November 25, 2024 • 42 mins
Imagine wrestling with the profound battles of the mind as the year ends and new beginnings beckon, like getting that gym membership you always promise yourself. I take you on a journey through my own struggles with unused gym contracts, drawing insightful parallels between physical and spiritual battles. Our minds are the ultimate battlegrounds, and I'm arming myself with scripture like Colossians 3:16 to resist distractions and deceptions. We'll also touch on a common pitfall: idolizing political figures, reminding ourselves that true faith should rest in God, who remains in control regardless of political sway.
Marriage and faith share eerily similar challenges. Picture this: a big fight with my wife led to doubts and reflections, only to realize the issue was with my perspective. Shifting focus to her needs, I regained a renewed appreciation for our relationship. This mirrors our faith journey, where initial excitement can fade, making commitment a challenge. As a pastor and business owner, I emphasize the importance of incorporating God in every decision, aiming for success and authenticity in both our personal and professional lives.
Amidst the chaos of modern life, finding focus can seem impossible. I'll share my strategy of dedicating time to prayer, scripture, and praise each morning to maintain balance. We explore the societal pressures of constant communication and how social media affects mental health. Through my experiences, like the stress of maintaining a podcast, I highlight the importance of spiritual nourishment and inner transformation over superficial changes, encouraging genuine transformation by rooting out lies and embracing scriptural truth. Join me as we discuss how setting spiritual priorities can help navigate life's distractions and keep us centered on what truly matters.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before we get into today's video, I just wanted to
say thank you to all of the newsubscribers.
If you haven't yet considersubscribing, hit that bell
notification so that you can seeevery time I put out a new
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A major portion of you thatwatch my videos haven't
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It's free.
You can also find a PayPal linkbelow if you want to give a
(00:21):
one-time or give a monthly tosupport the channel.
Anything, great or small, isappreciated.
Now let's get into the video.
What is up?
Faith and Failures families.
So glad you decided to stop byand join me today.
Join me today.
(00:50):
Well, we are coming up on theend of the year and, just like
everybody else does, you may begetting a gym membership.
Of course, you may try to beatthe crowd and get into december
instead of january so that youdon't feel like you are starting
something that you won't finish.
We got into a year contract.
I, I think, maybe the firstyear, maybe the second year we
lived in Longview.
We paid monthly.
(01:10):
Now we did three, four monthssolid.
It wasn't that great of a gym,but we did it, we paid for it
and we were those people thatspent that money and we didn't
use it.
Now, we started off really good, but it just kind of tanked,
waited till our year was up andwe did not sign the contract it
(01:34):
happens.
So, like we've been doing inthis series of a Bible study,
we're talking about thebattleground of the mind that
your your your greatestbattleground, that you'll fight,
and to be prepared for thisbattle, I'm trying to give you
some tools so that you can knowhow to fight, know what you're
(01:55):
fighting against and hopefully,by the end of every episode, you
can, uh, have a little betterunderstanding.
Uh, and some tools in your toolbelt, some, uh, some gear so
that you can be able to fightwhen the enemy comes your way,
because the enemy enemy may notbe able to read your thoughts,
(02:19):
but he can whisper in your ear,he can, um, make you believe
things about yourself, aboutother people, about the word of
God, about excuse me about allkinds of different things.
He's good at what he does, so Iwant to try to help you stay
focused and really fight thebattle.
Well, so let's look at ourfirst verse.
(02:40):
Colossians, chapter 3, verse 16says our first verse,
colossians 3, verse 16.
It says Let the message aboutChrist and all its richness.
Fill your lives, teach andcounsel each other with all the
wisdom he gives, sing psalms andhymns and spiritual songs to
(03:01):
God with thankful hearts.
So what we're going to betalking about today is getting
focused.
How can you get your focus back?
So I know I've done this.
I have been in a very hyped up.
I get excited about things andI say I will never.
You know, hey, we just had avoting.
(03:21):
Season is finally over, thankGod.
Hey, we just had a voting.
Season is finally over, thankGod.
I hate this time because peoplestart making it into a religion
and it gets on my nerves.
They start idolizingpoliticians and that's not where
our answer lies.
I'm sorry if that upsets you,but that's not who's going to
(03:43):
deliver us.
That's not who's going to saveus.
That's not who is going tobring us together.
If we say it's a person in theWhite House or a person over a
district or a person over astate, if we don't have this
person, god is not in control.
You don't understand who God is.
You have minimized God into apolitical party or into a
politician and you have no cluewho he is.
(04:05):
Let me be very clear with that.
I don't care if I lose peopleor you unsubscribe, that's fine.
If you think that God is not incontrol until you get the
person you want in the positionyou want, you don't understand
who God is at all.
That's just the facts.
We have to stop trying to makeidols out of men and worship the
one true God.
And the Bible says that whoeverends up there, god has allowed
(04:28):
it to happen.
Well, god has placed them thereto pray for them, and we know
that in the end times which Ibelieve we are in right now,
it's going to get worse.
There's going to be peoplewe're not going to like.
There's going to be peoplesaying truth is lies and lies is
truth, and it makes actualtruth so unclear and muddy when
(04:55):
you don't base it, when youdon't know how to fight the
battle, because you're notbasing your truth on the word of
God, like the word of Godshould be your foundation, the
word of God should be yourstarting point and it should be
your ending point and everythingin between.
So we have to get focused.
Uh, if we lose our focus, wecan lose our way, and when we
(05:16):
begin to lose our way, it's veryeasy for us to stray, for us to
get distracted, for us to betricked by the enemy.
So politicians are really goodat saying I will never fill in
the blank with whatever, I willnever do this or I will always
(05:39):
do that.
Well, why is it that when we dothis, like I'm never going to
eat carbs again, like yeah, yeah, like right now you can see
like bro's got some fat on him Iwill never eat sweets again,
starting monday and on sundaysthat don't count and wednesday
nights, because that's churchdays and those belong to the
lord.
Nobody knows.
God doesn't count calories orcarbs.
(05:59):
Amen, somebody.
So, like we start all of asudden going into the I'm never
gonna do this, but just in caseI have a backup, or just in case
, uh, I'm gonna stick with thisverbiage, this ideology mindset,
because, well, nobody's perfect, right.
So why do we never seem to keepour proclamations or coming up
(06:25):
our new year resolutions?
The same happens when we reador we study the Bible.
This is why, at my church, I doa challenge of 15.
It's five minutes in prayer,five minutes of reading the word
, five minutes of praising,every single day.
And I give out this mandate tothe people all the time and
sometimes I find it hard just todo a simple 15.
(06:48):
So I started putting systemsinto place to where, instead of
turning on a podcast and eventhough it may be a Christian
podcast where I'm ingesting theword, I think sometimes we
substitute the actual word forthose types of things, and we
shouldn't do that.
The word of God is the word ofGod.
A podcast is something toaccompany or help to give.
(07:11):
Maybe understanding to likethis one is to you know, get you
on a train of thought, to helpthe way you see things, to help
shape and mold you.
But your foundation, yourstarting point should be the
word of God, and if you don'tknow the word of God, then
everything I'm saying to you orreading on the screen and all
(07:33):
this other stuff won't makesense.
So we have to, even if it's insmall bites.
If you're new to Christianity ormaybe you've been serving God
for a while, but yet you stillhave issue with remaining as
dedicated as you were.
We do this when we date, whenwe get married, all right,
everything is great, sometimesthe first few weeks, sometimes
(07:55):
the first few months, sometimesthe first few years.
And when we go to a new church,everything is great.
But then they do something wedon't like or agree with.
And then you start to find outwhy you were really there in the
first place or why you werereally with that person.
Are you there because God ledyou there to?
Did God connect you in that way?
Or were you there for the goodtime and the good time ran out?
(08:17):
Were you there because therewas some hype going on, and now
the hype is kind of fadedbecause now you're on the inside
instead of the outside.
And now the hype is kind offaded because now you're on the
inside instead of the outside.
Things aren't as shiny on theinside, things aren't as new and
they're not, as they don't, wowyou as much.
The worship isn't as goodanymore.
It could be the exact samepeople from beginning to end,
but the worship isn't goodenough.
(08:39):
And now, well, the preaching is, he says this a certain way and
he talks like this.
And well, I really don't likethat anymore.
And and uh, he's kind of simpleminded.
You know, I'm just assumingthat's what people think of me.
I don't really know.
But all these things, when youfirst come to a church, when you
first get into Christianity,when you first read the Bible,
(09:01):
it it has this new, shiny,awesome, like everything is good
, everything is new, everythingis great.
Same way in marriage.
You get married, everything'sgood, everything's great.
And then you have your firstbig fight and I in my I actually
had this talk with my wife lastweek.
I think I didn't threaten herwith it, but I was just talking
to her about it because I justgot done counseling some people
(09:22):
for, uh, marriage stuff and Iwas like, yeah, you know,
divorce should never be on thetable, but the thoughts of like,
especially like her, she hasnothing to compare to, nothing
to, to pin me up against thewall with, like you're acting
just like him, like she doesn'thave anything like that, but I
do.
And so when we first got married, in my head I was thinking,
(09:45):
because I got married to thisgood Christian girl that was
like on fire for God, she was aPentecostal girl, she, uh, she
was like, she was like the gym,like she was, she's the, the,
what the word talks about like aholy woman, uh, daily living to
be sanctified, tries in everyway to be a good wife, a good
(10:06):
mother, a good woman, a goodleader.
And we had our first big fightand I'm like and this sounds
dumb and immature, but becauseit was man, this is just going
to be like the last one, like isthis even going to last?
When there was absolutelynothing wrong with my wife, but
(10:27):
because I let my emotions drivethe bus for a little bit, I got
these thoughts in my head thathad no business actually being
there, and so I told her thatlast week and she said wait,
what you did?
I said, well, yeah, I mean, I'mjust being honest, and it's not
that I was like I'm going todivorce you.
(10:48):
It was like man, if this is thesame as what I just got out of,
say, just a few years ago, ifthis is the same as I'm going to
be treated like I have been,I'm not doing it.
And but I kept that to myselfbecause I realized pretty
quickly that it wasn't really aher problem, it was more of a me
(11:08):
problem and that I needed tochill out and walk slow and get
my mind back right and get myfocus back.
So when I started focusing onher needs, her wants, her
desires and being the man I needto be for her and stop worrying
about what's going on with me,it changed.
(11:30):
It shifted my perspective of mywife and the same.
When you go to a new church,like everything's shiny,
everything's good, and then youget in the thick of things,
maybe you have a first blow upor first argument with somebody
in the church and you or thepastor does something you don't,
or they play a song you don'tagree with, or they never play a
song you like, or whatever thecase may be.
Like in the beginning it's new,it's fresh, it's nice, and then
(11:53):
it starts to kind of fade off.
Well, the same withChristianity.
When you come to Christ, likeit's hard to stay in the word of
God, it's hard to stay prayedup.
It's hard to stay in the wordof God.
It's hard to stay prayed up,it's hard to stay fasting.
And and it's not that there'ssomething magical that can all
(12:13):
of a sudden make it be exactlythe way it's supposed to be or
make you be exactly who you'resupposed to be it takes effort
on our part.
Like that's.
I believe that's a part of whatwhat is called sanctification,
where you, every single day, weare choosing to be a man and
woman that chases after God.
(12:33):
Like we're laying our selfishambition down, our selfish ways,
our needs, wants and desires,we're laying them at the feet of
Jesus and we're picking up whathe desires for us.
Now, this is hard.
Okay, I'm, I have a businessbesides, um, being the pastor of
a church.
I have a little media companyand sometimes I catch myself
(12:54):
like just making decisionswithout actually including God
in it, or just working andworking and working and not
stopping and saying, god, isthis what you want me to do?
All I do is ask God to bless mybusiness, or ask God to bless
our finances.
And we pay tithes, we givegenerously, we do everything
(13:18):
with our money that we'resupposed to do.
But I feel like sometimes wehave to play catch up because we
didn't start at the rightstarting point.
That makes sense, because wedidn't include God.
We actually had to start behindso that we can learn some
lessons to get to where Godactually wanted us to be.
That makes sense.
So we have to regroup, refocus,um the same with the church.
You got to regroup, refocus.
(13:39):
We're having a um uh leadershipmeeting here soon and we're
going to be talking about whatis our focus as leadership in
the church.
We're not just coming to dosome things.
We need to be intentional withwhat we are doing so that we can
be successful in what we aredoing.
And the same goes with youreveryday life.
Whether you're a Christian orbeliever or not, this still
applies to you.
(14:00):
This is just some scriptureadded in with some biblical
context of uh, hopefully you canuse it too if you don't believe
, maybe it'll get you curious ofthe wisdom of the word of god,
because I mean, you cannot go toany, any book of the bible and
not get some wisdom.
So the challenge of 15, fiveminutes of prayer, five minutes
(14:21):
reading your word, five minutesof praising every single day, I
I prefer to try to do it when Istart off my day, so that I
don't get to the end of my dayand I'm so tired and exhausted
from that day that I'm just likeoh, I just want to lay my head
down, because that tends tohappen with me, like today,
excuse me, the day I had to be.
I had to drive an hour away andI had to be there at 630.
(14:41):
So that means I had to get upat 430, shower and leave the
house by 515 or 530.
That being said, even though Iwas a little tired, I made sure,
like before, I even left mybathroom, brushing my teeth and
all that stuff.
Like I was playing the Bible,like I have it read to me, and
it was from John, chapter 17.
And I was just kind of, as I'mlistening to the word, I'm also
(15:04):
thinking it through in my headand kind of playing it out.
So I started my day off thatway and it helps my day.
It doesn't necessarily changewhat's going to happen in my day
, but it changes my perspectiveand it changes my vantage point
to where I'm already prepared inhere and in here, whatever
(15:26):
happens out here.
So that's very important, thatI'm getting my focus before
things start grabbing and tryingto rob me of my focus.
Because in in you say 15,challenge of five, five and five
.
Yes, there are small bites, butsmall bites count.
(15:46):
So you maybe don't have thisissue, but I do.
Let me look at my phone rightquick, so I don't lie to you.
I'm going to look at my emails,and this may not be all of them
attached.
Right now Tillman Photographydoesn't count anymore because I
started Tillman Media at Gmail,so that's tied to the other one,
(16:08):
but that's one.
And then the sounds that calmyour mind.
I stopped that because I wasgetting stupid, didn't have time
for it, but that's anotheremail.
So let's just do active emailsalone 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
That's six active emails, buton my entire list that are right
(16:31):
here.
I actually have and thisincludes ones that I'm not using
anymore because I don't havethe time one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine,moly, and that's just email
accounts.
So I have emails from church, Ihave text messages from church
people, then I have the churchemail.
So I have pastorsteven atconnectchurchlife, then I have
(16:54):
connectchurchlongview at Gmail,which is like the parent to all
the other emails, and then Ihave my media company website.
I have my media company website, my podcast email and the
websites, and then I have allthe Facebooks, the groups,
everything, the personal ones,the pages for all the church
(17:19):
podcast media company, instagram, podcast media church, then
TikTok.
I only do one for that, that'sfor my, that's my personal one,
but I put my the clips from thepodcast on there.
Then I have the account thatsends out the podcast episodes
to apple podcast and whateverall the other places are.
(17:42):
That puts it all there.
Then I go on to spotify once Iupload it and then I also upload
the video.
So if you ever want to go tospotify, you can also watch the
episodes on spotify now theyhave it where you can do video
on there.
And then I run a company, likeactually going out and shooting.
So like there's all these thingsin church people, I will have
(18:02):
one person talk to me in fourdifferent ways an email or a
text, or a Facebook messenger orInstagram messenger.
Like nobody ever does the samestream, it's like scattered.
So, as you can imagine, mybrain cells at the end of a day
can be like text, because alldifferent types of people, all
(18:24):
different social medias, alldifferent emails, all different
text messages, phone calls,people in the hospital, people
that having surgeries, peopleneeding counseling, people just
need to talk.
My wife, every once in a while,like before I got on here, she
needed to talk to me Like andthen we're parents on top of
that.
So there's like so many thingsto do just in one day and it's
(18:45):
like sometimes you just feellike you're playing catch up and
then every single, almost everysingle night, there's something
with the church after I get offwork.
So my free time to do thispodcast.
The reason I stopped going liveis because it was taking my time
and it was like I had toschedule it.
I had to do this.
If I just jump in my officeright, quick and record, I can
just schedule it out over like amonth or two and possibly get
(19:08):
ahead of the game, and it's,it's worked a little better for
me.
That being said, everything andI'm sure you have the same,
probably the same story,everything and I'm sure you have
the same, probably the samestory uh, you may have a regular
job where, when you get off,you're off, uh, but but there's,
everybody has something alwaysneeding to grab our attention
and we live in a day of massdistraction.
(19:30):
Our days are filled with suchdistraction and oftentimes are
when there's a um, a silence.
It's almost like we get kind oflike, if you take a, uh, it's,
it's.
I guess it would be addiction,not borderline addiction.
But adults are like this too,just scrolling, like just that
thumb flick, where you're justkind of seeing what everybody
(19:52):
else is doing, just mind numbing, just not do anything, just
flick, flick, just over and over, just that scroll.
But think about this now, thisis not a talk against social
media, but it is.
It is a talk, uh, for you toget your focus back, and I think
social media robs us a lot ofthat.
(20:15):
Um, this is actual stats ondepression and anxiety before
the widespread adoption ofsocial media.
So follow along with this.
Before the widespread adoptionmake sure I didn't have anything
on the screen for you.
Before the widespread adoptionof social media, the suicide
(20:37):
rate among 10 to 24-year-oldswas stable from 2000 to 2007.
However, it then increased by57% between 2007 and 2017.
So, 10 years 57%, according tothe data from the Centers of
(21:01):
Disease Control.
This timeline correlates withthe rise of social media
platforms, indicating apotential link between increased
social media use and mentalhealth issues among young adults
.
Now why has this jumped sorapidly in a small amount of
time 57%?
I believe it's because now welive in a day of comparison of
(21:26):
who we are and who is out there.
So I need to.
I need to post more, and thisis one of my one of my biggest
issues, cause I'm I'm a gogetter as far as like let's's,
let's get this done, let's do it.
So I end up giving myself morestress with this podcast than I
really should by thinking that'swhy I stopped the live stream,
(21:47):
because I kept getting stressedout about when can I do it.
Oh, I missed this week, oh, Imissed next week.
Like I've got to hurry and dothis and it took the joy out of
it, instead of just like turningon a camera and just let's do
this, let's teach something,let's enjoy it, walk through it
together, like the live streampart I made.
I may still do some, but theystressed me out and I'm not, I'm
too old for that kind of job.
So I'm having to change somethings because I was willing
(22:11):
enough, I was at least wiseenough to look and realize that
my stress level was risingbecause of that.
That was the element, not thepodcast itself, because I like
doing it, I love it and youprobably noticed I don't edit a
lot of stuff anymore.
Like I was paying somebody toedit down the five videos and
(22:32):
the several different ones andblah, blah, blah, and I'm just
like I'm pretty much posting ithow it is, maybe taking some
gaps out, but other than that,it is what it is and I'm just
scheduling it out because I needthat.
So if I lose the passion andthe drive to do it and actually
enjoy it, why am I doing it?
So now there's moreopportunities for comparison,
(22:55):
and comparison kills calling, sothe stress level is rising, the
purpose that people werefeeling once they go out and
work, they come home, they enjoytheir life and their families,
and now that's gone.
Well, now everybody's comparingto everybody else and they've
got to keep up with the Jonesesand try to stay on top of the
(23:17):
game so that they can look likethey're doing something, and it
has caused a great up, and thiswas in 2017.
Who knows what it is today?
Like, actually, I'm gonna lookit up right now.
There are some adolescents whospend more than three hours a
(23:37):
day on social media are twice aslikely to experience poor
mental health outcomes.
There's no stats like right nowpopping up, but I mean, it's
just saying what I already know,but not really any serious.
Social media has been linked topoor sleep patterns in 2023,
depression, anxiety.
But it's that losing focus ofwhat's actually important.
(23:59):
Like you'll have people in thesame room texting each other or
like looking at each other'sstuff on social media and
they're not.
They're, they're not.
They're not even communicatingin the same room.
They're communicating throughtheir phones, like looking down
when they can look up.
There's a detachment from socialunderstanding, social behavior,
(24:20):
and I think it's damaging toour culture because this makes
it, when we start comparing toreal, to think that we're never
going to measure up.
And so it seems like we nevermeasure up and we say like
things like oh, I'm going tostart exercising or I'll stop
being distracted by social mediano more unhealthy relationships
, or I'll start eating better,I'll start trying to lose weight
(24:40):
.
But time and time again we findour solutions crumbling.
Why?
Because we're targetingbehaviors without confronting
the roots.
So let's get an analogy If youhad an ugly tree in your yard
and wanted it gone, wouldcutting a single branch work?
No Matter of fact, that'scalled pruning, and most of the
(25:00):
time it'll grow back worse, youdon't, or you?
You would need to deal with theroot system to truly remove the
tree.
In the same way, when weattempt to change by merely
altering our actions, likecutting off a branch, we miss
the root of the issue and thethoughts and the lies that fuels
these behaviors continue togrow and make the wrong kind of
(25:22):
fruit that is unhealthy todigest.
So let's look at some scripture.
Look at Matthew, chapter four,verse four.
Matthew chapter four, versefour.
But Jesus told him no.
The scriptures say people donot live by bread alone, but by
every word that comes from themouth of God Jesus as a physical
nourishment.
(25:43):
Sorry Jesus.
Just as physical nourishmentsustains our bodies, spiritual
nourishment from God's wordsustains our very souls.
This empowers us to overcomedeceit through truth, to
overcome deceitful thoughtsthrough the truth.
What is truth?
(26:03):
God's word is the truth.
So bottom line is this don'tuse culture or other people to
measure who you are.
Don't use culture or otherpeople to measure who you are.
Behavior modification will notmake things get better, but an
(26:26):
eternal heart transformation iswhat is required.
It's like it's crazy to thinkthat simply stopping a behavior
will lead to change.
This is why people end up likebacksliding or going back into
old ways or walking away fromGod is because they come to God
and they try to change thebehavior, they don't actually
get down to the root of theissue.
(26:46):
I've seen people it's most ofthe time women, but I used to do
it too that would.
They would literally convincethemselves that if they had a
certain type of man or a or thisdifferent guy because it's in a
different person that if theyhad that, their life would be
fulfilled, they would be happyand they would enjoy things.
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And it ends up being like thesame thing all over again.
It's because they are trying toaddress the surface of the
problem instead of getting tothe root of it, which would be
like loneliness All the thingsthat they actually desire that
could come from God they'retrying to find in a person, in a
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relationship, and so that'sdamaging, because the root of
the issue is deeper.
If there is bad fruit, you haveto check the root.
We need a two-fold strategy byremoving the lies we talked
about on the last episode at theroot and replacing it with the
truth.
So where does the truth comefrom?
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Well, not from endlessscrolling on the internet.
I mean, yeah, there's a lot ofgood information out there, but
there's so much information it'shard to tell.
When you go out to the middleof the social media ocean,
there's all kinds of beasts outthere that you can't really tell
what they are.
Just because you're out therefishing don't mean you're going
(28:14):
to catch something worth eating.
So let's look at this nextscripture, psalm 119, 105.
It says your word is a lamp toguide my feet and a light for my
path.
Now, knowledge withoutapplication is like a lamp that
is not lit.
You can read this scripture andsay, yeah, that's great, like I
.
Uh, okay, your lamp to my feet,that's.
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But if you're not in the word,then you don't have the lamp
guiding your way.
God's word provides clarity andit provides the direction we
need to be able to walk the pathcarefully and intentionally and
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intentionally.
This brings us back toColossians 3.16, emphasizing the
richness of Christ's message inour lives, that it's not just
enough for us to know God's word.
We must let it sink in, we mustlet it be eternalized inside of
us, because it's not enough toknow God's word.
We must allow it to take root,shaping our thoughts, our
actions, our interactions withothers.
Knowledge without applicationis a lamp that has not been lit.
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Let's go to 2 Timothy.
Oh wait, sorry, one more.
One more from the Psalm 119.
I've hidden your word in myheart that I might not sin
against you.
It's through internalizingscripture, realizing that you
need scripture so that your pathcan be lit Well, that your,
your steps can be sure.
It is the word of God thatlights that path.
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It's also the word of God thatyou need to hide in your heart.
Why do you hide something?
To protect it.
Hide it in your heart so thatyou will not sin against God.
When you internalize scripture,you find strength, you can
resist temptation and you canreplace all the lies that the
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culture tries to tell us istruth, and you'll know.
It's like this.
When they try to see fakecurrency, they're not doing it
by examining all fake currency,like a hundred dollar bill, for
instance.
What they do is they study andexamine the $100 bill to where
they know it inside and out.
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Every little thing about thisdollar bill, this hundred dollar
bill, they know, so they don'thave to study all the bad.
They know when it comes up andit's presented before them, they
can compare and be able to tellthe real from the fake.
The same as with the word ofGod.
If you want to be able to tellwhen fake comes to your doorstep
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, you need to understand andknow intimately the real and
know intimately the real theWord of God.
You can't take culture, learnthings from culture and then
cherry pick from the Scriptureto make your life be okay.
You're doing it backwards.
You have to start.
I've said it a hundred timesyou have to start from the Word.
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Understanding the role ofScripture in personal
transformation is critical.
I've heard several people saythis and I, you know, you get to
a place in your walk or lonelyout there and you're like man, I
just don't hear from Godanymore.
Are you reading his word?
Are you praying?
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And I don't mean mean.
Here's the thing.
Listen, we as christians are sostinking selfish and we could,
we could have god speak to usand we wouldn't hear it if it
didn't match up with what wewanted.
For instance, let's say you'relike man, I just don't.
I just don't hear god on this.
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I just don't know if I'msupposed to do it, or I haven't
heard a yes, or I haven't heardno, or whatever the case may be.
And the sad thing is youprobably wouldn't know his voice
even if he was speaking,because you only come to him
when you want something.
There's no relationship, that'sjust facts.
Like you don't, you don't wanthis voice any other time in your
life until you need some sortof.
Because we are so gifted incoming to God when we need
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something and we're like man, Ijust I don't know what he's
saying.
I don't know what he's saying.
Well, sometimes God withdrawshimself so that his children
become wise and become mature ontheir own, and they don't
always need a hand out that theycan actually make wise
spiritual decisions because theyare aligned with the will of
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God.
But a lot of times, for themore immature people, it's like
my son.
It's not his fault I mean, it'shis fault but he's also a
teenager.
I'm not excusing anything hedoes, but what I'm saying is
this I was a teenager.
Once adults do this, full blown, like up in age adults do this.
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They hear what they want andthey make what they hear.
They twist it up so easy to fitactually what they want to hear
, in spite of whether it'sactually what was said.
And this aggravates me.
My son will say you said to dothis and what really upsets me
is that he's technically callingme a liar and I'm not a liar
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and I will have to help himrefocus on what is important and
replay the conversation back tohim.
But what he would do is hewould hear most of what I said
but then pick and choose partsthat fit what he wanted to do.
I'll give you a firsthand, realexample of just last week.
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He was supposed to practice asong to play.
He plays on the worship teamevery other weekend on the
keyboard.
There's a specific part on aslower song.
It's more advanced, and I toldhim to go practice.
He said okay.
I went back and he was on hisgame.
I said, tristan, go practicethe song or you're going to be
embarrassed when you can't do it.
So he went and practiced.
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I don't know why, but in hishead he thought I told him to go
practice the guitar part ofthat song.
And he's telling me in front ofmy people at my church you told
me to go practice the guitar.
I said no, I didn't.
Why would I tell you to gopractice an instrument you're
not going to play on Sunday?
That doesn't even make logicalsense.
I had to walk him through veryslowly and help him understand
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that I would not tell him to gopractice something that he
wasn't going to be playing.
It doesn't add up.
But in his head he heardsomething.
He heard what he wanted,because he wanted to play the
guitar and play around on theguitar, which is fine, but he
had.
He had something more importantthat was more priority, and he
chose to do it wrong.
And then we had to end upkicking the song because he
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wasn't ready.
But how many of us with God, wedo the same thing, like we hear
what we want and we then, whenwe are on the other side of it,
well, I don't know what happened.
I was just trying to hear fromthe Lord and I didn't hear
anything.
Well, it's because you're notreally actually trying to listen
.
You're trying to rule theconversation and manipulate it
(35:19):
into what you want it to be.
And God, don't play that game.
He'll let you get exactly whatyou're really wanting, so that
you will learn he loves you thatmuch.
Sometimes we have to let ourchildren get exactly what
they're asking for, or to let itgo the way that we know it
shouldn't, because it's betterif it doesn't, so that they'll
(35:42):
learn the actual lesson and notkeep going in this loop over and
over and over and over again.
So let's look at 2 Timothy, 3,16 and 17.
All scripture is inspired by Godand is useful to teach us what
is true and make us realize whatis wrong in our lives.
It corrects us when we arewrong.
It teaches us to do what isright.
(36:03):
God uses it to prepare andequip his people to do every
good work.
So the scripture is meant sothat you can be prepared and
actually be able to fight thebattle properly.
Getting focused isn't aboutadding God's word to the list of
(36:24):
chores every day, isn't aboutadding God's word to the list of
chores every day.
So what does focus mean?
To adapt to the prevailinglevel of light and become able
to see clearly.
It's hard to focus on God whenwe allow distractions to
distance us from him, his word,and ends up leading us into
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disobedience and disassociationfrom God.
The more we allow distancebetween us and God, the harder
it is to regain focus on him andhis voice will seem harder and
harder to hear.
So my question to you is thislike, if you really want to get
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closer to God, you really wantto refocus on God and get your
focus back on his word and andwhat he wants for your life.
Maybe you've been following himfor a while and you seem
distant.
Maybe you're new to Christ andyou've never.
You don't, you don't understandthe closeness I'm talking about
.
This is on on every, everyspectrum, like if you, you and
(37:35):
God are, uh, brand new to eachother or you've been serving him
for 30 years.
This is something that anybodycan slip into, because it takes
effort to keep the relationshipalive.
It takes effort to keep thatcloseness and that unity in the
spirit to be aligned with God.
It takes effort for us to dothat.
And so what is it that maybeyou've allowed to come between
(37:59):
you and God?
It could be a priority, like,maybe you're scheduling out of
your time or maybe you don'tschedule anything out.
Sometimes you have to be, andit sounds dumb.
You're like, well, I shouldn'thave to put it on the calendar,
but if you have to, you have to.
Uh, do you sit there and getfurther and further from God and
whine about not getting beingclose to him, but you won't
(38:21):
actually do any steps to getcloser to him?
Maybe you need to put prayertime on the calendar.
Maybe you need to set areminder on your phone like, hey
, at 1230 pm today or 9 pmtonight, set a reminder, pray,
read your Bible.
Or 7 am, pray, read your Bible.
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You know most people have aschedule.
They got to get the kids toschool, get them up, all that
stuff, get that, find that gapsomewhere.
And you may be like, well, Idon't want to just shove God,
you know, in a slot somewhere.
Maybe that's how you have tostart off and I think with all
of my heart, I believe that Godwill honor the effort that we
(39:07):
put in to trying to get closerto him.
It doesn't mean everything'sgoing to fall into place and be
perfect and just everything'sgoing to be awesome, but it does
mean that you're trying andthat's what God desires.
God wants us to put forth inthe effort.
God is not the only person inthis relationship.
You have to do something, Ihave to do something.
He has done so much.
If he never does another thing,he's done more than enough.
(39:29):
So what is it between you andGod that has robbed you of your
focus?
Whether it's maybe you need tofast Like me, personally, I fast
food once a week, not fast food, I fast eating once a week.
Maybe if social media or emailsor whatever, like if you run a
business, it's hard to do thatwith emails, I get that, but
(39:51):
maybe social media, maybe yourspouse, help you out and say hey
, listen, I know I got to dothis for my business, but I need
you to take care of it for thisday, because I need to purge
myself of the negativity, purgemyself from the.
You know it's all out there.
You can find it anywhere.
But figure out what is keepingyou from God, and this is going
(40:14):
to sound.
It's going to sound terrible.
Children or spouses can do that.
It's important to pray with yourspouse.
We pray as a family every night.
I pray with Tristan when I takehim to school every morning and
when my wife picks him up fromschool she reads the Bible with
him on the way back to the house, about a 10-minute ride.
But sometimes your family youneed to have separation from
(40:38):
your family so that you canreally focus on God.
Maybe you need to go and sit inyour car for 10 minutes every
day at some point when there's agap, when there's a lull,
husbands help your wives out.
Okay, it's not theresponsibility all the time to
take care of everything.
Say listen, go sit in the car,decompress for a second.
Whatever you got to do, it'llbe quiet out there.
(40:59):
Just go sit.
You know whatever it takes,because when you have a clarity
of mind, you'll have a peace ofsoul and you'll be able to
problem solve better.
You'll be able to haverelationships that are stronger.
You'll be able to work moreefficiently.
When you have a plan, don'talways be on the back end of it
trying to do damage control,because that'll wear you out,
(41:21):
trust me.
Try to have a plan before thedistraction, a plan before the
destruction.
Don't wait until your world'sfalling apart to then try to
turn to God.
Turn to God now, and then, whenall the other stuff comes, you
and God will be on the same pageand you'll know what to do.
(41:43):
And even if you don't know whatto do because life can change
like that you'll have peace inyour heart because you trust in
Him, that he knows what he'sdoing, and the Bible says that
all things good, bad and uglywork together for the good of
those that love Him.
So if you love Him, cling toHim, trust Him, focus on him,
(42:09):
lean on him, because I promiseyou his plan is better than any
plan you and I can put together.
I love you, I'm praying for youand I hope you have a great
rest of your week.
Before we get into today's video, I just wanted to
say thank you to all of the newsubscribers.
If you haven't yet considersubscribing, hit that bell
notification so that you can seeevery time I put out a new
video.
A major portion of you thatwatch my videos haven't
subscribed yet, so why not?
It's free.
You can also find a PayPal linkbelow if you want to give a
(00:21):
one-time or give a monthly tosupport the channel.
Anything, great or small, isappreciated.
Now let's get into the video.
What is up?
Faith and Failures families.
So glad you decided to stop byand join me today.
Join me today.
(00:50):
Well, we are coming up on theend of the year and, just like
everybody else does, you may begetting a gym membership.
Of course, you may try to beatthe crowd and get into december
instead of january so that youdon't feel like you are starting
something that you won't finish.
We got into a year contract.
I, I think, maybe the firstyear, maybe the second year we
lived in Longview.
We paid monthly.
(01:10):
Now we did three, four monthssolid.
It wasn't that great of a gym,but we did it, we paid for it
and we were those people thatspent that money and we didn't
use it.
Now, we started off really good, but it just kind of tanked,
waited till our year was up andwe did not sign the contract it
(01:34):
happens.
So, like we've been doing inthis series of a Bible study,
we're talking about thebattleground of the mind that
your your your greatestbattleground, that you'll fight,
and to be prepared for thisbattle, I'm trying to give you
some tools so that you can knowhow to fight, know what you're
(01:55):
fighting against and hopefully,by the end of every episode, you
can, uh, have a little betterunderstanding.
Uh, and some tools in your toolbelt, some, uh, some gear so
that you can be able to fightwhen the enemy comes your way,
because the enemy enemy may notbe able to read your thoughts,
(02:19):
but he can whisper in your ear,he can, um, make you believe
things about yourself, aboutother people, about the word of
God, about excuse me about allkinds of different things.
He's good at what he does, so Iwant to try to help you stay
focused and really fight thebattle.
Well, so let's look at ourfirst verse.
(02:40):
Colossians, chapter 3, verse 16says our first verse,
colossians 3, verse 16.
It says Let the message aboutChrist and all its richness.
Fill your lives, teach andcounsel each other with all the
wisdom he gives, sing psalms andhymns and spiritual songs to
(03:01):
God with thankful hearts.
So what we're going to betalking about today is getting
focused.
How can you get your focus back?
So I know I've done this.
I have been in a very hyped up.
I get excited about things andI say I will never.
You know, hey, we just had avoting.
(03:21):
Season is finally over, thankGod.
Hey, we just had a voting.
Season is finally over, thankGod.
I hate this time because peoplestart making it into a religion
and it gets on my nerves.
They start idolizingpoliticians and that's not where
our answer lies.
I'm sorry if that upsets you,but that's not who's going to
(03:43):
deliver us.
That's not who's going to saveus.
That's not who is going tobring us together.
If we say it's a person in theWhite House or a person over a
district or a person over astate, if we don't have this
person, god is not in control.
You don't understand who God is.
You have minimized God into apolitical party or into a
politician and you have no cluewho he is.
(04:05):
Let me be very clear with that.
I don't care if I lose peopleor you unsubscribe, that's fine.
If you think that God is not incontrol until you get the
person you want in the positionyou want, you don't understand
who God is at all.
That's just the facts.
We have to stop trying to makeidols out of men and worship the
one true God.
And the Bible says that whoeverends up there, god has allowed
(04:28):
it to happen.
Well, god has placed them thereto pray for them, and we know
that in the end times which Ibelieve we are in right now,
it's going to get worse.
There's going to be peoplewe're not going to like.
There's going to be peoplesaying truth is lies and lies is
truth, and it makes actualtruth so unclear and muddy when
(04:55):
you don't base it, when youdon't know how to fight the
battle, because you're notbasing your truth on the word of
God, like the word of Godshould be your foundation, the
word of God should be yourstarting point and it should be
your ending point and everythingin between.
So we have to get focused.
Uh, if we lose our focus, wecan lose our way, and when we
(05:16):
begin to lose our way, it's veryeasy for us to stray, for us to
get distracted, for us to betricked by the enemy.
So politicians are really goodat saying I will never fill in
the blank with whatever, I willnever do this or I will always
(05:39):
do that.
Well, why is it that when we dothis, like I'm never going to
eat carbs again, like yeah, yeah, like right now you can see
like bro's got some fat on him Iwill never eat sweets again,
starting monday and on sundaysthat don't count and wednesday
nights, because that's churchdays and those belong to the
lord.
Nobody knows.
God doesn't count calories orcarbs.
(05:59):
Amen, somebody.
So, like we start all of asudden going into the I'm never
gonna do this, but just in caseI have a backup, or just in case
, uh, I'm gonna stick with thisverbiage, this ideology mindset,
because, well, nobody's perfect, right.
So why do we never seem to keepour proclamations or coming up
(06:25):
our new year resolutions?
The same happens when we reador we study the Bible.
This is why, at my church, I doa challenge of 15.
It's five minutes in prayer,five minutes of reading the word
, five minutes of praising,every single day.
And I give out this mandate tothe people all the time and
sometimes I find it hard just todo a simple 15.
(06:48):
So I started putting systemsinto place to where, instead of
turning on a podcast and eventhough it may be a Christian
podcast where I'm ingesting theword, I think sometimes we
substitute the actual word forthose types of things, and we
shouldn't do that.
The word of God is the word ofGod.
A podcast is something toaccompany or help to give.
(07:11):
Maybe understanding to likethis one is to you know, get you
on a train of thought, to helpthe way you see things, to help
shape and mold you.
But your foundation, yourstarting point should be the
word of God, and if you don'tknow the word of God, then
everything I'm saying to you orreading on the screen and all
(07:33):
this other stuff won't makesense.
So we have to, even if it's insmall bites.
If you're new to Christianity ormaybe you've been serving God
for a while, but yet you stillhave issue with remaining as
dedicated as you were.
We do this when we date, whenwe get married, all right,
everything is great, sometimesthe first few weeks, sometimes
(07:55):
the first few months, sometimesthe first few years.
And when we go to a new church,everything is great.
But then they do something wedon't like or agree with.
And then you start to find outwhy you were really there in the
first place or why you werereally with that person.
Are you there because God ledyou there to?
Did God connect you in that way?
Or were you there for the goodtime and the good time ran out?
(08:17):
Were you there because therewas some hype going on, and now
the hype is kind of fadedbecause now you're on the inside
instead of the outside.
And now the hype is kind offaded because now you're on the
inside instead of the outside.
Things aren't as shiny on theinside, things aren't as new and
they're not, as they don't, wowyou as much.
The worship isn't as goodanymore.
It could be the exact samepeople from beginning to end,
but the worship isn't goodenough.
(08:39):
And now, well, the preaching is, he says this a certain way and
he talks like this.
And well, I really don't likethat anymore.
And and uh, he's kind of simpleminded.
You know, I'm just assumingthat's what people think of me.
I don't really know.
But all these things, when youfirst come to a church, when you
first get into Christianity,when you first read the Bible,
(09:01):
it it has this new, shiny,awesome, like everything is good
, everything is new, everythingis great.
Same way in marriage.
You get married, everything'sgood, everything's great.
And then you have your firstbig fight and I in my I actually
had this talk with my wife lastweek.
I think I didn't threaten herwith it, but I was just talking
to her about it because I justgot done counseling some people
(09:22):
for, uh, marriage stuff and Iwas like, yeah, you know,
divorce should never be on thetable, but the thoughts of like,
especially like her, she hasnothing to compare to, nothing
to, to pin me up against thewall with, like you're acting
just like him, like she doesn'thave anything like that, but I
do.
And so when we first got married, in my head I was thinking,
(09:45):
because I got married to thisgood Christian girl that was
like on fire for God, she was aPentecostal girl, she, uh, she
was like, she was like the gym,like she was, she's the, the,
what the word talks about like aholy woman, uh, daily living to
be sanctified, tries in everyway to be a good wife, a good
(10:06):
mother, a good woman, a goodleader.
And we had our first big fightand I'm like and this sounds
dumb and immature, but becauseit was man, this is just going
to be like the last one, like isthis even going to last?
When there was absolutelynothing wrong with my wife, but
(10:27):
because I let my emotions drivethe bus for a little bit, I got
these thoughts in my head thathad no business actually being
there, and so I told her thatlast week and she said wait,
what you did?
I said, well, yeah, I mean, I'mjust being honest, and it's not
that I was like I'm going todivorce you.
(10:48):
It was like man, if this is thesame as what I just got out of,
say, just a few years ago, ifthis is the same as I'm going to
be treated like I have been,I'm not doing it.
And but I kept that to myselfbecause I realized pretty
quickly that it wasn't really aher problem, it was more of a me
(11:08):
problem and that I needed tochill out and walk slow and get
my mind back right and get myfocus back.
So when I started focusing onher needs, her wants, her
desires and being the man I needto be for her and stop worrying
about what's going on with me,it changed.
(11:30):
It shifted my perspective of mywife and the same.
When you go to a new church,like everything's shiny,
everything's good, and then youget in the thick of things,
maybe you have a first blow upor first argument with somebody
in the church and you or thepastor does something you don't,
or they play a song you don'tagree with, or they never play a
song you like, or whatever thecase may be.
Like in the beginning it's new,it's fresh, it's nice, and then
(11:53):
it starts to kind of fade off.
Well, the same withChristianity.
When you come to Christ, likeit's hard to stay in the word of
God, it's hard to stay prayedup.
It's hard to stay in the wordof God.
It's hard to stay prayed up,it's hard to stay fasting.
And and it's not that there'ssomething magical that can all
(12:13):
of a sudden make it be exactlythe way it's supposed to be or
make you be exactly who you'resupposed to be it takes effort
on our part.
Like that's.
I believe that's a part of whatwhat is called sanctification,
where you, every single day, weare choosing to be a man and
woman that chases after God.
(12:33):
Like we're laying our selfishambition down, our selfish ways,
our needs, wants and desires,we're laying them at the feet of
Jesus and we're picking up whathe desires for us.
Now, this is hard.
Okay, I'm, I have a businessbesides, um, being the pastor of
a church.
I have a little media companyand sometimes I catch myself
(12:54):
like just making decisionswithout actually including God
in it, or just working andworking and working and not
stopping and saying, god, isthis what you want me to do?
All I do is ask God to bless mybusiness, or ask God to bless
our finances.
And we pay tithes, we givegenerously, we do everything
(13:18):
with our money that we'resupposed to do.
But I feel like sometimes wehave to play catch up because we
didn't start at the rightstarting point.
That makes sense, because wedidn't include God.
We actually had to start behindso that we can learn some
lessons to get to where Godactually wanted us to be.
That makes sense.
So we have to regroup, refocus,um the same with the church.
You got to regroup, refocus.
(13:39):
We're having a um uh leadershipmeeting here soon and we're
going to be talking about whatis our focus as leadership in
the church.
We're not just coming to dosome things.
We need to be intentional withwhat we are doing so that we can
be successful in what we aredoing.
And the same goes with youreveryday life.
Whether you're a Christian orbeliever or not, this still
applies to you.
(14:00):
This is just some scriptureadded in with some biblical
context of uh, hopefully you canuse it too if you don't believe
, maybe it'll get you curious ofthe wisdom of the word of god,
because I mean, you cannot go toany, any book of the bible and
not get some wisdom.
So the challenge of 15, fiveminutes of prayer, five minutes
(14:21):
reading your word, five minutesof praising every single day, I
I prefer to try to do it when Istart off my day, so that I
don't get to the end of my dayand I'm so tired and exhausted
from that day that I'm just likeoh, I just want to lay my head
down, because that tends tohappen with me, like today,
excuse me, the day I had to be.
I had to drive an hour away andI had to be there at 630.
(14:41):
So that means I had to get upat 430, shower and leave the
house by 515 or 530.
That being said, even though Iwas a little tired, I made sure,
like before, I even left mybathroom, brushing my teeth and
all that stuff.
Like I was playing the Bible,like I have it read to me, and
it was from John, chapter 17.
And I was just kind of, as I'mlistening to the word, I'm also
(15:04):
thinking it through in my headand kind of playing it out.
So I started my day off thatway and it helps my day.
It doesn't necessarily changewhat's going to happen in my day
, but it changes my perspectiveand it changes my vantage point
to where I'm already prepared inhere and in here, whatever
(15:26):
happens out here.
So that's very important, thatI'm getting my focus before
things start grabbing and tryingto rob me of my focus.
Because in in you say 15,challenge of five, five and five
.
Yes, there are small bites, butsmall bites count.
(15:46):
So you maybe don't have thisissue, but I do.
Let me look at my phone rightquick, so I don't lie to you.
I'm going to look at my emails,and this may not be all of them
attached.
Right now Tillman Photographydoesn't count anymore because I
started Tillman Media at Gmail,so that's tied to the other one,
(16:08):
but that's one.
And then the sounds that calmyour mind.
I stopped that because I wasgetting stupid, didn't have time
for it, but that's anotheremail.
So let's just do active emailsalone 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
That's six active emails, buton my entire list that are right
(16:31):
here.
I actually have and thisincludes ones that I'm not using
anymore because I don't havethe time one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine,moly, and that's just email
accounts.
So I have emails from church, Ihave text messages from church
people, then I have the churchemail.
So I have pastorsteven atconnectchurchlife, then I have
(16:54):
connectchurchlongview at Gmail,which is like the parent to all
the other emails, and then Ihave my media company website.
I have my media company website, my podcast email and the
websites, and then I have allthe Facebooks, the groups,
everything, the personal ones,the pages for all the church
(17:19):
podcast media company, instagram, podcast media church, then
TikTok.
I only do one for that, that'sfor my, that's my personal one,
but I put my the clips from thepodcast on there.
Then I have the account thatsends out the podcast episodes
to apple podcast and whateverall the other places are.
(17:42):
That puts it all there.
Then I go on to spotify once Iupload it and then I also upload
the video.
So if you ever want to go tospotify, you can also watch the
episodes on spotify now theyhave it where you can do video
on there.
And then I run a company, likeactually going out and shooting.
So like there's all these thingsin church people, I will have
(18:02):
one person talk to me in fourdifferent ways an email or a
text, or a Facebook messenger orInstagram messenger.
Like nobody ever does the samestream, it's like scattered.
So, as you can imagine, mybrain cells at the end of a day
can be like text, because alldifferent types of people, all
(18:24):
different social medias, alldifferent emails, all different
text messages, phone calls,people in the hospital, people
that having surgeries, peopleneeding counseling, people just
need to talk.
My wife, every once in a while,like before I got on here, she
needed to talk to me Like andthen we're parents on top of
that.
So there's like so many thingsto do just in one day and it's
(18:45):
like sometimes you just feellike you're playing catch up and
then every single, almost everysingle night, there's something
with the church after I get offwork.
So my free time to do thispodcast.
The reason I stopped going liveis because it was taking my time
and it was like I had toschedule it.
I had to do this.
If I just jump in my officeright, quick and record, I can
just schedule it out over like amonth or two and possibly get
(19:08):
ahead of the game, and it's,it's worked a little better for
me.
That being said, everything andI'm sure you have the same,
probably the same story,everything and I'm sure you have
the same, probably the samestory uh, you may have a regular
job where, when you get off,you're off, uh, but but there's,
everybody has something alwaysneeding to grab our attention
and we live in a day of massdistraction.
(19:30):
Our days are filled with suchdistraction and oftentimes are
when there's a um, a silence.
It's almost like we get kind oflike, if you take a, uh, it's,
it's.
I guess it would be addiction,not borderline addiction.
But adults are like this too,just scrolling, like just that
thumb flick, where you're justkind of seeing what everybody
(19:52):
else is doing, just mind numbing, just not do anything, just
flick, flick, just over and over, just that scroll.
But think about this now, thisis not a talk against social
media, but it is.
It is a talk, uh, for you toget your focus back, and I think
social media robs us a lot ofthat.
(20:15):
Um, this is actual stats ondepression and anxiety before
the widespread adoption ofsocial media.
So follow along with this.
Before the widespread adoptionmake sure I didn't have anything
on the screen for you.
Before the widespread adoptionof social media, the suicide
(20:37):
rate among 10 to 24-year-oldswas stable from 2000 to 2007.
However, it then increased by57% between 2007 and 2017.
So, 10 years 57%, according tothe data from the Centers of
(21:01):
Disease Control.
This timeline correlates withthe rise of social media
platforms, indicating apotential link between increased
social media use and mentalhealth issues among young adults
.
Now why has this jumped sorapidly in a small amount of
time 57%?
I believe it's because now welive in a day of comparison of
(21:26):
who we are and who is out there.
So I need to.
I need to post more, and thisis one of my one of my biggest
issues, cause I'm I'm a gogetter as far as like let's's,
let's get this done, let's do it.
So I end up giving myself morestress with this podcast than I
really should by thinking that'swhy I stopped the live stream,
(21:47):
because I kept getting stressedout about when can I do it.
Oh, I missed this week, oh, Imissed next week.
Like I've got to hurry and dothis and it took the joy out of
it, instead of just like turningon a camera and just let's do
this, let's teach something,let's enjoy it, walk through it
together, like the live streampart I made.
I may still do some, but theystressed me out and I'm not, I'm
too old for that kind of job.
So I'm having to change somethings because I was willing
(22:11):
enough, I was at least wiseenough to look and realize that
my stress level was risingbecause of that.
That was the element, not thepodcast itself, because I like
doing it, I love it and youprobably noticed I don't edit a
lot of stuff anymore.
Like I was paying somebody toedit down the five videos and
(22:32):
the several different ones andblah, blah, blah, and I'm just
like I'm pretty much posting ithow it is, maybe taking some
gaps out, but other than that,it is what it is and I'm just
scheduling it out because I needthat.
So if I lose the passion andthe drive to do it and actually
enjoy it, why am I doing it?
So now there's moreopportunities for comparison,
(22:55):
and comparison kills calling, sothe stress level is rising, the
purpose that people werefeeling once they go out and
work, they come home, they enjoytheir life and their families,
and now that's gone.
Well, now everybody's comparingto everybody else and they've
got to keep up with the Jonesesand try to stay on top of the
(23:17):
game so that they can look likethey're doing something, and it
has caused a great up, and thiswas in 2017.
Who knows what it is today?
Like, actually, I'm gonna lookit up right now.
There are some adolescents whospend more than three hours a
(23:37):
day on social media are twice aslikely to experience poor
mental health outcomes.
There's no stats like right nowpopping up, but I mean, it's
just saying what I already know,but not really any serious.
Social media has been linked topoor sleep patterns in 2023,
depression, anxiety.
But it's that losing focus ofwhat's actually important.
(23:59):
Like you'll have people in thesame room texting each other or
like looking at each other'sstuff on social media and
they're not.
They're, they're not.
They're not even communicatingin the same room.
They're communicating throughtheir phones, like looking down
when they can look up.
There's a detachment from socialunderstanding, social behavior,
(24:20):
and I think it's damaging toour culture because this makes
it, when we start comparing toreal, to think that we're never
going to measure up.
And so it seems like we nevermeasure up and we say like
things like oh, I'm going tostart exercising or I'll stop
being distracted by social mediano more unhealthy relationships
, or I'll start eating better,I'll start trying to lose weight
(24:40):
.
But time and time again we findour solutions crumbling.
Why?
Because we're targetingbehaviors without confronting
the roots.
So let's get an analogy If youhad an ugly tree in your yard
and wanted it gone, wouldcutting a single branch work?
No Matter of fact, that'scalled pruning, and most of the
(25:00):
time it'll grow back worse, youdon't, or you?
You would need to deal with theroot system to truly remove the
tree.
In the same way, when weattempt to change by merely
altering our actions, likecutting off a branch, we miss
the root of the issue and thethoughts and the lies that fuels
these behaviors continue togrow and make the wrong kind of
(25:22):
fruit that is unhealthy todigest.
So let's look at some scripture.
Look at Matthew, chapter four,verse four.
Matthew chapter four, versefour.
But Jesus told him no.
The scriptures say people donot live by bread alone, but by
every word that comes from themouth of God Jesus as a physical
nourishment.
(25:43):
Sorry Jesus.
Just as physical nourishmentsustains our bodies, spiritual
nourishment from God's wordsustains our very souls.
This empowers us to overcomedeceit through truth, to
overcome deceitful thoughtsthrough the truth.
What is truth?
(26:03):
God's word is the truth.
So bottom line is this don'tuse culture or other people to
measure who you are.
Don't use culture or otherpeople to measure who you are.
Behavior modification will notmake things get better, but an
(26:26):
eternal heart transformation iswhat is required.
It's like it's crazy to thinkthat simply stopping a behavior
will lead to change.
This is why people end up likebacksliding or going back into
old ways or walking away fromGod is because they come to God
and they try to change thebehavior, they don't actually
get down to the root of theissue.
(26:46):
I've seen people it's most ofthe time women, but I used to do
it too that would.
They would literally convincethemselves that if they had a
certain type of man or a or thisdifferent guy because it's in a
different person that if theyhad that, their life would be
fulfilled, they would be happyand they would enjoy things.
(27:09):
And it ends up being like thesame thing all over again.
It's because they are trying toaddress the surface of the
problem instead of getting tothe root of it, which would be
like loneliness All the thingsthat they actually desire that
could come from God they'retrying to find in a person, in a
(27:30):
relationship, and so that'sdamaging, because the root of
the issue is deeper.
If there is bad fruit, you haveto check the root.
We need a two-fold strategy byremoving the lies we talked
about on the last episode at theroot and replacing it with the
truth.
So where does the truth comefrom?
(27:52):
Well, not from endlessscrolling on the internet.
I mean, yeah, there's a lot ofgood information out there, but
there's so much information it'shard to tell.
When you go out to the middleof the social media ocean,
there's all kinds of beasts outthere that you can't really tell
what they are.
Just because you're out therefishing don't mean you're going
(28:14):
to catch something worth eating.
So let's look at this nextscripture, psalm 119, 105.
It says your word is a lamp toguide my feet and a light for my
path.
Now, knowledge withoutapplication is like a lamp that
is not lit.
You can read this scripture andsay, yeah, that's great, like I
.
Uh, okay, your lamp to my feet,that's.
(28:35):
But if you're not in the word,then you don't have the lamp
guiding your way.
God's word provides clarity andit provides the direction we
need to be able to walk the pathcarefully and intentionally and
(28:59):
intentionally.
This brings us back toColossians 3.16, emphasizing the
richness of Christ's message inour lives, that it's not just
enough for us to know God's word.
We must let it sink in, we mustlet it be eternalized inside of
us, because it's not enough toknow God's word.
We must allow it to take root,shaping our thoughts, our
actions, our interactions withothers.
Knowledge without applicationis a lamp that has not been lit.
(29:25):
Let's go to 2 Timothy.
Oh wait, sorry, one more.
One more from the Psalm 119.
I've hidden your word in myheart that I might not sin
against you.
It's through internalizingscripture, realizing that you
need scripture so that your pathcan be lit Well, that your,
your steps can be sure.
It is the word of God thatlights that path.
(29:49):
It's also the word of God thatyou need to hide in your heart.
Why do you hide something?
To protect it.
Hide it in your heart so thatyou will not sin against God.
When you internalize scripture,you find strength, you can
resist temptation and you canreplace all the lies that the
(30:10):
culture tries to tell us istruth, and you'll know.
It's like this.
When they try to see fakecurrency, they're not doing it
by examining all fake currency,like a hundred dollar bill, for
instance.
What they do is they study andexamine the $100 bill to where
they know it inside and out.
(30:31):
Every little thing about thisdollar bill, this hundred dollar
bill, they know, so they don'thave to study all the bad.
They know when it comes up andit's presented before them, they
can compare and be able to tellthe real from the fake.
The same as with the word ofGod.
If you want to be able to tellwhen fake comes to your doorstep
(30:52):
, you need to understand andknow intimately the real and
know intimately the real theWord of God.
You can't take culture, learnthings from culture and then
cherry pick from the Scriptureto make your life be okay.
You're doing it backwards.
You have to start.
I've said it a hundred timesyou have to start from the Word.
(31:16):
Understanding the role ofScripture in personal
transformation is critical.
I've heard several people saythis and I, you know, you get to
a place in your walk or lonelyout there and you're like man, I
just don't hear from Godanymore.
Are you reading his word?
Are you praying?
(31:37):
And I don't mean mean.
Here's the thing.
Listen, we as christians are sostinking selfish and we could,
we could have god speak to usand we wouldn't hear it if it
didn't match up with what wewanted.
For instance, let's say you'relike man, I just don't.
I just don't hear god on this.
(31:57):
I just don't know if I'msupposed to do it, or I haven't
heard a yes, or I haven't heardno, or whatever the case may be.
And the sad thing is youprobably wouldn't know his voice
even if he was speaking,because you only come to him
when you want something.
There's no relationship, that'sjust facts.
Like you don't, you don't wanthis voice any other time in your
life until you need some sortof.
Because we are so gifted incoming to God when we need
(32:25):
something and we're like man, Ijust I don't know what he's
saying.
I don't know what he's saying.
Well, sometimes God withdrawshimself so that his children
become wise and become mature ontheir own, and they don't
always need a hand out that theycan actually make wise
spiritual decisions because theyare aligned with the will of
(32:48):
God.
But a lot of times, for themore immature people, it's like
my son.
It's not his fault I mean, it'shis fault but he's also a
teenager.
I'm not excusing anything hedoes, but what I'm saying is
this I was a teenager.
Once adults do this, full blown, like up in age adults do this.
(33:09):
They hear what they want andthey make what they hear.
They twist it up so easy to fitactually what they want to hear
, in spite of whether it'sactually what was said.
And this aggravates me.
My son will say you said to dothis and what really upsets me
is that he's technically callingme a liar and I'm not a liar
(33:29):
and I will have to help himrefocus on what is important and
replay the conversation back tohim.
But what he would do is hewould hear most of what I said
but then pick and choose partsthat fit what he wanted to do.
I'll give you a firsthand, realexample of just last week.
(33:51):
He was supposed to practice asong to play.
He plays on the worship teamevery other weekend on the
keyboard.
There's a specific part on aslower song.
It's more advanced, and I toldhim to go practice.
He said okay.
I went back and he was on hisgame.
I said, tristan, go practicethe song or you're going to be
embarrassed when you can't do it.
So he went and practiced.
(34:12):
I don't know why, but in hishead he thought I told him to go
practice the guitar part ofthat song.
And he's telling me in front ofmy people at my church you told
me to go practice the guitar.
I said no, I didn't.
Why would I tell you to gopractice an instrument you're
not going to play on Sunday?
That doesn't even make logicalsense.
I had to walk him through veryslowly and help him understand
(34:37):
that I would not tell him to gopractice something that he
wasn't going to be playing.
It doesn't add up.
But in his head he heardsomething.
He heard what he wanted,because he wanted to play the
guitar and play around on theguitar, which is fine, but he
had.
He had something more importantthat was more priority, and he
chose to do it wrong.
And then we had to end upkicking the song because he
(34:58):
wasn't ready.
But how many of us with God, wedo the same thing, like we hear
what we want and we then, whenwe are on the other side of it,
well, I don't know what happened.
I was just trying to hear fromthe Lord and I didn't hear
anything.
Well, it's because you're notreally actually trying to listen
.
You're trying to rule theconversation and manipulate it
(35:19):
into what you want it to be.
And God, don't play that game.
He'll let you get exactly whatyou're really wanting, so that
you will learn he loves you thatmuch.
Sometimes we have to let ourchildren get exactly what
they're asking for, or to let itgo the way that we know it
shouldn't, because it's betterif it doesn't, so that they'll
(35:42):
learn the actual lesson and notkeep going in this loop over and
over and over and over again.
So let's look at 2 Timothy, 3,16 and 17.
All scripture is inspired by Godand is useful to teach us what
is true and make us realize whatis wrong in our lives.
It corrects us when we arewrong.
It teaches us to do what isright.
(36:03):
God uses it to prepare andequip his people to do every
good work.
So the scripture is meant sothat you can be prepared and
actually be able to fight thebattle properly.
Getting focused isn't aboutadding God's word to the list of
(36:24):
chores every day, isn't aboutadding God's word to the list of
chores every day.
So what does focus mean?
To adapt to the prevailinglevel of light and become able
to see clearly.
It's hard to focus on God whenwe allow distractions to
distance us from him, his word,and ends up leading us into
(36:47):
disobedience and disassociationfrom God.
The more we allow distancebetween us and God, the harder
it is to regain focus on him andhis voice will seem harder and
harder to hear.
So my question to you is thislike, if you really want to get
(37:10):
closer to God, you really wantto refocus on God and get your
focus back on his word and andwhat he wants for your life.
Maybe you've been following himfor a while and you seem
distant.
Maybe you're new to Christ andyou've never.
You don't, you don't understandthe closeness I'm talking about
.
This is on on every, everyspectrum, like if you, you and
(37:35):
God are, uh, brand new to eachother or you've been serving him
for 30 years.
This is something that anybodycan slip into, because it takes
effort to keep the relationshipalive.
It takes effort to keep thatcloseness and that unity in the
spirit to be aligned with God.
It takes effort for us to dothat.
And so what is it that maybeyou've allowed to come between
(37:59):
you and God?
It could be a priority, like,maybe you're scheduling out of
your time or maybe you don'tschedule anything out.
Sometimes you have to be, andit sounds dumb.
You're like, well, I shouldn'thave to put it on the calendar,
but if you have to, you have to.
Uh, do you sit there and getfurther and further from God and
whine about not getting beingclose to him, but you won't
(38:21):
actually do any steps to getcloser to him?
Maybe you need to put prayertime on the calendar.
Maybe you need to set areminder on your phone like, hey
, at 1230 pm today or 9 pmtonight, set a reminder, pray,
read your Bible.
Or 7 am, pray, read your Bible.
(38:42):
You know most people have aschedule.
They got to get the kids toschool, get them up, all that
stuff, get that, find that gapsomewhere.
And you may be like, well, Idon't want to just shove God,
you know, in a slot somewhere.
Maybe that's how you have tostart off and I think with all
of my heart, I believe that Godwill honor the effort that we
(39:07):
put in to trying to get closerto him.
It doesn't mean everything'sgoing to fall into place and be
perfect and just everything'sgoing to be awesome, but it does
mean that you're trying andthat's what God desires.
God wants us to put forth inthe effort.
God is not the only person inthis relationship.
You have to do something, Ihave to do something.
He has done so much.
If he never does another thing,he's done more than enough.
(39:29):
So what is it between you andGod that has robbed you of your
focus?
Whether it's maybe you need tofast Like me, personally, I fast
food once a week, not fast food, I fast eating once a week.
Maybe if social media or emailsor whatever, like if you run a
business, it's hard to do thatwith emails, I get that, but
(39:51):
maybe social media, maybe yourspouse, help you out and say hey
, listen, I know I got to dothis for my business, but I need
you to take care of it for thisday, because I need to purge
myself of the negativity, purgemyself from the.
You know it's all out there.
You can find it anywhere.
But figure out what is keepingyou from God, and this is going
(40:14):
to sound.
It's going to sound terrible.
Children or spouses can do that.
It's important to pray with yourspouse.
We pray as a family every night.
I pray with Tristan when I takehim to school every morning and
when my wife picks him up fromschool she reads the Bible with
him on the way back to the house, about a 10-minute ride.
But sometimes your family youneed to have separation from
(40:38):
your family so that you canreally focus on God.
Maybe you need to go and sit inyour car for 10 minutes every
day at some point when there's agap, when there's a lull,
husbands help your wives out.
Okay, it's not theresponsibility all the time to
take care of everything.
Say listen, go sit in the car,decompress for a second.
Whatever you got to do, it'llbe quiet out there.
(40:59):
Just go sit.
You know whatever it takes,because when you have a clarity
of mind, you'll have a peace ofsoul and you'll be able to
problem solve better.
You'll be able to haverelationships that are stronger.
You'll be able to work moreefficiently.
When you have a plan, don'talways be on the back end of it
trying to do damage control,because that'll wear you out,
(41:21):
trust me.
Try to have a plan before thedistraction, a plan before the
destruction.
Don't wait until your world'sfalling apart to then try to
turn to God.
Turn to God now, and then, whenall the other stuff comes, you
and God will be on the same pageand you'll know what to do.
(41:43):
And even if you don't know whatto do because life can change
like that you'll have peace inyour heart because you trust in
Him, that he knows what he'sdoing, and the Bible says that
all things good, bad and uglywork together for the good of
those that love Him.
So if you love Him, cling toHim, trust Him, focus on him,
(42:09):
lean on him, because I promiseyou his plan is better than any
plan you and I can put together.
I love you, I'm praying for youand I hope you have a great
rest of your week.
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