Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative
This podcast was intended to resource our Dream Teamers at LifePoint Church, with biblical fundamentals on worship, life and a variety of leadership principles.
Worship and Leadership by LifePoint Creative
SUNDAY REWIND: Daily Time with God
Imagine if your prayer life could be as refreshing and uplifting as a spritz of your favorite cologne. Pastor Mike Burnette joins us to discuss how this unique analogy can transform your daily connection with God into a sweet-smelling fragrance that rises to the heavens. Through candid insights and personal anecdotes, Pastor Mike emphasizes the freedom and joy found in nurturing a relationship with God, rather than seeing it as a mere obligation. Together, we explore how spiritual practices can become a pleasing aroma and a source of profound impact in our everyday lives. We discuss practical strategies for setting boundaries that maintain a loving, prioritized relationship with God amidst life's hustle and bustle.
He said, he did amazing.
Speaker 2:Hey, where was Jordan Smalley today?
Speaker 1:He was preaching in Nashville For who I wrote it down.
Speaker 2:A church reached out, asked if they could preach One of the guys in our network. Yeah, Great, he's like hey, can we help him out? I know they're good, that's good. Are you ready? All right? Would you text Willie that we may be coming down five minutes late? Yeah, you're doing your Q&A, aren't?
Speaker 1:I yeah.
Speaker 2:Is that clock? That clock's wrong.
Speaker 1:That clock's very wrong. We have 20 minutes until.
Speaker 2:Why do we even have that clock? All right, are you recording Yep? All right, here's your audio clap.
Speaker 1:Podcast number two, take one I cannot, don't look at, take one. I cannot.
Speaker 2:Don't look at your camera.
Speaker 1:I know I cannot. You got it Okay, I got it Okay. Welcome everybody, welcome back or welcome for the first time, but we are here doing the Sunday Rewind with Pastor Mike.
Speaker 2:Burnett what up? How's it going? Everybody? Woo-hoo, it's been a great morning.
Speaker 1:Yes, it has been. It's been fun, it's been a journey.
Speaker 2:Yep, indeed Very nice, You're welcome.
Speaker 1:So we are going to be talking about the journey series that we're going through, and today you spoke on daily time with God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the most central things to the Christian walk is just daily relationship with Him. Interestingly, it's the reason Jesus came to the earth. We kind of preach this gospel like he came to forgive your sins. That is a big part of what he did. He died on the cross for our sins, raised from the dead to give us eternal life. But the whole motivating purpose behind it all was to restore regular relationship with God.
Speaker 1:And it really fleshes out in daily time with God. So I'm excited about this sermon. I love it. Well, I'm going to start off with kind of an icebreaker, but kind of a lead way. So I need you to give me any form of, honestly anything, any item. Just name an item that you see, just anything, that it can be anything. Give it to me Literally anything. What's the first thing that pops in your head?
Speaker 2:Okay, just so everyone knows, I was not prepped for any of this.
Speaker 1:You're welcome.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. A bottle of cologne.
Speaker 1:Okay, can you describe your prayer life and—what's the word I'm looking for Compare it to a bottle of cologne. How? Does your prayer life. How does your daily time with God compare to a bottle of?
Speaker 2:cologne. Okay, I need to pick another item. Yeah, so I didn't know where this question was going. So how does my prayer life?
Speaker 1:I thought we would have some fun.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'll get real spiritual. There's a scripture that says the prayers of the saints, or the believers, uh, rise to heaven like sweet smelling incense. So boom, I think. I think the Lord is pleased with the fragrance of our devotion and worship and prayer. So in that regard I mean that's very biblical, it, it, it reflects a bottle of cologne. Now the bottle itself shape, I don't know, I'd have to work really hard to make a parable or an analogy there. But yeah, our prayers are sweet to the Lord. I think too it's interesting.
Speaker 2:The Bible says that the seraph and the angels are around the throne room of God and they cry out holy, holy, holy at all times. But I think I have this image and I don't know if I read it or I heard it or I just I feel like the Lord gave me this visual. But I feel like the Lord almost hushes that chorus of angels when we begin to pray and worship, because he'd rather hear us, because we're his sons and daughters, we're not his ministers. You know, the Bible says angels are ministers for him, but he prefers to hear us. And so I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think of a good smelling fragrance. I actually used the fragrance once in a sermon illustration how a pleasing fragrance can leave an impression on others. And have you ever walked in a room behind somebody with a strong perfume that's really nice and you're like, wow, was that person here? And I think our prayer and devotion life can feel that way to the Lord. In fact, that's why for centuries, I mean, incense was a big part of prayer and burning that incense. So anyway, there you go, connecting cologne to a life of prayer.
Speaker 1:I mean, but honestly though, it can be a pleasing smell to others too. I mean it says you know like so great. So what does that look like for you? So okay, bottle of cologne aside.
Speaker 2:I picked it because it's one of my hobbies. I love fragrances.
Speaker 1:So what does your personal? I know that you said a little bit in the sermon and everything but in your personal time, what have, what has been the biggest hurdles to go over in your own personal time, with daily time with the Lord?
Speaker 2:So yeah, I honestly hate this question because I have to expose myself a little bit. Parts of the devotion rhythms are hard for me, harder for me. I believe in everything I preached and I do practice everything that I preached in the message today, especially, you know, prayer, worship, bible time. But I'm probably not 33 and a third percent on each of those. I have strengths, I have things that I'm naturally more drawn to. So, to take it out of the spiritual disciplines world, like I would much rather watch a certain type of movie, like I don't care about romantic comedies, I don't care about period films, like Pride and Prejudice, I don't care about that. I like war movies, I like you know, long, two and a half hour fighting movies, I don't know, I just like that style.
Speaker 1:Bang bang, shoot them up. Movies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we all kind of have our preferences and I think spiritual disciplines is the same way. My wife loves to pray and Scripture was always a harder discipline for her. She's brilliant, smart, loves to read the Bible. But if we had 30 minutes and you could do one discipline, she goes oh, I'm praying, no questions asked, and I would go, I'm going to read the Bible for 30 minutes, and so I naturally gravitate that way in my personality and the way God's wired me. It's one of the reasons I'm a preacher, probably because I just really liked the Bible and I like preaching the Bible. So, uh, and as a musician, I've always enjoyed worship, um, whether it's me on a piano or just singing in my car or whatever. So my you asked about my personal devotion I definitely lean heavier on the word side of things, and then I go into prayer as a as more of a discipline. So it is harder for me to get into a place of prayer, which is why I like the structure of the Lord's prayer.
Speaker 2:It's my favorite way to pray, the I call it the seven uh, kind of focus foci of the Lord's prayer. So it's uh, I've I've taught on it before too, and I think it's in our prayer guide, but it starts with reverence. Our father in heaven, like he is not a common bro, he's not my homeboy, he is the father of everything in the heavens. And I want to prepare myself to be reverent with the Lord. I can be personal, I can be casual with him, but I also want to choose to revere him and have an awe of him. And then he says hallowed be your name. That's the holiness of the name of God, that's worshiping and recognizing. He's God the creator. He's God the provider, god my peacemaker. He's Jehovah Shalom, god who gives me peace, god, jehovah Rohi, god my shepherd. There's all these names that describe the nature and character of God. So I love to worship God and worship him for his attributes.
Speaker 2:So anyway, there's seven kind of focus points in the Lord's prayer God in heaven, hallowed be your name. And then submission your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Then forgiveness forgive me my sins, which you know we still. We all make mistakes and we sin. Some of us refuse to stop and I think that's a problem. But if we keep it before the Lord, forgive me of my sins, as I'm also forgiving others. And then provision. I trust the Lord as my source, my provider. Give us today our daily bread and then protection. Lead me not into temptation. Deliver me from evil. The devil's real. There are people that are evil. There's my flesh. So I just kind of pray through those seven and then it ends with praise Yours is the kingdom of power forever.
Speaker 2:So because I don't naturally orient towards that discipline, I need the structure of the Lord's prayer. Does that make sense? I don't need a Bible reading plan. I love the Bible, I love reading the Bible, so I don't need, you know, five days a week or new and 90. I don't necessarily. I've done them and I've done the year Bible in a year. To me that's really slow, uh or, excuse me, it's really fast. I like to actually do the Bible slower than in a year. Um, like I, I took, I think, two months in Luke at the beginning of this year and I'm just real slow.
Speaker 2:With a pen I'm making a lot of notes, I sit and I have to stare and I did this study process in my doctoral work called the. It's called IBS. The reason I remember that is because that's like stomach issues. But it's an inductive Bible study method, ibs, which is where you look at a text and you totally dissect every word. I love to read the Bible that way. So in my quiet time personally to come full circle to your question I'm definitely heavier as a Bible guy and I think it's part of why I'm a preacher and a pastor.
Speaker 2:I discipline myself with structure in the prayer time and I pretty much always go to the Lord's Prayer because I think it covers everything. And I love to pray scriptures as well. If I'm praying over needs, so I have the prayer needs of the church, I always quote scriptures over those needs. Praying for my girls, I'm praying scriptures over them and then worship. You know, I really enjoy that as a musician and an artist, so that's pretty easy as well, especially if it's songs I like, and I I really enjoy that as a musician and an artist, so that's pretty easy as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially if it's songs I like and I get stuck on a song. I don't know if you're like this, do you do this too? I get stuck on a song for like a month, repeat yeah, like Holy Forever. When Chris Tomlin came out with Holy Forever, I think that was my number one song for a year. I mean, it's just holy the holiness. We need to think that way about him all the time. So, yep, I'm not a good journaler. I've quit a bunch of journals. It's funny I had that five-year journal and I quit it three years ago.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask what was the date that you left it on.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to acknowledge that in the sermon. I have a 10-year journal. I did two years, I did two and a half years and then I just I think I went on a long vacation and I didn't pack it with me because it's heavy and so I was like I'll fill it all in when I get back. And I didn't. You know, you just get out of the rhythm and that's the key to the discipline part of the sermon and the diligence part. You got to get in it and keep doing it and come back to it and if you botched it or you missed a day or two, just get right back in.
Speaker 2:And I just was I felt, so I'll be honest, I felt defeated that I left my journal for like a month. I was like, ah, I'm not motivated to do it anymore. So I confessed that to my girls this weekend and they go well, just start doing it again, dad. And then I'm thinking, well, I've got all these gaps I need to fill in.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that's OCD, that is very much OCD. But okay, hold up, because I think a lot of people honestly think of that, have that mindset with daily time with God, with well, I totally forgot, I got busy, I didn't make time all of this week, and then they start to get this mind frame of shame and guilt and all of that and debt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we think I owe this time to God.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So can you speak a little bit into that, Because I think that's where some people maybe not all some people will struggle with understanding. Daily time with God is literally for you and Him, and there's no room for shame. So can you speak a little?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I certainly have dealt with that feeling myself when I was a young believer, especially young. In ministry, I mean, I would hear pastors say things like if you don't spend at least an hour with God a day, you're not even worth being in the fight, you have no business being in ministry, and I thought I wasn't even comfortable doing that. So maybe I shouldn't do ministry. I don't know that. I think we unintentionally carry baggage from language. People say kind of flippantly and I certainly did related to prayer and time with God, but okay, part of it is cultural, it's, it's historical baggage, right, it's just how we do relationships in general. So have you ever had that friend? I'm sure you have. Have you ever had a friend who you know? You get busy and you don't talk, and so they start holding it against you, yes, and it's like, well, you don't ever talk to me, or like, hey, I texted you. Did you get my text? Yeah, but I hadn't heard from you in two weeks. So what am I? Chopped liver.
Speaker 2:And so you've got those relationships and those are always the most stressful to manage and I'm really not setting out in my day to diss you all the time, but I have—I mean, I'm married with children, I've got a life, and then you have those friends that say it. They go every time we get together it's like we picked up right where we left off. Those friends are what Way more refreshing, right? Oh, absolutely. I honestly believe we need to think that way about the Lord more and not the other way. But the truth is we've got baggage from parents. We were never enough for our parents, or we learned this in school. When you get behind on assignments, you start failing and declining in grades. I think all of this stuff impacts our psyche. So I got behind in school and I never got caught up. I took Algebra 1 three times. I don't know, I've probably never shared that with you, it was.
Speaker 2:Spanish. I took Algebra 1 three times because I got behind on a concept that then stacked into another concept and another concept for the first two years and then finally, in the third year, I decided I'm going to sit in the front row and I'm not going to miss a single day of school that year. I just decided I was determined I was the top of the class that year. It wasn't that I was stupid, I just got behind. And then I got discouraged and I felt behind, I felt stayed behind, and so I think then we live in a culture with debt and we live in a culture that like loves debt, and so we kind of have a lot of factors that probably play into our psychology family of origin, issues, weird friendships we're always feeling behind in school debt, and every one of those have to be collected upon and paid up in full, and I think we just carry that into our walk with God too. I want to spend five days, seven days with God this week and only did four as if God's going. You owe me three next week. The Lord has this attitude. It's like, hey, man, we're going to pick right up where we left off, because, honestly, even if you didn't show up to meet with God. He's still a friend that never leaves you closer than a brother, like he hasn't walked away from you. You may not have talked this week, but he's still been around you.
Speaker 2:The Bible said we sing that song. All my Life You've Been Faithful to Me. There's a verse in Romans that says Does our lack of faithfulness to God nullify the faithfulness of God? And then Paul says Absolutely not. So I'm really encouraged by that.
Speaker 2:Now I used to deal with a lot more guilt if I didn't spend every day for an hour with God, but I think there's a lot more freedom in saying I get to spend time with God, and there are days that it's 20 minutes, there's days where it's two hours, and either way the Lord's like man. I'm so glad we're back together again and I think we need to carry that attitude. But don't spoil it either and go. Well, god doesn't care if I show up or not, so I'm just never going to. Who cares?
Speaker 2:We should long to and desire to be in the presence of God, but you also have a husband, you have children, you've got work and sometimes you're just not in a rhythm, and so you know, just pick up where you're at and move on, but don't feel guilty. I mean okay. Whenever you're dealing with guilt and condemnation, you just ask the simple question is that from the Lord or from my flesh? Or the devil? Does the Lord ever lead us with guilt? Never, not ever. It's the kindness of God that leads us to what Repentance? And He'll nudge us with conviction. But conviction is very different than shame and guilt.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely Well, you know. So you were talking about the distractions and I don't want to call my family and my work and all that distractions. They could be, just as in, you know, the story with Mary Martha.
Speaker 2:Martha is distracted, serving Jesus Absolutely. I'm a pastor. I serve Jesus for a living, absolutely, and I've had seasons out of rhythm with prayer because I'm busy working for God. That's what Jesus said in Revelation, chapter 2, when he critiques the Ephesian church. He said you're doing great things, you just don't love me anymore. You're still doing great stuff as a church, you're holding these accountable, you're doing the mission of God, but you just don't love me anymore. So it's very possible as a mom, your first ministry is your husband and your children and now you work in a church. Yeah, totally that happens and it's tough.
Speaker 1:But what does that look like? If you could speak into, what does modern-day distractions look like? Can you retell that story, but in modern day, in the view of a male and then as a female, like what are some of the distractions that could come up with?
Speaker 1:quote unquote working for Jesus especially geared towards our male audience, and then we'll do one for our female audience and just kind of culturally like what does that look like nowadays, and what boundaries and guardrails should we put up in order to where we can continue to make sure our focus is that daily time with God?
Speaker 2:Stephanie and I are preparing a marriage retreat that we're speaking at soon for pastors and 40 pastor couples in the room, and one of the things we're going to talk about is the five big rocks of life. Right, like, everybody has these five big rocks, and they are work, marriage, family fun and faith, and basically everything fits in one of those five categories. So work, family, work, marriage, family fun and faith. And most people are juggling the balance of those five big rocks. The challenge is you don't have to juggle them, you need to align them into priority. So I'm working 80 hour weeks right now. I barely have any time to go on a date with my wife, much less have three dinners at home with my children. Give me some slack. So how do I unwind? I'm going to go with the boys play a softball, pick up softball game, or I'm going to go hunt this weekend on my four-wheeler. So we go, we let work become number one and so, to decompress, I go into my hobbies and I sacrifice my kids and my marriage. And then what do we do when I burn out? I go to church and I'm like oh Lord, I'm so sorry, fix me right.
Speaker 2:And most Americans, I think, live that way, in some form of that, we put work first because it's the thing we trained for. We went to school for trade school, for whatever it's the most amount of hours concentrated Actually, it's not the most hours you spend doing anything. Sleep should be if you go and actually do the math, but you work 40, 50 hours a week. Well, you got 165 hours a week in your in your week, so you still have 120 hours a week. But we're workaholics, we're playaholics and we play on binge watching, on social media, on hobbies and fun, and then our. Then we put our kids above our parent, our marriage. Right, I can't go on a date because, man, we got three sports things and then this weekend's a travel ball thing. I just got to tell everybody I feel like a hater on travel ball. I'm really not. But the truth is we're raising Christians, not athletes. And there are other ways to help your kid be a better star, performing athlete, like get them a tutor, get them private coaching. But to give up three-, four day weekends every week for like four months, I mean travel ball is taking more people out of church, honestly, in the last 15 years than anything I've seen. But it's doing good Like we're doing good for our kids. That's what we say. So I think there's a lot of things we work too much or or we give too much emphasis on work and play and then family and making the best life for them. Because a lot of us are motivated, especially after the Great Depression.
Speaker 2:Generation after generation has said I want to build a life for my kids that I didn't have, that I don't want them to ever suffer like I did, and so for generations we've been living that out. But the priority of those five rocks is God is first, then your marriage is second, above your kids. I've told my wife my kids, their face. Your mom and I were together before you came and we'll be together after you leave. Right, so date your spouse, grab your spouse by the face and just kiss on each other Like, shut the door on your kids and say, no, I'm going to spend some time with your mom or with your dad, and then come kids. So I'm still doing the five big rocks, I'm just putting them in the right order God first, marriage second, kids third.
Speaker 2:If you're single parenting, then obviously you don't have that second one, but maybe you're preparing yourself to be a spouse, if God's going to prepare you for that one day, but it's God. Marriage, then kids then you wouldn't even have kids if it weren't for marriage, right, okay, hopefully. Then you wouldn't even have kids if you weren't for marriage, right, okay, hopefully, yeah. And then career and work. I'm only good at my work because I love God and my family and my wife and kids. Then career, and then comes hobbies and fun Vacations twice a year instead of every four weeks, or some people live for the weekend. Remember the song everybody's working for the weekend.
Speaker 2:Remember the song everybody's working for the weekend.
Speaker 1:That's just not I don't know.
Speaker 2:That's just a weird way to live. God, spouse if you're married, kids if you have kids, and if you're, if you're maybe a young adult, listen to this you don't have a spouse or kids yet. It's God and family. You haven't launched from your family yet. Then, cause you leave your mother and father to be united to your spouse Assuming you have a decently healthy family of origin you want to give time there. You want to stay connected there, stay under their blessing and covering and leadership, and then career and then fun. So I think that really speaks to men and women you asked about for men first or women.
Speaker 2:I think, if I can be kind of a little I don't know if this is sexist assumptions here I think men tend to go work in hobbies first, absolutely, and I think women tend to go maybe family and then work first. God is the one that suffers the most. On priority and even, like in the message today I'm going, if you can just spend five days, five minutes a day with God and people literally go, that's a lot. That is not a lot at all.
Speaker 1:I mean you can do an hour a day with God, two hours a day with God.
Speaker 2:But you just got to put again. Let's grow into that, let's learn it, go on the journey with God and get there. But the big answer is we just have the. Everybody has these same five rocks. We just got them out of order. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So where? So, if so, for as a, as a female, um, you know, a lot of times I so find myself kind of running short, running low. Because I am serving my family Yep, because that's a gift that God gave me and a lot of times I'm right in the middle of the story, Right and going, and then, as you know, and I also see my husband, he is getting Very driven, absolutely Right, as you know, and I also see my husband, he is, he is very driven absolutely, and a lot of times that we, we catch ourselves with that. So, where, what should you say in order to put a boundary? And what type of boundary? When? When should the sirens go off to go? Hey, when should it alert us?
Speaker 2:I think I pulled up my calculator. I wasn't texting, but I want to show something that I've done on teaching before and it always makes people really mad. I want to do a budget of hours. I'll show you that in a minute. I think the siren should be when you honestly say am I building a daily walk with Jesus right now? I didn't ask you do I believe in Jesus? I think I made the point in the sermon. I believe in the gym, absolutely. I just don't go to it every day.
Speaker 2:four days a week, like I want to right, I believe in eating right, but man, that ice cream is calling my name. It's not enough to believe this stuff. We got to now walk it out. Jesus invited people to follow him. That means, come around me, be around me, build a relationship with me. So I think one of the first sirens should be am I in fact? If you evaluate your life, am I in fact having a time with God? And if the answer is no, or maybe twice a week, that's a siren, that's an alarm bell.
Speaker 2:Another question you can ask is do I look at going to church as a launch pad or a landing zone? Like I'm falling into church? Oh gosh, get these kids in KidPoint, let's go sit and get a word. We're just so burned out and exhausted. We live from relationship with Jesus. We're not crashing into the bed with Jesus. You know what I'm saying. Like I know what it's like to have seasons where I'm just grinding going and that comes in seasons. But in general, balance and healthy rhythm is God is first, he gets my, first, he gets my best, and then second is my spouse, then my kids, then my job, then my fun. And I think alarm bells if you were to ask your kids hey, how do you think I'm doing as a, as a follower of Jesus, and then go? How do you think I'm doing as a wife to your dad? How do you think I'm doing as your mom?
Speaker 2:Just ask them, Cause they know what they think they know what they're feeling and if you give them the right, you know. Sometimes they say it when you're in a fight. Well, you're never here anyway. You're gone all the time. That's when it comes out in an unhealthy way. But a healthy way to get those alarms going is just have a family meeting and say how are we doing, and let people answer honestly, with no repercussions. I really do believe with all my heart it's about appropriate the great alarm. The great way to stop the fire is like put it all in balance. So if you do 24 hours a day, times, seven days a week, you're at 168 hours a week. Everybody gets the same amount of time. Everybody doesn't have the same money, same influence, same house, same jobs. In fact, nothing else is equal, unless you're in a communist society, which some people want us to go into anyway.
Speaker 2:Um, was that a dig? Um, some people want us to go into anyway. Was that a dig? Vote for Mike Burnett 2024. 168. 168 hours a week.
Speaker 2:Okay, so divide that by seven, you get 24 hours a day, right? So okay, if, if I subtract, I'm going to give you a very, very full work week, 60 hours of work a week. Most people don't work a 60-hour work week, but that's going to be a full week of working and driving to work to and from. Let's say you drive 45 minutes to work. You work 45 hours a week, whatever. So I still have 108 hours a week.
Speaker 2:Now I'm going to hang out with my family for four hours every day, seven days a week. That would be 28 hours a week. So I've worked all week 60 hours and I've hung out with my kids so much they're like dad, please leave me alone. All right, four hours a day. Now I'm going to sleep. The recommended sleep is eight hours a night times. Seven is 56. So I'm going to subtract 56 hours.
Speaker 2:I guess how many hours? I still have 24. So I've worked a full week. I find out with my family. All week. I've slept medical requirement I still have 24 hours a week, okay. Well, now I'm going to spend an hour a day with God. So, minus seven hours a day a week, I still have 17 hours to go to the gym and mow my grass and paint my yard, paint my yard, paint my fence. I'm just saying I've worked all week. I've spent an hour every day with God. I've hung out with my family all week, seven days a week, four hours a day. I slept all night, I worked all week. I've done everything and I still have 17 hours left over. The issue is not I don't have time, it's I don't make time and I don't appropriate my time, and I think that really is kind of the other key. It seems so practical, it's like budgeting. It seems so practical that it doesn't seem spiritual, but I think it's very spiritual. Yeah, god's a God of order, right? So this puts it all back in order.
Speaker 1:I love it. Yes, absolutely. Well, last question, because then you have to go speak even more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is great, our leadership academy Well, and I hope that these podcast rewinds are helpful to the small group and the discussions. Absolutely, that's why we're doing them.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it. I love it. Can you speak about addressing spiritual dryness within the context of accountability?
Speaker 2:Yes for sure, which is one of the reasons having a small group is so impactful. You will have like okay, it happens in every category of your life. Your relationship can grow just kind of like okay, we've kind of been doing this routine for years, especially when you're in raising kids season. It can get kind of the same yeah, you're doing, okay, it's basketball season, now it's volleyball season, now it's whatever. And then school year, like the calendars kind of repeat, and holidays and who are we going to see which in-laws this year? Everything that gets routine can get rote and get dry, rote, r-o-t-e, and so you have to find creative ways to keep those repeated things fresh.
Speaker 2:There's actually something really cool in the Christian church calendar. It's called the liturgical calendar. There's 365 days of the year and there's three seasons. I think there's Advent, there's Easter, lent, easter, and then there's this other season called Ordinary, and it's like 280 days of the year. It's the majority of the year. It's just Ordinary. It's an Ordinary day, but it's's an ordinary week. At the house we had five days of school and the kids packed their lunches and they got home and they fought coming off the bus Like it's just an ordinary week. We went to church.
Speaker 1:We went to school.
Speaker 2:We had baseball, it's ordinary.
Speaker 1:I'm going to bring that. Hey, how was your day? It was ordinary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was ordinary and be just like, oh man, like a movie or some kind of Instagram reel. But a lot of life is just ordinary. Well, what happens is when things are ordinary for a long time, they can kind of stale out and get dry. It's like the smell of your house, right, or your relationship with God, your routines in the gym. You kind of hit some peaks where you're like I'm not really getting the results that I wanted. So what you do is you give some accountability, tell somebody man you know I'm really struggling with, I'm kind of dry in my walk with God, or I don't feel like I'm getting fresh revelation as I'm reading through the Bible.
Speaker 2:So a friend can say well, let's do a different study together. Well, let's read this book together which couples with a devotional, or when's the last time you read through the Psalms? Let's do a blitz through the New Testament. Let's just do something to change it up and so that accountability is really exciting. And then change your routine up a little bit. Let's meet for prayer once a week at a coffee shop in town or Wednesdays.
Speaker 2:Or Wednesdays or whatever, yeah.
Speaker 2:Wednesdays at noon at prayer at the church. But I think what helps thank you with those dry seasons is a change up. But the accountability piece, I mean you gotta be humble to say to somebody that you're accountable to man. I'm really having a hard time connecting with God and I don't like that feeling. Just because you're in a dry season doesn't mean it's bad, it doesn't mean you're in sin. It could be that it's because of sin, or maybe you're just unhealthy or whatever. But that accountability is super important. I've had those seasons as a pastor. I've had them as a Christian and I reach out to my pastor, my accountability and I'll just confess it and I don't feel like I'm really connecting with the Lord lately, or ministry is not feeling like I want it to feel, not that we're led by feelings, but I'm just not. I'm not sure that I'm in the anointing like I want to be or something like that. So you give that accountability away and that's part of why the body of Christ is so important, because it'll help you.
Speaker 1:So great.
Speaker 2:And then change your routine. Yes, I did a TED Talk recently. Have you heard it? Have you seen it?
Speaker 1:I did.
Speaker 2:It was actually really cool, but they told me I can't preach. They're like we don't want a sermon.
Speaker 1:I was like well, that's what I do for a living.
Speaker 2:Well, you literally did a. I slid it in there. But I shared this story of my daughter getting seasick when we were fishing one time and the captain of the boat said we're on a private fishing charter Me and actually my older two daughters, but Lucy was the one that got sick. And the captain of the boat said it's easy, this happens all the time we're going to move the boat and, lucy, I want you to come stand by me and watch the horizon. And so the two main ideas that I said in that text that talk where you got to move your boat, you got to have some change in your life.
Speaker 2:And when things get dry and stale, just move your boat. Like do something different. Don't go throw the baby out with the bathwater and I'm giving up on Christianity, I'm going to become a new age person, or I'm going to leave my church behind. Don't do that. Lean into your church and figure out a new routine. And then he says stare at the horizon. And I use the horizon as an analogy for objective truth. The horizon doesn't change, it's the fixed point out there. We can't adjust it and we can focus on it and go towards it, but it actually is always moving as we move towards it, right, so the horizon never actually moves. And what a lot of us want to do in the culture we live in today.
Speaker 2:I made this kind of parable analogy and I said a lot of us want our boat to stay where it is because we want it our way and we want the horizon to move to us objective truth. And I said that's just not going to happen. So you got to let your boat. When you're in a spiritual dryness or you're struggling with this stuff, you got to let your boat move, be malleable and teachable. Jesus would even say to you, man, try it this way, do this instead, and then keep focusing on. I'm going to keep showing up. The objective truth is God's going to meet me. The promise is if I draw near, he'll draw near, and he's still true and he's still God and he's still good. And so keep your focus there and then let the Lord do what he's going to do to help you through that.
Speaker 2:Anyway, that was my TED Talk in less than 13 minutes. That was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:It sounded and it looked fun.
Speaker 2:So that was cool.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, and if I could just stress that accountability piece, because I mean the whole, like the church, there is somebody here that has gone through what you're going through and has seen the other side of it Absolutely. So don't leave, stay plugged in.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't have to be a pastor either. No, not at all. Some of the greatest women that have ever spoke into my life are just the ones that I bumped into, the ones that I joined a small group with, and they still speak into my life and they will jerk a knot in my tail if I need be so it's wonderful. Yeah, they're good friends, little jerk and knot in my tail if I need be. So it's wonderful, but thank you, thank you, thank you for being here and talking yet again with us.
Speaker 2:Again, I hope this is valuable to you as you're doing small group discussions and helping you stay on the journey and grow further in your devotion to Jesus. That's the goal of everything we do here.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well, guys, we love you and until next week we will see you, guys later.
Speaker 2:Peace out everyone Okay.
