Published: February 2, 2025 | Speaker: Tim Freitag | Series: Worship 2 - Part 8 | Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-18
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surprising all right all right well obviously I am uh jumping in in the middle of Chuck's of Chuck's um study that he's been unfolding out of
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um some thoughts that were done previously and uh sort of revisiting I guess is maybe the word to to use um and in particular a focus or uh using
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the rubric of uh acts 2: 42 as the uh footing on which
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to discuss what it is that we do in particular what it is that we do on Sunday mornings but not just on Sunday mornings what it is that the that the church does as it assembles as it um
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gathers to Worship in whatever format that is specifically in Act uh 2:42 um that there is a something of a format given of what the early church
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was doing specifically it says uh they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to Fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer and so his contention I think uh reasonably
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enough is that that at a minimum um liturgy and what the church does as an assembled body needs to incorporate those elements um I certainly have no
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intention of of hijacking where he was I was mulling over some things um and as is often the Lord's way found a Confluence of things that I was
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reading and hearing things that came out of the study here and and actually I have a note from one of dad's recent sermons um just a couple of weeks ago that that also tied in here so I am going to
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um maybe it's a challenge offer a challenge this morning um on the responsibility of the
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garbage in particular when we talk about the idea of devoting themselves to the apostles teaching what that usually means in our context now is some form of sermon right that's what we have adapted that to mean in our context how we
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understand it what what we know about it in the early church is is a larger question that I'm not touching on today but in terms of sermons we we think of that as the preacher has studied the
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preacher has spent time in the passage meditating on it preparing the word um and and getting it ready for those who here I have to say both from Seminary
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and from things that I've been listening to there's not a lot said or at least it doesn't come up frequently the responsibility of those who hear that the assembled congregation actually has
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a responsibility to the word it does come up in a few places and I want to to uh have us think about this in a particular way hopefully guide our
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thinking on it it did amuse me this last uh Thursday Chuck was talking about um the the dietary laws in Leviticus in the Thursday night study and he was mentioning the fact that sometimes
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people want to allegorize them right the reason why certain animals were certain ways means something spiritually for us today including often used the fact that
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they were only supposed to um you know eat cows goats you know the ruminants we are supposed to ruminate on the word we're supposed to chew the cud the way they chew the cud right that spiritual
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thing gets thrown out out there and my intention is not to pick up that it is however to challenge us on the concept of rumination and meditation and I don't mean Transcendental Meditation we're not
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going to sit cross-legged on a yoga mat and hum together that's not what I mean but I do think there is a lot said in Scripture that I guess I'll put it this way in our
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context is not leaned on as much as maybe it is in other contexts and I would say that it it presents a challenge to us to follow the pattern we see in scripture the things that come
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out of the word in terms of meditating on God's word and there is a responsibility of those who hear to digest so in the
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[Music] um the analogy of the word uh in the scriptures you know those who preach are preparing the word they are feeding the flock aren't they and if you extend the
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analogy to food often times when you're having food unless you're one of those people who follows a purely raw diet somebody is preparing the food aren they they're cooking it they're doing something to prepare it for your
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digestion but especially if you've raised children recently sometimes you find yourself saying slow down and digest your food right don't just inhale and this is what I'm getting at is are
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we simply ingesting or are we taking the time to digest those things that we are being fed are we digesting the word in the various formats that we have I've had this argument with a couple of
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people in our body recently and I'm going to stand by my position which if you are simply following and we have them up here if you want one um we have
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a of different formats of read through the Bible in a year okay and you can do all the different formats there I don't discourage anybody from doing that per se but what I do discourage you from
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doing is simply powering through the word and spending absolutely zero time thinking about it because I have to get through this passage because I got three more chapters I have to read today and I've got to read through these things so I can chick it off or I'll be behind
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tomorrow and then I'll have you even more behind like if you're panicking over reading the scripture I doubt you're digesting you're digesting anything I want to challenge us here to
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see how various people in the scriptures interact with the word and in particular some of these things in terms of digestion is reading our Bible a chore
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or is it a delight is it something we just have to do I just have to eat to stay alive or are we actually enjoying the things put in in front of us yes sometimes certain circumstances in life
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all you're doing is eating to survive and there will be times in your Christian walk that you're doing it just out of rot because you need to keep going but I would encourage you to take some time today in particular to think
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about this in terms of actually spending time meditating on it thinking about it um and that there is there is an element of digesting that happens both
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corporately and corporately and independently so I don't mean simply you at home have to sit down and think about it there is an element of uh of
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digestion and reflection that happens in the body I think I've told a couple of you this anecdote but I was amused um recently at home we were trying to spend some more time reading the word out loud
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with the children and making sure that they're hearing and and going over some of those things and after we've been doing this for some weeks um we were driving and wolf King said dad when we finish the Bible do we have
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to keep going to church to find out what happens next and I laughed at first and then I started thinking about it and I said you know that's a really good
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question because for a lot of people who go to church nothing happens next what happens next um I assured him that we would
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continue to read the scriptures when we were finished we go over it a number of times and and I would encourage you um to do those things since we're talking about reading through the Bible um one
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of my professors Dr Shaw had what I thought was a very reasonable way to approach it however much you read in any particular day his assertion was you ought to be reading in the Old Testament in the New Testament and in the Psalms
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and if you read those three simultaneously I don't mean having multiple Bibles open you know what I mean if you're reading them simultaneously you're always cross-pollinating various parts of God's
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word in a way that's very healthy I think that's a that's a good sort of rule of thumb in terms of reading your scripture certainly I'm not going to stand up here and say there's only one way to read it um I doubt if many of us
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read straight from beginning to end anymore but having some kind of structure there is useful to us this is not me denigrating a read through the word program it is me saying it's got to
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do some good for you the ingesting your doing has to also be digested and of benefit to your soul and so I want to
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look at a couple of things in particular um there are a couple of classic passages I think that that sometimes get deployed on this again I don't see them come up as much perhaps in the reformed
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context as they do in some other contexts but there is a classic passage of course at the end of Psalm 46 um I'm going to read the asked
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um well no it isn't this one either what have I
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done all right I've written my reference down incorrectly for some reason see if I've got it here
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oh sorry yes I do have it right here okay yeah so the last stza of Psalm 46 and I remember now of course that The New American Standard chooses to translate this in a slightly odd way he says come Behold The Works of the
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Lord who has wrought desolation in the earth he makes Wars to cease to the end of the Earth he breaks the bow and cuts the spear into two he burns the Chariots with SP with fire now my translation
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here says cease striving and know that I am God I will be exalted among the Nations I will be exalted in the Earth the Lord of hosts is with us the god of
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Jacob is our stronghold most of you will know this much better
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and I think that's probably the better way to tr uh translate it cease striving is not incorrect to the actual language but be still and know that I am God the idea that you are slowing down
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reflecting on God and in fact if we read the whole Psalm um we sometimes sing this one uh God God is our refuge and our strength is how it starts he's reflecting on who God is and what he is
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doing for them and in fact most of the Psalms are that way but not exclusively the Psalms have a lot of this sort of doxological uh reflection on God but I
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also was thinking um and this is where my thinking started in some of this in First Kings the classic section and I will say that I hear this
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one talked about more for the end of these verses than the beginning of these verses but Elijah has run away to the Wilderness and in verse 9 of First Kings
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19 we find him in the cave cave at
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Horeb and this is of course where Elijah is protesting with God that he alone has not bowed to bail that the whole nation is gone he alone is righteous he alone has not submitted to idolatry and the
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Lord rebukes him at the end of this um we find
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uh versus uh yeah Verse 18 I think often gets cited yet I have 7,000 in Israel all knes that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him so
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the Lord is saying you're not it you're not the remnant alone it's it's not just you but if you back up in verse 11 um Elijah has already protested I
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alone am left they seek my life to take it away that's why I'm hiding in this cave I'm your last Bastion of righteousness so he that is the Lord said go forth and stand on the mountain
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before Yahweh and behold the Lord was passing by and a great and strong wind was rening the mountain and breaking it in pieces the Rocks before Yahweh but
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Yahweh was not in the wind and after the wind an earthquake but Yahweh was not in the earthquake after the earthquake a fire but Yahweh was not in the fire and
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after the fire a sound of gentle blowing when Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave and
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behold a voice came to him and said what are you doing here Elijah then he said I have been very zealous for Yahweh the god of hosts for the sons of Israel have forsaken your
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Covenant torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword and I alone am left they seek my life to take it away and Yahweh said to him go return on your way to the Wilderness of
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Damascus and when you have arrived you shall anoint Hazel King over Aram and jahu the son of nmi you shall anoint as king over Israel and Elisha the son of shaat of Abel menoa you shall anoint as
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prophet in your place it shall come about the one who escaped from The Sword of hael J shall put to death the one who escapes from The Sword of J Elisha shall put to death yet I leave 7,000 in Israel
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all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him that section in there where he is made to stand in the cave and listen as the Lord sends this wind that's
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literally tearing rocks out of the mountain and just the The Wind and The Tempest and then an earthquake shakes these things and finally a fire rages by and yet in all of these great shows of
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power all of this terrible force that the Lord has sent he recognizes the Lord is not dwelling in those and mine says a sound of gentle blowing this is one of
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those sections where the in the Hebrew each of these words that here is translated my as gentle blowing appear in two other places in the entire scripture um a little bit confusing what
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they mean but one of the ways you could translate it um where mine has gentle there's another passag it's used in reference to sort of grinding something finely um the other word is sometimes
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used to mean silence and so some have taken this as as almost a um a very fine or a very keen silence literally the Lord sends a a massive wind a roaring
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earthquake this terrible fire and yet it is in the silence that Elijah finds the voice of God it is in the
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absence of all of those things it is in the absence of the terrible power and the great noise it is in what is remaining that he finds the voice of
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God and God comes to him and rebukes him for his own protest so in this Stillness he is told to know him um I was uh quite a number
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of years ago heard a a interview with a fellow sorry go ahead
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well that's a good point um it does touch a little bit on um and I'm I'm not trying to steal anything from where Chuck is going with the study there is a question of course of why do we do Church the way we do church right uh we see very little detail given to us on
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how the early church was doing these things but one of the reasons why we do Church the way we do Church versus what has sort of grown out of uh the sort of wesleyian model of stirring up people's emotions is not to do emotional
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manipulation but to listen to the voice of God as we find it in the scripture that is the aim of preaching and teaching and of reading and digesting is to hear what God has to say
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which requires listening again this is where I'm trying to go with this is the responsibility of the hearers we have a responsibility for active listening to
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engage to digest the word as it is brought to us a verse
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sure it does not specifically say okay he heard God in that whisper but it is as he goes outside in the in the quiet in the quietude That Remains after this he hears this little sound this
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Stillness effectively he basically it says he hears the silence and he steps out of his cave at which point The Voice addresses him
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I mean that's a reasonable way to look at it I I don't want to make too much of um God being in silence I don't think that we have to be in silence per se um but I do think that it
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requires I'm just going to go ahead and say I think that that meditation requires Stillness in some format um which is what I'm getting at that that Elijah was here confronted by these
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noises and he recognizes that God was not in the reason I say the that I hold this passage the way I do is it explicitly is telling us that God was not in the wind he was not in the
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Roaring fire he was not in the earthquake and yet then we hear the silence and Elijah goes out and speaks with God Jerry
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he heard it with understanding or something yeah yeah that I appreciate that I hadn't actually keyed in on that being the same verb thank you you yeah so I think the point of the passage though is is whether or not it says it
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doesn't explicitly use the word Jehovah was in the silence but it's clearly in contrast to loud noise loud noise loud noise that God was not in was not in was not in then there is quietude that he
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has to listen to carefully that he has to in some sense I think the the meaning is is almost inclining your ear I appreciate Jerry's point because you know the shama hereo Israel here the
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Lord is one what is the point of that why is Israel hearing that because it is supposed to be their focus they are supposed to be focusing in on the unity of God and their place before him so
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Erin those who have ears to hear Let Them hear yeah and furthermore I don't mean this in obviously the passage where Jesus says this is is intended mostly in terms of uh belief and saving Faith but
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I think also keys in on the responsibility of the hearers Jesus says Those Who hear my word and don't believe it I don't judge him the word they have rejected will judge them at the last day
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those words that he has spoken those words that he have put in scripture any portion of it that we reject or refuse to respond to I think that's a form of judgment does somebody else have a hand
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up okay oh sorry go ahead
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reasonable so I guess this is this is the thing most of you have a long enough track record as Christians to recognize there are times in your life that the Lord does in fact grab your ear and say listen buddy there are also
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times that you are needing to actively listen you are needing to Incline yourself I'm not trying to go down the whole you what is the responsibility how much is human responsibility and how
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much is God doing we'll move into a little bit here I think that helps us deal with this but I think the minds that we have the ears that we have God
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has both demonstrated and commanded us to actively listen and engage with the word that he is giving us whether or not we are specifically
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studying them to teach all of us sit under the word in some format or another and ought to be actively listening and engaging with it and honoring both God's work and the work that he's doing by his
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Spirit through those who are preparing the word because we believe that it is by the holy spirit that these men are studying to open and unfold it we ought to be receiving in that same manner we ought to be carefully listening and
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paying attention and inclining ourselves um really quickly I had heard a uh an interview with a guy um Crazy Norwegian guy who set the record being the first
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person ever to walk by himself to the North Pole the South Pole and the top of Everest um called The Three Peaks challenge uh his name is erling KAG and he wrote a book after that called
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silence in the age of noise basically focusing on the fact that when he was walking to the South Pole in particular it was incredibly quiet and he was by himself with his thoughts for a long
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time took him 50 days or something um his contention though and he's not a a Christian as far as I can tell but his contention was that he learned in the
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midst of that to pay attention to things a lot better he said when you first get there and you're walking the Arctic is a or the Antarctic in that case is just a blank white sheet and the sky is blue
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and you were sort of trapped between these two voids as you're walking towards the horizon and he said as he was walking and learned to be somewhat in the moment he started to notice more things about the the colors and shades
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that exist in the snow the various uh features of the terrain that weren't just blank the different colors that he can see in the sky even in the midst of the midnight sun because the sun's not setting all of these things he went on
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to write a book uh basically arguing for the idea of of quietude and peace to reflect on things um and I would Hazard
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despite the fact that he is not a Christian that we need to uh cultivate this a little bit ourselves to make space to dwell on the scriptures that we ought to whatever that means and I I'm
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not saying it has to be uh sitting cross-legged humming to yourself to meditate but we ought to make space for quietude to reflect on God's word and I watched it go over everybody's face just
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now as you look down to your Bibles ain't nobody got time for that I'm too busy I've got kids stuff is too noisy I don't have time for that well what does
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the psalmist say when I wake in the watches of the night when I lie down when I Rise up I meditate on your word we make time for the things we prioritize we make time for things that
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are important to us don't we I would challenge you to make some time to digest the word whether it's your personal reading or the scriptures
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to reflect on these things I want to move us forward a little bit from here though on um you know there there is an element in which okay I want you guys to
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spend some time sitting quietly thinking um our our impulse our response may be a little bit defensive there's a reason why timeout is a punishment we use with kids isn't it boy we hate to sit quietly
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with our thoughts in fact there was a study done um if they put people in a room and ask them to sit quietly for a couple of hours the only thing that was in that room was a button on the table
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you press the button you got a mild Electric Shot Electric Shot something like 75% of the participants of the study chose to shock themselves rather than just sit quietly we hate to
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be bored we hate to sit quietly I would challenge you to spend some time whatever it is whether it's when you first wake up before the kids are awake when it's after their asleep
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um you know those of you who are retired maybe you have some more time when you're walking the dog or whatever it is that find a space where you can guard your mind to reflect on the script to
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meditate um I was thinking about this actually though because of several things that sort of ran into me in a Confluence of the results of this and we
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see a number of these in scripture um I was again reminded of a sermon by Martin Lloyd Jones and I'm going to um go to the passage that he went to in a
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second but also um the end of Chuck's run as he was working in Romans um I think it was second to last or third to last uh he got to Romans 11 where we
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have the doxology passage don't we but if you remember he was careful to tie it back to its context what is the context in which Paul breaks into this
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doxology it is his reflection on the fact that God has done all of these things in order to show Mercy to all that God has made a way to show Mercy to all mankind and then he breaks out out
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into this this uh Joy this reflection as he says
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um you know where do you start with Paul but he says in verse 28 from the standpoint of the Gospel they're enemies for your sake but from the standpoint of God's choice they're beloved for the sake of the fathers for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable just
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as you were once disobedient to God but now have been shown Mercy because of their Disobedience so these now also have been disobedient that because of the mercy shown to you they may also be shown Mercy for God has shut Up all In
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Disobedience so that he may show Mercy to all oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and
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unfathomable his ways who has known the mind of the Lord or who has given him counsel who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again for from him and through him and to him are
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all things to him be the glory forever amen he breaks out into doxology because of his reflection on God's plan and purpose and what he has done what he has
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accomplished um I had a note in my notebook from just uh what two weeks ago or so as dad was preaching through first
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Peter turn over
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1 that section of 3 through 12 as he says that that blessing that he pronounces on uh the God and Father the Lord Jesus Christ according to his great Mercy he goes through to to speak of the inheritance of the Salvation that is
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offered that they Rejoice even though for a little while if necessary you've been distressed by trials um that you may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of
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Jesus Christ and though you have not seen him you love him again Rejoice you greatly Rejoice with joy inexpressible full of full of Glory as to Salvation they prophesied
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they made careful inquiries he goes on it was revealed to them not serving themselves and again the the context there and what the note that I had out of this sermon this particular section was those who know those who understand
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God those who know doxe when you think on God when you reflect on him when you realize what he's doing what is the outcome that you
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praise him for who he is and what he does um I think it was in a it was a a slightly different context earlier in uh Chuck's study here on Sunday mornings
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talking about the interaction of Believers and how these things go Justin made a very interesting comment that I also wrote down which was I think it was specifically in terms of giftedness that
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our giftedness is never confined to us if it is from the Holy Spirit we are designed to overflow I think was was somewhat how you phrased it that we are designed to overflow that our gifting
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must go beyond us because of how God has made us he will not simply pour it into us he will pour it to overflowing so that it blesses the body and I think the same is true frankly of our reflection
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on God that we will overflow with praise for him if we are understanding if we are digging in if we are meditating that we overflow I want to move us along to another passage to make the
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point um and this was where lyd Jones sermon was based um and it sort of kicked off my thinking on this and I've made notes of other passages and I've only got one Sunday so maybe this will
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be a future study but I'll mention a couple of them as we go but in Luke chapter 1
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Magnificat I'm going to pick up in verse 39 of Luke uh chapter 1 but think about this in terms of Mary's response to what God is
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doing it says at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the Hill Country to a city of Judah and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the
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baby leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit she cried out with a loud voice and said blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb and how has it happened to me that the mother of my
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Lord would come to me for behold when the sound of your greeting reached my ears the baby leapt in my womb for joy and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had
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been spoken to her by the Lord and Mary replies my soul exalts the Lord my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior for
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he has had regard for the humble estate of his bondslave for behold from this time on all generations will count me blessed for the mighty one has done great things for me and holy is his name
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his Mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him He has done Mighty Deeds with his arm he has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart he has brought down rulers from their Thrones
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and has exed those who were humble he has filled the Hungry with good things and sent away the rich empty-handed he has given uh help to Israel his servant in remembrance of his
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Mercy as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his descendants forever and Mary stayed with her about three months how many times in there is she reflecting on herself and how many times
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in there is she reflecting on what God has done and this was what uh Lloyd Jones charges in his sermon is what has God's mercy done to
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you are you aware of him working on you that you respond in this way are you aware of his hands upon you
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upon your spirit and yes there are moments when we are low there are moments when it is hard to find praise there are moments I mean you think we were just talking about Elijah I alone
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am the one who praises the Lord in all of Israel guys in a low moment for sure maybe you say to yourself okay Mary's a special case she's about
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to give birth to Jesus well back up a little bit the angel of the Lord comes to her in the passage right before this and he
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says to says to her um Gabriel is sent from God to speak to uh Mary I'm going to sort of run through this real
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quick was picking up in verse 30 the angel Gabriel said to Hero not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name
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him Jesus he will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give him the Throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom
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will have no end Mary said to the angel how can this be since I'm a virgin the angel answered to her the holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will will overshadow you and
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for that reason the holy child shall be called The Son of God and behold even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age and she who was called baren is now in her sixth
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month for nothing will be impossible with God there's a sort of mild rebuke in that and Mary says behold the bond slave of the Lord may it be done to me according to your word and the angel
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departed from her she doesn't seem to get it at that moment she resigns herself she does not immediately burst into praise with this news this is confusing and a little bit scary God's
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will that's coming upon her and frankly I think it's been spoken on a number of times but in that context she's not married she's about to have a child this does not feel very
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good but she's the servant of the Lord she re resigns herself and yet when Mary goes to visit Elizabeth and Elizabeth feels the child rejoice and says here is
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God she is rejoicing in front of Mary you are going to give birth to our Lord Mary gets it she recognizes it she sees it and she responds with praise With
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Praise of God for who he is and what he does there's a lot more you could say on there and I commend Lloyd Jones's sermon to you um I started looking at this okay
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where are the other places that we see these things um I went back to the song of of Moses and Israel and then Miriam's song that you get in Exodus 15 uh I think as far as I can tell that's the
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earliest one of these that I've stumbled across that they see this great Deliverance of God they have just come out of is uh out of Egypt Israel is gathered as a people on the other side
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of the sea and have watched the sea Crush their enemies behind them God has definitively delivered them and they burst into song of Praise in Exodus 15 okay they saw a great thing I haven't
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seen The Exodus um another passage Isaiah 63 near the end of Isaiah's uh prophecies
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here the preceding passage is is a little bit interesting because he's talking about God's um using of the surrounding nations in fact some of the wicked nations in order to chastise and to punish um and to to wreak Vengeance
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on the Nations I don't know where I'm going to pick up here I guess we'll just pick up in verse one of 63 he says who is this who comes
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from Edom with garments of glowing colors from bazra this one who is majestic is in Peril marching with the greatness of his strength it is I who speak in righteousness mighty to save
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obviously he's prophesying in the voice of the Lord here why is your apparel red and your garments like the one who treads in the wine press I have trodden the wine
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trough alone and from the peoples there was no man with me I also trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments and it stained my reignment
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he's contrasting basically crushing the peoples of these nations under his feet the way one stamps a wine press to crush the grapes for the day of Vengeance was in
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my heart and the year of my Redemption has come I looked and there was no one to help I was astonished there was no one to uphold so my own arm brought salvation to me and my wrath upheld me I
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trod down the peoples in my anger and made them drunk in my wrath and I poured out their lifeblood upon the Earth and now hear what the prophet says I shall make mention of the loving
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kindness of the Lord the Praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord has granted us and to the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he has granted them according to his compassion
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and according to the abundance of his loving kindness for he said surely they are my people sons who will not deal falsely and so he became their savior in all their Affliction he was afflicted
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and the angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his Mercy he redeemed them and he lifted them and carried them all the days of old but they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit therefore he
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turned himself to become their enemy and he fought against them then his people remembered the days of old of Moses where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the Shepherds and his
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flocks where is he who put his holy spirit in the midst of them who caused his glorious arm to go at the right arm of right hand of Moses who divided the waters before them to make for himself
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an everlasting name who led them through the depths like a horse in the wilderness they did not stumble as to the cattle which go down in the valley the spirit of the lord gave them rest so
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you led your people to make for yourself a glorious name he goes on um to to picture him as a father that even exceeds Father Abraham there's so
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much we could keep going through U Isaiah and we could go through the rest of scriptures frankly the Psalms are full of these but this is my point those who see the goodness of God it's easy
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enough for us to say well they saw great things you know Isaiah was a prophet all right he got to see those things um they the the children of Israel came out of
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Egypt well Mary was going to give birth to Jesus but have we seen nothing as glorious what does Peter say in First Peter what did we just read we have
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beheld the goodness of God in a way that the prophets were anxious to perceive they were aching to see the goodness of God as clearly as it has
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been displayed to us how can we be any less doxological in our praise and in our response to God so this is the challenge that I'm putting out there in
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terms of the responsibility of the hearer is to hear and to digest this word whether by reading or by sitting under in prayer and in praise the things that are given to us to feed us from the
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word of God ought to produce in us this result that we are anxious to praise him that we burst forth and I am not a uh poet I am not a person given to uh
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poetical Expressions I am not going to be writing any hymns but frankly we have prayer we have our own quiet times of prayer we have
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opportunity to sing together hymns that people have already written that encapsulate these ideas we sing the Psalms these are all opportunities for us to rejoice in our heart and to express the goodness of God
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so this is my challenge I guess as my one-off study in the middle here of this sort of worship study class is reflect on God's word and reflect on your responsibility as one who hears the word
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to respond to it the way that we see demonstration in the scripture and I would love to hear any passages that you come across in your own reading or things that come to your mind of other
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places where they sort of burst into these doxologies um sort of trying to keep a running list for myself to keep it in my own mind questions or comments we have a couple of minutes Justin
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right yeah yeah it's no you're not wrong and it it is the maybe the Counterpoint or the counterweight to the challenge that I'm issuing um been many years now but we
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had somebody who briefly visited our church who told us in no uncertain terms at one point she was very upset because her husband told her every day I'm going to go in my office and shut the door for
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an hour to study the scripture by myself right and this was upsetting to her there are many cases uh Chuck pointed out in in his um recollection of one of
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his Seminary classes the the fellow who said oh I'm I'm devoting my life to God and I'm going to leave my family behind and go on the mission field right okay we can certainly idolize those things we
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can certainly um shipwreck the personal responsibilities we have in life and and and make an idol of our study
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I would say that the body does have its um balance in that sense in that a large portion of what we're supposed to be doing in digestion is corporately that
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it is the time we spend together sitting around the table on on a Sunday um you know lunch in it is the time that we have on a on a Wednesday or a Thursday night to to discuss it's the time we
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have in a Sunday school format like this where we can raise our hands and ask questions and and sort of wrestle with those ideas together and clarify things but there is also personal reflection
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that you then bring to to those conversations I'm not trying to say okay you guys have to have you know everybody needs minimum 30 minutes of absolute silence to study their their
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scriptures and I will also say there are people who are more prone than others to feel guilty about not getting something out of their their reading right I can't make any hard and fast
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rules for you guys other than to say I think there's a pattern in scripture of those who know praise God and spend time
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digging reading reflecting where we can find it um there is a caution not to idolize or not to to shipwreck ourselves going oh man I don't feel that
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way there is an element of patience in these things um again I I think the passage with um Elijah helps us because
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there he is feeling low and alone in his walk before walk before God God has to address him specifically and say stop wallowing in self-pity
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um Aaron
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yeah yeah so this again I want to be careful not to say okay you guys have to sit in absolute quiet with your Bible open in front of you to do this um I will also say for me and I have always been this way because my brain is so uh
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distractable I often find myself more able to focus my thoughts when I have music in my ears as long as it's not you know something you know particularly overriding um Some people prefer
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classical music sometimes it's music you're familiar with but it allows your brain to sort of uh follow that track while you are thinking your thoughts um
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and help you not get distracted there there are those elements I will also again to to reiterate I think part of Justin's point though a huge amount of what we ought to be doing in terms of
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digesting the word and and dealing with it is is corporately that those things that you guys are reading and reflecting on ought to come up in our conversations on Sunday mornings they ought to come up
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on Thursday nights in the class um we're about to have uh we always have that that moment in which um the communion has been initiated and those who are
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helping serve are walking around and you've got a good two three minutes to reflect on what you've just heard and examine yourself before God there are moments of time um Chuck's mentioned
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before there used to be a a system of like uh you know you have to T one hour in prayer um and we often find ourselves like the disciples falling asleep because we're trying to sit quietly for
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an hour and now I'm asleep um I don't mean any of those things other than to say you know your quietude focused attention on God's word and reflecting on it to the point of
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Praise is something that we see exemplified and I think we see it commended to us and I would challenge us as hearers of the word to engage in that way AB you had your hand up
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yeah right and and you know again Elijah we could spend an entire Sunday I think just talking about that passage because who is Elijah well he's one of the greatest prophets that the go that God raised is up he does all of these things and you see in that moment that Elijah
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in his own mind goes well I know what God is doing and God has to rebuke him and say I've got all of these other people following me that you don't even know about you don't know it all even though you're the one I'm revealing
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these things to you specifically you don't know everything that God is doing but again to to bring it home is spend spend time devote yourself
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again come back to acts 24 uh was it 42 whatever it is in there um that we devote ourselves to the apostles teaching I think that means not just
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hearing but hearing with understanding hearing carefully and reflecting on it let's close in
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prayer Our Father we do thank you for your word we thank you that you speak to us even now that your holy spirit is within us and that it uh empowers those who preach your word to deliver it to us
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in that same power that raised Christ from the dead we ask that we would receive it that we would chew it carefully that we would digest these things in order to grow the body to be
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more uh grown into the body of Christ with him as our head that we would be the image of the mature man having been fed all of the nutrients that we need
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from your word as we go now before you in song and in praise and in prayer and to hear that word preached we ask your
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presence with us and your strength within us as we seek to grow in Grace and so by to glorify you be glorified
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Among Us this morning I ask in Jesus name amen