Focus Series

Focus

CCCAG March 26th, 2017

Scripture: Psalm 1:1-3

There is a story from about 100 years ago of a city boy spending the summer with his grandparents on their farm. Being from the city, he wasn’t used to having to do chores all day like you have to on a farm. One of the chores he didn’t like was getting a large bucket of water from the well for his grandmother to use throughout the day. HE hated doing it-It was heavy, and the well was far away from the house, and it was the first thing he had to do everyday.

Sunday’s was church day at his grandparents, and as they walked back home his grandparents were discussing the sermon- about why reading and studying the bible were important to the Christian. In his life in the city, the boy didn’t go to church but twice a year so he asked why this idea of studying “That old book” was so important.

His grandfather replied, “I’ll show you when we get home.”

When they got home, grandpa asked the boy to fetch some water from the well, but this time use the coal bucket. The boy said, “But the coal bucket is filthy, we don’t want to drink water from that.

“Now you mind me boy and just do as you’re told was the grandfather’s response.”

The boy picked up the coal bucket from it’s hook next to the stove and walked out to the well. He pumped, and he pumped, and he pumped that well handle, fill the bucket, and start walking back to the house by the water kept running out the many cracks and holes in it. Finally, after 15 frustrating minutes of trying to fill the bucket, he went back to the house and told his grandfather this isn’t going to work.

His grandfather said, look at the inside of the bucket. The boy looked and he saw all that coal dust had gotten washed away from inside it, and it was pretty clean.

His grandfather said, “That is why we read and think about and study the word of God over and over again. The Word of God is like that water, and we need the water of God to flow through us because we leak even worse than that bucket, so we need to keep the water flowing so we can be clean on the inside, because what is inside us will always find a way out- for good or for bad.”

That’s a pretty wise grandpa.

Today we are going to talk about mediating on God’s Word. We are going to start in Psalm 1, but look at several different scriptures to really see what the bible has to say about this idea of meditation from a biblical perspective.

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one

who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

or sit in the company of mockers,

2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,

and who meditates on his law day and night.

3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither—

whatever they do prospers.

Prayer

The story we started out with today illustrates the primary reason we need to read, think, and meditate on the scripture.

This is not an eastern meditation practice. I want to be very clear.

We are not talking about chants, transcendental meditation, spirit guides, or accessing different planes of reality.

That has strong ties with Hinduism and new age practices which are directly forbidden in scripture. From the Christian perspective, that would be categorized under the heading of witchcraft.

Witchcraft is simply defined as using extra biblical ways of accessing the spiritual realm.

We will be looking at what the bible calls mediation, and why it is important for us to practice it today.

There are several keys that are important to both or survival and our growth as a Christian that meditation helps with.

We will look at a few today.

I. Focuses us on God

The scripture in Psalm 139 that we read from last week about God’s focus on us continues with this thought-

Psalm 139:17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

Meditation is important to our overall focus in life.

That is a principle that we really need to grasp this morning, and that is-

A. Focus Determines Reality

I know that idea sounds like something you see on a motivation poster at work, but it is very true in our lives.