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Running on Empty? · In the Stillness Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey everyone, happy Wednesday. This is friendly.
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  Welcome back to In the Stillness.
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  Thanks for joining me on today's episode, y'all.
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  We made it to hump day. We're midway through the week
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  and I just want to ask, how is your energy, not just physically
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  but spiritually? I think once we kind of start
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  the week off and we get halfway through, it can be easy to kind
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  of just coast. But if I'm being fully honest
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  with y'all, I feel like lately I've had some moments where I've
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  been in the Word, I'm studying it, I'm showing up, but it is
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  started to feel a little repetitive.
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  Like I know the truth, but the fire has felt more quiet.
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  And I was bringing this to the Lord this morning, and as I was
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  sitting with God in first John 4, which is what we'll continue
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  in today, I felt a gentle but clear nudge from the Holy
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  Spirit. Maybe the problem is not that
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  I've heard it too many times, but that I'm not fully receiving
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  what the Lord is speaking to me. So I just want to go through
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  first John chapter 4, verses 19 to 21 with you guys today and
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  just let it minister to your heart.
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  Don't take it in passively, but actively listen and ask yourself
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  what God wants you to hear and really press into it.
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  It says our love for others is our grateful response to the
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  love God first demonstrated to us.
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  Anyone can say I love God, yet have hatred toward another
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  believer. This makes him a phony because
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  if you don't love a brother or sister whom you can see, how can
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  you truly love God whom you can't see?
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  For He has given us this command.
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  Whoever loves God must also demonstrate love to others.
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  So this hit me in a fresh way after I prayed for the Lord to
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  give me new insight and fresh revelation.
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  God's love is our source and the picture that he brought to mind
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  was it's kind of like your phone.
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  God's love is the outlet, it's what we plug into and in a
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  different way, we are the phone. And you would not expect your
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  phone to function at full capacity if it has not been
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  charged. So why do we expect ourselves to
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  love people so well without staying connected to the source
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  that is filling us? You cannot optimize your ability
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  to love others if you're not consistently plugging into the
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  source. Otherwise you can start running
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  on what we would view it on our phones as low power mode.
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  When that happens, you start conserving your energy, you're
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  holding back. You're giving what is easy
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  instead of what's costly, what's sacrificial.
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  So I just want to ask you guys, are you living plugged into the
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  source or have you been relying on your own strength and
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  possibly running on low power mode?
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  I love how this translation puts it.
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  Our love for others is our grateful response.
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  So we do not just love because He once loved us.
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  We love because God continues to love us.
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  Even in our inconsistency, in our willful rebellion, our
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  rejection of Him, even when we have drifted in our minds and in
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  our hearts, God remains consistent and steady.
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  Our love for others is not something that we have to come
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  up with, something that we manufacture on our own.
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  It's something that we get to imitate.
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  We get to mirror Christ's love, and this is where it gets super
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  direct and real. You can say that you love God,
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  but if that is not showing up and how you treat others, then
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  something is clearly off because real belief is proven through
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  action, through where your time goes, where your energy is
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  placed, your willingness to show up.
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  So it can lead to this question. Ask yourself, who am I becoming?
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  When scripture is talking about loving your brothers and
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  sisters, it's not just your immediate earthly family.
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  It is the body of Christ as a whole, the church, meaning
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  believers in your life and also believers across the world.
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  And I think it can be easy to think I'm too small to make an
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  impact even globally. But y'all, this is where the
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  power of prayer is so important. Prayer has no distance limit.
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  God hears all of your prayers that you bring to Him.
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  James reminds us that the prayer of a righteous person is
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  powerful and it is effective. So even when you cannot
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  physically be in a certain place with other believers, you can
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  intercede. You can express your love to
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  them through your prayers over them.
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  And that is so important. Now I want to get really honest.
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  Let's ask ourselves, how are we going out of our way to love
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  people right now? And not just in what is expected
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  of us, but in what is unexpected?
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  Even deeper, ask yourself, what kind of friend or sister or
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  brother in Christ am I? Do you show up only when it is
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  convenient for your schedule, or are you willing to step in when
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  it is inconvenient, when it's costly?
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  Because real love. It oftentimes shows up most
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  clearly when it's the hardest I've seen this personally in my
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  own life. My very own sweet, sweet
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  grandpa. He cared for my grandma through
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  years of Alzheimer's disease. Even when she forgot who he was,
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  when she did not recognize his face, when it was exhausting,
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  gut wrenching, heartbreaking, he never left her side.
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  He continued to show up. He continued to love her so
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  deeply, and I've seen it in my own friends as well.
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  Walking through counseling, through therapy, addressing
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  wounds and having the hard conversations that are not
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  comfortable to have. Not because it's easy, but
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  because they cared enough to fight for the relationship.
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  That is the kind of love that perseveres and that stays.
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  It chooses commitment over comfort.
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  But even those examples, they pale in comparison to the
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  fullness of what love really is, because the clearest depiction,
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  the most complete picture of love is Jesus.
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  It is in the details that we see the fullness of it in the Garden
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  of Gethsemane, when He felt the weight of what was coming, the
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  torture that he was about to endure on that cross, and He
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  still said, yes, He said not my will, but the Father's will be
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  done in me. So in the betrayal, in the
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  suffering, in the humiliation, when he is being mocked and
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  scorned by the very people that he was dying for, He was not
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  just loving when it felt good. Jesus loved when it cost
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  absolutely everything. He loved knowing that he would
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  be rejected. He loved knowing that he would
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  be tortured. He loved knowing that we would
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  still fall short. Yet he stayed.
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  That is not surface level love. That is covenant, sacrificial,
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  all in love. And that is the love that we are
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  now responding to. And I was reading in Revelation
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  3 last night, and I believe this warning in Revelation.
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  It matters so much guys, because it comes up so much in this
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  world today. Revelation 3 verses 15 to 16
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  says this. I know all that you do, and I
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  know that you are neither frozen in apathy nor fervent with
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  passion. How I wish you were either one
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  or the other, but because you are neither cold nor hot but
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  lukewarm, I'm about to spit you from my mouth.
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  That is so direct. And whenever I was reading last
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  night, I was like, all right, I guess we're going to bed with
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  this. But y'all, it is so significant
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  because God is not calling us to 1/2 lived, low power mode,
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  lukewarm lifestyle. He is calling us to be fully
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  alive, burning with passion for his name.
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  Second Timothy 16 says fan into flame, the gift of God.
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  This is Paul's charge to Timothy when he is in his final years of
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  his life. Meaning we are to stay
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  connected, to keep receiving God's love.
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  We have to tend to the fire to keep it alive.
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  So I'm going to leave us with that and go ahead and closeout
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  in prayer. Dear God, thank you that your
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  love is steady. It is sacrificial.
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  It is all in, and it is the source that we are to plug into
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  to stay connected to. So I just pray with all of this
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  that you would draw us back to you, God.
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  Would you show us where we have been holding back, maybe where
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  we have been limiting, receiving all that you have for us, all of
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  the love that you're offering? Maybe where we have been running
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  on empty, Would you rekindle our fire?
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  God, reignite something real in us, a love that reflects you so
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  brightly that it is so evident to everyone around us.
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  Would you teach us to receive it deeply so that we can love you
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  fully? I pray that we would be
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  ambassadors of Christ that are on fire for you.
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  Jesus. May we not just coast through
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  this life with a lukewarm faith, but be red hot, burning with
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  passion. I pray this in your name, Jesus,
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  Amen. OK y'all well praying that this
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  ministers to your heart that you just realize you do not need to
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  try harder to love. It is not in your own strength
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  and your own ability, but your charge is to stay plugged into
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  the one who already loves you so fully.
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  I will see y'all on the next podcast episode and just have a
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  wonderful rest of your Wednesday.