July 27, 2025 • 27 mins
Ever feel like your day starts with a whirlwind of stress, to-do lists, and endless responsibilities? What if there was a simple way to ground yourself and find peace before the chaos begins?
In this week's "Mountain Mover" series message, Pastor Joe Liles explores how to create a meaningful connection with God that extends beyond Sunday morning - transforming your everyday moments into opportunities for spiritual growth.
Key Quotes:
- "If your day begins with God, your life will change."
- "God will keep you, protects you. He watches you, He guards you."
Scripture Readings:
- Mark 1:35
- Psalm 121:1-8
- Psalm 127:1-2
Takeaways:
- Honor God FIRST thing every morning
- Release control and trust God's plan
- See your entire day as a spiritual journey
- Recognize God's constant protection in your "comings and goings"
Whether you're an early riser or someone who struggles to get out of bed, this message offers practical insights into building a daily relationship with God. Learn how to shift from feeling overwhelmed to feeling supported.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Joe Liles (00:03):
You as we come together for the message. We've
been in a series that's calledMountain mover. And this series
has been about really adiscipleship. It's been about
this identity of meeting God inthese many in different places.
And it was inspired by our youthgoing on mission, and we first
heard a message from them calledBeyond comfort. And it was
(00:24):
really this identity that whenwe heard from them, they had
gone on mission. And if you'veever been on a youth mission
trip, it is a trip that reallystarts from a long drive,
usually into kind of dailyactivities starting early in the
morning, at seven, you're upbefore that, getting ready, you
work till late in the evening.
You have a worship and then youhave like a spiritual moment.
Then you go to bed, and you doit again. And and in these
(00:45):
moments, these youth open up.
They find their relationshipwith God. They come back into
the heart of God and and it'sreally these kind of spiritual
moments that lead them to becomecamp counselors and to continue
this ministry and go on. And aswe were preparing for these
trips, we thought, what does itmean that as adults, we would
find those same moments, but wedon't necessarily have someone
(01:06):
creating those for us anymore.
We don't have someone says, Hey,take a week off from work, a
week off from your family. Iwant you to drive an absurdly
long way in a 15 passenger vanwith 10 other people you don't
know, and we want you to arrivein a place that you've never
met, do mission for a week andthen do the same thing on the
return. How many of you are in?
Do we got this right now? Yes,one of you. This is why adult
(01:29):
discipleship is really hard.
This is why it's hard, becauseit's not what we're used to
anymore. And so we walk throughthis series of really talking
through, what does it mean thatwe would find the spaces to
create this relationship withGod ourselves, and how would we
move into that? So we talkedbeyond comfort, and we talked
with these youth experience andhow they move through this trip.
And then, in addition to that,we moved on, and we said, Okay,
we talked through Jesus, talkingwith the disciples, saying, you
(01:50):
have little faith, which we saidin that message that we were
grateful that we had littlefaith, because it meant that we
had room to grow. And a littlefaith can move a mountain, but
we're not at that little faith,yet we have room to grow to move
that. And if we have a littlefaith, then we are moving our
way towards Jesus. So whetheryou have a little faith, or you
feel like you are filled withfaith, you are in the heart of
God, and we are moving towardsthat. And so we keep on moving
(02:12):
through this series in a reallyincredible way. And as we've
gone through each and every oneof these message talking through
last week, we talked abouttrusting God, and what does it
mean to truly trust God in yourrelationship? And we talked
about this relational sacrificethat you have to have and trust
that you're almost giving away apart of yourself to someone else
to say, Hold this for me. Holdmy life, hold my story. Hold
(02:33):
this incident, hold this thingthat you know about, and I want
you to hold it with care andcompassion, and I want you to
love me through it, and that'swhat Jesus does. But we found it
hard to trust each other, and sowe've been walking this whole
narrative, and then today, as weopen up, we're getting into a
new reality with Jesus. We aretalking about, what does it mean
to have daily rhythm with JesusChrist? What does it mean that
(02:55):
we would see our whole day as away to understand our
relationship with God everysingle day, not just on Sundays.
And if you're thinking aboutdiscipleship, it needs to come
from a weekend trip in a summerto just a Sunday to every single
day in your life. And that'swhere we need to move this and
so as we come to this part ofthe series, I really wanted to
(03:17):
talk to you about what is thedaily relationship that you have
with God, and what does it meanin your life? And we're gonna go
through a whole day inScripture. We're gonna start off
in the morning. We're gonna talkabout the middle of the day, and
we're gonna talk about theevening, because there is
scripture that says that weshould find rest at the end of
the day, that we should feelthat we can go to bed in peace,
that we can sleep in peace andhave this moment. How many of
(03:40):
you go to bed every night inpeace Nothing's the matter like
you're not waking up feeling anyanxiety or anxiousness or worry
or anything else. Zero people.
Is this true? Are you guys justafraid to raise your hand?
Right? No, it's true. So whatdoes it mean that we would have
a daily relationship with God?
Let's talk about the morningfirst. How many of you? It's by
show of hands. Let's justseparate the room and divide
(04:04):
everyone right now. How many ofyou are morning people? We got
some morning people out there?
Yes, my morning people. Give itup for the morning people.
How many of you are otherpeople? Not? Holy, no, I'm just
kidding. I'm just kidding. Howmany of you are not morning
people? How many of you are notmorning people? Okay, do you see
(04:27):
how we said that you're either amorning person or not a morning
person, right? The designationis morning person, right? That's
the same in both. And so we'regonna read a scripture way. I am
a morning person. I love gettingup in the morning. I when I was
in seminary, the therapist thatI had in seminary, which were
all prescribed to go to therapy,right, to prevent burnout and
(04:48):
different things like that, andto experience it as a
seminarian. So I went an hourand a half away because I didn't
want to commit to therapy. So Idrove an hour and a half so that
would be so upset by the timethat I got there that I would
have to commit, right, that.
That's what I told myself. So Idrove an hour and a half to
therapy. Now, I go to therapywillingly, and it's awesome. And
so I drove an hour and a half totherapy. I got over there, and I
was telling my whole story, andshe's like, Well, tell me about
(05:09):
your daily routine. I was like,Man, my daily routine is like,
11pm to 2am is like my primetime. I was like, that's what
I'm getting work done. I said,everyone else is sleeping. And I
said, I'm just getting workdone. I said, it feels amazing.
And she goes, Oh, you're acompetitive sleeper. What? What
do you mean? A competitive shegoes, Oh, you feel like you're
(05:30):
winning because other people aresleeping. And I was like, You're
not wrong. And she goes, butyou're wrong. I was like, and
what she was saying is, shegoes, Just because you're up and
doing these things that otherpeople are sleeping is not a
winning moment, right? That'snot a healthy way to approach
life. She goes, you're literallycomparing yourself against
everyone else, and while they'resleeping, you feel that you're
(05:52):
getting ahead of them, right?
But you're not having a healthylifestyle every single day, and
in the day, in order toincorporate that, to maintain
that it would be something thatis spiritually, emotionally and
physically healthy for you,holistic health. And so what
that means, if we're looking atHolistic Health, is that our
day, our whole day, has to begenerated towards God. I
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particularly love the morning. Ilove the morning I wake up
anywhere between four and 5amright? There's some mornings
that I go on a run. There's somemornings that I go to workout
with a group of guys, where weend in a circle of trust and
prayer for each other. There'ssome mornings I wake up and I do
a devotion. There's somemornings I wake up and I go,
nope, not today, and I go rightback to bed. That happened this
past week. And I was like, it'snot going to go. I love the
(06:36):
morning because I do feel likethere's solitude there, but
that's what I find. What we'regoing to discover today is,
where do you find your peace andrest with God? Where do you find
your moment with God? And how doyou seek that every single day?
And I don't want to miss this,you're going to hear me say it
over and over again in themessage today. How do you seek
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this every single day in yourlife, because your life is going
to relate to a lot of otherareas as you go through things.
And if you can start every daywith God, your life will change.
Your life will change. If yourday begins with God, and we're
going to talk through that, butin order to talk through that,
there's a way to begin with God,and it's always in Scripture.
(07:18):
And so we love Bibles. Here inthe church, we're going to open
up our Scripture today to mark,the gospel of Mark. If you have
a Bible, raise that up. We gotBibles out there in the church.
Okay, yes, I love it. We have amission that everyone will bring
a Bible. We love Bibles in thechurch. And so with that, if you
need a Bible, we have Bibleboxes around the church. And as
I can see, people keep ongrabbing Bibles, which is great,
because if you don't have aBible, you can take it home with
(07:39):
you. You can take home in theBible. And we're gonna populate
the Bible coming into August,our Bible boxes. We're going to
have adult Lutheran study Biblesin there. We're going to have
student Bibles in there that arestudy Bibles, and we're going to
have kids Bibles in there. Andso you can grab any Bible that
you need for your family andtake that with you, right? We
love to know that you have aBible and so, but if you don't
have a Bible with you today,that's okay. No worries. On the
(08:00):
chair back in front of you.
There's a card that says theBible app. If you're online with
us, there's a link in thedescription for Facebook and
YouTube that says Bible app. Andyou can open the Bible app on
your phone. It's an app, and youcan go into Scripture and follow
along with notes and the messageand everything else that's going
along today. So today, we'regonna be in the Gospel of Mark,
right in the beginning Markchapter one. And we're going to
read one verse, verse 35 Mark,chapter one, one verse, verse 35
(08:24):
and this is while Jesus ispreaching in Galilee. So he's
healing. He's preaching and he'shealing. So if you can imagine
the ministry of Jesus right nowthat people know of the ministry
of Jesus, they're he's come outof the baptism, he's come out of
the temptation, and he calls hisfirst disciples and immediately
goes into this into this miraclestyle of ministry, because the
(08:46):
people see that this teacher canheal, and so they call for him
to be this teacher. And so inbetween these healings, he's
trying to teach them the gospel,which is the message and the
promise of the kingdom. And Idon't want you to forget that at
the end of the day, if youremember one thing is that
whatever your troubles are, thepromise of the Gospel, the
promise of the kingdom of God iswhat is being prepared for you.
(09:07):
No matter what you're goingthrough eternity and peace with
God is what's being prepared foryou. Remember that at the end of
each day, and here's what hesays in Mark chapter one, verse
35 says this in the morningwhile it was still very dark, he
got up and went out to adeserted place, and there he
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prayed one more time. In themorning, while it was still very
dark, he got up and went out toa deserted place, and there he
prayed the gospel of the Lord,one verse. So think about this,
if we're trying to decide if youshould be a morning person or
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not a morning person. Very earlyin the morning, he got up.
That's Jesus all day. You. Like,are some of you struggling right
now? You're like, what'shappening right now? Are you
telling me to be a morning I'mnot telling you to be a morning
person. That's not the identityof this message. There's
something different that ishappening here. There's
something different when he sayshe got up in order to be with
God. And if you understand this,what Jesus is doing is he's just
(10:16):
healed demons, and he's justhealed people, and people keep
coming to him and coming to himand asking for more and asking
for more. And I want you tothink about this in your life.
How many of you were overwhelmedby how many times people are
coming to you throughout theday, not just family, but all
the things that you have thatare responsibilities in your
life? How many of you areoverwhelmed by that? Raise your
hand if it's true. Jesus was inthat too. There's a very
(10:41):
important part. When he said hegot up early in the morning to
pray, he was deepening androoting and setting a foundation
in his own relationship withGod. So here's the first part of
this, if you want to deepen yourrelationship with God every
single day. It does not meanthat you're getting up earlier
(11:05):
every day. Just a note, if youwant to deepen your relationship
to God, it doesn't mean thatyou're getting up earlier every
single day. But what it doesmean is that if you want to
deepen your relationship withGod, it means that the first
thing you do every day is honor,God. It doesn't mean you have to
be up early. It just has to bethe first thing. And here's what
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I want to tell you, I've beenpracticing this. I'm not great
at it. When I wake up, sometimesthe first thing I go to is my
stress. Sometimes the firstthing I go to is I missed my
workout. Sometimes the firstthing I go to is guilt.
Sometimes the first thing I goto is I got these family
responsibilities, and I gottawake up Kayle, and I gotta get
hurt across country, and I gottamake sure land is up. I gotta
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get the food going, and I juststart. It just goes. And so what
I've been doing is I've beenwaking up and before I move, I
put myself in a posture, backinto prayer. I honor God in the
first thing because I know whatcomes next is the things that I
want to control in my life. Thethings that comes next is the
things I can't give up controlover to God yet. So I pray to
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God first going, I don't havethe time in the day to get it
all done, like I'm going tostart the day, and I'm just
going to start walking, and Ithink of all the things I'm
trying to control, and I justgo, hold on. You said, You have
me. You said you hold me, andI'm going to be faithful to
that. I'm going to begin my dayby honoring God, and that can
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look like prayer, that can looklike Bible reading, that can
look like Silent time with God,that can look like a walk in
creation, but the first thingevery day in your life, no
questions asked, should be tohonor God, and that will sustain
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you throughout the day. Youdon't have to be up early, but
the first thing you have to dois honor. Now I want you to hear
this, because I want to talk youthrough the whole day. I want
you to turn over into Psalms. Sowe've been reading wisdom and
poetry throughout this series,and I want to keep us there, and
I want to move us into Psalm121, so if you go back into the
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Old Testament, right, and thinkabout the Psalms, right, go back
in the Old Testament, it's goingto be in the front portion of
your Bible, where you can findjob in Psalms, and then it'll go
into the Minor Prophets. But thepsalm of this is called the
assurance of God's protection.
And we're going to Psalm 121,verses one through eight. And
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here's what it says. I lift upmy eyes to the hills. From where
will my help come? My help comesfrom the Lord who made heaven
and earth. He will not let yourfoot be moved. He who keeps you
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will not slumber. He who keepsIsrael will neither slumber nor
sleep. The Lord is your keeper.
The Lord is your shade at yourright hand. The sun shall not
strike you by day, nor the moonby night. The Lord will keep you
from all evil. He will keep yourlife. The Lord will keep you're
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going out and you're coming infrom this time on and
forevermore. I read this Psalm,and it's part of a song that I
love, too, the Song of Ascents,and the song is truly about
really understanding ourrelationship with God. But did
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you hear over and over againthat the Lord will keep you, the
Lord will keep you, the Lordwill keep you, the Lord will
keep you. I feel that in our dayand age today, that sometimes we
just have this need to know thatsomeone cares for us so deeply
that they will neither summernor sleep be. Because they care
for us that much that they willalways watch over us. And we're
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looking for that from the peoplethat we love, and it's not
possible. We're looking for thepeople who love to care for us
in every way that we need, forphysical love, for emotional
loves, for spiritual love, forthat, and we're looking for it
from everyone around us, and wecan't get it. We lessen those
and we say, well, just take thisfrom you, and I'll just take
this from this from this friend,and I'm going to try to put it
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all together so I can I can fillmy bucket and feel that people
keep me and they hold me andthey love me, and I'll keep this
heart. But the reason we have togo back again and again and
again to that is because we'retrying to fill our cup with
something outside of God. And Iread this again, and it was,
keep you, keep you, keep you.
And I looked up this definition,this biblical definition, the
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Hebrew of what keep is, and itmeans to guard, to watch, to
protect and to preserve. Andinstead, if you're thinking of
God like a shepherd, theshepherd watches over you and
guards you. If you're thinkingof God, like the God of Israel
and the God of our kingdom onearth and on heaven, the God
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will protect you. If you'rethinking of God who's someone
who's planning eternity, our Godwill preserve your life for an
eternity. Everything that we arelooking for in this life comes
from God in every single part,and this moment moves from the
get up early in the morning,says at every moment, God will
neither slumber nor sleep. Andwith that, you're coming in and
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you're going out, he will watchover every time you move from
space to space. How many of youfeel really good in one moment
and are about to walk into ameeting and feel very anxious
the next moment? Has that everhappened to anyone, like, you're
good, and then the day just hitsand it overwhelms you're like,
I'm not good. Things are notgoing well. This is the going in
and the coming out, and whatneeds to happen in the middle of
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that is going back to God,because God will keep you,
protects you. He watches you, Heguards you. This is the
important narrative, what God isdoing in your life. This is the
biblical definition of keep. AndI want to take you through
another Psalm. This is Psalm127, so turn just a little bit
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more. And I love this, becausethis talks about our home as we
go throughout the day, thecomings and the goings, and we
try to find God in the midst ofthose This one's God's blessing
for the home. Verse one in Psalm127 says this, Unless the Lord
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builds the house, those whobuild it labor in vain Unless
the Lord guards the city. Theguard keeps watch in vain. It is
in vain, here's the other winfor the other side that you rise
up early and go late to rest.
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Can I get an amen? See, Ibalanced it out. You thought I
was just going for the earlypeople. Don't worry. It is in
vain that you rise up early andgo to late to rest eating the
bread of the anxious toil, forhe gives sleep to His Beloved.
He gives sleep to His Beloved,the bread of anxious toil versus
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the bread of life I used tofeel, and I still feel, in
something that I struggle with,if I'm going to confess to you,
and something that I'm workingthrough right now in my personal
life, is that I feel that I haveto exhaust myself to get
permission to rest. And I didn'tdiscover that until recently,
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because I confused by exhaustingmyself with my sacrifice to God,
and I said, Oh no, if I'm at theend of the day, and this was a
mission trip, reality, I learnedthis on mission, and this was an
unhealthy way that I learnedthis. I learned on mission that
if I go all day and at the endof the day, I've given my whole
heart, my mind, my body and mystrength to the Lord, and I
ended the end of the day, and Ican do no more but lay down and
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go to rest because I havenothing left to give. That's a
holy and spiritual relationship.
But that's not what God istalking about here. I was eating
the bread of anxious toil. Ineeded to prove that I could
work harder. I needed to provethat I could be more I needed to
prove that I could serve in abetter way, I need to prove that
I could do more and be better inthe kingdom for God, even though
I know, in my heart of heartsand in our theology that works
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righteousness and doing theworks does not involve our
relationship with God. And so Iworked until I exhausted myself
just to get the permission torest, to feel that I could
peacefully. Did you hear theeye, the eye, the eye, the eye,
the eye, the eye, and that I wasdoing this, and I was doing
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this, and I was doing this, Ican tell you what I was not
doing. I was not setting myheart back on God every day i.
It is not where I was going. IfI look at this and I said
beloved at the end of verse two,for he gives sleep to His
Beloved, a divine love, Irealized that as I'm thinking
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about this, that's what I wasmissing, is that I was trying to
control everything that washappening in my life. And I'm a
really good thinker, like I havea lot of ways that I can see
things happening, so I feel I'mreally good at control. Anyone
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feel like they're good atcontrol? Yes, no one out there.
Someone go with me. Please comeon now, raise your hands. And
what I realized is that where Iwas breaking was in this moment
where I was not hearing thebeloved. I wasn't giving up
control. See, when you give upcontrol in your life, what
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you're doing is you're creatingspace so that God can hold you.
See what you're holding onto inlife and trying to control is
something that you are puttingahead of God. And if I said you
need to honor God first in yourlife, you are putting other
things ahead of God. And whatyou are not willing to release
control on is a space that Godneeds to hold you in. It's that
same and very thing that keepsus from our relationship with
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God. That is God is saying,beloved, I will give you rest in
your anxious toil, I will giveyou rest. Just meet me as the
bread of life. Meet me as theperson that comes to you. And so
from the morning that you wakeup and you find your heart with
God, and you devote yourself toGod and honor God. God will
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guard you and keep you duringyour coming and your going,
because it will not work fromday beginning to day end, we
will go back into ourselves. Andso God will keep you there, and
at the end of the day, if youcan release control back to God
and say, I did it again. Icontrolled a little bit, but I'm
releasing this back to you. Godwill keep you and hold you and
make space for you, because youare His Beloved. Now that's a
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day in the life. Here's why it'simportant to go through every
day with God deepeningrelationship. Because I'm
talking about a day, if youheard me, I talked about taking
Kayla to cross country andwaking Landon out, getting them
ready for work, doing the tasksof the day. Those are
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preparation, going into ameeting, right? Seeing that
happen, meeting a relationship,having a coffee. Those are the
comings and the goings, going tobed at night, praying to God
before we go to bed, and givingthat back. Those are all things
in one single day. Now, when Ihear it coming and going again,
I started to think, Well, if Godhas us in the day, and we go to
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our relationship with God everyday, what does it mean when
we're in a season with God, thatcoming and going looks a little
bit different? What does it meanwhen you know you are coming
into a new season? And then howdo you honor God in that moment,
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I thought about this today, as Ithought about our relationship
with Tavo as I was preparingthis message our worship leader,
it's been a beautiful season.
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And I remember praying beforethis for a worship leader and
God answering that prayer withtable and the comings and the
goings and us meeting and theworship and and the joy of the
band together and the joy ofgrowing. And it has been a
season, and now we have a timewhere it's a coming and a going,
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and we go back to God again,because in the same way that God
fills us is the same way thatGod sends others into your life
and out of your life, in andthrough and about and every one
of these we have to trust Godwith the people that we love,
we have to trust God with ourwhole heart, our whole mind and
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our whole strength. And if youcan't do it daily, how are you
going to get through a season?
So here's my hope for you. Myhope for you is that you begin a
new day with God. My hope foryou is that you see that God
makes a new creation and atransformation out of you, that
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you see yourself daily made newin the kingdom as a promise of
God, knowing that God loves youfor exactly who you are, for
exactly what's happened in yourlife, and God knows who you're
becoming. He will watch yourmorning, your comings and your
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going, and he will hold you inthe evening as we go into every
single day of our life. If youcan do that. Us every day you
will have a new relationshipwith God, And all God's people
said, Amen, let us pray,heavenly and gracious Father, we
come before you today, knowingthat adult discipleship is hard,
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we come before you today,knowing that everything that we
go through, we we want to giveit back to you, but we hold it,
and it's almost as if we honorother things in our life before
coming back into thatrelationship to you. And yet
it's such a small thing to startour day with you. It's such a
small thing to begin by honoringyou, to set our day and set a
(25:37):
foundation for what comes next,and Lord, what I know is that
we're not only setting afoundation for a day, we're
setting a foundation for aseason. We're setting a
foundation for a hope. We'resetting a foundation that you
have already laid. So my hope,Lord is that we begin to trust
you. My hope, Lord is that welook at the moments, that when
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we are with you, that you willguard us and watch us and keep
us and protect us, that we willsee you as the shepherd over our
lives, and that when we hearyour voice, we will answer my
prayer. Lord is that you remindus gently and humbly when we try
to hold on to things, my prayerLord, is that we may go out
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today and change our lives andour relationship with you, that
when you call us into deepeningour relationship, that we may
live into it, not just hearabout it, that we may walk it
and not just leave it on Sunday,my prayer, Lord, is that we see
our lives to you as a humblesacrifice, but the sacrifice
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that we make is a relationshipwith you, not just working for
you. So Lord, I pray that youmove in every one of our hearts
today. I pray that you are withus, that you whisper that you
love us, that you forgive us,and that you make us NEW, most
of all, and we, Lord, we praythis in Your holy and precious
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name And all God's people said,Amen. Do you guys enjoy our
series mountain mover you.
You as we come together for the message. We've
been in a series that's calledMountain mover. And this series
has been about really adiscipleship. It's been about
this identity of meeting God inthese many in different places.
And it was inspired by our youthgoing on mission, and we first
heard a message from them calledBeyond comfort. And it was
(00:24):
really this identity that whenwe heard from them, they had
gone on mission. And if you'veever been on a youth mission
trip, it is a trip that reallystarts from a long drive,
usually into kind of dailyactivities starting early in the
morning, at seven, you're upbefore that, getting ready, you
work till late in the evening.
You have a worship and then youhave like a spiritual moment.
Then you go to bed, and you doit again. And and in these
(00:45):
moments, these youth open up.
They find their relationshipwith God. They come back into
the heart of God and and it'sreally these kind of spiritual
moments that lead them to becomecamp counselors and to continue
this ministry and go on. And aswe were preparing for these
trips, we thought, what does itmean that as adults, we would
find those same moments, but wedon't necessarily have someone
(01:06):
creating those for us anymore.
We don't have someone says, Hey,take a week off from work, a
week off from your family. Iwant you to drive an absurdly
long way in a 15 passenger vanwith 10 other people you don't
know, and we want you to arrivein a place that you've never
met, do mission for a week andthen do the same thing on the
return. How many of you are in?
Do we got this right now? Yes,one of you. This is why adult
(01:29):
discipleship is really hard.
This is why it's hard, becauseit's not what we're used to
anymore. And so we walk throughthis series of really talking
through, what does it mean thatwe would find the spaces to
create this relationship withGod ourselves, and how would we
move into that? So we talkedbeyond comfort, and we talked
with these youth experience andhow they move through this trip.
And then, in addition to that,we moved on, and we said, Okay,
we talked through Jesus, talkingwith the disciples, saying, you
(01:50):
have little faith, which we saidin that message that we were
grateful that we had littlefaith, because it meant that we
had room to grow. And a littlefaith can move a mountain, but
we're not at that little faith,yet we have room to grow to move
that. And if we have a littlefaith, then we are moving our
way towards Jesus. So whetheryou have a little faith, or you
feel like you are filled withfaith, you are in the heart of
God, and we are moving towardsthat. And so we keep on moving
(02:12):
through this series in a reallyincredible way. And as we've
gone through each and every oneof these message talking through
last week, we talked abouttrusting God, and what does it
mean to truly trust God in yourrelationship? And we talked
about this relational sacrificethat you have to have and trust
that you're almost giving away apart of yourself to someone else
to say, Hold this for me. Holdmy life, hold my story. Hold
(02:33):
this incident, hold this thingthat you know about, and I want
you to hold it with care andcompassion, and I want you to
love me through it, and that'swhat Jesus does. But we found it
hard to trust each other, and sowe've been walking this whole
narrative, and then today, as weopen up, we're getting into a
new reality with Jesus. We aretalking about, what does it mean
to have daily rhythm with JesusChrist? What does it mean that
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we would see our whole day as away to understand our
relationship with God everysingle day, not just on Sundays.
And if you're thinking aboutdiscipleship, it needs to come
from a weekend trip in a summerto just a Sunday to every single
day in your life. And that'swhere we need to move this and
so as we come to this part ofthe series, I really wanted to
(03:17):
talk to you about what is thedaily relationship that you have
with God, and what does it meanin your life? And we're gonna go
through a whole day inScripture. We're gonna start off
in the morning. We're gonna talkabout the middle of the day, and
we're gonna talk about theevening, because there is
scripture that says that weshould find rest at the end of
the day, that we should feelthat we can go to bed in peace,
that we can sleep in peace andhave this moment. How many of
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you go to bed every night inpeace Nothing's the matter like
you're not waking up feeling anyanxiety or anxiousness or worry
or anything else. Zero people.
Is this true? Are you guys justafraid to raise your hand?
Right? No, it's true. So whatdoes it mean that we would have
a daily relationship with God?
Let's talk about the morningfirst. How many of you? It's by
show of hands. Let's justseparate the room and divide
(04:04):
everyone right now. How many ofyou are morning people? We got
some morning people out there?
Yes, my morning people. Give itup for the morning people.
How many of you are otherpeople? Not? Holy, no, I'm just
kidding. I'm just kidding. Howmany of you are not morning
people? How many of you are notmorning people? Okay, do you see
(04:27):
how we said that you're either amorning person or not a morning
person, right? The designationis morning person, right? That's
the same in both. And so we'regonna read a scripture way. I am
a morning person. I love gettingup in the morning. I when I was
in seminary, the therapist thatI had in seminary, which were
all prescribed to go to therapy,right, to prevent burnout and
(04:48):
different things like that, andto experience it as a
seminarian. So I went an hourand a half away because I didn't
want to commit to therapy. So Idrove an hour and a half so that
would be so upset by the timethat I got there that I would
have to commit, right, that.
That's what I told myself. So Idrove an hour and a half to
therapy. Now, I go to therapywillingly, and it's awesome. And
so I drove an hour and a half totherapy. I got over there, and I
was telling my whole story, andshe's like, Well, tell me about
(05:09):
your daily routine. I was like,Man, my daily routine is like,
11pm to 2am is like my primetime. I was like, that's what
I'm getting work done. I said,everyone else is sleeping. And I
said, I'm just getting workdone. I said, it feels amazing.
And she goes, Oh, you're acompetitive sleeper. What? What
do you mean? A competitive shegoes, Oh, you feel like you're
(05:30):
winning because other people aresleeping. And I was like, You're
not wrong. And she goes, butyou're wrong. I was like, and
what she was saying is, shegoes, Just because you're up and
doing these things that otherpeople are sleeping is not a
winning moment, right? That'snot a healthy way to approach
life. She goes, you're literallycomparing yourself against
everyone else, and while they'resleeping, you feel that you're
(05:52):
getting ahead of them, right?
But you're not having a healthylifestyle every single day, and
in the day, in order toincorporate that, to maintain
that it would be something thatis spiritually, emotionally and
physically healthy for you,holistic health. And so what
that means, if we're looking atHolistic Health, is that our
day, our whole day, has to begenerated towards God. I
(06:15):
particularly love the morning. Ilove the morning I wake up
anywhere between four and 5amright? There's some mornings
that I go on a run. There's somemornings that I go to workout
with a group of guys, where weend in a circle of trust and
prayer for each other. There'ssome mornings I wake up and I do
a devotion. There's somemornings I wake up and I go,
nope, not today, and I go rightback to bed. That happened this
past week. And I was like, it'snot going to go. I love the
(06:36):
morning because I do feel likethere's solitude there, but
that's what I find. What we'regoing to discover today is,
where do you find your peace andrest with God? Where do you find
your moment with God? And how doyou seek that every single day?
And I don't want to miss this,you're going to hear me say it
over and over again in themessage today. How do you seek
(06:57):
this every single day in yourlife, because your life is going
to relate to a lot of otherareas as you go through things.
And if you can start every daywith God, your life will change.
Your life will change. If yourday begins with God, and we're
going to talk through that, butin order to talk through that,
there's a way to begin with God,and it's always in Scripture.
(07:18):
And so we love Bibles. Here inthe church, we're going to open
up our Scripture today to mark,the gospel of Mark. If you have
a Bible, raise that up. We gotBibles out there in the church.
Okay, yes, I love it. We have amission that everyone will bring
a Bible. We love Bibles in thechurch. And so with that, if you
need a Bible, we have Bibleboxes around the church. And as
I can see, people keep ongrabbing Bibles, which is great,
because if you don't have aBible, you can take it home with
(07:39):
you. You can take home in theBible. And we're gonna populate
the Bible coming into August,our Bible boxes. We're going to
have adult Lutheran study Biblesin there. We're going to have
student Bibles in there that arestudy Bibles, and we're going to
have kids Bibles in there. Andso you can grab any Bible that
you need for your family andtake that with you, right? We
love to know that you have aBible and so, but if you don't
have a Bible with you today,that's okay. No worries. On the
(08:00):
chair back in front of you.
There's a card that says theBible app. If you're online with
us, there's a link in thedescription for Facebook and
YouTube that says Bible app. Andyou can open the Bible app on
your phone. It's an app, and youcan go into Scripture and follow
along with notes and the messageand everything else that's going
along today. So today, we'regonna be in the Gospel of Mark,
right in the beginning Markchapter one. And we're going to
read one verse, verse 35 Mark,chapter one, one verse, verse 35
(08:24):
and this is while Jesus ispreaching in Galilee. So he's
healing. He's preaching and he'shealing. So if you can imagine
the ministry of Jesus right nowthat people know of the ministry
of Jesus, they're he's come outof the baptism, he's come out of
the temptation, and he calls hisfirst disciples and immediately
goes into this into this miraclestyle of ministry, because the
(08:46):
people see that this teacher canheal, and so they call for him
to be this teacher. And so inbetween these healings, he's
trying to teach them the gospel,which is the message and the
promise of the kingdom. And Idon't want you to forget that at
the end of the day, if youremember one thing is that
whatever your troubles are, thepromise of the Gospel, the
promise of the kingdom of God iswhat is being prepared for you.
(09:07):
No matter what you're goingthrough eternity and peace with
God is what's being prepared foryou. Remember that at the end of
each day, and here's what hesays in Mark chapter one, verse
35 says this in the morningwhile it was still very dark, he
got up and went out to adeserted place, and there he
(09:29):
prayed one more time. In themorning, while it was still very
dark, he got up and went out toa deserted place, and there he
prayed the gospel of the Lord,one verse. So think about this,
if we're trying to decide if youshould be a morning person or
(09:53):
not a morning person. Very earlyin the morning, he got up.
That's Jesus all day. You. Like,are some of you struggling right
now? You're like, what'shappening right now? Are you
telling me to be a morning I'mnot telling you to be a morning
person. That's not the identityof this message. There's
something different that ishappening here. There's
something different when he sayshe got up in order to be with
God. And if you understand this,what Jesus is doing is he's just
(10:16):
healed demons, and he's justhealed people, and people keep
coming to him and coming to himand asking for more and asking
for more. And I want you tothink about this in your life.
How many of you were overwhelmedby how many times people are
coming to you throughout theday, not just family, but all
the things that you have thatare responsibilities in your
life? How many of you areoverwhelmed by that? Raise your
hand if it's true. Jesus was inthat too. There's a very
(10:41):
important part. When he said hegot up early in the morning to
pray, he was deepening androoting and setting a foundation
in his own relationship withGod. So here's the first part of
this, if you want to deepen yourrelationship with God every
single day. It does not meanthat you're getting up earlier
(11:05):
every day. Just a note, if youwant to deepen your relationship
to God, it doesn't mean thatyou're getting up earlier every
single day. But what it doesmean is that if you want to
deepen your relationship withGod, it means that the first
thing you do every day is honor,God. It doesn't mean you have to
be up early. It just has to bethe first thing. And here's what
(11:27):
I want to tell you, I've beenpracticing this. I'm not great
at it. When I wake up, sometimesthe first thing I go to is my
stress. Sometimes the firstthing I go to is I missed my
workout. Sometimes the firstthing I go to is guilt.
Sometimes the first thing I goto is I got these family
responsibilities, and I gottawake up Kayle, and I gotta get
hurt across country, and I gottamake sure land is up. I gotta
(11:48):
get the food going, and I juststart. It just goes. And so what
I've been doing is I've beenwaking up and before I move, I
put myself in a posture, backinto prayer. I honor God in the
first thing because I know whatcomes next is the things that I
want to control in my life. Thethings that comes next is the
things I can't give up controlover to God yet. So I pray to
(12:09):
God first going, I don't havethe time in the day to get it
all done, like I'm going tostart the day, and I'm just
going to start walking, and Ithink of all the things I'm
trying to control, and I justgo, hold on. You said, You have
me. You said you hold me, andI'm going to be faithful to
that. I'm going to begin my dayby honoring God, and that can
(12:29):
look like prayer, that can looklike Bible reading, that can
look like Silent time with God,that can look like a walk in
creation, but the first thingevery day in your life, no
questions asked, should be tohonor God, and that will sustain
(12:49):
you throughout the day. Youdon't have to be up early, but
the first thing you have to dois honor. Now I want you to hear
this, because I want to talk youthrough the whole day. I want
you to turn over into Psalms. Sowe've been reading wisdom and
poetry throughout this series,and I want to keep us there, and
I want to move us into Psalm121, so if you go back into the
(13:11):
Old Testament, right, and thinkabout the Psalms, right, go back
in the Old Testament, it's goingto be in the front portion of
your Bible, where you can findjob in Psalms, and then it'll go
into the Minor Prophets. But thepsalm of this is called the
assurance of God's protection.
And we're going to Psalm 121,verses one through eight. And
(13:32):
here's what it says. I lift upmy eyes to the hills. From where
will my help come? My help comesfrom the Lord who made heaven
and earth. He will not let yourfoot be moved. He who keeps you
(13:54):
will not slumber. He who keepsIsrael will neither slumber nor
sleep. The Lord is your keeper.
The Lord is your shade at yourright hand. The sun shall not
strike you by day, nor the moonby night. The Lord will keep you
from all evil. He will keep yourlife. The Lord will keep you're
(14:21):
going out and you're coming infrom this time on and
forevermore. I read this Psalm,and it's part of a song that I
love, too, the Song of Ascents,and the song is truly about
really understanding ourrelationship with God. But did
(14:42):
you hear over and over againthat the Lord will keep you, the
Lord will keep you, the Lordwill keep you, the Lord will
keep you. I feel that in our dayand age today, that sometimes we
just have this need to know thatsomeone cares for us so deeply
that they will neither summernor sleep be. Because they care
for us that much that they willalways watch over us. And we're
(15:03):
looking for that from the peoplethat we love, and it's not
possible. We're looking for thepeople who love to care for us
in every way that we need, forphysical love, for emotional
loves, for spiritual love, forthat, and we're looking for it
from everyone around us, and wecan't get it. We lessen those
and we say, well, just take thisfrom you, and I'll just take
this from this from this friend,and I'm going to try to put it
(15:23):
all together so I can I can fillmy bucket and feel that people
keep me and they hold me andthey love me, and I'll keep this
heart. But the reason we have togo back again and again and
again to that is because we'retrying to fill our cup with
something outside of God. And Iread this again, and it was,
keep you, keep you, keep you.
And I looked up this definition,this biblical definition, the
(15:45):
Hebrew of what keep is, and itmeans to guard, to watch, to
protect and to preserve. Andinstead, if you're thinking of
God like a shepherd, theshepherd watches over you and
guards you. If you're thinkingof God, like the God of Israel
and the God of our kingdom onearth and on heaven, the God
(16:06):
will protect you. If you'rethinking of God who's someone
who's planning eternity, our Godwill preserve your life for an
eternity. Everything that we arelooking for in this life comes
from God in every single part,and this moment moves from the
get up early in the morning,says at every moment, God will
neither slumber nor sleep. Andwith that, you're coming in and
(16:27):
you're going out, he will watchover every time you move from
space to space. How many of youfeel really good in one moment
and are about to walk into ameeting and feel very anxious
the next moment? Has that everhappened to anyone, like, you're
good, and then the day just hitsand it overwhelms you're like,
I'm not good. Things are notgoing well. This is the going in
and the coming out, and whatneeds to happen in the middle of
(16:51):
that is going back to God,because God will keep you,
protects you. He watches you, Heguards you. This is the
important narrative, what God isdoing in your life. This is the
biblical definition of keep. AndI want to take you through
another Psalm. This is Psalm127, so turn just a little bit
(17:13):
more. And I love this, becausethis talks about our home as we
go throughout the day, thecomings and the goings, and we
try to find God in the midst ofthose This one's God's blessing
for the home. Verse one in Psalm127 says this, Unless the Lord
(17:34):
builds the house, those whobuild it labor in vain Unless
the Lord guards the city. Theguard keeps watch in vain. It is
in vain, here's the other winfor the other side that you rise
up early and go late to rest.
(17:54):
Can I get an amen? See, Ibalanced it out. You thought I
was just going for the earlypeople. Don't worry. It is in
vain that you rise up early andgo to late to rest eating the
bread of the anxious toil, forhe gives sleep to His Beloved.
He gives sleep to His Beloved,the bread of anxious toil versus
(18:20):
the bread of life I used tofeel, and I still feel, in
something that I struggle with,if I'm going to confess to you,
and something that I'm workingthrough right now in my personal
life, is that I feel that I haveto exhaust myself to get
permission to rest. And I didn'tdiscover that until recently,
(18:41):
because I confused by exhaustingmyself with my sacrifice to God,
and I said, Oh no, if I'm at theend of the day, and this was a
mission trip, reality, I learnedthis on mission, and this was an
unhealthy way that I learnedthis. I learned on mission that
if I go all day and at the endof the day, I've given my whole
heart, my mind, my body and mystrength to the Lord, and I
ended the end of the day, and Ican do no more but lay down and
(19:04):
go to rest because I havenothing left to give. That's a
holy and spiritual relationship.
But that's not what God istalking about here. I was eating
the bread of anxious toil. Ineeded to prove that I could
work harder. I needed to provethat I could be more I needed to
prove that I could serve in abetter way, I need to prove that
I could do more and be better inthe kingdom for God, even though
I know, in my heart of heartsand in our theology that works
(19:27):
righteousness and doing theworks does not involve our
relationship with God. And so Iworked until I exhausted myself
just to get the permission torest, to feel that I could
peacefully. Did you hear theeye, the eye, the eye, the eye,
the eye, the eye, and that I wasdoing this, and I was doing
(19:49):
this, and I was doing this, Ican tell you what I was not
doing. I was not setting myheart back on God every day i.
It is not where I was going. IfI look at this and I said
beloved at the end of verse two,for he gives sleep to His
Beloved, a divine love, Irealized that as I'm thinking
(20:11):
about this, that's what I wasmissing, is that I was trying to
control everything that washappening in my life. And I'm a
really good thinker, like I havea lot of ways that I can see
things happening, so I feel I'mreally good at control. Anyone
(20:31):
feel like they're good atcontrol? Yes, no one out there.
Someone go with me. Please comeon now, raise your hands. And
what I realized is that where Iwas breaking was in this moment
where I was not hearing thebeloved. I wasn't giving up
control. See, when you give upcontrol in your life, what
(20:52):
you're doing is you're creatingspace so that God can hold you.
See what you're holding onto inlife and trying to control is
something that you are puttingahead of God. And if I said you
need to honor God first in yourlife, you are putting other
things ahead of God. And whatyou are not willing to release
control on is a space that Godneeds to hold you in. It's that
same and very thing that keepsus from our relationship with
(21:14):
God. That is God is saying,beloved, I will give you rest in
your anxious toil, I will giveyou rest. Just meet me as the
bread of life. Meet me as theperson that comes to you. And so
from the morning that you wakeup and you find your heart with
God, and you devote yourself toGod and honor God. God will
(21:37):
guard you and keep you duringyour coming and your going,
because it will not work fromday beginning to day end, we
will go back into ourselves. Andso God will keep you there, and
at the end of the day, if youcan release control back to God
and say, I did it again. Icontrolled a little bit, but I'm
releasing this back to you. Godwill keep you and hold you and
make space for you, because youare His Beloved. Now that's a
(22:00):
day in the life. Here's why it'simportant to go through every
day with God deepeningrelationship. Because I'm
talking about a day, if youheard me, I talked about taking
Kayla to cross country andwaking Landon out, getting them
ready for work, doing the tasksof the day. Those are
(22:23):
preparation, going into ameeting, right? Seeing that
happen, meeting a relationship,having a coffee. Those are the
comings and the goings, going tobed at night, praying to God
before we go to bed, and givingthat back. Those are all things
in one single day. Now, when Ihear it coming and going again,
I started to think, Well, if Godhas us in the day, and we go to
(22:43):
our relationship with God everyday, what does it mean when
we're in a season with God, thatcoming and going looks a little
bit different? What does it meanwhen you know you are coming
into a new season? And then howdo you honor God in that moment,
(23:03):
I thought about this today, as Ithought about our relationship
with Tavo as I was preparingthis message our worship leader,
it's been a beautiful season.
(23:23):
And I remember praying beforethis for a worship leader and
God answering that prayer withtable and the comings and the
goings and us meeting and theworship and and the joy of the
band together and the joy ofgrowing. And it has been a
season, and now we have a timewhere it's a coming and a going,
(23:45):
and we go back to God again,because in the same way that God
fills us is the same way thatGod sends others into your life
and out of your life, in andthrough and about and every one
of these we have to trust Godwith the people that we love,
we have to trust God with ourwhole heart, our whole mind and
(24:08):
our whole strength. And if youcan't do it daily, how are you
going to get through a season?
So here's my hope for you. Myhope for you is that you begin a
new day with God. My hope foryou is that you see that God
makes a new creation and atransformation out of you, that
(24:30):
you see yourself daily made newin the kingdom as a promise of
God, knowing that God loves youfor exactly who you are, for
exactly what's happened in yourlife, and God knows who you're
becoming. He will watch yourmorning, your comings and your
(24:51):
going, and he will hold you inthe evening as we go into every
single day of our life. If youcan do that. Us every day you
will have a new relationshipwith God, And all God's people
said, Amen, let us pray,heavenly and gracious Father, we
come before you today, knowingthat adult discipleship is hard,
(25:15):
we come before you today,knowing that everything that we
go through, we we want to giveit back to you, but we hold it,
and it's almost as if we honorother things in our life before
coming back into thatrelationship to you. And yet
it's such a small thing to startour day with you. It's such a
small thing to begin by honoringyou, to set our day and set a
(25:37):
foundation for what comes next,and Lord, what I know is that
we're not only setting afoundation for a day, we're
setting a foundation for aseason. We're setting a
foundation for a hope. We'resetting a foundation that you
have already laid. So my hope,Lord is that we begin to trust
you. My hope, Lord is that welook at the moments, that when
(26:01):
we are with you, that you willguard us and watch us and keep
us and protect us, that we willsee you as the shepherd over our
lives, and that when we hearyour voice, we will answer my
prayer. Lord is that you remindus gently and humbly when we try
to hold on to things, my prayerLord, is that we may go out
(26:27):
today and change our lives andour relationship with you, that
when you call us into deepeningour relationship, that we may
live into it, not just hearabout it, that we may walk it
and not just leave it on Sunday,my prayer, Lord, is that we see
our lives to you as a humblesacrifice, but the sacrifice
(26:50):
that we make is a relationshipwith you, not just working for
you. So Lord, I pray that youmove in every one of our hearts
today. I pray that you are withus, that you whisper that you
love us, that you forgive us,and that you make us NEW, most
of all, and we, Lord, we praythis in Your holy and precious
(27:13):
name And all God's people said,Amen. Do you guys enjoy our
series mountain mover you.
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