The message I have prepared tonight is really along those lines of how do we continue to hold our hearts and what is God calling us into as a community right now in this moment. And so you can turn in your Bibles to Luke 10. Luke 10. Katie and I believe that we are not the ones that need a building.
Our community is not the ones that need a building or a space. We believe that the Lord needs a building. And we're searching for Him. We're not searching for ourselves.
So Katie and I drive around the city. We've logged so many miles just in our car, praying, looking at buildings. I mean Katie has taken probably a couple dozen pictures of me just creeping. Just like walking up to warehouses, looking through garages, just peering in like what's the ceiling height in there.
And so we have been on this journey for a long time and we continue to be diligent. But what we feel is this confidence. It's this uncommon weird piece that we have right now. And I want to encourage you to just kind of step into that piece that we are feeling of I have peace, but it's not the disengaged type of piece where it's like, I'm carefree.
It's like, no, there's, we are in a moment. We know that we can't do it in our own strength. And because of that, we have peace, but our hearts are engaged in prayer. And we're seeking the Lord, but we're mostly seeking Him for Him, not so that we can get something from Him.
And the Lord is really honing our one, our focus in to be, I'm actually pursuing you for you, not so I can get something from you. And would you join us in that? I want Him. And I want to love Him more in the season.
I think we've had so many, oh my goodness, for some of you that have been here for a couple years, there's been some detours on this journey. There really has. We had newspaper articles that are just like giving away our new name, telling people that before we told the community that we're pursuing a building, we've had these like prophetic words that seem to be very clear that this is our property. And then we didn't get it.
And all of that journey, we have been faithful to not primarily be about us getting something out of it. And I believe that the Lord's pleasure is on us because of that. I believe He delights in the leaning over heart that as we're praying for this building process about a year ago or two years ago, we were in a city zoning journey. And we weren't primarily praying that we would get the city zoning past, but we were actually praying for all of the people that were on the city council by name that they would meet Jesus.
Do you see what the difference there? You can pray for a building that you would get something or you can pray with God's heart and from His perspective about the scenario and just trust Him with it. And so join us as you pray with that type of heart. Luke 10, you know, I'm bringing you a message today and for many of you that know the Bible or have been around a little bit, you're going to see the passages that I'm going to bring us to.
And you're going to be like, oh, I know that already. And I want to encourage you to just humble yourself and remember that this is not about mental assent and knowing information. Your life in God isn't just about knowing stuff. Your life in God is about owning the truth and then taking practical steps and stepping those things out and actually applying them to your lives.
The book of James says that we don't want to be here's of the word, but we actually want to be doers of the word, right? And so the temptation might be as we're studying the word today together to go, I know it and disengage your heart. But I want to encourage you to actually lean in and go, I want to be coming. Like Scott was talking about a couple weeks ago, I want to actually put feet to what the word is saying, okay?
Luke 10 verse 38, we got Martha and Mary. They're wanting to teach us some lessons together. Martha and Mary, Jesus, he strolls into a little village that's just east of Jerusalem called Bethany. And we're going to pick up as him and his disciples show up at a woman's house named Martha.
Says in verse 38, now as they went on their way, Jesus entered this village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister named Mary who sat at the Lord's feet. Now as when, I want you to picture Jesus, he's like reclining at a table. And so when the disciples were reclining at a table, like the Lord's Supper, we picture that, we picture a lot of times like leaning back at a table, like in America, but that's not how it is in the Middle East, okay?
So they're actually sitting on the floor and Jesus kind of like leaning on an elbow and his feet are kicked out like this, okay, behind him. And so when it says that Mary is sitting at his feet, Mary is actually sitting behind Jesus, okay? And so if you can picture that, Jesus is sitting at a table, Mary is sitting at his feet, right kind of over there diagonally over there, okay? Are you following?
Okay, I just want to paint that pick. I don't know if everybody knows that. I don't think everybody knows that, right? Okay, all right, we're gonna move on.
Verse 39, sister called Mary, sat at the Lord's feet, and what was she doing? She was listening to him. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.
And the Lord answered her, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. I just picture the disciples roll through.
Martha, she's busy just cooking. She's trying to do the dishes while she's cooking. I don't know if some of you guys are good cooks, but for me, it's a struggle. So it's like Katie's not home.
I'm cooking for the kids. And I have trouble even getting the frozen vegetables in the microwave to line up with the timing of when the hot dogs and the grill are done. You know what I'm saying? And it's like all of a sudden the hot dogs are ready, but then the baked beans.
They're still cold. And there's multitasking issues that I have. Some of you are like, how is that difficult? It's difficult.
And Martha is probably a pro, but she is multitasking with many things. And then you've got, Peter's like, hey, we need an extra fork. She's going and grabbing the fork. Then it's like, oh, hey, Thomas, he's actually gluten-free and dairy-free and nut-free.
Thomas gets his food. Martha's just cooking a whole different meal for Thomas. She presents it to Thomas. And then Thomas is like, are you sure?
He's doubting. You know, he's doubting. Like, are you sure? It's not free.
And she's like, yes, I checked it. I checked the ingredients. And then Bartholomew, Bart, he's going, hey, hey, I want some extra wine, but do you have the hot sauce? I need some hot sauce.
And there's just all these special requests as Martha's serving. And as she's serving, she's going to the kitchen back and forth, back and forth. She looks over. So it's like, Jesus is sitting here.
Mary is sitting behind him. And I just picture Martha just laying out the chicken right before Jesus. And she's smiling. Then she looks at Mary over his shoulder.
And she's just slaving away. And she's feeling overwhelmed by all of the work that she's doing. There's many things that she's working on. And she's distracted.
And she's distracted primarily with the opinions of man. She's distracted with what the Lord says is to be in the second place. Loving people. Martha's loving so well through servanthood.
And she's loving. And she's doing the second commandment so well. And yet at the same time, as she's trying to do the second commandment, she's failing at it. Because she's resenting.
And she's experiencing bitterness in her heart towards her sister. You start realizing that the intentions of your heart to serve, I don't know if you've ever experienced that. Where your heart is to serve. And then something happens.
And you start realizing there's resentment that's surfacing. And there's not gratitude for your serving. And you're like, how dare you? Have you ever had that?
I do all these things. I picked up your laundry. I served you the hot sauce. And then you're still doubting me, Thomas.
And then Mary. And all those things that are bubbling up. And it's like, wow, your intentions were good. And then all of a sudden you realize your motives were off.
It actually wasn't love the whole time. And she interacts with Jesus. And instead, you know what's interesting is she doesn't go to her father because many scholars and theologians believe that the father of the home had passed away. And because it would make sense that Martha would go to her dad to reprimand Mary.
But instead, she goes to the rabbi to reprimand Mary. And what does he say? Let's look again at what he says. He says you're anxious and troubled about many things.
Man, 2022 is summed up with that phrase. You're anxious and troubled about many things. The people of God and the people of the world are anxious and troubled about many things in this hour. And we look at all of what's on the horizon, what's coming, and what came in the past.
And we can look at the global climate right now and go, there is more anxiety right now in history than all of the history of the past as we are exposed to all of the shakins and all of the things that are not right. And we it's all in front of us on screens. And the Lord's going, hey, you're anxious and troubled about many things. And there's interpersonal dynamics, there's relational dynamics, there's global, there's local, there's family relational conflict that's happening.
There's marriage issues that we're struggling with, there's relational issues that we're struggling with. And there's some there's work relationships that we're struggling with. There's so many things to get distracted by. And to add to the anxiety and the worry and the trouble.
And the Lord says, there's actually one thing that is necessary. There's one thing that's necessary. And the one thing is sitting at my feet and observing me and listening to me and looking at me. And Martha's going, do you not see all of the things that must be done?
Do you not see all of the hungry stomachs in the room, Jesus? Do you not see Thomas's diet? Do you not see Bart's desire for hot sauce? Do you not see that the water is getting low in the cups and they need to get filled?
Do you not see that everybody needs silverware, napkins and all of these little details that need to happen? And we had to vacuum the whole house, we had to get it all ready to host. And Jesus is going, Mary chose the right portion. She chose the one thing that's necessary.
And that's offensive. It's offensive because it doesn't seem right to a man. Seems like Martha's the all-star. And Mary's the slacker.
And when we look at Jesus' response, we see that Mary is actually the one that chose the good portion. She's the one that was sitting back and listening to the Lord. And in this hour, God is raising up people that will actually listen to him. Not people that listen to every other voice.
Not people that have busy themselves with all of the to-do lists and all of the projects and all of the cleaning and the serving and the making man happy. Not all of the people that are primarily concerned with their 401k and their investment strategy. Not people that are primarily concerned with the opinions of their management. And trying to climb the corporate ladder and trying to do whatever it takes to just make the people that are in authority happy with them or make their spouse happy with them.
But the Lord is going, I am more concerned with having a people that would sit with me and listen. Sitting at my feet, listening, turning your Bibles to Psalm 27. I love that the Lord says she chose something that can't be taken away from her. Martha was on a hamster wheel, wasn't she?
I don't know if you've ever felt like that in everyday life where you feel like, man, I just, the day goes so fast and we just are trucking. And there is just, the kids have to go here. We got the sports. We got the commitments.
We got to get to work on time. Then after work, I have to go, well, what are we going to eat for dinner? And there's all this swirl that is everyday life. And there's so many things.
There's so many second place things that are secondary voices that are driving us in everyday life. And we find that David and Mary are on to something. I want us to look at Psalm 27 again. Verse 3, Psalm 27, verse 3, David, my goodness.
He's probably writing this from a cave because he's being hunted right now by an army. Can you imagine hundreds of men, potentially thousands of men hunting for you to kill you? And David starts writing a song that he's singing with a group of his men hiding in a cave. He starts writing a song.
He says this, though an army in camp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war arrives against me. In this, I will be confident. One thing I've asked the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
David, he says, I'm seeking something and I'm asking something. And as he's seeking something and as he's asking for something, if we were in the position and we were in the cave and we had the history that David had of being the king of Israel in a palace, we know what he's going to say next. You're in a cave now and you're being hunted and you're seeking after something and you're asking for something. Do you know what he's probably going to ask?
You know what he's actually seeking after? How can I get back into the palace? How can I get back into the comfort of my own home and the throne that I deserve? And what does David do?
He's going, no, no, no, no, not that. I'm not seeking after my own comforts and my own conveniences and to make man happy with me and to just brush everything under the rug and just continue as if things have always been good and we're good. No, David goes right into, I'm actually after one thing even in the circumstance that I'm in, even in the chaos of being hunted, even in the chaos of being misunderstood. David has a one longing and ache and desire and burning and his one ache desire and burning is this.
I want to look at you just like Mary, I want to be with you. dwell. Look at that verse. It says again, he says, I want to dwell with you.
In other words, I want to be with you. Then he says, I want to gaze upon you. I want to look at you. And then he says, I want to inquire in your temple, which means I want to meditate on you.
I want my mind to be filled with you. And we're going, well, David, that's cool. But we have a lot of distractions in 2022. David, I love that you're in the great cloud of witnesses.
But there's a lot of distractions in this hour. Like we have, I have Instagram and so many things. I got a lot of emails. My inbox is full.
And I've got to do lists on Asana and Microsoft Teams. There's a lot of messages on my teams. There's a lot of messages in my email. And there's just a lot that I'm carrying.
And there's a lot of people that are answering to me. And David stands as like a pillar for us to look at and go, wait in the unknown. And in all of the pressure, there was one thing that you wanted. There was one longing of your heart to gaze and to lock eyes with me, to look at me.
Can you imagine the, this is why the Lord says, he's the man after my own heart. This is why God in heaven, the creator of everything, looks at one five foot six, five foot seven, is Ray Jewish man and says, this one is after my emotions, my motives, my desires and my wants. He carries my heart. He's about what I'm about.
And I believe there's a reorienting and a re, there's a restructuring, a reorienting, a re alignment that God is actually taking all of us as a people. And he's going, there's so many things for us to be anxious and worried about and troubled by many things in this hour. But there's only one thing that's needed. There's only one thing that we're actually destined to do and it's to sit at his feet and it's to be with him and it's to look at him and it's to fill our minds with him.
The rubber meets the road in this way. The rubber meets the road when we start looking at our everyday life and we start looking at where do I put my resources, my resources of time. We started to look at our calendars and look at our schedules and we started to look at our Monday through Saturday, our everyday and we started looking at our schedules and we're searching for where is God prioritized in my calendar. In my family's calendar, where is God in my personal calendar, where is God prioritized and honored.
We have to look at that with like clear vision and go, I want to honestly take like an audit and look at my life and look at the resource of my time. Where is it going? How much time do I spend on the toilet, not reading the Bible, but looking at social media for all of you men out there. All right.
How much time do I spend? Some of you wives are like, yeah, it's, he's in there a long time. Okay. But listen, some of us, if we were to look at our calendar, we'd be searching and looking for where do I see God honored and valued and take first place and it'd be, we'd be hard pressed to find him taking first place in our time, the resource of time.
Some of us, and we'll look at this, we should actually turn to Luke 12. Luke 12, turn with me to Luke 12. God before this year started gave Katie and I this prophetic word that this year was going to be themed by Luke 1234 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The whole passage of Luke 12, it's primarily talking about financial resources. And where do we put the treasure? Like, where do we put money? And wherever we put the resource of money, there are heart.
And when we say heart, we're talking about our emotions, our desires, our longings. And the Lord says, Jesus, talking to his disciples and he goes, you want to have passion for the Lord? Start putting your money towards the Lord. But it's not just money.
It's, I mean, tonight I want to just talk about the resources of energy, the resources of focus. We'll get to money in the next couple of months at some point because that's just what the Bible says. So we're just going to do whatever the Bible says, right? But what the Lord is leaning in on tonight is the resource of time.
Time. How many of you know that Mary didn't get to breaking the alabaster box before the Lord on the eve of the crucifixion? She didn't get there. Just my, by microwaving love.
She didn't get there that way. It wasn't a fast food moment. It wasn't like all the sudden, oh, the rabbi is in town. And she reaches under her bed, pulls out the alabaster box and just runs.
That's not what happened. There is a premeditated ache of desire and love to give him everything. And it took time. It took time sitting at his feet.
It took time getting to know him and it produced an extravagance in her life. And a lot of times we feel like, man, I got this calling. I got this fire. I got this passion.
I got this calling in business. I got this calling in the kingdom. Whatever it looks like, it's all the same. It's the kingdom.
And we think there's going to be a day where everyone's going to see who I really am. Everyone's going to see my calling. Everyone's going to see, I'm going to arrive at some point. And listen, I've got to narrow us in to it's not about you.
And the Lord is in the business of slow cooking love and slow cooking devotion and affection and desire. And we think, I don't know why I don't just like like the Bible. It seems boring to me. It's because it's not just a one-off thing.
It's not like I went on a date with God and I read the Bible for 20 minutes, three months ago. And I don't even know why I don't like the Bible. That's not how it works. It works where you give months and years and decades of faithful devotion, giving him time.
Slow cooking love and affection and desire. How many of you know David didn't get to the cave in that moment and go, this is the one thing of my heart. That didn't happen just by happenstance. He was in the field, taking care of sheep, loving God, singing melodies when he was a young boy to the Lord when nobody was watching.
Jesus is looking at a whole crowd in his greatest sermon, the greatest sermon ever preached, the sermon on the Mount. He's looking at the whole crowd and he says, this is what everybody needs to do. Everybody needs to close the door, get into a closet, get into a prayer closet where nobody's around and get in secret with the Lord. Get in secret, close the door, get into a closet and look at God.
And it's the one thing desire that Jesus is giving language to. He's going, be like David. David was after my heart, get in secret when nobody's around and spend time. If we would sow the treasure of time, I'm telling you, the Lord will do something in your life and corporately that we could never even imagine what is going to happen in the kingdom.
But the Lord is going, I want you to seek first my kingdom. Everything out, how many of you know that worry and anxiety, that's the context of Luke 12, there's so much anxiousness and so much worry. We're concerned about so many things and the Lord's going, hey, all you need to do is you need to seek me first and all these things are going to get added to you. Hey, David, you're on to something.
Seek me first and everything's going to get added to you. Mary, you're seeking me first and then I'm defending you. David, you're seeking me first and I'm going to make your family line exist generation after generation and I'm going to have, you're going to have a throne that's going to eternally be respected as the throne of God. And David is just like, I'm about you, I just want to know you.
And so I want to encourage us to follow into, I want us to, with sobriety, look at the invitation on the table before us as a people, okay? This is what Katie and I believe is like a now moment for us as a community. And I'm very aware, we are becoming more and more aware that we can't preach anybody into hunger. And we can't preach good enough to actually convince you to desire God, that is actually only by the Holy Spirit on the inside of you and you allowing the Holy Spirit to stoke love in your heart to go, I do want him.
And we know that that's inside of all of us that are born again, where you've given your life to Jesus, that the Spirit of God is on the interior of your heart and the Spirit of God is hungry for you to become one that abides in him. A lot of times we're so distracted with trying to bear fruit, trying to be on mission, trying to do all of the things and get fruit to happen and the Lord is going, would you abide? Would you just stop and would you get with me in secret? I don't want you to burn out, get abiding in me.
I want you to close the door and look at me, close the door and read your Bible, close the door and pray, close the door and pray for the people that you're hoping meet me, start getting my opinion about them and agree with my opinion and I'm going to do more in their lives than you could have labored for year after year trying to do it in your own strength and would you just partner with me? I do everything with partnership and the Lord is like, yeah, let's just do it together. But I was trying really hard, I didn't see anything and the Lord is like, I know, just stop and talk to me about them and I'm going to start doing things that you won't even just blow your mind. We're learning from Mary and David and what I'm calling us to is into the thing, it's into the one thing that Mary and David chose to take time to look at him, to sit at his feet and it's not very glorious.
It doesn't seem it doesn't seem like it's going to make that much of an impact. When you're doing it, it doesn't seem like you're gaining a lot of ground but you're going to look back year after year and you're going to go, what has he done? Look at the love on my heart, look at how I'm a person after his own heart, okay? I'm calling us to an hour a day with the Lord.
Some of us are like, I've never spent more than 15 minutes with the Lord, I just go to church and that's okay. Some of us are like, oh, I've done that and that's okay. Some of us are going, I spent three hours with him every morning and I wake up at two go to work at five. No, but I I'm calling us to collectively so time that will cost us something.
There's there's someone on our in our worship community that has to wake up early to go to work at like five, five, thirty or something like that and we were talking to him this last week and it's like, man, when are you spending time with the Lord? And he's like, yeah, because he's made this commitment of spending an hour a day with the Lord and and we're like, you surely you're doing it in the afternoon when you get off at like three p.m. and he's like, no, the Lord asked me for four. And we're like, no, why would he ask for such a thing?
You know, but I think as I as I articulate that I just want to call us into devotion and actually get a little bit more violent against all of the excuses that we could come up with because every single person, I could go one by one and every single one of us would have an excuse of why I can't spend an hour with God. Way too much on my plate. Way too many things on my to-do list. Way too many kids in my house.
Way too many sporting events. Way too many tasks that I'm working such a long week and I just can't do it. And there's all of these competing seconds. The second places of our lives, the opinions of man, and what's going to happen is if you spend an hour a day with the Lord, do you know what's going to happen?
You're going to make some people unhappy with you because it's going to cost you something and it might cost them something and it might be inconvenient for the marthas in your life. And they're going to look over the Lord's shoulder at you and they're going to be like, how dare them? And that's inconvenient and that's unfortunate, but you're going to choose the greater portion. And you're going to be a person that from that place a full-on devotion and one thing desire, then you're going to respond.
And my hope is that Mary came out of sitting at the Lord's feet and actually humbled herself before Martha and said, Martha, I'm so sorry for what that cost you. And she was probably cleaning dishes all night long. That's my hope for Mary, that she humbled herself because she was sitting at the Lord's feet and she actually loved even more, that she actually entered into greater love, that she would lay down her life for her friends and she caught the greater love because she was looking at the God of love and she encountered the God of love and secret and all of a sudden everything else in the second commandment started flowing out of the first command. But we have to get the first thing first, the one thing that David had, the one thing that Joshua had, the one thing that Joshua the high priest had, insurable, the one thing that Anna had and Simeon had and Mary had, the one thing that John the beloved had when he was 90 years old and he's encountering the God that has hair like white as wool and eyes that are like a flame of fire, feet that are like bernish bronze and he knew that he was loved because of all of the history he had in the Lord.
I want us to look back at the last 50 years ahead of us where we're going to be, some of us are going to be 90, some of us are going to be gone, some of us will be 60 and then we'll look back and go look at all of the hours that will never be taken away from me and Jesus will be looking us with his eyes like a flame of fire and go look at the devotion when they never saw me but they loved me. The angels peer to look into the foolishness of you waking up early. Can you imagine being an angel just like propped up? It's like I know their alarms going off at 5.30 and the angels you're like personal angel, you got like an angel in the room and the angels like just waiting for you to wake up, waiting for that alarm to go off and they're they're peering in to looking at you just oh no and then you just walk down, you get a drink of water and they're like look at this guy, he's never even seen him and he's loving him with his weakness.
The angels going I've seen him but they haven't seen him and they're still giving their lives laying their lives down sacrificing sleep, sacrifice seeing energy, sacrifice seeing that that mind that seems like it's hammering on all cylinders because you had the perfect nine hours of sleep. Listen what if it was six hours but you had love on your heart for him? What if it cost you a little bit of sleep but you knew that your heart was a blaze with love? Would it be worth it or would all of the cares and the troubles of this world be the thing that defines you and defines your everyday life or will there be a higher thing, a one thing that you're committed to that says this is the value system of my life.
He takes first place. He takes first position. He takes center stage. It's what he's worthy of and I believe he's a worthy of a people that would just give him time.
It's a resource that feels costly. It feels like man that's kind of personal that you would ask for time lord. Can you ask for something else that's not as personal? And the Lord's like I actually I want to get up all in it you know like all of your time finances it's like not my finances sexuality.
You're like no that's mine. That's my savings account and the Lord's like yes I'm the God that demands everything. You mean even my time not my sleep though. I'm worthy of all of your life as a living sacrifice completely set apart.
So here I want to talk practicals. Everybody say practicals. All right so some of us are thinking about an hour a day with God. First or no I don't even know what to do with myself for an hour a day with God.
Are you crazy? I've never done that. I don't know what to do with myself and it's like yeah that's the point you're not with yourself. You're with God but you're going I don't know how to do that and I want to demystify spending time with God.
So if you're actually going to commit to spending an hour a day with God I want you to take out your journal or your phone and take notes because this is what we're going to do with spending time with the Lord. You can do your own thing if you already have like a rhythm that you do but I want to just demystify it so that we can all feel like hey I know what to do when I show up and I wake up early and you don't have to try to figure it out. I don't know if you've been like me before but sometimes I'll show up to spend time with the Lord and 30 minutes in. I'm like what am I doing?
I showed up to meet with you and I just feel like why is it just block okay? So this is what you're going to do. First thing you're going to do is you're going to do this hour a day with someone in terms of like somebody else that's a friend or a family member that you know you're going to talk to them and be like hey you want to spend an hour a day with God for 30 days not just not together but I'm saying like they're doing it and you're doing it. You guys can meet up you know like once a week and do it together that's awesome but you have somebody else that's doing it with you that can like check in on it.
Be like hey how is your hour with a day and it's like oh my goodness I was in the third heaven. John the beloved has nothing on me and then there's going to be days where it's like I man I'm struggling and I didn't wake up in the morning I missed it and then they're going to say oh you didn't miss it because you can do it tonight right. Sometimes we just like chalk it up like I missed my time we'll have to start tomorrow and then your friend is going to be like no no no let's show up late to the hangout and spend an hour a day with God. There might be some people that are annoyed by that but like we get him right okay that's number one is do it with someone so talk to your friends and be like hey let's do this together.
All right now we're going to talk about the hour first first thing that you do first 15 minutes everybody say first 15 you're going to open up your bibles and you're going to turn to Psalm 120 and I'm going to give you Psalm 120 through Psalm 134 you can just read a Psalm a day for the first 15 minutes and if you pray in tongues I want to encourage you pray in tongues for 15 minutes while you read one of the Psalms and you just read it over and over again and you stick on phrases that stick out to you as you're reading that Psalm okay so one of the beautiful things about praying tongues is that it bypasses the language center of your brain so you can actually be praying in tongues and comprehending what you're reading at the same time that's what's so cool about praying tongues so I can be reading I mean I can be thinking about the timbre wolves and they're starting five and rutae and all their wingspan is more than seven feet for their whole starting five and I can be praying in tongues while I'm thinking about the tea wolves okay so why am I saying I don't know why I'm saying that but listen you can that's why the apostle Paul says pray in the spirit and pray in your understanding so that your mind is fruitful okay so you're going to read the word read Psalm 120 as you're praying in tongues and then when a phrase sticks out to you you say it in English and you say it back to God all right so it's like let's say you're reading Psalm 23 and you're praying in tongues and then you kind of break in with English and you say Lord you're my shepherd and then you keep on praying in tongues and you're talking to him and you're saying thank you Lord thank you that I shall not want that I have everything I need and you keep on praying in tongues does that make sense for 15 minutes it's more like Thanksgiving time for 15 minutes and you're stirring yourself up you're waking yourself up you're not drinking coffee to wake yourself up in the moment you're like praying in tongues to wake yourself up in the spirit all right next 30 minutes is you're going to read the Bible everybody say read the Bible yep you're going to read the gospels so just start in one of the gospels Matthew Mark Luke or John and you're just going to read the Bible to get to know Jesus because Jesus is how we know the Father so you're going to get to know the heart of the Father through reading about Jesus and how he's responding what he's saying and the whole purpose of this 30 minutes is to get to know him listen to me the whole purpose of your 30 minutes reading the Bible is not to get a good word so that you're encouraged for the day it's like oh I'm going to take that that makes me feel better that's not the the point of the 30 minutes okay the point of the 30 minutes is to go I want to know you so you're on the search of like you're a stuttier of God that's what David and Mary we're doing they're listening to him they're wanting to get to know him they're wanting to get to know his opinion what he thinks what he feels David is going I want to look at you I want to gaze when you're reading the gospels you're looking at God you're doing what David did you're gazing at him you're meditating on him and when there's something that sticks out and you're curious about something just follow the bunny trails now there's there's some foxes so bunnies are good the bunny trails are good but then there's foxes let me tell you the foxes that come and try to steal time away when you're spending time with the Lord it's the reminders because a lot of times when we get silent and quiet do you know what we start thinking about our to-do list oh my goodness and then it's like I need to order more yogurt need yogurt okay I need to do it right that down I need to do it on shift and then you pick up your phone that was asleep and now you wake up your phone and you start looking at the ship order you know and you start going I need to I need to find the yogurt and then you see the chips and you're like oh I need to add those two and then 30 minutes later you didn't study the Bible you were doing grocery shopping if I thought you woke up to do grocery shopping so listen this is what you do when you have the little fox that comes in to try to distract you it's like man the Lord's putting Jeremy on my heart and you pick up your phone you're like I want to know what Jeremy's up to and you start finding Jeremy on Instagram stop it please stop it what you do is you put a to-do list on in your journal in the top right corner or preferably not on your phone because you're gonna pick up your phone and you're gonna wake up your phone and your phone needs to still be sleeping during this time okay phones asleep but you're awake and the Lord's awake okay and you're just gonna write a little to-do list in the corner of like get yogurt pray for Jeremy see what's going on that's what you're gonna do all right and you might come down you might have like 15 things that's okay but just like write it down and get right back into reading the word all right last the last 15 minutes you're gonna pray and you're you're gonna move into intercession which means you're gonna pray for someone and you're gonna stand on behalf of them before God and you're like gonna come to God on behalf of somebody else and specifically what I want to encourage us to do is build a list of three to five people that don't know Jesus I want to encourage you to build a list of three to five people that don't know Jesus and I want to encourage you the first time that you're spending our day with the Lord this week I want you to spend your 15 minutes asking Holy Spirit who should be on my list so that's what you're gonna do the first day after that first day then you're gonna pray for all of the names on your list you're gonna ask God questions like Lord what do you feel about them you're just gonna whatever you hear you're gonna pray it back to the Lord Lord what is their Bible verse I should pray for this person you turn to it and you pray it back to God Lord what are you doing in their lives right now so I can just partner with what you're already doing there's things like that you're just gonna ask the Lord and you're gonna pray out whatever he speaks to you and it's gonna be really fruitful okay because you're gonna start getting your eyes off of yourself do you notice that in the first 15 minutes you're mostly thinking about the Lord and you're thanking him for being him in the second 30 minutes you're trying to figure out who are you and you're mostly thinking about him and then in the last 15 minutes you're coming to the Lord on behalf of somebody that doesn't know him there's not a lot of time where you're focusing on you most of us have spent time with the Lord and we mostly think about what we want and what we need and that we want to get blessed and you can do that another time but let's like spend the hour meditating on God meeting God and then getting his heart okay all right are we okay just wanted to break that down for us so that that's not a hurdle that we have to get over let's have the worship team come up and let's have everyone stand I want to respond to the Lord a little bit here so you can spread out throughout the room there is there's a passage in the epistles where Paul is writing and he's giving his his resume of all of these things that validates him as being somebody that should be seen and respected and and honored and he's kind of giving this resume of all of his accomplishments before he met Jesus and he says this this one line that I think many of us have heard he says I consider all these things rubbish or I consider all these things trash compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing the Lord of knowing Christ and him crucified and I believe that the Lord is inviting us into considering everything to be second place before the one thing that Jesus gets to be the one thing that the Father and Holy Spirit get to take that first place in our lives and it's costly and this is not a call for the youth I want to be clear it's not a call for all the passionate young people it's a call for every person every generation I don't care if you have a history of 40 years with God the Lord's going I want to reaffirm our history and I want to build on it that these would be your greatest days with the Lord that these would be your greatest hour no matter your circumstances maybe some of you are in relational pain maybe some of you are in physical pain maybe some of you are feeling so maxed out and I want to encourage you to to sit at his feet in the tension of this moment in the tension of this hour would we as a people be found at the feet of Jesus would we be as a people young and old strong and weak rich and poor all of us that we would all take the position of I want to go low and I want to sit here and I'm going to be in the secret place where nobody's going to see me and I'm not going to post it on Instagram so people see that I'm spending time I'm not going to spend half of my time trying to craft a comment or like a post so that I'm really seeing even though I'm supposed to be in secret I want to call us to secrecy in the Lord stay accountable but let's actually so into what we truly treasure and that's him okay if that's you and you're going man I want to take these next 30 days 30 days is just a start but I want to call us to 30 days of spending an hour day with the Lord we can start you can start any day this week I just want to encourage you to start sometime this week if you need a little bit of time the next 48 hours to plan out how you're gonna actually do it that's great but I want to encourage you to set a day set a time and start and if that's you and you're going I want to actually give an hour day with the Lord I want to follow in the footsteps of Mary I want to follow in the footsteps of David I want to actually have this one thing of my heart get practical and I want to put faith into the belief that you're a rewarder of those who diligently seek you I want to put my faith next to that you're the God that is putting in me the same heart that David had that I would have this man after God's own heart this woman after God's own heart and I'm actually going to take practical steps to that I want to encourage you if that's you and you're going I want to give him an hour every single day for the next 30 days I want you to move somewhere throughout the room wherever it is if you want to come up front you can if you want to walk to the other side of the room if you want to walk in the back ready set go just move somewhere so your body knows that this is a moment where you're actually taking steps towards the Lord whatever it looks like just go somewhere else in the room so that your physical body knows the decision that you're making spiritually to go I want to give myself to intimacy with the Lord in the season I'm giving you my heart I'm giving you my time I'm giving you my schedule I'm giving you the resource of my energy I'm giving you my sleep what I want us to do is I just want you to articulate what your heart is before the Lord I want you to just start vocalizing your desire it might sound like Lord I want you I want to know you it might sound like Lord I want you to fill me with hunger that I haven't felt before whatever it is just open up your mouth so that your body and your ears hear what you truly desire what you truly want you just open up your mouth don't wait for me to pray for you