The Six-and-Half-Inch Course: Finding Peace in a Digital Age

• The Gospel and Salvation [00:37:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines the gospel as Jesus saving sinners, emphasizing that salvation depends on faith in Christ rather than self-trust.
• Pastoral Ministry and Prayer [00:36:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor urges the congregation to pray for their pastors, explaining that pastoral work focuses on the unseen hearts and souls of the congregation.
• Scripture Reading ([Psalm 1](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+1&version=KJV)) [00:39:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor prepares to read Psalm 1, noting his exhaustion from a recent wedding but affirming the privilege of preaching.
• Digital Overload and Mental Consumption [00:42:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the 'digital revolution' and 'digital dump' as an 'elephant on the head,' noting that what we consume mentally becomes part of us, necessitating a focus on the 'battleground of the mind.'
• Motivation for Faith [00:40:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > He argues that guilt is a poor motivator for the redeemed, asserting that love for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit should be the primary driver for Christian living and church attendance.
• Meditation on Scripture [00:50:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > Focusing on Psalm 1, he identifies 'meditation' as the key discipline, contrasting the noise of the digital world with the need to meditate on God's law day and night.
• Biblical Meditation [00:53:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines meditation as loving the Lord with the mind, using the 'six and a half inch course' (space between ears) as a metaphor for where life is truly lived, and contrasts it with digital distraction.
• Exponential Growth of Technology [00:54:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of doubling ice cream scoops and folding paper to the moon to illustrate the rapid, exponential change and 'digital dump' of modern technology.
• Blessing vs. Happiness [00:57:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between earthly happiness, which is fleeting, and divine blessing, which is steady, sure, and comes from God, linking it to the first word of Psalm 1.
• The Poverty of Worldly Counsel [01:03:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines the 'naughty passage' of Psalm 1, warning against walking in the counsel of the wicked (Google, Facebook, etc.) and advocating for walking in God's counsel.
• Delight in Scripture [01:05:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the example of his daughter's wedding, the pastor illustrates 'delight' as a natural, glowing attraction to God's Word, contrasting real divine intelligence with artificial intelligence.
• The Nature of Scripture [01:07:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the Bible as 'real intelligence' and a 'love letter from heaven' that reads the believer, contrasting it with artificial intelligence.
• Biblical Meditation Methods [01:11:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines two primary ways to meditate: setting aside specific time to sit and read, or meditating during daily activities like driving or chores.
• True Prosperity vs. Prosperity Gospel [01:12:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor debunks the cultural trope of material wealth as prosperity, redefining it as the development of the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.).
• Sermon as Surgery [01:16:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy comparing some sermons to food (nourishment) and others to surgery (requiring life change), identifying this sermon as the latter.
• Anxiety and Trust in God [01:18:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor addresses anxiety as a sin and offers specific verses (Psalm 46:10, Isaiah 41:10) to combat fear by focusing on God's sovereignty.
• The Lord's Supper / Communion [01:23:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the sacrament, referencing the hymn and the biblical basis in 1 Corinthians 11.
• Fencing the Table [01:24:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of farm fences to explain the dual purpose of the table: keeping believers safe/in and keeping predators/unbelievers out.
• Self-Examination and Repentance [01:27:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor instructs attendees to examine their hearts, refrain if living in unrepentant sin, and come as repentant sinners.
• Spiritual Feeding by Faith [01:28:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor prays for the congregation to understand that they feed on Christ spiritually by faith, not through the physical elements changing.

• Sermon Illustration [00:39:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his daughter's wedding the previous day, describing the emotional experience of putting her into the hands of his new son-in-law.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references 2 Corinthians 12, noting that he found he preached better when he was exhausted, attributing this to God's strength being made perfect in weakness.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the idiom 'elephant in the room' to describe the digital revolution, which has moved from being an obvious but ignored issue to an 'elephant sitting on top of my head' due to the constant accessibility of smartphones and AI.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > He shares a personal anecdote about his daughter's wedding the previous day to explain his tiredness and to illustrate the joy of family milestones, contrasting it with his current state of exhaustion.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > He displays a 30-minute hourglass timer he bought on Amazon to visually represent the brevity of life and his commitment to keeping his sermon concise, noting that life is lived largely 'on a six-and-a-half inch course' (the space between our ears).
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > He quotes golfer Bobby Jones, who said golf is played on a 'six and a half inch wide course' (the distance between the ears), to illustrate that most of life is lived internally in the mind.
• Sermon Illustration [00:54:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > He references Winnie the Pooh's habit of saying 'Think, think, think' to himself as a humorous but poignant illustration of the need for intentional mental discipline in an age of distraction.
• Sermon Illustration [00:52:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a golf course being only six and a half inches wide (the space between our ears) to illustrate that life is lived in the mind, citing Jesus' command to love God with the mind.
• Sermon Illustration [00:54:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references Winnie the Pooh's quote 'Think, think, think' to encourage the congregation to engage their minds in meditation amidst the 'digital dump'.
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses two statistical analogies for exponential growth: doubling a scoop of ice cream daily until it reaches 134 million pounds in 30 days, and folding a piece of paper in half 42 times until it reaches the moon.
• Sermon Illustration [01:00:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote from 1989 when he pastored a small church in Water Valley, Mississippi, where the bulletin listed a 'time for silent medication' instead of meditation, which he uses as a humorous illustration of the need for spiritual medicine.
• Sermon Illustration [01:05:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor observes the 'glow' of his daughter Anna Grace and her husband David at their wedding to illustrate the natural, unforced delight one should have in God's Word, contrasting it with the forced nature of worldly distractions.
• Sermon Illustration [01:09:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the Bible as a 'love letter from heaven' and recalls his wife Angela writing him letters during seminary to illustrate the personal, relational nature of God's revelation.
• Sermon Illustration [01:09:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts his courtship with his wife Angela during seminary, describing how he would hide her letters to read them carefully at home, using this to illustrate how believers should treat God's Word as a precious love letter.
• Sermon Illustration [01:16:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his wife Angela's gallbladder surgery, using it to illustrate the difference between sermons that are merely 'food' for nourishment and sermons that are 'surgery' requiring life change.
• Sermon Illustration [01:13:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor mentions an elephant sitting on his head as a metaphor for the burden of anxiety or heavy thoughts, which he hopes meditation on Scripture will lift.
• Sermon Illustration [01:25:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the concept of 'fencing the table' by comparing it to fences on his farm that keep cows safe inside and predators out, illustrating how the table protects believers and excludes unbelievers.

• Pastoral Charge [00:12:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > Silently confess sins to God
• Pastoral Charge [00:36:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > Pray for the church's pastors
• Pastoral Charge [00:45:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Open the Bible, preferably a physical copy, to prepare for the sermon.
• Pastoral Charge [00:50:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > Identify the key word 'Meditation' in Psalm 1:2.
• Pastoral Charge [00:58:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor commands the congregation to actively 'think' during the sermon, referencing the Pooh bear illustration.
• Pastoral Charge [01:14:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > Read the Puritan book 'The Art of Meditation' by Thomas Watson, available as a free PDF online.
• Pastoral Charge [01:17:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > Take notes on the sermon and select specific Bible verses to meditate on personally.
• Pastoral Charge [01:26:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > Unbelievers are asked to refrain from taking communion.
• Pastoral Charge [01:27:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > Those who do not understand the meaning of the sacrament are instructed to refrain from taking communion.
• Pastoral Charge [01:27:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > Those living in unrepentant sin are instructed to refrain from taking communion.
• Pastoral Charge [01:27:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > Those struggling with sin are invited to come, but must examine their hearts first.

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:02] Good morning. Welcome to Harbor. We are glad to see and have everybody here this morning, so we're going to jump in here. There are a ton of announcements, but I want to start first with what we are here for.
[00:01:35] We are a family of God, bound together to glorify and enjoy Him forever. We do this by sharing the gospel of Jesus, strengthening each other in Him, and showing Him to our community and the world.
[00:01:50] slow down. I don't know, that's probably for one of our pastors, but I got so many announcements.
[00:01:54] I'm going to go a little quick because there's a lot of things to call out. So first of all, we are, both of our pastors are enjoying time away from church, their time away from work. So
[00:02:05] vacation, any of you who have a job, it's great to have vacation. I think it's even more so for our pastors. They do so much for us. So we're excited that both Michael and his family and
[00:02:15] Tyler and his family are enjoying some time away. And we are honored to have Bill Threlkill and his wife, Angela. Bill's going to be delivering our message today for us. He's retired from Back Creek Presbyterian. And informationally, yesterday, he married off his daughter at Back Creek.
[00:02:34] So he said to me, I said, that's a lot going on in a weekend. He said, I find sometimes that I preach better when I'm kind of tired. So we're excited about hearing from you in a little bit,
[00:02:45] sir, but we're glad to have you here today. So in your bulletin, there are some announcements.
[00:02:50] I'm going to hit a couple of these. So if you remember last week at Easter, Michael said we have no activities last week. Well, every activity that we could possibly have this week, we are
[00:03:01] having. So you'll see Sunday school, we've got session this week, safety committee, the women's Bible study, family ministry night. So again, you should have gotten an email about this. Remember, Tyler's not here, but you should have got an email. It is a potluck this week, and if you
[00:03:17] haven't signed up, please do so. This week also on Thursday is our Ladies Fellowship Crochet Night.
[00:03:25] I understand that you do not have to know how to crochet because Naomi is a crochet wizard, wizard's probably not good for church, expert, and she's going to be teaching you. You don't even have to bring the, I was going to say needles, but it's not a needle, needle or the fabric or
[00:03:42] thread or yarn or whatever it is. Please come. It's a lot better than what I'm describing, and I think it'll be a lot of fun. So if you're going to come, please RSVP to Sarah or Naomi, and their
[00:03:53] numbers are in the bulletin. Young Adults Bible Study is also this Saturday. So just a couple of things around the Pregnancy Center of Lake Norman's fundraising banquet. That's on Thursday, May 14th, but the deadline to sign up, I think, is April 22nd, so if you haven't done so and you are
[00:04:12] interested, please reach out to Diane Quijano, who is here, and she will make sure to get you signed up. The Women's Prayer Retreat is coming up on May the 2nd, and if you are interested,
[00:04:23] you need to register by April 18th. There's a cool flyer that every lady will receive as she exits the worship this morning, and they will share that with you, so you have all the details,
[00:04:34] but I want to make sure you sign up for that. Sip and See is coming up for Katie Saunders.
[00:04:42] And then finally, I think I'm missing something. I know I am. Lost and Found. If you have, I guess if you don't know, you've lost it. If there's a chance that you have lost something,
[00:04:53] it is in the foyer. And where is it exactly, Diane? On the table near the name tag area, because today's the last day you can pick it up. We're going to donate it to Goodwill. Anything
[00:05:05] that's not picked up is going to be donated. So if you haven't had a chance to do that, please do so. There were three or four people that came up to me before worship and asked me
[00:05:13] to say something. Did I cover everything you talked about? Great, great. Well, now let's do this. We're going to transition to the time where we come together and where God calls us to worship.
[00:05:24] So if you would, please stand. And we're going to read responsibly. You're going to read back what's underlined and in bold. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs as faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
[00:05:45] For those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah. Let's go to prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much that we can come here and honor you and just glorify, be
[00:06:00] in the moment with you, Lord. You've called us to worship. You've called us to sing. You've called us to pray. You've called us to listen to your word. And Father God, we pray that we would silence
[00:06:11] our hearts with everything else that's a distraction. And Lord, we would come together as a body and listen and learn and worship you, Heavenly Father. And so Lord, we just pray now that you would be with us. And we thank you for the words that you've put in our hearts and help
[00:06:26] us to respond and say together now the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day
[00:06:41] our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.
[00:06:54] All right, let's sing.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:07:27] song shall rise to the surface of the sky and sea. Our confession of sin this morning is all

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:10:31] about the Word of God. Before we go into it, just a brief word of encouragement of the Word of God.
[00:10:38] Don't let this be the only time you hear or read of God's Word. Be in it daily. Join a small group, the women's study, the men's study. If you're in your car a lot, there are all kinds of phone apps
[00:10:51] that can read the word to you. You can even pick the voice that reads to you and the speed of it.
[00:10:57] There's so many opportunities to just be bathed in the word of God. So let's confess our sins together. Our God, and author of all life, we confess our inattentiveness to your word.
[00:11:11] Though we enjoy the benefits of the Bible's accessibility, its clear translation, abundant circulation, and unhindered distribution, we often leave it unread, unopened, untouched.
[00:11:27] When we do turn to your word, many times we do so with mixed motives.
[00:11:33] We search for justification for our own behavior, to seek grounds for criticizing others.
[00:11:40] We soothe our consciences by trusting in your faithful devotions rather than in Jesus' faithful devotion.
[00:11:49] Or we fear and tremble at the condemnations of your word, missing its main purpose of pointing us to the atoning work of Jesus, the word incarnate.
[00:12:01] Father, forgive us.
[00:12:03] Forgive us, O Lord, we pray.
[00:12:05] Go to the Lord in your heart silently and confess your sins.
[00:12:28] Lord God, thank you so much for your word. Lord, I've come to love your word because of you, because in it, it reveals who you are, your character, all that you have done, what you
[00:12:42] have made, your promises, promises that you've already kept, promises that you will soon keep.
[00:12:50] Lord, thank you for the ways that it has convicted and converted me. But Lord, I confess that too often I neglect your word. I neglect to study it. I neglect to do what it says. And too often
[00:13:06] I do what it says not to do. Lord, I am worthy of your wrath. I am worthy of the wrath that you suffered in my place on the cross. Lord, I'm thankful that you took my place. And Lord, I ask
[00:13:23] Lord God, look upon your Son instead of my sin, my unrighteousness.
[00:13:28] Cleanse me from it, Lord.
[00:13:30] Teach me to hate my sin.
[00:13:31] Teach me to cling to your word.
[00:13:34] Lord, I pray all this in the name of your Son, our Lord and Savior.
[00:13:38] Amen.
[00:13:39] Let's stand as we continue to worship in song.

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:13:51] Read the assurance of pardon in John 1.14.
[00:14:00] Then we'll sing.
[00:14:17] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
[00:14:19] and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:14:26] Our help has come in the name of the Lord, the One who formed all the earth and the sky.
[00:14:57] Behold, He comes to destroy the chains of us.
[00:15:12] His name, heaven has called.
[00:16:45] his name. For he has given.
[00:16:50] A confession of faith this morning

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:17:25] from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. This is question 90. I'll read the question and we can all answer together.
[00:17:34] Church, how is the word of God to be read and heard that it may become effectual to salvation? For the word may become effectual to salvation.
[00:17:46] We must pay attention to it with diligence, preparation, and prayer.
[00:17:52] We must receive it with faith and love.
[00:17:55] We must lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives.
[00:18:01] And our memory verse for this month is Romans 6, 23.
[00:18:04] If you've got this one locked in, shut your eyes, or otherwise don't look at the screen.
[00:18:09] If you need to look at the screen, look at the screen.
[00:18:11] Romans 6, 23.
[00:18:13] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:18:40] For God alone, I wait in silence, my soul is still before the Lord.
[00:18:58] My salvation, my fortress strong, I trust in Him.
[00:19:09] I'd be shaken, I'd be shaken, in His love I'd salvage.
[00:19:29] This morning is from Colossians 3, verses 12 to 17.

[00:22:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:22:26] Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other.
[00:22:47] as the Lord has forgiven you so you also must forgive and above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called
[00:23:06] in one body and be thankful let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
[00:23:25] Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father.
[00:23:34] Let me pray for us this morning.
[00:23:42] Heavenly Father, we are thankful.
[00:23:43] We just heard three admonitions to be thankful, to give thanks, to have thankful hearts.
[00:23:53] We are thankful this morning for more things than we can list during this time.
[00:23:57] We are grateful that you hear our prayers, that you encourage us to come before you in prayer corporately and individually.
[00:24:07] Your spirit intercedes for us with a groans that we can't even understand when our prayers are non-existent even or halting or we feel like they're even hitting the ceiling and bouncing back.
[00:24:21] Thank you that we are prayed for even when we're not praying.
[00:24:27] Thank you that you save.
[00:24:28] Most of all, thank you that you save.
[00:24:30] Thank you for your grace that saves and keeps, that hunts down sinners, draws them, moves them to repent and believes, gives new hearts, hearts of flesh, replacing hearts of stone.
[00:24:44] Father, just for a moment, we'll take a minute to pray for someone who does not have that relationship with you.
[00:25:12] Heavenly Father, we pray for our missionaries, John and Elizabeth Sexton, with Mission to the World and Medical Missions Branch.
[00:25:19] And we pray for John, especially as he heads to Mongolia soon for another healthcare mission trip.
[00:25:29] Thank you that he had safe trip back from Bolivia.
[00:25:32] And I pray that you'd help him to get, have his, practically to have his lessons together, to have his papers in order, the things that he needs to do the job he's called to do.
[00:25:42] In that and around that, I pray that you give him opportunities to redirect people's gazes to Christ.
[00:25:51] He has mentioned that Mongolia is not unopened to Christianity.
[00:25:56] community. Atheism is the religion of the hour there as in many other places, but they are open to, people are open to the gospel. I pray that you give him words, give him a heart for the loss
[00:26:12] there, even as he moves about teaching and in the context of public health care and the system that they have there and his trying to help them grow the community health care system that they have.
[00:26:30] I pray that you watch over him and Elizabeth as well.
[00:26:33] Lord, pray for the lost in our community, in Mooresville and the surrounding areas.
[00:26:38] We ask that you would continue to say, the sun has come up again today, so you're still saving, you're still keeping.
[00:26:45] We pray that you would give us all opportunities this week.
[00:26:49] Help us not to be blind to opportunities to share the gospel in some form or fashion.
[00:26:57] Lord, in how we live and in how we talk, even when we're not so aware of the ways that people pay attention.
[00:27:07] I pray that we would have hearts for the lost and most especially a heart for Christ and Christ-likeness and that we would be able to direct lost sinners to Jesus.
[00:27:27] I pray for Southlake PCA, for Pastor Dan King and Associate Pastor Jason Pidio.
[00:27:32] I pray for wisdom.
[00:27:34] I pray for grace and strength for that church, for their pastors, for their session, their diaconate, for the whole church, Father.
[00:27:43] I pray that as they minister to that community around the lake, that you would give them open doors.
[00:27:51] I pray that you would bring new folks to that church.
[00:27:53] I pray that the gospel would be preached, that they would minister in all the ways that you give them to do so.
[00:28:04] I pray for Harbor Church.
[00:28:05] I pray that you would help us to fight temptation in the 10,000 big and little ways that we are tempted to leave the path.
[00:28:13] Don mentioned abiding in your word.
[00:28:16] I pray that we would do so.
[00:28:19] So grateful that we get to hear Bill preach today from Psalm 1.
[00:28:23] And I pray that you would warm our hearts.
[00:28:27] As a disciple said on the road to Emmaus, I pray that our hearts would burn within us as we hear the word preached this morning, as we hear Christ preached this morning.
[00:28:36] I pray that you would change us.
[00:28:38] I pray that those in this room that do not know you, that you'd save them, chase them down, give them hearts of flesh, replace their hearts of stone and save them.
[00:28:51] Pray for outreach this week.
[00:28:55] Help us have open eyes and wise words.
[00:28:57] Pray for our neighbors to pray in advance of opportunities to speak to our neighbors and co-workers and even other people under our roofs, our own roofs of our families who may not know you. I pray that we would
[00:29:11] move towards people with the gospel courageously and humbly in a Christ-like fashion.
[00:29:19] Pray that we would not separate truth from love. Pray that you would give us words to speak and the right time to speak them and help us to see that, to see the opportunities.
[00:29:30] God, I pray for church planting, finally, as we look towards it and as we plan towards it.
[00:29:35] I pray that you would give us much wisdom and discernment of the right man, of the right place, and the right people.
[00:29:46] All the things that you need to direct because we can't see that far down the road.
[00:29:52] So I pray that you would direct our steps.
[00:29:57] Help us to trust you for that process, for all the things we've prayed for this morning and that we will continue to pray for.
[00:30:02] I pray that you would give us faithful hearts, that we would pursue righteousness, that we would lean into Christ's finished work on our behalf, that we would glorify you and enjoy you, not just today, but forever.
[00:30:19] We pray all these things in Christ's name.
[00:30:20] Amen.

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:30:25] So we come to that time in our service where we worship our Lord by giving our offerings.
[00:30:30] And we do worship, right?
[00:30:32] So as Harbor members, we've been called to give, right?
[00:30:36] We've been called to give.
[00:30:38] We said that in our vows.
[00:30:39] We know that each week.
[00:30:40] So if you're a visitor, please don't have any concern about letting that plate pass you by.
[00:30:46] We are just happy to have you here with us this week, and we pray that God touches your heart with the words and the ministry here.
[00:30:52] But again, we just thank you for being here.
[00:30:55] We do have like in the pew in front of you, the seat in front of you, if you're a visitor or you have a prayer request, please fill that out and drop that in the plate.
[00:31:02] We would ask you to put that in.
[00:31:03] If you have anything you'd like for us to be praying for, we'd love to know that too.
[00:31:06] So, thank you.

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:31:10] We're going to sing Psalm 1 this morning.
[00:31:13] Looking at the words, you might think it's come from the Psalter.
[00:31:16] It's come from the Psalter of Bill Throkio.
[00:31:18] We are grateful for these words, and we're going to get to sing Psalm 1 together right now.

[00:31:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:31:25] Blessed is the man who loves God's Word.
[00:31:30] His soul, his heart will undergird.
[00:31:35] His meditation fixed on God Will help him walk where Jesus trod Let all while on his stead A storm God's precious word His delight living in strength To stay that God's holy Woe plies on sacred pain
[00:33:01] which God has given to every soul, God's flow.
[00:33:19] Dear Jesus, you the grace and mercy, we help us your truth to love obey.
[00:33:36] Looted within forces.

[00:33:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:33:42] Let's pray.
[00:33:44] Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for the gifts.
[00:33:46] We thank you that you've allowed those to be given.
[00:33:49] We pray, God, that they would be used to glorify you and your kingdom in Christ's name we pray.
[00:33:54] Please rise as we sing the doxology.
[00:34:00] Praise God.

[00:34:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:34:01] Please be seated.

[00:34:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:34:34] Bill, if you'll come and bring us the message from our Lord.

[00:34:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:34:53] Let me look at you just for a minute and relax.
[00:34:57] We did have a wedding yesterday, and it was a full day and weeks and months leading up to it.
[00:35:03] So I'm going to relax and breathe and just look at you.
[00:35:09] You look like you're ready to hear the Word of God.
[00:35:12] You've been worshiping God.
[00:35:14] And Jim, where's Jim?
[00:35:16] I will not take credit for the inspired Word of God.
[00:35:20] I wrote that hymn, and you said it was in the Psalter.
[00:35:24] But I wrote that in March.
[00:35:27] That one we just sang.
[00:35:28] I'm sort of a little hobbyist hymn writer, and so if it sounded like the Psalter, that's good.
[00:35:35] I meant for it to, but I wrote that in October.
[00:35:37] It's the first time it's been sung, so you got that first today of singing that.
[00:35:42] Maybe it'll be sung again sometime.
[00:35:44] Thank you for singing it and letting expression of God's Word come out in that.
[00:35:49] I'm honored to be here. I love your church, your pastors.
[00:35:54] I've always loved this church. I've known all the pastors.
[00:35:57] I've been involved with all the pastors of Harbor Church from its beginning in committees of Presbytery, General Assembly, all those different things that we do.
[00:36:06] I'll toot Michael's horn a little bit because I've worked on him with a committee of church planting.
[00:36:13] Maybe he's kept that before you, but Michael has been one to try to see churches planted in our presbytery, and he's worked really hard, and he's done a lot of things to help that happen.
[00:36:24] So that influence that he had, and now Tyler coming alongside of him, working in that as well, is going to help the cause of Jesus and the gospel beyond Harbor and actually beyond Mooresville, and it's going to help in other places in the presbytery.
[00:36:41] So you need to pray for your pastors.
[00:36:43] That's the second thing I'll say.
[00:36:44] I was a pastor for 33 years in two churches.
[00:36:47] Pray for your pastors.
[00:36:49] It's hard to describe what being a pastor is like, except to say this.
[00:36:54] What you work with as a pastor is totally unseen.
[00:36:59] Because what the pastor thinks about more than anything is your heart and your mind and your soul.
[00:37:07] And you cannot touch those.
[00:37:08] You can't quantify them.
[00:37:10] But that's really what pastors work with.
[00:37:13] You are embodied people, and we work with your bodies, and we see you in the hospital, and we pray for you, and we touch you, and we hug you, and all of that.
[00:37:21] But what we think about most is what's inside, because when you die, that's the only thing that's going to matter, is what's on the inside.
[00:37:29] Though our bodies will be resurrected, praise God, we'll have resurrected bodies, but without a regenerated soul, you perish in hell.
[00:37:38] So I'll begin today with the gospel.
[00:37:39] Do you know Christ? Do you have faith in Christ?
[00:37:44] Have you ceased trusting in anything that you would have in yourself for salvation and know that one day you will die and that you will stand before God and He won't probably say, why should I let you into heaven?
[00:37:56] I don't think He'll ask that question.
[00:37:59] I think He will look into your very heart and soul and being and if He sees His Son there, that you love Christ, His Son who died in your place, then He will say, welcome my child.
[00:38:13] If he does not see your son there, if he saw something else there but Jesus, then he will not welcome you, and condemnation will come.
[00:38:22] That's the gospel.
[00:38:24] It's the good news that Jesus saves sinners, and I'm the biggest one here today.
[00:38:28] I'll confess it.
[00:38:29] I'm absolutely the biggest one here today.
[00:38:32] And so as I preach the word, pray for me, a sinner, that I can bring to you God's precious word.
[00:38:40] I'm going to open the Bible to Psalm 1.
[00:38:43] We did have the wedding.
[00:38:45] So if I'm a little scattered, that's okay.
[00:38:47] I told somebody based on 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul said, his strength is made perfect in weakness.
[00:38:59] I found that I preached better when I was exhausted.
[00:39:03] That's kind of weird.
[00:39:05] I'm not saying I'll preach a great sermon today because I'm tired, but I am tired because we had a wedding yesterday and it was a pretty big affair, and had to take our daughter down the aisle
[00:39:17] and put her into the hands of David Thomas, our new son-in-law, as of yesterday.
[00:39:23] So it was a big day, and we celebrate that still in our hearts.
[00:39:28] Turn to Psalms with me. Psalm 1. Psalm 1.
[00:39:35] I'm going to read the whole Psalm.
[00:39:40] I'm going to give a little introduction to begin this.
[00:39:44] I again thank you for the invitation.
[00:39:46] It's such a privilege to preach.
[00:39:47] One of the things I certainly miss greatly about retirement is preaching the Word.
[00:39:52] So I am humbled, I am honored, and I am privileged to stand in this sacred spot.
[00:40:00] Because when the Word of God is proclaimed and Jesus Christ is proclaimed, God's Spirit is present to work.
[00:40:07] And does anyone need God's Spirit working in your life today?
[00:40:11] I do chiefly, so I'm preaching to myself.
[00:40:14] And I'll say that before I bring you this sermon and preach God's Word.
[00:40:18] I'm preaching it to myself.
[00:40:21] So if it sounds like I'm kind of beating you on the head about something, I am not.
[00:40:26] I'm beating myself on the head.
[00:40:28] This will not put you on a guilt trip.
[00:40:30] Guilt is a horrible motivator unless you're lost.
[00:40:35] If you're lost and without Christ, guilt is a good thing because we're all guilty.
[00:40:40] But if you've been redeemed by the blood of Christ, then guilt shouldn't be your motivator for doing anything, for coming to church, for giving to the offering or serving the Lord here.
[00:40:50] What should be your motivation?
[00:40:53] Love.
[00:40:56] Love for your Father in heaven.
[00:40:58] Love for His Son, our Redeemer.
[00:41:01] And love for the blessed Holy Spirit who indwells us when we come to faith in Christ.
[00:41:08] I'm going to do a little introduction and then read the text.
[00:41:11] Have any of you who are older ever heard the statement or the phrase, there's an elephant in the room.
[00:41:20] Now, younger people may not use that phrase, but you older ones are doing the church nod.
[00:41:28] Yeah, you can really, elephant in the room.
[00:41:30] Now, do any young people know what that means?
[00:41:33] If you do, raise your hand.
[00:41:35] See, getting a few, elephant in the room.
[00:41:38] It means this.
[00:41:40] So I'm explaining it for you younger people.
[00:41:42] How many of you are, let me ask one more question.
[00:41:44] How many of you are under the age of 40?
[00:41:49] Raise your hand.
[00:41:49] Under the age of 40.
[00:41:50] Good number of you.
[00:41:51] Okay.
[00:41:52] So the rest of you are over the age of 40 or whatever.
[00:41:55] Elephant in the room means something obvious, very obvious.
[00:42:04] You're in a group or in a setting.
[00:42:06] It's very obvious, but no one talks about it.
[00:42:10] That's the elephant in the room.
[00:42:12] That's the description of the elephant in the room.
[00:42:14] If you were in a meeting and there was some huge issue in that meeting and nobody brought up that huge issue, you would describe that as being what?
[00:42:24] The elephant in the room.
[00:42:29] Well, I'm 65 and I've lived through something that has become to me like an elephant.
[00:42:39] And that thing has been the digital revolution.
[00:42:45] Now, anyone who is over about 40 will remember that that happened.
[00:42:52] We will remember things like dial telephones.
[00:42:56] I don't think anybody here is going to remember a party line.
[00:42:59] Sarah, Andy Griffith, get me Barney on the phone, that kind of thing.
[00:43:04] I don't think we're going to remember that, but we are going to remember when microwave ovens didn't exist.
[00:43:11] Everybody remember that?
[00:43:13] Over 40?
[00:43:13] we're going to remember when you didn't have a smart phone nor a cell phone nor a cordless phone in the home I remember our first cordless phone I remember our first microwave like it was yesterday
[00:43:27] those things are magic you put something in it and it heats it up where did it come from so we've gone through in the past 20-30 years the digital revolution and since we have the elephant's no longer in the room
[00:43:41] honestly the elephant sits on top of my head every single day.
[00:43:52] I have a lot of labels.
[00:43:53] This has been my topic of study for about 20 years now, 15, 20 years.
[00:43:59] The digital dump, the DD, the digital dump.
[00:44:05] And I'm concerned about it.
[00:44:07] And so I'm going to speak to you about it today.
[00:44:09] It takes lots of forms.
[00:44:11] I think the most recent form, obviously, is the smartphone.
[00:44:14] And it's ubiquity, which means it's always with us.
[00:44:17] for most of us, it's always with us. We're always accessible. I have the Library of Congress right here in my pocket today. I can ask AI, and by the way, AI is not really artificial. It's not
[00:44:30] intelligence at all. So don't be wowed when people get nervous about AI. AI is just the compilation of the knowledge that has come from this, and that's all it is. It's just what's already there.
[00:44:44] So don't get too spooked out about that.
[00:44:47] The elephant on the head means that we have a lot more things that we think about than we used to.
[00:44:53] And all of us who are 40 and over feel that.
[00:44:57] You who are under 40 don't feel that.
[00:45:00] You don't feel the weight of the elephant on your head as much.
[00:45:04] But those of us who are over 40, we feel that.
[00:45:08] And so I'm going to address that today from Psalm 1.
[00:45:10] So if you have your Bible, open it.
[00:45:15] You can open it on a digital copy, but I prefer the hard copy.
[00:45:22] The pages, it helps me to read the Word on the page rather than on the screen because I can't check my email, I can't check my text, I can't look up who's winning the Masters golf tournament.
[00:45:34] I can't do any of that with this.
[00:45:38] I just have God and His Word. Praise God.
[00:45:44] I'm going to read the whole psalm.
[00:45:45] I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible.
[00:45:49] This is what it says.
[00:45:50] In the ESV, there's a little title, and it says, The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked.
[00:45:57] And I'm only going to preach on the first three verses.
[00:46:01] Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.
[00:46:12] But his delight is in the law of the Lord.
[00:46:18] And I'm going to interject one phrase, stop reading and interject one phrase, where it says, His delight is in the law of the Lord.
[00:46:26] I think I'm on good biblical ground to say this.
[00:46:30] His delight is also in the Lord of the law.
[00:46:37] The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[00:46:41] The Lord of the law.
[00:46:42] Let's continue.
[00:46:47] It says, but His delight is in the law of the Lord.
[00:46:50] And on His law, He meditates.
[00:46:55] day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season and its leaf does not wither. In all he does, all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so,
[00:47:19] but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. This is God's holy, inerrant, and inspired word.
[00:47:45] I think it'd be appropriate for us to pray over it before I speak and preach about it. Let's pray.
[00:47:54] Father, bless to my own heart this word and help me to expound it, at least the first three verses, as best as I'm humanly able.
[00:48:06] But God, nothing will happen apart from your Holy Spirit just opening the minds and hearts of the Deer Harbor congregation and my heart to this word.
[00:48:19] Lord, change us when we hear your word.
[00:48:24] Make us to be who you would want us to be, like Jesus.
[00:48:28] And do that today for your glory and your honor.
[00:48:33] We thank you and praise you.
[00:48:36] In Jesus' name, amen.
[00:48:40] Amen.
[00:48:41] I love it.
[00:48:42] You don't keep a clock for Michael or for Tyler.
[00:48:45] Wow, I'm impressed.
[00:48:47] Is there one back there?
[00:48:48] There is one back there.
[00:48:49] Okay, well, you do.
[00:48:50] And I had one in Back Creek.
[00:48:52] I brought a special one today, though.
[00:48:55] I ordered this off of Amazon with my phone.
[00:48:58] Just want to let you know.
[00:48:59] The elephant got on my head.
[00:49:00] Can everybody see what it is?
[00:49:02] Do you younger people know what this is?
[00:49:04] It's really not an hourglass.
[00:49:06] It's really a 30-minute glass.
[00:49:09] How do you like that?
[00:49:09] That's pretty good for sermons, isn't it?
[00:49:11] I asked Tyler how long they preached, and he said, well, maybe 30, 40 minutes.
[00:49:16] We'll have the Lord's Supper afterwards and all that.
[00:49:19] So I'm going to watch this, but this 30-minute timer, I'm going to put it over here.
[00:49:23] I'm going to put it on baptismal font.
[00:49:25] I think that'll be okay.
[00:49:25] I don't want to be sacrilegious of any way there.
[00:49:28] I'm going to put it right there.
[00:49:30] 30-minute timer.
[00:49:31] It's already started.
[00:49:33] It's the sands in the hourglass.
[00:49:35] I hope no one watches soap operas.
[00:49:36] I hope you don't watch soap operas, but it's the sands of the hourglass so, or what? The days of our lives. And so there's a purpose in that. We breathe air, we eat food, and we drink water. Those things become part of us. The air we breathe,
[00:50:02] the food we eat, and the things we drink become part of us. And the things that I consume and fill my mind with become part of me. That's just the way we are. We are to love God with what?
[00:50:17] All of our what?
[00:50:21] Heart, soul, mind, and strength.
[00:50:28] And so what I'm preaching on today is the battleground of the mind.
[00:50:33] We're going to narrow down to one word in that psalm.
[00:50:36] Can you pick out what word it is?
[00:50:39] Right there in verse 2, look at it.
[00:50:42] Tell me what that word is going to be that we're going to begin to narrow down.
[00:50:47] Or you can look at the sermon title in your bulletin.
[00:50:49] and you can figure out what the word is, but what is it?
[00:50:53] Meditation.
[00:51:00] It says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
[00:51:10] The Masters is going on right now.
[00:51:12] Do we have any golfers here this morning?
[00:51:14] Any golfers?
[00:51:16] Well, good.
[00:51:17] We'll pray for you.
[00:51:18] I'm sort of a golfer.
[00:51:20] I always said it this way.
[00:51:21] Golf is trying to hit a small ball off of a much larger ball, the earth.
[00:51:28] Which one are you more likely to hit?
[00:51:31] That's golf.
[00:51:33] Anyway, I won't tell the story, but I was privileged years ago to get master's tickets.
[00:51:37] I get them every year, two master's tickets.
[00:51:39] So the master's is going on today.
[00:51:41] The last day is today.
[00:51:43] And I've been to the master's a number of times.
[00:51:45] Bobby Jones was a golfer years ago.
[00:51:48] Remember that name?
[00:51:48] Anybody remember the name Bobby Jones?
[00:51:50] If you're a golfer, he was one of the ones who designed that course down in Augusta, Augusta National Golf Course.
[00:51:57] And he had a saying.
[00:51:58] And I want you to remember this quote.
[00:52:03] Bobby Jones, let me get the number exactly right on it.
[00:52:08] He said that golf is a game that is played on a six and a half inch wide course.
[00:52:22] That's what Bobby Jones said.
[00:52:24] He was a famous golfer, designed that course.
[00:52:29] Golf is a game that's played on a six and a half inch course.
[00:52:35] Can anyone guess where the six and a half inch course is?
[00:52:40] It's the distance between our ears.
[00:52:46] And more substantially, because that hour, that 30 minute glass over there is going.
[00:52:51] I mean, it is running.
[00:52:53] And that represents your life.
[00:52:55] Life is lived largely on a six-and-a-half-inch course, and that is the space between your ears.
[00:53:09] Most of our lives are truly lived inside of our own heads.
[00:53:20] That's why Jesus said we're to love the Lord with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our what? Mind, and all of our strength.
[00:53:32] And so when you come to the Psalter, let me give one more illustration.
[00:53:39] Let me get to the text.
[00:53:41] When you come to the Psalter, my favorite illustration of what we're living through in this time of the digital explosion, I call it, or the digital dump, or the elephant on the head, is from the children here that are under the age of 10.
[00:54:00] This is your quote.
[00:54:01] It comes from a bear of very little brain.
[00:54:05] A chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff.
[00:54:11] I love him. You love him.
[00:54:14] His name is Pooh.
[00:54:16] And his quote is very memorable.
[00:54:19] Pooh has to keep reminding himself of something.
[00:54:23] Anybody know what he reminds himself of?
[00:54:29] Pooh keeps saying to himself, Think, think, think.
[00:54:40] And this sermon is to encourage me first, to encourage you to think.
[00:54:45] I'll give you one illustration, one more, and then I'll go to this sermon.
[00:54:53] Exponential growth.
[00:54:54] Things have changed, and they change exponentially.
[00:54:58] Here's only two statistics.
[00:54:59] We've got a lot more technology than we ever had, and it affects us.
[00:55:04] There's two statistics.
[00:55:06] Number one, if you ate one scoop of ice cream today, this is exponential growth.
[00:55:14] Do we have any mathematicians at Harbor Church?
[00:55:16] Raise it if you're a math teacher, love to do math, you work with math.
[00:55:20] Okay, exponential growth, that's what we're in with all the technology.
[00:55:27] Exponential, that means you take something and you multiply it, and then the next time you multiply it by itself, y'all with me?
[00:55:34] Everybody know that from school?
[00:55:36] Then you multiply those again by themselves, and you keep doing that.
[00:55:40] If you had one scoop of ice cream today, and then you doubled it tomorrow, and then you double that to four the next day and you doubled it to eight the next day and you doubled it to 16 the next day
[00:55:53] and that's what happens, that's what has been happening with digital technologies.
[00:56:00] At the end of 30 days, you would be eating 134 million pounds of ice cream in 30 days.
[00:56:14] That's exponential growth.
[00:56:18] Some of you say, that'd be great.
[00:56:22] If you took a piece of paper and you folded it, and you could, you couldn't do it, but if you theoretically could fold a piece of paper and you folded it on itself the first day
[00:56:36] and then folded that on itself the second day and folded that on itself the third day, in 42 days of folding that paper, it would reach to the moon.
[00:56:50] That's exponential growth.
[00:56:52] And that's what we are living in as far as the technology and the change and all of that.
[00:56:59] So I hope the sermon is timely and will help you and bless you in a number of ways.
[00:57:06] If you have a bulletin, just look at it.
[00:57:09] There's an outline here in this bulletin.
[00:57:14] Let me turn to it so I can tell you where it is.
[00:57:17] It says, Sermon Notes, five points.
[00:57:21] Look at the outline.
[00:57:23] The promise for all who practice biblical meditation, the word is blessed.
[00:57:29] It's the very first word of the psalm.
[00:57:31] It says blessed.
[00:57:31] Do you want to be blessed?
[00:57:33] Do you want to be happy?
[00:57:34] Well, I like happiness, but I find that happiness kind of comes and goes.
[00:57:39] I really like blessing because blessing includes God, His presence, Jesus' mercy and love to me.
[00:57:48] Blessing comes from heaven.
[00:57:50] Happiness usually just kind of comes from the earth.
[00:57:53] Blessing is something that comes from heaven.
[00:57:55] So that's the promise for all who practice biblical medication.
[00:57:59] You've got the poverty of not practicing biblical meditation.
[00:58:04] And that's listed by those three not things.
[00:58:07] I call them the naughty passages in verse 1.
[00:58:09] And then you have the passion needed.
[00:58:12] That's the word delight.
[00:58:13] It's in verse 2.
[00:58:16] The passion needed to enjoy biblical meditation.
[00:58:19] The priority, that's day and night.
[00:58:21] You'll see that in verse 2.
[00:58:23] This person in the psalm is meditating day and night.
[00:58:27] And then last, you'll see the prosperity.
[00:58:29] That's at verse 3.
[00:58:30] It says, be like a tree planted by streams of water and yields its fruit in season.
[00:58:35] And all he does, he prospers.
[00:58:37] He spiritually prospers.
[00:58:39] Everybody with me on the five points?
[00:58:41] You good?
[00:58:42] Okay.
[00:58:43] Now what are you supposed to do as I preach the sermon?
[00:58:47] What was Pooh's quote?
[00:58:48] Let's say it together.
[00:58:50] You got it up here?
[00:58:52] Think.
[00:58:57] That's all you got to do.
[00:59:02] We're going to start with the blessings, the promise.
[00:59:08] As I say, I've been through a wedding.
[00:59:10] I've got all kinds of things up here.
[00:59:14] The promise is this.
[00:59:17] I'm going to skip those knots, those parts of verse 1.
[00:59:21] But if you take the Scripture and say, blessed...is the man...who meditates on the law of the Lord.
[00:59:34] That's where you find the blessing.
[00:59:38] You find the blessing in saturating your mind and your heart and your life with God and His Word.
[00:59:48] You have to be intentional about that.
[00:59:50] You have to know that there is a promise when God says you'll be blessed.
[00:59:56] When I first became a pastor, I went to seminary in Mississippi.
[01:00:01] And I pastored a little church for two and a half years while I was in seminary.
[01:00:05] And it was an older senior congregation, and they had about 15 to 20 people on Sunday morning.
[01:00:12] It was a dear, dear group of people.
[01:00:13] I enjoyed my time, my two and a half years.
[01:00:16] I would drive two hours from Jackson to North Mississippi, a little town called Water Valley, to preach to this 15 people.
[01:00:23] I loved those people.
[01:00:25] It's been the night.
[01:00:27] They sent me a bulletin.
[01:00:29] You know, we only had hard copies.
[01:00:31] There was no email, no text back in 1989.
[01:00:36] And so they sent me a bulletin in the mail so I'd know for the first service what it was.
[01:00:40] And I looked down the order of worship, and somewhere in the order of worship, It said, a time for silent medication.
[01:00:48] I thought, maybe it's not a mistake.
[01:00:56] Silent medication.
[01:01:01] But you know, over the years, I use that as some illustrations in sermons various times.
[01:01:08] But the silent medication is very much what you get when you have silent meditation.
[01:01:18] because it's medicine for the brain and medicine for the soul.
[01:01:24] So maybe it was a little more accurate to say it's a time for silent medication.
[01:01:37] God's promise is that we will be blessed.
[01:01:42] As I said a moment ago, happiness can come from a lot of sources, but to be blessed comes from God.
[01:01:49] And as the sands of my life flow rapidly, I find I want the blessing of God more than I want the happiness of this world, which is like this.
[01:02:06] And the blessing of God is steady and sure.
[01:02:11] Are you enjoying the war?
[01:02:13] Are you enjoying the gas prices?
[01:02:14] Let's start there.
[01:02:15] Are you enjoying the $4 a gallon gas?
[01:02:17] No.
[01:02:19] Stock market, 401k, all over the place.
[01:02:25] God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, steady.
[01:02:31] Always.
[01:02:33] God's on His throne.
[01:02:34] I need to meditate on that.
[01:02:36] I need to meditate on His Word.
[01:02:38] And it's medicine for the brain that's tired from the elephant sitting on the head.
[01:02:47] But be assured, one day, the elephant will be cast away.
[01:02:53] They'll have a basket for our smartphones at the door of heaven.
[01:02:56] And they'll say, you don't need that anymore.
[01:02:59] Thank you, Lord.
[01:03:00] I don't need my smartphone anymore.
[01:03:02] Therefore, blessing is how the song begins.
[01:03:06] Number two, we get the second point here, the poverty.
[01:03:10] And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that.
[01:03:14] But if you look back at the first verse, it says, Blessed is the man who walks not.
[01:03:19] You could call it the naughty passage.
[01:03:21] That could be K-N-O-T-T-Y.
[01:03:24] That could be N-A-U-G-H-T-Y.
[01:03:27] That is the naughty passage or the naughty passage because it's filled with nots.
[01:03:34] This is the poverty.
[01:03:35] This is what happens when you don't meditate on the law of the Lord.
[01:03:41] You're going to walk in somebody's counsel.
[01:03:45] I don't want to walk in Google's counsel, or Facebook's counsel, or Instagram, or whatever news source.
[01:03:52] I want to walk in the counsel of God.
[01:03:54] And I want you to do that.
[01:03:56] And to do that, you have to be intentional about meditating, thinking about filling your heart, filling your mind with God and His Word.
[01:04:12] It says He is that person.
[01:04:15] And you see the progression.
[01:04:16] You've heard sermons.
[01:04:17] Michael or Tyler have probably preached on one before.
[01:04:21] There's this walking, and then there's this standing, and then there's this sitting in the counsel of the wicked, the sinner.
[01:04:29] Well, I like to think about the Bible that way.
[01:04:32] Listen to this.
[01:04:34] When you read the Word, it's kind of like you're walking there.
[01:04:40] You're walking in the Word.
[01:04:43] When you stand, it's when you memorize it.
[01:04:47] Do you memorize the Word?
[01:04:49] I've got Scripture memorized because I've just read it a lot over the years.
[01:04:54] I don't really sit down and just say, I'm going to memorize that verse.
[01:04:56] You can do that.
[01:04:57] But if you read it enough, you get it memorized.
[01:05:00] But when you get it memorized, you can meditate and let it begin to saturate like a sponge.
[01:05:09] And it can begin to saturate your whole life because once you have it memorized, I'm going to give you some right at the end of the sermon, some of my favorites that I've got memorized and meditate on.
[01:05:19] But it's a blessing because you stay away from the counsel of the wicked, the way of the sinner, the seat of the scoffers, because you're meditating day and night on the law of the Lord.
[01:05:32] That's all I'm going to say about point two.
[01:05:34] That's the poverty.
[01:05:38] Look at the passion.
[01:05:40] It says, verse 2, but his what?
[01:05:42] What's that word in your ESV?
[01:05:45] I think NIV, you've got NAV.
[01:05:47] His delight.
[01:05:50] Yesterday we had the wedding.
[01:05:54] David Thomas and Anna Grace Theroux became husband and wife.
[01:05:58] And one of the things that fascinated me most about the day was how they looked at each other on that day.
[01:06:05] You know, our daughter Anna Grace dressed in a beautiful wedding gown.
[01:06:08] David's dressed in a nice suit and they're just very everything is so beautiful but it wasn't that that caught my eye so much, it wasn't her dress and all that stuff, it was how they looked at each other
[01:06:22] there was kind of a glow, wasn't it Angela?
[01:06:26] it was sort of a, we've seen our daughter glow before, maybe we've seen David glow, you know and all that but through the day through the vows, through the day the pictures, all that stuff
[01:06:37] It was like there was a glow about them.
[01:06:40] Well, what was it?
[01:06:41] You tell me.
[01:06:43] They were delighting in each other.
[01:06:49] You didn't have to force them.
[01:06:50] You didn't have to pay them.
[01:06:51] You didn't have to beat them over the head and say, look at each other and smile.
[01:06:59] So are you thankful that you own a body?
[01:07:05] Can you pick up God's Word and say, this is the best, better than all the junk of Facebook, Instagram, Anything Google can throw, any AI of the world.
[01:07:22] Listen, brothers and sisters, we got real intelligence.
[01:07:29] This is the mind that matters.
[01:07:31] This is the mind of God.
[01:07:34] This is real intelligence, not artificial, not some compilation of source from here and here and here and here and here, like AI does.
[01:07:44] This is real knowledge.
[01:07:47] This is a discerner of my mind and my heart.
[01:07:51] This book is not just a book that you read.
[01:07:58] It's a book that reads you.
[01:08:01] And that's one of the beauties of it.
[01:08:03] And it's the only book that will tell me the truth about who I am and about who God is.
[01:08:13] And in the end, when that hourglass runs out on your life, that's all that will matter.
[01:08:20] So the passion is to develop a love for God's holy word.
[01:08:36] I always tell people when we talk about the Bible, the Bible is not an old ancient book that we as Christians just say we pick up and read, and read some history, and read some poetry, and we read this and read that.
[01:08:52] this is a love letter from heaven that God has given to His people.
[01:09:05] And it's like the book of Hosea.
[01:09:08] We are the sinful harlots.
[01:09:11] We are the unfaithful ones.
[01:09:13] And God has given us His heart and His mind and His love in this book.
[01:09:23] He's revealed Himself.
[01:09:24] do I delight in His revelation of Himself.
[01:09:33] He's written me a big love letter.
[01:09:35] I remember when Angela and I, she wrote more letters to me when we were in seminary.
[01:09:39] We were dating while I was in seminary.
[01:09:40] And she wrote more.
[01:09:41] I wrote her some.
[01:09:42] I didn't do as good as you, and I'm sorry, dear.
[01:09:45] I really am.
[01:09:46] She wrote a lot.
[01:09:47] And I remember getting the letters in the little post office at the seminary, and I would take them, and I wouldn't open them in the post office.
[01:09:56] No, I would hide them away.
[01:09:57] and then I would take them home and I'd get in my easy chair in seminary and I'd get the light just right.
[01:10:03] Maybe I'd get a cup of coffee or something and then I would carefully open the letter and then I would read the love letter from Angela and then I'd think about it and then I'd put it on the bed stand beside the chair.
[01:10:20] About 15 minutes later, I'd pick it up and I'd read it again and then I'd try to read between the lines.
[01:10:27] What does she mean by that sentence?
[01:10:28] And that's what I did because I loved Angela.
[01:10:36] But she's human.
[01:10:37] She's a sinner.
[01:10:38] I'm a sinner.
[01:10:40] The holy God has given us his holy book.
[01:10:45] And it's a love letter.
[01:10:48] Do I delight in it?
[01:10:49] Point four, the priority.
[01:10:53] It simply says this person meditates day and night on the law of the Lord.
[01:11:02] That's where practicing meditation can be done in two ways, primarily two ways.
[01:11:10] You can set aside time to sit on your porch and open the Scriptures or have verses in your brain already that are memorized and just replay them and let them work like medicine to change the way you think.
[01:11:27] Or, in the warp and woof of life, you can meditate while driving down Interstate 77.
[01:11:36] Carefully, though, I'll give the disclaimer.
[01:11:40] You can think about Scripture while you're sweeping out the carport, changing the oil, changing a diaper.
[01:11:51] You can meditate many, many times in the cracks and crevices of life.
[01:11:58] But you have to choose to do it.
[01:12:02] Point five, the prosperity that comes from biblical meditation.
[01:12:08] It's right there in verse three.
[01:12:09] It says, he is like a tree, generic he, he, she, is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season and its leaf does not wither and all that he does, he prospers.
[01:12:25] There's a prosperity gospel in the world.
[01:12:28] You know what that is.
[01:12:29] That if you just have enough faith that you won't get sick, you won't have to wear glasses, you have a bank account that exceeds Bill Gates, all that stuff.
[01:12:38] There's a prosperity gospel out there.
[01:12:40] That's not what this is talking about.
[01:12:41] You know that.
[01:12:42] I don't need to tell you that.
[01:12:45] What does it mean?
[01:12:48] It means that your soul, your eternal soul will prosper through biblical meditation I want you to have that kind of prosperity I want to have that kind of prosperity there's this elephant sitting on my head
[01:13:08] he doesn't really care about whether I have that kind of prosperity or not, he doesn't care about that but God does God cares the promise is blessing the poverty, well it's pretty ugly the priority is passion
[01:13:38] is delight. The priority is day and night. And then the prosperity is fruit. And you know what fruit comes the more we meditate. The fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5. Love. The intangibles of the Christian life. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
[01:14:17] gentleness, and self-control.
[01:14:23] That's the fruit that God wants to work in us.
[01:14:26] And that's the fruit that I pray that this sermon will help you develop and help me develop.
[01:14:40] There's a couple of...
[01:14:43] I'll give you one reference of a book.
[01:14:47] And I would like for you to consider getting it.
[01:14:49] It's free online. It's a PDF.
[01:14:51] It's a Puritan book.
[01:14:54] And it's written by my favorite Puritan author, and probably Andrews.
[01:15:00] Everybody's favorite Puritan author is Thomas Watts.
[01:15:05] Thomas Watts.
[01:15:09] And the book is called The Art of Meditation.
[01:15:14] The Art of Meditation.
[01:15:15] So he's written a book on meditation three or four hundred years ago.
[01:15:19] It's excellent.
[01:15:21] Real practical.
[01:15:23] Real well written.
[01:15:24] And if you read that book, it will fill in the thousand gaps that are in this sermon.
[01:15:29] If you'll take the time to read that.
[01:15:31] Let me, in closing, do y'all go till noon or am I going over?
[01:15:37] I don't know.
[01:15:37] Am I going too long?
[01:15:38] What do you think?
[01:15:39] Do y'all close about noon when you get the Lord's Supper and everything?
[01:15:43] Okay, I'm going to wrap up here.
[01:15:53] This sermon today, many of the sermons that we preach, preachers preach, are food.
[01:16:01] So the Bible is like food.
[01:16:03] It says, Jesus said, man does not live on bread alone.
[01:16:08] God said that in the Old Testament.
[01:16:10] Man does not live on bread alone, but on what?
[01:16:15] Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
[01:16:17] So the Bible and sermons and Scripture, exposition, like food.
[01:16:24] But sometimes it's like surgery.
[01:16:27] Angela, about what, a year and plus ago, a year and a half ago, had a pain in her side, and we ended up at the Huntersville ER, thought it was her appendix, but it wasn't.
[01:16:40] It was her gallbladder.
[01:16:42] And bam, surgery, improvement, diet improvement after the gallbladder was removed.
[01:16:48] Had a lot of dietary restrictions after the gallbladder was removed.
[01:16:52] Eat about what you want now.
[01:16:54] Enjoy food again.
[01:16:56] The gallbladder went away.
[01:16:58] Surgery.
[01:16:58] This is a surgery.
[01:16:59] This is a surgery sermon.
[01:17:02] This is seeking that you change something about your life.
[01:17:06] This isn't a food when you go home.
[01:17:08] Yeah, that's nice to think about.
[01:17:10] yeah, that really fed my soul.
[01:17:12] And most sermons are that way.
[01:17:13] And you need that because you'll eat today and you'll eat tomorrow and you'll nourish from the food.
[01:17:18] You'll nourish from the sermons.
[01:17:19] But some sermons are like surgery and they're saying, change something.
[01:17:24] And that's what this sermon is.
[01:17:26] Again, I'm preaching it to myself.
[01:17:32] One of my favorite ones, as the sins in the hourglass tick down to meditate on is James 4, 13.
[01:17:40] It was the most influential for me becoming a pastor.
[01:17:42] I was a lawyer.
[01:17:44] for four years, but I became a pastor preacher, went to seminary because of James 4.13.
[01:17:51] What is your life? This is a meditation verse. I'm giving you some to meditate on. If you take notes, you write them down. You don't have to meditate on my verses. Meditate on your verses.
[01:18:00] What is your life? It is but a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. That's sobering. It sobered me to leave law, go to seminary, become a pastor because I wanted to
[01:18:16] spend my midst preaching the Word of God and teaching people the Bible.
[01:18:20] That's what I did.
[01:18:24] Another one, Psalm 46, verse 10.
[01:18:27] Maybe some of you got that committed to memory.
[01:18:30] I meditate on it more than any other verse.
[01:18:33] I'm of an anxious sort, sometimes a fearful sort.
[01:18:36] That's one of my sins.
[01:18:38] Anxiety is a sin.
[01:18:40] I commit it.
[01:18:41] I confess it.
[01:18:44] Psalm 46, 10 says, Be still and know that I am God.
[01:18:51] I will be exalted among the nations.
[01:18:53] I will be exalted in the earth.
[01:18:54] The Lord Almighty is with us.
[01:18:55] The God of Jacob is our fortress.
[01:18:57] I meditate on that frequently.
[01:18:59] Be still inside and know that I am God.
[01:19:05] The war is not God.
[01:19:07] Yes, prices aren't God.
[01:19:09] Stock market's not God.
[01:19:10] You're not God.
[01:19:12] Harbor Church, not God.
[01:19:13] Michael's not.
[01:19:14] Tyler's not.
[01:19:15] You're not.
[01:19:16] The person you see in the mirror is not God.
[01:19:18] Only God is God.
[01:19:20] He exists as Father, Son, Redeemer, and Holy Spirit.
[01:19:26] Maybe give you one more.
[01:19:28] I didn't write down the reference.
[01:19:30] Isaiah 41.10 is a favorite.
[01:19:32] You know that one.
[01:19:34] So do not fear, for I am with you.
[01:19:37] Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
[01:19:39] I will strengthen you.
[01:19:41] I will help you.
[01:19:42] I will uphold you with my right hand, righteous right hand.
[01:19:46] And that is a verse that gives you silent medication for the brain, and it kind of heaves the old elephant off in the woods somewhere.
[01:19:59] Maybe one more.
[01:20:00] This is a weird one.
[01:20:03] Well, there's some other ones too.
[01:20:06] Anyway, in Job, I didn't write the reference, but I got it committed in memory.
[01:20:09] I think it's in chapter 16 or 19.
[01:20:13] I love this verse.
[01:20:14] I meditate on it quite frequently.
[01:20:15] It says, He, that is God, suspends the earth over nothing.
[01:20:31] That verse gives me more joy to think that I'm on a sphere that's floating in midair and nothing is supporting it but God.
[01:20:45] Let science, let evolution, let all those things do what they will with that.
[01:20:49] I've studied it a lot about how gravity works suspended over nothing.
[01:20:59] I love to meditate on that.
[01:21:02] That gives me joy.
[01:21:06] Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live.
[01:21:10] But Christ lives in me and the life I live in the flesh, I live it by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
[01:21:20] I need to meditate on that every day.
[01:21:22] That's the gospel.
[01:21:25] And one last one, Colossians 3.1.
[01:21:28] Set your mind on things above, not on things of this earth.
[01:21:33] Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
[01:21:37] And then the last one, I keep saying it's the last one, it's not the last one.
[01:21:41] Got to get to the Lord's Supper.
[01:21:46] Be transformed.
[01:21:48] Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, Romans 12.2.
[01:21:52] But be transformed by the renewing of your what?
[01:22:00] That's what this sermon's about.
[01:22:02] Meditation, taking up the Scriptures and meditating on God's holy word.
[01:22:09] The sands are just about gone out of the hour, left the 30-minute glass.
[01:22:16] Think, think, think.
[01:22:19] Your life is lived on a six-and-a-half-inch course, and it really is the space between your ears.
[01:22:28] Think about what you put in there.
[01:22:31] Meditate day and night on the law of the Lord, and you will be blessed.
[01:22:43] Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word.
[01:22:48] If my exposition of these three verses has been confusing or whatever, then You fill in the gaps.
[01:22:57] You're the Sovereign One.
[01:22:58] Your Holy Spirit is sovereign.
[01:23:00] You fill in the gaps.
[01:23:02] Whatever application, whatever helps are needed, You fill in all that.
[01:23:07] Whether those who are above 40, those under 40, just apply this word for your glory and your honor to our hearts and through it all may it only be to make us more like our Savior
[01:23:22] while we live the Lord Jesus Christ until that day when the last grain of sand from this mist of a life that we have expires Lord that we would be totally conformed on that day
[01:23:37] to Christ thank you for your love bless this table that we come to now and let us feast upon it.
[01:23:45] Feast upon the body and the blood of Jesus, our Savior.
[01:23:49] In His name we pray. Amen.
[01:23:53] We're going to sing, Here is Love, after the Lord's Supper.
[01:23:56] Is that right?
[01:23:57] That was our first hymn in the wedding yesterday.
[01:24:02] That was what we sang, was Here is Love.
[01:24:05] So I'm going to come down.
[01:24:07] I'm going to try to do this right according to what Tyler said.
[01:24:11] Everybody does the Lord's Supper a little bit different.
[01:24:14] So I'm going to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, which is what I usually read and meditate on.
[01:24:25] I suppose y'all give a fencing of the table, a little bit of a fencing of the table.
[01:24:30] And so I'm going to read these words, and then y'all will come as elders will come after that.
[01:24:35] Okay, cool.
[01:24:38] It says, I'm going to read down where just verse 23, 1 Corinthians 11.
[01:24:46] For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.
[01:25:08] Do this in remembrance of me.
[01:25:13] In the same way also He took the cup after supper, We're saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
[01:25:33] Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
[01:25:39] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
[01:25:48] And here are the fencing portions of that passage.
[01:25:53] See, it says.
[01:25:56] And the fencing means, I live on a farm now.
[01:25:58] We work a lot with fences.
[01:26:00] Fences keep people, keep cows safe on the farm I live on.
[01:26:05] We have cows.
[01:26:06] And so that keeps the cows in and keeps them safe.
[01:26:09] But it also keeps predators kind of out from the cows.
[01:26:14] So fences are two-way streets.
[01:26:15] So when you fence this, this is a family meal today.
[01:26:20] It's a Christian meal, not a Presbyterian meal, but a Christian meal.
[01:26:23] Maybe you're not a Presbyterian here today.
[01:26:25] Maybe you're a visitor, but you're a member of a Christian church where the word and sacrament are hallowed, as they should be, and you've been admitted to the table through the session of this church
[01:26:37] as a child or something like that, but the table is fenced.
[01:26:41] If you're an unbeliever, we ask you to refrain from it because of what I'm going to read.
[01:26:46] It says, whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
[01:26:55] Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
[01:27:01] For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning or knowing what this means, discerning the body of the Lord, body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
[01:27:12] So I'm going to stop there and just say that you need to understand what we're doing well.
[01:27:17] If you don't, refrain.
[01:27:20] I also add that if you're living in sin, if you're living in unrepentant sin, I always add this as part.
[01:27:27] I think this is a biblical teaching in Scripture.
[01:27:29] But if you're living in unrepentant sin, then refrain from this table.
[01:27:33] Because this is a table for sinners, but it's a table for repentant sinners that know their sinners, want to be free from all sin, even though on this earth we will not be free from all sin.
[01:27:44] So it's a sinner's table.
[01:27:46] If you struggle with sin, come.
[01:27:49] If you're living in sin, examine your heart before you take up this table.
[01:27:54] This is the repentant sinner's table.
[01:27:57] And we come with broken hearts for our sin as we take of this meal.
[01:28:05] I think that's all I'm going to say.
[01:28:07] I think we take the bread individually.
[01:28:09] We do it and we hold it until all who receive.
[01:28:12] And we do that with the cup as well.
[01:28:14] On the outside is wine.
[01:28:16] On the inside is grape juice.
[01:28:19] Is that right?
[01:28:20] I'm going to pray.
[01:28:22] And then I think we'll distribute these elements.
[01:28:24] Okay, let's set the Bible down right here.
[01:28:27] Let's bow in prayer.
[01:28:32] Heavenly Father, we pray that you would bless this, your holy table, that we know that we take these elements by the physical signs, but it's truly the spiritual work of them in us, not the elements themselves, that we want to happen right now,
[01:28:51] not by magic, but by faith.
[01:28:54] So help us to have faith to know that we take the body and the blood of Jesus and that these things don't change in any way from being bread and wine or grape juice, but that we, by faith,
[01:29:07] actually feed on the body and the blood of Jesus.
[01:29:10] Help us to know that, to repent of our sins, to come humbly to this table and to feed on You, our Savior, Jesus.
[01:29:20] Thank You for this meal.
[01:29:21] This is Your meal.
[01:29:23] You've given it to us.
[01:29:25] Let us feed with joy, and we give you glory and praise.
[01:29:29] Amen.
[01:29:31] And Jesus said on the night that he was betrayed, this is my body which is given for you.
[01:29:37] Take.
[01:32:07] And Jesus Christ, our Savior, said, this is my body.
[01:35:14] And Jesus said, this cup, this cup, cup of his blood, is the new covenant in my.
[01:35:41] Father, we thank you for this holy meal that you set before us this morning.
[01:35:50] May it nourish us in heart, in soul, in mind, and in strength to leave this place and into the world to be salt and light for you, Jesus, our Savior.
[01:36:10] In your holy name we pray.

[01:36:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:36:16] Would you stand, please?
[01:36:17] Let's sing again.

[01:36:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:36:18] This love, vast as the ocean, loving kindness as a flood.
[01:36:49] It's the life our ransom Shed for us His precious blood Who His love will not remember Who can cease to sing His praise He can never be forgotten Throughout His eternal days Pacific fountains, oh, it's of God's mercy
[01:37:35] Praise the light that sets From up this world I see And say through His love Thank you for the invitation to be with you today

[01:40:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:40:00] for allowing me the privilege of preaching God's holy word.
[01:40:05] This is His benediction for you today.
[01:40:09] And now may the God of peace who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, May He equip you, may He equip you for everything good, with everything good, for doing His will.
[01:40:29] May He work in us that which is pleasing to Him, all for the glory of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
[01:40:43] Amen.