to me. And so I went back and my heart has just been greatly blessed. I ordered a number of books, some that Ben recommended, others that I knew of. And I just began to read books upon books as much as I could in the last couple months on meditation. Let me just say, my heart has just been enriched by this study. And if I can do anything, I wish I could just pour it all out what I've gotten in the last two months. I really can't. And so what I'm hoping I can do is just whet your appetite for this study. but then more than anything, give you a desire to practice it on your own. And so let me begin, I wanna begin really just with two illustrations that I think will at least set the tone for what we are going to be looking at when we look at meditation. A little over a year ago, I had a young man come into my office. He was married, but he had tears in his eyes and he said, that his wife is about ready to leave him. As we begin to talk, he talked about the continual sin that he is struggling with, looking at pornography, explosive anger, yelling at his wife, and then even some of the foul language that went with that. He said he doesn't spend enough time, quality time, with his children and his wife. And as we talked, of course, I asked him about his salvation. He did claim to be saved, gave at least a clear testimony of that. He says he regularly goes to church. And then he made a statement somewhat like this. He says, I know that these things that I do are wrong. I know that. And he says, yet I am powerless to overcome it. He said, after I do it, I feel guilty. I hate it. And then I resolve that I'm not going to do it again. And sometimes that resolve will last a day. Sometimes it'll last a week. Sometimes a month. But then I fall right back in to that same pattern. A little over a week ago, I was talking with another gentleman who's actually a good friend of mine. And I could really tell that he was just struggling. And so I pulled him aside, and I said, hey, you look like something's going on. How are you doing? And he said, you know, I really don't enjoy serving right now. He says, coming to church is not a joy. In fact, it's actually a burden when I come into this building on a Sunday, it just feels like work. And he says, I know that this thinking is wrong, and I try not to show it, but it's really where I am at. And as I listened to that, of course, I was thinking afterwards how I can resonate much with these two men. Many times I feel the same way as this, my friend, I can put a mask on, I can put the smile on, I can say all the right words, I can preach God's word, exegete it properly. But then when I get away from that, many times my thoughts and my actions really don't equal with what I just presented with the Mass or when I was in church. And I know in my heart that what the truth is by studying God's word, But many times what I know that I should do or should do doesn't reflect itself in my actions. And so it really brings a question that we're gonna look at tonight and at least I think hopefully delve somewhat into I think the answer is how do I take the Bible, how do I take what God teaches and bring it down into my world, when I'm talking with my wife, when I'm talking with my children, where I'm living what I preach. And one of the passage that has really helped me over the years is this passage in Joshua chapter one and verse eight, or excuse me, chapter one, verses one through nine. And of course, this is a passage that is called the commission of Joshua. And let me just read the first four verses there. It says, after the death of Moses, the Lord's servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant or a servant. Moses, my servant, is dead. Now you and all this people prepare to cross over the Jordan to the land that I am giving to the Israelites. I have given you every place where the sole of your foot treads. Just as I promised Moses, your territory will be from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great river, the Euphrates River, all the land of the Hittites and west to the Mediterranean Sea. Now what I want you to do as we just unpack this passage before we look at meditation, is I want you to notice a little bit of the setting. It says, after the death of Moses, I want you to think for a moment of who Moses was. Of course, 80 years he was in the wilderness when God called him, said, I want you to lead my people out of Egypt. And you remember when Moses came up and he had all these excuses and he said to God, God, I can't. And God's response to him when Moses says I can't, God's response to him was, I am. And he began to explain who he was, and he began to talk about his name, and then he says, I want you to go to Israel, and I want you to go to Egypt of Pharaoh, and I want you to proclaim my name and say that the Lord tells them to leave. And so when you get then to Exodus chapter five, remember Moses now goes before Pharaoh and he says to Pharaoh, the Lord, that's his name, Yahweh, the Lord has commanded that you let the people go worship. And I would have loved to been just hiding in the background, listening to this, because Pharaoh looks at Moses and you can see the sneer. You could just hear the sneer in his words. Who is the Lord? Who is Yahweh that I should obey His voice? I know not the Lord, I don't know Yahweh, and I'm not going to obey Him. Now think about this from Pharaoh's perspective. When two armies in ancient Near East, when two armies would come to fight, not only were their armies fighting on the earth, but their gods were fighting in the heavens. And whatever army won on the earth, that was the army or that was the God that won in the heavens. So here's Pharaoh. He has the most powerful nation in the world, the Egyptians. He has the most powerful army in the world. He is the most powerful man at that time. In fact, he is considered a God coming from the sun god Ra. And so in his mind, he is this most powerful nation, most powerful man, most powerful army. What would that mean about his gods? They are the most powerful. Now, who are the Israelites at this time? They're slaves. Now, what would that mean about their god? powerless. And so you can hear the sneer in Pharaoh's voice when he says, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? I am not going to obey and I'm not going to let you go. In fact, instead of letting you go, I'm going to make your life much more miserable. So he does for the slaves, and then Moses goes before God at the end of chapter five, beginning of chapter six, and he basically says to God, you know, God, you made a really big deal about your name. You talked big about this, and you said to go proclaim your name, but you know what? Once I started proclaiming your name, things didn't get better, things got worse. And then God says, listen, I am going to show you the significance of what my name means. And I'm going to go ahead and I'm gonna strengthen Pharaoh's heart. Now let me ask you a question. Could God have wiped Pharaoh out with just one blow? Yeah, he actually has to strengthen Pharaoh's heart so that Pharaoh can go 10 rounds with him. And what you find as you begin to work through those plagues, God begins to reveal the greatness of his name by showing forth his power over the creative world. And then when you get to that last plague, not only have we seen his power over the world, but we see now that that word Yahweh is connected with redemption through a blood of a lamb. So they are beginning to see what the name of Yahweh, until finally you get to chapter 14, where they come to this great body of water. Pharaoh says, get out in chapter 11, 12, get out. They now come to the body of water and Pharaoh's thinking to himself, what have I just done? I just let all of our slaves go. And so he gets his entire army and he gets all of his horse and carts. And by the way, that was modern warfare. Now that was the F-16s of the day. And you can imagine, if the place is where I think it's at, they're up on this hill, overlooking Israel as they're right by the body of water, and two million plus Jews turn around and look at the Egyptian army, and then they look back at Moses and say, what have you done? And Moses in total faith with the name of the Lord and who he is, he says, calm down. Takes up that staff and says, behold, the salvation of the Lord. And what happens? I would have loved to have been there. You ever wondered what the kids were doing as they were walking through that? What would you have been doing? I would have been touching the water. What would your parents be saying? Don't touch, it might fall. They go through the entire water and at the end when you get to chapter 14, it's beautiful because for the first time, the people begin to realize when they saw the great power of Yahweh against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in him. It's the first time that's mentioned. believed in him and his servant Moses, and then when you get to chapter 15, they're singing a song about who is the Lord. They're singing about his name. Who is like the Lord? And so here you go, you look at the people, they saw God, they saw the power of God, they saw the protection of God, they saw the provisions of God, and all of this is happening through this man whom God has appointed to be the leader, this man, Moses. But not only did the people see all of the power and the protection, all the blessings of God, they also saw God's fierce judgment. You get into Numbers 9 and 10, what did the people do? They refused to believe God, they refused to go in and take the land as God had told them. And so what did God begin to do? He said, okay, if you're not gonna obey me, everyone 20 and older is going to die except for Joshua and Caleb. So you can imagine for these 38 plus years, Joshua's watching as his contemporaries begin to die all around him. Until finally, not only are these people, these contemporaries, but finally even Moses himself is judged. And Moses, you remember that story, Moses comes, people are complaining again about water, and God says to Moses, go ahead and speak to the rock, and instead of speaking to the rock, what does he do? Now, when you read that, and when I read that, in fact, when I first read that, I thought, God, that is so unfair. Well, God can do whatever he wants. But I think there's more going on than just striking the rock. When you go back to Exodus chapter 17, which is a parallel story earlier that happened in earlier time. Once again, they have no water. The people come and they make a complaint against Moses. The word complaint was actually a judicial word, which meant to bring a formal judicial accusation against Moses. Well, here's the people and here are the elders. They're bringing out this judicial judgment against him. And if Moses would have been found guilty, there's two things that could have happened. He either could have been stoned or he could have been beaten by rods. And so God, Moses goes before God and what God says is God says, listen, I will stand upon that rock and you strike it. In essence, what happened there is God himself took the judgment. Now, 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says something very interesting. He says, that rock is whom? It is Christ. God allowed that rock to be struck once, but don't you dare strike it twice. And when Moses came and he struck that rock again, when God said to only speak to it, God came down and said, because you did not sanctify me before the people, you are going to die. And so now Moses has died. And with all of that history, Joshua now takes the helm of leadership. Let me ask you a question. What do you think he was feeling at that moment? If you could describe an emotion that he was probably facing, what emotion would that be? Well, I think we get a little bit of a hint of that because three times in the text, God tells Joshua to be strong and of good courage. So most likely with all of that, Joshua's thinking, how can I do this? How can I follow a man like Moses? And so that's the setting. God then gives the command. That command is to prepare yourself to cross over the Jordan. You're gonna go and take the land. But then he gives the assurance. And this has been a real blessing to me over the years. What is that assurance? Just look at verse five here. He says this, no one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. And then here's the promise. I will be with you. And what's the next phrase? Just as I was with Moses. The reason Moses was able to do everything was not because of Moses, but because of God. And what's very interesting is he gives that reassurance right at the beginning, but then he also gives it again at the end. So this commission that he's given really is enveloped by this assurance. At the end he says, do not be afraid or discouraged, and here it is again, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And so you can go ahead and do what I'm calling you to do, not because of your own abilities, not because of your own strength, not because of your own power. It's very interesting. When we are looking for people to serve, who do we usually look for? I think sometimes we take a business model, and I think we can get in trouble. What are we looking for? A man who is fully dependent on God, in the presence of God, who does the work, and this is Joshua. He says, I don't know how to do this, I don't know what to do, and God says, listen, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And I'm gonna do this, Moses. By the way, what's the end of the Great Commission? Same thing, right? Going to all the world, make disciples, teaching, baptizing, and what's the assurance? Lo, I am with you always. All right, so that's the assurance. Now we come to the condition. And here's the condition. You can see it there in that middle part, I've got it underlined. He says, above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction that my servant Moses commanded you. That's the law. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you will have success wherever you go. Now think about this. Joshua hears this condition, you must carefully obey the entire Torah. Torah, originally the word for Torah was used as kind of a target that you needed to hit. So you had to hit this target, you had to do this. Of course, you have to obey everything that Moses has given you. Now, think about what he's going, what's the problem with that? How well did his contemporaries do at obeying God's law? How did Moses do at obeying God's law? Just striking the rock, not obeying the voice of God. He saw every single one of them, 20 and older, including Moses, die because they disobey. So think about, put yourself in Joshua's shoes. You're following this great man Moses. He's dead. God says, you're the next leader. But here's the condition. You need to obey me in everything. What would you be thinking? I'm in trouble. I'm a dead man. There is no way I can do this. And so what is the answer? And here it is. The solution for this is meditate day and night. So look at what it says there. Be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction. My servant Moses commanded you, do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you will have success. And look at the next part. This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth, but you are to what? Meditate on it day and night. Now look at this. So that. What kind of phrase is that, those two words, so that? It's a purpose statement. Meditate day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it, for then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do. Now, I want you to notice something that's very interesting to me, and I had a professor, Don Whitley, many years ago, point this out to me. He said, notice the word order. What comes first? Obedience or meditation? Meditation actually precedes obedience. In essence, if you're going to be able to obey what God says, you first have to give yourself to meditation. And how much meditation? Day and night. Now, let's ask this question. What then does meditation mean? Just think about in your own world. When you hear the word meditation, what comes to your mind? I mean, transcendental meditation. Okay, you've got some guy doing yoga, putting his fingers up, stare at the wall for minutes, count backwards, until you empty your mind. Biblical meditation is not emptying the mind, but it's actually filling the mind with God's truth. All right, so let's talk a little bit of the definitions. Now, this comes from just all of these books, and what's very interesting to me, those who practice meditation define it differently. And I think there's a number of reasons why, because it really is trying to capture what happens in meditation is somewhat difficult. So here's a number of different men. This one is actually Tim Keller. Tim Keller did a number of messages on meditation that was really good. And he says this, meditation is to bring the truth of God, now look at this, into contact with your heart until the triune God becomes so real to you that you seek him with all of your being. All right, here's another one. To meditate is to descend with the mind into the heart and there stand before the face of the Lord, ever present, all seeing within you. And I think that is just a great definition. Descend with the mind into the heart. So get what they're saying. It moves from something that is just right here to something deeper. Here's another one. I think this was J.I. Packer. It says, it is an activity of holy thought consciously performed in the presence of God by the helping of God as a means of communion with God. All right, so that was Packer. is probably my favorite by Thomas Brook. He says this, remember that is not hasty reading, but serious meditation on holy and heavenly truths that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not mere touching of the flower by the bee that gathers honey, by her abiding for a time on the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most that will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest Christian." Now it's interesting, If you were to study your Bible and read through there, never do you find a command to read the Bible. That's a given. The command is always to meditate. Now, if you're like me, and I grew up, I got saved when I was 14, I hardly ever heard messages on meditation. I would hear about reading the Bible, and then I would hear about memorizing, which is extremely important. But ultimately what God tells us is to meditate because what meditate does is it moves something from the mind to something much, much deeper. Now, what is that? Why then is meditation important? I think this really hits it. And this is what all of these old books, these divine men who wrote, they said, meditation is the key that unlocks the affections of my heart so that I love God supremely. Think about that. Meditation is the key. It unlocks the affection of my heart so that I love God supremely. Now, I wanna try to prove this, and again, I can't go through all of the books that I've read, but I think it's interesting as you look at how these old theologians, when they looked at meditation and how they wrestled with it, and here's some of the things that they brought up. First of all, Your mind continually thinks about what your heart desires and loves. There is a book out there, it's recently a newer book, and the book is entitled, You Are What You Love. And basically, he argues against the premise, you've heard that statement, you are what you think. That is an enlightenment premise, coming from Dakars with the Enlightenment age, that you are what you think. And actually, this gentleman argues that you are isn't just what you think, but actually what you love, because what you love is what you think most about. And it really is who you are. All right, so think about the things that you love that begin to define you. I'm not a fisherman, I enjoy fishing, but I'm not a fisherman. If you were to say, hey Lee, would you like to spend 12 hours on a boat fishing or 12 hours in a corner reading, I would be, give me the corner, please. But when you're around someone who fishes, what do they talk about? Yeah, fishing. I mean, they know the lures, they know the weight of the line, you know, they know all this stuff that I just don't care about, okay? If you're around men who love to go deer hunting, and I know I'm in deer hunting, again, I apologize, men. I'm not a deer hunter, please. But when you're around them, what do they talk about? I mean, they're talking about their stands, you know, and how great their stand is. I don't care about your stand. They're talking about the ammunition. They've got the cameras out there, and they're watching as the deer walk by. And they're showing me, hey, look at this picture. I'm going, it's a deer. I've seen them. I've actually hit them with my car. I hate them. Go ahead, shoot them. I don't care. But what you love is what you think about, and what you think about is ultimately what you talk about, and it really begins to define who you are. Now think about this for a second, men. How much of us just think in our free time about God? Get you out of church, get you out of the setting, of whatever church setting, life group, Sunday school, And when you're at home, your mind just automatically runs to God. When someone cuts you off, you just automatically run to God. When your wife says something, or when you have this desire to look at something else, your mind runs to God. You see, you think about where your true desires are. It's very interesting. I mean, for two hours a week or three hours a week, you can really cover up where your real desires are. That brings really to the next point. You worship what you love. This was very interesting. Richard Foster made the statement, that your religion is what you do in your solitude. We were created to worship something. The heart is a vacuum to worship. And so when you are all by yourself, what do you think about? What do you delight in? What do you spend most of your time in? Because those ultimately can reveal what the idols are in our heart. And so when I have no responsibility, I get home and my mind is just at rest, what do I run to? Where does my heart go? Here's a third thing. Simply trying to stop a besetting sin will not stop the desire. There is a little book out there, and I think Ben, I think you recommended this to me. It's by Thomas Chalmers. I think that's how you pronounce his name. It's called The Expulsion, The Expulsion Power of New Affections. So you can just tell by the title that this is probably 500 years old. The Expulsion Power of New Affections. He says this, The heart must always have an object to desire and worship. There's always something in your heart. There has to be. It's how you were created. If you leave the heart void of that desire, so you have an action you do that fulfills this desire, if you try to take away that action, Thomas says it can actually be very painful to the mind as hunger is to the body. So let me just deal with men because most of the men when I talk to them one of the first questions that I ask is do you look at pornography? And Almost 80, 90% say, yes, I struggle with it. I have struggled with it. Or they say, no, and then I know you're lying because you're a man. Now think about this. When that temptation comes, you know it's wrong. And you say, no, I'm not gonna do it. A desire is still there and what begins to happen? This battle takes place in your soul and it gets harder and harder and painful and painful. That's what Thomas Calmer says, is if you are to cease from sinning, you can't just stop the action. you must replace that desire with something far greater and something much more desirable. When you do that, then that sin begins to lose its power. All right, now think about this, okay? Again, you can have right knowledge. Right knowledge is important, but it doesn't necessarily change your behavior. All right, I see this all the time. I go home, here's my kids. I've got 10 children, by the way. I know that's crazy. I think it's crazy. I go home, they're fighting, and I step in, I say, hey, why are you fighting? Don't you know what the Bible says, that you are to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, loving one another, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you? I mean, that's a verse that we taught them from six months. Day one, it's obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. That's my favorite verse for them. But they learn from a very young age to be kind. When I say that to them, never once have I had my kids look at me and say, thanks, Dad. I just really needed that at this time. You know what, Dad? I think I'm going to put in practice what you just said. Amen. No, instead they scowl at me, they begin to blame each other, why? Because that is where their desires are. Their desire at that moment is controlling them. And so if we're going to fight those sinful actions that are attached to those desires, you've got to replace those desires with something far greater and more desirable. Now folks, Who is the greatest and most desirable person in the entire universe? We value what is the most unique and special. There is no one more unique and special than God. He is the greatest treasure and he is the greatest thing that we can truly value. And so if we're going to replace these sinful actions, which our mind thinks about because of our sinful desires, here's what I think Josh was saying, we have to meditate. Meditation is the key that unlocks the affections of my heart so that I love God supremely. Now my time is almost over, so let me just close with this. What then is the result of meditation? First of all, there is deeper communion with God. And there's a number of passages that maybe we'll look at tomorrow in our workshop. Psalm 1, Psalm 39, Psalm 48, Psalm 119, that all deal with meditation. And each one of them give just a slightly different perspective. But what they say is that meditation takes you into deeper communion with God. And all of them who write about this, who practice this, talk about this meditation. And there's times when it takes you into the very presence of God. Tim Keller used the analogy that when you meditate, it can take you in the presence of God. And he says, it's like going into Narnia. You know, so you're in the wardrobe, you're filling around the clothes, and a lot of times you have that back that you hit and nothing happens, but then all of a sudden you're walking through there and all of a sudden you're in a different land. And Tim Keller and all of these guys who write about this, they say there's times when you're meditating that all of a sudden it's as if you're in the very presence of God. The Puritans would call this the conscientious presence of the Lord. And so meditation, the second thing that it does is that it savors and it satisfies, savors the sweetness. We begin to taste the Lord and we begin to find our satisfaction in God above all else. Jonathan Edwards, I don't know if you can read that. I'll read it here. Jonathan Edwards, when you read his diary, he talks a lot about this. And here's just one insert. He says, I very frequently used to retire into a solitary place on the banks of the Hudson River, there in New York, at some distance from the city for contemplation on divine things and secret converse, talking with God, talking with the Lord and had many sweet hours there. I had then and at other times the greatest delight in the Holy Scriptures of any book whatsoever. Oftentimes in reading it, every word seemed to touch my heart. I felt a harmony between something in my heart and those sweet and powerful words. I seemed often to see so much light exhibited in every sentence and such a refreshing food communicated that I could not get along in reading. I had to stop, often dwelling long on one sentence to see the wonders contained in it. And yet almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders. He goes on to say, I used to be much in reading it about that time and found from time to time an inward sweetness that used as it were to carry me away in my contemplations in what I know not how to express. I can't even talk about it. then by a calm, sweet abstraction of the soul from all the concerns of this world." You got concerns in this world? He said, as I was in meditating, it was that sweet abstraction from the soul, from all the concerns of this world, and a kind of vision or fixed ideas of imaginations, and imaginations of being alone in the mountains or some solitary wilderness, far from all mankind, sweetly conversing with Christ, wrapped and swallowed up in God. The sense I had of divine things would often, of a sudden as it were, kindle up a sweet burning in my heart. Psalm 39, David says, as I meditate, it burned, my heart burned within me. He says, it was a sweet burning in my heart, an ardor of my soul that I don't even know how to express. He said every sentence, sweetness, and then it's a life of joyful obedience to Christ. When your affections are on God, you savor him, you're satisfied in him, And then when someone comes and bumps you, what comes out? Christ. When your wife says something that you don't agree, what comes out? Christ. After a long day, when you go home to a house that's just a disaster, and I have 10 children, so you can imagine, what comes out? Christ. When all of a sudden that desire to look at something, and you're sitting, and all of a sudden those arrows begin to hit you, what then comes out? Christ. And all of a sudden now, because of my love, and by the way, what did Jesus say? If you what, love me, keep my commandments. I think so many times we try to reverse those. I think tomorrow, and this is what got us so excited as men as we were talking about this, when Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, you've observed my life. You've walked with me. You've seen how I reacted with people. You saw how I reacted with suffering. You've witnessed me. You saw my handling of God's word and my love for it. And he says, continue with those things. Man, what would happen if we had this kind of a heart and just loved the Lord, found our greatest satisfaction and obedience? What would our wives see in us? What would our children see in us? What would our workplace see in us? When we're at the supermarket, You know, I'm at the supermarket just the other day, and I go to the place, and it says, you know, 10 items, and the person in front of me has 12, and I'm going, what an injustice. That's an injustice. Nah, love. Let the sweet Savior of Christ come out. Let's pray. Father, thank you. I have so much to learn on this. And Father, not just learning of it, but practicing it. Father, I long to have that kind of a testimony like Jonathan Edwards, where every sentence of your word just stops me. And the depth and the richness of it. And it opens my heart to think about things eternal, and to love you more. Father, it doesn't just happen through me trying to read three or four chapters a day just to say I did it and to check it off. It happens by sweet, deep meditation, which brings deep communion with you. Father, help us to be men of the word, that goes deep into your word. As we go down deep into the word, it takes us high into the glories of Christ. We love you. Praise you. Thank you for this time. Thank you for these men. Work on all of our hearts, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.