WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.399 Person in this room has done that at least once. 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:12.240 Sometimes our minds will wander during a lesson, or while we're singing, we'll turn on autopilot, and suddenly it just becomes noise essentially. 00:00:13.199 --> 00:00:14.560 God doesn't want that. 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:18.960 He wants to show up every day and praise him with everything. 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:25.039 So to truly understand how to stop this kind of service, we need to understand the why. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.280 Let me give us to our first point, forgetting about him throughout the day. 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:39.600 In Jeremiah 2 verse 32, it says, Does a virgin forget her jewelry or bribe her attire? 00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:43.280 Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:48.880 Can anyone here even think about forgetting about God for that long? 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:52.240 The problem is that maybe some of us can. 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:59.359 I wonder, if we didn't go to church on Sunday, would we become like the Israelites? 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:02.799 Would we forget about him for days without number? 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:05.680 At church, of course we're gonna think about God. 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:09.519 But what about Monday morning to Saturday night? 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:12.400 Do we remember that Jesus died for our sins? 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:16.480 Do we remember all the blessings God has given us? 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:28.239 Or do we forget and suddenly remember Sunday morning and then just act like we've been with God in communication the entire week? 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:36.799 What I think is funny, well not not funny, is that we're gonna stand before God in judgment one day. 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:50.640 If we say, oh yeah, I remember Jesus and God every day, I read my Bible, I prayed, I checked all the boxes, and then Jesus turns and says, Depart from me, I never knew you. 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:56.799 Firstly, you just lied to God, and that you can't lie to God. 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:04.159 And secondly, you can never know Jesus if you don't spend time with him. 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:11.039 We probably have a routine we stick to throughout the day. 00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:16.159 We get up, check our phones, get coffee, get ready for the day, go to work. 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:18.639 Something like that, I would assume. 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:21.680 But that routine doesn't include God, does it? 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:26.240 Then once we get home, we're so tired, we forget. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:28.479 And begin another routine. 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:39.360 Though routines in themselves are not bad, without even trying to include God in them, they can slow it can slowly lock God outside of our lives. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.800 Except for the Sunday service or Wednesday night. 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:58.479 Some routines that you could include to stop this is praying when you get up, reading a scripture in the morning, or when you check your phone, have a notification set up from a Bible app so that like you can read your Bible first thing in the morning. 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:03.840 My second point is ignore him because we're scared of what he's trying to tell us. 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:08.960 The passage for this is Jonah 1, verses 1 through 3. 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:22.800 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Imma Immadi, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, it for their evil has come up before me. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:27.360 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:30.960 He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:37.599 So he paid a fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:46.879 After this passage, Jonah gets caught up in a storm, swallowed by a fish for three days, and then vomited onto a shore, where he preached the Ninevehites. 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:50.319 Now naturally you can't physically run away from God. 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:57.039 It doesn't work like that, but you can definitely do what Jonah did without physically running away. 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:05.759 Perhaps there's been a message you've heard over and over again, but you just don't want you don't want to fix it. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.879 You don't know how to fix it, you're scared to do it. 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:16.560 The problem is this running away from your problems or God is trying to tell you never works. 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:21.600 Like with Jonah, there'll always be some kind of big fish that will swallow you if you do. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:26.480 Now I want y'all to look at your personal life for a moment. 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:32.639 Have you seen God speak to you in some way at some time in your life and you ignored him? 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:41.360 Is there something in particular you know you should do or that God is telling you to do, but you just don't want to do it? 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:43.839 That's where faith comes in. 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:57.600 In Acts 17, verse 28 it says, For in him we live and move, and have our beings, as some of your poets have said, for indeed we are his offspring. 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:05.120 Everything we do should be and is for him and in him. 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:12.079 You must have faith that God will protect you through it, and that you will always have him no matter what. 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:17.279 Jonah had no faith in God that he would protect him from the Ninevites and ran away. 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:21.120 Abraham lacked faith when he said that Sarah was his sister. 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:26.800 I actually would have loved to see that conversation when they left Egypt between him and his wife. 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:34.399 There are countless others in the Bible who have wavered in their trust of the Lord, but they are there for a reason. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:40.399 You've probably learned or heard about them, but now you need to apply it, what you've learned from them. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:42.879 And that is where I reach my final point. 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:44.879 How do we proceed? 00:05:48.160 --> 00:06:03.199 About a year ago, I went to visit some family in a rather foreign state of California, and I was talking to one of my cousins, and I said, I don't really know how to take away time for my day to spend with God. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:06.160 And she said, You make time for him. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:10.959 An example of this is found in Mark 1, verse 35. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:21.839 It says, And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus departed and went to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:30.800 We are called to follow Jesus' example, and I cannot remember a single time Jesus said, Eh, I don't have time to pray today, I can do it tomorrow. 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:38.160 As a matter of fact, he made a very conscious decision to get up very early in the morning for the purpose of prayer. 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:40.800 Never say you don't have time for prayer. 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:43.120 You always have time for prayer. 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:44.800 You just need to make it. 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:52.160 All of this is really small life changes overall that you already have time for. 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:54.959 You just haven't set aside that time yet. 00:06:55.519 --> 00:07:07.120 For instance, doing what Jesus did in Mark and setting time aside to pray, or taking time in the morning to study your Bible, every minor, seemingly minor thing counts. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:22.000 Anatomic Habits by James Clear, he says, if you can get 1% better each day for one year, you're you will end up 37 times better by the time you're done. 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:31.279 Even if it feels like you're growing very slowly and adding God to your life, remember that 1% every day is all it takes. 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:34.800 When you look back, you realize how far you've come. 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:48.480 Our elders and preachers, they did not get as far in their studying without spending a lot of time with God, not ignoring what he told them or what was revealed to them in their studies of the scripture. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:59.040 If you simply make it a priority in your busy day to spend time with God or listening to what he says, I can assure you, you will grow. 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:02.720 It's going to take a lot of time, but it is worth it. 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:05.839 At the very least, it is better than scrolling on your phone. 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:16.959 As we go throughout this week, I want y'all to spend at the very least five to fifteen minutes a day with him. 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:26.399 Whether that's in prayer, reading the scriptures, or singing praises to him, a Bible study, even, whatever you can think of to get closer to him. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:30.959 Then look back and see how much it's changed your week. 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:34.960 The scripture that sums this up is James 4, verse 8. 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:39.519 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:40.799 Thank you for listening. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:43.120 I hope this lesson's been beneficial to you all.