Delight is so important in thinking with God. Great faith comes as we rest under the authority of the Law of the Lord. We avoid temptation and scorning and live in the volume of the Book with roots in Living Water. (Psalm 1; 40:7-8; Matthew 8:5-11)

Speaker(s): Zane Turk, Gary Groenewold
Sermon 12342
11:00 AM on 7/24/2022

Zane Turk –

Alright. Good morning. How are you guys doing? Good. Good to see you. Feel free to encourage me with your
love. Yay, I need some of that. Come on. Amen. So, I just want to – the theme for this morning
is meditation, so I just want to say a couple sentences about it and then we can pray.
Meditation is the key to the anointing. Meditation aligns my thoughts with God’s reality.
Meditation in the Spirit unlocks the mysteries of the Bible. Ephesians 3, it says there was a mystery
hidden from the ages which was the gospel, but Paul, his meditation and the Spirit’s revelation
unlocked the mystery of the Bible. We can have that as well in our life.

Meditation renews my mind inwardly and manifests itself outwardly. Ephesians 4:22-23, vs. 24 take
off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new man. Meditation
brings confidence. Before David was the king, he was a shepherd boy and he would meditate on
the law of the Lord. He would read something at home and he would go into the field and
meditate on it as he was watching the sheep.

Why was he so confident? Not because he knew the law but because he meditated on it and it
became a part of his life. Meditation brings confidence. Meditation brings trust. Daniel knew
the exile would only be for 70 years because he had received a letter from Jeremiah and he
meditated on it and it became a truth to him.

This is a good one. Meditation protects me from passive unbelief. Meditation protects me from
passive unbelief. I think I know a Scripture and I don’t meditate on it so it never becomes real in
my life. Example: Psalms 84:11, “no good thing will he withhold from him who walks uprightly.”
How many know the verse? How many have meditated on it recently and believed it in their
morning today? Meditation protects me from passive unbelief.

Meditation keeps the Word fresh and it destroys familiarity. John. 3:16 can be the most beautiful
verse in the world if we take the time for the Spirit to minister to us in meditation. Meditation
means I don’t know anything and I need God to reveal it to me. 1 Corinthians 8. Meditation and
obedience engraft the Word into my life in James 1. The engrafted word which is able to save
our souls. Being doers of the word and not hearers only.

Meditation allows the Holy Spirit to bring back the Word to my remembrance in John. 14 so that
God’s thoughts can become my actions and I can become a living epistle in 2 Corinthians 3. And the
last one is this: Meditation makes the Word of God personal and practical. Amen. (Prayer)
So, let’s turn to Psalm 1 and we’ll read a verse and talk about it a little bit. Psalm 1:2, You know
there’s nothing worse than somebody who has a lot of knowledge but no love, right? Has
anyone ever told you something with a lot of knowledge but no love? And I was just thinking
during the song service, I was thinking of two instances where someone has a lot of knowledge but they need an extra ingredient for the Spirit to breathe on it. And what is it in Exodus 15 when
the children of Israel come to the Red Sea, but then they come to a place where there is bitter
water, right?

There’s bitter water and they can’t drink it, but there needs to be an extra
ingredient. We could say in our application this morning the extra ingredient is meditation in
the Spirit, right?

Moses asks God, what do I do and he shows him a tree and he puts it in the water and it makes
it sweet. It makes the water sweet. And I was just thinking about how I could have a lot of
knowledge but I need that extra ingredient which is meditation in the Spirit to make something
that is bitter, sweet. A lot of knowledge turning it into wisdom that can be applied with God’s
heart.

And the second thing was in 2 Corinthians 4 how Elijah – I think it’s Elisha – Elisha was with all the
prophets and somebody makes a stew but there is death in the pot, right? They take these wild
herbs and they make a stew and there is death in the pot. Elisha says bring us some flour and
put flour in the pot and feed the people. That extra ingredient makes something that is deathly,
it makes it sweet and is able to fill people. It’s able to fill our hearts and our lives. If we have a
lot of knowledge without meditation in the Spirit, then it’s death. As soon as we add that extra
ingredient of meditation in the Spirit, this knowledge can become life.

Then a little later at the end of the chapter in 2 Kings 4, they bring some bread to Elijah. They
say it’s not enough bread for feeding everybody. He says just give it to them. I think that if you
only have a little bit, if you only have one verse, if you only have one thought from God you say
it’s not much but God is saying if you meditate on this, I can give you enough to feed on a
hundred people, right? They didn’t think it would be enough to feed the whole congregation
but Elijah said give it anyway. Because if we have meditation on something small, God can turn
it into something great. It’s the same thing where the boy only had a couple loaves and a
couple fish. But Jesus said give it to me, Ill take it. What are these among so many? But with
meditation in the Spirit, something small can be something very, very large. Amen. Right? Isn’t
that good?

So, let’s see. Vs. 2. Does it really need to be day and night? Does it really need to be? In the
morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. I don’t know. Sometimes my capacity isn’t there for
day and night. What about you guys? Am I the only one? No, cause our capacity is kind of small
sometimes, but God is saying in his Word, on his law he meditates day and night. Why does it
need to be day and night? It’s because we have an enemy, right? And if we have the mind of
Christ, we have the mind of Christ and Christ wants to give us his mind on a day to day practical,
personal way, right? And if God loves us, who hates us? The enemy hates us. If we have the
mind of Christ, what does the enemy not want us to have?

The mind of Christ. And why does it need to be day and night? It’s because for every situation, every circumstance and every moment God has a particular thought and a particular teaching and a particular doctrine that is
true in his Word.
“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every single word that proceeds from the mouth of
God”. I can’t live by every single word if my mind isn’t occupied with his word at all times, right?
Because if I’m always meditating, and I’m meditating on fresh manna every single day, then
God can take a manna that is not fresh in the moment and he can bring it back to my mind and
have me apply it in a circumstance that I wasn’t even thinking about that I already had a
meditation on what God wanted me to do in that moment, right? On his law he meditates day
and night.

Just lastly, I want to think about this word “delight” because it could be God says to Joshua,
meditate day and night on my Word so that you may be careful to do all that is in the law in
everything that is written in it, right? We’re meditating on the Word but what does the Word
say? It teaches us how to live our life. So, we need to know what’s in the Word so that we can
live in it and apply it, right? But maybe it’s not a delight to me. Maybe I hear the Word and it’s
not exactly what I want to do. But why is he saying it’s his delight? He’s saying it’s his delight. It
says in Psalm 40:7, it was Jesus’ delight to do the will of the Father.

In Psalm 37, “if we delight ourselves in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our heart.” There’s
amazing thing about when we do meditate on the Word – it’s funny because I studied so much
but God just gave me something else. There’s a lot about 1 Peter 1:22. It says purify your souls
through obedience to the truth. Purify your soul through obedience to the truth. When we
meditate on the Word of God, the Word is pure. Every word of God is pure. Every word of God
is pure and it’s refined in a furnace, Psalm 12:6.

And when purity is circulating in my mind and I’m obeying the Word that is purifying my soul, in
Heb. 9 the blood of Christ purifies my conscience. And when my conscience is purified through
the blood, I’m able to take delight in truly serving God, truly obeying God cause my conscience
is pure and now I’m living in the new man and what the new man wants is being manifested in
my life because meditation on God’s thoughts and God’s Word and God’s way. My conscience
is purified. My soul is purified. And then my heart is purified in Matthew 5:8 and in 1 Timothy 2:22-23
and 1 Peter 1:22. My heart is purified as a result of having a meditation on God’s Word day and
night.

That’s just a little bit about it. We can have a lot of knowledge but meditation in the Spirit and
meditation with humility it can change a lot of knowledge into a lot of love and wisdom through
the Spirit. Amen.

P. Gary Groenewold –

I wonder how Julius gets his wife to sing a song like that? What’s the
process? You say, you have to sing with me. I’m responsible to produce a song on Sunday
morning. How do you do that? That’s beautiful. That was beautiful. Jessica, great job! Man.
Julius and Jessica. That’s a beautiful couple. How many knew they were a couple? Married.
Good. If you didn’t, you just learned something. It’s great for people to get to know our Body.
Julius was on the piano and Jessica here. Beautiful. Thank you.

Great to be with you. It is really a privilege to be with people. Our souls are knit together by just
amazing years of hearing the Word of God together. Our heart vocabulary beyond our verbal
vocabulary is extremely unique. We gather together and it creates a heart vocabulary right? It
speaks. It manifests something from God. It’s beautiful to gather together.

If you knew the – every wonder what it’s like to speak? Zane said, encourage me. Did you ever –
I don’t mean that but it’s great to exercise yourself in the things of God. Actually, one of my
prayers as I was standing there, thoughts was like you want to – I want you to be exercised the
way I am or was or being. And we are so sensitive to God, right? Isn’t that important? And the
first thing is don’t exclude yourself from being just the apple of God’s eye. The one that God
desires today. Don’t disqualify yourself being the one that God loves. Think of yourself like that.
Forget the comparison. Forget that. I wanted to actually just before I speak, I just wanted to say
some things about missions. Before I say that I want to qualify that. It’s what we are a part of
and we really have to understand that as the Body of Christ. As I look through, there’s the
Plunkett’s over there.

I saw the Robbins’s come in. I know the Valaitis’. I saw them earlier.
They’re leaving. Where did I see them? They’re there. They’re leaving this week. We have
missions. What happened I guess Camp Life Europe. The Polish camp just happened. P. Stan
Collins is in Romania with that. P. Scibelli is in W. Africa. We have the group in Richmond.
Yesterday, we had a group in Elwood Park. They cooked 400 hotdogs. They had a hotdog eating
contest! No, that was beautiful to see. Then there was a concert. We have people from
Wilmington here. There was a concert in Wilmington yesterday, correct? And then we had a
concert in Frederick right? Last night. These are just things that we do and it’s an amazing grace
that we’re involved. It’s beautiful to sacrifice something for God’s heart to express towards
people.

And just beautiful. P. Jason and P. Eugene sharing this morning. Zane’s message. We’re
pouring out together and your expression is – we’re worshipping God together and gathering
together. God is recording this. We are worshipping together. This is an amazing thing that we
do together.

Thinking of the – I was getting texts at 4 this morning about the church service in Berlin. I forgot
to turn my phone off. Other things are happening around the world. Probably something
happened in Izmir. These different places. It’s just great. LaRose’s are back. It’s great to see
that. This week actually I’m going to go on a mission trip. P. Barry is going to Budapest, P. Barry Quirk. He’s going to Budapest. He’s going to be there about ten days. This week I have the
fortune I’m going to go with my wife and we’re going to kind of believe that we just graduated
from Bible college and we are going to go on a mission trip together. We’re going to go to
Germany, to Serbia. We’re going to go on to Bosnia and do an outreach in Bosnia, then down to
Montenegro and go down to Albania and to the Albanian camp there.

Then we’re going to end
up in either Montenegro or Kosovo for an outreach. Hopefully, if I have enough time today I’m
going to print some prayer cards. They’ll be some little stick figures with pray for us. That’s
probably all I’ll have time for. I’ll cut a piece of paper in four and hand them out in service
tonight and just pretend that I’m a missionary. And looking forward to it really. Just the way
that God works.

Psalm 1 is the theme. Thinking with God. Meditation. Zane was – beautiful what you were saying
there. Let’s just read before we start with Psalm 1. Let’s go to Psalm 40. Zane spoke about that. Vs. 7-
8. It’s like if this isn’t a summation of the purpose of our life. The volume of the book. The
completeness. He started to speak about obedience and how our soul is rewarded. All aspects
of our soul are rewarded from the volume of the book through obedience. He says I delight.
That’s a big word, delight. Delight. Delight. If there’s no delight in it, there’s no reason to do it.
If there’s no motivation, why meditate?

Okay. Delight to do thy will. When the delight is gone, subjectivity comes in and you have to find other motivations and other reasons. Your rationale actually quickly shifts when there is no delight. There’s such a covering when there is a delight. There’s such a wisdom when there is delight. There’s such a protection from the enemy when
there is a delight, isn’t there?

And “thy law is in my heart.” It’s not a table of stones but it’s written in a table of flesh on my
heart. So, let’s turn before we go to Psalm 1 to the book of Luke, gospel of Luke. Luke 8. No, I’m
sorry, Matthew 8. Yeah. No, I’m sorry. No, I’m just kidding! I’ll preface this. I’ll just read it.
vs. 5. This man, there was a leader that knew authority. I will come and I will heal him. Vs. 6-10.
Why was it great faith? Because that’s the way that Jesus Christ thought with his Father. It
resonated to him. He recognized it. He was a man that was under authority. And this is actually
a great place to be. To delight in doing the will of God in submission. This is how Jesus Christ
actually lived. It’s not cumbersome when you are under authority. When you are not under
authority, the rational mind it doesn’t know who they are. It doesn’t have the ability to live. It
doesn’t have the ability to think properly.

This week, I was with – I’ll just give you a story – with two dogs. They were siblings or from the
same litter and they’re four months old. They got to see each other for maybe the second or
third time. Or maybe the fourth time since they left their mother at 8 weeks. And it seemed like
they had some business to catch up on. Like who was the greatest in the litter or something or
did to me when I was a kid. And I’m serious. They literally when they met, and you know how
dogs playfully fight, right? They playfully fought for two hours.

And I’m not exaggerating because it was probably 2.5 hours. And they took water breaks. There was blood. There was
blood. They playfully fought. They literally took it to the level where you didn’t know if it was
playful.

The way I described it – I don’t know if there are any Veader’s here today – but I called it the
way the Veader’s would probably have fought just to the level of like you don’t know if they are
really angry at each other. And then I couldn’t take it anymore. We were all doing other things.
We were just so busy and we were like hey, don’t do that. A dog’s body would come flying in
the trash can. It would go flying into a chair. They chased each other. When one got away they
chased each other. They were on a slick floor and they just go flying.

And I couldn’t take it anymore, so I took dominion. And I took control and I trained them.
Because the word “law” in Psalm 1 when we delight in God’s law, the ancient Hebrew actually
means the throwing of the finger. The throwing of the finger. And this is what Jesus Christ
marveled at in the centurion. At the throwing of the finger in my clean conscience. It’ s like I
obey. That is the richest life. That is the fullest life. That’s why Jesus marveled at it. I took
dominion over those dogs. You know what? When they were fighting, they had a terrible time
when they were not under authority. There was no one that had dominion over them. They
were going to destroy each other. They were not productive.

As soon as someone took dominion over them, I made them sit, lay, stay, follow, come and I
even made them, I taught them how to kiss. In ten minutes, I taught them how to kiss. The two
sisters should kiss and they started to kiss. This is what God; this is what God is saying you could
say in Psalm 1. The first verses we can go there and we can read this. Just before we go there, look
at Matthew 8:11.

Come under that authority and what are they going to have a part of? The faith of Abraham.
The blessedness of Abraham where God does not impute iniquity. The blessing of Abraham
where God justifies somebody by faith and gives him his righteousness. This is amazing. God
never wants us to stop in our position. Frustration happens in our Christian life when there is no
experience. But today actually in Psalm 1, it speaks about our experience. We want an experience.
I want to experience what the blood in Hebrews 9 cleanses my conscience. And I obey God. My
conscience and my will are functioning. My whole soul, my self-consciousness. You know, is so
you could say self-consciousness. We have to talk about that. It’s dead, but it’s self-
consciousness when it’s not dead it’s destructive.

When self-consciousness is dead, then it can be resurrected. And this is an amazing thing that happens when we, you could say, like Zane was saying I don’t know how to meditate on God day and night.
But inside my soul when God does that, points the finger, yes. Yes. Yes. That’s meditation on
God day and night. I’m available to that. I’m going to fight and draw blood. Those dogs were
literally – the house smelled like wet dog. They had saliva from their abdomen up. It was just saliva. Just like that. They were just ugly. They looked terrible. So, I guess I was talking about
delighting. Let’s go to Psalm 1.

Just think, the options in life. Speaking about the ungodly in vs. 1. Someone that starts to go off
the path a little different way. It’s like no. I don’t give eye to it. Did you ever like know you could
like, ever try to live in temptation without temptation. You know, it’s like no I didn’t look. No, I
didn’t look. And you keep walking. And you walk back. I didn’t look. That’s the type of way that
we can think when we don’t enjoy the clean conscience. This is the way. This is my law. Submit
to it You are under dominion. I’ve not seen such great faith in all of Israel. That’s obedience.
It sounds cruel if you don’t know the nature of God. But the blessed man knows he doesn’t
want to live listening to the ungodly or the sinner, the one who is always missing the mark. It’s
crazy to be educated, to be indoctrinated by somebody that is always missing the mark. Or the
person that speaks that foreign language called scorning.

Have your ears ever just screeched because of scorning? Sometimes people can’t say a good word about somebody else or a situation. It always comes from some scornful perspective. The blessed person recognizes that
because they are under authority. When there is a good God and he's going to bless me, I’m
available.

So, what is it? His delight. There it is. The volume of the book. The volume of the book. Just say
it God and I’ll do it. Just speak to my conscience and I’ll do it. I’m available. I know it will bring a
blessing in my life. Blessed is that man that has this delight and he meditates. He’s just available
to this anytime. A servant. What is he? What is he available to? A bondslave. He’s just available
to this, God throwing the finger. It’s such a liberating way to live and it’s amazing clarity when it
comes from God. Your spirit is pricked and God says, there’s my thought. There’s my way.
Especially when it becomes habitual.

He shall be like a tree. A tree speaks of uprightness. A tree. He’s like a tree. He’s upright. You
see him. You notice him. He’s not a bush that’s tossed to and fro. A tumbleweed. He’s a tree.
He is the righteousness of God. He’s recognized. All kinds of decisions have gone into his life.
He’s got years and rings around him. And he’s planted. He’s planted in a place where this
engrafted word goes through his roots. This is where the engrafted words go. They go into our
roots. They get assimilated through the roots. The secret nutrients get grafted through the
roots. That’s what gives the tree its nutrients. It grows upright. That’s the type of water that
he’s planted by. He's not planted by legalism where you engraft some works on top of it. And
this tree is going to have fruit in the dry season. Makes sense, right? He’s planted by the waters.
And then whatsoever he does prospers.

Makes sense doesn’t it? Okay, God. I have not seen such faith in all of Israel. I believe in that principle. You threw the finger. I agree. I surrender. It’s great when our thoughts go through death, isn’t it? Our thought life can go through death. Not my will but your will, God. Then he say this. The ungodly are not so. They are like chaff. Let’s skip down to vs. 6. There he is. He’s a tree. I have not seen such faith in all of Israel. He’s
included. He’s one of those from the east and the west and he’s part of Abraham’s faith. There
he is fellowshipping with Isaac and Jacob. There’s a righteous man. There’s a righteous man.
There’s a righteous man. He loved God’s mercy. There’s a righteous man. He agreed with me.
He’s under authority. I have dominion over him. What’s wrong with authority when we know
the goodness of God? It’s the most beautiful word we have ever heard. God says well done. So,
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous. This is amazing.

But the way of the ungodly. This speaks of chaff. It shall perish. This actually speaks you could
say about hell because it speaks about separation from what is organic. Separation from what’s
living. It speaks about being alone. No wonder Christ loved that centurion’s way of thinking. It
was the way Christ thought. It produced life. It was part of the Body of Christ. It was God’s
mind. He was meditating. He was living you could say. He was encompassed. His whole way of
life was consumed. He’s meditating day and night. His whole being was consumed by the
principles of the way that God works. He’s meditating. That’s the way God works. That’s the
way God works.

Like Nick said. I don’t know what he’s going to say tonight but I know when he says something
I’m going to say I agree. That’s the way we meditate. We listen to God. It’s like prayer. Prayer in
our minds. Okay, so, vs. 4. I’d rather be a tree, wouldn’t you. Raise your hand. Would you rather
be a tree or chaff? Who wants to be chaff? No, it’s like a duh question, right? We don’t want to
be chaff. Throw the finger, God. I agree.

Okay. Let’s just read it and we’ll close. Psalm 1, his law he throws the finger and meditates day
and night. Vs. 3-6. Don’t worry about your season. Don’t compare. Don’t look around. You’re
planted by the waters. You love the finger throwing. You’re fine. You’ll have fruit in your
season. That’s the way it works. It doesn’t work any other way. you can’t produce fruit without
loving the throw of the finger. You will produce fruit when you love the throw of the finger.
That’s the way it works, right? It doesn’t work another way. You can’t add something to your
life, some fruit, going another way. It won’t work. So, we get used to God throwing the finger.
That’s all we know. God’s throwing the finger and we agree. It deals with evaluating the fruit in
our life so we know what to do. Vs. 4-6. (Prayer).

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.