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Can we give the Lord a hand this morning? You may be seated as you do, turn to your neighbor and say, You look good today. No lion in church. Turn to your second choice and say, You look even better. And then ask them why you are their second choice. I am so thankful, thankful as a church. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to get away with my family over the last couple of weeks. Were we blessed or were we blessed with Merle and Pastor James over the last couple weeks? I love the word that they shared. It's timely. I love what God is speaking to us as a church, and I'm just thankful that God has voices that can make an influence and a difference in our church. And listen, we don't just invite people to come preach and come speak. These are people who pray for you regularly. They love you. They are a part of our family, maybe from afar, but uh God has used them instrumentally in the life of our church, and so we're forever thankful. This morning we're continuing our series on the Psalms. So if you have your Bible, you can open it to Psalm 119. If you've ever read Psalm 119, you know you should text and cancel your lunch plans right now. It's a long one. I um I've titled today's message, Use It. Use it. Psalm 119, verse 11 says this I have stored up your word in my heart. I think the prayer of the whole summer is that very truth right there. That God's word, as you read the psalms, that God's word would store up in your heart and make a difference in your life. Our challenge as a church, I encourage you to join us. Listen, if you're just jumping on the bandwagon, hey, it's okay. We we are reading the Psalms together as a church. And my challenge to you is read two or three Psalms a day. And over the course of the summer, you'll make your way through all 150 Psalms. And the Psalms are just an encouragement from the Lord to you, a gift for you to receive. And so I I love what Psalm 119 says. Uh, I've stored up your word in my heart. The idea is you store it up for the days ahead. Here's what I believe that as you put God's word in your heart, it's gonna prove itself to be beneficial for your future. It's gonna help you. And I uh have a story to share. I uh uh we spent our time on vacation at Table Rock Lake. I grew up going to Table Rock Lake as a child and a teenager. It's one of those places. It's Table Rock Lake. For those of you who don't know where Table Rock Lake is, it's Branson. Um I don't tell people it's Branson. It's like, you know, they call the Christian Las Vegas in Branson, Missouri. All right. And so uh we go to uh the lake and it's beautiful. You can see your toes in the water. I mean, this no Lake Conroe bathtub, y'all. This is this is God's favored lake. And um when we were out one afternoon, my six-year-old daughter, she stood up on the boat in the front of the boat and she started yelling at the boat across from us. And I was like, What are you doing? And she shouted at the top of her lungs, she said, There's a whole lake, use it! What got into her claiming her territory? And I just started shaking my head. My wife looked at me like, What is going on? And I knew exactly what was going on. Uh can I just share a dad fail with you this morning? Um about a month and a half before that, I had my kids on Lake Louisville, and we were going around, and as we were going, they were tubing, and the tube is about 50 feet behind you, and and uh this guy had been following us. Listen, in Texas they say drive the friendly way. You come across the border of Oklahoma and there's a big sign that says drive friendly the Texas way. I'm like, yeah, right. But at least at the lake, they drive just the same, terrible, but at least at the lake they wave at you while they do it, you know? And uh this guy, he just he was following my kids, and I'm a protective dad, you know, and so there is no distance that's gonna be enough for you to get away from my kids. And and he followed us for about 10 minutes, right behind us, and that's just a no-go. Kid falls off, like that's dangerous. It's just no-go. He finally gets up the courage, he decides he's gonna pass us, and as he goes to pass us, he comes real close to us. Well, the problem is we were now between him and the land, and he was in effect as he turned, running us into the land. And I got real mad and real upset that he was putting my kids in danger, and I had one of my finer moments of Jesus' passion. I stopped and I stood up and I yelled at that boat. I said, There's a whole lake, go use it. I'm just being honest. How many of you know my daughter stored my words up in her heart and she used them? Now, parents, how how many of you have ever had your kids use your words back to you? Okay, just please tell me I'm not alone, okay? I I repented, I went and met with Jesus about what I had done, I I worked it out, but how many of you know my words were stored up in her heart, readily available for her to use? They just happen to be the wrong words. Parents, why is it that you pray? Don't you remember the hundred good things I said? Why is it the one word that didn't help the situation it hurt it? Now listen, we all store up words in our heart. Oftentimes those words are words that people have said to us. Maybe they're words that people have said about us. What is it about words? They are pretty sticky. There's something about words, they can take up occupancy in our mind, residency in our mind. And we begin to put them on replay. Maybe somebody said something to you years and years ago, and you're still wondering why it's still sticking to you. Words are stored up in our heart. The challenge this morning as we dive into his word is here's what we believe. It's God's word stored up in your heart that helps you. When there are times in your life that the other words stored in your heart hurt you. Here's what we believe that God's word coming to you is life, it's medicine, it's comfort, it's wisdom, it's direction for every area of your life. The question today is have you stored up his word that it might benefit you? That it might benefit your family, that would help you as you make tough decisions. Listen, this is not your preacher coming up another Sunday just saying, read the Bible, people. Read the Bible. This is not another reading plan. This is not another strategy. This is God's word coming to you, stored up in your heart, that makes all the difference in your life. Psalm chapter 119, verses 1 through 8. What I love about the Psalms is the Psalms were human authors writing a psalm, a song, or a prayer, however you want to describe it, to the Lord. And as they're writing this to the Lord, that's what makes Psalms so unique. As you read it, you're like, man, I've been there. Man, that's kind of like my life. Man, I got some messed up parts, or I got some hard parts. There are times when I may be riding that roller coaster of life, and times when I want to praise, and times when I'm in pain, and that's the beauty of the Psalms, that these riders are riding their heartfelt emotion and expression to the Lord. But what I love about the Lord is he uses everything. And he takes the words of man given to him and he packages them back up and he sends them as his word to you and me today, as we read the Psalms. The Psalms are not just a word of a man going through a hard time. These are the words of the Lord coming to you for the midst of your hard time. And what I love about Psalm 119 is the reality is this: in the book of Psalms, I don't encourage you to build your whole life's theology out of the Psalms. You don't just go randomly in the Psalms and say, Oh, that's uh I'll take that and I'll use that as my theology. But I what I believe personally, Psalm 119 119 to me is one of the most theological psalms there is. Because it begins to unpack the power of God's word and the study of God's word. What is it gonna do to you? And it begins to influence your life. So as we read this today, I'm making a pretty theological assertion for you and for me, and that is that God's word can change your life. And when he reads and you start, don't worry, I'm not gonna read the whole thing, I'm gonna read the first eight verses. You ready? Say, I'm ready. Psalm 119, verse 1. Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but listen, walk in his ways. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame. Having my eyes fixed on all your commandments, I will praise you, Lord, with an upright heart. When I learn your righteous rules, I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake you. How many of y'all would love it if your kids would write this to you? Every rule you have, I will do. I can't wait to obey your commands. My heart wakes up in the morning and I am ready to delight, Dad, and you telling me to clean my room. What love is the psalmist has taken something that to some, as they read it, would seem religious, but to the psalmist, it's not religious. It's a relationship birth out of a love for God. And the psalmist is writing, God, whatever you say, that's what I want. God, I delight in listening to your voice in my life, that your statutes and your commands, what other people would call rules, they're not rules to me. They're a way of life, and I want to walk in them. I love the heart of the psalmist because it's like the heart of a child to the Lord. Only it's a little different than the childhood I lived. The childhood that said, I don't want to do what you tell me to do, and I don't want to go your way, I want to go my way, and I don't want to do what you have to say, I want to do what I have to say. There's something that has happened in the heart of the psalmist. And I believe that theological implication is he's realized and he's come to the revelation from heaven that God's word makes your life blessed. That God's word changes the direction of your life, that God's word can help you, comfort you, strengthen you in your life. I want to read some of these words that he used to because I want to understand, I want to help us understand that he really is talking about God's word, God's voice coming to man. He uses these words rules, law, commandment, precepts, statutes, word. He's using all of these words in essence. I'm gonna simplify, I'm gonna oversimplify it for the sake of this message, but simply to say God's word. What he's saying is, in God's word I delight in and I will walk in it. In God's word, I'm gonna do what God's word says. And this should be the cry of the Christian heart. This should be us as a church. We don't just gather on Sunday to have a good time. We gather on Sunday. Why? To get God's word stored up in our heart. Why? Because how many of y'all know Monday morning hurts? How many know sometimes by the time you get to Friday, you've lived a few years. And what God's word will do to you makes all the difference in the world. And so as he's saying this, I love what the psalmist says. He says, I'm going to walk in your word. I'm going to keep your word. Parents of teenagers, when you send your teenagers out for the first time alone, what's your prayer? Your prayer is, dear Lord, please let them live as if they are still under my house. As they go, you your hope and your prayer is just because you're not there, that they will still do the things that are celebrated and honored in your house. That their commandments of your home, that the rules and the statutes of your home would not just be rules to them, it would be a way of life to them. And they wouldn't leave it at the door when they go out on Friday night, but they would take it with them. And that's the cry of this psalmist. It says the same goes for you. That when you leave the doors of the church, you don't leave your Bible there and go the rest of your week, but the Bible goes in you. The word goes in you, and as you walk, you continue to walk in his ways. Now, if you're anything like me, you read this and you think, well, that's a pretty big task in life. To walk in his ways. Listen, out of eight verses, it says seven times out of eight verses that would either walk or keep the word of the Lord. That's a lot of times for eight verses. Seven times. That's a pretty big task. And if you're anything like me, there's been times in my life where I've read through my Bible and thought, God, I don't know if I can do that. There have been times in my life where I've tried to do something to keep his word and failed at it and thought, I don't really know where to start from here. So sometimes we come to church and we read this and we think, I don't, I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if that's for me. But I want to encourage you this morning, if it's God's word, it's for you. And if the people in the Bible could do it, you could do it because you're no different than the people of the Bible. Listen, the people of the Bible, they had some messed up lives too. But there's a heart that's being developed here that you would keep and walk in his ways. But I don't know about you, I like to answer. How in the world am I gonna walk in the ways of the Lord? Sometimes I have a hard enough time doing the things I think I should do. Much less add the things that God says I should do. How can I do that? I love when it gives the answer. Any high schoolers in the room love it when the teachers give you the answer before the test. Amen. Psalm 119, verse 6. Out of eight verses, seven times he says to keep and walk. And right here, he changes the attention from feet to your eyes. Then I shall not be put to shame having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. Here's what I love. He just gave the answer to the test. How do you walk in the ways of the Lord? How do you walk in the word of the Lord? How do you keep the word of the Lord? He gives you the answer right here. You will not be put to shame when your eyes, it has nothing to do with your feet and everything to do with your eyes. When your eyes are fixed in the right direction, then your life will go in the right direction. How do you walk in the way the way that the Lord wants you to walk? You focus your eyes on what the Lord wants you to focus your eyes on. And as this happens, I I shared with you my dad fail, and now I'm just gonna brag on my son. Is that okay? Actually, it doesn't matter if you think it's okay, I'm gonna do it anyway. I'm proud as a dad. I I had a fail moment, but I gotta share. My my son is four years old, and uh I decided that at four years old he was gonna learn to water ski. Because I thought if I could have learned at four instead of seven, my life would be even better. So us dads, we just make our kids do all the things we never did and make them do it better. And and the thing about water skiing is like it's it's kind of a learned thing, and there's a lot that goes into it, and at four years old, he's a shorty. All right. So I brought a video, even though you didn't ask, um, of my four-year-old learning how to ski on my birthday. And um, you know, the thing about it is I have I have taught several people how to water ski, and there's a lot that goes into it. So if you were getting in the water, I'd tell you, okay, uh, don't drown. Number one. Okay? You think, why would I say that? Because uh it's happened before that people don't know. Uh I give them this rule if if you fall, you should let go of the rope. You're like, do you really have to tell that to people? Yes, one time a guy didn't. I would tell people sit in a chair. I would tell people that when you get up, make sure your arms stay straight. I tell people make sure you're focusing on the back of the boat. I'd tell people that if you hit up some waves, I'd tell you bend your knees just a little bit so you can absorb the shock. I give them all these instructions, but how many of you know he's four? He wouldn't understand half the instructions I could give him. How many of you know teaching a four-year-old how to ski, that's a pretty big task for a four-year-old. Why? The skis weighed more than he did. I said, son, you know, be a man, carry your skis to the water. He couldn't even pick them up. I carried them to the water for him. We put them on in the water. How many of you know the skis weighed so much he couldn't even control the skis when we were sitting in the water? Did you see me? I was sitting in the water. I was holding him in the water. Why? Because he couldn't hold the skis on his own. He couldn't hold them straight, he couldn't hold them in place. They were making him do donuts in in the water. And so I'm sitting in the water, I'm thinking, what in the world am I gonna tell my four-year-old to help him to ski? And I came up with this profound revelation from heaven. Are you ready? I said, son, I want you to just look at the back of the boat. Mom is sitting on the back of the boat, and I just want you to keep your eyes on her. Why? Because I knew that the direction of your eyes determines the direction of your feet. That's where you look is where you're going to go. And at four years old, he did something that was a bigger task than a four-year-old should be able to accomplish. Why? Because he had his focus in the right place. And how many of you know the big waves came? Surfboat came by, big old swells, taller than he was. And how many of you know he is a child prodigy and he wiped out just like you would. But how many of you know the waves of life are coming? And the direction of your eyes determines everything about how you get through those waves. And that's what I love about what the word of the psalmist is saying. He's saying the direction of your life is going to be determined by the fix in the gaze of your eyes. So the question today for you is this if God's word is coming to you, you don't just want to be a hearer, you want to be a person who does, as the author, the writer of the letter James would say in the Bible. We don't want to just hear God's word at church, we want to do it. But knowing about it and doing it are two totally different things. So, how do you bridge the gap? You bridge the gap by the focus of your attention. What do you delight in? What do you wake up hungry for? What are you feeding yourself? It's it's the focus of your eyes, and it's not your physical eyes as much as it is your spiritual eyes. The spiritual eyes of your heart open to and being enlightened or understanding from the Lord that comes through his word. I love how the Old Testament uh portrays this idea in Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. Joshua, a man of faith, the book of the law, shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall, listen to this word, meditate on it day and night. So that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Who wants to have success in your life? Who wants to be prosperous? Who wants to be blessed? Who wants to see the favor of God work and move in your life? And he lays it out right here. Meditate on it day and night. There's only one problem with that phrase. I sleep at night. I know some of y'all don't, some of y'all night owl, some of y'all away, I sleep all night long. Do you know what he's saying right here? He's saying the word of God can be so stored up in you that even in the watches of the night, whether you're awake or you're asleep, God's word is producing something in you. It's saying that, hey, hey, church is not just what happens on a Sunday morning. It's not just what happens in your prayer closet, and it's not just what happens when you sit down and have your Bible reading time during the day. Did you know every moment you are breathing is a holy moment with you and the Lord? And that you can be having spiritual moments all day long. And it doesn't matter what you're doing. Listen, yeah, I know I know counter to the opinion of our community, you can have a spiritual holy God moment on 1488, somebody. Yes, even in the midst of construction. You can have a spiritual holy moment with the Lord as you take your kids to school or pack their bags for the day. You can have spiritual holy moments on your date night, eating Papecitos chips, bless God, for them. You can experience God and encounter God when you're working in your yard or going through this crazy heat. What am I saying? The psalmist is saying, get the word of God in you at all times of the day. Day and night. Don't stop. You've never eaten enough that you're gonna be full. You've never eaten enough that you're gonna be so satisfied that you say, I can't eat anymore. And this is what the psalmist is getting at in Joshua, right here, he says, right here, the word meditate. Now, I'm gonna encourage you today, how do you use the word of God? You fix your eyes on the word of the Lord. Another way of saying that is meditation. Now, some of you right now immediately are like, oh, I knew this guy was weird. Like, meditation, like, Pastor, don't you know you're in magnolia? We wear wranglers, not yoga pants, okay? Like, listen, if you'll hang with me for just a moment, I I want to tell you, I want to reclaim what was already God's before it became the world's. Meditation does not mean you pull out your mat and you know, like it's not a posture, it's it's not just I I want to unpack this for you. Let me read this verse to you out of Psalm 119, and here's what it says, verse 15. It says, I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. It's a spiritual practice, it's a spiritual discipline of getting God's word in you. Now let me just unpack this for just a minute. To meditate means to like ruminate on, to think upon, and and fix your attention upon. Your thoughts are not directed at the everyday tasks of your life, but your thoughts begin to be focused on the thoughts about the Lord and the thoughts of The Lord to you in the Word of God and listening to the Word of God, and you begin to meditate on His Word. Now, listen, I know in today's world there's a lot of connotation around that because most of the time when people think of meditation, they think of like Eastern religion meditation, or they think of a lot of the new age practices that have crept into a lot of our culture in our world or even some cultist practices. But here's what happens in that kind of meditation. The goal of that kind of meditation is to empty yourself or detach yourself from the world. And so the idea is if I can just get all these thoughts and just clear my mind, then I will reach a place or a state of peace and things will be good. But but I wouldn't say that's not the Bible's definition of meditation. The goal is not emptiness. Why? Because emptiness, empty things can be filled. How do I know? Because I have a junk drawer in my house. And how many know? It doesn't matter how many times we clean that junk drawer back out, what happens to it? It gets filled. Every empty thing can be filled. And the question is, what is it being filled with? Christian meditation is not emptying yourself, it's actually the opposite. It's filling yourself. Why? Luke chapter 11, Jesus says this. He says, hey, this guy's got a demon. He says, hey, this demon gets uh, you know, he gets delivered from his demon and he goes out, he cleans his house and swept and put in order, and that ugly demon goes out and finds seven of his ugly, mean friends, and seven demons come and fill that man's life, and here's what the Bible says and the condition of him in the end was worse than when he had started. Now, I don't know about you, I don't want that said in my life. That guy ended worse than he started. That guy got worse as he went. That's what happens when you have an empty space. An empty space is going to be filled with something. The question is, what are you filling the empty space of your life with? So Christian meditation is not that. It's actually the opposite. Christian meditation is, yes, emptying yourself of the thoughts of this world and the ways of this world, but not just for the sake of being empty, but for the sake of having a place to fill with the Lord. You fill, Christian meditation is you fill yourself with thoughts of God. You listen to his word as a cow would chew its cud. You're like, that's kind of gross. Yep. A cow will eat, he will throw it back up into his mouth, out of his stomach, and he will chew it for a while. Because he thinks it tastes good, I don't know, because he's getting all the nutrients out of it. And that's what meditation is. That we eat the word, and maybe something resonated with your heart, because here's what I believe the Holy Spirit can speak to you today. Every week we walk out of this room and somebody says, How did you know what I was going through? And I said, I didn't. Well, the Holy Spirit did. And the Holy Spirit delivered a scripture or a word to you that you can hold on to and you can meditate in the watches of the day, in the watches of the night. And what happens is as you chew on that, it produces something in you. It provides the nutrients, it provides the strength, it provides the sustenance that you need. Check this, to live your life. That's what I love about God's word, it's fruitful in that way. You're going to fill your life and your thoughts with something. And so, number one number one this morning is this: it helps you attach yourself to God's word. Meditation helps you attach yourself to God's word. It's not about detachment, it's about attaching you to a richer relationship with the Lord. You're gonna fill your mind with something. What are you attaching yourself to? Are you attaching yourself to the last thing you saw in social media? Are you attaching yourself to the last thing somebody said about you? Are you attaching yourself to the last scary thought you had in the middle of the night? Or are you attaching yourself to God and his word? We all fill ourselves with something. I know this because uh my nephew was hanging out, all the cousins were playing, it was the day before his birthday. They were all having a good time, being loud, and lots of kids and having a great time. And I looked over in the corner and my nephew, about six years old, was sitting in the corner all by himself. And I thought, what is what is he doing? And and I don't know about y'all men, but my wife always tells me, put on your happy face. Now that means she's like, You're thinking, right? You're thinking thoughts in your head, and I can tell it on the outside. And I looked over and I could tell he was thinking thoughts on the inside. So I walked over to him, I said, I said, Hey buddy, what are you thinking about? And he said, and he smiled and he goes, I'm thinking about all the presents I'm going to open tomorrow. And I knew that he was. What is he doing? He's filling his thoughts with something that he delights in. And how many of you know we're all just kids in grown-up bodies? That we all fill our mind with thoughts of the things that we delight in. The question is, what are you delighting in? And when you delight in his word, here's what it does: it will attach you in a greater relationship to the Lord. Number two, this morning, you still with me? Say I'm ready. Number two, it makes you available to God's word. Taking time to meditate on God's word, you're like, well, of course it is. No, no, no, listen. It makes you available to God's word. When you meditate on it, it opens a door of access for God to do more. Listen, God, I've said this before, God is a good steward. And when you make use of what he has given you, he will pour more out for you. I never understood the verse in the Bible, and I'm not going to quote it right now because I but it says it says this, he says, um, come on. Um, there is apparently I didn't meditate long enough. He says this, to the man who has, more will be added to him, but even to the one who has, what he has will be taken away from him. And I always thought, why would God do that? Why would God take away from so why and here's what here's what I realized in time. What he what he's saying is, you have the word in you and you're doing what? You're using it. And to the one who is using the word, more will be poured to you. I've used this illustration before. It's kind of like this. If I said, hey, I'm going out of town, I need somebody to take my wife out to dinner, would you be willing? I'll give you a hundred bucks, y'all go to dinner. Anything that's left over when you're done with that McDonald's meal, uh, you get to keep. You get to keep. And if I come back and I said, Hey, how'd it go? And you said, Oh, McDonald's was great, and the money was even better. And I said, Great. Well, did my wife eat? And you said, Oh no, I forgot to take her. I I just kept the money to myself. Now, the next time I go out of town, would I give you a hundred dollars to take care of her? No. Why? Because I'm a good steward of the word. And here's what happens: that when you make use of the word, when you meditate on God's word in your life, here's what it does: it pours more on you. You gain access, you become available to God's word. It kind of reminds me a little bit like this. Have you ever been an H E B and you're walking down the aisle and you run into somebody you haven't seen in a while? No, I'm not talking about the one you dodge and go to the next aisle. I'm talking about the one that you're like genuinely happy to see. Why are y'all laughing? It's like, you do that? Oh, the preacher's coming. Let me run. You walk up to that person, you're judging them what's in their cart and talking to them, having small talk, and they say, you know, I just really miss hanging out with you. Let's get together sometime. You say, that's great, let's do it. How about Monday night? And they say, Oh, I'm so busy I can't do Monday night. Say, all right, no big deal. How about how about next weekend? They say, Oh, look at my cow, you know what? I'm just so busy. Hey, you know what? I'll get back to you. I'll text you. Why don't you text me? And you text them, say, hey, when are we gonna get together? And they ghost you. You don't hear from them, they leave you on red, as the kids would say these days, right? It's like, you're like, I thought you wanted to hang out. You text them, you say, You wanted to hang out, why don't you pick a date and they say, Nice, I'm back. I I sometimes I wonder if that's what we do to the Lord. Sometimes I wonder if in our hearts we say, Lord, I want to be closer to you. Lord, I want to have more understanding. Lord, I need more direction for my future. I need more help. And and we ask the Lord for that, and the Lord says, I would love to. How about tomorrow morning we get together before you start your day? Say, ah, I gotta get the kids out of the house, and my husband's crazy this week, and our schedules are busy, and and I just don't know if we're and and the Lord says, Okay, okay. No, no worries. You get your house moving and going, and the Lord says, Well, how about on your commute to work? You say, Ah, you know, um, I'm not very spiritual when I'm in traffic, so that's not a good idea, Lord. It says, Okay, and you say, Oh, well, actually on my commutes, I listen to podcasts. That's what I do, God. And uh I I need to listen to my new episode of my new podcast. And Lord says, okay, okay, no big deal. How about tonight? When your house quiets down and things are done and laundry's put away and you're set for the next day. Why don't we just spend a few minutes on the back porch? It doesn't have to be much, but just a few minutes on the back porch, the Lord says, I want to download some thoughts, and you say, you know what? Facebook scrolling is just it gets me every time. You know those red letters on Fox News, like, I just I really gotta know why it's red today, you know? And I wonder if sometimes the Lord is saying it's in those moments that the meditation of your heart is when you gain access, you become available to God speaking to you. I'm not preaching at you today, I'm I'm preaching to myself because I'm gonna be honest, a couple months ago I said this and y'all laughed at me. I said I was on the back porch one afternoon and I was looking up and I realized the clouds are moving. And I remember sitting there thinking, wow, I forgot that clouds move. And everybody kind of joked or laughed, and I thought, why is that so funny? It's like we all know that. But how many of you know knowing and knowing are different? Knowing about something and experiencing it are different. What I was saying was this that it's been a while since I've just sat. It's been a while since I've just pondered. It's been a while since I've just thought thoughts with God. Has it been a while since you've had nothing to do so that God could have a lot to do in you? Has it been a while since maybe you've cleared the thoughts of your own so that you could make room for thoughts of his? It's being filled. I love what Richard Foster says about this discipline of meditation. He says this, in contemporary society, our adversary majors in three things. The devil majors in three things noise, hurry, and crowds. Can anybody relate? If he can keep us engaged in muchness and manyness, he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist Carl Jung once remarked, Hurry is not of the devil, it is the devil. And I thought that was just a word to me because here's what I've realized is when I went on vacation, I had time to sit and meditate and think. I had times to just sit there and just look at the stillness of the water and think, wow, what a God we serve. The Ozark Mountains in front of me, wow, what a creation we have that we get the benefit of being apart. I remember sitting there and I was thinking, today I got to teach my son how to ski. I remember the day I brought him home from the hospital, and the doctors told us that he was gonna have multiple surgeries on his school before the age of two years old. And I remember the healing that God brought in his body, and instead of having surgeries, we're on vacation skiing. Praise God. And what am I doing? I'm filling my mind with the deeds of the Lord that it might build my faith and strengthen me from the inside out, that I might be filled with what is good. Have you made time to be available for God? And the last one is this, number three, it allows you to absorb God's word. Time and meditation allows you to absorb God's word. How do you meditate? You know, it's not about reading all 150 Psalms. You know, sometimes I can get hung up on three words for a whole week. My wife will look at me and she'll say, Well, how far did you get this week? And I was like, uh, I didn't get very far. It's not about how far you get, it's about how far it gets in you. And when you spend time in God's word, here's what you realize. Sometimes you can hang on to one word for a very long time. And it is your supply from heaven if you absorb it. If you absorb it. Which means this on a Sunday morning. I am more interested in you mastering what we're saying than I am you hearing what we're saying. As your pastor, I I wish that I could preach the same message every week. You're like, that'd be pretty boring. And you're thinking, and that'd be pretty nice for you. You wouldn't have to work so hard. That's not why. That's not why. Why I would rather preach the same message every week is because the value comes not in the hearing of it, but in the doing it. Not in the hearing of it, but the using it. And if I have to say the same old thing every single week, I'd rather say the same old thing every single week until it does something new in you than come up with a new podcast or a new famous preacher to listen to or a new blog on Google to read. I would rather have the same old word of God in me every single week producing something new than something new that the world says. You need to try this. But it all takes having that time with the Lord. Listen to how it says it in Psalm 119, 97, and 98. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever within me. Anybody want to be the smartest person in the room? You know, the smartest person in the room doesn't necessarily mean they know more facts and more information than everybody else. Here's what this is saying. He's saying, Wisdom comes to him. Why? Because the word of the Lord through meditation is, listen to this word, ever within him. It's within. There is a deep well inside of your spirit that is filled. It is from within that his word overflows out of your life. Psalm 119, verse 11 says it the same way. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Have you stored God's word in your life for the days ahead? For the days ahead. I I'm not gonna, this is on live stream, so uh to the family members watching, it's not about you. I was at a family member's house and uh went into the closet, and I was shocked. I was like, why are there five-gallon buckets in the closet? And I turned them around, and when I turned them around, in time preparation kit. And inside of these five-gallon buckets, some of y'all are nodding your heads, I don't want to know if you have one of these. I will not judge you, I promise. And I turned it around and it it's stored up with meal kits like NASA astronauts would use or soldier meal kits that they would it is stored of food for the end time in the event that something bad happens. And what I loved about the bucket, it had a picture of how you could use the buckets, right? Because what good are they if you don't use them? And I'm not talking about use the contents of the inside of the bucket like the food. We obviously know how to use the food, but it was showing you ways that you could use the buckets in the meantime. They could become, as seen on TV, part of your coffee table. You could have four in the corners, put plywood on the top and drape a curtain over the top of it. There you have a coffee table. I just want to tell you, my family member got taken by the as seen on TV ad, okay? But what are they doing? They're storing up. They're making a deposit. Why? Something they can withdraw on on the day that they might need it. And what the psalmist is saying is saying the same thing. Today, what you're doing today, this is the hardest message to preach as a pastor. If you're not going through a hard time, can I tell you you're just as much at battle today as the person who is in the middle of the waves of their life, in the storm of their life. Do you know why? Because you are storing up something in your life for the battle that you will face one day. And what happens is what you store up inside of you now determines what you can withdraw from later. And when you meditate on God's word, here's what it does: it stores something good in you. Listen to what God's word they did. They did a study, I want to read these before we close. They did a study of a hundred thousand people. They researched a hundred thousand people over a series of years. And what they were trying to determine was the impact or the effect of God's word on people's life. And here's what their study of 100,000 people showed. It affected their emotional well-being. How many of you know God cares about your heart and your soul? He cares about what's on the inside of you. And here's what it said. People engaging with Scripture four times per week reported lower odds of the following things. Feeling bitter 40% lower. Thinking destructively about themselves or others, self-harm, 32% lower. By people who read Scripture four times more a week. Of having difficulty forgiving others, 31%, feeling like they have to hide what they do or feel, 32% lower, feeling discouraged, 31% lower, experiencing loneliness, 30% lower, having difficulty forgiving themselves, 26% lower, thinking unkind thoughts about others, 18% lower. Experiencing fear or anxiety, 14% lower. This is science supporting what God has been saying all along. That it was in his word far. He knew from the very beginning of time that your thoughts thinking of God and allowing God in his word to fill your mind is going to change everything about your life. That was just emotional. What about the risk behaviors? It says the same thing. Four times per week had lower odds of drinking in excess, 62% lower. Viewing pornography, 59% lower. Having sex outside of marriage, 59% lower. By getting God's word in your heart. Gambling, 45% lower. Lashing out in anger, 31% lower. Gossiping, 28% lower. Lying, 28% lower. Neglecting family, 26% lower. Overeating or mishandling food, 20% lower. I need to read my Bible more. Overspending or mishandling money, 20% lower. What is it saying? When you store up God's word, it produces something in you. What's it producing in you? Today I want to give you this illustration as we close. It's like a bag of tea. I think sometimes in my life I've been guilty of reading one little verse and telling the Lord that didn't work. God, you're gonna have to have a different answer because that ain't working either. And trying different things. And I think sometimes what happens is it's like this bag of tea. We take it and we dip it in. Say, all right, great, I made my tea. That's some pretty bad hot water. And this is what the Lord is saying. When you meditate on God's word, here's what it is: you take his word and you put it in and you leave it in your life. And over time, what happens is it begins to change it from the inside out. You let it sit, you let it ruminate, you let it marinate, you let it soak in and do what? It begins to absorb so much so that the color changes, so much so that the taste changes, so much so that you can now begin to feel the effects of the caffeine in your life. And here's what I believe that if you allow God's word to do this in your life, here's what it'll do it'll change everything about your life. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? I want to pray that God's word would become more real to you than ever before.