Eat The Book Part II: Revelation 10:8-10 - Revelation: The Apocalypse

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

But here's what happens in the area of Contemploschio, Contemplecio is we start to pray, God, change the way I speak.

Lord, work on my anger.

God, work on my greed and my jealousy and my gossip.

And then what happens is you go out and you do all those things again.

But you're convicted by the Spirit of God.

And that's why this is a marathon.

This is why you we keep going back and we keep eating the word.

Because you may not notice it, but everybody else starts to notice.

Wow, you're changing.

Today, Pastor Steve continues his series on the book of Revelation.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We're in Revelation chapter 10.

Revelation 10 · chapter mention

You've got that on your app.

Or if you have your Bible, turn to Revelation chapter 10.

Revelation 10 · chapter mention

Last week we talked about eating the word.

Very interesting metaphor, maybe the most powerful metaphor in all of Scripture for how the Word of God works into our heart.

And I promise that this week that we talk about how to eat the Word.

I mean, how do you have breakfast with the Word?

How do you eat the Word?

How do you get the Word into you, men and women, where it actually metabolizes into faith muscles, into a loving heart, into words that are unwholesome, into I mean, you think about finances.

We got that seminar coming, financial.

How in the world do you learn to tithe?

I mean, I remember people saying to me, what you give away to God 10% of your income?

Are you crazy?

And I said, yes, I am crazy.

Because I fear God, I love God, and it's the least I can do because every gift and every talent and everything that I utilize to make money is from Him.

It's all a gift from God anyway.

And they're like, oh, okay, you know, and they walked away, like totally confused.

Because they didn't have the Spirit of God working in their heart.

They don't have faith.

They don't have the Word.

So how do you get that faith?

Well, you get it from the Word.

And uh and I was blessed, as I told you last week, with coming into the things of God through a ministry like Campus Crusade for Christ.

Because the very first week after I got saved, they they showed me how to have a devotional life.

They showed me how to read the word, and they showed me how to start gaining faith from the word.

And so we're talking about metabolizing.

We're not talking about just reading.

We're not talking about just studying.

Evangelicals are great at that.

Churchmen are great at that.

We're reading the word.

But I want to give you a way to read the word that has been around since the 12th century.

So we're the old and the new here at the road.

We have a rock band up here leading worship, but then sometimes we do hymns.

But the word of God that's living and active is the ancient book.

Do you know that?

It's the ancient book that speaks to modern culture.

It's the ancient book that speaks to modern culture.

So in Revelation 10, in the middle of the great tribulation period, and it's no mistake, there's no mistakes in scripture about even their placement in Scripture, this massive, powerful angel opens, and it says in your English vernacular, the book, but actually, if we're reading it in Greek, it's Biblion, which means it's the Bible.

So this massive angel with one foot on the land and one foot in the sea opens this book, and John's got his pen out.

He's ready to write something, and then he says, No! Don't read it, don't study it, don't look at it, eat it.

Eat it! And so look at Revelation 10, starting at verse 8, and we're gonna read this passage again.

Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me and saying, Go take the book, the Biblion, the Bible, which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.

So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book.

And he said to me, and I don't think it was little, I think the angel was big.

So it's a little bit a Bible.

I mean, it's got, I don't know if it had even supernaturally the 66 books about it, like all of them, even though they haven't been written yet, but we do know that he had the Torah, the Old Testament there, and this massive angel says, Take the little book.

And then he said to me, This is important, take it and eat it.

He didn't say, take it and study it, take it and write about it, take it and simply meditate in it, but eat it.

It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.

I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey, and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.

So he says, Eat it.

Interesting metaphor.

He says, he says, get this book into your intestines.

Get this book into your gut, get this book into your bloodstream that it might metabolize into your life.

Crazy metaphor.

One of the craziest metaphors ever.

Ezekiel's told the same thing.

Jeremiah's told it, here's what's interesting.

Just real quickly, I covered this more in detail last week.

You can listen to the tape.

But I said how in Ezekiel's time in Babylon, in Jeremiah's time in Jerusalem, and now John on the island of Patmos, in a time of great persecution, great tribulation, this is what we do.

Men and women, if you do not become one who can digest God's word, it's going to be extremely difficult to live a victorious Christian life.

It's going to be extremely difficult to learn how to be wholehearted because we are getting bombarded from every direction in the 21st century.

We are being bombarded in our finances, we are being bombarded in culture, we've been bombarded in politics, we're being bombarded spiritually, and then, I mean, just our flesh.

Don't you sometimes just hate your flesh?

I mean, I don't know about you, but I mean, I can be sitting on the internet and I'm preparing for a sermon.

I get paid to be a Christian.

I'm a pastor.

So I'm sitting there and I'm watching it, and boom, all these things pop up on the side with scantily clad women.

It's just right there.

It's everywhere, right?

And I just go, oh, I mean, I was feeling pretty anointed.

I was pretty sanctified.

I'm pumped.

And it's like, oh, and it's like somebody just took a dagger and just ripped into my heart all of my momentum that I had spiritually.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

And if you don't, you have bigger problems, okay?

So this idea of eating the book to me is like a marathon runner.

And so I'm not a marathon runner.

I can't run two miles, okay?

But I know some people do.

Any marathon runners out there?

Okay, good.

There's none.

I don't feel bad.

But but marathon runners, you know, they talk about carbs.

There's always proteins and there's fats and carbs that a sprinter or a marathon runner needs.

But but the marathon runner really needs carbs.

And that is the energy source of choice for the long-distance runner because when they get out there, and I don't know where the wall is, everybody's different.

Some say it's like 12 miles, some say it's like 20 miles, whatever, but there's a wall you hit, and there's a need for reserves.

And those carbs are slow burning, and so those kick in.

I think that's what the word is like.

Men and women, the Christian life is such a marathon, and it's not a sprint.

And you young people, so many, so many young people in here.

You know, I've lived long enough, I've been married long enough to know that it's a marathon.

I want to encourage you to think of the Christian life as a marathon.

Don't be overly bummed about mistakes you've made in the past.

Don't be overly concerned with depression that you've had or other struggles, or maybe you've been through a divorce.

You've got to pick it up.

You've got to pick it up, and you've got to start eating God's word.

And I'm going to show you how in just a moment.

Eating God's word and get energy from Christ mediated through the word.

You can do it.

Every one of us here have failed.

Every one of us here has stumbled.

Every one of us here have made massive mistakes in our lives, some more than others, but we have, and so that the Christian life is what the writer of Hebrews says.

The writer of Hebrews says this.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily, so easily entangles us.

So the only way we're gonna not get entangled with sin is what he says next.

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

So you have a race.

Church, you have a race to run.

Each one of you have a race to run for your marriage, a race to run for your singleness, a race to run for your family, a race to run with your job.

There's a challenge and a vision before.

That's what we're talking about.

Let the vision of loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors ourselves drive us forward.

Move us forward.

Men and women without a vision get entangled in sin.

They do.

And so, you know, when a marathon runner, he doesn't start running a true marathon and doesn't run and think, well, I hope I finish the race.

You know, I just hope I can, you know.

But no, a true marathon runner is looking for victory, is looking to at least finish the race.

And so for some of us, man, we're gonna come in to heaven with shoulders out, and we're just saying, oh, thank you, Lord.

It was awesome.

And then for some of us, we're gonna be kind of like this, you know.

Who cares?

I mean, you're still loved, you're still forgiven, you're still there.

Jesus wants you to finish the race.

And it's through eating God's word that we do that.

Hebrews 4.12.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.

And it pierces as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

That's Hebrews 4.12.

But I shared last week how the word active, that the word of God is living and active, is energyo in the Greek.

It's what energy.

God's word gives you energy.

And he says it's like a two-edged sword to use a first-century metaphor that he saw it like a sword coming in and cutting all the way down.

I mean, there were swords.

We were, the forge, the middle school, the young men coming into manhood uh forge ministry that Ryan started.

We were actually at a forge.

I mean, we were forging knives and forging uh nails yesterday.

We took that steel and we stuck it in the furnace and then we hammered it out.

And so they had swords, and they thought in terms of swords that would cut in, would cut all the way down into the very uh innermost parts of our body.

And so John is told, eat the word, and it will be sweet in your mouth, but bitter in your stomach.

And so that those two edges of a sword of God's word, they convict us of sin.

But they also comfort us in the midst of sin.

And so that the nature of that is getting it into our system.

So today, here's what I want to do: I want to teach the forbidding discipline.

I want to teach the forbidding discipline.

That's what the ancients called it.

The forbidding discipline of eating God's word in the most demanding of schools.

Many of you have been to elementary school, middle school, high school, college.

Some have even gone on to postgraduate degrees, but the most demanding school is none of that.

Some of you have your doctorate and you had a doctoral thesis that you gave, and that is not the most demanding school.

The most demanding school is the school of the Holy Spirit.

The school of the Holy Spirit.

So the forbidding discipline is getting us as believers in touch with the forbidden walk of victory that comes through the school of the Holy Spirit.

John 16, Jesus says this when the Holy Spirit comes, he will guide you into all truth.

He will take what is mine and he will declare it to you.

That's the school of the Holy Spirit, men and women.

When you are reading God's word, when you're studying God's word, the Spirit of God can speak to you.

Listen, listen, there you've got you've got houses to build, houses to buy, cars to purchase, decisions to be made where the Holy Spirit can guide you.

And most of the time, the Spirit of God will speak to us through the Word of God.

So this forbidden discipline is a Latin phrase that I'm going to give you called lectio divina.

Lectio divina, that's Latin.

And back at the time when a 12th century monk named Guigo, who's the one who developed the Lectio Divina, the forbidden discipline, everything was in Latin if you were in monasteries or convents.

So what I'm going to give you are four Latin phrases.

And if you if you learn these four Latin phrases, all those people that think you aren't very smart will suddenly sit up and listen to you.

So actually, I'm not doing it because of that, but I'm doing it because that these are the keys to understanding.

And I'm going to give us the modern vernacular of what they mean, but I think it's powerful that we hear them in the way they were originally written.

And it's as if Guigo really understood the 21st century life.

Here's what he said.

It's been translated.

He said this reading as it were, he's speaking of the word of God, eating the word of God.

I love the way he puts this together.

Reading, as it were, puts the food into our mouths.

So reading the word puts the food into our mouths.

Meditation chews it and breaks it down.

Prayer obtains the flavor of it.

And contemplation is the very sweetness which makes us glad and refreshes us.

Now, church, don't miss what I'm going to say next.

Don't miss this.

John, who is the one who writes about his experience on Patmos with the angel, is the one who gave us his prologue in the Gospel of John.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us, right?

So the word became flesh.

Now listen, I don't want you to think I'm saying I'm speaking heresy here.

I'm not saying you're Jesus.

I'm not saying any of us are Jesus, but listen, I want to take that phrase for just a moment before we get into the Lectio Divina and explain something.

The word became flesh.

Speaking of Jesus.

But listen to what I'm going to say next.

When you do what we're going to talk about today, you actually do all four things this week, the word will become flesh in you.

You become an incarnation.

It doesn't mean that you're God or anything.

I think you're God like.

I think all humans are God like because we're creating the image of God.

And for the believer, the Jesus followers filled with the Holy Spirit, there's more of a Godlikeness increasing over time in our hearts and in our lives because you're becoming more like Christ.

So the word becomes flesh when we eat it.

You embody God's word.

Believe it or not, the way you handle your employees, the way you purchase a car, the way you handle money.

I'm doing taxes right now.

Listeners, I it's probably one of the number one or number two or number three things I hate the most.

And I don't even do them.

I mean, I give them my CPA, but I have to get everything ready.

And just getting them ready is, oh, I just hate it.

So in one particular situation, I couldn't remember the cost that we paid on something, so I had to go back to January, February and find what we paid for this trip that we were on, this business trip and everything.

So I was looking at it.

And what's interesting is it kind of gives you, you go back 12 months and you see what was happening in your family at that time.

Because you see what you're spending money on, right?

And it was like, oh, this is a pretty good reflection of our values.

It's a reflection of our values.

And there's a whole lot of money going out to gasoline.

Because we're traveling everywhere with our kids, and then they have this practice and that thing and stuff like that.

So it kind of gives you a reflection of our family.

So the word becoming flesh and dwelting among us is what our church becomes when we leave this building.

It's who you are and how you spend your money and how you interact with the culture and how you interact at school.

That's the word becoming flesh.

But that flesh without the word doesn't look really good.

You don't do very good without the word.

But, I mean, some do better than others.

Some are just naturally nice people.

And I like being just naturally nice.

That person, I mean, they make a good Christian.

They already act better than half the people on the who are Christians.

They're really nice.

And other people are like really mean.

But here's what we know Whether we are naturally become supernaturally the word becoming flesh when we eat his word.

And so let me give you four things here this morning.

And this is worth four hours.

Some really, really sketchy.

But I feel like it's important that we at least cover it a little bit and may God use it in your life.

And I mentioned Psalm 119 last week for people to read Psalm 119.

I thought was the best way to get ready for this sermon, reading from Psalm 119.

And I'm sure that many.

How many read Psalm 119?

Ooh, way to go.

That's a great church.

I like being your pastor when you do what I say.

It really makes me feel good.

So here's the four things.

Let me give them to you.

You might jot these down.

First one is lectio.

Lectio.

Lectio means we read the text.

It means we read the passage.

Number two, meditatio.

M-E-D-I-T-A-T-I-O.

Meditatio, that means we meditate the text.

So lectio is first.

Second is meditatio.

Third is oratio.

O-R-A-T-I-O.

Oratio.

Oratio means we pray the text.

So lectio, we read the text.

Meditatio, we meditate the text.

Number three, Horatio, we pray the text.

And then number four, which I believe is actually the most misunderstood in this group, and that's at the end, I'll explain it.

Contemplatio.

Contemplatio, where we get the word contemplate, we live the text.

We don't just think about it and contemplate it.

We live it.

We live it.

So first, lectio.

Let's start there.

Reading the text.

But listen, men and women, reading in order to listen.

Reading in order to listen, not just hear.

Not just hearing the text, but listening to the text when you read it.

It's interesting that Jesus' lead-off parable in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all about the word and hearing or listening to the word.

Isn't that interesting?

So the first three Gospels of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the lead-off parable in each one, and the writer Matthew, the writer Mark, and the writer Luke all believed this was so crucial to start off their book with an understanding that Jesus continually said, hear the word.

Hear the word.

Listen, listen, listen to the word.

Don't just read it.

Don't just know because he's talking to the Pharisees and Sadducees.

They had the entire, some of them had the entire Old Testament memorized.

And they missed the heart of it.

Evangelicals today have massive heads in some cases, but teeny little hearts.

And then there's other parts of the body of Christ, massive hearts and teeny little heads.

I want a big head and a big heart.

How about you?

I want heads and hearts on fire for God.

And so reading the text, so John in the first three chapters of Revelation says to the churches, let anyone who has ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

So it's listening to the word.

Men and women, it's opening God's word.

Maybe it's one chapter, maybe it's more, maybe it's less.

And you say, God, I want to hear what you have to say, and I have ears to hear.

I'm going to listen.

This is the beginning.

This is only the beginning.

This is only step one.

But if you miss this, the next three won't make any sense.

So lectio means to read, to listen.

And so in Luke 8, here's what Luke 8 says.

Many of you know the story of the parable of the seeds.

But when he's explaining the parable of the seeds, Jesus says this in verse 11.

Now the parable is this the seed is the word of God.

Those beside the road are those who have heard.

So they're all hearing, they're all reading.

But then the devil comes and he takes away the word from their heart so that they will not believe and be saved.

Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, they receive the word with joy, and these have no firm root.

They believe for a while, and in times of temptation they fall away.

The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, again, hearing, hearing, hearing, but not listening.

And as they go on their way, they're choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and they bring no fruit to maturity.

But here's what he says about one who listens, and really, the lecto divina is verse 15 of this passage.

But the seed is the good soil.

These are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart.

Well, you can't have an honest heart without a dialogue.

And so this person is dialoguing with God and they bear fruit with perseverance.

A marathon.

They bear fruit with perseverance.

This is not easy stuff, church.

This is the forbidden discipline.

This is hard stuff.

But he says, this is the person who has joy.

This is the person who holds fast and bears fruit.

It's guys reading, oh God, speak to me.

I'm desperate to hear from you.

I do not know if I should marry this gal.

I don't know if I should marry this guy.

I don't know, you know, I don't know the next direction of this church.

This week and last week, I found myself praying for the direction of the road.

What are you saying to us, Lord?

Speak to me.

And I say it out loud.

So it's reading to listen to here.

So first, lectio.

Second, meditashio.

Meditashio.

Now last week I talked a lot about metatashio, so I'm not going to go into a ton of detail, but for you that weren't there, I talked about the word haga.

Haga is the Greek word, excuse me, the Hebrew word for meditation, and it's the word gnaw.

It's the word growl.

And I shared with you that Isaiah talks about the lion who growls over his prey.

That word is haga, and we've chosen in English to give it the word meditate, and it's really too tame of a word.

Because I think of meditate is kind of like a monk or something, or someone who kind of goes into the library or they're studying and they just think on the word, which is great.

It is that.

Totally is that.

But it's way more aggressive.

It's way more masculine.

I mean, I shared, if you read my blog this week, I talked about my dog, Sage, coming and bringing that massive deer bone.

I mean, the knee bone was detected, the shim bone, shin bone, detected.

It was all there, the whole thing.

And she gnawed on it.

That's the word.

Meditate is to gnaw, to get the, to get the nutrients into your system to growl, to attack, to eat.

So what do we mean by meditatio?

Meditasio, and this is important, it does mean to think on something, but it's deeper than that.

It means to understand the purpose of the passage.

It means to understand the intent of the author.

It means to understand the context in which it was written.

That's why I love a study Bible.

I love having a study Bible.

My favorite is the Spirit-Filled Life Study Bible.

I love this.

And so I carry this with me.

I carry it to prayer meetings and stuff.

And I feel kind of like kind of weird because it's so big.

But there's too many times where I'm in meetings where people ask questions and I can go and I can find that context really quickly if I don't remember.

And so a study Bible can be it.

So Meditashio has the idea of really understanding what the intention of David is in that psalm.

What the intention of Peter's purpose was for first and second Peter.

It's understanding that because what you do when you do that is it helps you get into and enter into the context for which it's written.

And here's why.

Write down two words.

Write down two words.

It's not like I have a seminary course here, but exegesis.

Write down exegesis.

E-X-E-G-I-S-I-S.

Exegesis, but but then write down isegesis, e-i.

Exegesis, isegesis.

Exegesis means to pull out the intention that God had for that passage for your life.

Isegesis is not pulling it out, it's isa, it's in, it's reading into the passage something it was never meant to portray.

And let me tell you, I do it, you do it, we all do it, we do way too much eisegesis.

And that's where, you know, we just we read into that passage something it was never intended to be.

It's just a figment of your imagination.

It really is.

It's what Warren Wearsby called fancy.

It's being fancy with scripture instead of being imaginative.

Because God wants to ordain your imagination.

He wants to come alive in your imagination.

Meditashio is understanding what was in the heart of Moses, what was in the heart of Elijah, what was in the heart of Jesus.

Sometimes the study Bible can help that.

It's understanding.

Like I read and I don't randomly take chapters of the Bible.

I typically go through a book because I see a consistent theme running through the author who's writing that, and then I begin to hopefully, not always, but hopefully, understand the context and then relate that context to my context.

Does that make sense?

So that's metatashio.

So here's what Warren Wearsby said.

I thought this was great.

The distinction between fancy and imagination.

Fancy wrote, this is a quote from his book.

Fancy wrote, Mary had a little lamb.

But inspired inspiration wrote, the Lord is my shepherd.

Fancy creates a new world for you, and imagination gives you insight into the old world.

Isn't that awesome?

So, so like I'm writing a book now on the life of David called Worshiper and Warrior, and one of the things in the book that I love in one chapter is what I saw, Eugene Peterson was the one who really captured this, that in the Valley of Elah, while Goliath came out and taunted the Israeli army for 40 days, was that the Israelite soldiers began to have what I call a Goliath-saturated imagination.

Some of you have a Goliath-saturated imagination.

Your imagination is everything that can go wrong.

And boy, there's a lot of nods going on in here.

Okay, a lot of us have.

That's Steve Holt's natural impulse.

My natural impulse is everything that can go wrong.

So we become control freaks, don't we?

You know, controlling everything.

Because we're always thinking about the Goliath of our life.

Well, David comes into the Valley of Elah with a God-saturated imagination.

And men and women, I can tell you right now, the only antidote for a Goliath-saturated imagination is a God-saturated imagination.

You've got to believe that God is greater than your Goliath.

Well, that's an example of taking a passage and then reading it and studying it and kind of working it and chewing on it and thinking about it.

Oh, there's something bigger here than just two guys going out to have a fight with each other, and one's got a sling, and the other one's got a massive sword.

It's about imagination.

So we enter in.

So Meditaschio is using our imagination.

G.K.

Chesterton, the great Christian writer, had a character named Father Brown.

Anyone ever read any Chesterton and Father Brown?

Okay, Father Brown is actually a secret detective who is a priest.

So he wears the priest, and everybody thinks he's a priest, but he's actually a detective.

And so one day, in a fireside chat with some of his friends up in the farm country of Spain, one of the characters says, Well, Father Brown, how did you how do you figure out all these crimes and who these murderers are?

And he goes, Because I am the murderer.

And they're like, What?

And everybody's like, oh, what?

He says, Yes, I'm the one who did all the crimes.

I did it.

What?

And he says, No, here's what I do.

I so study and I so try to understand the purpose and the why and the what of every crime.

It becomes me.

It becomes me, and then I know who did it.

That is metatashio, many ways.

It is getting into the story so much and feeling what the author felt and understanding that that it becomes you.

So first, lectio.

Second, meditastio.

Third, orashio.

Oratio, where we get the word oral.

It's speaking what you've read back to the Lord.

It's praying the scriptures.

It's praying the scriptures back to the Lord.

I love what P.T.

Forsai said.

He said, Bible searching and searching prayer go hand in hand.

Bible searching and searching prayer go hand in hand.

Most Christians don't do this part.

Many Christians, many devoted disciples do the first two, but they miss the third, and because they miss the third, it doesn't become a part of their life.

It's taking the word, you've read the word, you've studied the word, and then it's saying, God, make, give me a whole heart.

And I'm gonna act this out before you here at the end of the sermon.

I'm gonna do it from Psalm 119.

But it's making it a part of your life.

It's praying the word back to the Lord.

It's Colossians 3.16, which was in our antiphonal reading.

Let the word of Christ, listen, let the word of Christ richly, richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another.

Listen, this is how it teaches you.

He says, with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with faithfulness in your heart of the Lord.

So that is that is that is Horatio.

That's getting the word so richly deep.

You start saying the word back to the Lord in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Oh, Father, thank you that the Lord is my shepherd.

God, thank you that the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

Thank you, Lord.

I praise you, Lord, that the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He maketh me lie down in green pastures.

Thank you, Lord, that I can lie down in wealth and riches and wholesomeness.

I can be wholehearted because you're gonna lead me to green pastures and living waters, and you provide for every need.

I mean, that's what it is.

That's what a ratio is.

It's it's saying it back to the Lord.

It's also saying, you know, you read something, you go, oh, that is not true.

That's me this week.

It's like, ah, I'm not wholesome in my words at times, and I need to confess that.

I've got to get that before the people.

So it's sometimes it's sweet in your mouth, and sometimes it's bitter in your stomach.

Does that make sense?

God works that out as we pray it.

It's engaging God.

And guess where the greatest book of the Bible is for engaging God in prayer?

If you don't know how to pray to God, go to Psalms.

Go to the Psalms.

The Psalms are the voice of the church, as Martin Luther said.

The Psalms are the voice of the church.

Martin Luther said this: if you want to see the holy Christian church painted in glowing colors and in a form which is really alive.

And if you want this to be done in a miniature form, you must get hold of the Psalms.

And there you will have in your possession a fine, clear, pure mirror, which will show you what Christianity really is.

You'll find yourself in it.

And the true Nothisutin.

Nothisutan, which means know thyself.

And you will know God and all his creatures too.

Men and women, read the Psalms, pray the Psalms.

The Psalms are gritty.

The Psalms are beautiful songs, but also ruddy, robust cries for revenge.

Whoa! Whoa! You see Psalm, youa! God kill them all.

And you see Psalm of David.

A man after God's own heart, a man who will do all of God's will, a commander over the people, the sure mercies of David, kill them all.

So if you want tidy, polite, religious prayers, go to an Anglican prayer book.

But if you want true biblical prayers, go to the Psalms.

Anybody ever felt like any of the things that I just said?

You're human.

It's good.

You're human.

God can handle it.

He actually wrote it for you to know how to say it.

Because God wants the wild heart.

And then fourthly and lastly, and I think a little bit confused through the centuries, is contemplatio.

Contemplatio.

It does not mean contemplate in the way we think of contemplate.

For 1500 years of the crew of Christian history, we've assigned the word contemplation to monks and nuns in monasteries and convents, and they're secluded from the world and they're living a secluded life.

And it's beautiful.

I'm glad they did because we wouldn't have much of the rich scriptures that we have if it hadn't been for the monks who transcribed it, especially during the barbarian times.

And I've loved, I've learned a lot from Teresa of Avila, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, and even modern monks like Thomas Merton and Henry Nowen.

But here's what the word means.

Here's what contemplation means.

It comes from the word templum.

Temple.

It means a place for observation marked out by and observing the context, reflected, listen to this, reflecting on our human atmosphere, a divine presence.

So here's what contemplation means.

Contemplation means taking it in and living it out.

Taking it in and living it out.

Now, there, as many of you know, this church, like all other churches, is full of hypocrites.

I'm a hypocrite, and you're a hypocrite.

We all don't do as well out there as we think we're doing when we're in here, right?

But here's what happens in the area of contemplatio, contemplation is we start to pray, God, change the way I speak.

Lord, work on my anger.

God, work on my greed and my jealousy and my gossip.

And then what happens is you go out and you do all those things again.

But you're convicted by the Spirit of God, and that's why this is a marathon.

This is why we keep going back and we keep eating the word, because you may not notice it, but everybody else starts to notice it.

Wow, you're changing.

You are changing.

That's what contemplation is.

It's not for secluded monks and nuns.

Honestly, honestly, when you read the modern monks, like Roar and Nowin and Merton, they say, there's no divinity up there because I take me with me.

No, what contemplation means, church, is that we take Jesus into our laundry.

It means we take Jesus into our IT programming.

It means we take Jesus into our being a mechanic and taking that carburetor out.

It's it's taking Jesus into our marriage.

When your wife has worked and slaved hard, and you know it's your turn to clean the kitchen.

You go, look what I do.

Why do I have to do this?

And it's turning it into worship.

It's me talking to David Bishop, who worked so hard to try to keep this building clean.

And we were both saying, you know, we were talking about some different things with cleaning the building and stuff, and he and I were both saying, This is the house of the Lord.

I'd love to have that job.

Maybe I can make it moonlight, make a little extra cash.

But put on the earphones and worship and clean.

It's the house of the Lord.

I'm not trying to be religious, I'm trying to be saved.

That's true in all of our jobs.

You mean I hope and pray that as we grow, and none of us are there yet, but as we grow, we see that nine to five job that we have as worship.

That's contemplation.

That means taking the temple of God and it reflects and mirrors Christ.

So turn in your Bibles.

I want to close with this and worship team, you guys can start coming up.

But look at Psalm 119, and I want to do it.

I want to show you this passage that I think covers the Lectio Divina as good as any.

So Psalm 119 starting at verse 9.

Psalm 119, I'm just going to look at four or five verses here, I think really captures the essence of what Guido gave us through the Lecto Divina.

Verse 9.

How can a young man cleanse his way?

So that's the question, right?

How do we change our life?

How does a young man, in all of that time period of hormonal drivenness and just sexual bombardment, keep his way pure?

How does he cleanse his way?

He says, by taking heed according to your word.

That's contemplatio.

Taking heed, making the word a part of our life.

Verse 10, with my whole heart I have sought you, oh, let me not wander from your commandments.

And so he's crying out to God, Horatio, God, I'm seeking you with a whole heart.

Would you empower me not to wander from your commandments?

Your word I have hidden in my heart, meditatio, I've hidden it in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes.

With my lips I have declared all the judgments of your mouth, the ratio, he's praying it back to the Lord.

I rejoice in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways.

And then look at verse 17.

Deal bountifully with your servant that I may live and keep your word.

Isn't that beautiful?

That's the Lecto Divina.

So, men and women, I want to challenge you this weekend to do it even today and this coming week.

Just take a passage, just take a simple chapter and just read it and ask God to give you ears to hear what He's saying to you.

Take out your journal, take out your journal, and write down your prayers to the Lord.

And then ask God to make it a part of your life as you eat the word.

May it metabolize into acts of faith and acts of love.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

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