Speaker 1: 0:00

Now, have you ever done something extreme to get a fast result, like, for example, a bunch of 30-day abs? Come on, that sounds good to me. Or maybe you try to listen to how to learn a different language on your car ride home. So you listen to it. You try to do something really fast. There was this one time that Aaron and I, when we first got married, we tried to do something really extreme to get a fast result. And basically what happened in our first year of marriage, you know, we didn't have a lot of time for exercise because, you know, we had busy work schedules. So I not her I started to gain a lot of weight. Not her, she's perfect, still is. And so somehow Aaron stumbled upon this thing about this guy who lost all this weight doing a juice detox and juice fast, okay. And so we end up watching this DVD, which my kids don't even know what a DVD is now, but we watched this DVD called Fat, sick and Nearly Dead, and Aaron said that's us, and I said it is. And so, needless to say, she said we're doing this, we're doing this juice detox and we're doing this juice. Facts I didn't really have a say in the matter, I just had to go along with it. And so she said we're going to Bed, bath and Beyond and we're going to figure out. I always want to know what the beyond is, though. What Bed, bath and Beyond? Is it space, I don't know, anyways. And so she goes there. A couple hundred dollars later, she buys a juicer and a bunch of vegetables, and so what you can do is, for the first 14 days, is a juice fast. So you have juice, you have beets, earth, you have juice, and at the end of the night, you can have cold carrot soup, not even hot soup, cold carrot soup. Put a little cilantro on top of it to make it fancy. And so, needless to say, my life started to suck a little bit more each day. Okay, so here you go.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Day two comes to this thing I'm feeling lightheaded, I'm feeling dizzy, I'm getting angry, I'm agitated. The thing promised all these things. They said if you do a juice detox, man, you're going to have more energy. Wrong. Instead, you do a juice detox, you're going to be more alert. I can't focus on anything. They said you do a juice detox, your sex life is going to increase. Triple wrong. I wasn't thinking about Aaron at all. I was thinking about chicken, wings and pizza and beer. And I'm only three days into this thing, so, needless to say, I was having a hard time. Then, finally, day four comes.

Speaker 1: 2:28

We go over to my in-laws' house, go to Aaron's parents' house for dinner, and Aaron asked her mom to make us this little pathetic salad and it had a little olive oil on it. It just looked sad. And I'm sitting there looking at this sad salad and then all of a sudden I smell it in the air, so I can taste it now, taste it. The smell of sizzling steak. And I was like what did my mother-in-law do? And then all of a sudden she walks into the dining room carrying this delicious plate of medium rare steak and I said I gotta have it. And Erin said don't you do it. I said, babe, I ain't strong enough. And then she said don't you dare do it. We got our cold carrot soup tonight when we get home and I said I can't. And I grabbed the steak and I eat it.

Speaker 1: 3:10

I broke my juice fast. I did. It was extreme. We tried to get some results real fast but it didn't work out. Here you go. Here's the truth. Here's the truth.

Speaker 1: 3:21

We may try to do extreme things to get some fast results, but it does not work out. You can't look like Dwayne Johnson in a 30-day workout plan. Take some time, you know, here you go. It's not in the extremes that would lead you to the life you want. It's in the ordinary daily routines. It's in the ordinary daily routines Another way I would say it like this God is using your ordinary everyday life to make you more like Jesus.

Speaker 1: 3:51

God will use your ordinary everyday life to make you more like Jesus and that's why, here at LVC, our mission statement is simple we are here to help everyday people like you and me learn that learning thing is a process, it's steps. Learn how to follow Jesus in our daily lives Because, for example, a single parent that has a couple kids, you know when they're trying to get their kids ready for school, while they're trying to get themselves ready to go to work, they probably don't have an hour to spend in their prayer closet. You know, just having silence and solitude. Jesus, you're so good. Put on your pants, johnny. You know it probably doesn't work out for them, but the way that person handles the stressors, the way they respond to their kids at moments of high stress, the way they prioritize their schedule so they can be on top of things, the way they handle their kids. In that moment God can use that thing to form them into the likeness of Jesus. Is that making sense? Because here's the truth, here's the thing.

Speaker 1: 5:02

This is good, but it's also challenging, because if God can take our ordinary lives, if God can take our everyday routines to make us more like Him, then, man, we have to really respond to what God is doing. We have to really start asking God what he's doing. And so what I want to do, what I want to do in this first series in this new year, I want to talk about first things. I want to talk about the principle of first things and how first things truly matter. And so what I'm going to do, I'm going to break down this word first. I felt so proud of myself when I did this. So every point start is like F. Okay, you'll see, I'm going to break down this word first, and so we can see how to put God first in our everyday lives. First one is this F Follow Jesus, follow Jesus.

Speaker 1: 5:46

You got to choose it. You got to choose it Now. The first way to give God your first is to choose to follow. Now, I know that may sound too simple, I know it sounds like kind of simple. Jake, what do you mean? Just follow him. But here you go. Jesus's invitation to the first disciples and Jesus's invitation to us today isn't just to believe something or believe in that, but his invitation to them and to us today is this come follow, come follow, come follow and be about his business and about what he is doing. And when I say follow Jesus, I'm not talking about casually agreeing to his teachings or showing up at church whenever it's convenient for your schedule. I'm talking about the kind of follow that changes your life, where you drop everything and go after him, where you go after him.

Speaker 1: 6:32

Now let's look at one of the most ridiculous stories in the Gospels. Okay, I'm going to look at this story. This is crazy. It doesn't make no sense because when you read it it doesn't make any sense and it actually sounds kind of extreme, like I was just saying. But check this out Matthew 4, starting, verse 18. Check this out At once. They left their nets and followed him. That's pretty extreme. Let's continue. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father, Zebedee, big Z Sorry, I just had to say it Preparing their nets. Jesus called them.

Speaker 1: 7:35

Now there's much to break down here, but not enough time to do it, so I'm going to keep it simple. I'm going to give us the theological reason why these four men left everything and followed Jesus. Here you go. These were young Jewish men. They were probably in their late teens, early 20s, so either high school seniors or freshmen in college. Most of Jesus' disciples were that age group, just to let you know. So here you go. And as young Jewish men, they would have worked their whole lives to be good enough to follow a rabbi. That was all their schooling. Their education would have been about if they could follow a rabbi. And if you weren't good enough, smart enough, had the it factor enough for a rabbi to choose you, you would join the family business. That would be what your next step would be.

Speaker 1: 8:25

So here is this rabbi, jesus, walking on the Sea of Galilee. And let's be clear, the Sea of Galilee was not like the Bahamas resort. It was not like there's some nice, you know, white sand, clear waters and Jesus just minding his business with his hair flowing through the air. It wasn't like that. No, no, the Sea of Galilee was a hub of daily life. People fished, traded, lived around it.

Speaker 1: 8:50

And Jesus begins here. Check this out, I want you to get this. Jesus begins here, in the midst of ordinary routines, which reflects his desire to meet people right where they are. Here you go, here you go. And this rabbi walks up to four young men who were doing the family business, which means they were the not good enoughs, means they were the JV squad, meaning they didn't make the cut. And here we go, we see Jesus. He walks up to these four guys and now the interesting thing is, the passage comes right after Jesus begins his public ministry in Galilee. And Jesus says this his mission statement, which was to repent for the kingdom of God, is here and now the kingdom of God is at hand. And so his next move, after proclaiming his business, after saying his mission, his next move was to call the ordinary, everyday people to join him in this mission. Come on, come on. And this shows us the kind of kingdom Jesus is building, one that starts with real people, not the religious elite, one that starts with everyday people.

Speaker 1: 9:57

His first disciples picture this. These guys Peter, andrew, james and John. They're fishermen, regular, hard-working, everyday people. They weren't religious leaders, they weren't professional theologians. They were out there just doing their job, throwing nets into the water, hoping to catch some fish. And then Jesus shows up. Then Jesus shows up in their ordinary routine and he doesn't give them a sermon, he doesn't ask for their resume, he doesn't find them on LinkedIn, he doesn't wait for them to clean up their lives, he just says come, follow me.

Speaker 1: 10:30

And again, jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee, this busy place, and invites these guys on a journey. And this shows us how God is the ultimate initiator. God initiates with us. Grace, hey, you think sin is aggressive. You think that bad habit is aggressive? That you have Grace is far more aggressive than sin can ever be. And grace comes after you, it pursues you, it goes all in for you, and we know this because grace went to the cross for you and for me. And then he got back up three days later and I'm feeling pretty good on the new year.

Speaker 1: 11:09

And so what does this mean for us today? How do we follow Jesus? You're, like some of you thinking, yeah, Jacob, that sounds good, but I'm not a fisherman, I don't work at Captain D's. I'm not standing on the shore with my nets in my hand, but hear me, you still got your nets. We all got our nets. Maybe your net is your career, maybe it's your pride, Maybe it's your comfort, your addiction or your need to control things and people. And Jesus is standing right in front of you saying drop it and follow me. First thing. First, I'm following Jesus. Let me make this more practical, though. Let me make it more practical because the I is this intentional time with God. So we're going to follow Jesus, but we've got to have intentional time with God. You're going to give God your first.

Speaker 1: 11:55

You've got to be intentional about spending time with him. Listen to me, you don't accidentally grow closer to Jesus. You don't stumble into a great relationship with Jesus. You don't stumble into a great relationship with anybody, anyone. No one's like wow, susie, susie, you and Jim Bob got the best marriage ever. How do you do it? Well, mary Sue, I'm glad you asked. I never talk to him, listen to him or even be around him, and our marriage is great. Wow, that's wonderful.

Speaker 1: 12:24

Some people are like that might not be a bad idea. Don't do that. No, we all know. We all know it takes intentionality. And here's one thing that we all know too about our time, about our schedules Everyone and everything wants it. Everyone wants your time, everything wants your time. On your way from your house to church, you were bombarded by hundreds of advertisements. Everything is trying to get your attention, and so, if that is the case, time with God is not automatic. It has to be intentional. It has to be intentional.

Speaker 1: 12:59

That's why we kick off the year at 21 days of prayer and fasting. It's intentional time to spend with God. And here you go. Like Daniel said, we want to be inclusive to everyone in our congregation, so different people have different reasons why they can't do a food fast and stuff like that, but we have different ways that you can participate in this fast. And the reason, the reason for the fast, the heart, the heart of the matter it's about setting a habit to spend time with God, saying God, I'm going to spend time with you and I'm going to put something to the side, I'm going to put my net down so I can follow you. So I can follow you. So I encourage you and I encourage you to join us at our 21 days of prayer and fasting too, because it'll be great In the morning time at 6 am on Google Meet.

Speaker 1: 13:40

You don't even got to get out of your jammies, you can leave your screen off, okay. So let me show you this in the life of Jesus. Jesus says this in Mark 1. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, jesus got up, left the house, went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Where he prayed Now let's just stop there, because some of you read that and you're like early in the morning, nope, not me, jacob, nope. While it's still dark, nope. Now here you go. Don't get hung up on the time, even though, let me say something, even though I do think there's something powerful about God being your first thought. Okay, so I say, you got to do your devotionals in the morning, but the moment you wake up, if it's your alarm, whatever it is the moment you wake up, if you can intentionally focus your mind on God and just say out loud or say in your heart Jesus, thank you for this day, like sometimes I even roll myself out of bed and get on my knees and just pray Jesus, thank you for this day, and so that he can be my first thought in a day Before you check on your phone, check in with Jesus and check out what he wants to do. Okay, because even Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, needed to carve out intentional time to connect with his Father. And I think we should follow suit, because really, this is about developing spiritual habits. This is what I'm talking about. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 14:59

I want to make this simple for you, and this is what we teach at Step 3 of Local Basics we talk about developing spiritual habits. Step 1 of Local Basics is today, right after service. So if you want to learn more about the mission, vision and values of our church, I encourage you to meet me there. At step one, it's right in the lobby. But here at step three, we talk about developing spiritual habits, which is like this here you go, discover your spiritual habits by you. Just got to decide to start. That's the first thing. Just make it a sit.

Speaker 1: 15:24

I'm going to start developing my spiritual habits and spending time with God, and then just pick one. Don't try to read the whole New Testament in 30 days, but maybe just a verse of the day, or maybe join us on our Bible reading plan. You know, you just pick one thing, then pick a time and stick to it. This is the most important one. Pick a time and stick to it.

Speaker 1: 15:43

No matter what habit you're trying to do, pick a time and stick to it, because if you say, oh, today I'm going to do eight, tomorrow I'm going to do midnight, next day three o'clock after I eat some biscuits, you know it doesn't work. You know you got to pick a time and stick to that time. And then make it easy and don't overthink it. Don't overthink it. Let me say it like this You'll never know what God can do in your life if you don't make space for him to move in your life. So you got to make the space. So here's my encouragement Join us at 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting and give God 21 days and watch what he does. Okay, here you go R, rest and rejoice him. Come on, that sounds good. Rest and rejoice him. If you're going to give God your first, you got to learn how to rest in him and rejoice, no matter what's going on in your life.

Speaker 1: 16:29

Now, a few weeks ago, before winter break, I was at school pickup at Gordon and I was walking there and I was talking to this dad and he was asking me what we were doing for the weekend and I said, oh well, we do this thing called Family Fun Day and we spend attentional time with our kids and we play games and we really just rest. And he said rest, what is that? I don't even know what that is. He was kind of joking, but he was serious. He was serious. He's like how do you rest? Now, here's the thing. Here's the thing.

Speaker 1: 17:01

Most of us know that we live in a culture that doesn't value rest. You know it doesn't have a high value on it. You know, most of us, we got kids, we got jobs, we got bills. We have 72 unanswered text messages. Sorry, we don't rest in this culture. We hustle, we grind, we wear our exhaustion like a badge of honor.

Speaker 1: 17:27

You ask someone how you been and what do they say Busy. How are the holidays Busy? Good, though busy. We convinced ourselves that if we're not doing everything all the time, we're falling behind. And we do this to our kids too, and that's why we over-sign up our kids with too many events. You got to do this and do that and do this thing, but here you go. Let me remind you of something Busy doesn't mean blessed, tired doesn't mean productive, and you can't pour out from an empty cup. Let me say that one more time Busy doesn't mean blessed, tired doesn't mean productive, and you can't pour out from an empty cup. God didn't design you to live that way.

Speaker 1: 18:13

The principle of first things You're gonna give God the first of our day, like I mentioned, like a simple prayer of focus. God, thank you for this day, but the first of the week, this is the practice of Sabbath. Sabbath keeping. Now, you may be like how in the world do I give an entire day to God? Do I just sit around with a guitar and sing kumbaya all day, kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya. That'd be weird. Don't do that. I mean, maybe do it, it'd be cool, but anyways, no, no, that's not what you should do all day.

Speaker 1: 18:46

Now, I think for most of us, sunday is the best day to practice Sabbath. I think Sunday is Sunday Going to church, either serving or attending that day, you know, being intentional with your time after church, not working, slowing down, spending time with your family. You know, maybe that's not the season you're in, so hanging out with some good friends, you know. But intentionality behind rest, like, say, I'm not going to overdo myself today For me because of the nature of my job. We practice Sabbath from Friday dinner to Saturday dinner. That's when we practice. We put our phones away, we avoid screen time and we do crafts and games with the kids. We got three little ones, but we put God first. Is it always perfect? Heck, little ones, but we put God first. Is it always perfect? Heck? No, my kids are wild sometimes, man. But when we don't do it, do we feel it? Yeah, yeah, we do.

Speaker 1: 19:30

Let me take you back to the beginning, genesis 2.2. By the seventh day, god had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested, god. God rested. And let me say this he didn't rest because he was just so tired of making all the stars and trees and apples and stuff. Whatever he was doing, he rested because he wanted to show us a pattern. We work, and here you go.

Speaker 1: 19:54

Let me say something about work. When you work, you work Like go in, don't half butt it. I was about to say something else but I caught myself. Like work, put it all in. Whoever you're working for, be the best one there, show up with excellence, do it go all in.

Speaker 1: 20:10

But when you rest, rest hard, rest hard. You know, do that. Here you go, see, because rest isn't weakness, rest is worship. It's when you can worship, when you rest in God, you're saying God, I trust you, I trust that you can handle what I can't handle, I trust that you're in control, even when I stop. It's like the song we were just singing and some of us, we're running ourselves into the ground trying to fix things God doesn't want us to fix.

Speaker 1: 20:37

Psalm 46 says be still and know that I am God. We notice that when God spoke to the prophet Elijah, it wasn't in the fire or the storm, but it was in the stillness. Often we can't hear God's voice because we're so busy. Now, if you don't learn how to rest in God, you'll never learn what it means to trust Him. And when we rest, that means we can rejoice, and it makes us choose joy easier, because God is in control, not us. And so here's the second part You've got to learn how to rejoice even in the middle of what you're going through, because some of you are waiting for everything to be perfect before you praise God. I'll praise Him when the promotion comes. I'll praise Him when the marriage gets better. I'll praise Him when the kids find, listen to me on the first time instead of the seventh time gets better. I praise Him when the kids find listen to me on the first time instead of the seventh time. But listen to me, if you're waiting for your situation to be perfect, you'll never spend time praising God.

Speaker 1: 21:30

Philippians 4 says Rejoice in the Lord always, and I say it again rejoice Now, not when you feel it, not when it's convenient, but not when everything's going your way, but always. Rejoicing isn't just saying your problems aren't real. No, rejoicing is recognizing that God is bigger even than your problems. So how do we give God our first? We follow, we spend intentional time, we rest and rejoice. The last two, here we go. S, sin, sin, wait, wait, wait, what? Seeking God in my brokenness, seeking God in my brokenness? Here you go.

Speaker 1: 22:08

The habit you repeat the most, even though you want to do it the least, often points to where you need God the most. The habit you repeat the most Let me say it one more time the habit you repeat the most, even though you want to do it the least, often points to where you need God the most. Now I want to be clear here. I'm not saying when I you know when I sin or say, hey, go and sin, no, no, no, what I want to do, I want to drop something a little bit heavy. Okay, this is a heavy portion of the story. I want to drop a little bit something heavy on us.

Speaker 1: 22:42

We often want to run away from our sin, and when I say sin, I mean the anger we don't want, the worry we often cling to for comfort, the control we try to take, the way we try to manipulate people, the habit we turn to when we are stressed that's what I mean when I say sin and when we want to and sometimes we want to pray our sin away, god, take this from me, and that's not a bad prayer, but a better prayer might be. God, what am I seeking from you in this thing that I know is not good for me? God, what am I wanting from you that I'm trying to find in this thing that keeps tearing me down? Our sin can point us to where God wants to bring us healing. So if you're gonna give God your first, you got to invite him into your sin, into those bad habits, into those struggles, into those places of brokenness that you rather hide. Because what if your sin isn't just something to be ashamed of? What if it's actually an invitation to seek God in the middle of it? Now I know that might sound strange to some of you.

Speaker 1: 23:50

Sin isn't something we like to talk about. We hide it, we shove it in dark corners and we hope nobody finds it. But here you go. I'm going to be honest with you, lvc. I don't want us to be good at just hiding our sin. I don't want to create a church community where everyone has their secret sin. But on Sunday, how? You doing Great, but really you're struggling, struggling with shame and regret. Because if we can get things into the light, healing comes.

Speaker 1: 24:25

Of all the spiritual habits, the hardest one is confession, but the most liberating of all the spiritual habits is confession. It's confession. And so here's what I've learned and this is a book I just read by Jay Stringer talks about in his book called Unwanted your sin, your bad habits, your unhealthy patterns, whatever they look like, aren't random. That anger is pointing to something deeper. That addiction is trying to soothe a pain you haven't dealt with. That unhealthy relationship is seeking a connection that's been broken somewhere along the way. Sin isn't just a moral failure, it is a signpost and it's pointing you to the wounds, the unmet needs and the broken places, where God wants to meet you. And here's the reality God doesn't want you to hide your struggles from Him. He wants you to bring your struggles to Him because your sin, your bad habits are actually opportunities to discover where you've been looking for life in all the wrong places. Instead of numbing your pain with the habit God says bring it to me and I can bring you healing. Instead of running to distractions, distractions what if we ran to the one who sees us and loves us? Psalm 34 says the Lord is close to the brokenhearted. Let me say that to someone today the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, not angry, not mad, but close, but close, and he saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Speaker 1: 26:02

A few weeks ago I talked about my old Chevy Blazer. Come on, it was a busted car with a nice radio. And this one time I was driving smoke black smoke coming from the muffler. That probably ain't good. The engine making crazy sounds. You want to know what I did? Cranked up that radio. Come on, if I don't hear it, it ain't a problem. The noise, the smoke, was an indicator that something was wrong on the inside and it needed to be addressed.

Speaker 1: 26:32

Sin is a signpost that something is wrong and our gracious God is saying pull over, let's fix it together. Don't just crank up the noise, the notifications, the fake smiles. We don't got time for fake smiles, guys. Don't let your sin be the thing that keeps you from God. Let it be the thing that drives you to him. You're not unwanted, you're not unlovable. You are seen and you're known and you are loved by a God who knows everything you've ever done, yet still loves you. Last way, last way, we seek God first. Treasure Our treasures, our treasures Now. Treasures can mean a lot of different things.

Speaker 1: 27:22

I am primarily talking about finances here. You're like dang Jacob how do you go from sin to finances? Well, the reason why is because both of them are about our hearts, both of them are about the matters of the heart, and this is one area that I really want to challenge and also encourage people in. Jesus says this, and I truly believe that. I truly believe there's some of you in here that this is your year to start moving forward to being debt-free. I truly believe that You'll be debt-free if you do it. I believe God wants to bless that, because the stress of that. The stress of that debt isn't just like oh, it's kind of stressed out. You feel it in your heart, you feel it in your marriage, you feel it in your future plans. It's heavy and I am going to encourage people to start tithing, returning 10% to what you make back to God. There is power in that. But I want to show you something in the Bible. Let me take you. I got one more story, I want one more story.

Speaker 1: 28:20

It's a powerful story in Mark 10. It's about a young, rich man who had it all. He was wealthy, successful, doing all the right things. I even think his name was Jacob. I made up that last part. In fact, he comes up to Jesus and asks a really great question. He says, jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, I want you to catch this, because this guy wasn't living a bad life. He wasn't out doing wrong things. In fact, jesus tells him you know the commandments and he says, yeah, I've done them since I was a kid. I mean, this guy's sharp. He's sharp and here's a guy who's doing everything right, yet something still feels off, something's missing. And then Jesus looks at him.

Speaker 1: 29:01

This is my favorite part. Jesus looked at him and loved him. Isn't that beautiful. Jesus looked at this guy and loved that. I love that Because when Jesus challenges us, he challenges us out of love. He wasn't mad at a guy, he wasn't trying to punish him. Jesus loved him and wanted to give him something better. And so he says One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have, give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. And check this out. Here's our phrase. Then come, follow me, jesus. You took that too far, jesus. Come on, come on. You took that. Sell everything, sell all I've been working for, cash out my retirement and give it to the poor and I'll get some treasures in heaven, whatever the heck that means. Then come, follow, see, check this out.

Speaker 1: 30:00

The Bible says the man's face fell and he went away sad because he had great wealth. Of course, I love how truthful the Bible is. See, jesus wasn't trying to take something from him, he was trying to give him something better. But this man's treasure was his stuff and because of that he missed it. He missed the opportunity to step into the life Jesus was offering him. God isn't after your money, he's after your heart. He doesn't need your treasure, he wants your trust. For this young man, his wealth was the one thing standing in between him and Jesus. So let me ask you what is the one thing standing in between you and Jesus? Is it your job, your comfort, your plans for the future? Because here's what I've learned when you surrender your treasure, when you give God the thing you're holding on to, you'll find out that he is better, that he is faithful and that he is more than enough.

Speaker 1: 30:55

Both the rich young ruler and the disciples were given the same invitation, but their responses were completely different. Why? Why is that? Because the rich young ruler couldn't let go of the treasure that he treasured the most. His security was his wealth and he was holding on to the very thing Jesus was asking him to release. But the disciples? They had their hands open. They had hands open and when Jesus approached them, they said I'll drop everything for you.

Speaker 1: 31:29

So how do we get God our first? Well, really, it's about following him. It's about following him, about going after him. So, as everyday people, how can we be everyday followers? We have to give God our first. We follow, we spend time, we rest and rejoice, we give him our sin, we don't run away and we say God, take what I have. I'm going to live a life of abandonment reckless. We rest and rejoice, we give Him our sin, we don't run away and we say God, take what I have. I'm going to live a life of abandonment reckless abandonment for you, lord, and I'm going to give it all to you. And so something new I've been doing, something new I've been doing.

Speaker 1: 32:01

I've been ending my messages with questions, kind of a challenge or an encouragement for us. So I got two questions, and then I'll close in prayer. And the first one is this what is one step you can take this week to intentionally put God first in your everyday life? What's one step? Just one thing. Maybe it's joining us at 21 Days of Prayer, maybe it's doing something different, I don't know. But ask God, he'll tell you. He'll tell you what to do if you ask Him. Second question is this what is your net, the thing you're holding on to that might be standing between you and fully following Jesus, and how can you trust him? How can you trust him to help? Let it go? Think about those. Let's pray God, jesus, holy Spirit, thank you for your goodness, thank you for your favor, lord, and we say more of you. We say more of you, jesus, we dial down right now. That's what the Holy Spirit is saying. There's some of us in here.

Speaker 1: 33:08

You have the spirit of a runner man. You've been running, running, running for way too long and I feel like the Holy Spirit is saying that he's running to you right now. Yep, come Holy Spirit. He's saying you don't have to run anymore. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 33:47

I even feel like there's a dizziness. Maybe it's actually physical, like you've been dealing with headaches, shoulder pain, something like that. I feel like the Holy Spirit wants to bring healing to you physically. There's someone who's dealing with physical headaches. It's causing you to have a hard time focusing. But I also feel it spiritually, like your mind feels like a fog, like it's just like you can't focus. You don't know what next step to take. You feel disillusioned, can't barely see to take. You feel disillusioned, can't barely see. I feel the Lord just bringing a verse to me, that he's like a lamp that guides your path. Yep, you may not be able to see all the way down the field, but he'll show you enough what's in front of you.

Speaker 1: 34:47

Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit. So I do want to pray for the person who feels like man. You're just dealing with migraines or headaches. Yeah, you're dealing with it. If that's you, I would love for you to get prayer. That would be awesome. I believe God wants to heal you from that today. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit. Some of you, when I said the net, you know exactly what net you need to drop. So, lord, I pray for courage to drop it, strength to drop it. Come Holy Spirit. You're good, lord, you're good. We thank you for that, lord.

Speaker 1: 35:41

Maybe in here today you don't really know this Jesus I've been talking about and it sounds good, but I don't really know him. Or maybe you followed him at one point in your life and kind of walked away. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus again with your life, I'm just going to count to three and on three you can just toss your hand up in the air so I can see who I'm praying for. I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front and come to a room, nothing like that, just right where you are. If you want to trust Jesus with your life for the first time, or trust him again on three. Shoot your hand up so I can see who I'm praying for. So that's you Just one, two, three Bless you, bless you, bless you. You can say this prayer with me out loud, or say it in your heart. You say Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new. Today I trust in you. Today I follow you In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.