WEBVTT 00:00:09.939 --> 00:00:13.320 Hello, and welcome to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast. 00:00:13.539 --> 00:00:14.839 Thank you so much for listening. 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:16.199 We're startup church. 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:23.460 We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together. 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:32.299 And so if you live in the Kalamazoo area, we would love to connect, be it coming to a Sunday service, one of our small groups, or even just grabbing coffee with a member to learn more. 00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:36.439 You can visit kalamazoo.church in order to do that. 00:00:36.859 --> 00:00:40.399 We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today. 00:00:41.179 --> 00:00:53.219 Have you ever done something or had something in your life that, uh, that was unnatural, but after a series of time, it just became the norm. 00:00:55.399 --> 00:01:01.859 I think so right now we've, uh, in, in mine and Bianca's room, we, we are in our house. 00:01:02.039 --> 00:01:09.459 We have an open room right now that we're going to make into like a place that we can, uh, one, it's going to be, I don't know if this is going to work. 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:15.700 It's going to be a kid's playroom and also a place where we, uh, where we study and we have like a little office. 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:19.260 So I'm, I'm slightly skeptical saying it out loud in our heads. 00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:19.959 It makes sense. 00:01:20.780 --> 00:01:28.019 This room, this room though is, uh, we, we have a, the light switch turns on and the light turns on. 00:01:28.140 --> 00:01:32.260 The issue is when the light turns on, the fan turns on high blast. 00:01:32.420 --> 00:01:38.700 Uh, Madison at some point found our little like remote switch and changed it so it turns on high blast. 00:01:38.819 --> 00:01:46.400 For a while she hit the remote and now when we have the remote, it, uh, it takes a random battery and, uh, and the battery's dead. 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:54.040 And so whenever the light is on in this room, the fan is on high blast and that's great in a 90 degrees in the summer. 00:01:54.180 --> 00:02:00.299 It's not very good in 30 degrees or 20 degrees in the winter and this, this, it's a, it's a normal part of our life. 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:03.000 It's pretty uncomfortable, but it's become, it's become the norm. 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:17.099 When I, when we were in, when we were in college, uh, and, and then coming out of college, we had a, some hand-me-down on hand-me-down coffee maker and we would have the, the college students over frequently and we would make them coffee. 00:02:17.580 --> 00:02:22.479 And I knew this coffee maker for whatever reason, the drip didn't go like fully down all the way. 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:25.039 So I had to only fill it a third of the way. 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:30.400 And so I had to make three third cups of coffee, uh, and then it would turn into one full cup of coffee. 00:02:30.460 --> 00:02:33.500 But I couldn't put all of the water in the basin and then start it. 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:39.800 It had to go a little bit, get drained down and then, you know, it was so, uh, it's unnatural, but it became the norm, right? 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:43.759 Uh, I, you know, I bet you, you could go on and on. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:49.280 You know, when we, uh, we've had great car luck over this last, uh, three years. 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.560 I was going to say knock on wood, but just pray to God, I guess is the better response. 00:02:52.840 --> 00:03:02.099 Uh, but we, we, we had a car that, uh, if you were driving it, it would get in certain seasons where in the winter it would drive really well for whatever reason. 00:03:02.099 --> 00:03:09.000 In the summer, there was something with the O2 sensor and whatnot, and I just, I'm not good with, I don't understand all the intricacies of it. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:14.419 Uh, we, we ended up putting more money into that car than we, uh, than, than our monthly payment was. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:23.599 I did the math on it at some point, but if, if we would idle for too long, if we were parked and we, and if we stopped and we idled for too long, the car would just shut off. 00:03:23.819 --> 00:03:27.939 And so we knew leading up to this, there's a, there's a stop, there's a light. 00:03:28.060 --> 00:03:30.460 We just got to, we just got to coast for a little bit. 00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:35.199 Like we'll make it, we'll make it coast and don't you dare hit the gas super hard. 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:40.500 You just got to slowly and it'll jump, but it'll get going as long as you don't fully stop. 00:03:40.699 --> 00:03:51.090 Uh, yeah, well the whole upstream downstream, the cat, we changed the cat and then we just got rid of the car. 00:03:51.150 --> 00:03:52.349 It was a man. 00:03:52.389 --> 00:03:57.710 I hope it's still driving for somebody really well, but it was, it was a $2,000 fix just to sell the car. 00:03:58.629 --> 00:03:59.430 Yeah, yeah. 00:03:59.469 --> 00:04:13.009 Well, we were, we were 26 and five, so, uh, you know this, you see, uh, this, this tree that's growing, it's unnatural to become normal for so long that it just, just kind of, it kind of works at this point. 00:04:13.729 --> 00:04:31.569 I bet you there's dozens of things if you were to actually sit down and think that are a little bit quirky in your life that, uh, you, this works only when, or this works if, or this light switch turns on if you do it three times and there, there are things and, and unless we have an unlimited budget, that's going to be normal. 00:04:31.670 --> 00:04:35.670 That's probably going to be a normal part of our, our lives, uh, from now until we die. 00:04:38.230 --> 00:04:51.949 Uh, but spiritually, I think it's worth considering though, that there, I put before you, there's probably things in your life spiritually, or there's a way that you've operated spiritually that works kind of, or works for the most part. 00:04:52.149 --> 00:04:52.550 Yeah. 00:04:53.449 --> 00:04:57.389 The, the goal in, uh, in, in all of this though is not just to survive. 00:04:57.389 --> 00:05:00.170 It's not just to, it's not just to make it to the end. 00:05:00.170 --> 00:05:05.250 It's to, uh, be able to run all the way through the finish line as a sprint. 00:05:05.410 --> 00:05:11.350 Uh, you know, it's, some people say that, that spirituality is not a, uh, it's not a sprint. 00:05:11.410 --> 00:05:12.009 It's a marathon. 00:05:12.610 --> 00:05:18.250 Um, somebody else said, I sprint marathons and so, and, and ultimately that's, that's, that's our goal. 00:05:18.329 --> 00:05:19.550 You know, we're not going to get there all the way. 00:05:19.870 --> 00:05:22.470 Uh, but our goal is, is to finish strong. 00:05:22.529 --> 00:05:22.730 Amen. 00:05:23.089 --> 00:05:23.490 Amen. 00:05:24.829 --> 00:05:32.589 So on, on that, I want to talk about our, our spiritual rhythms this, uh, this morning. 00:05:34.209 --> 00:05:35.430 Why is that something? 00:05:35.569 --> 00:05:54.750 Well, I would say that for, for many of us, and this is kind of, this is a, you know, an informal straw poll that I've taken, uh, at different points, but I would, I would say maybe some of us love routines and are great at routines, perhaps more of us, uh, either coming out of the young child phase or in the middle of the young child phase. 00:05:55.350 --> 00:05:58.069 Uh, I just like, there's no such thing as, as rhythms. 00:05:58.290 --> 00:06:07.370 Uh, my, my rhythm is when my, my kids wake me up and my, and then when I take a nap, that those are when they take a nap, I get 30 minutes, 45 minutes, maybe it's 50 minutes. 00:06:07.389 --> 00:06:07.730 Who knows? 00:06:08.050 --> 00:06:10.029 That's my only, that's my only sense of rhythm. 00:06:10.550 --> 00:06:25.329 Uh, and, and what I'll say is I, I feel personally a, this lesson, I feel a little bit like not scared, but I, I feel insecure sharing this lesson because I realized that rhythms are something that I don't really, I don't naturally enjoy. 00:06:25.470 --> 00:06:37.810 I've, I've over the last two weeks, listen to, read the Bible, listen to some podcasts, read a little bit more, read, uh, extra biblical sources and I'm like, what, what is it to this rhythm thing? 00:06:37.829 --> 00:06:41.810 And so I, I feel like it's necessary for me to share it with, with you guys as well. 00:06:41.850 --> 00:06:44.170 If you're scared, uh, join the club is what I would say. 00:06:44.170 --> 00:06:47.529 And if you're too excited, then take a breath too. 00:06:50.189 --> 00:06:51.790 We're, we're in Genesis one. 00:06:51.930 --> 00:07:08.329 Uh, one thing we have to realize is I don't know what value you put on routines and rhythms, but it's important to note that God puts an enormous value on it so much so that on the first page of the Bible, rhythms are communicated and routines are made. 00:07:08.329 --> 00:07:16.189 And if God puts that much value on it, then perhaps our gauge of its importance or their importance isn't high enough. 00:07:19.300 --> 00:07:36.660 It says in verse 14 of Genesis one and God said, let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times and days and years and let them and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth. 00:07:36.660 --> 00:07:45.199 And it was so God made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, the lesser night or the lesser light, excuse me, to govern the night. 00:07:45.339 --> 00:07:46.759 He also made the stars. 00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:54.620 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night and to separate light from darkness. 00:07:54.620 --> 00:07:56.180 And God saw that it was good. 00:07:57.500 --> 00:08:06.439 And there was evening and there was morning the fourth day, right away in Genesis. 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:11.759 We see that God decides, I want to order these guys day. 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:21.360 You think about how difficult it would be to, and maybe some of this, I realized even as I'm saying it, that if this was the only thing we knew, then we would make it normal. 00:08:21.579 --> 00:08:26.560 But think about if we were to order, we had no concept of what a week was. 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:31.480 We just had no concept and all we were operating is by months. 00:08:32.100 --> 00:08:33.298 That would be pretty difficult. 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:35.558 And you're like, well, this month I'm going to do this thing. 00:08:35.558 --> 00:08:35.759 Okay. 00:08:35.899 --> 00:08:37.080 What day of the month? 00:08:37.178 --> 00:08:42.240 Well, the 14th day of the month, you'd have to get good at math pretty quickly, or you'd have, that's three from now. 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:44.860 And, and what about, and it'd be a difficult thing yet. 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:50.299 God realized seven days for whatever reason is the, is the perfect amount that I'm going to give these guys. 00:08:50.340 --> 00:08:50.899 This is enough. 00:08:51.019 --> 00:08:52.779 They can bite off and chew on it. 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:55.320 They can make plans, but they can't make too many plans. 00:08:55.940 --> 00:09:04.639 The, the, the first part though, that he, that he even talks about is he, uh, that, that we're going to talk about what we're going to do is we're going to look at our seasons, uh, just from the Bible. 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:10.980 We're going to look at seasons and we're going to go from like the, the big stuff, like seasons, how they shape a year. 00:09:11.139 --> 00:09:16.399 Then we're going to go to weeks and then we're going to talk about our daily, uh, routines and rhythms and stuff like that. 00:09:16.460 --> 00:09:16.639 Amen. 00:09:17.659 --> 00:09:22.159 Uh, and so the, the first component is sacred seasons. 00:09:25.309 --> 00:09:37.490 If you, if you do a study of the old Testament and you decided I'm going to look for where the seasons are ordered or there's communication of this is what to do at this time. 00:09:37.870 --> 00:09:39.009 And this is what to celebrate. 00:09:39.509 --> 00:09:51.450 You would, you might be pretty, you might be pretty, uh, impressed because there's a lot of things that God organizes his people to do in remembrance of him or remembrance of days, remembrance of, of ideas and things that have occurred. 00:09:51.850 --> 00:09:54.610 Uh, it says, uh, well, here we go. 00:09:54.690 --> 00:09:55.549 Well, we'll get there in a moment. 00:09:55.909 --> 00:10:00.210 Uh, you can, you can reference it here. 00:10:00.289 --> 00:10:02.149 It's Exodus 23 in verse 14. 00:10:02.470 --> 00:10:10.850 It says three times a year, you are to celebrate a festival to me, celebrate the festival of the unleavened bread for seven days, eat bread made without yeast. 00:10:10.970 --> 00:10:16.629 As I commanded you do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv for in that month, you came out of Egypt. 00:10:17.070 --> 00:10:18.889 No one is to appear before me. 00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:28.990 Empty handed, celebrate the festival of harvest with the first, first fruits of the crops you sow in your field, celebrate the festival of in gathering at the end of the year. 00:10:29.070 --> 00:10:39.370 When you gather in your crops from the field, this is, this is, it's, it's a normal part of all of our lives for there to be seasons. 00:10:39.610 --> 00:10:41.269 And we'll talk about seasons. 00:10:41.649 --> 00:10:49.929 Oh, this is a difficult season in my life personally, but just think outside that there's seasons that shape and order how we operate and what we do on a day-to-day basis. 00:10:50.330 --> 00:11:00.870 Uh, you know, in, we've, we've probably talked about this, uh, but in during the winter people in the Midwest kind of hibernate, uh, Dominique can preach on it. 00:11:00.990 --> 00:11:03.230 How is he's not a fan. 00:11:03.269 --> 00:11:04.129 He's not a fan of it. 00:11:04.129 --> 00:11:05.529 He looks down on all of us. 00:11:08.850 --> 00:11:10.210 We, we hibernate, right? 00:11:10.269 --> 00:11:12.789 This is, and it may, during the winter, there's less sun. 00:11:12.889 --> 00:11:16.029 And for whatever reason, God decided there's going to be less sunlight on purpose. 00:11:16.330 --> 00:11:19.029 It's a time that we, we, we hunker down. 00:11:19.190 --> 00:11:20.129 It's a little bit colder. 00:11:20.330 --> 00:11:21.629 We're not out as much. 00:11:21.649 --> 00:11:24.230 It's a time to spend with our families. 00:11:24.590 --> 00:11:28.350 It's a time to enjoy, uh, celebrate. 00:11:28.549 --> 00:11:34.450 There's a bunch of celebrations that are set up between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the new year. 00:11:35.149 --> 00:11:42.389 And, uh, and if you're in our family, we've, for whatever reason, have a bunch of February and the beginning of March birthdays. 00:11:42.529 --> 00:11:45.529 And so for about four months, we're just, we're celebrating a lot. 00:11:45.549 --> 00:11:47.210 And I think there's, there's value in that. 00:11:47.230 --> 00:11:49.269 God decided to do that on purpose. 00:11:50.230 --> 00:11:54.850 And then what happens in the spring, there's more joy and there's more hope and we're okay. 00:11:54.889 --> 00:11:57.149 Now we, now we're ready to do anything by this time. 00:11:57.190 --> 00:12:00.929 The summer hits people in the Midwest realize we've got two and a half months. 00:12:01.009 --> 00:12:02.389 Let's go every weekend. 00:12:02.389 --> 00:12:06.129 We got to do something and, and we're going to invite as many people as possible. 00:12:06.129 --> 00:12:08.450 We're going to have as many cookouts as possible. 00:12:08.710 --> 00:12:15.830 I don't know if you guys have already, we've already had, uh, four, I think there's been three or four times where we've eaten brats and by about June, I'm done with brats. 00:12:15.830 --> 00:12:19.610 But until June, I'm like, yeah, we can have them twice a week. 00:12:21.710 --> 00:12:26.950 Challenge though, for us is to be mindful of, of what season that we are in and what's going on. 00:12:27.049 --> 00:12:29.669 Uh, right now Dugan's going to come up and share a little bit. 00:12:29.730 --> 00:12:35.029 I don't know if you guys realize, maybe you know this, uh, actually I see a lot of green do, uh, today's St. Patrick's day. 00:12:35.629 --> 00:12:42.110 And what that means for the world generally is let's drink a lot of Guinness and, and Irish whiskey. 00:12:42.389 --> 00:12:45.490 Uh, but there's, there's more to the story. 00:12:45.509 --> 00:12:48.649 And so Dugan's going to come up and share, what are we going to pull from it? 00:12:48.690 --> 00:12:50.789 I think just pull, like there's a mindfulness that we can have. 00:12:50.850 --> 00:12:51.470 You can come all the way up. 00:12:51.649 --> 00:12:56.409 Uh, there's a mindfulness that we should have, even as we look at the seasons that are going on around us. 00:13:00.549 --> 00:13:01.590 Um, Hey folks. 00:13:01.590 --> 00:13:03.549 Uh, so for those don't know me, my name is Dugan. 00:13:03.929 --> 00:13:06.090 Um, I'm Irish, my family's Irish. 00:13:06.769 --> 00:13:09.889 Um, first of all, first of all, actually, I just want to say Dayton again. 00:13:10.029 --> 00:13:10.950 Like that was amazing. 00:13:11.129 --> 00:13:12.929 Uh, I absolutely love your heart. 00:13:13.009 --> 00:13:16.490 I love how much like you've, you've come, you know, uh, and changed. 00:13:16.629 --> 00:13:18.149 So I'm just so grateful for Dayton. 00:13:18.450 --> 00:13:19.129 Just want to say that. 00:13:19.450 --> 00:13:28.450 Um, also I want to start off in, uh, Matthew 28, 19, uh, go therefore and make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the father, the son, the Holy spirit. 00:13:29.110 --> 00:13:32.370 Now there was one man that really took that to heart to every nation. 00:13:32.590 --> 00:13:34.750 And that was the man we know as St. Patrick. 00:13:35.009 --> 00:13:38.429 Now, some of you don't know who he is and I'm going to talk about a bit. 00:13:38.649 --> 00:13:41.009 So St. Patrick was born actually in England. 00:13:41.169 --> 00:13:42.129 He wasn't even Irish. 00:13:42.250 --> 00:13:45.129 He was born in England, uh, into a family of deacons. 00:13:45.129 --> 00:13:49.549 So part of the Roman Catholic church, uh, in the year three 86 AD. 00:13:50.409 --> 00:13:56.490 Um, and eventually at the age of 16, he was actually captured by Irish pirates and he was sold into slavery. 00:13:57.029 --> 00:14:02.029 And for a while he was a slave in Ireland, uh, for his young adult life. 00:14:02.210 --> 00:14:06.830 And he came to like really grow in knowledge of the way the Irish thought. 00:14:07.769 --> 00:14:13.169 And six years later, he eventually escaped, uh, his slaveholders and he escaped back to England. 00:14:13.470 --> 00:14:15.529 And his parents were like, Oh, thank goodness you're back. 00:14:15.610 --> 00:14:15.970 This and that. 00:14:16.289 --> 00:14:18.950 Um, you know, you came from the land of savages, this and that. 00:14:19.210 --> 00:14:22.090 And he was like, well, they're not savages. 00:14:22.210 --> 00:14:23.769 They're just, they don't understand. 00:14:24.009 --> 00:14:26.210 They're, they're, they're just believed in pagan gods. 00:14:26.210 --> 00:14:34.929 They believed in mythological heroes and kind of these, you know, beings that are creatures that they worshiped and St. Patrick noticed this. 00:14:35.049 --> 00:14:42.330 And so he had a, he felt a calling from God to go back there and to tell them about Jesus in a way that they wouldn't understand. 00:14:42.590 --> 00:14:44.590 So his parents were like, no, no, don't do that. 00:14:44.590 --> 00:14:45.470 But he's like, no, too bad. 00:14:45.490 --> 00:14:46.009 I'm going anyway. 00:14:46.149 --> 00:14:53.649 So he, he trained up for a bit in France and then from France, he went back to Ireland as a young man, probably about the age of 25 or so. 00:14:53.649 --> 00:14:58.370 Um, and he went there and he started telling them about Jesus in the way that they would understand. 00:14:58.549 --> 00:15:02.509 And he said, look, this Jesus guy, he's like the hero of all heroes. 00:15:02.549 --> 00:15:05.610 He's above all these other heroes that you guys worship. 00:15:05.690 --> 00:15:08.769 He is the ultimate hero that you guys have been waiting for. 00:15:08.950 --> 00:15:13.970 And the Irish took that to heart and they actually converted like really quickly that they understood it. 00:15:14.250 --> 00:15:19.330 Um, at a time which, you know, like, um, you know, it was medieval times. 00:15:19.370 --> 00:15:31.070 So like he was able to spread the gospel across Ireland like fairly efficiently, like in the next couple of decades of his life, he was able to spread it all across the Island and had multiple churches and parishes set up. 00:15:31.409 --> 00:15:39.830 Um, and I think it's just really encouraging just like knowing his story and like knowing that he just being able to spread that word and spread the message like that. 00:15:40.210 --> 00:15:51.269 Um, and like, to me, I have, you kind of view him as like Irish Paul, you know, like he went from, he went from hating the Irish, like, oh, they're just savages, you know, uh, to then being like one of the biggest catalysts for, um, Irish faith. 00:15:51.269 --> 00:15:53.429 Uh, so, uh, but yeah. 00:15:53.610 --> 00:16:04.450 And so I guess just take this time today to like recognize who St. Patrick is, uh, as much as America has unfortunately changed the holiday into a drinking holiday because, oh, it's an Irish holiday. 00:16:04.549 --> 00:16:05.629 That much means that we drink. 00:16:05.970 --> 00:16:15.429 Um, but no, it is, I, to me, I hold a dear in my heart to know that just so many years ago, like God used this man to like just spread so much. 00:16:15.429 --> 00:16:17.070 And I'm just so thankful for that. 00:16:18.330 --> 00:16:22.450 So, and, uh, I did write some notes here and then I kind of just glossed over them completely. 00:16:22.730 --> 00:16:23.750 Um, but yeah. 00:16:23.950 --> 00:16:25.870 Uh, anyway, I just wanted to share that today. 00:16:29.490 --> 00:16:43.759 No, the other, the other thing, uh, thanks. 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:47.100 Like, I think the point that we gotta be mindful of what's going on around us. 00:16:47.100 --> 00:16:55.039 Like I, we can create new holidays, but there's certainly there's, there's a number of holidays that there's value in like, let me think, what does this mean for me right now today? 00:16:55.039 --> 00:17:05.240 Uh, you know, another thing though, is, is that there's, uh, outside of holidays, like outside of us, there's, there's seasons that are going on inside of all of us as well. 00:17:05.318 --> 00:17:13.160 Uh, it says in Luke 12, uh, Jesus says, he said to the crowd, when you see a cloud rising in the West, immediately you say it's going to rain. 00:17:13.598 --> 00:17:14.279 And it does. 00:17:14.338 --> 00:17:17.400 And when the South wind blows, you say it's going to be hot. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.200 And it is hypocrites. 00:17:19.779 --> 00:17:24.220 You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth in the sky. 00:17:24.220 --> 00:17:28.819 How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time? 00:17:31.980 --> 00:17:36.839 Jesus is, he's talking about himself that, and he's talking about this group. 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:41.519 You guys don't understand what's going on right in front of your faces. 00:17:41.720 --> 00:17:42.920 You're, you're smart enough. 00:17:43.059 --> 00:17:50.099 You've been trained and taught enough to see what's going on on the outside, but you're not looking at seasons with a spiritual perspective. 00:17:55.079 --> 00:18:02.380 The, the, the, the reality is for us, uh, there, there are seasons and there are seasons inside of us. 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:06.299 And I think we can feel, uh, we can feel a few things. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:10.039 Uh, one, when I think of seasons and what season am I in? 00:18:10.059 --> 00:18:15.099 And if I were to ask you, um, it's a question to ask yourself, what, what season are you in? 00:18:17.009 --> 00:18:21.190 Another, another helpful question to ask is what season are your people in? 00:18:21.809 --> 00:18:22.730 That's good as well. 00:18:23.069 --> 00:18:24.890 When I, when I say, what season are you in? 00:18:25.190 --> 00:18:26.130 Uh, we go, right. 00:18:26.250 --> 00:18:27.289 Let me think about myself. 00:18:27.329 --> 00:18:28.450 When I say, what season are your people? 00:18:28.509 --> 00:18:30.250 And maybe the first question is who are my people? 00:18:30.549 --> 00:18:31.950 Which is a, which is a good question. 00:18:32.049 --> 00:18:34.450 Let's say your family and whatever. 00:18:34.890 --> 00:18:38.569 Two or three other families that are close to you or two or three other groups that are close to you. 00:18:38.589 --> 00:18:39.930 What, what season are they in? 00:18:40.329 --> 00:18:43.369 Uh, if I think about only on my end, what season am I in? 00:18:43.390 --> 00:18:45.049 I get, I can get selfish quickly. 00:18:45.690 --> 00:18:50.230 Uh, I think about what's going on with everybody and with the, with the small group around me. 00:18:50.230 --> 00:19:02.309 I think it prompts me to, uh, to, to go out of my way because the reality is if I have to show a little bit of energy and effort, in addition, I've got to spend a little bit more time with this, uh, this, this person, or they have to spend a little bit more time with me. 00:19:02.549 --> 00:19:08.910 The truth about seasons is they, they do end, uh, and, and seasons then inform how we interact with our group. 00:19:12.210 --> 00:19:16.170 We have to become those who are able to interpret what's going on spiritually. 00:19:16.329 --> 00:19:17.430 Uh, that's what he says. 00:19:17.450 --> 00:19:19.470 Don't you, you can't interpret the present time. 00:19:19.470 --> 00:19:28.430 Let it not be said of us as Jesus, looking at our church and our life, our lives, that he would say, you don't know how to interpret what's, what's going on. 00:19:28.609 --> 00:19:28.970 Spiritually. 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:35.579 The second thing that we're going to look at, and we're getting a little bit more narrow is worshipful weeks. 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:36.779 That this was a longer point. 00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:40.019 We'll, we'll, uh, we're going to condense the last two here. 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:43.099 Um, worshipful weeks. 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:46.500 Again, there's a reason why there's the, it's a seven day week. 00:19:46.519 --> 00:19:49.339 I don't understand exactly why, but God knows it perfectly. 00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:50.099 Why not eight days? 00:19:50.119 --> 00:19:50.500 I don't know. 00:19:50.500 --> 00:19:51.039 God decided. 00:19:51.160 --> 00:19:52.559 Why not four days? 00:19:52.700 --> 00:19:52.940 I don't know. 00:19:53.079 --> 00:19:54.079 Four days would be kind of cool. 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:55.839 It might be a two day work week then maybe. 00:19:59.140 --> 00:19:59.779 Maybe not. 00:20:00.259 --> 00:20:01.059 Not, not in America. 00:20:01.240 --> 00:20:02.160 No, certainly not America. 00:20:05.539 --> 00:20:22.279 Um, it's on the first page of scripture that he decides this is how you're going to spend, this is how I want you to spend your time and, you know, on average, uh, by the time we get to the end of this, for some of us, it'll probably be more like 4,500 weeks, but we've got about 4,000 weeks of our lives. 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:24.759 It doesn't sound like very many. 00:20:24.900 --> 00:20:26.000 It's, it's the right answer though. 00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:27.359 That is about 76 years. 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:33.579 Uh, during that time, uh, we, we have to consider how are we, how are we spending it? 00:20:35.670 --> 00:20:44.630 The, uh, the, the, the Bible, uh, this is it says right here in Genesis two, thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 00:20:44.930 --> 00:20:49.009 By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing. 00:20:49.250 --> 00:20:51.529 So on the seventh day, he rested from all the work. 00:20:51.809 --> 00:20:58.009 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. 00:21:01.460 --> 00:21:05.619 Was it, was it tiring for God to create the world? 00:21:06.759 --> 00:21:07.640 Probably not. 00:21:07.900 --> 00:21:14.079 I, I'd have an impossible time imagining God being exhausted by, by anything. 00:21:14.740 --> 00:21:22.380 Uh, he rested though, to show us, this is the importance of rest that even I'm King, I'm ruler. 00:21:22.500 --> 00:21:23.259 I don't have to do this. 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:23.960 I want to show you. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:29.259 So you have no place to stand to say that I have the energy to work every single day, nonstop. 00:21:29.339 --> 00:21:33.799 You're not going to ever be able to say that because I, who created everything, I'm going to rest. 00:21:37.420 --> 00:21:39.400 It's not just, it's not just a good idea. 00:21:42.980 --> 00:21:45.880 God established, he established the Sabbath in the beginning. 00:21:46.220 --> 00:22:00.819 And then the, the, the truth, uh, because we're humans is that we made a bunch of rules to govern the Sabbath and with these rules, uh, it wasn't, there, there's not rest inside of rules a lot of times. 00:22:01.279 --> 00:22:07.599 And, uh, and, and, and then Jesus came in and when he says, uh, you know, I've come to, uh, I haven't come to abolish the law. 00:22:07.660 --> 00:22:08.539 I've come to fulfill it. 00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:13.359 He's saying, I I'm, I've come to show you guys how to do this in the, in the best possible way. 00:22:13.380 --> 00:22:16.539 And he says, you guys can come to me and I'll give you rest for your souls. 00:22:16.599 --> 00:22:16.839 Amen. 00:22:16.839 --> 00:22:30.799 And so as you, as you think about your day to day, but even week to week rhythm, I want to ask, what does rest look like for you? 00:22:35.240 --> 00:22:52.880 I wrote these down and I I'll say that these, uh, all three of these, I'm, I'm guilty of it at different points is if you decide I'm going to unwind and rest by watching a documentary about a serial killer, it might not work. 00:22:55.220 --> 00:23:05.119 If you watch any, if you're, if you decide I'm going to unwind, I'm going to relax by watching any show where, where killing or murder or any kind of sin is normalized. 00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:10.160 And then perhaps you're not going to leave feeling rested. 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:17.960 It shouldn't be a shock though, that when you wake up and you, I'm so tired, maybe, maybe it is from, from what you were consuming last night. 00:23:20.859 --> 00:23:23.480 We've all been spots to say, I'm going to rest. 00:23:24.140 --> 00:23:37.500 We got our phones on and then we start scrolling and it's a next video, 10 second video, 30 second video, and then three hours have passed or two hours have passed or the 30 minute block that you decided I'm going to rest have passed. 00:23:37.980 --> 00:23:40.480 And, and there's no rest that you, that you felt. 00:23:43.059 --> 00:23:54.450 If the television's always on, if there's always music playing in the background, if your mind always has to be doing something, you might not have to look very far to wonder why you're not well rested. 00:23:59.079 --> 00:24:04.579 Perhaps we'd feel less exhausted if we were looking for helpful places to rest as opposed to detrimental ones. 00:24:06.500 --> 00:24:08.079 What are, what are helpful places? 00:24:09.700 --> 00:24:13.279 I deciding to do nothing is it's almost impossible. 00:24:13.380 --> 00:24:16.359 I don't know if you guys have tried to just turn off light. 00:24:16.500 --> 00:24:16.680 Yeah. 00:24:16.759 --> 00:24:17.000 Yeah. 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:18.099 It's, it's a skill. 00:24:18.180 --> 00:24:19.680 Is there, is what I, is what I'm learning though. 00:24:19.680 --> 00:24:24.640 Like, like anything, if you, if I said, go ahead and lift a bunch of weight, you'd say, I can't do that. 00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:25.759 I'm never going to be able to. 00:24:25.799 --> 00:24:28.980 But if you started with a little bit of weight, you can add a little bit more the next week, right? 00:24:29.339 --> 00:24:30.819 Then you get a little bit more of the next week. 00:24:30.859 --> 00:24:33.420 If I said, we're going to let's, let's pray. 00:24:33.539 --> 00:24:35.299 Can you pray for 30 minutes without stopping? 00:24:36.220 --> 00:24:37.180 No, I can't pray for 30. 00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:40.900 Well, well, you can pray for one minute without stopping next week. 00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:41.740 You can pray for two. 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:48.039 You're not even, you're not even halfway through the year and you got 30 minutes of prayer if you just had a minute, a minute, a minute, a week. 00:24:50.599 --> 00:24:51.740 It's, it's, it's a skill. 00:24:51.880 --> 00:24:59.500 And so, so rest then as the world around us is pushing and pressing the rest on a weekly basis, that's a skill. 00:25:03.740 --> 00:25:07.180 The last component that we're going to look at is daily devotion. 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:37.730 The difficulty in, in daily devotion is that we're working, there's, she's fired up about the daily devotion is, is that it's, it's not only a couple of things that, that are comprised of daily devotion is what am I doing throughout my entire day and what am I doing in my focus time with, with God? 00:25:39.150 --> 00:25:51.630 And so either you might be in either, either camp, maybe you say that throughout the day, I just kind of try to walk with God throughout the day and I pray here and there and I do this here and there. 00:25:51.630 --> 00:25:52.670 And that's amazing. 00:25:52.890 --> 00:25:54.569 That's, that's a, that's part of it. 00:25:54.589 --> 00:25:56.329 Or, and, or maybe you say, no, I don't do that. 00:25:56.470 --> 00:26:01.170 But when I, when I'm locked in, I'm just, it's me and God time, get that. 00:26:01.269 --> 00:26:02.269 And I'm done with that. 00:26:02.289 --> 00:26:03.650 And it charges me up for the day. 00:26:03.970 --> 00:26:06.930 The truth is we have to, we have to be involved with both. 00:26:09.730 --> 00:26:14.750 Psalm five, it says in the morning, Lord, you hear my voice in the morning. 00:26:14.829 --> 00:26:18.009 I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. 00:26:18.009 --> 00:26:25.470 So when, when does, uh, the, the Psalmist identify that he is walking with God? 00:26:25.589 --> 00:26:33.150 Well, we could just read that one and say, well, I guess in the morning you can read other Psalms and realize that it's pretty much throughout the entire day. 00:26:33.569 --> 00:26:37.990 And then this, this difficult, uh, this, this difficult, it's two words. 00:26:38.029 --> 00:26:40.490 It's a difficult scripture that just says, pray continually. 00:26:41.150 --> 00:26:52.569 First Thessalonians five, what does, what does your continual walk with God on a daily basis look like? 00:26:52.569 --> 00:27:06.529 One, one thing I was in, I was impressed with, uh, that I want to share briefly is yesterday I was talking with, with Keith and Dominique and we were talking about trying to kind of setting routines and how are we going to set routines or where, where are we falling short or where, just where are we at? 00:27:06.589 --> 00:27:07.609 We're taking a litmus test. 00:27:08.390 --> 00:27:15.930 And, uh, one thing Dominique shared that I was really impressed by is he said, well, every mealtime, uh, me and me and Derek will pray. 00:27:15.990 --> 00:27:16.609 And I said, oh, great. 00:27:16.630 --> 00:27:17.210 We do the same thing. 00:27:17.230 --> 00:27:18.029 We pray for our meals too. 00:27:18.049 --> 00:27:18.490 He said, no, no, no. 00:27:18.490 --> 00:27:20.549 We, I just asked him like something. 00:27:20.549 --> 00:27:23.670 He said, sometimes he doesn't even pray for the food because he's what's happening next. 00:27:23.769 --> 00:27:28.970 And he's praying for if Laura's coming over, he's praying, oh God, I'm grateful for Laura and I'm excited about Laura. 00:27:29.049 --> 00:27:32.809 Or if we're going to go to the park later, then he's praying about his excitement to go to the park. 00:27:32.950 --> 00:27:34.630 And so I said, that's, that's amazing. 00:27:34.730 --> 00:27:45.970 So you take these, these, these meals that are organized, you make them something that we're continually walking with God, but not just, you know, Madison's prayers, dear God, thanks food. 00:27:46.130 --> 00:27:46.329 Amen. 00:27:46.710 --> 00:27:50.789 And, but it's, it's more than that though, is, is what, is what Dominique's communicating. 00:27:50.910 --> 00:27:52.470 And I said, we're going to, we're stealing it, you know? 00:27:52.509 --> 00:28:01.349 And, and if we're already going to pray, might as well pray for, for something that's not this, uh, incantation so that we can feel fine about eating, amen. 00:28:04.250 --> 00:28:12.910 For you and I, as we, as we eat though, might as well pray something serious so that we don't just say this incantation that we can get in the habit of, we can, we can pray real stuff though. 00:28:13.069 --> 00:28:13.289 Yeah. 00:28:13.410 --> 00:28:13.630 Amen. 00:28:13.930 --> 00:28:15.470 Yeah, for sure. 00:28:20.980 --> 00:28:23.039 Well, how would your life look different? 00:28:23.039 --> 00:28:32.759 If you assumed that everything was spiritual, if that was your disposition, my assumption is everything's spiritual, everything that occurs in my life is spiritual. 00:28:35.019 --> 00:28:37.079 How would, how would your, and everything is that's, that's the truth. 00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:38.400 How would your life look different though? 00:28:38.500 --> 00:28:40.220 Every, there's nothing by chance. 00:28:40.220 --> 00:28:44.700 There starts to be a little bit of a game that you can, uh, a fun game that you can play with. 00:28:44.740 --> 00:28:47.099 God, God, did I trip because you don't want me to go this way? 00:28:47.720 --> 00:28:50.500 I was walking up the stairs and I'm like, God, did I, did I forget something? 00:28:50.539 --> 00:28:53.259 Is that why I tripped or is it just because I'm clumsy? 00:28:53.259 --> 00:28:55.799 You know, I, one of the two, I don't know, or maybe both. 00:28:55.839 --> 00:28:58.680 And I started thinking and I realized I need to bring the church cards. 00:28:58.819 --> 00:28:59.740 That's, that's why I tripped. 00:28:59.779 --> 00:29:01.559 And so I went back downstairs and grabbed the church cards. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:21.190 If your day to day is walking with God, what a, what a great joy that you can feel that there's this interaction that's constantly occurring, you know, as you guys think about, and we bring it in for a landing, consider your, your seasons, consider your weeks, and then consider your days. 00:29:21.650 --> 00:29:26.109 And my, my challenge, maybe you feel like I've got a lot of free space. 00:29:26.250 --> 00:29:32.170 My, my challenge would be that that's my disposition is that's probably not where we are at. 00:29:32.250 --> 00:29:40.410 And so I would challenge us all to look and carve out white space, carve out empty space that you can be by yourself. 00:29:40.410 --> 00:29:47.089 You can be alone, even five minutes that you can be with your, your family or your, your people unplugged. 00:29:47.089 --> 00:29:51.710 And that you can then celebrate in, in this community, uh, unhindered. 00:29:51.789 --> 00:29:52.690 I got to do this tomorrow. 00:29:52.730 --> 00:29:53.470 I got to worry about this. 00:29:53.529 --> 00:29:56.930 I got to create white space in order to do that. 00:29:56.970 --> 00:30:00.829 If we do this one, there's going to be joy in our lives too. 00:30:00.869 --> 00:30:08.609 I think there's going to be a, uh, a security that we realize we're not, we're not doing too much and we're not doing not enough to how to organize it this way. 00:30:08.630 --> 00:30:08.849 Amen. 00:30:09.769 --> 00:30:09.990 Amen. 00:30:10.109 --> 00:30:14.490 That's the lesson, uh, happy St. Patrick's day and pick up your children. 00:30:14.490 --> 00:30:19.009 Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast. 00:30:19.309 --> 00:30:22.650 If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected. 00:30:22.910 --> 00:30:32.930 Please go to Kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on in any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.