god is near.4.cassidy...2015/05/03 · you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon...

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Series: God is Near

#4 “Listen to Me, Part 2” – Romans 12:1, 2

Dr. Matt Cassidy – 5/3/2015 Good morning. We are in our fourth week of a five-week series – “God is Near”. Today, we will

talk about hearing God’s voice.

I don’t know if you were watching sports on television yesterday but if you are even mildly

interested in sports, you saw some really great sports. When I was watching some of these events, I

couldn’t help but think: Boy, you are what you eat. What is going into these athletes has a significant

influence on the outcome of whether they will be successful.

Let me give you a few examples:

The horses in the Kentucky Derby: You can bet those horses were fed some of the best grain

available. Probably your children have not been fed with something that nutritious.

Talladega, NASCAR: What the teams put into those cars, that fuel is so purified that when/if it

catches fire, you can’t see the flames. Sometimes when the drivers are on fire, they don’t even know they

are on fire because it is such a clean burn.

The prizefighters last night: Between their weigh in and that first bell, you can bet they had the

most efficient and effective nourishing food that the planet has to offer.

What you put in as fuel has a significant influence on whether you have anything excellent coming

out. You are what you eat.

If that is true physically, whether for horses, race cars, or a human body, it is true for the soul as

well. It is true for the metaphysical part of you. If you are what you eat physically, this is who you are

spiritually. You are what you think.

One of my favorite authors, Archibald Hart, has written about 30 books on how to live life or how

to recover and live rightly, says this: “Research has shown that one’s thought life influences every aspect

of one’s being.” Whether you are filled with confidence or you are filled with fear depends entirely on the

kind of thoughts you habitually allow to occupy your mind:

What you think creates your attitudes.

What you think shapes your emotions.

What you think governs your behavior.

You Are What You Think


What you think even significantly influences your immune system so that you could

physically be more vulnerable to illness based on what you think.

His conclusion: Everything about you flows out of the way you think.

The apostle Paul said it 2000 years ago.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”

Romans 12:2

If you are what you think, how do you determine what gets into your mind? How can you get the

right food for your soul? The answer to that is – whatever your mind is exposed to most frequently. Or,

put another way:

What the mind repeats, it retains.

What the mind retains, you become.

So, the books you read, the music you listen to, the movies you watch, the conversations you are

involved in, the thoughts that you entertain throughout the day, these things are shaping your mind. They

are forging you – who you are.

It is an issue of repetition and that is why Isaiah says:

You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon You.

Isaiah 26:3

A person is in perfect peace when their mind is focused on the Lord.

What we are seeing here is the power of the Gospel. How we got into this in the first place is that

when we studied the book of Galatians for 10 weeks, we wanted to know how to apply that. The

application for the gospel is to be meditating, focusing, transfixed with the beauty of the Father and the

sacrifice of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit. We want our minds stayed upon Christ.

If you want to improve your life, you have to improve your thoughts. If you want to be near to

God, He is near. You need to hear Him and what He has communicated to us is primarily in His Word

(Bible). That is what we are going to learn about today: how to memorize and meditate on the words of

God.

As I mentioned before, we are in our fourth week of a five-week series on drawing near to God.

We spent two weeks on how to pray to God; those sermons were entitled “Speak to Me, Part 1 and 2”. In

those we learned about the power of prayer, the importance of prayer. We even learned an outline for

prayer: A – C – T – S – L. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, Listen. This simple outline

gives us a structure, a balance in our prayers. We made a five-week commitment to try to pray about 15

minutes per day, maybe even using this outline regularly.


Last week we looked at (God saying to us) “Listen to Me, Part 1 and 2”. You hear from God

primarily from what He has already recorded in what is called the Bible. We learned about choosing a

Bible reading plan.

Today, we are focusing more specifically on memorizing some of those Bible passages. God is

saying: Listen to Me and meditate on what I have said.

The way I will teach today is a little different, a little like two weeks ago when I was teaching A –

C – T – S – L. I would rather you see me today as a coach than a pastor. I will tell you what to do,

briefly going through the outline, and then I will show you what that looks like and then you will need to

take this information home to practice it. So, for clarity sake, I want you to see that I am trying to coach

you to win, to be successful in getting God’s voice into your head, so that you can learn to memorize

passages and to meditate on the Word day and night, as the Bible says. I don’t want you to freak out or be

afraid because you are not very good at memorizing.

I understand that some of you are a little worried that you won’t even be able to find your car

unless a certain number of cars clear out first after this service. Look at who is talking today. My kids

wear nametags at my house. We have two cats and I do not know their names. So, first, we are not

keeping score.

Second, the most important part in this is the issue of your heart. You have to have the right heart

in this. If you have the right heart, then all sorts of magic can happen in your life. When I talk about the

right heart, this is what I am referring to. It is the idea that when you open your Bible and try to meditate

or memorize passages. First, look at it like it is a relational encounter with God. So, you are meeting

with God. You read the Bible first relationally. If your heart is right and you are looking at what happens

in the Bible and you respond: Wow, look at what God did! I wonder what He was thinking and what He

was feeling. I am trying to know God better through these stories and statements. That is key.

Besides reading the Bible relationally, also read the Bible repentantly. By this, I mean, you go

into it with a sense of vulnerability, with an expectation of complete surrender. So, you open up the Bible

and say: I will go anywhere, to do anything, with anyone, at any time, God. Lord, I want to read this Bible

transformationally, which is different than reading it for information or to prove your point.

Today’s Lesson: Memorize and meditate on Bible

Most important: Right Heart


I know there is kick back about people who know their Bibles so well – but they don’t show it.

This is why, by the way. This is the reason that people can read their Bibles and be in Bible studies year

after year and yet they never change. It is because they do not go into their Bible reading with the right

heart. They are not reading it relationally or reading it repentantly. After reading their Bibles for years,

they might still bully their wife, or manipulate their husband, or they worship or ignore their children.

They are still melancholy, or proud, or pushy, or whatever it might be. They have no intention of

changing or of reading the Bible relationally. I have heard people say: Read it relationally? Really? They

mock doing this.

Here is a great cartoon I stumbled on decades ago but it is so true as to how some people read and

therefore they do not change.

He is reading a book on “The Art of Submitting to Your Husband.” She is reading a book on “How to

Really Love Your Wife.” They are the right books, maybe, but it is the wrong audience. That is how

people can continue to get information but without transformation.


So, if it is a heart issue that you won’t change, just read a simple summer novel because the Bible

is written in order for us to know God.

So, first is getting your heart right.

Now, we will look at the Bible passage itself and this is how to get the voice of God into your

head. Let me survey the six points, then I will explain the six points, and then I will show you what the six

points look like; then you will take this home and run with it. I’m just coaching.

Here are the six ways to get the Bible inside of you.

A. Pick a Bible passage

B. Understand the Bible passage – a little more deeply so we know what we are memorizing.

C. Personalize the Bible passage.

D. Write the Bible passage down.

E. Read the Bible passage out loud.

F. Read the Bible passage out loud, emphasizing different words as we go.

Let me remind you again that more is not better. Sometimes more is worse because you are spending so

much time on the volume; therefore, it is not making an impact on you. The idea is to drill a few wells

deeply. We want this truth in the inner recesses of our souls. The goal is not to get through Scripture; the

goal is to get Scripture through you. That is the bigger picture.

A. Pick a Bible passage. If you looked last week in your Bible as you were reading, you might

have noticed there are different styles of writing (genres). Some genres require a longer read before you

get to a particular sentence where you will spend more time. In the narrative books of the Bible,

sometimes you will turn pages before you hit the big point. Some times it is just a couple of paragraphs

that are the big point. So, try to remember the story but on the one bullet point, center down on that.

I will never forget one instance. I had read the story so many times, dozens of times, but it wasn’t

until a few years ago when I was reading the miracle where Jesus heals a man who had been sick almost

his entire life, that something new stood out to me. The first question Jesus asked the sick man was: “Do

you want to get well?” That is a Bible memory verse by the way. At the end of the story, do you want to

get well? It occurred to me, that is maybe the single most important question that anyone could ever ask

someone who is looking for help. Do you want to get well? As I memorized that sentence, which is not

hard to memorize, and then I meditated on that sentence, it came back to haunt me. When I am whining to

God: Hey, Matt, do you even want to get well? I have been in some situations where I’m having lunch

with someone, or even in a counseling situation, and I feel God’s voice speaking to me in His language:


Say this: Do you want to get well? – Sometimes you have to work for that one sentence. You are looking

for one thought. Proverbs are simple because they are written as one thought.

Here is what you are looking for as you are picking a Bible passage. What do you need? That

man in the cartoon did not need to read a book on “The Art of Wives Submitting to their Husbands”. The

wife did not need to read a book on “How to Really Love Your Wife.” What do you need?

If you are fear stricken, it might be interesting for you to know that almost every command for

courage in the Bible is followed by a promise: I will never leave you nor forsake you. – That would be a

good one to memorize and meditate on.

If you have issues of pride, there is a passage that says “Do nothing from selfish ambition or

conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3). That is the passage to

memorize and if you meditate on that, that has the power of changing your life because – you are what

you think. – You pick a passage and that is my point.

Again, I want you to know that we are setting you up to win. Dr. Ken Boa, Bible scholar, wrote a

lot of commentaries. He did a devotional a number of years ago where he listed about 200 of the most

important verses to memorize. 200 is a lot. So we wanted to make it manageable for you. The Worship

staff put together a list of 52 verses for memorization, one for each week of the year. If you go to our web

site, www.grace360.org/sermons - right below the listed sermons, you can click on Memory Verse Guide,

to print it off. In your bulletin, on the tear off portion, there is a magic square you can swipe with your

Smart Phone – for the rest of you. The point is, 52 verses. Dr. Boa said this would be a great way to start

with 200 verses and we edited it to 52 verses. Would you consider going there?

B. Understand the Bible passage. Last week, I highly recommended buying the New

International Version Study Bible, which has a super commentary that gives you context and definitions

of key words.

C. Personalize the Bible passage. When you look at the passage itself, you change the pronouns

(I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they), to your name. This is where some significant things can happen in your

soul. While you are reading the passage and you are reading it relationally, you realize the words, the

promises of God are written to you specifically. That has the power to transform the way you perceive

reality.

Take this famous verse: John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.

How about this: For God so loved [you] that He gave His only begotten Son.

C.S. Lewis said: “Everything God did for mankind, He did for each and every man.”

You will see the transformative power when you personalize Scripture, seeing that these


promises of God are written to you specifically. They can change you.

D. Write the Bible passage down. I have some friends who use old business cards and write the

verses on the back. These are easy to keep in your pocket and there are even business card holders to

carry them in so you can refer to them later. – Some of my friends have fancy little notebooks with sewn

in pages so they can constantly go through the verses – 52 verses, one for each week of the year. You can

use post-it notes put up on mirrors, all over the house, in the car. The point is to be able to refer back to

them and writing them down is powerful for memory work.

E. Read the Bible passage out loud. We do this because we already have our hands involved by

writing the verse; we say out loud the verse with our mouths; we read and see the words; and now we are

hearing the passage. As many senses as can be involved in this process, the better.

From the Old Testament, when adults were teaching children to memorize Bible passages, the

adult would stick a sweet date to the roof of their mouth so the child could taste how sweet the Bible is.

The adults wanted all of the learner’s senses to be involved in memorizing the passages.

We are listening for God when we hear the Bible passage in our ears, through our voice. We ask:

God, what am I to be hearing about this? How am I supposed to be changing the way I think – or, what I

should do? --- This is not passive but active, relational and repentant.

F. Read the Bible passage out loud – emphasizing different words in that sentence. When

you emphasize different words, it kind of changes the meaning but it almost always changes the

application.

I’m just coaching. I gave you the list of six things to do when we are looking at a Bible

passage. I explained what those six things are. Now, let’s try it out and take this baby for a spin to see if

we do it today then you can take this home and apply this to one of the Bible passages you want to

meditate on.

Application of six-point process:

A. Pick the Bible passage: I picked a passage I thought would be appropriate for us – for a

couple of reasons. (1) It will bring in the power of the Gospel, about what happened when Jesus died for

us, when He was raised according to the Scriptures, and when we inherited His righteousness. (2) It also

applies to last week’s teaching time when we learned about A – C – T – S – L. And this verse is in our list

from Ken Boa. [I think it was the third verse I ever memorized from the Bible.]

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness.


I love this verse. I want to mediate on this verse and allow it to make its way into my soul.

B. Understand the Bible passage. What does it mean?

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let’s look at the key word: confess. Confess means to admit to, to affirm and to condemn the

action. It means to use your words, speak out loud, what you did, what motivated you to do it, and the

people you injured. Be thorough and exhaustive on this. This is what confession means.

The next key words of “faithful” and “just” are used in combination to appeal to the nature of

God, the very kind of God who rules the Universe. He is faithful, which means He is consistently

dependable. That has to do with His reliability, that whatever He says He is going to do, He will do that

because that is what faithful people do. Just/justice sounds synonymous. Justice means that whatever He

promises, He will complete. Justice is an appeal to a courtroom. It would be impossible for God to make a

promise that He cannot commit to. It is impossible for God to make a promise and not to fulfill it. If there

were a courtroom where God was on trial, Justice would sound like this: God, did You promise

something? He says: Yes, I did. Justice: Then You must do it. That is what justice is. – So, when this

passage says that God is faithful and just, we are appealing to this justice in saying: God, we are holding

You to your nature.

The next key word – forgive. What does that mean? There are two meanings, two word pictures.

(1) One has to do with the absolution or the vanquishing of a debt. In the Galatians series we went

through, one prop was a huge check which had a stamp across it, in huge red letters, “Paid in Full.” When

you have a debt and it is paid, that is forgiveness. (2) The judicial sense of forgiveness means that when a

judge slams down his gavel and he says: You are completely innocent of all wrong accusations – there is a

dismissal of all charges.

The next key word is cleanse / or purify. Some translations of the Bible read, “cleanse us from

all unrighteousness”; others will read “purify us from all unrighteousness.” This is a great word that is

active. It means to scrub away all the pollutants. If you can visualize this, it will be helpful in your

meditation.

I hope you had a positive experience when you were a little kid, say 4 years old or so. Or maybe

you are a good parent and you can visualize this. Envision when you were 4 and maybe you had a

feverish, violent mud fight, and you were covered in goo. It got so bad that one of your parents just picked

you up and carried you into the bathroom. Did this just happen with me and my brother Mark? Anyone?


Your parents took your clothes off in the bathtub and they used a hose with a showerhead attached to it.

They would rinse once, lather once, second rinse, second lather, third round of that. Do you feel that

happening? That is what it means to cleanse of all unrighteousness. Do you remember what it was like

when you were done? You felt lighter and new. Do you remember dressing in a fresh pair of jammies

after one of these scrubbings, cleansed of all unrighteousness? You are running around the house and your

hair is wet and literally squeaky clean. You smell awesome. You love being this clean. That is the picture

here of God. When we confess and condemn our sins, it is His nature to put us in this tub. He swore to

himself that He will make us clean of all unrighteousness.

C. Personalize the Bible passage. Here comes the power. We take all these pronouns and add our

own name:

1 John 1:9 If ______ confesses his/her sins, God is faithful and just to forgive _______

his/her sins and to cleanse _______ from all unrighteousness.

Do you see? Do you feel the power of personalizing the passage that way? This is a Book that God wrote

to me and you guys are just reading over my shoulder at this point. God made this promise to me. This is

very powerful and significant.

D. Write the Bible passage down. We can write this on the back of a business card, or in our

notebook, and carry it in our pocket. We will look at it throughout the day, whenever we get a spare

moment.

E. Read the Bible passage out loud. We will say the verse out loud in the car and multiple

times. You insert your name in this verse and we will read it out loud. – Let’s do it. – Doesn’t that feel

good already? – We are meditating on it day and night.

F. Read the Bible passage out loud emphasizing different words. Now, see how all these

previous five points come together when we read the verse with different spots of emphasis. Watch how it

changes the nuances but certainly the application.

1 John 1:9 If _____ CONFESSES his sins, God is faithful and just to forgive ___ his sins

and to cleanse ____ from all unrighteousness.

So, _____ do it; confess everything. Go into the details. God knows already. This is the power of t his

promise, my friend. _____, confess your sins – who you did it to – what motivated you – what you did.

Confess this, ______, and get in this game for your sake, for God’s sake. So read it out, emphasizing

CONFESS.

Now what happens? Now read it:


1 John 1:9 If ____ confesses his sins, God is FAITHFUL AND JUST to forgive _____ his

sins and to cleanse ______ for all unrighteousness.

Now it is all about God and it has turned into a worship service. I am driving to work, stopped in traffic

and I read: God is FAITHFUL AND JUST. Listen, friends, God does not have to forgive us. He is not

obliged like that is what gods do. God did not have to forgive us. So this verse says He is faithful and just

to forgive us. It is His nature to care so much. I celebrate: You are faithful to Your promises, God. You

are just. You can not forgive me, God. I love that about You.

Another thing I love about this is that He wrote this promise down. Can you imagine that all of

this would be true but it was hidden from us? He gave me that sentence so that I could hope for this – but

now I can believe in this.

When I stop and think about: If Matt confesses his sins, God is faithful and just – then I go: Oh,

dear God, what kind of God am I serving here? That You would do this and be obliged by your perfection

to fulfill the promise You made to me. – Different application.

1 John 1:9 If ____ confesses his sins, God is faithful and just to FORGIVE ______ his sins

and to CLEANSE ____ from ALL unrighteousness.

There I am in that bathtub. I am like one of those pelicans which was caught in an oil slick. God is just

cleaning me and cleaning me and making this right until I can be shiny and fly again. Friends, this is

beyond any dream I have ever had in my soul. God is faithful to forgive us – debt paid in full – and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I am innocent against all charges. I dwell on that.

Do you see the power of this idea of memorizing and meditating? Do you see what is happening

here? We understand the passage more and then we go deeper by personalizing it. Then we say it out

loud, write it down, and then we repeat it with different emphasis. It is getting into our souls because what

we think, that is who we are. You are what you think.

Now we are moving to meditation. Don’t be freaked out or spooked about a word that seems like

it goes along with monks. Here is a great way to think of meditation. A synonym would be worry. You

have probably worried before and you are pretty good at it. Worrying is when you are fixated on

something. Worrying is your default thought. It is like “It is a Small World After All”, music playing in

your head and you can’t get it out. That is what worrying is about.

So, this meditation is shifting to: I am going to choose what is playing in my head. I am going to

choose the Bible, God’s Word written to me. Meditation is going throughout your day and when you

Meditation


jump track on what you are thinking, you pull out that promise, that Bible passage, that was written from

God to you, and you say: Okay, I am going to work my way back through this passage so it saturates my

brain, my soul, and my spirit.

Here is how it becomes application. You have to apply this, friends. If you are in a Bible study

that is not applying the Word, then find another Bible study. The Bible was written for you to apply it to

your life in real life experiences. So, when you have sentences from God, promises from God, rattling

around in your head, and they are making you think the thoughts of God, THEN opportunities show up

and God’s voice is speaking to you. If you look at this passage for application: 1 John 1:9.

You are trusting in God’s promises. You are not walking around angry, sulky, bitter, or jealous

towards others because God is faithful and just and He forgave you of all your sins. You can stop yourself

right in the middle of the day and go: Wait a minute. I have been cleansed. I took this bath.

(1) Or, when Jesus went out into the desert for 40 days and nights without food, and then the devil

came to tempt Him. The devil’s nickname is the Accuser. So, when the Accuser shows up and you have

been 40 days in a wilderness of guilt, of accusations, and of shame, and you are getting pounced on, then

you do what Jesus did. He did not make anything up. Jesus quoted Moses, the words that God gave to

Moses. You quote 1 John 1:9. So, you are driving to work and you have a guilt glitch and you are

thinking: I can’t believe I did that. Then you say: You know what, devil. Let’s read a verse out loud

together – shall we? You claim this verse to be true – not because of you but because God promised it.

God promised it to you. You say this: Hey, you can accuse me of those things because there is that and so

much worse that you don’t even know about, you stupid demon. But this is true – that if I confess my sins,

God (not me) is righteous and just; He will forgive me my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

So those accusations are true and worse things still – but I am cleaner still. So, devil, maybe you should

go hang out with someone who doesn’t know their Bible and you kick them around the desert a little bit.

No one else here has those conversations like me? You have to talk smack to the devil.

(2) There is another way to apply this passage. It is in your head and you are thinking this all the

time that you are purified by God. Now you can take responsibility for your stuff. Of course you can. If

God is for you, who do you care is against you? So, you did some things and it cost people some money

or reputation or whatever. Just step into it and say: Yeah. Here is what I did. What do I have to do to make

this right – if I can?

Application


Saints throughout the Bible said: I am forgiven but I need to go to jail. It does not absolve you of

the consequences. But you don’t have to be afraid of the consequences because this passage says that if

you confess your sins, that God is righteous and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you of all

unrighteousness. – That is how you apply the passage.

The point is this. When you are making your way through life, this is how you transform your life.

This is how you meditate on Scriptures.

In the Old Testament alone, the word “meditate” is used 50 times. I love the word pictures because

it helps us understand with greater depth what it means.

Meditation is used in relation to a tree, which is planted by a running brook, clean water, and it is

slowly but consistently drinking deeply, filling the roots, then the trunk, then the limbs, and then

producing great fruit. (Psalm 1:3) – That is what meditation does. This is long-term, slow but sure. Let’s

get it right and get the good stuff.

Sometimes the picture of meditation is of a young lion growling over its prey. (Psalm 34:10) It is

just what lions do.

The picture is presented of a dove that is murmuring, inhale – exhale, inhale-exhale. That is what

meditation is.

The picture of a cow chewing on its cud is one of meditation.

You are what you eat. …. No, no, no, that is just your body. You are what you think.

Let’s say this out loud:

What the mind repeats, it retains.

What the mind retains, you become.

Let’s apply this to our new disciplines.

The first week of this series, we committed to fifteen minutes of prayer each day with God.

The second week we learned out to pray, using an outline of A – C – T – S – L for balance.

We learned about listening to God primarily through His Word. Reading His Word in a

disciplined manner.

Now we are learning to take one of those sentences, a Bible passage, and jump on it, and

memorize it and then meditate on it and make it ours.

Let’s do that. We only have one more week together in this series. I will fill in more pieces next

week and you will love it.

Application


Let’s pray this for each other – that the Word of God, the voice of God, could transform our souls.

Lord Jesus,

We lift this vision up to You, that You would be our vision, the vision of our heart, that nothing

else in the world would mesmerize us but You – just You, God. Our best thought by day and by night,

walking and sleeping, is Your presence, Your light. Lord, let this song be a prayer. Let it be a hope and a

reality for us. God, let Grace Covenant Church be a church that does not just know the Word but does the

Word, that meditates on the Word, that lives the Word, that enjoys this voice from You, that knows You,

that You are near and we serve a great King. We pray this with great expectations. In Jesus’ name. Amen

god is near.4.cassidy...2015/05/03 · you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon...

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