Sermon Tone Analysis

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Meditation

Vcfss February 5, 2000

Actualinstructionsonthepackagingofproducts

OnpackagingforaRowentairon:Donotironclothesonbody

Butwouldntthissaveevenmoretime?

OnBootsChildrensCoughMedicine:Donotdriveacaroroperatemachineryaftertakingthis

medication

Wecoulddoalottoreducetherateofconstructionaccidentsifwecouldjustgetthose5yearololdswithheadcoldsoffthoseforklifts

OnNytolSleepAid:Warning:Maycausedrowsiness









Introduction

A. Last week

We laid the ground work for the spiritual disciplines

2. Important

Not as end in themselves

Like planting seed, no inherent power in them

c. Puts us in a place to receive from God

3. Warning not to make them into law

B. Spiritual discipline categories

1. Abstinence

2. Engagement

3. Inward

4. Outward

C. Practical aspects

No specific instruction in the Bible

2. People in the Bible knew how to practice the disciplines

3. Today’s message will be practical and I’ve provided you with paper to take notes.

4. The disciplines help us deal the busyness of life

The disciplines complement each other, meditation and prayer, fasting and prayer, etc.

D. Misconceptions

1. Meditation is often associated with Eastern religions, Zen, Yoga, or TM

2. Fasting, is practiced by all the major religions

3. Fasting his been used for hunger strike's and for medical reasons

4. The spiritual disciplines are practiced for only one reason, to draw close to God

II.

Meditation

A. Begins with a desire for God

1. God speaks when we are willing to listen

Ps 119:148

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.

Ps 119:97

Oh, how I love your law!

I meditate on it all day long.

2. One of the saddest stories in the Bible is when Israel tells Moses they do not want to hear God speak Exodus 20: 19

3. It is still true today, we want a mediator

We want the priest or the minister to speak to God for us

b. Historically religion has looked for a go-between a king, a priest, a prophet, a mediator.

If we are honest, we are not comfortable in the presence of God

To be in God's presence is to change

4. Meditation calls us to enter into the presence of the living God for ourselves

a. God is speaking today

He is not a God of the past

God is a present reality in my life today

5. When Jesus died, the temple veil split down the middle

The Holy of Holies was now accessible to everyone who acknowledges Jesus as Lord

We are all part of the priesthood get God

6. Gift of grace

a. Needed to begin the practice

b. Needed to continue

B. When people in the Bible meditated

1. God’s love, done in a corporate setting

Ps 48:9

Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.

2. Rejoice in the Lord

Ps 104:33-34

I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD.

3. When slandered

Ps 119:23

Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.

4. When wronged

Ps 119:78

May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging without cause; but I will meditate on your precepts.

5. Need insight

Ps 119:99

I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.

C. How to meditate

We enter most easily through our imagination

I don’t mean imagining some story where you are the hero

Not daydreaming

It would be a rare person who is able to contemplate without a mental image

2. Progression in the spiritual life

You don’t begin swimming by crossing the English Channel

We don’t pray for cancers until we have tackled a headache

c. Start meditating 5 to 10 minutes

d. Learn to “dial down.”

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