2025
Delight and Meditate
Passage: Psalm 1 and 2 Timothy 3:14-17
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” —Romans 12:1-2
“Habit overcomes habit.” — Thomas Aquinas
During this sermon series Trellis & Vine: Habits of Healthy Christian, we are considering the following practices:
- Silence and solitude to pray
- Fasting to pray
- Listening to God’s word
- Community in small groups & friendships
- Community in sabbath & corporate worship
- Generosity with money
- Generosity with time
Sermon Outline:
Prelude: What is the Bible?…God’s words to us. Who is the ultimate author of the Bible?
As we delight and mediate on the Bible it…
- points us to Jesus
- fortifies us
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Author Thomas Merton once wrote this warning: “People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.” What in your life shows where your ladder is leaning in this season?
What has Bible reading looked like recently in your life?
Read Psalm 1 and 2 Timothy 3:14-17. What challenges, encourages, or sparks questions for you in these passages? What phrases stand out to you that help shape your understanding of God’s character and your identity as a child of God?
In 2 Timothy 3:14-17, Paul describes what God’s Word is useful for: teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Discuss how each of those descriptions is useful for equipping. How does God’s Word form/train our soul’s muscle memory?
How does Psalm 1 and Paul’s description of the holy Scriptures in 2 Timothy 3:14-17 challenge or support the way you consider or receive God’s Word being useful in your life?
Both Psalm 1 and 2 Timothy 3:14-15 communicate a sense of continuing in receiving and enjoying God’s Word, how does this shape your expectations of experiencing the benefits and fruit of Bible reading?
In order to delight and meditate on God’s Words to us, we hear, digest, pray, and live them. In a way it’s like enjoying good food (taking a bite, digesting, receiving the nutritional energy we need, in order to live). In your practice of Bible reading, how do you include these various stages of continuing to meditate? Are there parts that are more enjoyable or more challenging for you?
What from these passages and this discussion is something you want to put into practice or be more aware of this week?
PRAYER
Share with your group how they can be praying for you: what is weighing on you from this past week? What are you praising God for from this past week?
John 15:5 / “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”