At the Family Church here in Gainesville last Sunday, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his series Upward Habits with a sermon titled Meditation on Scripture. For the scripture of focus he used Psalm 1...click on it to read it through Bible Gateway. Meditation is a word bandied about a lot in our society...Pastor Philip used the term in its Christian context: the object of meditation is to consider God's word and to be filled with it...
Pastor Philip, in looking at meditation on scripture through Psalm 1, listed four outgrowths: true contentment, joyful obedience, lasting stability, and genuine prosperity. With contentment, he noted that our culture ties happiness and contentment to superficial, transitory, and circumstantially-based things and makes "happiness" a goal...but it isn't really a goal, is it, but rather a product...a product of a relationship with God lived out. With obedience to God, Our pastor pointed out four things that will change: the advice we follow, the way we live, the conclusions we settle into, and the desires of our hearts...and those desires fulfilled, i.e. our delights, will change as we meditate on scripture. For stability, Philip painted a word picture of a tree standing strong and stable in the desert because its roots go down into streams of water...we need to be rooted in Christ's living water. And with prosperity, its genuine form is not the material wealth we sometimes claim to be important but rather the blessings God gives us, especially through hard times which he uses to strengthen us, and the assurance that he has a place and a great use for us, both in this world and beyond...
As Pastor Philip concluded his message, he stressed that meditation is not the way to become righteous...only through faith in Christ is that possible. What meditation does accomplish is to make us spiritually mature as we seek what God has in store for us...
You can watch this message on the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Videos]. The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30. They include the sermon, praise and worship music, prayer, fellowship, and discipleship and learning opportunities. Snacks and coffee are provided before and between services, and there are always friendly folks around to talk with and get to know. The series continues this Sunday...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment