Monday’s w. The Monk E2: How to Find God When Your Mind Won’t Slow Down

How to Find God When Your Mind Won’t Slow Down

Chaos is the moment I most want to know God is real, not just true on paper, so we slow down and practice a different way of reading the Bible: not as a morality checklist, not as trivia, but as Jewish meditation literature. My guest Brian Matzker spent 21 years in a monastery, and he helps me reframe Scripture as “the quiet and continuous repetition of God’s word over one’s heart.” That shift turns Bible study into prayer, and prayer into a lived center you can return to when your mind is loud.

We trace that path through the Psalms and the life of King David. David doesn’t build his kingdom around hype or strategy first; he brings the Ark of the Covenant and a prophetic worship culture into the city center. We connect Psalm 1 and day and night prayer with the New Testament call to “pray without ceasing,” then get practical about what it looks like to receive grace instead of grinding for it. Along the way we talk belonging before belief before transformation, because Jesus starts with a table and an invitation, not a lecture about behavior.

Then Psalm 27 lands with full weight: “One thing I ask.” David prays it while his world is unraveling through Absalom’s rebellion, and that context makes the Psalm a guide for anxiety, betrayal, and even self-inflicted failure like Bathsheba. If you want Christian meditation, contemplative prayer, and the practice of the presence of God to feel doable in real life, this one is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review with the line you want to carry this week.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why We Slow Down

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Welcome. Welcome to Mondays with the Monk on the Buddy Ford Junior Show. Hi, Brian. We're back again. Brian Matzker is joining us. Brian. I have to say it real quick. I forgot to add it to the last episode. Where can people find you before we forget again? I was so into the word. You had me so hypnotized. I forgot the outro. So let's do it on the intro. So this is Mondays with Bunny at the Bunny Ford Jr. show. We're calling it Mondays with the Monk. Brian is joining me. We've done podcasts in the past, and the reaction was overwhelming. People just love to hear his voice a lot better than mine. And uh so this is where we slow things down, where we don't rush answers. This is where we learn how to see, hear, and discern God in the middle of real life, in the middle of chaos. Because that's when I want to really see God and apply the Bible, is when things are not going that great. I'm not a pastor, I have no theology degree. I'm a guy in a Jesus gym. However, Brian has spent 21 years in a monastery. He's gonna join us every Monday, and we're gonna jump into Jesus Gym. And Brian's gonna be like our personal trainer as we lift at Jesus. Turn up, Brian.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Yeah, push through the bar.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

That is it, man. Brian's gonna get us a 350 before you know it.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yeah. So if somebody wants to get a hold of me, the website, the name of the company is Mission 1249, and the website is mission1249.com, and there's ways to access me to reach out to me right through the website. And just would love to meet you, would love to set up uh a meeting and then just talk about all the ways that we could go deeper.

The Garden Story And Needing Jesus

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Awesome. Now, Brian, we're gonna dive into Psalms today. Yeah, which I I you know, I it's long, right? So the book of Psalms is pretty long. You'll take us through the 101 version of it, of what it is, who wrote it. Before we get there, if you didn't catch last Monday's episode of Mondays of the Monk, we talked about the Garden of Eden.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

And Brian really unpacked and being you catch yourself being uh an active generated by God and the beauty that surrounds us, which is the garden. And I just showed a Brian before we started the show. Actually, I know the garden is real because I got thrown out of the garden. Okay, I was in the guided, meditative prayer with some Christian brothers and leaders, and I found myself in the garden. And I didn't see God, I felt him. And he was he was around me and he walked, he was walking next to me, and he threw me out. He says, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you don't get into the garden of Jesus. And then I was lashed to the cross. And I played the Bible played backwards from the New Testament to the Old Testament to Genesis, which I ended up at the entrance of the garden again through this meditation. And I'm not that smart, like I can't do the Bible backwards, I can't do it forward. Nevertheless, the accounts of the Bible back and then to the beginning of the creation. And it literally happened, like specific um passages were coming to my mind. Anyhow, uh, I can say that now without getting emotional. It was really hard for me to even talk about this without getting emotional because that's how emotional it was. So thank you for that last episode, Brian, on the garden. And I know it's real because I got thrown out of it. Now go get Jesus. So Jesus is definitely necessary to get the God.

Belonging Before Belief Before Change

SPEAKER_00 4:02

But now you got Jesus, and now you're back. And this is also, buddy, this is one of the things that's so cool about starting with a moment of being generated, because if that is the presence of Jesus, then that's Jesus himself leading you back into the garden. Every time, no matter how far you feel or how far you think you are. And buddy, if I could just say another word on this, you know, one of the ways, yeah, one of the I love the church, I love the people of God, but one of the ways we mess things up in the West, particularly in our Western experience of Christianity, is we start with behavior, you know, and part of starting with behavior, it's like our our model is if you behave, you know, when you read the Bible as a morality book, then your first message to people is, you know, well, you gotta behave. Right. And so it's if you start with behavior, that's like if you behave, then we'll tell you what we believe, and then you can belong. But if you watch on the pages of the scriptures, that's not the way Jesus engaged with people. So Jesus, uh when you encounter Jesus, he was like having he was having dinner with the tax collectors and the prostitutes with the sinners. And so he gave people a profound experience of belonging, an experience of belonging that they that never had before. Um, like an utterly unique and profound experience of belonging. Belonging, by the way, buddy, that is the most powerful force in the universe, and it's the deepest need in the human spirit. And that's why it feels so good to encounter Christ, because that infinite desire in us to have that profound belonging, that's what it is. So Jesus starts with belonging. When you belong, when people feel like they belong, then they'll care what we believe as a church. And then when you share what you believe, what you're what we're supposed to be sharing is a way to recognize the presence of God in our life in their lives. And so then rather than um, if you behave, then you can so behave what what the church in the West winds up doing, sadly, is if you bel if you behave, we'll tell you what we believe, and then you can belong. So we flip it around and we start with when people feel like they belong, they'll care what you believe. And then rather than behaving, the last one gets changed again. It should be transformed because the purpose of the Bible is not behavior modification, it's character transformation. And that's what happens when you encounter that Jesus that you're talking about. You have to encounter Jesus because it's in the encounter with Jesus that you have that character transformation and you get initiated back into the garden.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Wow, that's so good. But then you then I go and screw it up all over again, and he's there all over again.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

I screwed up there, yeah.

The Bible As Meditation Literature

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Yeah, so it's awesome. Say, Brian, what do you take us and guide us today on just again another lesson on how we apply the Bible and our lives?

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Yeah, and and reading the Bible as Jewish meditation literature. And so the Bible has lots of different types of books in it. So there's poetry in the Bible, but it's not a poetry book. There's morality in the Bible, but it's not a morality book. Um, there's history in the Bible, but it's not primarily a history book. What type of book is it? It's Jewish meditation literature. The purpose of this book is for the, and I didn't give this definition of Jewish meditation in the last session, but I'll say it now. It's the quiet and continuous repetition of God's word over one's heart. So I'm gonna say that again. Just take a breath here, and invite people just to receive this as an impartation, receive this as a gift from God right now. Like God, this is religion is not about what we do for God. It's what He's already done for us. And even as we're talking about this, He's releasing this grace for us. The grace, the quiet and continuous repetition of God's word over one's heart.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Thank you for that.

David’s Worship Life Behind The Psalms

SPEAKER_00 8:33

So this is all right, so last week, uh last week we talked about uh reading the Bible as Jewish meditation literature in in the book of Genesis. Genesis is the first book of the Bible, it's also the first book of the Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible. But now we're jumping um from the garden, we're jumping to 1000 BC. So this is 3,000 years ago. This is King David, and he is he he was told by Samuel, he was anointed by Samuel to be king long before he actually took the throne. He he knew this was coming. But what David had as a shepherd boy on the hillside is he had a personal culture of worship. And so he had lots and time watching the sheep. He would pick up his harp and he would sing. And as he would sing, he would enter into God's presence and he would learn things about God's heart that surprised God that David figured them out. You know, so it's said that David is a man after God's own heart, and that's true on a couple of levels. Yes, he was he was the shepherd who sung songs and pursued God's heart. Um, but also we become like the God we behold. So as David was beholding God, David was being transformed. Like we were saying before, when you experience when you encounter Christ, it's not about behavior modification, but character transformation. David was encountering God, and David was being transformed through his own personal culture of worship.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Wow, I've never heard that before. But I received that, it's powerful. So how we meditate on God is how God meditates on us.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Oh, holy smokes, buddy. That's an inspired word. I don't even think I could repeat what you said, but I know that's anointed, and that's it. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

I mean, that's a way to start. I'm I you just you just knocked me through about four brick walls.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

I gotta get it back up and I got a steam here.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Wow. Well, these these walls, going through these walls, buddy, that's actually part of what David teaches us in Psalm 24. He teaches us about the ancient gates. And there are these ancient gates. These are ancient, these are doorways in spiritual realms that as we as we're praying with the scriptures, we're actually entering through ancient doorways into spiritual realms. Last week, when we were talking, we were we entered back into the Garden of Eden. You know, we entered into the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Eden entered into us. We're passing through these spiritual doorways. Oh, David says, We enter your gates with thanksgiving. So giving thanks is one of the ways that we pass through. You you said you'd knock me through about four brick walls, but we're passed through these portals, these doorways into spiritual realms.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

That is you've said that before. Other pastors, other pastors have said that. I totally believe that. And I want I want to meditate more. I want those realms, like I want access to those doors.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Big time.

Bringing The Ark To The Center

SPEAKER_00 11:53

And so this part of one of those realms is David. Okay, so I want so I want to set up like David, he has this journey, he's anointed king by um by Samuel, but he doesn't take the throne straight away. And so it's a journey where he has to, yeah. Um it's a journey where his destiny unfolds. And in fact, you know, we were talking about the Garden of Eden last time, where our story began. So, in order to know where your destiny is, where your future is, you gotta remember, you gotta learn where your identity is, where you come from. We come from the garden made in the image and likeness of God, and we're made to go on this this journey. So David knew, was anointed king before he actually became king and got enthroned as king. And then once he was enthroned as king, it's like, okay, David, it's been a long time coming. Finally, you're here, you got the throne. You know, so what's it gonna be first, David? You know, you were amazing on the battlefield. Is it gonna be a bunch of war campaigns here? Or David, you know, you got the heart of an architect, you know, you have all these ideas about building the house of God. Are you gonna do an uh um an architectural campaign? Or what's it gonna be, David? Are you gonna is it is it gonna be roads, David? Are you gonna build roads? And David presses pause on all people's ideas about how they're gonna build kingdom, and he and he says, the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna get that Ark of the Covenant, which at that time was in the mountain, it was in the hillside. So there were there were bands of prophets that were living in the mountains. That's where Samuel was among them. Go ahead. You got something?

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Yeah, right, right, right, right. The ark that you would travel to it.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah, it was in the hill country. The prophets were keeping it safe, but it that means it's not in the city center. Right. So David said, We're gonna take, we're gonna take the ark and not just the ark, the ark and that prophetic culture. So Samuel, he was a circuit preacher, and he was traveling between about, you know, let's say six different cities and building up these bands of the prophets, teaching people prophetic worship, the same prophetic worship that David as a young shepherd boy would have bumped into and learned how to worship his his uh into God's heart, into God's presence. And he says, that prophetic worship culture, along with the ark, which is God's throne on earth, we're gonna bring that into the city center and we're gonna into the city center, the center of Jerusalem, and we are gonna build kingdom around the worship of God's presence.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Holy moly, I did not know that. I had no idea. I do know I know the ark was at a place they had to travel to, surrounded by high priests and prophets. I got all that. I didn't know David's first order. It's like, what is your what are you doing? Your first 100 days in a White House.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yeah, that's exactly what is it?

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Bringing me up. Wow, I didn't know that. And by the way, you say David in battle, we're talking about the David who killed Goliath, folks. This is King David who killed the giant, the giant slayer.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

That's right. That's right. He he slaughtered, he he he slaughtered the lion, he slaughtered the bear, he slaughtered the giant.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

So that's uh he did it all, he knew it all because he did it in the power of God. He just knew that the Lord was with him. I mean, like he's just amazing.

Pray Without Ceasing By Receiving

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yeah, he wasn't perfect, yeah. So so David, yeah, that's right, with all his imperfections as well. So he's he's building kingdom around the worship of God's pres presence, and so that's a part of this Jewish meditation. And his psalms, you know, we talked about the first five books of Torah, David has 150 psalms. And the in Hebrew the word psalm is tehilim, and tehilim refers to the spontaneously sung song. So these 150 recorded psalms are the the raw materials from which a culture of spontaneous worship of God would be built up around, which is what Samuel was teaching those prophets in the hill country. Um, but this the 150 Psalms break up into five groups, just like the Torah. So in the very beginning, when Moses is writing the first five books of Torah, David here is David here is like a new Adam, David here is like a new Abraham, David here is like a new Moses, presenting the starting the story all over again. And he begins it with Psalm 1. It says, Blessed is the one who meditates on God's word day and night. They will be like a tree. So here's that part of the garden was the tree, um, particularly the tree of life. Blessed is the one who meditates on God's word day and night. So that's that Jewish meditation, that can that quiet and continuous repetition of God's word over one's heart. And that can be done in contemplative ways, in in quiet prayer and personal quiet prayer, but it can also be done in charismatic ways, you know, with the harp, clap loudly, play, play loud with all your skill. Um and so this this culture of Jewish meditation is is it's both. It's both the quiet and it's the loud and boisterous, David dancing with um with the band in before the ark, bringing the ark of the covenant in. So where so where do we go from there, buddy? So this um this quiet and continuous repetition of God's word, this is this is meditating on God's word day and night. So this day and night prayer, once again, um St. Paul says pray without ceasing. And this is an age-old question. How do you pray without ceasing? And that can be heard as you know, through our western ears. Remember, what what do we do in the west? One of our one of our top, you know, is is we turn religion into what we're gonna do for God. So we're well, how do I do that? Rather than God wants to give us the gift of day and night worship. So back to your inspired line from before: God in you wants to meditate upon God for you as a gift, as a gift to us.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

So it's not our acts, it's let him do it.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Yeah, we're so that this is why I love the language. You'll hear me when I pray often say, um say yes to the grace. Say yes to the grace, a day and night prayer.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Yeah, one thing I do that I've been practicing that I learned through other brothers and sisters that are in the word and leaders in the word, is practice receiving. Like when someone says, Hey, nice jacket, buddy, I receive that. Yeah, but like these little acts of people giving you a compliment, a lot of times we don't feel worthy of the compliment, or like it's embarrassing. And what I've learned is just if I can accept a kind act or a kind compliment out loud by saying, I receive that, thank you. Then maybe I can go practicing receiving what the Lord's downloading and what he's blessing me with. But receiving is a practice, I to me it's a practice. I'm learning to practice to receive gifts, whether compliments, whether they're God's gifts, you know, I receive that, I receive that, I receive that. And then hopefully that brings me to a state that I'm constantly in prayer, which I find to be almost impossible, although I know it's not. I find it to be my mind of the world says it's impossible because of just that the world, the busyness, everything that's around us. Like so, I know I'm I'm babbling a little bit here.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

No, you're on point, buddy. You're on point. One of the great masters of prayer is Teresa Vavila. So 500 years ago, she's a Carmelite mystic, and she talks about the experience of the interior mansions, the interior castles is the famous work of hers on on mystical prayer. And she said that you know, you have the two images of Martha, Mary, and Martha, where Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet, and Martha was busy about many things. And then Martha actually gets jealous of Mary and says, Jesus, tell her to help me. And Jesus says to Martha, Martha, you're you're worried about Martha, you're anxious about many things. Mary's chosen the better portion, and this one thing will not be taken from her. And so this sets up that whole dynamic between the many things of the world that stress us out, even though there's things that have to be done, and the one thing, which is I make God my number one priority. And that's what David's bringing the ark into the center. We're making him, God is the program. It's not, I'm not gonna add him to my program. God, you are you are the program.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

So, all right, and that's what I love about the Bible, because it all connects New Testament, Old Testament. All right, so David brings the ark into the city center as a symbol of prioritization of God, yeah. Living among them and living among among us. You jump to um Jesus having the two sisters, one preparing the feast and running around cleaning the house while Jesus is there. These are Lazarus sisters, right? Weren't they?

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Yep, that's right. Um Mary, Mary Mary. Martha and Lazarus were all brothers and sisters.

unknown 22:15

Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

And Lazarus was raised from the dead.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

And one sister's cooking and she's being busy. I look at her like my mother-in-law.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Because my mother-in-law's active service is food. She shows love through cooking, and she receives love through you enjoying that meeting. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

I got you.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Right. So I look at those Mary that was running around or Martha.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Martha was running around. We're anxious about many things.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

So she's anxious. Meanwhile, Jesus is in her living room.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Don't be me. And then Mary's washing his feet.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

She's sitting at his feet.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

She's sitting at his feet in awe of his presence and not worried about anything else.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

So Jesus was at the center. David brought the ark to the center. So man, wow. I just I just connected those. We got to figure out how to have Jesus at the center all the time.

unknown 23:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

And he is among them.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yeah, and and watch this, buddy. So uh Teresa of Avila, she said in the she she actually in a simple way takes people through. Here are the different degrees of immersion in God, the different degrees of prayer. And there's something called uh in the I believe it was in the fifth mansion. So she altogether there's seven mansions. The seventh mansion is the highest level of the prayer. But by the time you get to the fifth mansion, she says, I was able to be uh Mary and Martha at the same time. That in her in her heart and in her interior life, she could be sitting at Jesus' feet in the depths of contemplative prayer, but then meanwhile, she could be going around and taking care of all of her tasks and responsibilities. So anybody want to say yes to that, Grace?

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Yeah, amen. I mean, so that you and I have talked, yes, amen. You knew immediately, as soon as I said the title, Practice the Presence of God. It's a book Pastor Bernard gave me to read. I get all my books fed by Bernard, he feeds them to me. That's brother, that's Brother Lawrence. And he was awesome at exactly what you just said, being Martha and Mary. Right? He was a chef in a monastery, he's cooking, he's getting tasked on, but he but there wasn't a moment that he wasn't in the presence of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Yeah, that's right. Finding God in the midst of the pots and the pans. All right, buddy, if I could say something about this, Mary and Martha, it's it's important to realize that Jesus' words are not a condemnation to Martha, but are an invitation to be initiated into this contemplative life. And that when Martha, and she does, as evidenced by later chapters, things that Martha says, Martha is a woman of revelation, so she goes very high in the spiritual life. Um, so she she accepted that invitation and she was initiated into the deeper prayer. But notice this in this tension between the one and the many, like I've got lots of things to do today, um, but there's this one thing that's my priority. Uh, you can hear that saying language in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount when he says, Seek first the kingdom of God, and then everything else will be given to you. So seeking first the kingdom of God is that one thing. And then when you choose that one thing, then you get given everything else. So it's not an either or or, it's a this is the way to experience the fullness.

unknown 26:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

So easy said, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Oh, and it's easy, it's easy to say it. Remember this whole uh what you're saying, Brian. Yeah, difficult is necessary until we realize that difficult isn't necessary because Jesus preaches the easy button. My yoke is easy.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

That background, put this in the context. Whenever Brian and I are on my spiritual call with him, I'll say, Man, that's hard.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

And then Brian says, Hard is necessary until we realize that hard isn't necessary.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

It's so good. Yeah. No, I got no, I'm saying it's my kids and my wife.

Psalm 27 And The One Thing

SPEAKER_00 26:43

So, so we got we got Mary and Martha, and buddy, if I can just circle this one thing language. This this one thing. So Mary has chosen the better portion, and this one thing will not be taken from her. So that one thing language actually comes back from David. So that's the next place I want to go in the Psalms, and that's Psalm 27. And Psalm 27, it it opens up with uh the Lord is my light and my salvation, but right there in the heart of it, it says, David says, One thing I ask, this alone I seek, to dwell in your courts all the days of my life, to gaze upon your beauty, and to contemplate your graciousness. Now, a beautiful line of prayer, and the for those of you that have your your Bibles there, if you want to highlight that, that if you're if you're trying to like, okay, well, what words do I begin speaking quietly and continuously over my heart? I think that's a great line. Psalm 20, Psalm 27. One thing I ask, this alone I seek, to dwell within your courts all the days of my life, to gaze upon your beauty and to contemplate your graciousness. And now they roll off my tongue now, but it took me time to memorize those. But remember, I don't read the Bible to memorize it. I read I read it to remember it because I this word is in my heart. The first time I heard that, I was like, that's beautiful. Even though it's strange, it's familiar. And so I really want to wake that up and I want to chisel that out so that's fully alive in my heart. But I learned more over time about what was happening in David's life when he prayed that. You know, you might think David was on a retreat weekend and just kicking his feet up and taking some time with scripture and coffee. Um, when in fact his son Absalon was leading a revolt, his own son led a rebellion against him and was burning down the kingdom that David had worked so hard to build up. And while he's watching his work be undermined by his own son, David, you know, think about, I mean, on a on a good day, you've got a lot of things to do. On a day like that, think about all the things that must have been caught. I gotta go here, I gotta go there, I gotta do this. And it was as if David said, you know what? It was never about any of that. It was only ever about this one thing, this this bringing the ark, this meditating on God's law day and night, this being in his presence. And to be able to pray like that when the world around you is falling down, that's a whole other gift of prayer to the human spirit.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

Yeah, and that's Psalms 27:4. Not only that, but if I'm if I'm tracking with you, the covenant, the ark is in the city that's now being destroyed. Just because the ark's there doesn't mean there's not a chaos waiting for us, right? And then to see David and like to see David go to prayer like this in the middle of that turmoil, that's an example of what we're supposed to be. I'm picking this up now, right? That's what I'm supposed to do when I'm freaking out or get caught off in a car, right? Can he cut off and go to chase the dude down? And that's not they have to be generated by the Holy Spirit. So being able, so that's what David was. David was more than cut off by a car, he was cut off by his own son. And I remember reading that the Bible, I like broke my heart. And then, so being able to go here, the one thing I asked from the Lord, this only do I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Wow. So he went there in the middle of all that turmoil, and a turmoil happened even with the covenant in the city center.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

Yeah, yeah. And and buddy, so first of all, heavenly downloads, uh, catch yourself in the act of being generated, catch yourself in the act of receiving revelation. So hello, Holy Spirit. Yay, God, thank you, Jesus, more Lord. So that's that's so prophetic what you're receiving there, buddy. Um, the and in that midst of the things, uh, the world falling apart. I think it's also well, I I just get a sense, buddy, that even today, while people are listening to this, there's somebody who's listening to this right now who's going through you you said it so powerfully. It's not just he didn't just get cut off by a car, he got cut off by his son. So somebody's going through something right now, and it doesn't mean and sometimes it can feel like when everything's going wrong, it can feel like God abandoned us. And the perhaps what feels like an abandonment is actually that invitation to being initiated into a deeper experience of prayer.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

He took the invitation, not to bait.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

Right? I mean, yeah. I'm sorry, like I'm just thinking out loud because these are things that I constantly meditate on. Again, I have to go back to my Jesus Jim analogy or comparison. When you're in good shape, you're ready for bad things to happen. Whether it's medical, something falls on you, you get hurt. Like when you're in good shape, your body recovers quicker. And when you're in biblical shape, like David was, and to go back to what you said, that David, what David, how David saw God and how he meditated after him, God planted in him. So his tenacious, uncompromising meditation on God was put in him, which prepared him for this attack from his son. Because there's so many ways he could have reacted. Right? And he didn't. He went he went to the number of source again, even though this man was completely full out. He slept with Besheep, but he slept with the one of his friends, one of his general's wife that he was so attracted to and lusting after, even after that great fall, the shame doesn't stay on David. The shame goes off of him, and he continues to go back in prayer with God. Is that is that a ramble?

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Yeah, no, the uh so I'm thinking out loud and just things that I'm learning. What a good, what a good word, buddy, you know, and the the heights and the depths, you know, we're talking about the the heights of Genesis one and the depths of Genesis 2, and the heights of what David's capable of in entering into the heavenly places, and then the same man is capable of, you know, how did he get caught in that trap in that failure? Um, but then he doesn't he doesn't stay there. Like is he he repents, you know, and he and he comes back. Um, what do I want to go with this?

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Uh I love I I just looked at my I I I wear a star of David with my cross.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Oh, awesome. I love David.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Like he makes me emotional. I love him.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

Buddy, I was I was thinking about it with Peter. You know, Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say that I am? Peter comes out with the answer, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And I often picture Peter as this impetuous character rushing in before he gives consideration to what he's saying. And um, and and Jesus says, Back to him, flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my father in heaven. And I just imagine how good Peter must have felt about himself. Like, I I got it right, you know. I I I heard from I didn't even realize I was getting heavenly downloads, I didn't realize I was prophetic, I didn't realize I'd I was receiving revelation. And then the next move, you know, Jesus tells Peter about the cross, and and Peter says, Oh, God forbid it doesn't have to be that way, Jesus. And then Jesus says, Get behind me, Satan. And so, you know, we can go right from the heavenly, and when we're saying yes to the heavenly, we're moving towards the heaven words, and then the then switch right from father's heart fm right to serpent radio and write down the shitter.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

I know I do. That's me.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

Oh god. So David, I just think that David's such a great example, and honestly, I didn't even realize David until I really started studying the word deeper in the in each book of the Torah and of the Psalms of the prophets, digging through the background. I didn't realize David was the author of the Psalms.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

When I read it, when I read like the Bible in a year, I don't know for some reason that passed.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

Yeah, and you know, buddy, uh just a shout back to the monastery days. That the psalms are the primary prayer of the monks. So the monks, the monastic life is a continuation of that culture of worship that David built kingdom around. So the primary, like five times a day, we would gather together, and the primary book, we'd be reading lots of books from the Bible, but the primary every time it was the Psalms again, the Psalms again, the Psalms again.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Really? That's so cool. I didn't know that either.

Heaven’s Throne Room And Final Prayer

SPEAKER_00 36:33

So let's uh let's see if we can get one more piece on the table on the table with the with David and the Psalms and Jewish meditation, the quiet continuous, and then we'll then we'll wrap up in prayer. Uh so this staying with Psalm 127. Um sorry, Psalm 27. Um it's also fascinating to me to enter into his courts at this time. The Ark of the Covenant is still under a tent. It's not yet his son Solomon will build the the first temple.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

The Sheba's son.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

That's right. Another oh, yeah. So this is this has to be said now. So some people, by the way, when I study David, I'm I'm like you, buddy. I love David. Uh, but you bump into people who hate David. There's a lot of people who love him, there's a lot of people who hate him, but it also reminds us there's parts of me that I love, and there's parts of me that I hate. And so wherever you are in the journey, God's just looking for you to say yes to the grace, the the the gospel of grace, the gift, yeah, the gospel of grace and the finished work of the cross, you know, back to that. I need Jesus to go back into the garden, he'll take us back in.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

Yeah, I think that's why I love David, because he's so jacked up, but yet he was still a man of God's heart.

unknown 37:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

Right, is that to say?

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Yeah, that's right. A man after God's own heart.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

You know, and and and I think that's a great example for us. Like we can constantly screw up and then be hunted because he was hunted down by um so many, so many, so many times.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Saul Saul hunted him down, yep.

SPEAKER_02 38:19

Right. And yet he didn't take vengeance in his own hands. There's so many things that I can unpack with David. Yeah, and I just love the fact that he goes back to prayer. And I think I love him because of how flawed he was, but yet how profoundly connected he was to his source, and that's what I want to be. Like I as jacked up as David was, I am. However, I don't go to the Lord like he did. Yeah. So he's he inspires me a few times.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

He's human, he makes me feel human because of how human he was. And and and yeah, he makes me feel like I look up to him because of how quickly he went into prayer into God and to his source. So that's kind of yeah, awesome, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

That that's it, man. That's it. And and watch this. So we were we were carving out the rebellion of Absalon against David. Um, but I was realizing, you know, so it's one thing to be able to go to prayer when somebody else is burning down our kingdom, but David also with Bathsheba, he did he made the same move when he burned his own kingdom down. That's right. Like he was the one he undermined himself.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

So, folks, real quick, David sees this gorgeous woman bathing on a rooftop, he's the king. There's a war going on. He's got journals out at the war, and he cannot stop thinking of this woman. And eventually he she's in his bed and he gets her pregnant, and he's trying to hide the pregnancy by keeping her husband at war, and then saying, or at least getting the husband to go sleep with her while he visits home to the battle line. Husband won't go because his other men are fighting, and so eventually David has to send a letter to the lead commander to put Bathsheba's husband at the front of the line, and David's whole intent was to get him killed in order to hide David's betrayal and sin. And he does, the guy dies. So all that's some that's some jacked up stuff. All of that, he has King's Dominion, and which is just amazing. So Bathsheba gives birth to the wisest man that ever lived. Yeah, and and then so uh quick summary paraphrase.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

Yeah, no, great. Yeah, good good call on that one, buddy. Keep the context, you know, text text without context is pretext, so it's so important. Uh but if I could if I could close with one more insight about Psalm 27, and then we'll then we'll close in prayer. So this court, speaking of Solomon, who's that son of David and Bathsheba, the next great king, and he's the one who built the temple. So the temple's not built yet. So when it's saying Solomon, King Solomon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:21

He built a temple.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

Yeah, King Solomon built the temple. So for David, the the ark is still under a tent. So it's still pretty rustic. Uh yet while he's under the tent, David is talking about uh one thing I asked this alone. I think to dwell in your courts all the days of my life, to to gaze upon your beauty, to contemplate your graciousness. David's already in the temple before the temple's built. So my proposal is in prayer. David is accessing that heavenly realm. He's going through one of those ancient gates, and he's he's entering the throne room of God. And I can't emphasize this h strongly enough. That's not just for David then, that's for us right here, right now. And that's what Jesus is teaching us in the Our Father when he says, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, where there's a kingdom, there's a king, where there's a king, there's a throne. He's inviting us into that heavenly courtroom every time we pray. Come on. This is not possible. Yeah. So can we can we close in prayer again, buddy?

SPEAKER_02 42:38

Yes, please. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

And any closing words before we wrap in prayer?

SPEAKER_02 42:43

No, I just want you. This is just amazing. I hope the audience is enjoying it. And again, Brian, where can they find you? I mean, I want people to be able to find you personally. What's your website?

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Yeah, Mission 1249, one word, uh, mission1249.com.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

What's the what's 1249?

SPEAKER_00 43:02

That stands, it's for the chapter and verse from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, verse 49. Jesus says, I came to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.

SPEAKER_02 43:13

So you want to set it on fire?

SPEAKER_00 43:15

Yeah, come on. Bring the fire. Let the fire fall.

unknown 43:20

All right.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

So let's call on the fire now. Yeah. Yeah. So so, Father God, thank you. Thank you for the thank you for the gift of your son Jesus, Father. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for the gift. Thank you, Father God, that it it takes God to know God and it takes God to love God. So we want to say yes to knowing you by your power, God. We want to say yes to the grace of loving you by your power, God. We want to say yes to the grace of unceasing prayer, the gift of that day and night worship that we heard about in Psalm 1 that brings us back into the garden, back into the mystery of the of the tree of life. And Father God, thank you that this prayer in us isn't something that we have to try hard to do, but rather this is something that You you want to do for us, that you want to do in us. And we just, Father God, that sounds too good to be true. But Father, I'm Father, I just I'm so grateful that you've been showing us that the gospel is exactly that. There's no better news, there's no news that sounds more too good to be true than the gospel of your son. And so, Father God, thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the Holy Spirit. Father God, thank you that Holy Spirit is in us for us right now. And that Holy Spirit is on us for others right now. We just want to say yes to your word, your word growing in us, your life going and growing in us, this this revelation, this understanding from being able to walk with you in easy intimacy in the garden to being able to enter deep prayer with you in those moments when it feels like others are rebelling against us, and it feels like the work that we've been building up is crumbling down. And even when we're the one that rebels against you, and we're the one that rebels against ourselves, when we burn down what you've been building for us, you make the restart easy. So we just we thank you, Father God, for that call just to be a new creation in your son Jesus. We're a new creation in in Christ. Jesus, nothing of the former remains. You're not wasting time with all the ways that we fail, but you're giving us a fresh start in your son Jesus with the gospel of grace and the finished work of the cross. And we just want to say yes to that new heart, to a new heavens, to a new earth, to a fresh start with you, Father. And we want to say yes to that one thing anointing of Mary and Martha, that we can build our lives with you around the worship of your presence, just like David did in these beautiful 150 spontaneously sung songs. Yeah, Holy Spirit, come sing those songs in us. Let us sing with David, let us worship with David, let us dance with David, let us meditate with David. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

Amen. So good.