MidTree Church
The sermon audio of MidTree Church in Harris County, Ga. BEHOLD // BELIEVE // BECOME
MidTree Church
New Year, Old Disciplines | Pastor Will Hawk, Thomas Grocki, and Scott Carrow | December 29, 2024
The episode explores the transformative power of spiritual discipline from the perspective of Christian identity, emphasizing that our worth is rooted in God's love rather than our performance. The discussion ranges across various disciplines, such as Scripture reading, solitude, prayer, fasting, worship, and giving, all illustrating how these practices shape our faith and help us grow closer to God.
• Highlighting the importance of discipline from Hebrews 12
• Discussing the foundational principle of identity over activity
• Emphasizing the role of Scripture in spiritual nourishment
• Exploring the necessity of solitude for spiritual health
• Analyzing the significance of prayer in daily life
• Delving into fasting as a means of spiritual realignment
• Recognizing worship as both lifestyle and expression
• Encouraging giving as an extension of faith
The call to action for listeners is to reflect on their own lives and implement these disciplines to deepen their relationship with God.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
Please turn me Words this morning. Please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 12, 5-14, which is on page 1009 in the Pew Bibles, and follow along as I read God's Word. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. Is it for discipline that you have to endure? God is treating you as sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Eve Stinson:Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much be subject to the father of spirits and live For? They have disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best for them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping heads and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. This is the word. See the Lord. This is the word of the Lord.
Will Hawk:Thank you so much. All right, uh, it's gonna handle the pulpit. We all hang, okay, great, all right, a couple of ushers are going to move the pulpit off and then Thomas and Larry are going to get the table up, so we're going to do something a little bit different this morning. I don't know about you guys, I love sleeping through the rain. We do know that typically, I didn't expect so many of you guys to show up. I expected that you were going to be on the Wilhawk and the Mitch Aldridge diet, where you're eating nothing but the stuff that came out of your stocking late at night and a big storm was going to come through and it was going to be sort of a dark day. I am so excited to hang out with you guys this morning.
Will Hawk:I had Eve read a little passage of scripture on discipline because I wanted you to understand. In scripture there are two different ways and it sort of bothers me our English language sometimes it bothers me that we use the same term for when you get in trouble for taking a cookie out of the cookie jar and God loves you too much to leave you that way. We use that for God disciplines his children, whom he loves and he treats his sons, and then we use the exact same word discipline for the person who decides they're going to wake up early and go for a jog or hit the gym or look at a diet, or decide to actually start studying more than the night before the test. I hate the fact that we use the word discipline for both of those things, and so what I want us to do? You have two jobs right now. Are you ready? I'm about to give you two jobs. Job number one is I'm about to give them a phone number and I want to make sure it's working. So I want you guys to text in just a hello to Thomas, if you think you may have a question that you want to shoot in today. It's going to be the 812 midtree number. There, it is Okay. Will you make sure that it is working so that we can? And do not change my phone settings? Do not, don't you do it? I can't leave myself laying around anywhere around here, okay, so if a couple of you guys would just text in something so that I can know that this is working for questions. Also, if this is your very first Sunday, we are pumped that you are here, recognizing that we're sort of closing out the year. Didn't know it was gonna be rainy, but boy is this perfect.
Will Hawk:Let me tell you what we're shooting for this Sunday. What I would love would be for each of you to potentially think about taking notes at church today. If you're a normal note taker, awesome, just do what you always do. If you are not, pull out your phone, re-download the notes app that you have not used since you bought your phone, whenever it was that Verizon or T-Mobile gave you a really good deal or find something on your phone that you can take notes with. Sometimes I just text message myself.
Will Hawk:What we want today to be is extremely biblical, practical and personal. Biblical, practical and personal. For you to start thinking how can I pursue the Lord with gusto and energy and enjoyment in the coming year? And so I'm going to dive in to sort of our identity first, because, as Christians, our identity always comes before our activity does. And then, thomas, you're going to talk a little bit about disciplines in general. Yep, yeah, good stuff. And then we're going to invite Scott up and we are going to fire through about six I think five or six, five or six spiritual disciplines.
Will Hawk:And here's the goal when you get in the car today. I don't want you thinking I'm going to be more disciplined in 2025 in my pursuit of the Lord. That's wonderful. I hope you're already doing that and, quite honestly, you showed up to church on one of the easiest Sundays to miss. Okay, so I already know who I'm talking to. Okay, most of you. If you didn't get dragged into the car, you've already got some of this sort of like bubbling up in you, but I want you to have things where you are like no, I can make these small little changes that are going to be like seeds that produce the fruits of righteousness in my life. As I pursue the Lord. Everybody sound good to you. Good stuff, all right, lots. I pursued the Lord.
Thomas Grocki:Everybody sound good to you, good stuff, all right. Lots of energy and excitement. Here we go. Riding is asleep.
Will Hawk:Let's do this thing, all right. I told you two jobs. Job number two do not let me talk for more than like four minutes right now. Okay, starting now, deal, go, all right, all right.
Will Hawk:This reality that, for the Christian identity, always comes before our activity, is an absolute must if you are going to pursue Jesus in your life. I'll give you a very quick example. So this is Exodus, chapter 20. Most of you guys are going to recognize this as where we get the 10 commandments from, and I just want you to notice something. I'm giving you one proof in the Old Testament. That is true for all of scripture. I'm giving you one proof in the Old Testament. That is true for all of Scripture.
Will Hawk:And God spoke these words saying I am the Lord, your God Already declared His people are his people. He has already rescued them, he has already brought them out of Egypt, he has already ripped open an ocean, he has already conquered their enemies. This is all already true in Exodus 20. Yes, yes, perfect. And then God says this you shall do this, you shall do this, you shall, you shall, you shall, you shall, you, shall, you shall.
Will Hawk:Here's what you've got to know about pursuing God. If you believe that pursuing God is saying I'm going to do these things and then he will be my God. You have put the cart before the horse. You have ultimately missed the gospel and the good news of Jesus. The good news of Jesus is before you can do anything good, before you can. I told you I would hit the gospel at the very beginning, before you can do anything good at all, to include the greatest first good, which is you saying God, forgive me a sinner. That is the greatest first good of any person who has ever gooded before. You must recognize that God is the first mover.
Will Hawk:We can have tons of theological conversations about how this works, but for the Christian, 100% of the time sorry that one's on me your identity will always come before your activity. All right, everybody got it, say, got it. Okay, you don't have to look. I just need you to agree with the Bible in this moment.
Will Hawk:If you have grown up in a very conservative home, if you grew up a Baptist, catholic, presbyterian I'm just going to use some broad brushstrokes you are more prone to need to get this to go down deep in your soul, because most of us and that doesn't mean if you're a Methodist or if you're a non-denom, you've dodged the bullet, okay, or anybody else. But if you grew up thinking God knows I love him because I do fill in the blank, or God knows I love him because I don't fill in the blank smoking, drinking, cussing, tattoos, whatever it is that you were taught when you were growing up, you were taught a whole lot of religion and not a whole lot of relationship, and what we find in the gospel is that God pursues a people before they can ever be worthy or good enough for him. Let me give you one New Testament example.
Thomas Grocki:And you got one minute.
Will Hawk:I have one minute, I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. This right here is the entire book of Ephesians, chapters one, two, three, four, five and six. I just want you I'm not going to read it to you, I just want you to notice the section headings.
Will Hawk:How does Paul begin? Here are the blessings you have in Christ. He starts at the end, in the very beginning. These are the blessings that you have. He starts thanking God and praying to God In chapter two. By grace, you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing.
Will Hawk:Have you been asked to do anything yet in the book of Ephesians? No, you have been told who a Christian is, who you are. We are one in Christ. It doesn't matter if you're a Gentile, somebody who grew up pursuing God, or somebody who did not. We get to chapter three. This whole thing is a mystery that God would step in on the behalf of people called Gentiles who were not even pursuing him.
Will Hawk:Have you been asked to do anything yet in the book of Ephesians? No, the whole thing is identity, identity, identity. In fact, he closes praying for strength and you're like well, praying's a thing, but what's he praying for? He wants you to comprehend the breadth, the length, the height and the depth. Can y'all see this stuff a little bit? That's what God wants you to see. That is the whole first half of Ephesians. Then watch this. Once you know who you are in Christ, look. Unity in the body, Walk in a manner worthy this new life. I can make it bigger. There we go, this new life. You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. How am I doing on time?
Thomas Grocki:Walk in love Less than one minute.
Will Hawk:Fair enough Be imitators of God. Are you being asked to do things now? Yes, once you know your identity in Christ, you are asked to do things. But we are to imitate God, not just in our best ability as beloved kids. We're just following dad. We're not recreating the wheel here. It goes on hey wives, this is what it's supposed to look like. One of y'all's favorite words in the entire Bible follows that hey husbands, this is what it's supposed to look like. Hey, kids, this is what it's supposed to look like. Hey is what it's supposed to look like. Hey, bond servants that would be employees. Hey, masters, that would be employers. Do you know why, when I'm preaching, I say I don't care if you're a man, woman and child, child employer, employee. I'm not coming up with it. I'm just giving you the framework that God gives when we make application on what his word calls us to. So, before we can go anywhere else in this, please understand, our identity always comes before our activity.
Thomas Grocki:So our activity and so like. With all of that, like you cannot miss everything that Will said. And we're going to turn to Titus 2, if you would throw that up, and this further proves the point, but this is kind of the springboard for me. He says in verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. Would, you underline training us to renounce ungodliness and world passions.
Will Hawk:There you go. Oh, that's so skinny, I gotta change my pin color Hang on. There you go.
Thomas Grocki:Like he said, there's nothing to do on the front end. But once we are in the family, once we're in Christ, once our identity has been changed, there are things that the Lord calls us to do, and one of the things that I like in this. He says training us Like this is a process. This is methodical. This is not overnight metamorphosis. This is a slow, steady diet of unlearning things that we have learned for our whole lives and learning things that are foreign to us. He says training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. Those are things that are just intrinsic to our beings. And he says I want you to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age. Those things are what we were designed for. And yet how many of us just wake up feeling selfless? How many of us wake up feeling self-controlled? Most of us, I would say don't, unless you have been trained by discipline.
Thomas Grocki:And so one other thing that I want us to see in Ezra 7.10, if you would flip there Will. This is kind of, I think, for me the foundational point of where we're going this morning. He says in Ezra 7.10 that he had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. And so this isn't rocket science, this isn't, you know, seven steps to a better life. This is, I think, one verse that tells us how the discipline of the Lord kind of fleshes itself out, and it's just to study the Word of God. I think that's first and foremost, and we'll talk about that in more depth. To do it I think that may be the hardest step. Like to simply like Shia LaBeouf style, just do it.
Will Hawk:Nice reference, and then thirdly and here's the thing, like, that's why Mitch said I don't want to take anything. One of the best ways to do it is to not do it alone, and so every one of the disciplines that we're going to look at, all of which come out of scripture, what I want you to hear us say is number one this is doable. Number two it's doable for you. Number three it will be more enjoyable, more beneficial and more effective if you don't do this alone, which will be really fun when we talk about solitude.
Thomas Grocki:Well, I was going to say and that's the third point is to teach it. You can't teach something to no one Like you need others in community to do this. The last thing that I'll do, and then we'll bring Scott up. If you pull up Daniel three and Will, if you would underline or highlight all of the plurals.
Will Hawk:So this is. You didn't tell me I was going to work. I know I know.
Thomas Grocki:Well, I thought I would have it too. This is all the plurals. So this is men living in exile, not by themselves, doing life together, and and just their life starts to be. You have to worship this idol or you are going to die. And if you notice all of the we's, shadrach, meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king oh Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from burning in the fiery furnace yeah, you didn't emphasize that and he will deliver us out of your hand, o King. But if not, be it known to you, o King, that we will not serve your gods. This is the Christian life in community, and we're going to unpack this. I'll pray and then we can invite Scott up.
Will Hawk:Yeah, let me make one little comment. This will be the first of hopefully, a dozen applications that will be easy for you to make. Here's what I was sitting around the table. I was asking folks at dinner last night Because I had asked my wife this question. She gave me the same answer, and when my wife and I see things the exact same way, I feel like I have found a universal truth of people.
Will Hawk:Or a red flag, yeah or a huge problem, or a huge problem. I asked my wife. I said when your eyes first open, generally speaking, what do you think about? And her answer was my answer, which is what do I have to do? Like, my first thing when my eyes open is what do I have to do? What is my calendar, my schedule, my meetings, my projects, deadlines, goals. What do I have to do? So I'm assuming that's how everybody operates. No, I sat at the table and other people said when my eyes open, it's more. What is the weather? Who is crying? Is there coffee? Have I been loved by my spouse or someone? That the coffee is ready? And I was listening to that and I said okay, so for you it's not. What do I have to do. It's what is today about to ask of me. Is today about to make a bigger ask than I am able to carry through? This is the first thing that I would do as you get ready for 2025.
Will Hawk:Determine, generally speaking, what your first thought is when your eyes open and attack that with the gospel. Let me explain. My first question is what do I have to do? So I wrote that on a note card. It's right next to my bed and it's right next to where my watch and my phone charge, because as soon as I wake up, I'm reaching for one of those things, because I need to know what I have to do. I got to look at Google calendar. Why did I just wake up at six o'clock in the morning? Was it on purpose? Was it on accident? Do I get to press news? Do I not get to press news? Okay, and when I reach for that, I hit this piece of paper and what is written on it is what do I have to do? And that is crossed out, and underneath it is what has God already done?
Will Hawk:In that moment, I am forcing myself out of a discipline to re-gospel my thoughts. It doesn't matter what I have to do. What matters is what God has already done, and I'm starting with faithfulness, whatever it is. If my question is what is today going to ask of me? I'm marking that out. What has God already told me? What do I already know is true of me?
Will Hawk:I was thinking of another one this morning when do I have to be? If I wake up in the morning, where do I have to be? I'm going to attack that with the gospel. I'm going to mark that out and I'm going to write down how far has God already taken me. This, like the teeniest little thing, will cause you to reach, and I'm telling you. It changed my entire morning. I showered, thanking God for his faithfulness, instead of thinking I need to be here at prayer and my shirt is like wet right now because I needed to iron it and my iron wasn't working. All this Like that's wrong, no, no, no. God has been faithful every single Sunday. He will continue to be faithful every single Sunday for his church. That would be step one. Start moving into your identity, not into your activity. Pray for us and, scotty, if you want to go ahead and come on up.
Thomas Grocki:I need to. I need to tape that to Emmett's door because he wakes me up at like five in the morning like this and I'm just what's your question Like?
Will Hawk:what is yours? You don't want to know. Is it because you don't know yet and you have to think?
Thomas Grocki:about it? No, because I do Okay.
Will Hawk:Yeah, I'd hate for them to benefit from your application.
Thomas Grocki:I wake up thinking how?
Will Hawk:application? I wake up thinking how's the crypto market looking? Really All right, okay, so let's attack this. Let's attack you do, don't you?
Thomas Grocki:You open your app. What did I miss out on and how's it changed since last week? Maybe Scott should be praying for us.
Will Hawk:So if that was me, and the question is, what would be the question in that? Am I being successful? Sure, how has Christ already been a success for me, how has he already achieved all of those things? So, anyway, write that down.
Thomas Grocki:I'll write it down and I'll pray. Let's pray, pray with me. Church, lord, we thank you that you have done all of the work to call us your children. I pray that you and your spirit would just help us to look more like Christ. That is, the goal of all of these disciplines is to, like Eve, read and, like Titus said, to share in your holiness. I pray that we would not feel our identity based on how well we are doing at the things discussed or how poorly we're doing them, but that we would always be able to look at the cross and say, no matter what in my struggles and in my just triumphs, that you are our God, you are a king and you are our father, and so we thank you for all of the work that you have done, are doing and will do in and through us, to a lost and dying world, and so it's in Christ's perfect and holy name that I pray. Amen.
Will Hawk:Amen. All right, scott is going to kick us off with what I think is the number one and primary spiritual discipline of scripture reading being in your Bible. While any of us are talking, please send us any questions that you have. You can make them. Try to make it about what we're talking about, okay, if possible. Otherwise it just makes me smile. All right, scott, so let's talk about scripture.
Scott Carrow:Sure, okay. So, as we get started with this thing, I want to point out so we started with Colossians, right? We read about who Jesus is, we read about Exodus and our identity and how we find the gospel in Exodus, and we read about disciplines in Hebrews and we read about discipline in Titus. And I'm going to point out something that's blindingly obvious here, and that is that all of these things are found in the Bible. Oh, right, okay.
Will Hawk:Powerful start Scott.
Scott Carrow:Powerful start, thank you. So they're all found in the Bible, right, and I know that's obvious. But the reason I point that out is because that tells us that the Bible is a thing worth studying, right, that tells us that the Bible is a thing worth studying, right? All this life-giving and affirming truth of the gospel and this good news is in the Bible and we have the Bible. But these things are only available to us if we actually study and know the Bible.
Scott Carrow:And so we're coming up on the new year here in a couple days, and I know that this is a time of year when people make resolutions and if you're like me, you've maybe set out to read the whole Bible in a year. Maybe you've maybe set out to read the whole Bible in a year. Maybe you've set out to do that a few times and you've made it through the first month or two of a read the Bible in a year plan and you've done that five or six times and maybe haven't done it in a full year. And that's my story and that's okay, and I'll tell you.
Will Hawk:You're really good at Genesis, though I am.
Scott Carrow:I'm good at Genesis, I'm good at Matthew, but even if you start and don't finish, I think that's time well spent, right? So even if you only make it through five weeks of it you read through the Bible plan that's five weeks that you've spent reading the Bible, and that's time well spent, and so I don't discourage that at all, even if you might not make it this year. But the thing that I want to talk about today isn't just reading your Bible, but it's memorizing your Bible, and this is a practice that I've started doing with my son, with Grant and with a couple of other men in the church, and I just commend this to you. Should we pull him up and see how he's doing on?
Will Hawk:his current person. That's right.
Scott Carrow:Yeah.
Will Hawk:That'd be horrible. Yeah, we could do that. We won't do it to you.
Scott Carrow:So, but I say this because I think it's very biblical to memorize God's word, right? So if we pull up Psalm 1, 1 and 2, this is one that Grant's memorized with me it says blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. And the way that we're able to meditate on God's law day and night is if we know it right, because we don't always have a Bible in front of us and we're not always in a place where we can be reading the Bible. But if these truths are in us, then we can meditate on God's law while we're sitting, you know, in traffic or waiting in a line, or sitting through a meeting or whatever the case is Like. We're able, we have these things and we can meditate on them day and night. This is all over the Bible.
Scott Carrow:Colossians 3.16 says let the word of God dwell in you or let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Right, and the word of Christ dwells in us richly if we know it. And the way to know it is to memorize these things. We see in John 15, verse 7, it says if you abide in me and my words abide in you, right, god's word abides in us when we take the time to memorize these things. And what I'll tell you just from experience is there's great value in knowing these things.
Scott Carrow:I can run or walk and be thinking about and meditating on verses that I now know because I've memorized them with Grant and with a couple of other guys, but also I just find that it is life-changing right to have these truths and be able to speak them in conversation and to pray about these things, and one of the ones that we memorized is 1 Peter 2.11. It says Beloved, as soldiers in exiles, I urge you to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. And this is a verse that I call to mind when I'm confronted with an option to do something or say something, or eat something or look at something that I maybe shouldn't be doing, and I'm thinking, okay, no, I just memorized this. These things war against my soul, and so having these truths in you can change your outlook on the day. And as I say this, we're trying to be real practical.
Scott Carrow:So I'm going to tell you how we do this. Every week, grant and I, as we read our Bibles or hear things at church, we come up with a verse and on Sunday we'll say hey, do you have something you want to memorize this week? And so we'll find one. And there are plans out there where you can, there are curated lists of verses to memorize. We're not doing that, we just find things that we read, and then what we do is we I write it on an index card, I've got them in my pocket right now and I read them.
Scott Carrow:Do you have them with you all the time? Or is it because it's Sunday? No, every day I always got them.
Will Hawk:Were you at all nervous that you were about to quote scripture in front of the whole country, Were you like I need to be on my AK. But I knew those ones, right you picked the ones that you had ironed out really well, not the ones, that's right, we're working on one for Revelation now that I'm not yet ready to go public with, but but when he does.
Scott Carrow:It's a banger, but anyway. But what we do is we've got a verse and we read it out loud every day for a week, and then next Sunday we pick another verse and we read that one out loud every day for a week and we continue with the first one, and so now we've got two verses.
Will Hawk:Scott's teaching you how to memorize scripture. That's right. So if you're just in like audience mode, click out and click in. Okay, these are some things that I can actively be doing.
Scott Carrow:Yeah, and so, and we do this for seven weeks in a row. So that means that at any given time I've got seven verses that I'm working on, and one of them I know really well because I've been reading it every day for the past almost seven weeks, and one of them's brand new. I just started it this week. I don't know it that well, I don't try to memorize it in one sitting because I know I'm going to read it 49 days in a row, but then after seven weeks, like I know these things, and then we kind of rotate one off, and so at any given time we've got seven that we're working on, one that we know really well, one that's brand new and that are in the middle. But I just commend, you know, the idea of scripture memory to you as a discipline that will serve you well as you pursue these other disciplines that we're getting ready to talk about.
Will Hawk:I love it. My little tip on reading scripture is super short. I set out to do the Bible reading plan and the most success I have ever had. I think I have like 18 days because I started on January 18th. I don't allow myself to. That's a discipline term. I don't allow myself to listen to anything in my car except Scripture until noon, until lunchtime. So if I have a bunch of early morning meetings I am cranking out a bunch of stuff. If all I'm doing is showing up to the church when we open up on a regular day, I might get in a chapter. But for me, for my lifestyle, the amount of driving that I do prior to lunch, that's enough to basically make it through the entire Bible in a year. That's what I've been doing, thomas, anything to throw in?
Thomas Grocki:No, I mean I have a Bible reading plan. I've stuck to it for probably five or six years and I keep doing that, and so I haven't tried any excuse your memory. But audio Bible is always a good thing. I always tell the youth kids, if you can't read some of them can't, they're homeschooled Like audio Bible is listen. Hey, what are you going to do with your kids?
Will Hawk:Not homeschool. You're setting yourself up for some fun. Audio Bible is a great option. A lot of times I'll go to sleep listening to audio Bibles. One of the questions that came in since God's timeless, should I really have a timeline tied to my Bible? And I could be wrong, but I think one of the things that could be tucked into that is am I sort of not being as nimble as I possibly could by being in Deuteronomy, when maybe what my spirit needs to hear is from another place?
Thomas Grocki:No, I mean, I think, since God's word is timeless, I don't think, like Scott said, there's no wasted time in it. And so, like sometimes you need the discipline to say I'm not naturally inclined to read Deuteronomy or Ezra or you know some weird obscure Old Testament book, when I'd rather be in Ephesians or 1 Timothy. And I think sometimes it takes discipline to read the whole counsel of God. I always think when I hit genealogies, I think for 2,000 years God wanted his word to be preserved and all this kind of stuff and these names made the book.
Will Hawk:They mattered.
Thomas Grocki:Yeah, they matter, so I'm gonna read them, even if it may be a little faster than I would other sections. I still have the mindset of God, wanted this preserved, and so I'm going to read it All right.
Will Hawk:So we're going to move now from scripture to solitude. Some people would call solitude silence. If you're note-taking, drop down to solitude, and I'm glad because one of the questions that came through I haven't read the entire question, but it begins with how does discipline work in a super busy season without feeling like I'm falling short? So how does it work when I'm super busy? Let's talk a little bit about solitude. This is by far my favorite, and the reason it's my favorite is because it is the least like my personality. And so if all you do in your notes is jot down the names of the spiritual disciplines, and right now all you have is scripture and solitude, and you get to the end and all you have is a list of about six words, that's fine, because I would challenge you to look at which one and say which one is my personality least likely to pursue, and I can't guarantee this, but I would argue that's probably going to be the one that is the most life-giving. That's going to be the one, that muscle that is most atrophied, that you will see the most growth quickly if you will go after that. And for will, being quiet and being still is not, by God's design, tucked into my natural personality. I like things that are fast, I like things that are efficient and I like things that I can automate. I want to have as many automations in my life as I can. I've got Siri like smoking, and I don't mean like this, I mean like my Alexa is constantly overheating because I'm like you are a machine and you will obey and I have things that must get done. All right, you don't have a soul. I can't ask my kids to do all this kind of stuff and feel bad about it. I will tell you this the more digital and the more automated my world becomes, the more I need solitude. So if you look at your life and it is a heavily digitized life I would argue this is something that you probably need to lean into.
Will Hawk:This is what we read in Mark 1.33, and thank you to the person who said what if I feel too busy? I love this text. Out of curiosity, drew, can you read that or is it too small? You got it All right. Drew's got glasses. He's in the back. I'm going to trust that you guys can read this as well. Mark 1.33,.
Will Hawk:The whole city hang on switching. The whole city is gathered together at the door, outside of the house where Jesus is, and Jesus has just healed many people who were sick with various diseases. He has cast out many demons and not permitted demons to speak. So Jesus is in the midst of one of the busiest things. You could imagine by show of hands. How many of you hosted people at your house at some time in the past six weeks, from Thanksgiving to Christmas? Hands up one, two, three, go. Okay, it is a busy time. There's a lot you're trying to do. You got food, you got cleaning. You got kids. You got parking. You got all this stuff to figure out. None of you has had Columbus Georgia show up to your door.
Will Hawk:I'm just going to argue. When it says the whole city gathers together, might I argue that Martha was losing her mind in this moment? If this is her, okay, the whole city is there, which tells me this. Whatever is about to happen has nothing to do with how busy you are. When I look at the fact that Jesus is healing sick people, likely preaching sermons and combating evil, I would argue to you that it is not that you are too tired. I do not know what your nine to five is. I don't know what you're lifting, pushing, typing, sending, nurturing. I have no clue what all of your nine to five is, but I would argue this that is a very heavy day, all right, and we read this here's the part that'll kick you in the stomach Very early in the morning, seriously, jesus, like oh gosh, very early in the morning, while it was still dark. That's the part I'm not great at.
Will Hawk:Yet that Jesus got up and he left the house and he went off to a solitary place where he prayed we're going to hit prayer in a minute and Simon and those who were with him searched for him and they found him and said to him everybody's looking for you, no-transcript. And he said to them let us go to the next towns. Why? Because I'm ready to preach some more. That is why I came and he went throughout the whole area of Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Will Hawk:Here's what I want you to see. When I look at Mark 1 and the whole city is gathered at his door, you finding time to be alone has nothing to do with you being too busy. When I see the work that Jesus was doing, you finding time to be alone has nothing to do with you being too tired. When I see that Simon, his right-hand man, all of the disciples are trying to find him. This is his mission, right? Like I got to build a church out of these 12 guys Well, it's 11, then we'll add one. Like that is a pretty big responsibility. You're here because of those 11 guys and they can't find him, I would argue that you are not too important, you are not too needed to go and find time alone.
Will Hawk:Solitude is to the soul what sleep is to the body. I'm not saying you can't get by on four hours. I am saying you probably shouldn't brag about it. That's for a will, by the way, I'm not saying that you can't sort of make things function, but what I am saying is it's going to start to show. Solitude is for your soul what sleep is to your body. Most of us think we can get by on less than we actually can and if we're honest with ourselves, just like sleep, solitude is accomplishing more while doing less. It is one of the most spiritually efficient things that you can possibly do, and this is my one personal takeaway. I do not know if this is going to resound with all of you, some of you or none of you, but I will tell you how this works in Will's life.
Will Hawk:The thing in this passage that stands out most to me is where it says that Jesus left the house. I have to to find solitude with God. I have to get out of my house and I have to be in the world that God created. I was at Sarah's house house and I got a couple of very difficult phone calls back to back to back and, without even noticing it, I had walked outside and I was sitting on the sidewalk holding leaves and blades of grass in my hand. While I was on the phone, while I was praying and trying to figure out what to do, something about my own soul connects best with God when I move away from the things that have tons of notifications for me, from all of the things in my home that are going to want my attention. If I can have grass under my rear end, if I can have my back on a tree, it completely changes the way that I pursue the Lord.
Will Hawk:If you have never done that, that is what I would advocate for you Get out of the house. And if you're like Will, you don't understand. I wear white a lot and I have nice clothes Great, cool, you don't have to go lean up against a tree in the mud. All right, I'm not saying you have to go, john the Baptist, on this. Do you have a chair you can take outside? You got a camping chair, you got a porch that you can go and sit on and if you're like, well, that's not me, fine, crack the window in the room that you are praying or reading scripture in.
Will Hawk:I find most life, and I used to tell my youth students this all the time. I would argue that if you will give God 15 minutes outside, I would be willing to guarantee your time in prayer is going to be more effective, your time in prayer is gonna be more effective, your time in scripture is gonna be more meaningful, and everything else. That would be my one push for you in this coming year Be tactile with the world that God has created and get outside of your space. You guys got any thoughts on solitude?
Thomas Grocki:No, I mean, I condemn to prayer. Did you use Mark 1 because it was in my notes? No, bro, that's how the Holy Spirit works.
Will Hawk:For what it's worth. My stuff was done before you sent me your stuff. There you go, so when thinking about prayer.
Thomas Grocki:I went with this exact passage, mark 1, because if we're thinking about Scripture, memory intake, studying all of that kind of stuff primarily, I would see that as God speaking to us. How are we informed, how are we trained, how are we kind of disciplined? All of this kind of stuff, what do I need to know? Solitude, kind of lives in the middle of, sometimes you're reading, sometimes you're praying, but prayer being uniquely us talking to God, us bearing our hearts, us bearing our souls, us communing with the Father. Sometimes it's asking Him for things, sometimes it's us just praising Him, Sometimes it's just venting to Him in prayer, and I went with Mark 1.
Thomas Grocki:What I want us to see real quick is this two sides of the same coin when it comes to prayer. And so Mark 1, verse 35, and rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed. And so, on one hand, we see that prayer is this intentional time. Like Will said, I didn't know that he was going to say all of that. He hit the nail on the head.
Will Hawk:Scripture solitude. Now we're in prayer.
Thomas Grocki:Prayer.
Will Hawk:If you're doing a table of contents, Sometimes it's.
Thomas Grocki:I'm going to be by myself. I'm going to hit the prayer room, I'm going to hit outside. I'm going to dedicate 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes to praying. I'm gonna hit what feels like pause on my life, even though that's not what you're doing, but I'm gonna dedicate time to go and be alone with God. And I think when we think about prayer at least when I do that's what comes up most in my thoughts is how am I gonna get away from these people, how am I gonna get away from all of this stuff so that I can pray?
Thomas Grocki:Let me show you one other text that I really like when it comes to praying. This is Nehemiah, chapter two, and so I won't give the context. But Nehemiah is in a foreign land. He's serving a kind of a barbaric king that he seems to have a good working relationship with, and he hears news that his hometown has been ransacked, destroyed and pillaged and he's like bummed out about it. This is Nehemiah 2.
Thomas Grocki:He says I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had not been sad in his presence and the king said to me why is your face sad, seeing that you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart. Then I, being Nehemiah, was very much afraid. I said to the king let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? Then the king said to me what are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of heaven. Here's what I would submit. I don't think in this scene, in this scenario, he's bummed. The king says what is it that you want? And Nehemiah said hold on, good king, let me go run to my chambers so that I can have five minutes with my Lord. I don't think that's what happened. I think in this moment, the king presents him what is it that you want, dude? And he, kind of under his breath, just says a half sentence lord grant me favor. Or lord grant me strength, lord be with me in this moment. I think it was. I think it was inconspicuous to anyone in the room, including the king, that nehemiah had just prayed and yet in that moment he was able to direct a sharp thought to the lord um in this way, that way that we see other people doing in scripture, and so when we think about prayer. Yes, it's dedicated time, but also it's under our breath, during the circumstances of life, just punting and directing our thoughts, feelings and emotions towards the God of heaven. I think that's a really cool thing to see and I'm going to segue us into fasting. Here's what I'll show you.
Thomas Grocki:In Nehemiah, chapter one, verse four, this is four months before this scene with the king. This is a chapter before. In scripture, this is how Nehemiah starts his book. He says as soon as I heard the words of Jerusalem being destroyed, he said I sat down and wept and mourned for days and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And so, if again I can set a scene for you, it's not that he had just heard hey, jerusalem's been destroyed, I got to go serve the king. Now I'm kind of sad. This is a four month span based on the months that Nehemiah gives where he is fasting. He is praying in his chambers. He's praying dedicated time to the Lord. He's shooting thoughts their way, and so this like momentary prayer that he offers is undergirded by months of intentional getting up early, staying up late to talk to the Lord, and we see that he did that with fasting. So if you want fasting. That was the handle. I thought it was smooth.
Scott Carrow:I made it less smooth, probably Okay. So fasting, I think, is probably maybe the discipline that we like the least of all these, and it's something that is difficult. When we were talking about doing this, there was kind of a moment of like who wants to? Talk about fasting and everybody's like uh, how about you? Right, you know, and this is not something that Does that mean I can't eat this Christmas week before Sunday, not it.
Scott Carrow:Yeah, and so fasting is, and I think the reason we haven't done it is because it's deliberately kind of supposed to be unpleasant, right, like, let's be honest, like you know, not eating is a, this is a discipline, and so why do we do it? So if we turn to Matthew 6, right, matthew 6, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, jesus says and when you fast? And then he goes on to describe you know how they should do it. But I think it's interesting that he says and when you fast? And then he goes on to describe how they should do it, but I think it's interesting that he says when you fast, this is not a commandment to fast, it's not a suggestion that they should fast, it's an assumption that they're doing it. Right. It says when you fast, well, obviously you're doing it, I don't even need to tell you to fast but it's going on to say when you fast, this is how you should do it. And so I think that we should see that and realize that Jesus is telling us that fasting ought to be a routine and regular part of kind of our discipline and how we seek the Lord and how we approach prayer. And so you know, and we also see this like this is not just an Old Testament thing, right, so we saw Daniel fasting, we see Nehemiah, but also we see this in Acts. Right so in Acts 13, 2, it says while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting and fasting, right, the Holy Spirit said set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them. Right so the New Testament believers are fasting and praying.
Scott Carrow:And so, given that Jesus says that we ought to, or that assumes that we do this, like, how should we go about it? And I don't claim to be an expert at this, I don't stand in front of you as like an expert faster or somebody that does this, you know, super routinely, but we have done this a couple times, and so I just want to share kind of a story of a couple of seasons in our life where we have fasted and kind of how and why we did it. And so, gina and I, in previous community groups not in this church, but in previous times with community groups we had a couple that was in a bit of marital distress, a couple that we cared a lot about, that was having significant marital distress and it wasn't clear if they were going to make it together. And so Gina and I, as well as another couple in our community group, committed to fasting and praying for them regularly. And we just picked a day we said I don't remember what it was, but we picked like every Thursday or something that we were collectively going to fast. And I think that the collective part matters right. Like we started this whole thing today with Mitch talking about the value of community. All of these disciplines, including fasting, happen better in community. And so we fasted together one day a week and prayed for this marriage and praise God they made it. They're still married today, but we were able to pray for and fast as a community as we prayed for this couple.
Scott Carrow:Do you remember how long that was? Not exactly, but it was probably it was getting close to two months or so. I mean it was a while. Like this was a thing that was ongoing.
Scott Carrow:And the thing about fasting, right like a lot of us will fast from like say that we're fasting from social media or something like that. Like that's good, I advocate less social media in most of our lives. Like I think that's an okay thing. But here we're and people will fast from coffee or alcohol or other things and that's all fine. I'm not discouraging that.
Scott Carrow:But I think Jesus is talking about not eating for a period and I'm not suggesting that you should do this to the detriment of your own health.
Scott Carrow:So, if you like, I'm not suggesting that. Cosmetic fasting, that's right. Yes, no-transcript pray with an earnestness and a longing and a hunger that we might not otherwise feel like an urgency that we might not otherwise feel if we're eating normally. And so for us, like that's happened to us now in this particular case, we had kind of a weird turnabout where that couple got okay, then one of the other couples in the same group kind of went downhill and we all turned around and fasted again and prayed for them and fasting was a discipline that worked for us in community. But I just encourage you to consider it as you approach important things Like this might not have to be something you do, you know, daily or super routinely, but as you approach important things, whether it's, you know major decisions like the apostles are doing here, as they choose their leaders and as they go out, whether it's approaching significant prayer needs in your community or family, like there are any number of different reasons, but I would encourage you to add that to your prayer as you seek the Lord.
Will Hawk:I love it. We have really good questions coming in. So what I want to do I'm going to do worship quickly and then you've got a little bit on service. Okay, and we'll close there and then keep the questions coming. By the way, important for you to know, thomas, somebody wanted you to realize all four of their children were homeschooled and they're now in public high school with four O's and higher.
Thomas Grocki:There you go. A testament to God's grace, yeah.
Will Hawk:All right. Next, All right Moving from fasting and we have great questions coming in on fasting. I'll get you guys to answer those in just a minute. Worship I don't feel super qualified to talk about worship. I do not sound good when I sing. I know three chords on a guitar and Scott can actually lead people in worship and yet I'm the one who has the worship one.
Will Hawk:I have learned the majority of what I have learned from worship outside of God's word from Stokes, If you guys do not know this. You have a worship leader, forward slash pastor, who is so much more concerned with shepherding your soul than with just creating some type of a thing in the 90 minutes that we spend together on a Sunday morning. If you want to know more about worship, you need to know more about your worship pastor in Stokes and Bennett nodding his head like you just need to know the guy. He will sneeze wisdom on worship that would take you hours of study and blog reading to come up with. He is constantly correcting me when I am telling you guys as a congregation or the people in the pre-service meeting After we worship and then we go into prayer and Stokes will say it's not after worship, it's after singing. The whole thing is worship. I'm like, yes, it is. Thank you, Stokes.
Will Hawk:Acts 17 would be the scripture that I would point out to very quickly here. When it comes to worship, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man. If you think worship happens because you're here, you have a misunderstanding of who God is. The thing that is special about this place is not that it's got a little extra Holy Spirit stuff. It's not that God cares more when place is not that it's got a little extra Holy Spirit stuff. It's not that God cares more when you pull into that driveway than when you pull into yours. There is something special about the gathered group of believers pursuing God together. However, worship of God, if this is your Super Bowl, if this is your feast meal, it should be carrying you into worship on Monday through Saturday. It continues, it says. Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needs anything, since he himself gives to all mankind and breath and everything.
Will Hawk:Worship is not just about you giving God his due. You are ill-equipped to do that. Honestly, what can you even give to God his due? You are ill-equipped to do that. Honestly, what can you even give to God? Nothing. Everything you give to God is going to be tainted and tarnished because it's coming out of your hands to him. You are not filling up a leaky tank in this great divine being, who's divine enough to create all things, but not divine enough to be self-sufficient. Without you singing the right words at the right time, he does not need you. That is not what worship is about.
Will Hawk:Worship is primarily about you being in right alignment with the creator of the universe. That is what worship is. It is you being brought into alignment. That is why I think we separate the words worship and praise. Let me kind of show you what I mean very quickly.
Will Hawk:Worship is a declaration of who God is, especially when I may not see or feel it. I'm not going to read all of these texts to you, but here's what I do want you to notice. The psalmist, which would be the worship leader and the songwriter and the person on stage with the guitar most times, says this why are you downcast, oh my soul. This is worship. It is looking at my own soul and saying time out. Why are you this way? Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Soul, you're wanting to bless other things. You're wanting to go after no, no, no. Remember, soul, you are built to bless the Lord, For God alone. Oh, my soul, wait in silence. Hey, soul, there's some things that you need to be doing. Learning Worship is about you being instructed and you instructing your own soul to get into alignment with God, and this, to me, is the most wonderful thing.
Will Hawk:Praise is what happens when your soul is in alignment with God. Praise is your ability. Let's just go with the easy one on Sunday morning. Why is it that sometimes people's hands go up? Why is it that sometimes people come and kneel? Why do some people hold the TV right, Like why? Why is this happening in some people and not in others? Why are some people crying? Why is that happening?
Will Hawk:I am willing to bet this that when they walked in, something was wrong with their soul and during the time of singing truths of who God actually is and reminding their soul, they were brought into alignment. My marriage is not what it's supposed to be. Oh, my soul, has God not always preserved? Has he not always been faithful? I don't know how I'm gonna make money. Make it to the end of the month. Oh my soul. Have his children ever begged for bread?
Will Hawk:I'm not telling you you need to raise your hands or nobody's gonna think that you're in right alignment with God. What I'm telling you is it's okay to be expressive in worship. You are welcome to use this room. If you get distracting, I'll let you know. Okay, One of the elders will come over and say, hey, you're hitting people in the back of the head with the tampering that you snuck in. All right, we'll let them know. We are not, generally speaking, the demographic where we're having to worry about that. Our issue's on the other side. You are allowed to be expressive in worship and when you realize that your soul is not in alignment with God, that you need to declare who God is, especially when you do not see it or feel it. This God as you are brought into alignment with him. That, I think, is where praise begins to explode, and that is the difference in worship and praise. You ought always be worshiping. Praise is the gift of when you find your soul in alignment with a really, really good God.
Thomas Grocki:Excellent the last thing. So we did scripture reading, silence and solitude, prayer, fasting, worship. The last one for us this morning is just sacrifice giving and just what that means, what that looks like. I think that's a discipline that sometimes as the church, we're kind of, maybe a little timid to talk about because we don't want to seem like money grubbers or we don't want to seem like we're taking advantage of volunteers and all this kind of stuff. But really and truly giving is one of the biggest and best ways to self-discipline yourself in a way that says not my will but God's will be done, not my chief desires and affections and the things that I want to spend my. If you throw up the three, t's kind of the three easiest ways. I do this when we do member interviews with people or follow-ups with people becoming members sacrificing your time, your talent and your treasure. It's not pick one, it's not pick two, it's kind of all three, because we see that God gave himself, that God emptied himself. We see that God gave himself, that God emptied himself, like of the riches of heaven, came down to earth to take the form of a servant, to die a death, even death on a cross, for us. And so, if you go to Romans 12, this is what Paul says. He says I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. That phrase, living sacrifice, is all-encompassing.
Thomas Grocki:If you go back to the three Ts, it means being willing to sacrifice your time. I don't feel like it. I don't want to up early. I don't wanna do this for this person. Present your body as a living sacrifice, your talents I can play, but I'm a little nervous. I don't wanna get up on stage. I don't wanna read scripture. I don't wanna edify someone in a way that I know I can Use your talent as a living sacrifice, your treasure, the things that God has given you. Yes, this might mean money. Some of us have been blessed with more money and they can cut a check and they can say hey, brother, like be blessed with this. Sometimes it means opening your house and it is a sacrifice to host an MCG. Sometimes it's using your car to give someone a ride when you just wanted to go home at the end of the night.
Thomas Grocki:Like use- that one felt personal yeah yeah, use your treasure as a living sacrifice, because we worship the one, the God, with all of the riches in the cosmos, and he showed himself to be a living sacrifice.
Will Hawk:I wanna give us time for Stokes to come up and play, so we're gonna lightning round a couple of questions that I thought were really good. I will to give us time for Stokes to come up and play, so we're going to lightning round a couple of questions that I thought were really good. I will take the first one. How do I stay focused in the early morning when it's dark and not fall asleep while I'm praying and reading scripture? Stand up and walk around while you read and pray. That's what I have to do. If I sit, I sleep. I could fall asleep in the shower in high school and I would fall down and hit my head all the time. I get the struggle when you fast. Should it be for a short time, a long time, a specific thing or just because it could be all those I was going to say yes, yeah, it could be all those, but I mean generally.
Scott Carrow:For us it's been for about a day, Like that's just personally what our practice has been.
Will Hawk:Frequency.
Scott Carrow:Thoughts on that, like we did about a once a week for a day has been the frequency that we've been able to pull off.
Will Hawk:You sort of hit this how does an empty stomach make you closer to God? It's a point of memory. Yeah, god's people used to take you can read about this in Deuteronomy. They used to take uncomfortable clothing and they would sew it into their really nice clothing so that it would scratch them throughout the day. That's discipline. That's like, why would you do that? Well, because every time I do this thing, I'm like oh yeah, god is good and I'm trying to remember to pray for this thing.
Will Hawk:Most of this is on fasting. So let me just say this we need to be fasting. I think, like, as all these questions are coming in, I'm realizing where we are anemic. That would be a good thing for us to pursue. All right, let me see. All right, that was not related in the least. Okay, any closing thoughts? Almost every question was on fasting. There you go, yeah, so I will close us out.
Will Hawk:Stokesy, if you want to go ahead and come up, if you guys want to dip out, y'all can. Would you thank the guys for coming and preparing and sharing their hearts with you? Hey, thank y'all for what it's worth. This is one of my favorite things. I get to do with you as pastors and leaders as we close and get ready to continue worship. When you look at your life, is your pursuit about God, based in your identity or your activity? We have given you so many activities, but if that is how you think you are going to please the Lord, you're going to put the cart before the horse.
Will Hawk:This is Isaiah 61. It's what Jesus reminded John the Baptist of when he was in prison. Spirit of the Lord. God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. The good news, whether you are physically poor, spiritually poor, emotionally poor, relationally poor, is that God fills every need that you can possibly have. It's what Christ did when he came. It's what he completed on the cross. It's what he sealed when he rose from the dead. He was sent to bind up the broken hearted. He was sent to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prisons to those who are bound. Jesus was sent to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. He was sent to comfort those who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning the garment of praise instead of a fainting spirit.
Will Hawk:Jesus does the work. It's the point of the gospel, why that you may be called something. Jesus does the work so that you can receive the identity. And what does he call his people? Oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord.
Will Hawk:I don't know, when you look at your spiritual self, what you see. I don't know if you see a 80 foot tall oak with thick leaves, ready to handle whatever storm. Maybe you're just a sapling, maybe you're just hoping that a seed of the gospel will hit soil and begin to grow. But I will tell you this if you will pursue the Lord, recognizing his pursuit of you, these small disciplines are guaranteed to cause you to grow. The goal is not for you to be an oak today. The goal is for you to be an oak in the days ahead. And oaks propagate. They do things, they teach things, they drop seeds to those who are around. It is Jesus who does the work, it is we who receive the identity and it is we who have the benefit of growing into the image of the one who called us. Let's stand and let's worship him together.