Latest / First Love Revolution / One of Those People (Part 6): "The Spirit's Supply" | November 6, 2023

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One of Those People (Part 6): "The Spirit's Supply" | November 6, 2023 · First Love Revolution

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Revolution Church Message Series.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: One of those people.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You can find the entire series in video and podcast format, as well as other messages at FirstLoveRevolutioncom.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Here's Pastor Trent with today's message.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I told him last night after last night, don't say that and he did it, of course, again.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: So it's okay, I won't go.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I won't share the story about how Brandon was killed me in a golf cart during summer camp.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: One time I'll share that one.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: That's another time.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I'll share it for another time.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Well, it's so good to be with you church family.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I know that God has so much to speak with us this morning and it's just a pleasure to be here as we pursue the Lord and what he has and as we've been diving into this brand new series.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: This series has been a really special one.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: If you've been here in the recent weeks, god has been moving powerfully in this series.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: This series is called One of those People, and here's the thing when we think about one of those people, you will know exactly what I'm talking about.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: And if you've been here in the recent weeks, you know those people.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: When you're around them, you know that they've been marked by God and it's special and it's powerful.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: You know that when you encounter them, it leaves a mark on your heart.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And for people who aren't Christ followers, when they're around these people, they're like I can't put my finger on it but there's something different about them.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: They clearly are a different kind of people.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: They are full of passion.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: They're full of fire for the Lord.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Their soul is full of fervor for the Lord.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: They hunger after things of God.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: And many of us can see those kind of people and we can think to ourselves like, oh wow, that over there, that is just unattainable.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I can't get there.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: That's not normal.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Normal people don't always act like that.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, and I don't know how I could ever be in that category.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing church, what if God has called us to be one of those people?
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I believe this in my heart that God has designed us to be what many of these principles are that we're talking about in this series, that God is calling us to have this heart of great passion for Him and that's what we've been looking at in this series how God is calling us to be one of those people, not just an observer, not just an admirer, but that God is actually speaking to us to be one of those people.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Last week, if you were here, pastor Shane taught on this powerful message on the disciple John, and John is an incredible man.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: He was the beloved in Jesus' eyes and he was secure in his love from Jesus that he truly knew the love of God in his heart.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: He was confident in his love and when we live, identified in such a way that we are so confident in the love of God, we are truly, truly changed, we are freed people.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: It's powerful.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: This is one of the greatest markers of a believer is that we are secure in our love of God.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: And today we are discussing what I would argue is another one of the greatest qualities of one of those people, because we know that these people, when we see them, it is undeniable that every single one of them has this extremely important quality in common, every single one of them.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: But before we dive into what this quality is and why it's important and why we should live in such a way, being filled by God, what separates those believers from all the rest of the believers and all the other people around them, I want you guys to take a moment.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I want you to close your eyes.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I promise you I'm not going to make you do anything weird.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to come grab your hand and be like this person here.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: No, I'm not going to do that.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Just close your eyes for a moment.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I want you to think about a time when you were running on fumes in your life.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Some of you may be sitting here in this moment and you're like that is me currently, but I want you to think about that time, whether it's now or in the past.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: That time when you were constantly felt like you were rushed and you didn't have the capacity to have a moment for yourself.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Your job, maybe, had taken over your life to unhealthy levels.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Your kid's schedule didn't stop.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: You were barely able to juggle everything that you had on your plate, and on top of this, you're trying to stay afloat with your budget, car payments and mortgage.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: But at the time, you were able to finally get a moment of peace and silence.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Your head is already hitting the pillow and you dread the next day because you just think it's going to be another day like this, another routine like this, over and over and over again.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: And maybe you're a student in this room and you remember that time, or you're currently experiencing something like this where you're feeling this anxiety and weight of balancing your schoolwork, sports, theater, friends, friendships, clubs, dating relationships, future college plans, and the weight has been pressurizing your life.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Think about where you were in that time Church.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Think about your head space.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: In that time, maybe you felt worry and anxiety over how in the world you're going to get to all these things today and it just became crippling in your life.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: And some of you are like in this room right now and you're thinking to yourself okay, I was hoping to get to church and get away for some of those thoughts today, but thanks for bringing back up Trent, that's really cool, but I promise you you're not going to remain in that place.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Keep your eyes closed.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I want you to think about another time.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: We're going to table the thoughts you just had and I want you to think about another moment.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I want you to think about a time when your closest was God, was the strongest it had ever been in your life.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Your time hungering after him in prayer, meditating in his word, discipleship with a body of believers, your daily practice of worship and thanksgiving were off the charts.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: You may have even had a lot of stuff happening in your life, but your intimacy with God far outweighed everything in your life.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Everything else, and not just that, but you realized that you actually had more energy, more strength to persevere in life because of your closeness with God than you could ever imagine before.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Like it made zero sense on a human understanding how you felt, everything in the flesh would say they were actually wasting time and getting things done because how much time you want to spend being close to God or how much time you spend in prayer before you step into the day.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: But what you ended up experiencing was quite the opposite.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: You saw God multiply time, give you more freedom with your family.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Anxiety that was once crippling was no longer having a say in your life and you felt weights that once weighed you down daily falls to the ground as you chose to put God first in your life, that you felt carried and lifted by the presence of the Almighty.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: During that time.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Remember how sweet those moments were.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, open your eyes.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Some of you want to stay in that sweet moment.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: You're like man.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Can I just go back to that time?
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: It was so sweet for me.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: You want to stay there a little bit longer.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: But I want to ask you a very important question, when you listened and looked at the two scenarios of your life and where you were actually seeing okay, this is the time I'm running on fumes, this is the time I filled with God's presence.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you a very important question when was God in your life?
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Where was God in your life during that time?
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I think about my own life when I was running on fumes, the times and those moments when I realized how independent I actually was from God.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: In those times God was pretty absent and if God was around, it was kind of like a check-in at the end of the day before I went to sleep at night.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: And church if I'm being honest with you this morning, god was more of an afterthought in those moments, in the running on fumes times in my life.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: But I bet church.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I bet, when you thought of that second scenario, when you thought of that second scenario, the second time of your life when your day was filled with God's presence, when he was on the forefront of your mind I would bet that when you were filled with his presence, your mind was so far less fixated on your problems and so much more fixated on Jesus.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I would bet that you cared more about your closeness and how close you can get to God and your intimacy with him, knowing that whatever you were facing in life, god was in full control.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: God was in full control.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: In that moment you were renewed with this joy and this hope you didn't think you had before, because God is with you.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: In that moment you lived with weightlessness as you walked, being filled with the Spirit.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: You see church every day.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Every day, we have a choice.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Every day, we have a choice in how we live our lives and what we'll fix our eyes on.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Every day, we will have a choice of what we're going to set our hearts on as we wake up every morning, and it's easy to set our minds and say to ourselves okay, today I will live to put God first in my life.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I will inquire of him in prayer before I take a single step forward in my life.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I will put my trust in him first.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Before worry tries to sabotage my faith, I will keep my eyes fixed on Jesus today.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do that today.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: But we also know how much easier this is said than done, because when we live in a culture that believes that the lie that in order to achieve success we have to do more and more and more around us and prayer and reading the Bible and spending time with God those are time wasters to the world.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: The world will say we have things to do.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: We can't waste a single moment on something like this.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: To sit and be with the Lord, that just seems so unproductive.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: And here's the thing.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: As Christ followers, I believe we buy into this lie a lot, even if we don't want to admit it.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I believe we buy into this lie all the time that if we're honest with ourselves, we don't always take time to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: We don't take time to always acknowledge that how great our God is, because if we're honest with ourselves, it just seems unproductive.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: That's a hard thing and a hard pill for us to swallow, because we know when spending time with God, when we worship Him and seek Him, hungering after Him with everything, we have being filled with this presence before anything else in our lives.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: It is not only the most necessary thing of our lives, but it is the first priority of the Christ-centered life To worship God, to seek Him, to hunger after Him, to give our whole lives to Him.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: It is the difference between someone who is living a life with spirit supply versus spirit shortage, which is the title of the message today.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: It's the spirit supply versus spirit shortage.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: We know that we've dealt with this before in our lives.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Will we choose to be one of those people marked by spirit supply, filled with the presence of the Lord, god Almighty?
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Will we be marked just like one of those people, or will we be like one of those other people?
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: The people who are burnout is at their doorstep.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: The busyness of their life, it suffocates them from living the abundant life that God has called them to, really getting by with a self dependence leading to spirit shortage.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: See, one of those spirit-filled people in the Scriptures who I love so dearly to read about, was Mary of Bethany.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Mary of Bethany is a sister of Lazarus and Martha and she is an incredible, incredible disciple of Jesus.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Many of us know full well of Mary and Martha and if you have your Bibles, I encourage you to open up to the Gospel of Luke.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: We're going to dive into chapter 10, and you're going to open into that passage, verses 38-40.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: We'll put it on the screen for you as well, if you don't have your Bibles.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: When we learn in the Gospel of Luke, we see how much Jesus actually loves these three.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: He loves Mary and Martha, he loves Lazarus and he holds them in high esteem.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: They're very highly regarded by Jesus.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: So Mary and Martha were greatly loved by Jesus, but one in particular would be commended by Jesus.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: One in particular would be choosing to be close to him, filled with his spirit.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: And as we read this text, I want you to actually observe the two responses of Mary and Martha.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I want you to observe the responses when they're hosting Jesus and his disciples for a meal in their home, because we will see two prime examples of what it looks like to be filled with spirit supply and spirit shortage.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's dive in Now.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: As they were traveling along, he entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home, and she had a sister called Mary, who was also sitting at the Lord's feet and was listening to his word.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: But Martha was distracted with all of her preparations and she came up to him and said Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do the serving by myself?
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Then tell her to help me.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's look at the scene for a moment.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Martha's in a frenzy, making sure that all of her guests, they're taken care of, the food is prepared properly, they're cleaning up after.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: She's cleaning up after all the guests, making sure that everyone is taken care of in this moment, all of Jesus' disciples, and I can imagine Jesus drew a big crowd.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Her house is probably pretty crowded in this moment.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: And then she notices something odd.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: She noticed that Mary isn't helping.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: She's sitting there, being unproductive to the work at hand.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: So Martha calls out Jesus to get on her sister's case and she says to Jesus Lord, don't you care?
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the serving by myself?
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: And then she has the audacity to say to Jesus and command him, tell her to help me Now.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I will give Martha the benefit of the doubt here that it was quite unusual in this context for a woman to not tend the house when their guests were over.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I'll give her that benefit because women were valued at this time, being good wives, keeping the house, having children.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: So it's not surprising that Martha has this instinct in this moment and believes that Mary should be doing the exact same thing.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: She should be in line with what Martha is doing.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: She's doing something outside the norm and what she should be doing.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: And Jesus could have scolded Martha in this moment, he could have really gotten on her case and yelled at her in this moment.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: But Jesus uses this as an encouraging moment to Martha, and he's actually.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: He knows that Mary's doing something that is not culturally expected of her, but she is doing what is the right thing in this moment.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: So Jesus chooses to gently redirect Martha in his rebuke.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: He chooses to use this moment as a teaching moment for what matters most, what is the priority.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: And it says this in the text.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: But the Lord answered and said to her Martha, martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Jesus redirects Martha that her focus may be on the service, it may be on the thing she has to get done in front of her, but it's not centered on the guest, the guest of honor, it's not centered on me.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Jesus is saying the only thing that is necessary in this moment is to be close to me.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Mary is doing exactly what she should be doing and, martha, you, you're distracted.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: You're distracted from the most important thing in this moment, right now.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: The word distracted actually can be translated in the Greek as perispaho, which has a connotation of being pulled or dragged in different directions.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: So, martha, in this moment she's getting pulled in all these different directions.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: She sees the needs of people, but she's also in her own heart being like I gotta do this, I gotta do this, I gotta do this.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: She's constantly moving in this moment and, martha, she can't see past all the different directions she's getting pulled in when the one direction that matters most is towards Jesus.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: She is taking, she's not taking the position that Mary is taking in this moment.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Mary is taking that position of being right before Jesus, at his feet, hanging on every word.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: See, we, we see two different, very different responses in this moment with Jesus, but the one response that's of greater value to Christ is the position of Mary.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Now, does this mean that what Martha was doing was wrong?
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: I wanna, I wanna like talk about this really quick.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, what she was doing was wrong, being busy doing the things cleaning your house, taking care of things I mean, here's the thing, after all, she's doing what she believes is expected of her.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: She's working hard to take care of the people in her house and I believe there could be noble intentions, that Martha has Noble intentions for what she is doing.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing, church, we can have the noblest intentions when it comes to the busy times of our lives.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: We wanna provide for our families, we wanna give our children every opportunity to enrich their lives, we wanna serve our neighbors, but we cannot confuse all of the guests in the household for the guests that comes first in our life.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: If we pour all of ourselves into all these other areas and all these other things in our lives without being centered on Christ first, we actually will be greatly lacking in being spirit supplied.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: And here's the catch that I believe Martha she didn't understand in this moment is that when we are not first centered in Christ, worshiping Him first and seeking Him first with everything we have, then every other area that we are trying to be productive in will also lack.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I'll say that again if you were actually if we're not centered on Christ first and putting Him first in our lives, we will actually be unproductive in all the other areas in our life.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Because it's not centered on Him, it will never live to the potential that God has in store for us.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: It is not.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: We have to be first submitted to Christ in everything we do, and when we do that we will be truly productive.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: It's so counter-intuitive, it's out of whack from what the culture believes in.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: It's so backwards from what the world thinks is actually being productive.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: But prayer and meditating on the Scriptures and hung around their Lord friends, this is no waste of time.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: It might be unproductive in the world's eyes, but it is so productive in God's eyes, it's so valued in Jesus' eyes we cannot miss the truth, church that our outflow will always be out of alignment if the inflow is cut off from the Spirit.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: We have to know this that we will continue to live in that place.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: If we live like that, when we're cut off from the Spirit, we will continue to live in a constant state of Spirit shortage If we put other things before God constantly in our lives, in our busy schedules.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: You see, guys, mary got this Church.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Mary got this.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: She understood, she knew that sitting in the Feet of Jesus was the most important thing she could do.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: And I feel like if I sat Mary up here right now and I interviewed Mary in this moment, what she would actually say and ask she would respond to this moment.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I believe Mary would say something like this I know, I know, I know.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: I know what it's expected of me, I know what it looks like to take care of my family I do it every day of my life and the needs of others around me.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: But I just can't get over the fact that Jesus is here.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Jesus has the words of life and I would like everything else if I'm not at His feet, worshiping Him, hanging on His every word, everything else, I know those things are important, but Jesus, he's the guest of honor.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: I long to be in His presence first.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I long to be close to Him.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: See, mary knew Jesus was the bread of life.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Mary knew that Jesus was the bread of life.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: She knew the truth that Jesus spoke of in this life.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: And she knew the truth that Jesus spoke of in the Gospels, the Gospel of John.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: It says I'm the vine, you are the branches.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Apart from me, you can do nothing.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Apart from me, you can do nothing.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: See, mary's priorities were in the correct order.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: As Martha lost sight of that, mary chose the necessary thing, the good part, to worship and hunger after Jesus first.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Only good fruit will come from this devotion to Jesus in this moment.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Mary knew that, as a branch, she had to remain to the vine, attached to the vine, and everything.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Out of this position, this surrender, would flow into every other area of her life.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: And here's the amazing thing about Mary is that this isn't the first time we see Mary do something like this.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Mary takes this position on multiple times, laying at the feet of Jesus.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: We can observe this in other places as well, where she puts her whole self before Jesus.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just before having a meal at their home.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: We know that Lazarus passed away and Jesus came back to visit them, and we know that Jesus would actually raise Lazarus from the dead, and so Martha would meet Jesus, and then Martha would go get Mary, and the first thing that Mary does is she lays herself at Jesus' feet, weeping and crying, and so it says this in John, chapter 11.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: So when Mary came to the place where Jesus was, she saw him and fell at his feet saying to him Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled and he said where have you laid him?
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: They said to him Lord, come and see Jesus wept Shores verse in the Bible.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Right there is Jesus wept.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Jesus so moved by the grief of Mary and the people, he too wept.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: He's moved with great compassion as Mary's throwing herself at his feet.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: And the thing is that Jesus knew full well he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: But what moved Jesus to the point of tears was Mary throwing herself at his feet.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead and we know what happens Like.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: It's just an incredible scene.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: People all over want to come see that Lazarus being alive and resurrected.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: But we'll jump ahead again, because Mary does something like this again in a pretty powerful way in the text.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: We actually jump ahead that six days before the Passover and this is another time at Mary and Martha's household, as they're hosting people and we see Mary do something again to honor Jesus.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: But this time it is truly an extraordinary act.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: It is a costly act at the feet of Jesus.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: It says this in John 12,.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Therefore, six days before the Passover, jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: So they made him a dinner there and Martha was serving and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Mary then took a pound of very expensive perfume, a pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of perfume.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, the one who intended to betray him, said why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and the proceeds given to the poor people?
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Now, he said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: As he kept the money box, he used the steal from what was put into it.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Therefore, jesus said Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial, for you will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Look how honoring Mary is in this moment.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Look what Mary is doing she's washing Jesus' feet with her hair, even though Judas is having a hissy fit over here because he knows that.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, where's that money going towards the stuff when we know he's going to steal it and Jesus can read right through it on what's happening.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: She could have been distracted in this moment when disciples are murmuring over here.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: But no, mary is fixated on Jesus, in worshiping him, adoring him.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: It doesn't stop her from doing what is necessary.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Time and time again, we see Mary in the same position, with her heart in the exact right place, and Jesus is actually.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: She's not correcting Mary, he's correcting all the people around her.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Mary is giving that costly sacrifice before Jesus and she's looking for every opportunity to lay herself before Jesus, to worship him, honor him, soak in everything he had to offer.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Mary's one desire was to honor Jesus.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: And you see, for Mary, everything revolved around Jesus.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: She wasn't deterred by the deterrence around her.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: She was not pulled to the left or right like Martha was earlier.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: She was exactly where she needed to be, living a spiritual life that was fully dependent on Christ and church.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: I believe that we have choices every day.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: We have choices every day to make when it comes to living a Christ-centered life, and every day those choices will put us in the balance of whether we have a spirit supply or a spirit shortage.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: And if I look ahead to the next week, the next month, and I notice that I'm setting myself up for failure because in the past two months I try to do the same thing over and over again and I'm just like, you know, I'm not spending time with God in my day and I kind of just get to it when my head pits the pillow and sometimes, if I feel like it or if I need it, I get to the word and so I think like, oh okay, I'm just gonna.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm gonna keep at it, I'm gonna keep on doing that thing and I will just, I'll get better at this, I'll get better at this on my own.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I can do this absolutely.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Somehow, I think magically, I think it's going to change in my life.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing, friends, is that when we actually try and think like we're gonna do this on our own and being dependent on ourself and this, we are living out what Albert Einstein's conclusion is.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: And does anyone know what Albert Einstein's definition is of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Insanity.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: It's insane to think we can do this just on our own, when we're thinking like, man, I was really like not really great about this, I'm gonna try to be better, and it's like my own strength, I can't do this.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I need God, I need to be closer to Him.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: And here's the thing, church, hear me on this that nothing will change in our lives unless we willingly lay ourselves before the throne, unless we become like Mary, who's focused on Jesus, that he's on the forefront of our mind every single day.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: And I love how Pastor Shane taught on how John was one of those people, because John loved Jesus, he's perfectly confident in his love with Jesus and I think Mary took a page out of his book.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I think Mary took a page out of his book because she loved to be with Jesus like John did, loved to be close to Him.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: It was the desire of both their hearts, their spirit supply.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: It wasn't running on fumes because they were centered on the Lord first in their lives.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: I know I just read John, chapter 15, verse 5, when Jesus speaks on how he's divine and we're the branches and if we remain Him and Him and us, then we will bear much fruit.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Apart for Him, we can do nothing.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: That was the NSAB version, okay, the New American Standard Version, but I really like how the English Standard Version says this verse and I want to put it up for you so you can see, because there's this word that has changed.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: It's this word abide, church, can you say abide, abide.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: It's this beautiful, beautiful word, and it says this, and we'll read it together that I'm the vine, you are the branches.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Whoever abides in me and I in Him, he it is that bears much fruit.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: For apart from me, you can do nothing.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: So we see, actually, if you go back in John, to John chapter 1, there are two disciples who first encounter Jesus and they ask Him where are you staying?
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: They want to know where Jesus made His residence.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: And the word staying there is the same word translated to abide in John 15.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: So to abide is to reside, abide is to reside, abide is to continue to stay, to remain, to remain.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: This means we go on trusting, we go on believing, we keep on depending, we never stop in our pursuit of God and we remain with Him and we stay with Him.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: To abide in the vine means this and I have a formula for you you can look at this is that abide in the vine equals united to Jesus.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: There's connection, there's union, as Jesus is in us and we are in Him.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: There's that union happening.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: We rely on Jesus.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: This is daily dependence on Him.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: We're not self dependent, we're not independent people with Jesus.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: We are dependent on Him and to remain in Jesus.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: This is a continuance.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: We stay with Jesus.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: We remain with Jesus.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: We stay in those moments with Him.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: See, when we abide in Christ, there is a constant spirit supply in our lives that does not run dry.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: In order for this to remain this way, we must be united with Jesus, in union with Him.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: We're relying on Jesus in daily dependence on Him, remaining in Jesus every single day of our lives.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: So let's put this in more practical terms for us to understand a little bit more, because I believe that Mary modeled this for us.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: But what does this look like for our lives?
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: So I have my own dinner table right here, a little dinner table that each of these chairs and these placards represent a different guest in my home, a different guest that has great value to me and maybe for you.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: It has great value for you as well.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: I would put my money on it that it does.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: And so each one is a different guest in our lives that we hold dear.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: But the head of the table.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: The head of the table is the guest of honor and he always gets first in our life, and that is Jesus.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Jesus sits at the head of the table in our lives Daily.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: We put him ahead of everything else.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: He is the guest of honor in our life.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Now here's the thing when it comes to Mary and Martha, let's go back to them.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: We all have Martha moments.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, everybody's gonna want one of us.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: We have Martha moments when we were constantly running around focusing on our tasks, things that we need to get done, things that are many times, many times.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: These things are not bad things.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: I want us to understand that.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: It's not like these are all bad things.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: It's not just sins that keep us from following God.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Some of these things can be good things in our life, but here's the thing Serving my family, working a job to support the home, tithing the church, even serving in the church those are good things.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Those are great things, absolutely, they're wonderful things.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: But when we're not abiding in Jesus first, when we're not actually going before him and being filled with his spirit first and focusing on him first in our lives, we quickly will fall out of alignment with what God has for us.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: We quickly will fall out of alignment with what God has for us and how he wants us to live, even in the good things of life.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: So the first chair that I have right now is very important to my life.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: It's a major priority in my life.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: It's my family, my family, my family's a major priority in my life.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I have a 10-month-old.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: He's awesome.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: His name's Levi.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I love that kid.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: I'm a husband to my wife, leslie, and I love my family and I love my family.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: They are so important to me.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: But I will be very honest with you, church, that if I'm not connected to God first and my spirit supply has run dry, I can tell you the truth that my family will struggle mightily.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: My family will struggle mightily in my life.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Selfishness would push me to elevate myself over them.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: My stress and anxiety level would push me to anger towards the ones that I love.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: I Know myself will have to know well enough to know that I have unhealthy tendencies.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: That can happen when I'm not filled with the Lord in my life and that will become a continual pattern if I don't choose to abide in Jesus first, daily in my life, at the head of my table, if I choose to be dependent on my own strength, pushing God aside in my life.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I know full well how sin wants to make its home in my heart.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I Know full well how will affect the ones I love most.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: But when I abide in Jesus and I sit at his feet daily in my life, seeking him, praying, meditating on his word, growing alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ, then I'm in union with Christ Like the vine, the branches.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Christ is in me and I'm in him.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: That mutual exchange changes me from the inside out as the Holy Spirit fills my cup daily.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: If there's no connection, no union, there is no life or fruit.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: As I am connected to the vine, I know I will see my family, like the Lord sees my family, that God has called me to serve my wife and my son.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: He has called me to be a spiritual leader in my household, and this isn't just a one-time thing, because abiding means that I remain.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: I remain connected to the Lord.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: It's daily dependent, dependence on God, on the Lord, to change me from the inside out.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: See the vine, the vine isn't dependent on the branch, the branch is dependent on the vine.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: So without the vine, the branch is useless, it's lifeless, it's powerless.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: So we abide, we mean about.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: By we have to choose to be completely dependent for everything that comes out of us as spiritual fruit, as we're dependent on the Lord, and this will challenge us as believers.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: It will, because this means giving up control of our lives.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: It means giving up the things that we like to control in our lives.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: There is a costly sacrifice to this in the posture of abiding in Jesus.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: When we choose to trust in God's ways of our own, self-dependent ways.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: As Christ followers, we know our lives are not our own.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: We were created to abide in Jesus, to serve him, and when it comes to our family and when we're daily connection with Christ, we will serve our loved ones and lead them and love them far better than anything we can do on our own strength.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: Do we believe in this?
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: I Think it's really easy to say we do, but are we acting like this?
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Are we actually falling through on this?
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Because I know that if I'm on centered on Jesus and I'm sitting at his feet Hungering after his words and what he has to say, I know how deeply that will affect my family and the best way possible it's the most important thing that I can do as a husband and a father is that I abide in Christ and I live with him.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Let's look at our next placard, because I know this will be obviously very relatable for most of us in this room as well.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: We have work in school, work in school.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about this really quickly.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: But abiding in Jesus changes us and our work in our schools to live for him in every area of our lives.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: We live with more integrity.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: We live for a love for other people who are around us.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: Every single day we see past ourselves the needs of the people around us.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: When we're so in love with Jesus, the Holy Spirit is flowing in us.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: We can't help but share the good news of Christ.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: It's got to come out of us when we are abiding in Jesus.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: It's just like I got to share.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: I got to testify of what God is doing.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: That spirit supply is overflowing in me and it just needs to come out.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: It can't remain to myself.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Church, can I testify with you real quickly?
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Can I testify something?
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: I Cannot tell you how many times I have heard people who are busy in their life and they actually thought that spending time with God and being in prayer was getting in the way of the things and the goals they had in life.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: But when they chose to abide in Jesus and they actually said, okay, I'm going to spend more time in the word.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: I'm going to spend more time in prayer.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna give God more space to listen to what he has for me.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: When they had chose to abide in Jesus first and allow the Lord to guide their steps, they spent more time in that word and they are filled with him.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: It's incredible how many of those people came back to me and actually heard Testimonies of how.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: I cannot tell you.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: The joy and the hope that I had today is incredible.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: I Can't tell you.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: I've started elevating the worship of God in my life.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: It has been powerful to see how God's been moving.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: God has multiplied joy and hope and they were so filled with the spirit that the things that they thought would take them forever in their work or with their families in their lives, they actually realized what usually took them so long to do.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: God actually multiplied time for them To have those things as they were able to spend time in abiding in Jesus.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: God multiplied those hours for them.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Maybe you've heard this from Pastor Shane and Pastor Rebecca.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: They that when they've abided in Christ in deep prayer before they work on their messages, and they just spent time in prayer knowing that they have a.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: They have a deadline.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: It's crunch time.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: We got to get to this, but they talked about these moments and I've heard them testify like I'm.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: I was so filled with the spirit in those moments.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: They would testify that they just couldn't leave the times of prayer with God and, as they abided with the Lord and abided in him, what usually would take days or even weeks to write a message Took hours to write a message.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Hours to write a message.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: This isn't accidental.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: This is from the Lord.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: God is able to make this happen when we abided him the first place.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: It's incredible.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: I Really believe, friends, as we open our hearts to God, the things that we thought was not possible before become possible.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: I believe that it's so counterintuitive to us, but yet when we actually abide and spend time with the Lord, it's amazing.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: All the things that he does, how he can multiply our joy, I hope, how he can multiply our love for people, how he can multiply our time, how God provides when we didn't think we didn't know the provision and where we come from.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: God who's in such a way?
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: And the last placard that I have for you guys is one that I really felt led in prayer in and and it may look kind of be kind of confusing to you at first, but it's being a Christian being Christian, with quotation marks.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Now some of you are like whoa, whoa, wait, I thought a biting in Jesus is being Christian, like that's what I'm supposed to do in my life.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: See, at the surface, I believe we would think like this that is a good thing, but and that Martha?
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Martha was actually living like this.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: She's serving others in her home.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: At the surface, she was doing the good thing, but she lost sight.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: She lost sight of the most important thing that she could have done in this moment.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: And not just that.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: But Martha also wanted to knock Mary out of alignment.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: She wanted to knock Mary out of alignment and doing the thing that was best.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: And if we're just going through the motions and being Christian and we're just filled, when we aren't filled with God's presence in our life, not abiding in him, then we lose sight at the reason of why we're serving others in the first place.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Our love will be self-dependent love on what we can do in our own strength.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: It will be how we can truly.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: I mean how we can love from our own heart.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: And yet here's the thing how can we truly love?
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Love the way of Christ and the way he loved, if we aren't filled with the spirit.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: First I saw this quote from Pastor, pastor named Rich Vileadus, and this is a great, great quote.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: It hit me hard this past week as he posted it online.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: It says this that the sad irony of our day is we can be deeply committed to being Christian but not deeply formed by Christ.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: I saw this quote and I'm like man.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, like it's frightening that we can do all of the Christian things and yet not be deeply formed by Christ.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: A deeply formed life is marked by a continuing dependence on God, a constant connection to him.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: A constant connection to him, allowing our prayers to be filled with surrender before the Lord, allowing his words of scripture to guide us and mold us as we live with his active spirit in our life every day.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: The kind, this kind of abiding produces good fruit, fruit that will last.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: And there are far too many Christians out there.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: There are far too many Christians out there who are settling for doing the Christian things instead of being formed by the Holy Spirit.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Like being a Christian and doing the Christian thing.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: It just becomes a checklist to us.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: It's just something that we do just in our week, in throughout our days, you know in your heart, if you're honest with yourself, that you're not taking real time to spend time with God in prayer and meditating on his word.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: It's really tasks.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: It becomes tasks and chores just to get through your week.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: And even when we serve we can have this heart that it's just.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: It's kind of just what I do, because it's the Christian thing to do, it's to serve.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be doing this thing.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: I Just do these things just to be.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: You know, it's easier to control that instead of actually having a real Vibrant relationship with Jesus, where he is living in and through me and working through me.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: And the truth is, friends, is that trying to serve without abiding in Christ and being nourished by his word and spirit is like expecting Good fruit to grow in a tree that has been uprooted.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: It doesn't work.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: We are likely end up with this kind of service that is devoid of love and joy.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: We become resentful of others and I believe this is where Martha was when she actually scolded Mary, when Mary was abiding in Jesus.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: And I'm talking you, I'm talking you today as someone who is a recovering Martha.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, hi, I'm a Martha, all right.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: I've struggled with this in my life and I know many of you have to in this life as well, I believe.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: So often we have these struggles within us in our lives.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: But I thank God that I work at this church and I serve at this church, because our leadership is so focused on Making sure that every everything centers on Christ first and his spirit, that the Holy Spirit is guiding us in this church.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: I can tell you this, friends it is really powerful to see how the leadership has encouraged me to press into fervent prayer first, before anything else, that I am meditating on God in His Word, lifting up and elevating His Word, even before I act on any mystery plans or strategies.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Is it coming from what God has said first?
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: Is it coming from His Spirit?
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you know how sadly, like sadly, this is becoming more and more rare in the church, in the church world today, we do a lot of the things that we think have worked in the past, or we've done things that we know we're comfortable with, and yet we know that if we actually spent time in prayer, god would be telling us to pursue Him in another direction, even when it doesn't make sense to us, but we're trusting in Him and I can say this, friends, is that there's not a single decision in this church that I know of that hasn't been covered in constant prayer, praying from the big to the little things, that we do not proceed until the Lord has instructed us to go forward.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: We don't go forward with every service until it is covered in pre-service prayer.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: I know you see our church team, our prayer team, praying up here and we're praying before every service because we will not go forward unless God is in this service.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: If God is speaking and he's saying something, I cannot tell you how many times I have seen us praying and diving in and God says something, or to focus on something, and how powerful that is, and we speak it from the pulpit up here, or it's revealed in worship or even in the prayer lines in the back, and I cannot tell you how many times I've seen congregants come up to us afterwards and say you do not understand.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: God spoke directly to me.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: That is exactly what I needed to hear.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: That is exactly what I needed from my heart.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know that I needed before I came here, but when I came here and I heard it and I felt God's presence.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Everything changed.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Everything changed for me.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: We don't rely on strategies here at Church of the Front-Rage, but we rely on God's presence first to lead us forward and from that spirit supply we press on as he gives us a vision, as he gives us those strategies.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: See, many times I believe the temptation is that we have to do the Christian things without abiding in Christ, being filled with Him first.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: I believe that many times it comes from that place of control.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: For us it's easier to control things in a relationship with God because when it's out of our comfort level, our comfort zone, it seems like in us it's like everything's kind of going crazy.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know God.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: We want to control things around this, but far too often we allow our control to guide us in a relationship with Jesus.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: But this way, I believe, this way of being Christian, this way of being Christian will always lead to spiritual shortage.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: We always will, and it's no surprise that why so many pastors are leaving the Church, leadership and the pulpits in astronomical rates today, a major burnout happening.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: We have to stop seeing our time in prayer, meditating on the Word, being filled with His presence, as optional as a Christ follower.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: It's not optional Church.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: If you are a believer and disciple of Jesus, you crave Christ and you want to be in His presence and you want to meditate on His Word daily and you want to seek Him in prayer with everything you have, abiding in Jesus is necessary as a Christ-centered life.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: It is the difference, friends.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: I am choosing to love God first, above everything else, and what he has in store for me as I serve others.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: And if you've noticed yourself recently that you're in a spiritual rut, you've noticed this rut in your life where it just seems like abiding in Jesus, it just seems like I'm just, I'm going through the motions, I'm just being Christian recently.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: I want to encourage you to spend some time with the Lord this week, even today, and give God adequate space for Him to speak.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: And what I mean by this is that if you're set on a specific time in the morning, firstly, in the morning, or even at night, maybe, you're testifying of all things that God is doing at nighttime as well.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: I would like, I would encourage you to add 10, 20, 30 minutes.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: Go where God leads you in that time and take moments to just listen, be quiet.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: In a world that is so often devoid and we need constant, constant noise in our lives.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: I encourage you just to sit and be present with Him, to be present in that time and ask God, even in those moments God, how do you want to use me today?
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: What do you want me to see today?
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: God, inquire the Lord and listen, laying yourself before Him and saying I'm yours, god, one time, just thanking God and expressing your love to Him.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Speak from your heart, your affection.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Lavished the Lord with adoration.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: Abide in the Lord and biding in the Lord is full of affection to God.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: Give it all to Him.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: It's also full of testifying back to God, testifying who our God is.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: And your testimonies may sound something like this, where you're saying Lord, I see your faithfulness and your provision when I didn't know where the money would come from.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: But you, god, you did, you moved.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: God, lord, I didn't ever think I would make it through my bouts of depression.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: I saw anxiety crippling me from every area of my life.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: But, god, you knew the way.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: You had the way, you provided the way, where it seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: And yet you, god, were that light.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: You guided me through the depression.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: You broke that in my life, and as you sit, not trying to rush to the next thing I know this will be the temptation for us, church is that we're going to be like, oh, I got to get to the next thing.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: I really encourage you to press in when you feel that tension.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: When you feel that tension, press in and really sit and be in the Lord's presence, like Mary did, getting lower before Him.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Ask yourself, lord, how can I get lower before you, how can I bow down before you, the King, how can I allow space in my relationship with you, jesus, to flourish Friends, if we do this, we will not be the same as we start to live a life that speaks like David speaks.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: David spoke in the psalm so beautifully when he just knew he couldn't be apart from the Lord, and he says in Psalm 42, as the dear panther of the water broke, so my soul panther you, god.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: We cannot expect to adequately, adequately express the love of Christ when the love of Christ becomes obligation.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: We have to show from our hearts, give our hearts to Him, to the love of Christ, because we are so filled in those spaces with His love we got to share it with other people.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: We got to adore God in that space.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: We have an overflow of our spirit supply in us and it just needs to come out.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: There were many times in my life that I was just going and going and going and pushing my time off with God.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: I was pushing it off to the side and I can tell you how many times I look back after being depleted and exhausted in my life, realizing how of alignment I was with God, realizing what a difference it would have been if I just chose to abide in Jesus in my day.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: And I can testify of the times of how God changed me from the inside out as I spent time with Him first in my life, how I loved far greater than I ever could in my own, that I walked with more confidence in my life and boneless in Him to share the gospel, the more worship and praise was elevated to Him in my life daily.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: All these things and these areas that I valued so dearly changed because I had this heart that was filled spirit supply, filled with the love of Christ.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: It changed how I saw things.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: See every day church.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: We are choosing.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Every day we are choosing to abide in the King and he will sanctify us in those spaces.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: Will we choose to get lower?
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Will we choose to get lower and bow down at the feet of Jesus and watch our intimacy with the Lord grows as you choose daily, daily, to be attached to the vine?
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: It's the most productive thing and necessary thing you will have as you pursue the Lord in your life.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Will we choose to give our whole heart to Jesus as we lay before Him, in our prayer time, in our time of solitude, in the quiet, in the listening, in our devotion in His Word, in our devotion to the gathering of body of believers, as we worship together in hunger after the Lord?
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: I long church.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: I long for the bride of Christ to be a bride without blemish, that we bow before Jesus, low in our lives, getting lower, in this beautiful union that takes place between Jesus and the church happening, where we stop caring so much about what people think about us, that we care about at the heart and the soul of who we are, that we care about just bowing down and kneeling before Jesus at His feet, that everything comes from this source, right here.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: I can't elevate the throne high enough in my life that, as I elevate Him, that it affects my relationship with Him and it affects everything else across the board, because I know that if I put one of these things before Him I'm going to lack, but when I elevate Jesus, it's the most productive and necessary thing I can do.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: As I worship Him, I just want to hunger at His words and say yes, jesus, I want you more than anything in my life.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: Jesus, I know you have the words of life.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: I want to live by those words and I cannot do this in my own human strength.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: I need you and I cannot wait to hear, as we do this deeper in our lives every day, the testimonies that will rise up on how my family was changed because of this, how my work in school was changed because of this, how I stopped doing things out of obligation and being a Christian but I really lived for Christ because I had this overflowing spirit supply in my life of love for Him that it just had to come out.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: I needed to give it all.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: I needed to give Him everything.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: And there will be those in this world who say those things are just unproductive.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Can I share with you some statistics to share with those who say it's unproductive to be with Jesus and be in the Word daily.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: Can I share some things with you?
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: These are some pretty powerful statistics that back up that being in the Word.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: It actually affects so many things that we don't even realize in our lives.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, these statistics come from the center of Bible engagement and they pulled 40,000 US general population.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: These are not Christians, this is general population, ages eight years old to 80 years old and those who read their Bible four times a week, so not one, two, three, it was kind of like this.
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: The line was this but when they read their Bible four times a week, this is what happened in their lives Feeling lonely dropped 30%.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Anger issues dropped 32%.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Bitterness and relationships dropped 40%.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: Alcoholism dropped 57%.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: Feeling spiritually stagnant dropped 60%.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: Viewing pornography dropped 61%.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Sharing your faith jumped 200%.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: And discipling others jumped 230%.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: Never tell me that it is unproductive to follow Jesus and be in His presence and worship Him and hunger in His Word.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: Never say that it is the most productive thing you can do.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Friends, do not minimize the time that we have to abide in Jesus and say Jesus, you are going to change everything in my life as I live and I bow before you daily and it's not a one-time thing.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Remember, abiding is remaining with Jesus.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: It can't just be on church on a Sunday morning.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: It has me so much in our lives that it just saturates us from the inside out to worship Him and give our hearts to Him and to seek Him, to hunger after Him, adore our King, like Mary did using those fine perfumes to wipe Jesus' feet.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: And this will take time in our days, friends.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: Absolutely it will.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: Will it take effort to do this?
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, but is it the best time that the Creator of the universe wants to fill our soul up with His very presence as we go out and seek Him and love others better than we ever could in our own strength?
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: All those things is the best thing we can do in our day.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, will you reside with Him?
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Will you remain in Him?
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: Will you give costly worship to Him, like Mary did at the feet of Jesus?
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: Will you be still before Him?
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: And some of you may be sitting in this room and I want to talk to you if this is you, because I don't know where everyone has come today.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: Some of you may be filled up today and you're like yes, I'm filled up with God's presence today.
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: It's a good, good time, but some of you, some of you may be in this room and you feel like man, I'm depleted, I am exhausted, I am struggling in this life.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: I am living on spirit shortage.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: I am in the fumes right now and you long to live a life like Mary and you're just wanting to abide in Jesus, but you don't even know where to start because you feel like you've fallen short, and it's more of a shame thing.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: I've fallen short again and again and I want to tell you today, church, that you're in good company, because we've all fallen short.
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: Every single one of us have fallen short of the glory of God, and he asks us to bring whatever we have to Him, that costly sacrifice to Him.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: He desires more than anything to be close to you.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: Jesus even says this himself in Matthew come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is comfortable and my burden is light.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Listen to those words of Jesus.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: He's gentle and humble in heart.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: He's not shaming you.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: He wants you to find rest for your souls.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: He wants to restore you.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: He wants you to know that His burden is lighter.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: And today I'm praying, and I want you to pray with me, that those burdens will lift, that you'll be burdened free in your life because you are choosing to say I want to abide and put myself before the King.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: I long to overflow with my cup with His Spirit.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: He longs to be close to you, pour your heart out to Him, cry out to Him.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: Jesus is listening, he's waiting.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: So don't let a moment go by.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Take this time now and pray.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: Let's pray, okay, heavenly Father.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: We know so often, god, that we get caught up in the things of life around us and the business of life, god, and yet we know that all those things God will always lack if we do not put you first in our lives, god.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: We know how often we get caught up in the Martha patterns of our lives, even in the good things, god, in our life, and yet we know that if we're not setting our life first on you, all those other areas will lack.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: So, god, I pray, holy Spirit, I pray that you will fill us in our hearts with that greater desire to abide in you this week.
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: I pray, god, that you will speak to us in the only way that you can, god, that you will meet us in the quiet places, lord, and you will speak in those moments, god, I pray for an acceleration in this church body of people who are in the Word daily, who are praying daily, who are opening space and time for you daily, god, and greater dependence God on you, and I pray for testimony to rise up that, as people are being dependent on you, god, they are seeing how you move in all of the ways that you can, god.
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: I'm praying, lord, for those in this room right now who—or even at home right now—if you feel like there are weights on you right now and you know that I'm just—I am that spirit shortage and I need the Lord and God.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: We need you, we need you.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: We cannot be filled with your presence, god.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: We will not go forward until we are filled with you, and so I pray for weights to fall off in this room and at home, in Jesus' name, to fall off as these people surrender.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: Your sons and daughters surrender before you, god.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: I pray, lord, that your spirit fills in the places, god, that there have been hurt and brokenness, and I pray, god, that those burdens that they once had God, they will realize and people will sense so deeply that your yoke is so light.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: I pray for burdens to be freed in this room, these people to walk in that place with you, lord.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you, god, that you make a way.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you, lord, for choosing to be in relationship with us first.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: We want to put you first in our lives and we surrender anything else—anything else that is distracting us and getting in the way of you.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: Jesus, we lay that at your feet.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: In Jesus' name and with heads bowed, eyes closed.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: I want to pray for one more group in this room who may be sitting here today.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: And maybe you're sitting here thinking to yourself that, if I'm being honest, I don't really have a union or any relationship with Jesus.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: If I'm being honest, jesus has just always been kind of a distant thing in my life and I nearly understood Jesus.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: But I want to hear—I want to hear—that Jesus desires so badly to be in relationship with you that he left the comforts of heaven to give his very life for you, that the sins and the things that would actually separate us from God for all eternity.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: Jesus came down and lived a perfect life and he became the sacrifice for us and took those sins upon himself and he died on the cross for our sins and he crucified sin once and for all.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: And the beautiful thing is that on the third day he didn't stay in the grave, he rose from the dead.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: He conquered death and sin once and for all, so that all of eternity we can be in union with God the Father, forever because of Jesus.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: Jesus made the way and if you feel distant today and you're like man, I just want Jesus in my life.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: I want to be fully surrendered to him.
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: I want every area of my life to be his.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry for those things I've done.
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: I want to live for you and if you're wanting that relationship with Jesus today, I want to encourage you.
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: With heads bowed, eyes closed, I want to encourage you just to raise your hand up high so I can see who I'm praying for in this room.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: If that's you in this room right now and you're like man, I need Jesus in my life.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: I'm sick of maybe even being—trying to do being Christian when I haven't actually had a real relationship with Jesus.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: If that's you in this room, I want you to raise your hand high so I can see and I want to pray for you.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: Praise God, I see you.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: I see you.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Is there anyone else in this room?
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: Don't want to miss it.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: This is you.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: Praise God, you can put your hand down.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: I want you to pray these words with me if you want the relationship with Jesus.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: Jesus, I want a relationship with you.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: I desire you to come into my life.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: I know that I have done things in my life that are not what you want me to do.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: I know that I've committed sin.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: I know I've not honored you, but today I want to honor you by giving you my whole life.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: I believe you died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead so that I could be in a relationship with you for all eternity.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: I desire that union, that relationship with you today, come into my life.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: Lord, have your way.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: I love you, jesus.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen, amen.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: I know we went a little longer today, but here's the thing as soon as the front range, we celebrate when there's salvation and a couple of people gave their life to Jesus in this room, and that's something to celebrate.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: It's powerful.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: Amen and the scriptures that says that you're a new creation.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: The older is gone, the new has come and your sins are separate as far as the east is from the west.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: You're no longer the same, and if you made that commitment to give your life to Jesus, today I want you to know that truth, that you have a relationship with Him that cannot be taken away.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: And so, if you have that relationship with Him, you need a Bible.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: You need to talk to someone.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: I encourage you to talk to our prayer team in the back, our volunteer welcome team.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: They'd love to encourage you on the next steps.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: Talk to myself.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: I can encourage you as well.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: We also have prayer lines.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: If you're sitting here today and thinking to yourself, man, just to give a little bit more time in my day to pray is of great value, and I need to do that before you go anywhere else.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: You may even have some plans today and you're like I need to put my plans on pause because there's something I need to pray about with God.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: I need to get with Him, and I encourage you to join our prayer pastors in the back.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: They'd love to pray for you.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: We've seen so much healing, so much freedom back there.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: Don't miss out if God is telling you to stick around for a little bit and get that prayer.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: Otherwise, I encourage you to be praying for our Colorado Springs team down there for the during the day as well, as God is moving.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: We'll see you guys Wednesday or next weekend.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: Have a great day.