SPEAKER_00: I was in high school a student.
SPEAKER_00: It was about the academics.
SPEAKER_00: But I taught myself in trying to figure out.
Forrest: And I I used to say and take pride of the fact that during high school, I never read one complete book all the way through during high school.
Forrest: I even took AP English and passed A or B and never read one of the books in AP English.
Forrest: The classic literatures.
Forrest: Now I used to think that was really cool and made me look smart, but now I realize that was really dumb.
Forrest: Like I just think how much uh better student, how much better grades, maybe I could have gotten some college credit for some of my classes.
Forrest: I could have done, I could have just applied myself a little bit more, but forever I sort of had it as a badge of honor of man, you know, uh I never read one book in high school.
Forrest: And you know, things didn't really get that much better in college because when I was in college the internet was really going and cliffs notes really were popular.
Forrest: So uh, you know, uh you can see from um from from this that uh reading wasn't really ever a big part of my life, but now it is.
Forrest: Mainly because along the way I heard somebody say that a leader is a reader.
Forrest: And so I had to start figuring out how in the world I was going to begin to read.
Forrest: And now I read multiple books a year and I figured out how to do it.
Forrest: I'm an auditory learner, so um I'll listen to the audiobook while I turn the pages of the book uh so that I can read uh and digest information and books and that kind of thing.
Forrest: Um, but man, it was life may have looked a lot different if I had just you know read a book or two in high school.
Forrest: And uh I know for most of us in the room that reading is probably not a top priority.
Forrest: Um, but today we're gonna be talking about in the essential series that we're in.
Forrest: Last week we talked about prayer and fasting, and today we're gonna be talking about meditation and study.
Forrest: Meditation and study, the spiritual disciplines that we grow in our faith through meditation and study.
Forrest: Today's uh title, the message is Tune In and Find Out.
Forrest: Uh anybody um here uh old enough to remember bunny ears on the back of the TV?
Forrest: Yes, I am.
Forrest: Like I said, the internet was I'm like I'm one of those, I'm one of those people who uh grew up without the internet and I had the internet, so I know the the times before that where you like held on to the end of the of the intent on the TV, and if you held your mouth the right way, maybe the ball game wouldn't stop being fuzzy and come through.
Forrest: Uh also, you know, there were different shows that at the end of it it would say, hey, tune in and find out next time, whatever.
Forrest: Right?
Forrest: Anybody in the room I'm talking about?
Forrest: You'll even still now hear talk show hosts and different people on TV who will say, tune in.
Forrest: And they're like, what are the what are the not the whole people out there doing the money or thing anymore, but it's still like a part of the vernacular, it's part of what we say to tune in and find out.
Forrest: Look at what Jesus said in John chapter 8, verse 31 and 32.
Forrest: Jesus said to the people who believed in him, You will truly my disciples if you remain faithful, everybody stay faithful to my teachings, everybody say teachings, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Forrest: Everybody stay free.
Forrest: We talk about study, we talk about meditation, and you think, why in the world, Forrest, would I ever want to do this?
Forrest: I don't even like study it out in my normal life.
Forrest: I definitely don't meditate.
Forrest: I don't even know what that means.
Forrest: Why in the world is this even important today?
Forrest: And it's this Jesus says that if you're his follower, that you're gonna be faithful to his teachings.
Forrest: And when you know his teachings, you're gonna know the truth.
Forrest: Everybody say truth.
Forrest: And that truth is gonna set you free.
Forrest: As we're going in our spiritual journey, as we're following Jesus and growing spiritually, it's so important for us not just to believe, but also to know why we believe what we believe.
Forrest: It's important for us to know the teachings of Jesus because when we get to know the teachings of Jesus, that and then turns out that brings freedom into our life.
Forrest: And I don't know about you, but I think that myself and everybody else could use a lot more freedom in their life.
Forrest: So we're talking about meditation, talking about study.
Forrest: They're two actually completely opposite things.
Forrest: Meditation is devotional in nature, study is analytical.
Forrest: And so we'll start by talking a little bit about meditation.
Forrest: Now you may have in your mind what you think about meditation, and maybe some guru pops up in your mind in a yoga class with his hands out here going, um, um, something like that, wusa, you know, some of those things.
Forrest: But that's not at all what we're talking about when we talk about biblical meditation.
Forrest: Psalm 119, verse 11 says, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might sin against you.
Forrest: You know, Eastern meditation, what you would normally think about meditation.
Forrest: The goal of Eastern meditation is to empty your mind.
Forrest: But that's not that's not true meditation.
Forrest: Well, true meditation is for you to be filled.
Forrest: For you to be filled.
Forrest: To fill with the knowledge, the truth, the freedom of God in your life.
Forrest: And so when we meditate on the word of God, when we hide God's word in our heart, it's not that we're trying to empty ourselves or uh or or some kind of force that we're going after, but instead that we would be filled with the power of God.
Forrest: So, how do we do that?
Forrest: We be still and be filled.
Forrest: The scripture says, Be still and know that I am God.
Forrest: In the Old Testament, Elijah went up under the mountaintop and he was looking for the Lord to speak to him.
Forrest: But there was a fire that came by, and he said, The Lord's voice wasn't in a fire.
Forrest: There was a wind that came by, and the Lord's voice wasn't in the fire.
Forrest: There was an earthquake that happened, but the Lord's voice was not in the earthquake, but the Lord's voice was in a whisper.
Forrest: A still small voice that he heard.
Forrest: Could barely be heard.
Forrest: Listening for the truth of God.
Forrest: I don't know about you, but my life feels so busy and so filled with distractions that to think about hearing a whisper from God, I feel like I could easily miss it, and maybe you too.
Forrest: Part of meditating, meditating on the word of God, which literally means to meditate on the word of God means read it, reread it, memorize it.
Forrest: To meditate on the word of God is you eliminating distractions for you to read, reread a verse or collection of verses together.
Forrest: Why are you doing this?
Forrest: Well, because Jesus told us as we listen for his voice, that we'll hear him.
Forrest: John 10, verse 17, Jesus said, My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Is there room in your day?
SPEAKER_00: Is there room in your life right now for you to hear from Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: For them to say, Hey, you're one of my followers, and when I speak, you're gonna hear my voice and you're gonna know it.
Forrest: You know, if my wife, Emily, was to call me right now from somebody else's phone number, I would answer the call and she would speak, and I would immediately know her voice, even though it was somebody else's phone number.
Forrest: You probably have somebody in your life just like that.
Forrest: Are you able to hear the Lord's voice in that way?
Forrest: Would you recognize it if it was the Lord that was speaking to you or putting something on your heart or sharing a verse with you that could possibly change the trajectory of your life and bring freedom to you?
Forrest: Would you be able to hear it?
Forrest: Would you be like Jesus said, You're one of my sheep, you're one of my disciples, you're one of my followers if you know my teachings.
Forrest: The reason I think this is so important is because for uh for us to be able to follow Jesus and find freedom in him, we have to know what he said.
Forrest: And that goes beyond the sermons that you're gonna hear ye week after week after week of being a follower of Jesus.
Forrest: You need to know more.
Forrest: You need to read it for yourself in this book, the collection of Jesus sayings in the scripture to be a person that really has the power and might and freedom of God in their life.
Forrest: Listen to this instruction from Psalms about who you should be and who you shouldn't be.
Forrest: In Psalms 1, 1 through 6, the opening of the Psalms says, Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners or join in with mockers, but they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.
Forrest: They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit in each season, their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do, but not the wicked.
Forrest: They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
Forrest: And there they will be condemned at the time of judgment.
Forrest: Sinners have no place among the godly, for the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.
Forrest: Pretty clear there.
Forrest: Of the person that you should be and the person that you shouldn't be.
Forrest: The people that you should be hanging out with, the people that you shouldn't be hanging out with, and for the purpose of what?
Forrest: To know God, to prosper, to flourish, to bear fruit, to be free.
Forrest: To be free.
Forrest: All of us, uh most everybody has a cell phone nowadays, and we have these little bars on our cell phone.
Forrest: And if I'm ever in a place where I don't have coverage, y'all ever been out in the boom somewhere and you don't have any bars on your phone?
Forrest: Man, I I have before, I have hiked up to the top of the highest point, looking at my phone, trying to get one bar so that I can get one phone call out, one text out to somebody.
SPEAKER_00: I know it was in an emergency situation.
SPEAKER_00: Just out there searching for the signal, searching for the signal.
Forrest: How much more?
Forrest: How much better would our spiritual lives be and our spiritual walks be if we search for God in that way?
Forrest: We search to hear from Him, to learn from Him, to learn His teachings, and in turn, by doing so, find flourishing in freedom.
Forrest: You know that God wants that success in your life.
Forrest: The Old Testament, Joshua, is leading the people of God into the promised land, and I love this verse.
Forrest: This is Joshua 1.8.
Forrest: It says, study this book of instruction continually, meditate on it day and night, so that you will be sure to obey everything written in it.
Forrest: And look at this, I love this.
Forrest: Only then will you prosper and then succeed in all you do.
Forrest: I love that.
Forrest: I love it because that success, that succeed isn't in the same way that the world defines success.
Forrest: The hustle, the big bank and cow, the house on the beach, the five cars, the big boat, all those things that we see as defined as success.
Forrest: Wouldn't you rather have success in the way that God defines it?
Forrest: Just meditate.
Forrest: Meditate on this day and night, and in doing so, it's going to lead to your success.
Forrest: So, what does it mean to meditate?
Forrest: It means for you to at some point during your day find a quiet place, and that may be a challenge just to start, but they are there.
Forrest: It may require turning off Netflix at the end of the night a little bit early.
Forrest: May require waking up a few minutes early before the kids are running around and jumping in the bathtub and all the things.
Forrest: For you to open up God's word.
Forrest: For to sit yourself in an open posture and read the Word of God.
Forrest: Let it be read to you.
Forrest: Or let it be read to you.
Forrest: Learn it.
Forrest: Memorize it.
Forrest: Time freedom in it.
Forrest: This meditation that we get to walk in as believers is a time of devotional time, a devotional time for us to meet with God and experience his presence even in the calm.
Forrest: When there's nobody else around to learn, to grow from his word.
Forrest: Now I know how daunting it can be to talk about beginning to meditate on God's word.
Forrest: I know that the inspiration and the God-breathed word of God that it has power, even power of a double-edged sword that can cut us to the bone and marrow.
Forrest: And I also know that getting started and figuring out how in the world do I read this book is also can be very intimidating and a challenge.
Forrest: 66 books in here, an old and new testament, spanning millennia of time.
Forrest: Not written in chronological order, by the way.
Forrest: Some of the books are earlier and later.
Forrest: It can be daunting.
Forrest: Can I tell you this?
Forrest: There are four biographies of Jesus Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Forrest: That's a great place for you to start.
Forrest: It would be great for you to start in the book of John.
Forrest: If you haven't been reading your word every day, if you haven't been having a time with God, let me challenge you, encourage you to begin reading in the book of John.
Forrest: You're going to see the stories, you're going to read the stories and the teachings of Jesus.
Forrest: And again, you may not be a reader, but just start with a few verses.
Forrest: Well, what's really the story here?
Forrest: What actually happened with Jesus?
Forrest: What did he really say?
Forrest: Well, it's important for us to know the word of God because it does find we do find freedom in it.
Forrest: I'll tell you just a little bit for me.
Forrest: And this is built up over time, but I do have a time every morning, and uh for most of this year I've been going through the New Testament, and I suggest that you start there if you haven't started.
Forrest: Start in the New Testament portion, the back half, starting in the book of John, reading through the stories of Jesus and the words of Jesus.
Forrest: Every day right now, for me, I read one chapter.
Forrest: I told you as an auditory learner, so I have it read to me with the audiobook.
Forrest: Read it a couple of times through, go through and highlight.
Forrest: And this isn't necessarily a time for me to go and dissect and start Googling a bunch of stuff, but instead to look at the word of God and let it let the Lord's voice speak to me through his word.
Forrest: Now, that being said, I know the power of this just from a just from a few weeks ago.
Forrest: A few Sundays ago, I shared a story in the scripture about Jesus healing a blind man.
Forrest: And a part of that story that, there's a piece to that story that is very transformational.
Forrest: The story of the fact that there's a son, and the disciples are asking, was he blind because of his parents' sin or for his sin?
Forrest: And Jesus said, No, neither of those things, but so that my glory would be displayed as he healed him.
Forrest: And somebody in our church came up to me afterward and said, I've never heard that story before.
Forrest: I've been carrying guilt for decades about an illness in my family.
Forrest: And I never heard that passage before.
Forrest: And through tears, she said, I feel free.
Forrest: That's the power of God's word.
Forrest: She never heard that story before.
Forrest: She'd never been exposed to it before.
Forrest: She'd never been in a sermon where it was taught on before, and she hears it for the first time, and the Lord breaks a chain and brings freedom to her.
Forrest: How much more does God want to do that for you, for your family, for your friends who don't know Jesus, who don't know his word?
Forrest: But he wants to strip off the guilt, the shame, the chains that are holding us back, that are holding us in depression and anxiety, holding us in a life that feels it's devoid of purpose.
SPEAKER_00: How much more does God want us to find freedom and love and power in the mighty word of God?
Forrest: He wants it for you.
Forrest: He wants it for me.
Forrest: Spend time in his word.
Forrest: And now to study.
Forrest: Psalms 119 says 15 says this.
Forrest: I was talking about tuning in earlier.
Forrest: This is the find out portion.
Forrest: You probably have some big questions about God.
Forrest: You probably have some big questions about your faith.
Forrest: That you would love to get some answers to.
Forrest: And so there's time for us to intentionally take time out for us to study.
Forrest: To study.
Forrest: Because we use it in our other in other parts of our life.
Forrest: If you want to play piano, guess what?
Forrest: You have to study it.
Forrest: You have to practice it.
Forrest: If you want to be a doctor, guess what?
Forrest: You have to study medicine, hopefully.
Forrest: To get there.
Forrest: Do you want to flourish?
Forrest: Study wisdom.
Forrest: The truth of God.
Forrest: So what does that mean?
Forrest: For me, it's looked different over the years.
Forrest: Again, I got to I got the opportunity to get to go to Bible school and studied a year worth of Greek, the original language from the New Testament and different courses that I took, but there's also resources that are available to you for you to be able to study as well.
Forrest: There's a great resource that I love and have just enjoyed now for years called the Bible Project.
Forrest: The Bible Project, you can go to this website, the Bible Project, they have myriad different videos about different topics from the Bible.
Forrest: They walk through how the Bible goes as a as a as a story from beginning to end.
Forrest: You can even go to their website and there's free courses that you can take about different things in the scripture.
Forrest: Now also, I mentioned it earlier, but listening to the Bible, my other great resource that I use all the time is the UVersion Bible app.
Forrest: If you don't have the Bible app on your phone, you may have a bunch of other apps out there, but if you don't have the Bible app, you're really missing out.
Forrest: Because the U version Bible app, if you download it, there's plans there that you can search.
Forrest: And say you want to study about anxiety, type anxiety in, find a plan, begin reading.
Forrest: There'll be a devotional for you that helps you walk through.
Forrest: Go download the UVersion Bible app.
Forrest: I highly recommend it.
Forrest: Also, this is a cheat code Bible, what I like to call.
Forrest: I also grew up in the in the in the era of video games, the early ones, where if you put a bunch of uh buttons in the right order, you know, it unlock a cheat code.
Forrest: Well, this is a new, this is a uh this is a uh life application study Bible.
Forrest: You can pick these up at any Christian bookstore on the internet.
Forrest: And I call it my cheat code Bible because you have this the verses up here, but then in the bottom down here, for each verse, there's a little blurb that's been written that has extra context that you can study, that you can read, that you can learn more.
Forrest: It hyperlinks to other parts of the scripture.
Forrest: And you know, this is an investment.
Forrest: It's an investment.
Forrest: One of these Bibles may cost about 50 bucks, maybe the same as what you would spend on a date night going out, a nice dinner and a movie with uh your significant other.
Forrest: You can invest that in your spiritual walk to get you one of these Bibles.
Forrest: I was meeting with one of our leaders this last week.
Forrest: We were having coffee.
Forrest: And unbeknownst to him, but really what we were talking about this Sunday, we were talking about the Word of God and talking about our time learning about the Word of God, and he told me this.
Forrest: He said, Forrest, my life really began to change.
Forrest: I began to grow my relationship with God a year and a half ago when I began to listen and study the word of God every day.
Forrest: When he said that, I just immediately perked up because I knew we were talking about this.
Forrest: Think about the testimony that it is for you.
Forrest: If you crack open the word of God, open up the Bible app on your phone, listen to these scriptures every day, begin to study, find some resources, and begin to make some headway in your relationship with the Lord.
Forrest: Philippians 4, verse 8, says, now do brothers and sisters, one final thing.
Forrest: Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable.
Forrest: Think about these things that are excellent and praiseworthy.
Forrest: The scripture tells us, fix our thoughts on those things that are praiseworthy, those things that are true, those things that are noble, those things that are right.
Forrest: We cannot do that without us engaging with, learning from, studying, meditating on the word of God.
Forrest: Our God that has no beginning and end.
Forrest: A wisdom that is timeless, that we need to spend time on.
Forrest: I'll tell this to you, spend time on the timeless.
Forrest: As entertaining as that Netflix series may be that you binge watch all in one night or over a course of a week.
Forrest: You know, you're probably gonna forget most of that.
Forrest: Or some fictional book that you may read or some other entertainment thing.
Forrest: Thinking about your daily life and walk and think, okay, how can I spend some time on something that truly is going to be timeless?
Forrest: None of us want to waste the life and the time that God's given us.
Forrest: Instead, we want to flourish in it.
Forrest: By studying, by loving the Word of God.
Forrest: I talked to you about high school earlier.
Forrest: Um the car I drove in high school was a 1977 F-100 custom Ford truck.
Forrest: Had no power steering, no power brakes, had no heat.
Forrest: I had uh sweatpants and a hoodie that I put in over my school clothes when I would get in there, and gloves as I drove.
Forrest: I played football one time so I was strong enough to turn that wheel and have one of those old radios we were talking about turning them in, it didn't work anyway.
Forrest: There was a little down with moves.
Forrest: But I wonder who taught you how to drive a car?
Forrest: Who was it?
Forrest: Maybe it was a parent, grandparent, a friend.
Forrest: Think back to that.
Forrest: Think back to the person who helped teach you how to drive a car.
Forrest: Now, most people have a driver's license in the U.S.
Forrest: Many people have a car and drive every day.
Forrest: You know what I hope?
Forrest: I hope that you're a better driver today than you were when you first were being taught how to drive a car.
Forrest: Okay?
Forrest: Hopefully so.
Forrest: Maybe not all you are, but hopefully you are.
Forrest: Um I know that I am.
Forrest: After I got my driver's license, literally a few weeks later, I hit water on US 60 in my brother's black Jeep that he loved and flipped it into the Cornerstone Academy School's uh uh ditch in front of the school.
Forrest: Now I'm not gonna say that I haven't been in the wreck since then, but I am a better driver than I was back then.
Forrest: You know what?
Forrest: After you've learned to drive a car, you've driven one every day, you know what?
Forrest: After a while, not only can you be trusted with a driver's license, you can also be trusted with taking other people with you.
Forrest: When you begin to study God's word, you begin to practice it every day, where it's second nature to you, like driving a car, guess what?
Forrest: Guess what?
Forrest: You can then be trusted to take somebody else with you, to teach them the word of God as well.
Forrest: Whether it's your kids, your friends, a parent, a coworker.
Forrest: You're studying the word of God, and just like the Great Commission tells us, Matthew chapter 28, Jesus says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you.
Forrest: Jesus right there is commanding us for us to know what he taught and then bring somebody else with us.
Forrest: You know, you're not just studying the Word of God, you're not just growing in your faith just for yourself.
Forrest: You're growing in your faith right now for three generations from now in your family, to change pathways and to change addictions, to break chains that have held you back, and to create a brighter future that will flourish you through the mighty power of God.
Forrest: That's where you're doing it, for your children and their children, and your friends that you love, and your family that you love, and the people that you know who desperately need the freedom of Jesus.
Forrest: He's gonna trust you to take them with you in the passenger seat.
Forrest: You gotta tune in.
Forrest: Learn to hear God's voice and find out what's true and to walk in it.
Forrest: So the Lord can do something powerful through your life.
Forrest: Who's with me?
Forrest: You know, last Sunday, Terrence preached the walls off about prayer and fasting, telling us that if you're a person in a church and you don't pray that you're like a decaying tooth or a rotting bone in the body of Christ.
Forrest: Man, that would hit me right here.
Forrest: Yes.
Forrest: And believing over our church that God's going to take us to new heights, and you and new heights in prayer and fasting from last week.
Forrest: I'm already having conversations with some of you who the Lord's doing that.
Forrest: And I believe the same thing for us to get into the Word of God.
Forrest: If we become a church of people who know God's truth, we're gonna be able to take everybody with us.
Forrest: I want to invite you right now to bow your heads and pray with me.
Forrest: All across this room, you may have been following Jesus for some time.
Forrest: But knowing the truth of his word and spending time with God, it just hasn't yet been a priority.
Forrest: Yeah, I pray right now over the room that God, you would bring freedom.
Forrest: You would bring freedom to our families, freedom to our futures, God, by the mighty power of your word, your truth.
Forrest: Jesus, I I pray right now that learning your wisdom that would come as second nature to us as driving a car because of the time that we're spending with you.
Forrest: And God, I pray for the many people, God, that we're going to be able to bring along with us.
Forrest: So Lord, I pray right now, God, across the room, anybody who's in this place who hasn't taken this step of spending time with you daily, meditating on, learning your word, that God, after this Sunday, that there will be a major change in their life.
Forrest: God, they begin to open up a Bible app or scripture every day, Lord, to spend time with you.
Forrest: And God, I pray right now, Lord, that in doing that, that God, you are going to bring a freedom that we have not yet found.
Forrest: And Lord, I'm thankful for it.
Forrest: God, I pray over our church that there will be more people that say, I heard this story, I found this verse, and now I'm free.
Forrest: Free from stronghold, free from addiction, free from anxiety and depression, free from despair, free from feeling worthless.
Forrest: Instead, God, we know your truth.
Forrest: That you love us.
Forrest: You love us dearly.
Forrest: So much so that you gave your life for us on the cross.
Forrest: God, I pray across the room right now.
Forrest: If there's anybody in this place that has not received you as savior, that has not received the free forgiveness on the cross that you purchased and bought in our place by your blood.
Forrest: That today that they would believe in you, they would ask you to save them, to be their Lord, to be their savior, so they can walk in freedom.
Forrest: If that's you in this place, I pray right now that you would pray to the Lord something like this, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you're the Son of God and that you are alive.
Forrest: Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.
Forrest: Forgive me.
Forrest: Wash me as white as snow so that I can be in heaven one day with you.
Forrest: I give my life to you.
Forrest: You gave your life for mine.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: Hey, if you prayed that prayer for the first time, we want to congratulate you, celebrate with you, encourage you.
Forrest: There's a connect card you got when you came through the door.
Forrest: There's a place there to say, I want to follow Jesus.
Forrest: We'd love to come alongside you and to pray for you, encourage you in that.
Forrest: I'm gonna ask everybody if you'd stand right now as we close in worship.