March 18, 2026 • 53 mins
Drift doesn’t usually start with rebellion. It starts with distraction. One day your mind is more formed by business news, headlines, and endless scrolling than by the voice of God, and you don’t even notice until the warning lights come on. Pastor Ryan and Pastor Tim talk honestly about how that happens, why we can’t stay “neutral,” and how spiritual disciplines act like a simple maintenance schedule that keeps our hearts aligned with Jesus.
We walk through several of the nine practices from the “In The Shop” series, starting with prayer. Not polished prayer. Real prayer that includes confession, worship, asking, interceding, and then something many of us skip: silence. We share practical ways to handle prayer drift, learn what God’s voice sounds like, and rebuild spiritual clarity in a world where everything feels noisy and unreliable.
Then we zoom out to Scripture, worship, and fellowship. Bible reading renews the mind and resets the narrative the world keeps trying to write for you. Worship makes God feel bigger and your problems smaller by putting everything back in its proper place. And community matters more than ever, because isolation doesn’t just make you lonely it can make you delusional. We also talk about making disciplines manageable by starting on Sunday with worship, serving, fellowship, and even a simple fast that turns your attention back to God.
If you’re feeling spiritually dull, stretched thin, or quietly off-course, pick one practice and start this week. Subscribe to the Midweek Podcast, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review so more people can find practical help for following Jesus. What’s one habit you’re ready to rebuild?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast, broughtto you by a Fresh Wind Church.
Each week, our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
SPEAKER_03 (00:27):
Well, hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined as alwayswith Pastor Tim, and we are in
week three of our series in theshop.
And uh man, loving this series,but before we dive into it, uh
this past week, we had a childdedication ceremony here at the
church and uh got to celebrateas 13 kids uh were dedicated to
(00:51):
the Lord.
So um, man, what an awesomeSunday that was.
SPEAKER_01 (00:54):
It was uh we saw not only um spouses um vow to teach
their kids um in God's ways, butwe saw single parents get up
there too and say, I'm all in.
Yeah, I love that.
SPEAKER_03 (01:12):
Those are uh those are special ceremonies, man.
And I and I'm praying each ofthose parents understand the
commitment that they they'remaking, you know.
Um, and I try to hammer it homebefore we get them up there, but
uh it's uh man, this is a bigdeal, and we need parents who
are gonna say, as for me in myhouse, we're gonna serve the
Lord whatever it takes.
(01:33):
And so when parents stand up andmake that commitment, man, so
exciting.
And Joy, she was telling me wehave uh quite a few different um
ladies pregnant in the churchright now, and it sounds like we
got to run on some boys, a lotof boys getting ready to come
into the church.
And I was like, sweet! It's likewe need some godly men and we're
gonna train them up, right?
Um, and so Lord's given us theopportunity to do that too.
(01:56):
Um and so, man, just an excitingtime to be part of Fresh Wind
for sure.
Um, but I just and baptisms,probably my favorite thing that
happens in church.
Right.
Child dedication's close second,man.
It is, it's it's beautiful.
It's fuel uh for my fire whenyou see these parents say, Man,
we're all in on this thing.
(02:17):
Yeah, um, and so church want toencourage you, be praying for
those kids, be praying for thoseparents.
Um, enemy hates when we uh westand up and say, Man, I'm gonna
live for God, I'm gonna take astand on this.
Um He he exists to steal, kill,and destroy.
Um so be praying for theirprotection and just wisdom and
(02:37):
discernment as they try to liveout that commitment.
But then with about the sevenand a half minutes I had left in
the first service, I tried topreach uh the the week three
sermon, and I went long.
Um seven and a half wasn'tenough, and I was throwing
wholesale sections of my sermonjust right out the window.
(03:01):
Um service two, uh they they gotmost of it.
They got most of it.
Um but I told I think you stillran out of time in service two.
I did.
I still went over.
Um and that, yeah, no childdedication to go over, make me
go over that time.
And not that any of you probablycare, but the program uh I use
(03:22):
to write my software has a wordcount.
That sermon was a thousand wordsless than my average sermon, and
I still preached it into theground, just kept going.
SPEAKER_01 (03:35):
Well, spiritual disciplines has been something
that uh we've talked about sincewe started together.
These are the things that haveto be in your life.
Um, or uh, like you said, thingson the outside might not change,
but you can you can drift.
You can drift.
(03:55):
And it's uh it's important tounderstand how that works.
I know um we'll be talking aboutfasting in a little bit, but one
of my drifts was money.
Watching my money.
What what's gonna happentomorrow?
And should I move this overhere, move that over there?
And um, coming up on my fastingday, the Lord says, I want you
(04:17):
to fast from business news.
I just I don't want you to lookat that.
I'm like, how long?
And he had to break me of that,and that was a drift.
I was doing everything I wassupposed to do.
All my spiritual disciplines wasin uh in alignment, and uh I
(04:39):
just I just that became moreimportant than things that are
more important.
And so uh now I wasn't goingcrazy, you know, I wasn't
destroying my family with it oranything.
It was just what was my mind wason all the time, and the Lord
said, I want you to take yourmind off that for a while.
But what if I miss anopportunity?
What if I you know lose somemoney?
(05:01):
What what I you know what youknow, retirement's coming up,
what and um he just said, youknow you're not doing all that
great anyways, so why don't youjust let me handle it?
And you quit thinking about it.
And it took a couple of coupleof times he asked me to fast
that until it broke me.
(05:21):
And um now I don't pay attentionat all, which is terrible.
There's a balance in theresomewhere, but uh the Lord said,
Hey, this got too important.
Uh just don't let that be tooimportant.
I'm priority, put that down sixor seven, you know, or eight or
nine.
And um I think we if we don'thave these different spiritual
(05:47):
discipline disciplines in ourlife, then there's a section in
our life that the Lord doesn'thave access to.
SPEAKER_03 (05:56):
That's what these maintenance uh disciplines,
routines, or practices are areall about, is keeping us from
that drift.
Um and we have we've hammered iton the podcast, we hammer it in
our sermons because it's it'simportant.
Um I said this on Sunday, youknow, we all want it to be
something flashy, we all want itto be some big mountaintop
(06:19):
experience.
But much of the Christian lifeis just these faithful steps
over and over and over again.
Even two weeks ago, uh, when youwere preaching, you you were
talking about how it's you knowthese baby steps just over and
over.
And then every now and then Godallows you to take this big
step.
But if you're not doing themaintenance, the big step never
comes.
That's true.
(06:40):
And we we think God's impressedwith our activity, and what he's
impressed with is faithfulness.
Right.
Um, do you show up even when youdon't feel like it?
Do you do you pray even when youdon't feel like it?
Do you open his word even whenyou don't feel like it?
Um that sort of faithfulness.
And um, you know, I quickly inthe sermon I went over nine
(07:02):
different practices.
Um and that feels heavy.
It does.
But I think as we we kind of laythis out today, hopefully it'll
feel manageable.
Manageable.
That's a good word.
Um, because here's the truthwe're we're not natural, we're
not static.
Um, my chiropractor uh Dr.
Brennan used to tell me, youknow, you you don't stay the
(07:25):
same.
You're either getting strongeror you're getting weaker.
Right.
Um, I think John Maxwell saysyou grow daily or you die
gradually.
And that that's true, right?
So we're not just here in thisspot, and if we never do
anything else, then we're justgonna stay here.
That's that's not how lifeworks.
We're being formed.
Every scroll, everyconversation, every habit, every
(07:45):
craving.
And so the question is who orwhat is shaping us.
Right.
And I tried to get the church tounderstand on Sunday, you get
the choice.
You get the choice.
SPEAKER_01 (07:56):
If the Lord's not shaping you, the world is.
That's right.
There's no there's noin-between.
SPEAKER_03 (08:01):
So nine different maintenance practices uh that if
you would begin to to buildthese things into your life will
keep you from that spiritualdrift.
And I'm not gonna tell youthere's not gonna be seasons
when God feels a little moredistant or whatever.
Um, you don't seem to get thegoosebumps you used to get uh
(08:22):
during the worship songs.
There's there's seasons, uh,even uh in our spiritual walk,
but these are the things that'llkeep pulling you back in,
pulling you back in.
Um and it's it's that constantjust realignment, you know.
Uh you realize when you'redriving down the highway and
that car starts to drift to theright a little bit, these are
the maintenance practices thatget you back in alignment so you
(08:45):
can keep driving straight.
Um and then you got something tosay?
SPEAKER_01 (08:49):
I was gonna say Martin Luther um he came to this
point in his life where heunderstood that sometimes it's
not about the goosebumps, youknow, it's about faith.
The just shall live by faith.
And the Lord is going to demandthat you live by faith.
You're gonna have some timesthat are uh not feel good times,
(09:15):
and he's gonna expect you tolive by faith.
The way he trains you to do thatis by every week you go to work,
you know, nothing great happensspiritually, nothing uh big
happens at church, you're notinvolved in a salvation or
whatever, but you continue to dowhat God has called you to do,
(09:35):
and that's faithfulness.
And God, God will um He'll besilent.
Uh, I think uh Billy Graham'swife wrote that book, Streams in
the Desert.
When you just feel like God isdistant, that doesn't mean you
can uh throw a fit and say, God,I know I want you, I want all
that stuff.
No, you keep walking, live byfaith.
(09:58):
I got a stream out here for you,come find it.
And um we need to understandthat that what that's what the
Lord's doing, He's training youfor the days you're really gonna
need your faith.
And if you don't engage it onthe days that are just blah,
then you're not gonna be toengage it when you're in crisis.
SPEAKER_03 (10:20):
We've talked about this quite a bit.
Um you know these these arethings that allow you to be
ready to be used by God.
And I think we all have an idea,you know.
God, I want to be used by Youknow what?
SPEAKER_01 (10:32):
I made that sound, I use the word crisis, but um it's
better better to say in crisisGod uses you.
So, but in a in a time whereGod's gonna use you, if you
don't live by faith, you'renormal every day, then when the
Lord wants to do something, youwon't be the one he picks.
SPEAKER_03 (10:51):
You're not ready, you're not equipped.
Right.
Um scripture says study to showthyself approved.
Well, that means God's God'spaying attention.
Are are you putting the time in?
Are you showing up?
Paul kept telling people train,train, train, train yourself to
be godly.
Um he's like, Man, I wish Icould feed you guys some steak,
(11:12):
but here we go.
I'm drinking milk again.
Like, let's go, let's move on tosome other things.
Um, there is this expectationthat as Christians, we're
supposed to grow.
And these are the things thatare going to grow us so that we
can be used by God.
And then when situations come upand the Lord is drawing someone
to them and he needs someone togo share the gospel, he can say,
(11:34):
Hey, go over there and talk tohim, and you'll be ready to do
it.
SPEAKER_01 (11:37):
And it's not just uh those situations, which are
fantastic, but it's also thesituations where somebody's
getting ready to do something.
Um let's say, like cheat on hiswife, you're at work, this guy,
he's thinking, man, I should goahead and go go see her.
And and marriage comes up andeverybody's complaining, and you
(12:01):
you step in and say, Marriagewas the greatest thing that ever
happened to me.
Love your wife, you'll neverregret it.
And it might stop that person.
So you want you want this umtraining so that when you get in
a situation where everybody'sdown in their wife or
complaining or whatever, there'ssomeone there that stands up and
(12:22):
says, This is the truth.
And um I had someone tell me along time ago, says, Love your
wife.
You won't regret it.
And it's it's it's important.
It's important that we're thereand we're ready to step into
those situations.
And if you're not training,you're not gonna be ready.
(12:44):
You're not gonna hear thespiritual depth of the situation
that you're in because you hearthat thing all the time.
But there's someone there who'sgetting ready to make a decision
that you can just stand in frontof and say, This is the wrong
way to go, and you don't evenknow it.
So God uses this all the time.
So we have to be ready.
SPEAKER_03 (13:03):
And who was it?
Uh Lord was looking for someoneto stand in the gap.
Um man, we preached a wholesermon series on this, and his
name just slipped through mymind.
One of the prophets.
Um man, who was it?
There was a lot of prophets.
I know, I know.
He's he was looking for someoneto stand in the gap.
(13:24):
And man, when we're ready, we'rethose people who can stand in
the gap for our friends, for ourfamily, for our spouses, our
kids.
SPEAKER_01 (13:31):
Um Jonas stood in the gap, but he didn't want to.
SPEAKER_03 (13:34):
He didn't want to.
The most reluctant preacher onthe planet.
SPEAKER_01 (13:40):
Hey, but his I think his his sermon was only nine
words long.
And yours was a thousand, didyou say something?
SPEAKER_03 (13:48):
It was a thousand less.
Um, all right, nine practices uhthat you can begin to put into
your life.
Um, this maintenance schedulethat'll help you grow, follow
Jesus, and and man, experiencethe life, the rich, satisfying,
abundant life that Jesus hasprepared for you.
(14:10):
Um, and I think number onebegins with prayer, right?
We are being trained intodistraction.
Notifications, noise, constantinput.
I mean, we are just we're onoverload, and prayer begins to
train our attention.
Um, and and what I love aboutthe gospels is we see Jesus, Son
(14:30):
of God, creator of the universe,still withdrawing to pray, to
have this line of communicationuh with his father.
And if he needed it, man, howmuch more do we?
SPEAKER_01 (14:45):
Absolutely.
I think we don't um right now Ithink prayer is one of the most
important things you can do forjust sanity.
We are in it, inundated.
You were just saying before westarted the podcast that you
don't believe anything on theinternet at all because it can
all be faked all the time, andnobody's telling us.
You know, I I chasing downBrown's trades.
(15:08):
That never happened, you know?
It's like and at the end theysay, so they're thinking about
this trade.
What?
And I it's ridiculous.
Everything's a lie.
And so we don't hear any truthuntil we pray.
And so it's important that wethat we pray because the Lord
(15:29):
wants to communicate with us.
I think a lot of people thinkthat prayer time is us talking
at God.
No, it's talking with him.
SPEAKER_03 (15:37):
Yeah, yeah.
He he he responds us.
And the here's the thing, we'llsit in these moments of prayer,
right?
And and sometimes you got a lotto say and you say it, but I
would encourage you, you need tobuild some time to sit and
listen.
SPEAKER_01 (15:52):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03 (15:53):
The problem is we we have been so busy, so
conditioned, um, that for a lotof us we're not even sure what
God's voice sounds like.
And so we'll sit in the silenceand we'll have all these
thoughts running through throughour head, and we don't know, is
that me?
Is that God?
What did Jesus say?
(16:14):
My sheep know my voice.
Right.
We need to begin to getourselves in tune with the voice
of God so that when he speaks,we can hear it.
And that means we need to beintentional about building in
space to allow God to speak tous.
And then it goes into number twois scripture.
We need to know his word becauseGod will never tell us something
(16:37):
that contradicts his word.
SPEAKER_01 (16:39):
That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_03 (16:40):
And so if you're sitting in those moments and you
have this thought, I I need togo hang out with that girl who's
not my wife.
Word of God's gonna stand up andsay, you sit down and shut up.
SPEAKER_01 (16:54):
Or that guy dropped his wallet because God's
blessing me.
Right.
So we we there's a lot of thingsthat uh we need the Holy Spirit
to correct us.
He uses the word and he usesprayer.
And I I I think um people driftwhen they pray, and let me
(17:14):
counter that because I think theHoly Spirit brought it up to me
right now.
When you're praying, and yousay, okay, I'm gonna sit down
this 15 minutes to pray.
And uh if you've been throughour powerful prayer um study,
then you know you need toconfess, you need to worship,
tell God uh how great he is,praise him, and um, then you
(17:37):
need your um petition, whatyou're asking God for.
Um you need to pray for otherpeople, and uh, and then you
need to pray for yourself.
And so you got to have thosefive things.
So we want you to to put thattogether.
And uh so if we do that courseagain next year, try to get in
it.
(17:57):
But those are the things youneed to do.
Number one, your maintenance isuh confession.
You need to confess your sinsand um take a draw on your uh
bank account that God has filledwith everlasting grace and say,
Lord, I was wrong here, youknow, thanks for correcting me.
I'm gonna repent, and that meansdon't do it anymore, and um and
(18:19):
and move on.
So we we need to do those thingsin prayer, but the thing that we
don't ever do, it seems like, iswe get to the end of our prayer
and we're like, dot, period,gotta go, see you later.
So that's like trying to have arelationship with your wife
where you in the morning yousay, Hey, honey, take care of
(18:41):
the kids, gotta go.
And then at breakfast you say,Hey, thanks for the eggs.
And at lunch, you say, Hey,thanks for the sandwich.
And at dinner, you say, Hey,thanks for this food.
And at night, you say, Take careof the kids, good night.
Um, what kind of relationshipare you gonna build?
But that's what we're doing inour prayer life all the time.
We well, we'll pray for ourfood, we'll, you know, uh pray
(19:03):
in the morning, God take care ofthe kids at church uh at school,
and God take the care of thekids as they sleep, and here we
go.
And God is just looking at youlike, do I get a talk in this
conversation?
You ever talk to somebody whereyou can't get a word in
edgewise?
Well, that's how we pray.
unknown (19:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (19:20):
And uh so I encourage you to do this one
thing um is to take five minutesand just be silent.
Say, Lord, I'm putting myself inyour presence, ready, set, go
and do five minutes.
And I I guarantee you the Lord'sgonna start talking to you in
those five minutes.
(19:40):
If you'll if you'll be faithfulin that, he'll speak to you.
And um and just say, Lord, I Iwant to be in your presence.
If you don't say anything to me,praise God.
If you tell me things I need toconfess, praise God in another
way.
And then if if you just tell meyou love me, praise God.
(20:04):
Um, I'm just gonna sit here.
The problem is, I know most ofyou, I wouldn't say most of you,
half of you are like me.
It's like, man, I gotta readthese scriptures, so I'm gonna
mow the lawn and listen to themso I can do two things at once.
When you're praying, you can'tdo two things at once.
You know, I know we're driving,this is gonna be my prayer time,
(20:26):
but no, you need that time whereyou're not distracted by
anything else to stop and listenfor the voice of the Lord.
I don't know if it's gonna be inthe morning or if it's night at
night before you go to sleep,but it's important.
And then when you have thatprayer drift where you're you're
praying and uh um you startthinking about other things, and
(20:48):
pretty soon you're like, How didI get here?
I'm supposed to be praying.
Um don't when that happens toyou, don't think, well, Satan's
attacking me, whatever.
No.
When you end up in a situationwhere you're thinking about your
boss at work and you're mad andyou're like, what am I gonna do
today?
Oh, wait, I'm supposed to bepraying, pray for your boss at
(21:10):
work and what you're supposed tobe doing that day.
If you're mad at the presidentor if you're mad at your
congressman and that's poppingup in your head as you're
praying, then pray for your prayfor your anger first, and then
pray, pray for that person.
And don't, don't let if Satandrifts you away from your prayer
and you think it's him, pray forwhatever he drifts you into.
(21:32):
And that'll stop that realquick.
Another way to fix that, twothings, just out of my own
personal prayer life.
Um, pray for whatever you'rethinking about if you get in
that prayer drift while you'repraying.
Number two is pray out loud.
Pray out loud will stop thedrift.
And uh, you can stay centered onuh what you were praying about.
(21:56):
And sometimes we're prayingabout our kids or um maybe about
a struggle.
That you're having in your ownlife and you don't want to
drift.
So pray out loud and it'll helpyou.
Just a couple things out of myprayer life.
SPEAKER_03 (22:07):
That's good.
Second one that we were wementioned briefly was scripture.
Again, we're we're beingdiscipled by headlines and
algorithms, right?
They they know us better than weknow ourselves, I think.
Um and they catechize us everyday.
Fear, outrage, comparison, uh,urgency.
(22:27):
We need scripture to re narrateour lives, to re-narrate um
reality for us.
Paul said, do not be conform tothe patterns of this world, but
be transformed by the renewingof your mind.
We need the word of God to beginto renew our minds, to
recalibrate us so that we onewill know God's voice, so that
(22:51):
when we're praying and thosethoughts come in, we we can
know.
Is that you or is that me?
SPEAKER_01 (22:56):
Right.
SPEAKER_03 (22:57):
Holy Spirit, was that you?
Was that a bad taco?
Right.
Um, what's going on here?
We'll know.
Um, when situations come up,we'll have his word.
Um, scripture says, Man, I havehidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin againstyou, so that when temptation
comes, we man, we we don'tbattle with with just our
(23:17):
willpower.
We have the the spirit of Godand his word living inside of
us.
When Jesus was um, and we'regonna talk about fasting here in
a minute, but when he went outinto the wilderness to fast and
Satan came and tempted him, howdid he fight?
He fought with the word.
We need to know God's word.
Um, it it needs to be inside ofus.
It's it pierces, it'sdouble-edged, you know.
(23:40):
It comes in and it it separatesour our thoughts and our
desires, our innermost being.
And it begins to teach us, man,this is how God thinks on these
things.
SPEAKER_01 (23:50):
You know, we have a lot of uh, I've had some people
say, Man, you use a lot ofscripture when you preach.
And I do.
I like I like to back everythingup I say, and uh, but you know,
there's a lot of preachers outthere who take a verse or a half
a verse and preach a wholesermon on it.
And I'm not saying that that'swrong, but my opinion as a
(24:14):
pastor about a verse or what Ithink it's saying to me is not
as powerful as the scriptureitself.
That's right.
So I like to read thosescriptures out loud.
God promises that his word, notTim's word, will never come back
void.
Uh, so the scripture ispowerful.
And um, one word that we hear alot in life today is the
(24:40):
narrative, the narrative.
You know, the news is trying toproduce their narrative over
everything that happens.
Well, the world is trying tochange your narrative.
That this thing is about me,that this thing is about my kids
or my politics or my whatever.
The Bible straightens yournarrative out because you are
(25:01):
living a narrative.
You are um your salvation, therest of eternity, is part of the
scripture.
Your life is going to be part ofGod's scripture.
This is what I done in Tim.
This is what I done in have donein Ryan.
And uh that story lives onforever, that narrative, and you
(25:21):
need to correct your narrativeand make sure that um you're
living in the narrative that thethe Lord has laid out for you.
And that's what reading thescripture does.
SPEAKER_03 (25:32):
So here's what I would encourage you to do.
Um you can join a Bible readingplan.
Um, we have one.
If you go to the, you know, anyof the QR codes in the building,
you scan it, you can downloadit, um, and you can just start
reading with us.
Or if that's feels like toomuch, um you can just commit to
reading, reading something.
(25:52):
Um, you know, maybe say, hey, inthe next month, I want I want to
read through the book of John.
Um and get through John thismonth.
And then when you're done withJohn, go on to Romans.
Read the book of Romans for amonth.
Um make make it easy.
Um and and here's what I'mconvinced.
If you'll start to do that, umyou'll develop a hunger for
(26:12):
God's word.
You'll want to read it.
Um, God's gonna work on yourwant-tos here.
And um it's uh, you know, I Iused to challenge the the youth
group back when I was leadingthe youth ministry, um, Bible
before Facebook.
I don't know if teenagers are onFacebook anymore, but they were
back then.
But my challenge was becauseevery time you pick up your
(26:33):
phone, you know, you go to that,whatever your social media app
of choice is, and I wanted themto begin to see that icon and
know it was a prompt and achallenge to say, man, have I
been in God's word before I geton here and I consume all this
information and all these otherpeople's thoughts and their
anger and their outrage and andmy jealousy and all this stuff.
(26:57):
Have I have I taken time to readGod's word?
Do I know what God wants to sayto me?
And so maybe that use that umwhatever before whatever you do,
uh, usually in the morning.
Um for me, it's in a news app.
I love I love to catch up onsome news.
Um, you know, or I got somepodcasters that I like to listen
to before I jump on theirpodcast.
(27:17):
God, have I spent time with you?
Um, because as as you said, Tim,these are the this is the thing
that's going to remain.
This is the thing that lasts.
It is more powerful than evenwhat pastors have to say about
God's word.
Um and that that was the pointTim was making.
The the scripture never returnsvoid, it's going to produce
fruit in in due season.
(27:40):
And we need to know it.
We need to know it.
SPEAKER_01 (27:43):
I think sometimes um there's different personalities
out there.
And uh I want I want to try tospeak to that just for a minute.
When you stretch something out along way for some of you guys
who have that personality whereum you know I I want this to be
(28:08):
done.
You know, I I it's a goal.
You want me to do this?
I don't want to do it all yearlong.
I want to kill it.
You know, I just I want to getit done and put it behind me.
So if one of your goals is toread through the Bible in a
year, just take um just takeabout a week and say, okay, I'm
(28:29):
gonna read the New Testamentthis week.
Takes about nine hours, nine toten hours to read the New
Testament.
You're like, that's all?
And you're stretching it outover a year.
I could get that done in thefirst week of January and I'll
be done.
And uh so I encourage you to dothat, but that shouldn't be the
(28:49):
only scripture for the rest ofthe year, because things are
happening all year long, and theLord wants to speak to you
through his word.
So I know there's a lot of rushaheads, check that box, I got
that done, and that's great.
I think you should do that, butat the same time, you should
have a devotional that you pickup every day and read a
scripture and think about itthat day.
(29:11):
Also, don't think that you cankill this thing in January,
because you could.
You could in the month ofJanuary, you could read the
whole Bible.
Um, takes about 10 hours, takesabout 25 hours to get through
the Old Testament.
It's not as big as you think itis.
Um, it looks big when you openit and the words are so small
and you think I'm never gonnaget through this.
(29:32):
But um, if you um read it andnot listen to it, you can get
you can get it done, NewTestament, about 10 hours.
And that's great.
I'm not saying that's not great,but what we want you to do is
live in God's word, and thatmeans every day you gotta pick
it up.
That's right.
All right, sorry I added allthat to the end.
SPEAKER_03 (29:53):
That's good.
Um, I'm watching our time here.
This might end up being a parttwo.
Yeah.
It'll be part three of thesermon uh going on.
Um, but the third practice waswas worship.
Um you know, we we need to tospend some time where we are
focused on on the Lord and notasking him for things, but we
(30:16):
reorient our our lives aroundman, he is he's holy, he is
supreme, he is seated above itall.
Um is God on on the throne?
Um, does he have my affection?
Does he have my devotion?
Uh loyalty is a word that we usea lot around here.
(30:37):
Um and man, we we become what weworship.
We do.
And so when we worship, youknow, growing up, I wanted to be
in the NFL.
That was my dream.
And so you start to worshipthese quarterbacks, Peyton
Manning, Tom Brady, and youknow, we don't call it worship,
but it it's all you think about,all you're focused on, right?
(30:58):
That's what it is.
And then you you want to startdressing like they dress, you
want to walk like they walk,throw like they throw.
SPEAKER_01 (31:06):
You know, your your approach uh to your throw, you
your footsteps when you throw,and you you look at everything
he does, and that's the waythat's the way we need to
worship the Lord.
Um and I think uh worship has tobe daily, and that's kind of
weird for us, you know.
Okay, God, you're awesome.
Now what do I say?
(31:27):
You know, um, but we have psalmsthat worship the Lord uh that
you can read to him.
Uh now when we someone's havinga birthday or it's an
anniversary, well, you go get acard where someone else decided
what was sweet to say, and webuy it and say, Yeah, I feel
like that.
Here, take it.
You can do that with God too.
(31:48):
You can sing them a song.
And and matter of fact, that's abig thing that's going around
the church right now is there'sthese uh daily songs.
Teresa's been doing it, um, andthey'll pick uh older songs and
they'll sing, and you can hearit on your phone.
Uh they'll sing and you singwith them, and you sing uh to
(32:09):
the Lord.
Uh just one song.
It's not um, you know, a worshiptime at church or anything like
that.
You just sing them a songsaying, I Lord, look, I you
don't have to be breaking downin tears every time.
It's just this song is what Iwant to say to you.
You know, this is who you are.
And by faith, I'm gonna worshipyou and sing them that song,
(32:34):
read them that song, get an oldhymnal, read them those songs.
Uh if we buy cards for your wifeto say sweet things because you
can't think of anything, thenman, there's things laying
around in your house right nowthat you can read to the Lord,
especially in the Psalms.
That's right.
And say, Hey, this is this iswhat I think about you, this is
(32:55):
what I think I think about you,make that real in my life that I
think this about you.
You know, your unfailing love.
You're my shield, you're my umportion.
You there's so many things inthe scripture that you can read
to him, and that's what they'refor, uh, for us to worship him.
So don't, don't, when we sayworship, it's like, okay, you
(33:15):
know, God is great and God isgood.
Oh, wait, this isn't dinner.
Um, we have to let's let's getexpressive.
Uh Troy was telling me he'sdoing that song thing that Trace
is doing, and he's singing asong every morning uh to the
Lord.
And uh you can do that or youcan read an old hymn book.
(33:36):
Let's just do it.
Let's just he wants us toworship him.
Let's worship him every day.
Then when you get to church, youget to corporate worship.
It's the only time of the weekthat you can get together with
other believers and lift yourvoice to him.
So when we're in church sing thesongs, you don't have to dance
like Ryan.
SPEAKER_02 (33:55):
And um, I'm all over that front row.
SPEAKER_01 (33:58):
The cutest, cutest thing I've seen in a long time
was yesterday.
Um Ryan takes this big step outaway from his seat.
So he couldn't do it if hewasn't sitting on the front row.
Steps out and he raises hishand, and he does it just about
in a certain part of every song.
He always does it.
(34:18):
He doesn't even know he does it.
Nope.
And but um Reese was standingnext to you, your son Reese, and
uh he started stepping out whenyou stepped out, raising his
hand.
And I thought, man, that wasawesome.
I wish we'd got that on tape.
Now you're crying over there.
But uh uh we need the corporateworship.
Man, sing those songs.
(34:39):
That's your opportunity to tellGod, hey, I'm here because of
you.
I'm not here because of me.
That's right.
I'm not here to for you to fixme or get me over my anxiety or
whatever.
You may do that, but I'm firstthing, I'm here for you.
SPEAKER_03 (34:53):
Here's what's so powerful about worship is every
time we do it, God gets bigger.
And I don't mean physically Godgets bigger.
He he's God, right?
He gets bigger to us.
Our our perspective of him, ourview of him, gets bigger.
And as that happens, everythingelse around us begins to get
(35:17):
smaller, and it gets to it getsput in its right place.
No, no, no.
I man, I have been spending somuch time thinking about this
thing.
But as I start to think aboutGod and his bigness, his
grandeur, also in this thing,shoot, that seems tiny in
comparison to God.
(35:38):
And man, if God could do allthese other things, well, surely
he can take care of this, andGod just gets bigger and bigger
in our lives.
Um man, worship is powerful.
We used to sing this.
I don't think we've sung it in awhile, but you know, this is how
I fight my battles, uh, talkingabout it's through praise, it's
through worship.
Right.
Um, we we need to to worship,and it's one of the things I
(35:59):
love about David.
Um, he was a man who definitelyflawed, had a lot of got a lot
of things wrong.
But he was a man after God'sheart, and he loved to worship
his king.
Um, and he was a guy who dancedtoo.
SPEAKER_01 (36:13):
So yeah.
Hey, um, moving on, we're gonnatalk a little bit about
fellowship here.
And it's one of those things wetalk, we we say it all the time.
Um, it's about community.
Um the we are God's assembly.
We are a bunch of people that umneed to be together to grow.
And I don't I uh it's it's atough sell in our culture
(36:39):
nowadays.
I don't want anybody around me,I don't want to have to deal
with anybody else.
All they do is hurt me ordisagree with me.
And uh, but the problem is wethink that isolation makes us
lonely, but uh it doesn't.
Isolation makes you delusional.
(36:59):
Ouch.
I think uh it does.
We don't have anybody to stop usin our thoughts and our opinions
and uh and we resist that.
We don't want anybody telling usthat we're wrong or anything
like that.
And but the problem when we getisolated is there's nobody to
(37:23):
stop our foolishness.
Yeah.
So look at um oh, what's thatsinging competition that we do
here uh in the United States?
What was that thing called?
American Idol.
American Idol.
Right.
You watch we uh I I only watchthe first few shows where the
people are um I don't know,they're just trying to get in
(37:47):
and and most of them can't sing.
But they've been just with theirlittle family group or whatever,
and and they think they'reawesome, but they've never been
around somebody who don't thinkthey're awesome.
And our opinions about the Lordand stuff like that need to go
through crunch time with fellowbelievers.
You know, we need to talk aboutthat's what life group's all
(38:09):
about is to just this is what Iwas thinking, and you need
someone to say, no, don't dothat.
You know, look at look over hereat this scripture.
This is probably not thedirection you want to go.
This is the way this characterin the Bible went, and uh, so
you need to lean back onforgiveness.
And uh so we have um many, manythings that can happen when
(38:32):
you're isolated that just beingaround a group of believers
changes.
SPEAKER_03 (38:38):
So important for our lives.
Um, and that's why we do, wepush and encourage everybody to
join a life group.
Uh we need to be around peoplewho will hold us accountable,
who will encourage us, but yeah,who help us see those blind
slots.
Man, I believe this about God.
And they're like, What?
Why why do you believe thatabout God?
Right.
Um, we we need those people.
(38:59):
And if our and I think this isone of the things the enemy does
is he pushes us in further andfurther into isolation,
especially when we findourselves wrapped up in
something we're not supposed tobe.
Um, or you know, we'restruggling with that sin uh that
so easily entangles us,whatever.
He'll make us think, man, you'rethe only one that struggles with
this.
(39:20):
You're you're a horribleChristian.
Nobody else deals with this kindof stuff, just you.
Uh man, if they knew this aboutyou, they'd they never treat you
the same, they never look at youthe same way.
Um and man, then we we start tobelieve those lies.
We need to be in community.
Um it's it's one of the mostimportant things.
(39:40):
And listen, I get it.
It's it's not easy.
Um you know, Joy and I, we'vebeen hosting life groups at our
house for I think 12 years now,and getting your house cleaned
up every week to invite thesepeople over, and um you know,
making sure you you've studiedand you prepared a lesson so
that when they're there, you'renot just wasting everybody's
time and it it's a lot of work.
(40:03):
Um but man, we've some of ourclosest friends are people that
joined our life group and we'vegot to know them and we do life
together now.
It's we have people in ourcorner because of it, and we're
in their corner.
When they need something, wewant to be the first to say,
Man, we're we're here for you.
We need that kind of fellowship,that kind of community.
(40:24):
And I love how I mean you'vealways described this as a
tribe.
We're a family of families,right?
Um, and that's that's who wewant to be.
Um unfortunately in culture,we're we're pushing against
that.
You know, everyone used to havea front porch and they used to
go out and sit on the frontporch in the evening and engage
their neighbors.
(40:45):
Now we all got decks on the backof the house.
We don't want to associate withanybody privacy fences and
shrubs so that we can't seethem.
That's that's who we've become.
Isolationists.
Now I got my little postagestamp right here, and I'm gonna
sit on it and don't talk to me.
SPEAKER_01 (41:02):
Listen, if you're an isolationist, the monsters are
gonna come to you.
Um it's it's just natural.
Look at look at what happenswith hyenas.
They try to break out the onethat gets alone.
You know?
Um lions do the same thing.
Any hunters are trying to findthat one who wanders away from
(41:25):
the herd and get that one.
And uh, we need to be careful asChristians because that happens
to us a lot.
We think I need to isolatemyself so I don't get hurt.
No, you need to not isolateyourself so you'll get tough, is
what you need to do.
And that's a that's a hardspeaking, because a lot of
people got hurt really bad inchurch.
(41:47):
And uh, and I apologize forthat.
I I don't want you I won't wantyou to be hurt, but I'm talking
about um aligning our thoughtswith the Lord.
And he's speaking to his churchall the time.
And uh if your church hurts you,I'm I'm sorry.
You come here, we'll leave youalone and just tell us I'm
(42:09):
church hurt and I'm trying torecover.
Uh we'll put you in the backcorner and just let you worship.
And uh, but one day we're gonnaexpect you to get back in the in
the tribe at here or somewhereelse.
And uh so, but we want we wantyou guys to fellowship with each
other and get to know each otherbecause iron sharpens iron.
(42:31):
We need that.
SPEAKER_03 (42:32):
Yep, absolutely.
All right, I'm looking at theclock here, uh Tim, and we're
we're pushing it.
Um I think we've we have uhbrought up fasting a couple
times.
So I think we should get throughfasting, the fifth practice, and
then we we might break off anduh we'll come back for next two
or part three, I guess, nextweek.
(42:54):
Um but uh I don't I don't wantto take up your entire you know
what let's not go fasting now.
SPEAKER_01 (43:00):
Let's let's uh talk about them as a general thing.
When I when Brian said nine upon the stage, I just I felt the
heavy.
You know, it just feels heavy.
How I'm gonna get these ninethings into my life.
I just want to encourage youthat you can get several of
these things done on Sunday.
(43:22):
Right?
You can serve on Sunday, you canfast on Sunday, you can worship
on Sunday, and you canfellowship on Sunday.
You can get all four of thosedone before you even get um uh
to Monday and start your weektrying to do your maintenance on
(43:44):
your spiritual life.
So don't don't give up.
You can you can say, I'm notgonna eat till after church.
I want to be focused on him.
And every time I look at thoseuh honey buns out there in the
prayer uh in the uh coffee room.
I'm going to say, man, I I wantone of those.
And you can say, no, but I'mhere to focus on him.
(44:07):
And it just reminds you to dothat.
That's what's fasting's allabout.
When you want to do that thingyou're fasting from, it's
supposed to turn you back to theLord.
So if you're fasting over asituation, am I going to sell my
house or am I going to move oram I going to have another baby?
Um that's what it's supposed todo.
Man, I'm hungry.
I'm going to eat.
No, I need to, Lord, do you wantus to move?
(44:29):
Do you want us to sell thishouse?
Or even buy a car or you know,something like that.
So fasting is something I do, Itry to do once a month, but a
lot of people only do it, youknow, twice a year.
Um, they do it coming up onEaster, and some do it coming up
on Christmas.
You know, I'm going to take um aday to fast and pray about
(44:53):
something for our family orsomething like that.
So um we're not asking you to doit uh like crazy, but if you go
to bed on Saturday night saying,okay, 7 o'clock, I'm not eating
till after I worship my Lord onSunday, that'll make such a
difference in your life.
You I can't tell you how muchthat'll make a difference in
(45:15):
your life.
Just take that one thing whereyour stomach is pointing you
back to God on Sunday morning.
You'll be ready to worship.
And uh so that's that's justfasting.
And then service, find a placeto serve in the church.
It's not hard.
We got places all over the placewhere you can serve his bride
every Sunday, and then you don'thave to worry about that
anymore.
(45:35):
You know, you don't have to findyou don't have to find uh
charity to work in.
And uh, but one thing aboutservice is that once you start
to serve, you can't get enough.
Um when you serve the Lord, whenyou realize I'm not doing this
for the church, I'm not I'mdoing this for Jesus, it'll
change the way you think aboutserving.
(45:55):
And and then fellowship.
Find somebody to go to lunchwith to break that fast.
Hey, come help me break my fast,and we'll we'll talk about
what's going on at church.
And uh so um it's a little bitdifferent now since church is
not at 10 and over at 11, andthen we we go hit the food
(46:17):
trough.
Uh takes a little bit longer onmy fast, but I'm telling you
guys it'll it'll make a bigdifference.
So there's there's all thosethings you can do right here at
church, and um and then you youdon't have to worry about them
anymore.
What do you think about that,Ryan?
SPEAKER_03 (46:33):
I love that because you know one of the things we
said earlier is we want this tofeel manageable, and I think
this is a way that it feelsmanageable.
Oh my gosh, I can get four orfive of these things done right
on Sunday.
Um does that mean Sunday's theonly time you do it?
No.
But if you'll start there,here's what I trust God to do to
(46:54):
change your want-tos.
Right.
And he's gonna start giving you,and you've heard this if you've
been listening to the midweekpodcast.
Um, I know the most of the firstservice, we're still trying to
get the 11 o'clock service folksto the midweek podcast.
Um, but if you've been listeningto the midweek podcast, you've
heard this before.
God will give you both thedesire and the power to do what
pleases him.
(47:15):
And so as you show up in thisway and say, Lord, on Sundays,
I'm gonna do these things, he'llstart changing one-tos, and then
you'll see opportunities toserve him all throughout your
week.
And it's gonna be little things.
You know, I was at the grocerystore um just this past week,
and I saw this lady, she's uh,you know, elderly lady, not very
(47:36):
tall, trying to get in therefrigerator to grab some
yogurts that were in the back ofthe refrigerator, and I could
just see her looking up.
I'm like, ma'am, you need me tohelp you grab something.
Um, just a little thing likethat.
Your eyes start becoming open tothese things, and you realize,
man, I get to serve God'speople, his bride, all the time.
And it's all these littlethings.
And so it doesn't have to bethis huge thing where yeah, you
(47:58):
need to go and you know, log 47volunteer hours at second
harvest, even though I'm surethey would appreciate it.
Yeah.
Um, we're just saying, man, bethe kind of people ready to
serve in any situation.
Um and when a need comes up, bethere.
Say, man, I I can do that.
Man, I I get to I get to servemy king in this way.
(48:19):
Um, I get to serve his bride inthis way.
And and I I love when people dostuff for me.
I love it even more when they dostuff for my bride.
Um when people, you know, takecare of my wife, man.
I I I can't express how much Iappreciate it, you know.
Um and when you you serve God'sbride, he loves it.
(48:41):
He loves it.
And it man, you you get thatopportunity.
And so, yeah, you can you canknock a bunch of these off in
one day.
So I think you'll start doing itmore often.
SPEAKER_01 (48:50):
I I said that to lighten the load.
Next week we'll put together uma schedule on how how we do
this, and uh you'll see thatit's not a it's not this
unmanageable thing.
Okay, so I want you guys tounderstand that.
And next week we'll we'll walkthrough how that looks in daily
(49:10):
life and um and in your life aswe talk about fasting and
sabbath.
And uh there's so many importantthings in there that that need
to be these nine things reallyneed to be a part of you to keep
you on schedule, yourmaintenance schedule on
schedule, so that your lightsdon't come on.
(49:31):
And if you got a lot of lightscoming on um lately, then then
something has happened to yourmaintenance schedule, and you
might need to take an takeanother look at that.
SPEAKER_03 (49:42):
That's good.
So we'll uh we'll come back nextweek.
We'll kind of flesh the rest ofthese out a little bit.
We'll give you a little bit of alook at how this practically um
can be a part of your life, andwe promise it's it's not as
difficult as it looks from theoutset.
Um we I want to encourage you,you know, we've you heard all
nine in the sermon on Sunday.
(50:02):
Um we've got gotten through fouror five of them here today.
Um I want to encourage you topick one of these things this
week and start to focus on it.
Um prayer, time in his word,service, um, fasting, whatever
it is.
Pick one of those things andsay, Lord, I'm I'm gonna give
this to you.
And I don't really understand itall yet, but I'm best way I know
(50:24):
how I'm gonna sit here and I'mgonna pray.
And I don't even know how topray, but I'm just gonna I'm
gonna tell you what's on mymind, my heart.
I'm gonna, you know, Tim walkthrough some things you can do,
confession, petition, um, allthose things.
I'm gonna do that, and I'm justgonna sit here for you know
three, four, five minutes.
I'm just gonna listen.
Um, if you did that every daythis week, I think by next week
you'd be different.
(50:44):
Yeah, and so we trust God tobegin to change your want-tos
and all this.
And so um, I'm excited to seewhat uh what God does as you
guys start putting these thingsin your life.
And here's what I'd really lovefor you to do is I'd love for
you if if you start implementingthis and you start seeing some
some progress or some changehappen, send us an email.
(51:04):
Uh, email Pastor Tim, emailmyself.
Um there's a button on thewebsite you can click to shoot
us an email.
We would love to hear how God'suh working in your life in this
way and celebrate those thingswith you.
And if you need anything, umguidance on anything, shoot us
an email.
We we'd love to talk with youthrough those things.
Had a lady bring up fasting onSunday, looking for some
(51:26):
information on that.
I told her we'd get to it in thepodcast.
I don't think we covered it verywell for you today.
No, we'll tune in next week.
We'll start that again.
Tune in next week.
Um, but man, if there'squestions that come up, let us
know.
Um we we'd love to answer thosefor you.
Past him, will you pray for us?
SPEAKER_01 (51:40):
Father, I want to thank you for these spiritual
disciplines, and I know I'm uh II've got a thing about 'em, and
I like to talk about 'em, and Irun them in the ground
sometimes.
But Lord, I pray that you'll umyou'll speak to our people here
at AFresh Wynn about uh howimportant it is to keep a uh
(52:00):
schedule, a maintenance scheduleso that your word, your voice,
and um your spirit cancontinually make us like you.
That we're never uh too far fromthe shop uh to where you can
make adjustments on us, Father,to make us more like you.
(52:21):
And Lord, I know uh the biggestthing is to change our want-tos,
but I've seen it happen in mylife, and I want to see it
happen in everyone else here atuh in our tribe, here at A Fresh
Wind.
So, Father, I I pray your powerand your spirit will speak to us
in these things so that peoplecan make some changes, that
(52:43):
it'll affect their ability to beused by you.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (52:48):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
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(53:12):
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Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast, broughtto you by a Fresh Wind Church.
Each week, our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
SPEAKER_03 (00:27):
Well, hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined as alwayswith Pastor Tim, and we are in
week three of our series in theshop.
And uh man, loving this series,but before we dive into it, uh
this past week, we had a childdedication ceremony here at the
church and uh got to celebrateas 13 kids uh were dedicated to
(00:51):
the Lord.
So um, man, what an awesomeSunday that was.
SPEAKER_01 (00:54):
It was uh we saw not only um spouses um vow to teach
their kids um in God's ways, butwe saw single parents get up
there too and say, I'm all in.
Yeah, I love that.
SPEAKER_03 (01:12):
Those are uh those are special ceremonies, man.
And I and I'm praying each ofthose parents understand the
commitment that they they'remaking, you know.
Um, and I try to hammer it homebefore we get them up there, but
uh it's uh man, this is a bigdeal, and we need parents who
are gonna say, as for me in myhouse, we're gonna serve the
Lord whatever it takes.
(01:33):
And so when parents stand up andmake that commitment, man, so
exciting.
And Joy, she was telling me wehave uh quite a few different um
ladies pregnant in the churchright now, and it sounds like we
got to run on some boys, a lotof boys getting ready to come
into the church.
And I was like, sweet! It's likewe need some godly men and we're
gonna train them up, right?
Um, and so Lord's given us theopportunity to do that too.
(01:56):
Um and so, man, just an excitingtime to be part of Fresh Wind
for sure.
Um, but I just and baptisms,probably my favorite thing that
happens in church.
Right.
Child dedication's close second,man.
It is, it's it's beautiful.
It's fuel uh for my fire whenyou see these parents say, Man,
we're all in on this thing.
(02:17):
Yeah, um, and so church want toencourage you, be praying for
those kids, be praying for thoseparents.
Um, enemy hates when we uh westand up and say, Man, I'm gonna
live for God, I'm gonna take astand on this.
Um He he exists to steal, kill,and destroy.
Um so be praying for theirprotection and just wisdom and
(02:37):
discernment as they try to liveout that commitment.
But then with about the sevenand a half minutes I had left in
the first service, I tried topreach uh the the week three
sermon, and I went long.
Um seven and a half wasn'tenough, and I was throwing
wholesale sections of my sermonjust right out the window.
(03:01):
Um service two, uh they they gotmost of it.
They got most of it.
Um but I told I think you stillran out of time in service two.
I did.
I still went over.
Um and that, yeah, no childdedication to go over, make me
go over that time.
And not that any of you probablycare, but the program uh I use
(03:22):
to write my software has a wordcount.
That sermon was a thousand wordsless than my average sermon, and
I still preached it into theground, just kept going.
SPEAKER_01 (03:35):
Well, spiritual disciplines has been something
that uh we've talked about sincewe started together.
These are the things that haveto be in your life.
Um, or uh, like you said, thingson the outside might not change,
but you can you can drift.
You can drift.
(03:55):
And it's uh it's important tounderstand how that works.
I know um we'll be talking aboutfasting in a little bit, but one
of my drifts was money.
Watching my money.
What what's gonna happentomorrow?
And should I move this overhere, move that over there?
And um, coming up on my fastingday, the Lord says, I want you
(04:17):
to fast from business news.
I just I don't want you to lookat that.
I'm like, how long?
And he had to break me of that,and that was a drift.
I was doing everything I wassupposed to do.
All my spiritual disciplines wasin uh in alignment, and uh I
(04:39):
just I just that became moreimportant than things that are
more important.
And so uh now I wasn't goingcrazy, you know, I wasn't
destroying my family with it oranything.
It was just what was my mind wason all the time, and the Lord
said, I want you to take yourmind off that for a while.
But what if I miss anopportunity?
What if I you know lose somemoney?
(05:01):
What what I you know what youknow, retirement's coming up,
what and um he just said, youknow you're not doing all that
great anyways, so why don't youjust let me handle it?
And you quit thinking about it.
And it took a couple of coupleof times he asked me to fast
that until it broke me.
(05:21):
And um now I don't pay attentionat all, which is terrible.
There's a balance in theresomewhere, but uh the Lord said,
Hey, this got too important.
Uh just don't let that be tooimportant.
I'm priority, put that down sixor seven, you know, or eight or
nine.
And um I think we if we don'thave these different spiritual
(05:47):
discipline disciplines in ourlife, then there's a section in
our life that the Lord doesn'thave access to.
SPEAKER_03 (05:56):
That's what these maintenance uh disciplines,
routines, or practices are areall about, is keeping us from
that drift.
Um and we have we've hammered iton the podcast, we hammer it in
our sermons because it's it'simportant.
Um I said this on Sunday, youknow, we all want it to be
something flashy, we all want itto be some big mountaintop
(06:19):
experience.
But much of the Christian lifeis just these faithful steps
over and over and over again.
Even two weeks ago, uh, when youwere preaching, you you were
talking about how it's you knowthese baby steps just over and
over.
And then every now and then Godallows you to take this big
step.
But if you're not doing themaintenance, the big step never
comes.
That's true.
(06:40):
And we we think God's impressedwith our activity, and what he's
impressed with is faithfulness.
Right.
Um, do you show up even when youdon't feel like it?
Do you do you pray even when youdon't feel like it?
Do you open his word even whenyou don't feel like it?
Um that sort of faithfulness.
And um, you know, I quickly inthe sermon I went over nine
(07:02):
different practices.
Um and that feels heavy.
It does.
But I think as we we kind of laythis out today, hopefully it'll
feel manageable.
Manageable.
That's a good word.
Um, because here's the truthwe're we're not natural, we're
not static.
Um, my chiropractor uh Dr.
Brennan used to tell me, youknow, you you don't stay the
(07:25):
same.
You're either getting strongeror you're getting weaker.
Right.
Um, I think John Maxwell saysyou grow daily or you die
gradually.
And that that's true, right?
So we're not just here in thisspot, and if we never do
anything else, then we're justgonna stay here.
That's that's not how lifeworks.
We're being formed.
Every scroll, everyconversation, every habit, every
(07:45):
craving.
And so the question is who orwhat is shaping us.
Right.
And I tried to get the church tounderstand on Sunday, you get
the choice.
You get the choice.
SPEAKER_01 (07:56):
If the Lord's not shaping you, the world is.
That's right.
There's no there's noin-between.
SPEAKER_03 (08:01):
So nine different maintenance practices uh that if
you would begin to to buildthese things into your life will
keep you from that spiritualdrift.
And I'm not gonna tell youthere's not gonna be seasons
when God feels a little moredistant or whatever.
Um, you don't seem to get thegoosebumps you used to get uh
(08:22):
during the worship songs.
There's there's seasons, uh,even uh in our spiritual walk,
but these are the things that'llkeep pulling you back in,
pulling you back in.
Um and it's it's that constantjust realignment, you know.
Uh you realize when you'redriving down the highway and
that car starts to drift to theright a little bit, these are
the maintenance practices thatget you back in alignment so you
(08:45):
can keep driving straight.
Um and then you got something tosay?
SPEAKER_01 (08:49):
I was gonna say Martin Luther um he came to this
point in his life where heunderstood that sometimes it's
not about the goosebumps, youknow, it's about faith.
The just shall live by faith.
And the Lord is going to demandthat you live by faith.
You're gonna have some timesthat are uh not feel good times,
(09:15):
and he's gonna expect you tolive by faith.
The way he trains you to do thatis by every week you go to work,
you know, nothing great happensspiritually, nothing uh big
happens at church, you're notinvolved in a salvation or
whatever, but you continue to dowhat God has called you to do,
(09:35):
and that's faithfulness.
And God, God will um He'll besilent.
Uh, I think uh Billy Graham'swife wrote that book, Streams in
the Desert.
When you just feel like God isdistant, that doesn't mean you
can uh throw a fit and say, God,I know I want you, I want all
that stuff.
No, you keep walking, live byfaith.
(09:58):
I got a stream out here for you,come find it.
And um we need to understandthat that what that's what the
Lord's doing, He's training youfor the days you're really gonna
need your faith.
And if you don't engage it onthe days that are just blah,
then you're not gonna be toengage it when you're in crisis.
SPEAKER_03 (10:20):
We've talked about this quite a bit.
Um you know these these arethings that allow you to be
ready to be used by God.
And I think we all have an idea,you know.
God, I want to be used by Youknow what?
SPEAKER_01 (10:32):
I made that sound, I use the word crisis, but um it's
better better to say in crisisGod uses you.
So, but in a in a time whereGod's gonna use you, if you
don't live by faith, you'renormal every day, then when the
Lord wants to do something, youwon't be the one he picks.
SPEAKER_03 (10:51):
You're not ready, you're not equipped.
Right.
Um scripture says study to showthyself approved.
Well, that means God's God'spaying attention.
Are are you putting the time in?
Are you showing up?
Paul kept telling people train,train, train, train yourself to
be godly.
Um he's like, Man, I wish Icould feed you guys some steak,
(11:12):
but here we go.
I'm drinking milk again.
Like, let's go, let's move on tosome other things.
Um, there is this expectationthat as Christians, we're
supposed to grow.
And these are the things thatare going to grow us so that we
can be used by God.
And then when situations come upand the Lord is drawing someone
to them and he needs someone togo share the gospel, he can say,
(11:34):
Hey, go over there and talk tohim, and you'll be ready to do
it.
SPEAKER_01 (11:37):
And it's not just uh those situations, which are
fantastic, but it's also thesituations where somebody's
getting ready to do something.
Um let's say, like cheat on hiswife, you're at work, this guy,
he's thinking, man, I should goahead and go go see her.
And and marriage comes up andeverybody's complaining, and you
(12:01):
you step in and say, Marriagewas the greatest thing that ever
happened to me.
Love your wife, you'll neverregret it.
And it might stop that person.
So you want you want this umtraining so that when you get in
a situation where everybody'sdown in their wife or
complaining or whatever, there'ssomeone there that stands up and
(12:22):
says, This is the truth.
And um I had someone tell me along time ago, says, Love your
wife.
You won't regret it.
And it's it's it's important.
It's important that we're thereand we're ready to step into
those situations.
And if you're not training,you're not gonna be ready.
(12:44):
You're not gonna hear thespiritual depth of the situation
that you're in because you hearthat thing all the time.
But there's someone there who'sgetting ready to make a decision
that you can just stand in frontof and say, This is the wrong
way to go, and you don't evenknow it.
So God uses this all the time.
So we have to be ready.
SPEAKER_03 (13:03):
And who was it?
Uh Lord was looking for someoneto stand in the gap.
Um man, we preached a wholesermon series on this, and his
name just slipped through mymind.
One of the prophets.
Um man, who was it?
There was a lot of prophets.
I know, I know.
He's he was looking for someoneto stand in the gap.
(13:24):
And man, when we're ready, we'rethose people who can stand in
the gap for our friends, for ourfamily, for our spouses, our
kids.
SPEAKER_01 (13:31):
Um Jonas stood in the gap, but he didn't want to.
SPEAKER_03 (13:34):
He didn't want to.
The most reluctant preacher onthe planet.
SPEAKER_01 (13:40):
Hey, but his I think his his sermon was only nine
words long.
And yours was a thousand, didyou say something?
SPEAKER_03 (13:48):
It was a thousand less.
Um, all right, nine practices uhthat you can begin to put into
your life.
Um, this maintenance schedulethat'll help you grow, follow
Jesus, and and man, experiencethe life, the rich, satisfying,
abundant life that Jesus hasprepared for you.
(14:10):
Um, and I think number onebegins with prayer, right?
We are being trained intodistraction.
Notifications, noise, constantinput.
I mean, we are just we're onoverload, and prayer begins to
train our attention.
Um, and and what I love aboutthe gospels is we see Jesus, Son
(14:30):
of God, creator of the universe,still withdrawing to pray, to
have this line of communicationuh with his father.
And if he needed it, man, howmuch more do we?
SPEAKER_01 (14:45):
Absolutely.
I think we don't um right now Ithink prayer is one of the most
important things you can do forjust sanity.
We are in it, inundated.
You were just saying before westarted the podcast that you
don't believe anything on theinternet at all because it can
all be faked all the time, andnobody's telling us.
You know, I I chasing downBrown's trades.
(15:08):
That never happened, you know?
It's like and at the end theysay, so they're thinking about
this trade.
What?
And I it's ridiculous.
Everything's a lie.
And so we don't hear any truthuntil we pray.
And so it's important that wethat we pray because the Lord
(15:29):
wants to communicate with us.
I think a lot of people thinkthat prayer time is us talking
at God.
No, it's talking with him.
SPEAKER_03 (15:37):
Yeah, yeah.
He he he responds us.
And the here's the thing, we'llsit in these moments of prayer,
right?
And and sometimes you got a lotto say and you say it, but I
would encourage you, you need tobuild some time to sit and
listen.
SPEAKER_01 (15:52):
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03 (15:53):
The problem is we we have been so busy, so
conditioned, um, that for a lotof us we're not even sure what
God's voice sounds like.
And so we'll sit in the silenceand we'll have all these
thoughts running through throughour head, and we don't know, is
that me?
Is that God?
What did Jesus say?
(16:14):
My sheep know my voice.
Right.
We need to begin to getourselves in tune with the voice
of God so that when he speaks,we can hear it.
And that means we need to beintentional about building in
space to allow God to speak tous.
And then it goes into number twois scripture.
We need to know his word becauseGod will never tell us something
(16:37):
that contradicts his word.
SPEAKER_01 (16:39):
That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_03 (16:40):
And so if you're sitting in those moments and you
have this thought, I I need togo hang out with that girl who's
not my wife.
Word of God's gonna stand up andsay, you sit down and shut up.
SPEAKER_01 (16:54):
Or that guy dropped his wallet because God's
blessing me.
Right.
So we we there's a lot of thingsthat uh we need the Holy Spirit
to correct us.
He uses the word and he usesprayer.
And I I I think um people driftwhen they pray, and let me
(17:14):
counter that because I think theHoly Spirit brought it up to me
right now.
When you're praying, and yousay, okay, I'm gonna sit down
this 15 minutes to pray.
And uh if you've been throughour powerful prayer um study,
then you know you need toconfess, you need to worship,
tell God uh how great he is,praise him, and um, then you
(17:37):
need your um petition, whatyou're asking God for.
Um you need to pray for otherpeople, and uh, and then you
need to pray for yourself.
And so you got to have thosefive things.
So we want you to to put thattogether.
And uh so if we do that courseagain next year, try to get in
it.
(17:57):
But those are the things youneed to do.
Number one, your maintenance isuh confession.
You need to confess your sinsand um take a draw on your uh
bank account that God has filledwith everlasting grace and say,
Lord, I was wrong here, youknow, thanks for correcting me.
I'm gonna repent, and that meansdon't do it anymore, and um and
(18:19):
and move on.
So we we need to do those thingsin prayer, but the thing that we
don't ever do, it seems like, iswe get to the end of our prayer
and we're like, dot, period,gotta go, see you later.
So that's like trying to have arelationship with your wife
where you in the morning yousay, Hey, honey, take care of
(18:41):
the kids, gotta go.
And then at breakfast you say,Hey, thanks for the eggs.
And at lunch, you say, Hey,thanks for the sandwich.
And at dinner, you say, Hey,thanks for this food.
And at night, you say, Take careof the kids, good night.
Um, what kind of relationshipare you gonna build?
But that's what we're doing inour prayer life all the time.
We well, we'll pray for ourfood, we'll, you know, uh pray
(19:03):
in the morning, God take care ofthe kids at church uh at school,
and God take the care of thekids as they sleep, and here we
go.
And God is just looking at youlike, do I get a talk in this
conversation?
You ever talk to somebody whereyou can't get a word in
edgewise?
Well, that's how we pray.
unknown (19:19):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (19:20):
And uh so I encourage you to do this one
thing um is to take five minutesand just be silent.
Say, Lord, I'm putting myself inyour presence, ready, set, go
and do five minutes.
And I I guarantee you the Lord'sgonna start talking to you in
those five minutes.
(19:40):
If you'll if you'll be faithfulin that, he'll speak to you.
And um and just say, Lord, I Iwant to be in your presence.
If you don't say anything to me,praise God.
If you tell me things I need toconfess, praise God in another
way.
And then if if you just tell meyou love me, praise God.
(20:04):
Um, I'm just gonna sit here.
The problem is, I know most ofyou, I wouldn't say most of you,
half of you are like me.
It's like, man, I gotta readthese scriptures, so I'm gonna
mow the lawn and listen to themso I can do two things at once.
When you're praying, you can'tdo two things at once.
You know, I know we're driving,this is gonna be my prayer time,
(20:26):
but no, you need that time whereyou're not distracted by
anything else to stop and listenfor the voice of the Lord.
I don't know if it's gonna be inthe morning or if it's night at
night before you go to sleep,but it's important.
And then when you have thatprayer drift where you're you're
praying and uh um you startthinking about other things, and
(20:48):
pretty soon you're like, How didI get here?
I'm supposed to be praying.
Um don't when that happens toyou, don't think, well, Satan's
attacking me, whatever.
No.
When you end up in a situationwhere you're thinking about your
boss at work and you're mad andyou're like, what am I gonna do
today?
Oh, wait, I'm supposed to bepraying, pray for your boss at
(21:10):
work and what you're supposed tobe doing that day.
If you're mad at the presidentor if you're mad at your
congressman and that's poppingup in your head as you're
praying, then pray for your prayfor your anger first, and then
pray, pray for that person.
And don't, don't let if Satandrifts you away from your prayer
and you think it's him, pray forwhatever he drifts you into.
(21:32):
And that'll stop that realquick.
Another way to fix that, twothings, just out of my own
personal prayer life.
Um, pray for whatever you'rethinking about if you get in
that prayer drift while you'repraying.
Number two is pray out loud.
Pray out loud will stop thedrift.
And uh, you can stay centered onuh what you were praying about.
(21:56):
And sometimes we're prayingabout our kids or um maybe about
a struggle.
That you're having in your ownlife and you don't want to
drift.
So pray out loud and it'll helpyou.
Just a couple things out of myprayer life.
SPEAKER_03 (22:07):
That's good.
Second one that we were wementioned briefly was scripture.
Again, we're we're beingdiscipled by headlines and
algorithms, right?
They they know us better than weknow ourselves, I think.
Um and they catechize us everyday.
Fear, outrage, comparison, uh,urgency.
(22:27):
We need scripture to re narrateour lives, to re-narrate um
reality for us.
Paul said, do not be conform tothe patterns of this world, but
be transformed by the renewingof your mind.
We need the word of God to beginto renew our minds, to
recalibrate us so that we onewill know God's voice, so that
(22:51):
when we're praying and thosethoughts come in, we we can
know.
Is that you or is that me?
SPEAKER_01 (22:56):
Right.
SPEAKER_03 (22:57):
Holy Spirit, was that you?
Was that a bad taco?
Right.
Um, what's going on here?
We'll know.
Um, when situations come up,we'll have his word.
Um, scripture says, Man, I havehidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin againstyou, so that when temptation
comes, we man, we we don'tbattle with with just our
(23:17):
willpower.
We have the the spirit of Godand his word living inside of
us.
When Jesus was um, and we'regonna talk about fasting here in
a minute, but when he went outinto the wilderness to fast and
Satan came and tempted him, howdid he fight?
He fought with the word.
We need to know God's word.
Um, it it needs to be inside ofus.
It's it pierces, it'sdouble-edged, you know.
(23:40):
It comes in and it it separatesour our thoughts and our
desires, our innermost being.
And it begins to teach us, man,this is how God thinks on these
things.
SPEAKER_01 (23:50):
You know, we have a lot of uh, I've had some people
say, Man, you use a lot ofscripture when you preach.
And I do.
I like I like to back everythingup I say, and uh, but you know,
there's a lot of preachers outthere who take a verse or a half
a verse and preach a wholesermon on it.
And I'm not saying that that'swrong, but my opinion as a
(24:14):
pastor about a verse or what Ithink it's saying to me is not
as powerful as the scriptureitself.
That's right.
So I like to read thosescriptures out loud.
God promises that his word, notTim's word, will never come back
void.
Uh, so the scripture ispowerful.
And um, one word that we hear alot in life today is the
(24:40):
narrative, the narrative.
You know, the news is trying toproduce their narrative over
everything that happens.
Well, the world is trying tochange your narrative.
That this thing is about me,that this thing is about my kids
or my politics or my whatever.
The Bible straightens yournarrative out because you are
(25:01):
living a narrative.
You are um your salvation, therest of eternity, is part of the
scripture.
Your life is going to be part ofGod's scripture.
This is what I done in Tim.
This is what I done in have donein Ryan.
And uh that story lives onforever, that narrative, and you
(25:21):
need to correct your narrativeand make sure that um you're
living in the narrative that thethe Lord has laid out for you.
And that's what reading thescripture does.
SPEAKER_03 (25:32):
So here's what I would encourage you to do.
Um you can join a Bible readingplan.
Um, we have one.
If you go to the, you know, anyof the QR codes in the building,
you scan it, you can downloadit, um, and you can just start
reading with us.
Or if that's feels like toomuch, um you can just commit to
reading, reading something.
(25:52):
Um, you know, maybe say, hey, inthe next month, I want I want to
read through the book of John.
Um and get through John thismonth.
And then when you're done withJohn, go on to Romans.
Read the book of Romans for amonth.
Um make make it easy.
Um and and here's what I'mconvinced.
If you'll start to do that, umyou'll develop a hunger for
(26:12):
God's word.
You'll want to read it.
Um, God's gonna work on yourwant-tos here.
And um it's uh, you know, I Iused to challenge the the youth
group back when I was leadingthe youth ministry, um, Bible
before Facebook.
I don't know if teenagers are onFacebook anymore, but they were
back then.
But my challenge was becauseevery time you pick up your
(26:33):
phone, you know, you go to that,whatever your social media app
of choice is, and I wanted themto begin to see that icon and
know it was a prompt and achallenge to say, man, have I
been in God's word before I geton here and I consume all this
information and all these otherpeople's thoughts and their
anger and their outrage and andmy jealousy and all this stuff.
(26:57):
Have I have I taken time to readGod's word?
Do I know what God wants to sayto me?
And so maybe that use that umwhatever before whatever you do,
uh, usually in the morning.
Um for me, it's in a news app.
I love I love to catch up onsome news.
Um, you know, or I got somepodcasters that I like to listen
to before I jump on theirpodcast.
(27:17):
God, have I spent time with you?
Um, because as as you said, Tim,these are the this is the thing
that's going to remain.
This is the thing that lasts.
It is more powerful than evenwhat pastors have to say about
God's word.
Um and that that was the pointTim was making.
The the scripture never returnsvoid, it's going to produce
fruit in in due season.
(27:40):
And we need to know it.
We need to know it.
SPEAKER_01 (27:43):
I think sometimes um there's different personalities
out there.
And uh I want I want to try tospeak to that just for a minute.
When you stretch something out along way for some of you guys
who have that personality whereum you know I I want this to be
(28:08):
done.
You know, I I it's a goal.
You want me to do this?
I don't want to do it all yearlong.
I want to kill it.
You know, I just I want to getit done and put it behind me.
So if one of your goals is toread through the Bible in a
year, just take um just takeabout a week and say, okay, I'm
(28:29):
gonna read the New Testamentthis week.
Takes about nine hours, nine toten hours to read the New
Testament.
You're like, that's all?
And you're stretching it outover a year.
I could get that done in thefirst week of January and I'll
be done.
And uh so I encourage you to dothat, but that shouldn't be the
(28:49):
only scripture for the rest ofthe year, because things are
happening all year long, and theLord wants to speak to you
through his word.
So I know there's a lot of rushaheads, check that box, I got
that done, and that's great.
I think you should do that, butat the same time, you should
have a devotional that you pickup every day and read a
scripture and think about itthat day.
(29:11):
Also, don't think that you cankill this thing in January,
because you could.
You could in the month ofJanuary, you could read the
whole Bible.
Um, takes about 10 hours, takesabout 25 hours to get through
the Old Testament.
It's not as big as you think itis.
Um, it looks big when you openit and the words are so small
and you think I'm never gonnaget through this.
(29:32):
But um, if you um read it andnot listen to it, you can get
you can get it done, NewTestament, about 10 hours.
And that's great.
I'm not saying that's not great,but what we want you to do is
live in God's word, and thatmeans every day you gotta pick
it up.
That's right.
All right, sorry I added allthat to the end.
SPEAKER_03 (29:53):
That's good.
Um, I'm watching our time here.
This might end up being a parttwo.
Yeah.
It'll be part three of thesermon uh going on.
Um, but the third practice waswas worship.
Um you know, we we need to tospend some time where we are
focused on on the Lord and notasking him for things, but we
(30:16):
reorient our our lives aroundman, he is he's holy, he is
supreme, he is seated above itall.
Um is God on on the throne?
Um, does he have my affection?
Does he have my devotion?
Uh loyalty is a word that we usea lot around here.
(30:37):
Um and man, we we become what weworship.
We do.
And so when we worship, youknow, growing up, I wanted to be
in the NFL.
That was my dream.
And so you start to worshipthese quarterbacks, Peyton
Manning, Tom Brady, and youknow, we don't call it worship,
but it it's all you think about,all you're focused on, right?
(30:58):
That's what it is.
And then you you want to startdressing like they dress, you
want to walk like they walk,throw like they throw.
SPEAKER_01 (31:06):
You know, your your approach uh to your throw, you
your footsteps when you throw,and you you look at everything
he does, and that's the waythat's the way we need to
worship the Lord.
Um and I think uh worship has tobe daily, and that's kind of
weird for us, you know.
Okay, God, you're awesome.
Now what do I say?
(31:27):
You know, um, but we have psalmsthat worship the Lord uh that
you can read to him.
Uh now when we someone's havinga birthday or it's an
anniversary, well, you go get acard where someone else decided
what was sweet to say, and webuy it and say, Yeah, I feel
like that.
Here, take it.
You can do that with God too.
(31:48):
You can sing them a song.
And and matter of fact, that's abig thing that's going around
the church right now is there'sthese uh daily songs.
Teresa's been doing it, um, andthey'll pick uh older songs and
they'll sing, and you can hearit on your phone.
Uh they'll sing and you singwith them, and you sing uh to
(32:09):
the Lord.
Uh just one song.
It's not um, you know, a worshiptime at church or anything like
that.
You just sing them a songsaying, I Lord, look, I you
don't have to be breaking downin tears every time.
It's just this song is what Iwant to say to you.
You know, this is who you are.
And by faith, I'm gonna worshipyou and sing them that song,
(32:34):
read them that song, get an oldhymnal, read them those songs.
Uh if we buy cards for your wifeto say sweet things because you
can't think of anything, thenman, there's things laying
around in your house right nowthat you can read to the Lord,
especially in the Psalms.
That's right.
And say, Hey, this is this iswhat I think about you, this is
(32:55):
what I think I think about you,make that real in my life that I
think this about you.
You know, your unfailing love.
You're my shield, you're my umportion.
You there's so many things inthe scripture that you can read
to him, and that's what they'refor, uh, for us to worship him.
So don't, don't, when we sayworship, it's like, okay, you
(33:15):
know, God is great and God isgood.
Oh, wait, this isn't dinner.
Um, we have to let's let's getexpressive.
Uh Troy was telling me he'sdoing that song thing that Trace
is doing, and he's singing asong every morning uh to the
Lord.
And uh you can do that or youcan read an old hymn book.
(33:36):
Let's just do it.
Let's just he wants us toworship him.
Let's worship him every day.
Then when you get to church, youget to corporate worship.
It's the only time of the weekthat you can get together with
other believers and lift yourvoice to him.
So when we're in church sing thesongs, you don't have to dance
like Ryan.
SPEAKER_02 (33:55):
And um, I'm all over that front row.
SPEAKER_01 (33:58):
The cutest, cutest thing I've seen in a long time
was yesterday.
Um Ryan takes this big step outaway from his seat.
So he couldn't do it if hewasn't sitting on the front row.
Steps out and he raises hishand, and he does it just about
in a certain part of every song.
He always does it.
(34:18):
He doesn't even know he does it.
Nope.
And but um Reese was standingnext to you, your son Reese, and
uh he started stepping out whenyou stepped out, raising his
hand.
And I thought, man, that wasawesome.
I wish we'd got that on tape.
Now you're crying over there.
But uh uh we need the corporateworship.
Man, sing those songs.
(34:39):
That's your opportunity to tellGod, hey, I'm here because of
you.
I'm not here because of me.
That's right.
I'm not here to for you to fixme or get me over my anxiety or
whatever.
You may do that, but I'm firstthing, I'm here for you.
SPEAKER_03 (34:53):
Here's what's so powerful about worship is every
time we do it, God gets bigger.
And I don't mean physically Godgets bigger.
He he's God, right?
He gets bigger to us.
Our our perspective of him, ourview of him, gets bigger.
And as that happens, everythingelse around us begins to get
(35:17):
smaller, and it gets to it getsput in its right place.
No, no, no.
I man, I have been spending somuch time thinking about this
thing.
But as I start to think aboutGod and his bigness, his
grandeur, also in this thing,shoot, that seems tiny in
comparison to God.
(35:38):
And man, if God could do allthese other things, well, surely
he can take care of this, andGod just gets bigger and bigger
in our lives.
Um man, worship is powerful.
We used to sing this.
I don't think we've sung it in awhile, but you know, this is how
I fight my battles, uh, talkingabout it's through praise, it's
through worship.
Right.
Um, we we need to to worship,and it's one of the things I
(35:59):
love about David.
Um, he was a man who definitelyflawed, had a lot of got a lot
of things wrong.
But he was a man after God'sheart, and he loved to worship
his king.
Um, and he was a guy who dancedtoo.
SPEAKER_01 (36:13):
So yeah.
Hey, um, moving on, we're gonnatalk a little bit about
fellowship here.
And it's one of those things wetalk, we we say it all the time.
Um, it's about community.
Um the we are God's assembly.
We are a bunch of people that umneed to be together to grow.
And I don't I uh it's it's atough sell in our culture
(36:39):
nowadays.
I don't want anybody around me,I don't want to have to deal
with anybody else.
All they do is hurt me ordisagree with me.
And uh, but the problem is wethink that isolation makes us
lonely, but uh it doesn't.
Isolation makes you delusional.
(36:59):
Ouch.
I think uh it does.
We don't have anybody to stop usin our thoughts and our opinions
and uh and we resist that.
We don't want anybody telling usthat we're wrong or anything
like that.
And but the problem when we getisolated is there's nobody to
(37:23):
stop our foolishness.
Yeah.
So look at um oh, what's thatsinging competition that we do
here uh in the United States?
What was that thing called?
American Idol.
American Idol.
Right.
You watch we uh I I only watchthe first few shows where the
people are um I don't know,they're just trying to get in
(37:47):
and and most of them can't sing.
But they've been just with theirlittle family group or whatever,
and and they think they'reawesome, but they've never been
around somebody who don't thinkthey're awesome.
And our opinions about the Lordand stuff like that need to go
through crunch time with fellowbelievers.
You know, we need to talk aboutthat's what life group's all
(38:09):
about is to just this is what Iwas thinking, and you need
someone to say, no, don't dothat.
You know, look at look over hereat this scripture.
This is probably not thedirection you want to go.
This is the way this characterin the Bible went, and uh, so
you need to lean back onforgiveness.
And uh so we have um many, manythings that can happen when
(38:32):
you're isolated that just beingaround a group of believers
changes.
SPEAKER_03 (38:38):
So important for our lives.
Um, and that's why we do, wepush and encourage everybody to
join a life group.
Uh we need to be around peoplewho will hold us accountable,
who will encourage us, but yeah,who help us see those blind
slots.
Man, I believe this about God.
And they're like, What?
Why why do you believe thatabout God?
Right.
Um, we we need those people.
(38:59):
And if our and I think this isone of the things the enemy does
is he pushes us in further andfurther into isolation,
especially when we findourselves wrapped up in
something we're not supposed tobe.
Um, or you know, we'restruggling with that sin uh that
so easily entangles us,whatever.
He'll make us think, man, you'rethe only one that struggles with
this.
(39:20):
You're you're a horribleChristian.
Nobody else deals with this kindof stuff, just you.
Uh man, if they knew this aboutyou, they'd they never treat you
the same, they never look at youthe same way.
Um and man, then we we start tobelieve those lies.
We need to be in community.
Um it's it's one of the mostimportant things.
(39:40):
And listen, I get it.
It's it's not easy.
Um you know, Joy and I, we'vebeen hosting life groups at our
house for I think 12 years now,and getting your house cleaned
up every week to invite thesepeople over, and um you know,
making sure you you've studiedand you prepared a lesson so
that when they're there, you'renot just wasting everybody's
time and it it's a lot of work.
(40:03):
Um but man, we've some of ourclosest friends are people that
joined our life group and we'vegot to know them and we do life
together now.
It's we have people in ourcorner because of it, and we're
in their corner.
When they need something, wewant to be the first to say,
Man, we're we're here for you.
We need that kind of fellowship,that kind of community.
(40:24):
And I love how I mean you'vealways described this as a
tribe.
We're a family of families,right?
Um, and that's that's who wewant to be.
Um unfortunately in culture,we're we're pushing against
that.
You know, everyone used to havea front porch and they used to
go out and sit on the frontporch in the evening and engage
their neighbors.
(40:45):
Now we all got decks on the backof the house.
We don't want to associate withanybody privacy fences and
shrubs so that we can't seethem.
That's that's who we've become.
Isolationists.
Now I got my little postagestamp right here, and I'm gonna
sit on it and don't talk to me.
SPEAKER_01 (41:02):
Listen, if you're an isolationist, the monsters are
gonna come to you.
Um it's it's just natural.
Look at look at what happenswith hyenas.
They try to break out the onethat gets alone.
You know?
Um lions do the same thing.
Any hunters are trying to findthat one who wanders away from
(41:25):
the herd and get that one.
And uh, we need to be careful asChristians because that happens
to us a lot.
We think I need to isolatemyself so I don't get hurt.
No, you need to not isolateyourself so you'll get tough, is
what you need to do.
And that's a that's a hardspeaking, because a lot of
people got hurt really bad inchurch.
(41:47):
And uh, and I apologize forthat.
I I don't want you I won't wantyou to be hurt, but I'm talking
about um aligning our thoughtswith the Lord.
And he's speaking to his churchall the time.
And uh if your church hurts you,I'm I'm sorry.
You come here, we'll leave youalone and just tell us I'm
(42:09):
church hurt and I'm trying torecover.
Uh we'll put you in the backcorner and just let you worship.
And uh, but one day we're gonnaexpect you to get back in the in
the tribe at here or somewhereelse.
And uh so, but we want we wantyou guys to fellowship with each
other and get to know each otherbecause iron sharpens iron.
(42:31):
We need that.
SPEAKER_03 (42:32):
Yep, absolutely.
All right, I'm looking at theclock here, uh Tim, and we're
we're pushing it.
Um I think we've we have uhbrought up fasting a couple
times.
So I think we should get throughfasting, the fifth practice, and
then we we might break off anduh we'll come back for next two
or part three, I guess, nextweek.
(42:54):
Um but uh I don't I don't wantto take up your entire you know
what let's not go fasting now.
SPEAKER_01 (43:00):
Let's let's uh talk about them as a general thing.
When I when Brian said nine upon the stage, I just I felt the
heavy.
You know, it just feels heavy.
How I'm gonna get these ninethings into my life.
I just want to encourage youthat you can get several of
these things done on Sunday.
(43:22):
Right?
You can serve on Sunday, you canfast on Sunday, you can worship
on Sunday, and you canfellowship on Sunday.
You can get all four of thosedone before you even get um uh
to Monday and start your weektrying to do your maintenance on
(43:44):
your spiritual life.
So don't don't give up.
You can you can say, I'm notgonna eat till after church.
I want to be focused on him.
And every time I look at thoseuh honey buns out there in the
prayer uh in the uh coffee room.
I'm going to say, man, I I wantone of those.
And you can say, no, but I'mhere to focus on him.
(44:07):
And it just reminds you to dothat.
That's what's fasting's allabout.
When you want to do that thingyou're fasting from, it's
supposed to turn you back to theLord.
So if you're fasting over asituation, am I going to sell my
house or am I going to move oram I going to have another baby?
Um that's what it's supposed todo.
Man, I'm hungry.
I'm going to eat.
No, I need to, Lord, do you wantus to move?
(44:29):
Do you want us to sell thishouse?
Or even buy a car or you know,something like that.
So fasting is something I do, Itry to do once a month, but a
lot of people only do it, youknow, twice a year.
Um, they do it coming up onEaster, and some do it coming up
on Christmas.
You know, I'm going to take um aday to fast and pray about
(44:53):
something for our family orsomething like that.
So um we're not asking you to doit uh like crazy, but if you go
to bed on Saturday night saying,okay, 7 o'clock, I'm not eating
till after I worship my Lord onSunday, that'll make such a
difference in your life.
You I can't tell you how muchthat'll make a difference in
(45:15):
your life.
Just take that one thing whereyour stomach is pointing you
back to God on Sunday morning.
You'll be ready to worship.
And uh so that's that's justfasting.
And then service, find a placeto serve in the church.
It's not hard.
We got places all over the placewhere you can serve his bride
every Sunday, and then you don'thave to worry about that
anymore.
(45:35):
You know, you don't have to findyou don't have to find uh
charity to work in.
And uh, but one thing aboutservice is that once you start
to serve, you can't get enough.
Um when you serve the Lord, whenyou realize I'm not doing this
for the church, I'm not I'mdoing this for Jesus, it'll
change the way you think aboutserving.
(45:55):
And and then fellowship.
Find somebody to go to lunchwith to break that fast.
Hey, come help me break my fast,and we'll we'll talk about
what's going on at church.
And uh so um it's a little bitdifferent now since church is
not at 10 and over at 11, andthen we we go hit the food
(46:17):
trough.
Uh takes a little bit longer onmy fast, but I'm telling you
guys it'll it'll make a bigdifference.
So there's there's all thosethings you can do right here at
church, and um and then you youdon't have to worry about them
anymore.
What do you think about that,Ryan?
SPEAKER_03 (46:33):
I love that because you know one of the things we
said earlier is we want this tofeel manageable, and I think
this is a way that it feelsmanageable.
Oh my gosh, I can get four orfive of these things done right
on Sunday.
Um does that mean Sunday's theonly time you do it?
No.
But if you'll start there,here's what I trust God to do to
(46:54):
change your want-tos.
Right.
And he's gonna start giving you,and you've heard this if you've
been listening to the midweekpodcast.
Um, I know the most of the firstservice, we're still trying to
get the 11 o'clock service folksto the midweek podcast.
Um, but if you've been listeningto the midweek podcast, you've
heard this before.
God will give you both thedesire and the power to do what
pleases him.
(47:15):
And so as you show up in thisway and say, Lord, on Sundays,
I'm gonna do these things, he'llstart changing one-tos, and then
you'll see opportunities toserve him all throughout your
week.
And it's gonna be little things.
You know, I was at the grocerystore um just this past week,
and I saw this lady, she's uh,you know, elderly lady, not very
(47:36):
tall, trying to get in therefrigerator to grab some
yogurts that were in the back ofthe refrigerator, and I could
just see her looking up.
I'm like, ma'am, you need me tohelp you grab something.
Um, just a little thing likethat.
Your eyes start becoming open tothese things, and you realize,
man, I get to serve God'speople, his bride, all the time.
And it's all these littlethings.
And so it doesn't have to bethis huge thing where yeah, you
(47:58):
need to go and you know, log 47volunteer hours at second
harvest, even though I'm surethey would appreciate it.
Yeah.
Um, we're just saying, man, bethe kind of people ready to
serve in any situation.
Um and when a need comes up, bethere.
Say, man, I I can do that.
Man, I I get to I get to servemy king in this way.
(48:19):
Um, I get to serve his bride inthis way.
And and I I love when people dostuff for me.
I love it even more when they dostuff for my bride.
Um when people, you know, takecare of my wife, man.
I I I can't express how much Iappreciate it, you know.
Um and when you you serve God'sbride, he loves it.
(48:41):
He loves it.
And it man, you you get thatopportunity.
And so, yeah, you can you canknock a bunch of these off in
one day.
So I think you'll start doing itmore often.
SPEAKER_01 (48:50):
I I said that to lighten the load.
Next week we'll put together uma schedule on how how we do
this, and uh you'll see thatit's not a it's not this
unmanageable thing.
Okay, so I want you guys tounderstand that.
And next week we'll we'll walkthrough how that looks in daily
(49:10):
life and um and in your life aswe talk about fasting and
sabbath.
And uh there's so many importantthings in there that that need
to be these nine things reallyneed to be a part of you to keep
you on schedule, yourmaintenance schedule on
schedule, so that your lightsdon't come on.
(49:31):
And if you got a lot of lightscoming on um lately, then then
something has happened to yourmaintenance schedule, and you
might need to take an takeanother look at that.
SPEAKER_03 (49:42):
That's good.
So we'll uh we'll come back nextweek.
We'll kind of flesh the rest ofthese out a little bit.
We'll give you a little bit of alook at how this practically um
can be a part of your life, andwe promise it's it's not as
difficult as it looks from theoutset.
Um we I want to encourage you,you know, we've you heard all
nine in the sermon on Sunday.
(50:02):
Um we've got gotten through fouror five of them here today.
Um I want to encourage you topick one of these things this
week and start to focus on it.
Um prayer, time in his word,service, um, fasting, whatever
it is.
Pick one of those things andsay, Lord, I'm I'm gonna give
this to you.
And I don't really understand itall yet, but I'm best way I know
(50:24):
how I'm gonna sit here and I'mgonna pray.
And I don't even know how topray, but I'm just gonna I'm
gonna tell you what's on mymind, my heart.
I'm gonna, you know, Tim walkthrough some things you can do,
confession, petition, um, allthose things.
I'm gonna do that, and I'm justgonna sit here for you know
three, four, five minutes.
I'm just gonna listen.
Um, if you did that every daythis week, I think by next week
you'd be different.
(50:44):
Yeah, and so we trust God tobegin to change your want-tos
and all this.
And so um, I'm excited to seewhat uh what God does as you
guys start putting these thingsin your life.
And here's what I'd really lovefor you to do is I'd love for
you if if you start implementingthis and you start seeing some
some progress or some changehappen, send us an email.
(51:04):
Uh, email Pastor Tim, emailmyself.
Um there's a button on thewebsite you can click to shoot
us an email.
We would love to hear how God'suh working in your life in this
way and celebrate those thingswith you.
And if you need anything, umguidance on anything, shoot us
an email.
We we'd love to talk with youthrough those things.
Had a lady bring up fasting onSunday, looking for some
(51:26):
information on that.
I told her we'd get to it in thepodcast.
I don't think we covered it verywell for you today.
No, we'll tune in next week.
We'll start that again.
Tune in next week.
Um, but man, if there'squestions that come up, let us
know.
Um we we'd love to answer thosefor you.
Past him, will you pray for us?
SPEAKER_01 (51:40):
Father, I want to thank you for these spiritual
disciplines, and I know I'm uh II've got a thing about 'em, and
I like to talk about 'em, and Irun them in the ground
sometimes.
But Lord, I pray that you'll umyou'll speak to our people here
at AFresh Wynn about uh howimportant it is to keep a uh
(52:00):
schedule, a maintenance scheduleso that your word, your voice,
and um your spirit cancontinually make us like you.
That we're never uh too far fromthe shop uh to where you can
make adjustments on us, Father,to make us more like you.
(52:21):
And Lord, I know uh the biggestthing is to change our want-tos,
but I've seen it happen in mylife, and I want to see it
happen in everyone else here atuh in our tribe, here at A Fresh
Wind.
So, Father, I I pray your powerand your spirit will speak to us
in these things so that peoplecan make some changes, that
(52:43):
it'll affect their ability to beused by you.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (52:48):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at a
freshwind.org.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
(53:12):
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
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Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.