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Transcript

How To Build Spiritual Walls That Hold · The Reality Is

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so I've I've experienced this with grass.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I would just throw seed out because you know when we first got our place, it was just there was no grass, it was nothing.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: We cleared the land and we were in mud.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's literally we're and I would come into work and I'd be getting mud all over the place.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: It was terrible.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so I would just throw seed out there hoping the grass would grow.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't till up the ground first.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't, I didn't prep and do the things I needed to do for the seed to actually take and grow.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: Same thing with us spiritually.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's more than just, hey, look, now the seed's been thrown on there.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see what it's gonna do.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's a parable about seed in just bad places.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: But in life, that's the same thing.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've got to actually prep the soil, prep your heart.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then after that, oh, I've got to water it.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to take time and nurture this thing so we can actually grow into something.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the same spiritual illustration we're talking about.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's not enough to just say, oh, look, I have the seed.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, look, I've put the seed there.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: No, what else are you doing with that?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: The reality.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_03: When the real light meets real fun.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: The reality.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: When the real light meets real faith.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the reality is podcast.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Well we're here today to talk about real life and real faith.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Joey.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Richard's over here with me.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: And before we get started in today's topic, I want to ask you guys to do us a favor.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Would you like, subscribe, share this with your friends, and ring the bell.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: That way you never miss another episode of the Reality Is Podcast.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: Now, last week we started a whole new series.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, Richard can't do anything under five parts.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: So this is going to be another five-part series, but this is wonderful because I love what we're talking about.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: We're talking about building a life that stands.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: And today, you and I, we both call it the same thing.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's building walls.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: I say putting up hedges of protection.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: You called it building walls.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't wait to get into this topic about building walls.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: But before we do, I just want to share with everybody, you recently took a bike ride.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: And you just went to see some what you told me was the most beautiful scenery.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: You said one day you saw one color, and then like, so it's never the same.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Can you just share a little bit about what that's like?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my wife and I, we take a couple of trips a year, and of course we got away last week, and the leaves are starting to change in the high elevations in West Virginia and Virginia.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we got away.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: We rode for five days just enjoying the scenery.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: The thing about it is though, Joey, we we started the week and and we actually had temperatures in the mid-60s up in the high elevation.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just beautiful riding weather, just the jacket, man.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just yeah, man, we got up last Friday morning.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was 38 degrees.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: You can't bundle up enough for that, can you?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Saturday.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: They were actually calling for snow.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just in the area we were in.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we said, you know what?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Not the smartest baby boy ever born, but I'm going home.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know better than to try to do that all that time.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: But it was beautiful.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, to to see God's creation.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's exactly what the Bible tells us when the heavens declare the glory, right?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and just to see God's creation and to see God's handiwork.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And and what really amazes me is how anyone can sit and say that this just sort of evolved from nothing.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: An explosion took place.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And look, beautiful.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And exactly.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and everything it takes for those leaves to turn, to fall, to come back in the spring and and go through that cycle of life.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we're just going to say this just happened.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: No way.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it is amazing to see God's handiwork.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And until you've stood and looked out across a valley and all those colors busting out and just the beauty.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just really enjoyed it.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: I remember telling you my first time as fan.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't even know something like that existed, being from Los Angeles.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then going to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: I had no idea anything like that was possible.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: But my first time on Skyline Drive in the Shenaday, I mean goodness.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we were there last week as well.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what you did, Skyline?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that was one of them.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's one of my favorite places.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I know you have other places that you've told me to do, but that's just where I have been.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of my favorite places.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's beautiful.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm glad you guys got to take that in.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: We had a good time.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: Good, man.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Good for you.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad to hear that.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: So today, we're talking about building walls.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: And more than just building walls, making it a habit.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so can you just kind of well, I know you're going to, but break down what that even means to build a wall.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because you're not talking about, hey, I'm going to build a wall and seclude myself.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: You're talking about building a wall that keeps the enemy from spiritually getting to you.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about building a strong Christian life, building walls, you know, Acts 2.42 is kind of what we want to break down today, right?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: It says they continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's amazing to see what happened on the day of Pentecost.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Peter stands, he preaches, you know, thousands of people come to faith.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then we just read constantly, and more were added, and more were added, and more were added.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't just the multiplication that became the amazing part of what took place there.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was the growth.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was the spiritual maturity.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was what God was doing in their life.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so if all we do is is build a foundation, I want you to think about it this way, okay?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: You you ride by and you you see a construction site, you see the heavy equipment, then you watch them concrete trucks out there, the foundation is poured.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: You ride by a couple of days later, there's nothing left.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you ride by five months later, and there's still nothing there.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Foundation.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, at the end of the day, they've accomplished nothing but a mud hole, right?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because yes, there's a foundation there, but they've put nothing on top of that foundation.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we're talking about today is the foundation Christ told us is his word, right?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so we understand we begin with our salvation, and and that is our foundation, absolutely, right?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: But we got to build on that.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're not building on that, then all we have is a mud hole, you know?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's real sensitive to even say this.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: But you're saying if I just have my if I just get saved and go, yes, I'm satisfied, there's really no satisfaction in just saying, hey, I've built the foundation and I don't need to do anything else with my life because I'm good.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, of course, the the salvation is eternal security and and it's there.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you you never understand what your faith is.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and as we read, listen, in Colossians 2, 6 and 7, he says, as you've therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you've received Christ Jesus.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's step one.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't change, but then he said, walk in him, make it a lifestyle, right?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not doing that, then it's literally what we call fire insurance, right?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that's exactly what I was gonna say.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: You and I both know people that have fire insurance.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I look on even with family members, and I go, okay, great, you've accepted the Lord Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: But what are you doing with it?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm not saying it's not enough.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, please don't hear that.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where I'm like asking, like, and I know you'll always correct me, but but to say salvation is enough, I don't think that's right to say salvation is enough, but it is enough, and that's where it gets really hard.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: It is enough.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: It is enough, but there's so much more the Lord wants to give you and and offer you if you would just walk in him, right?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right well, is bringing a baby home from the hospital enough?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, no, right?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, you have life there, but I can tell you this if you say, well, the baby doesn't need to to mature, the baby doesn't need to grow, the baby doesn't need to be taught and instructed, and then no, it's not enough, right?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and we're compared to spiritual babes in scripture.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what we're called, a newborn Christian, right?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: Newborn life, right?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got to grow and mature in that newborn life.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so failure to do that, you know, leaves you there.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, one of the things that I think we need to understand is spiritual maturity is built, it is not accidental and it's not automatic.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're not just going to go to bed spiritually immature and wake up spiritually mature.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: It is not going to happen.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you have mentioned in gardening before.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: If I if I just put a seed in there, I I need to do more than that.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like I've got to, and so I've I've experienced this with grass.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: I would just throw seed out because you know, when we first got our place, it was just there was no grass, it was nothing.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: We cleared the land and we were in mud.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's literally we're and I would come into work and I'd be getting mud all over the place.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was terrible.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so I would just throw seed out there hoping the grass would grow.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't tell up the ground first.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't, I didn't prep and do the things I needed to do for the seed to actually take and grow.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: Same thing with us spiritually.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's more than just, hey, look, now the seed's been thrown on there.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see what it's gonna do.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's a parable about seed in just bad places.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: But in life, that's the same thing.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've got to actually prep the soil, prep your heart.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then after that, oh, I've got to water it.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to take time and nurture this thing so we can actually grow into something.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the same spiritual illustration we're talking about.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's not enough to just say, oh, look, I have the seed.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, look, I put the seed there.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: No, what else are you doing with that?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was when I was in law enforcement, I we just worked crazy shifts, right?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: There, there was no such thing as doing what I did.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: There was no such thing as a shift.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, my typical nights went in between two and four in the morning, right?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Joy was in college at the time.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would come home and find her at the kitchen table, literally asleep on her books, right?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I would always tell her, honey, osmosis won't work.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: You you can't lay down on it, sleep on it, and and and get the knowledge.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's almost like we anticipate the same thing with with spiritual growth, right?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: We absolutely I go to church, so I'm gonna mature.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not, and it's not going to happen.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4, he said, reject profane and old old wives' fables, exercise yourself toward godliness.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I I love this part because Paul and I agree on this, bodily exercise profits a little, you know.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I you know that's why I don't exercise.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's the point, right?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's there's no profit.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and of course, I've been told multiple times, I've misinterpreted that.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um but listen to what it says.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: But godliness is profitable for all things, yeah.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Having a promise of life that now is and which is to come.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to consider the language there.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Exercise yourself to godliness.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Think about what exercise is.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: I uh can't can't look at me as an old man, but when I was younger, I lived in a weight room.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and when you think about that and and think about what it is, exercise is intentional.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely it is.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: It requires effort, it requires repetition, and it takes time to see results.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, you can't you can't just walk into a gym for 30 minutes, walk over to the mirror and say, Well, that should do it.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can't buy a membership and 10 years later and say, Well, I've owned this membership for 10 years, I don't understand why I'm not in shape.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the way it works.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: I I know people who go to gym just to flex.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, are you actually gonna pick up a weight?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna get on a machine?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna do anything?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: Or are you just gonna go there and expect different results from doing the same thing you're always doing?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: And we know that's never that's insanity.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and so when when you stop and you think about what Paul told us when he said, Here's what I want you to do.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to exercise, right?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and so literally, we know Paul uses a lot of athletic illustrations and and things, right?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so literally what Paul is telling us is yes, you you have your foundation, but you got to build on that foundation, right?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that when I used to be big into power lifting and do a lot of that, I mean, there there were guys that that would come in literally no form, no size, and and a year later they would look like a Volkswagen, right?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: These guys would just be not the new sleek good looking ones, right?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean these yeah, these these guys, the these guys, and it wasn't that they were, you know, medicating to get that.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: These guys were just they were exercising too.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and so when you stop and you think about how that works in our spiritual walk, yeah.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I I want to grow, but I don't want to take the time it takes to grow.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it doesn't work.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, it will never work.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: But don't we always want things the easy way?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: All right, we I mean we have been, I grew up, and my kids even worse, but I grew up in a realization that we could get things right away.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like I remember the gigantic microwave that was the size of this table that we put in our house.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah you know, the kachunk, and you would put food in, and then like three minutes later it'd be done.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, so I grew up in the creation of that world.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: And you remember the microwave coming to you.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: Now, everything's instant.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: Everything is instant.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Our kids, my kids, grew up in a world where they could get anything they wanted right away, you know, and then there was a commercial that said, you're away, right away.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh like they're getting that, and it's like they've missed out on the I believe uh advantage of waiting for something and working to actually get it.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, and you know, when you th when you talk about training, you talk about exercise to godliness, but you're being formed.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's forming you is the question to be answered, but you're being formed.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: When when I was doing task force work, we we had physical standards we had to meet, and pretty strenuous, and we had different things that we had to do, right?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and I enjoyed lifting.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: I hated running, but but I did it because I had to, but I enjoyed lifting.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what I would do.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so ready to go on a rabbit trail.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm sleeping.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would go to the gym.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: First, I'd go for a run, and then I'd go to the gym and I'd lift, and there was this little convenience store close to our house, and and it was like a mom and pop thing, and they had the bakery inside.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they sold this thing called bear claws.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I would go to the gym, I would work for two hours, I would run five to seven miles, and I would stop and buy three bear claws and the chocolate milk and drink them on the way home.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because you could.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because it could.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, what was forming me?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: You think about this.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Was the exercise forming me or was the bear claws and chocolate milk forming me?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Most likely.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: My waistline said the chocolate milk bear claws.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: But boy, was that good.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: But but you understand, I mean, I understand.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: We do that, right?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: We we go to church, and if we're really spiritual, we go to life group.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're really spiritual, we actually listen to Christian radio, right?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: But then what we watch, thank you, what we view, what we allow in our life, our attitudes, our actions, our secret parts that we talked about on our last podcast, right?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Then that's what's forming you.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's not the outward things you're doing, it's the inward parts of the heart that are forming you.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because what you're putting in is gonna come out one way or the other.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: There's no other way to look at it.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: And you and I have talked about it before.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: The things that you and I used to watch, you've had your stories, I've had my stories, that even in my Christian life, those things that I thought, man, this isn't gonna bother me.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm not affected by that.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: It was still shaping me, and it was still forming inside of me to the point one day I did something, I went, where did that come from?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, oh, yeah, that character on TV, exactly.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: Used to do that, and now here I am imitating that behavior instead of imitating Christ-like behavior.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: But but that's not gonna bother me.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's not gonna, I've got I'm still a Christian, I'm still safe, and I am still a Christian, I'm still safe, I'm still walking with, I still love the Lord, but I'm looking at things that and I think here's the problem with me.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: I was thinking it's okay if I watch that.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's not gonna hurt me.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's not by some people are going, oh, I probably shouldn't be watching that, but I'm still gonna watch it.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was in that mindset of I'm not going to be affected by this because I know what my walk with the Lord looks like, and I know what my relationship with the Lord looks like.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna do this with God, but when I'm at home or when I go to the movies, I'm gonna do this and it's okay.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: It ain't okay.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I would actually argue, and and I I have zero scientific proof to support this, but I'm a really, really smart guy.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just ask me.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, go.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you ever doubt that, just ask me.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: I will ask you.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I would argue that that your morning daily devotional time is null and void when you put the stuff of this world in behind it.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I I would say you're you're literally absolutely accomplishing nothing to say that I'm going to start and putting God's word in me, but then I'm gonna immediately cover it up with the filth of the world.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what's the point?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: That goes to your exercise illustration.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Man, I've just spent three hours in the gym.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: I've just spent all this time running.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, I only run if I have a reason to run.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody's chasing me, then I run.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: I don't run for fun at all.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: But you did exercise, you did running, and what did you put in right behind that?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's really what's doing it.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what was winning.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's what was winning.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to think about it, the the construction site that we've been talking about.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to imagine, okay, now we've poured our foundation.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got everything in place, we have all the materials we need to build the house delivered.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then we leave.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: We we have all the materials there, yeah, but we have nothing to go with it.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and would you say, look at my house?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: You can't say, look at my house.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't it beautiful?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Don't I have a great house?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: No, you got a bunch of wood and nails and screws like that.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: Ain't a house.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sleep there.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what it does.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about it.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: God's given us his word, he's given us prayer, he's given us the church, he's given us other believers, worship, opportunities to serve, most importantly, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: But all of those things unused literally is I have the materials, but I'm doing nothing else with it.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's hard.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's really hard.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: But it's so true for most of us in our spiritual walk.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: Everything has been good.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: Lord has given us everything we need.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: And my wife and I even prayed this last night.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for allowing us to be in a country where we actually get to have the freedom to sit here and do a study right now, to sit here and pray to you openly.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like we are in a place where we can do that.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: So thankful that we have that opportunity.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody has that opportunity.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody has, as you said, that material, what are you doing with that material?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the key things is to remember is time alone does not produce maturity.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I know a lot of people that have been believers for 30 years, but yet they're infants.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I was wondering how long it was going to take for you to offend somebody.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, goodness gracious.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And my devotion, but it's true.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in my devotion time this morning, I was reading Hebrews, reading in the book of Hebrew, and Hebrews and in, you know, Hebrews 6.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the apostle says, You should be teachers.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: He said, This is not where whoever wrote Hebrews, he says, You should be teachers.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is not where I left you.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: But this is where you are.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is where you are right now.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so time alone does not produce maturity.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And just because And Joey, you've had the same thing in the years you've been in ministry like me.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: People look at you, go, Well, I've been a Christian for 20 years.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, Well, okay.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you're a 20-year-old baby, but you're still a baby.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Still a baby.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it it's just the reality of what we're dealing with.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so time alone does not produce maturity.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when we come to understand that, it literally goes back using our gym illustration.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I joined the gym 10 years ago.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: So now what?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not going to put anybody out there in my family, but I bought a family gym membership, and I was the only one going.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, this is pointless for me to be spending all this money for everybody to say, Oh, I want to go to the gym.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: I want to go.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: I want to work out.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: I want to do the tremendous.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: I want to do the elliptical.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, great.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: Let's do that.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: And nobody's going.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: I said, man, forget that.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: Now, problem is when I canceled the membership, I was like, I'm going to stop going too.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't beneficial for me, but still.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: I just have to say this.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: You began that statement with saying, I'm not putting anybody in my family out there like this.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then you made it real clear it was your family not going.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just, I'm just well, I'm not calling the names of my family members.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: You want me to believe you there?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: But you know who you are.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Emory can't drive, so we'll make her, we'll clear her.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Emory's cleared.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody else is on the table.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, which reminds brings us to another idea, and that is small decisions become our spiritual structures.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: It should the small decision to get out of the bed and go to the gym, the the small decision to just go for a walk, the the small decision to begin to incorporate physically into our body, control what we eat, control what we do, right?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're small decisions.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and yet spiritually, it's the same thing, Joey.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's the small decisions become our spiritual structure.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Most people, they begin with, I really need to do better.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna get up in the morning, I'm gonna read the Bible for an hour, I'm gonna pray for 30 minutes, and dude, it doesn't work that way.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: It really doesn't.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: And and you know And that's why I said it up last time.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: Start with something that you know is accomplishable.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, I'm gonna do this for two minutes.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, two minutes easily turns into five.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: Five can easily turn into ten.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then you have established a pattern and a habit.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's what we need to get to.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: A habit of doing these things.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: My wife and I joke and I joke with her, but it's it's a true and sad statement.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: And she laughed so hard at me when I said that.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: I said, baby, I'm really good at starting things.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: I can st oo boy, I can start and have an idea.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh, wee! Y'all better watch out.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: That brother got an idea, and I will start it.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: How many projects are still left sitting there?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because I did not have the discipline or the desire to finish that paint project.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so now half the wall is painted, you know.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: That fence project.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so, oh, you got posts, but you don't have anything on great.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: Look at that fence.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's just all eight foot wide open spaces, you know.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm good at starting things.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of us spiritually are good at starting things.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'm going to, as you say, I'm gonna get up and do this.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like you, you you can start something, but what's your follow-through look like?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and that's the key.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and realizing that starting is just that.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's starting, it's not, it's not a completion.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when it's been 25 years ago now, I I used to push 350 pounds.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I I mean, I was a healthy youngin'.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I I was actually trying to climb into a deer stand and fail and hit a bobwire fence and and literally busted the strands going down.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I went to the doctor and and because I busted up some ribs, and my blood pressure was like through the roof.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the doctor says, Well, I'm gonna put you on blood pressure medicine.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I don't need that.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, What do I have to do?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, Well, you gotta lose weight, right?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: About two weeks later, I I was going into Moldova on a mission trip, and Joey, I was coming back, and and uh it was a small plane, and I literally couldn't get the seatbelt button.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and I mean, you know, I had the extenders and and everything going, and I'm telling you, I was I was tight.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so I came home and I told Joey, I said, I'm going to lose weight, and and I'm gonna do it by running and and exercise and changing my diet.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, she said, Well, why not?
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: This was in November.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Why not wait till after Thanksgiving because you'll just and I said, Yeah, then why don't I wait till after Christmas?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas, because yeah.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a feast.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: I literally in one year's time I I had lost 130 pounds.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I had gone my first day I ran from my front door to my mailbox, called for an amulet to get me back to the front doors, right?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: A year from that day I ran a half marathon.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then I ran some marathons, I ran some half marathons, but then I had double knee replacement.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh stops.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: But but my point being is I didn't run a marathon day one.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, right?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I had to get my head in the game, I had to train, I had to work, I had to apply, and that's what we're talking about here, Joey.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're talking about get your head in the game and understand.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Don't wait to feel spiritual to do it.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just you know, do it and get the job done.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like, please move forward.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know what you have to do, and that's what I think a lot of us are at that place.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know what you have to do.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: What is stopping you?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: What's preventing you from actually just doing it?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of times it's just laziness.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't mean physical laziness, I'm talking spiritual laziness.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Look, anybody that is growing in their faith, anybody will tell you it's hard work.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And now it may not be physically, right?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: I get that.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: But mentally, emotionally, spiritually, it's hard work because the more you grow, the harder the enemy tries to stop it.
• 28:40
  unknown: Absolutely.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so you're you're fighting resistance constantly in what you're doing.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: You should be button heads with the enemy the whole time.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not, there's a reason that you're not button heads with them.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, uh just in the time we have left, let's just talk about okay, how do we get there, right?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Joey, I would argue it's through ordinary faithfulness.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do anything extraordinary, you don't have to, you don't have to go out here and invest in a ten thousand dollar library and and on and on, okay?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's ordinary faithfulness.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh again, I want you to think about what Acts 2.42 tells us.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: In fellowship, breaking the bread and prayers.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Think about those words, continued steadfastly.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: The fact is, they just started a process and they stayed with the process.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Kept doing it.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and if they didn't, then then nothing was going to change in their life.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: It wouldn't change their life at all.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: They had to stay in continual, and it was, and as you say, continual steadfastness.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: It was a decision to be dedicated to do it.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, we'd sit around and and and we say, I I want to be mature.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: I want to want a closer relationship to the Lord.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: We won't want stronger faith, we don't read scripture.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: We want a closer relationship, we don't pray.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: We want encouragement, but we isolate ourselves from other believers.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: We we want spiritual maturity, but we've developed no habits in our life to get there.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, and I know somebody's sitting back going, well, that's preacher talk.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's reality talk, man.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the some of the biggest spiritual giants that I know are not preachers.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, I know a few preachers that are.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: I I it is it absolutely is people that have committed their life.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of them, okay.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't a rarity in Christian life.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Gosh, not at all.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: So think about those four things that they continued in and and the church prospered and grew.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: First was scripture.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we've have to allow God's word to shape our life.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're not doing that, then nothing else is going to flow from that.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Something is going to shape your life, right?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like again, back to two, three hours in the gym, three bare claws, man, wash out everything I just did in the gym.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: It something is shaping your life.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: What will that be?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: And you say that physically, and you can go, okay, well, it balances out.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: I did this in the gym and I can do this.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'll stay the same.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think spiritually, though, it's the opposite.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because you can say, Oh, I spent five minutes reading the word, and I spent five minutes listening to this song, which is a terrible song.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's it's not like, oh, it balances out.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: Nope.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: Nope.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: That wins.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: This actually wins.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: This wins.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: Period.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: Hands down.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's just, it's no way.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: You've got to make the conscious effort to say, I'm going to take those bear claws out of my life.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: Chocolate milk, though.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: We can keep the chocolate milk.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're good.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about what Psalm 1, 2, and 3 tells us.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: It talks about the tree planted by the water.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I I will tell you that if we're being compared in our spiritual growth to a tree planted by the water, no tree grows when you plant it and you walk by and you're like, man, that thing's dying.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you so you go get a gallon of water and dump on it, and then you do nothing else with that tree until you walk by again and all the leaves are falling off again, right?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: It may hang on, but it is not going to grow.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's that tree planted by the waters that digs deep, drives deep.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we have to be.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I was actually studying about a tree a couple of days ago because I've got a teaching coming up and I got to be doing it.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm looking at illustrations, and the tree was one of mine.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: And what I realized about it is that most of the work that's taking place in that tree you never see.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: You never see what's happening.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: Those roots are going down, it's being dug into like things are happening that you can't see, but then all of a sudden you see the fruit.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: That fruit didn't just happen.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't like, oh, look, I planted a tree and now I have fruit.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: No, there's so many things going on underneath that we can't see for that fruit to be produced.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and which is the reason James 122 says, be doers of the word, not hearers only.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so look, spiritual maturity isn't measured by how much scripture we know.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's by how God's word is shaping our life.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and my myself and one of our elders was was talking this morning, and he's putting together a discipleship pathway.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were just talking about what some people would say is just words, but we were talking about the best way to define is it reading scripture or is it applying scripture, right?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: I will argue again, if I read 10 chapters a day and I do nothing with it, what good is it?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:17
  unknown: Gosh.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I promise you've been reading my study that I'm doing.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: I went through this whole thing about I can have all the scripture memorized in the world.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, look at that guy.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_02: He knows so much.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like he's got these Bible verses.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: He can quote this, he can quote that.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: Am I applying any of those verses to my life?
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter that I know the scripture.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_02: What am I doing with the scripture?
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and that would be prayer, scripture, prayer, developing a daily dependence upon God.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, prayer is, I would argue, one of the most difficult disciplines to for to for us to develop and to maintain.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: And because honestly, it's it's like when I can't do it, Lord, I'll ask.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's the same as you know raising my girls and now around my granddaughters, and and they hit that stage of I can do it.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, no, you can't.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, you can't.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just I'm just gonna sit here until you figure that out.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's like one of my granddaughters wanted through a door yesterday, and her mom wouldn't open the door for her, right?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So she goes and she gets all of this stuff and piles up in front of the door so she can reach the door handle.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is the door opens in.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so now you gotta move all that stuff to go.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so she can do it.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, she could twist the door handle all day, but that door still wasn't opening.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna open it, right?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: It is the same thing when we think we can do it.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: John 15, 5.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: I am the vine, you are the branches.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: He who abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Without me, you can do nothing.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so I can do it.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: I can do it, God.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: I can do it.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, you can't.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_04: No, you can't.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Stack your cushions up and stand in front of the door and pull all day long.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: That door's not gonna open.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, we we get to the point after we've exhausted everything else, now we'll pray for that.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: Now, oh, you know what I didn't do?
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't go to prayer.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_02: I should ask God.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: Always, and I don't want to say it this way, but most of the time it's the last resort.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: No, it is the last resort.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: Our Tuesday morning men's study.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: Literally, I'm going through prayer right now, and I'm hitting the topic why we don't pray.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't we pray?
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's always the last thing we can do.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is the last thing.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: And and so, you know, I want you to think prayer has to be a pattern of life.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Think about Daniel 6 when Daniel was praying, right?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and they came to him and they said, Okay, here's the new law.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you pray to any other deity other than the king, you're gonna die.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, what did Daniel do?
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: Went right to the window, kneeled down, and said, It's time for me to pray.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't do it as a spectacle.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: He did it because that was Daniel's pattern.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he did daily.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's how he lived his life.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so good times, bad times didn't matter.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: That was how Daniel lived his life.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't run to the window because the decree had been passed.
• 37:28
  unknown: No.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: And in fact, if anything, a smart person would have closed the window and said, Okay, I just better stay here and I better.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm still gonna pray, but I'm gonna close the window so nobody can say me.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, this is what I do.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: But he did what he did.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is what I do, and that's the pattern, right?
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and then I then they worshiped, yeah, right?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: The the breaking of bread, keeping God at the center.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: We we cut so many needs out of our life by not gathering for corporate worship and private worship, you know.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: And is it possible to privately worship with no corporate worship?
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I would argue if you're providentially hindered from corporate worship, God will honor the private worship.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, John on the Isle of Patmos was in the spirit, dude.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Dude was worshiping.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he was.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: Wasn't exactly a body of believers to gather with it.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: But to argue that I don't need the church and I don't need to gather with God's people, well, it goes against everything scripture teaches us, and and especially Hebrews 10, 24, and 25 about gathering ourselves together.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: Praising him with the other believers, coming together and doing it.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and and look, I've I've been in a place where I couldn't gather and and I worshiped in my own home and in and I I have done that, but you are missing so much when you don't get together with other believers and worship together.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: And Hebrews 13, 15 tells us, therefore, by him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to him.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: And so And I always come back to sacrifice of praise.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it's just not something that's just easily done.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, there's a sacrifice involved in doing that.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: Coming to church, yeah, it's a sacrifice.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta get up early.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: You've got if you've got kids, you gotta gather them kids.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta okay, you're like you're ah, but then you're you made the sacrifice, you came to church, and guess what?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: You will you'll be honored for that, and God's gonna bless you for that.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then the body, the fellowship, breaking the bread and fellowship.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you gotta have people to grow.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: And God did not create us to be isolated.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the things that if you go back and you study military history and you kind of look at interrogation techniques, you know, what one of the uh one of the things that that works consistently is isolation.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: You isolate a person long enough, they lose all sense of reality, they lose all sense of connectivity, and they will begin to crave it to the point that they will do anything to get that connection back, right?
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that in a spiritual way.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you're disconnecting from God's body, right, you're gonna crave that relationship so much, it's coming from somewhere.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't think Satan will fill the void?
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: He absolutely will.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely will.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: Man, that's a I never thought about that because I've never had to, I haven't been in your field, obviously.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh me, I just know I can't be isolated.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I you know, I'll the wall and I will become friends.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't do it.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody can.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and I never thought about that.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: And God knows that about us.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and so he tells us because he created us to fellowship and be with others.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole point.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I've given you a body and do it, you know.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and I I know we've ran, but let me let me just kind of wrap up here with consistency, right?
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: Joey, doing these things require consistency.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: So let me give you just a quick couple of quick ideas if you're listening to us today.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: Just some things.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, start with what you can maintain.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about this earlier, but if your goal is I'm gonna get up in the morning and I'm gonna read 10 chapters and pray 30 minutes and I'm gonna call 14 people on the phone, you're not gonna do it.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, you ain't.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're gonna feel like a failure when you do it.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, say I'm gonna start in the morning, I'm I'm gonna read a chapter of scripture, and and I'm going to thank God for the day.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and, you know, if you will begin with what you can maintain, what you'll do is you'll say, I'm gonna read scripture for five minutes, I'm gonna pray for three minutes.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Before long, you're gonna find out you're reading scripture for 30 minutes, you are praying for 30 minutes, you and then you're developing an attitude of prayer because you started with what you can maintain.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the key point right there.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard you even say before, it's kind of pointless.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_02: If you've read the Bible for like five minutes and you can't retain anything that you read anyway, stick with the verse and you can hold on to that verse all day long.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: Get a verse and put it in your heart and always come back to it.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: Get back to it.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: All the way.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and then, second of all, I would encourage them to make spiritual disciplines a priority, not an afterthought.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so, scripture, prayer, worship, gathering with God's people.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's not an afterthought.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a fill the void.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: That make it a priority in your life.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and and if you'll do that, you'll see it happen.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Great priority to have.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then remember that growth takes time.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: And and so what happens is you don't see it.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: My but but I did 10 curls and I went to the mirror and I didn't see a difference.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: Joey, we're on video and people see that.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: Don't don't do that.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's really embarrassing.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: For those who are listening.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the spiritual growth takes time.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: My oldest granddaughter had her 12th birthday uh last month and and uh well this month.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we were celebrating uh a week or so ago, and and uh so my my wife was like down memory lane.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Look at look at this picture when she was born, look at this picture when she was look at this.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me tell you, if I look at my my daughters every day when they were growing up, they just grew up.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right?
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: When I would be away for a couple of weeks or or a month at a time, which happens sometimes, and then when I was away for an extended period of time and then I came back, dude.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: You saw the difference.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: You you see the growth.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so you might not see it immediately, but it's happening.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: And just know that it takes time.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's still happening, even though you don't think it's happening, it is happening.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_02: Every time, man, wonderful.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_02: Love those points, love everything that we've done, but we've got to wrap it up.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, so break me down.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_02: What's the reality of everything that you just told us about?
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to ask you a couple of questions.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, which spiritual discipline needs the most attention in your life right now?
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so think about what we talked about scripture, prayer, worship, church attendance.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, don't try to fix all of them.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: Which which which one can I start with and grow?
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then answer this question what is one practical change I can make in my life this week?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: This week, and it be a wall in my life?
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: What TV program do I need to quit watching?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: What website do I need to stay off of?
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: What attitude do I have that I need to get rid of and let that happen?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then what would your life look like a year from now?
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not tomorrow, but a year from now, if I really consistently practice the disciplines we discussed today.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's good, man.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's the uh it's the house.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_02: It takes time to build that house, doesn't it?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: And you can't just say, look, look at the materials I have.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_02: Aren't those great materials?
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't that look good?
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a wonderful foundation.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, you do have a wonderful foundation.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: What are you gonna do with that foundation?
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_02: Start building on it.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: You have, as you said before, you have the materials.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_02: Now take those materials and start building.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: Man, I love that.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, next week we're actually going to be talking about the wall.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: So we talked about walls this week, but there's something else that we actually need to start looking at and something consider a structure.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_02: If you have this well-built house, you can still have problems with it.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_02: People can still get in.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't secure that thing properly, it's gonna get messed up.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_02: And so next week on our next podcast, we're gonna be talking about what it looks like to strengthen those weak places that we have in our spiritual life where you're vulnerable.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really the key.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: Where can the enemy start getting in and attacking you?
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_02: As you've said so many times, build a wall and build it high.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_02: But if you just build a wall and build it high, you're leaving out something.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_02: You always say, check it often.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what we're gonna be talking about next week.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: All right, all right.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: Hey guys, thank you so much for taking the time to listen to the reality is podcast where we're here talking about real life and real faith.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_02: Will you do us a favor?
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like, subscribe, share this with your friend, and don't forget to ring that bell so you don't miss another episode of the reality is podcast.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_02: For now, we'd like to say God bless you and have a wonderful day.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: The reality is, you know.