SPEAKER_00 0:04

What's up guys? Thanks for tuning into North Rock Church's Young Adult Service, The Gathering. Whether you're at home, at work, or on the road, we hope you find this message encouraging and helpful. If you're a young adult between the ages of 18 and 30 in the greater San Antonio area, we'd love for you to come check out the gathering. We meet on the first and third Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. Be sure to follow us on our Instagram at NorthrockYA for more details and to stay up to date on all things young adults. Now let's take out our pens and our Bibles and let's get into the message.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Well, it is week two of Holy Habits. Last week, uh last two weeks, we don't do every week. Uh we had Pastor Alicia come in and go over prayer. Holy Habits is a sermon series where we're gonna talk about these disciplines that we're told to do as Christians, right? But we want to go a little beyond them just being disciplines, them just being things that we do. These disciplines turn into habits and into a lifestyle, not to please anybody in this room or to show other people that we're good Christians, but to grow in a relationship with God because he met you first, and then we're just trying our hardest to abide in him and to surrender our lives to him. And so we're gonna continue to dive into this sermon series and see how these habits mold our life and grow us closer to God. We have an amazing guest speaker uh coming up to the stage. He is well known. I know y'all love him. He is our midtown campus pastor. What is midtown? Yeah, he is our midtown campus pastor. He's an amazing, amazing leader, he's an amazing pastor, husband, and father, and he has so much wisdom to share with us. So get your notes out, get your Bibles out, and help me welcome him up. Pastor Winston Hendrix.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

How are we doing tonight? Make some notes for Jesus. Come on, make some notes for Jesus. He's worthy. He's worthy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So grateful to be with you guys tonight. If we haven't met, my name is Winston, and uh as Zeke said, I have the privilege of uh leading our Midtown campus. Uh, been at North Rock for 10, going on 11 years now, which is crazy to think about. Uh I am uh been a husband for eight years to my wife Stephanie. I have a four-year-old named Brooklyn and a one-year-old named Zoe. Pray for your boy. It gets reeled in the Harris household. Love being a girl dad, but being a girl dad is real. It's real. But uh yeah, just super grateful for you guys. And uh anybody ready to get into God's word tonight? Come on, come on. Believe I have a word for you tonight, but I just want to start off with a question. We got any foodies in the house? Anybody just like love food? Come on, love a good meal. Somebody said, Yes, sir. Like, like let's let's get to it. Let's let's get to the food. I'm thinking about dinner right now. I have not eaten yet. And uh yeah, I'm I'm a foodie. I love food. I love literally waking up like thinking about food. Sometimes I'm planning my day around food. Anybody just kind of rearrange your schedule sometimes just to get a good meal in. The last time I was here, uh just self pulled me into a debate, debate about what was it, in and out versus taco polinque. Was that the the debate last time? That was the debate. Yeah, yep, yep. Where are my in and out people at? In and out? Okay, all right. I'm just gonna say it up front, in and out's trash. Um, I'm not an in-and-out guy. I'm not an in-and-out guy. I definitely voted for Taco Palenque when we were talking about that. We got Taco Palenque TP in the house. Come on, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, we got Whataburger. You got any Whataburger people? Whataburger? Okay, all right, Burger Boy, Burger Boy. Oh, oh, oh, dang, the room turned on me. Y'all just kind of how dare you suggest Burger Boy. Uh Fat Burger, any fat burger. Yes, no, mixed room. Uh production team is okay. Production team's on the fat burger. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's this just there's nothing like a good meal. Nothing like a good meal. Just like when you get full and just like satisfied, and you're just like, yeah, life is good. Life is good. The thing about food is that food can be fun, but it can also be fuel. Right? Food can be fun, but it can also be food uh fuel. You can eat to enjoy, but also at some point you have to eat to sustain yourself. You have to eat to nourish yourself. My four-year-old, she loves candy. We go to a lot of birthday parties in the season of life, and she's all about candy. And if I let her, she would eat candy all day. She hates to eat chicken, she hates to like like literally we have to sit there at the table and I have to count the pieces of chicken until she's done. Like, that's like the motivation. Like, she's like, Okay, I you want me to eat 10 pieces of chicken? Okay, one, two, three, and I lose, you know, I get distracted. She's like, Dad, you stopped counting. And so it's a whole situation, like it I have to force her to eat what nourishes her, right? I have to force her to eat what's good for her. But if she could, she would eat candy all day. She she has a relationship with food, and it's immature right now. The the relationship with food is fun. She's looking for things that she can eat that's fun. But how many of us know that my responsibility as a father is to make sure that she develops a relationship with food so that she has fuel, that she eats in a way that is gonna nourish her body. And tonight we're talking about God's word. And if you didn't know, God gives us a picture, a way to approach his word, a way to think about his word, a way to see his word in his word, and that that picture is food. God talks about his word as food. Matthew 4 and 4. If you want to take your Bibles out, it's gonna be on the screen here. Jesus speaking says, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone. You can't just live on tortillas, you can't just live on the taco paleka, you you can't just live on bread alone, but on every word. Not just the words that make us feel good, not just the words that are easy to follow, but every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus is saying his word is food for our souls. That we can't just live on other things, that that there's something that sustains our life, and it is his word that life is found in consuming God's word. We can't we can't just survive on eating things, consuming things that are just fun for us, right? Like I can't just survive on Iceman lyrics. Uh-oh. Some of y'all like, hold on, what's going on? What's going on here? Yeah, 41 songs. I I know what's going on out there. You can't just survive on that. You can't you can't just survive on the reality TV shows. You can't just get full off of the Instagram feed. Though it's feeding you, you can't get full off of it. If I just consume that, I I can't get full off of my favorite podcaster or the influencer. I I I love my Spurs. Come on, where are my Spurs fans at? We got we got some Spurs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love my Spurs, but I can't get full on Spurs games and Wemby stats. If I know more stats than scripture, there's gonna be a problem. I can't, I can't just survive on the words of my mom and my dad and my grandma. Though I love them and though they love me, and they might mean well, if all I'm consuming is the words of other people, but I'm never consuming God's word, there's gonna be a problem. Jesus says there is no life and bread alone. And so we might be eating, we might be consuming some things, but the question is, are we consuming the right things? The right things. What we eat, what we consume, what we allow into our life impacts our reality. Anyone ever have food poisoning? Food poisoning is is is rough, right? Food poisoning is rough. Uh I ate a bad batch of tamales one time. It was rough for your boy. That was probably like 12, 14 years ago. Can I tell you? Maybe, maybe once or twice since then I've eaten tamales. Why? It wasn't the issue of the tamales that I ate after the fact, it was the experience I had with it. Right? I got sick in that moment, and now that my perspective has been skewed on tamales going forward. How many of us know when we consume wrong things, our perspective gets skewed about reality? Right? When we start feeding on things that are not healthy, that are making us sick, like you might have a prayer request, you might have a need that you walked in with today. And you're asking God to meet that need, but he might be asking you to address your appetite. Because the things that you're eating are leading to the needs that you have. And you might not have stepped back long enough just to think, if I tweak my appetite, maybe this won't be a need anymore. Maybe this won't be a prayer request anymore. God, would you change the situation? And God's saying, Would you change your appetite? What are you consuming? What are you consuming? Jesus says, Life is found in consuming God's word. Jeremiah 15 and 16, the prophet Jeremiah says, Your words were found and I ate them. I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart. For I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts. I love the connection here between calling and consumption. That at the end of that scripture, he recognizes he's been called by God, but it wasn't until he had consumed God's word. Many of us may be looking for direction, clarity. We're trying to figure out, man, man, where do I fit in all of this? Who is Jesus? You know, am I, am I, does he really love me? But it's not until I get into his word that I get clarity about what he's saying. It's not until I get into his word that I start consuming his word that I start to understand, okay, who am I? I am called by God. I am part of God's chosen family, the issues of our life, the pain of our life, the questions that you're asking, the relief that you're looking for, the things that we're wrestling with, they are connected to our spiritual diet. And so if you're taking notes, you can write this down. God's word is the only thing that can satisfy your soul. God's word is the only thing that can satisfy your soul. When I eat, I usually eat according to my appetite. Not necessarily what's good for me. I eat according to what I desire. But I want you to catch this. Appetites follow decisions. Decisions should never follow appetites. Appetites follow decisions, decisions shouldn't follow appetites. What do I mean by that? Today I went to lunch, drove to Chick-fil-A, and I went there freestyling. Like I didn't make a decision on what I wanted. I was just like, whatever sounds good when I get there, I'm gonna pick. And so when I got there, I saw a picture of a a sandwich, and I was like, that sandwich looks good. I'm gonna order that. Uh I'm hungry, that seems good, I'm persuaded by the image, and you know, I got the got the sandwich. I I didn't make a decision to get a salad and then drove there, followed through, and ordered the salad. And so because I didn't pre-decide what I was gonna eat, I was more susceptible to be persuaded to eat according to my appetite. Right? My appetites follow decisions. If I make a decision to consume something over and over and over, at some point my appetite has to change according to my decision. But if I never make the decision, I'm always at the mercy of my appetite. I'm always making decisions according to what I feel, to what's easy, to what sounds good. I'm constantly being persuaded this way and that way, I'm being persuaded by culture, I'm being persuaded by family, I'm being persuaded by friends, and I never have a conviction about what I consume. I never create a standard for myself about what I will and what I won't eat. When I make a decision about what I'm going to consume, then my appetite follows. But if I keep being casual about what I consume, then I'm constantly going to be arrested by my appetite. Galatians 5 and 16, it's not in your notes, but you can write, take a note, write it down to look up Galatians 5 and 16. It says, so I let, so I say, Paul writing, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives, then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. What your sinful nature has an appetite for. If I want to change my appetite, I have to make a decision to consume the things of God. It has to be a conscious decision. I'm not just gonna fall into it. I'm not just gonna wake up one day and my appetite be changed. I have to make a decision. And it begins with God's word. If you're taking notes, you can write this down. God's word has benefits for you. God's word has benefits for you. Anyone like a rewards member of anything, or you, you know, you're a loyalty member, come on, just sell, okay. Anybody else, you know, you you you buy enough things at a certain place and you get some extras, right? You get some rewards. Uh, you're you're you're probably more likely uh to shop at a place that you're gonna get a little extra, right? My my wife, once again, Chick-fil-A, she's a rewards member, and so we go enough time, she gets the points, and I get a free sandwich, and I'm like, I want to come back here. Yeah. I like this. Yeah, free sandwiches, free stuff. Um, when we get into God's word, we have to understand that there are rewards, that there are benefits. That I'm not just getting into God's word transactionally or intellectually, but when I get into God's word, there are things attached to it. There are promises that come with me engaging with God's word. Psalms 19, 7 through 14 kind of lays out the reward program, if you will, the benefits that I can expect when I engage with God's word. Verse 7 says, the law of the Lord is perfect. The law of the Lord referring to God's word, refreshing the soul. How many of us have ever been like dehydrated? Like parched, thirsty, exhausted? There's nothing like a good refreshment. A good beverage. Any sweet tea people? Surprisingly, I thought there was gonna be a bigger response to that. Lemonade people, anybody just like a good lemonade? Arnie Palmy? Anyone? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah. God's word is refreshing to the soul. There's certain things that when we get really spiritually dehydrated, spiritually thirsty, spiritually hungry, we run and we're susceptible to do things that we think are going to quench our thirst and they don't. And it's usually just in proximity, and so we find ourselves consuming out of convenience. And so a word for somebody is you might have to check the patterns of the proximity of the things you're in when you get thirsty, when you get hungry. Sometimes you're in a situation, you're like, How did I even get into that situation? Why were you so close to the line? It was subtle, right? The enemy is deceptive, the enemy is sneaky, and you know it's it's a it's a thought that kind of turns into an action that kind of turns and said, Well, nobody's gonna know, and this doesn't really hurt anybody, and it's just me. And then before you know it, you get to a line, and it doesn't take much for you to cross the line. It just takes a really bad day. It just takes one text message you weren't ready for. Right? It it it's a progression related to your proximity. Why do you keep putting yourself in position to that thing when you get hungry? Put yourself in proximity to the Lord, stay in his presence, stay in his word, stay around his people, stay in places that are safe, so that when you fall, the scripture says the righteous fall will get up again. How do you think the righteous get up? God and his people. If I fall and I'm by myself, the enemy's got me. Solitude and loneliness is the perfect place where the enemy attacks. If he can get you away from the people, and if he can get you away from God's presence, then all that happens is the thoughts that you have and the situation that you have, they become magnified with negativity, and the enemy keeps convincing you that man, it's never gonna get better. This is never gonna end. You should just quit. You should just stop. You should just God, God doesn't love you. There's all these ways that the enemy tries to work in the midst of you being in solitude, and so if you can get around God's people, get in his word, get in his presence, there's refreshment for your soul. Y'all follow me. There's refreshment for your soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making the wise simple. Can I tell you, your boy up here is simple? I'm not educated, I'm not smart, I'm not anything other than me being in the Lord's presence, me acknowledging the gifts that God maybe has given me, me just pursuing God. And what happens when I get to his word is that I start getting insights and I start thinking things I probably wouldn't otherwise think. And so then I get into decisions and places where I'm going to make a decision not based off of once again my appetite, but based on God's desires. And then over time, what starts to happen is I start to become wise, not because I am wise, but because God's word is shaping me into a wise person. And so if I can acknowledge in humility that I'm simple and God's word encourages me to ask for wisdom, he freely gives it, the scripture says. But some of us might think we're more wise than we really are, and in pride we'll get into a situation like, nah, I got this. And it takes a few instances for us falling to recognize maybe I need more than my own intellect or my more or my own emotions or or my own plans, right? How many of us have made plans and they just totally failed? Just totally failed. That was an invitation for you to step back into proximity with God. Maybe the no wasn't a not now. Maybe the no was can you turn around, can you get back involved in God's word and see what his wisdom would have for you in that situation? The scripture goes on to say the precepts, which are God's word of the Lord, are right, giving joy to the heart. There's nothing like experiencing true biblical joy, which is not circumstantial. Right? It's not connected to happenings, right? Happiness is basically happenings that go in your favor. But true biblical joy is knowing, man, I am right with God. I am good with God. I have nothing to hide from God. And so no matter what's happening around me, I have peace and joy within me. I am whole, I am settled, I am secure, I am confident. But how do I know that? From his word. His word gives me joy no matter what circumstances I'm in. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. These are benefits of being in God's word. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. Jump down to verse 11. By them your servant is warned. In keeping them, there is great reward. Sometimes we can avoid situations and we can avoid mistakes and we can avoid falling just by getting into his word. Just by reading his word, just by opening ourselves up to what God might say. Like, if you ever just want to, you have a decision to make, maybe just jump into Proverbs. Just jump into Proverbs, read through Proverbs, and God might just be like, hey, just shut up, man. Your problem is you talk too much. Just shut up, right? Like the Holy Spirit might talk to you like that. I hate to burst your bubble, but the Holy Spirit might just be like, hey, I just need you to shut it down. I just need you to just be be quiet. There is wisdom and there is truth in God's word that can help you make decisions that are warnings that help you avoid things you don't have to experience. Sometimes we think maybe that we have to learn the hard way and you don't. You don't have to learn the hard way. You don't have to learn by going through it. You can actually avoid it by just walking with God and being in His in His Word. Verse 12 But who can discern our Their own errors, forgive my hidden faults. We learn in God's word that there's forgiveness. And when we do try to do it on our own, and we do mess up, that God invites us back into his presence if we're willing to repent and ask for forgiveness. Keep your servant also from willful sins, may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless. There's a benefit of blamelessness. That Colossians, which we're about to jump into this weekend, says that there's not one stain, there's not one mark on me in God's presence. Can you really envision that? Like you know all the mistakes you've made. But according to accepting God's blood through Jesus Christ that covers all of our marks, all of our mistakes, when we get into the presence of God, he doesn't see us according to our sins. He sees us according to the work of Christ. So we are spotless in God's presence. That's a benefit. How do I know that I'm spotless because I get into God's word? If we continue to take notes, you can write this down. God's word requires diligence from you. Diligence from you. So there are benefits for you, but also God's word requires diligence from you. The issue with eating is no matter how good the meal is, you're always going to be hungry. You're always going to have to eat again. You can have the best meal you've ever had, but you're going to have to have another meal at some point. No one can live off of one meal. So even if you consumed, you know, a great meal on a Tuesday like tonight, if you don't feed yourself again until two Tuesdays from now, you're probably going to be sick. You're probably not going to be, well, if you go out tonight after this and you eat, and then you don't eat again until two Tuesdays from now, the next gathering, you're probably not going to be in a good state. But how many of us do that spiritually? Where we just depend on environments like this to consume things spiritually, but then we don't have the diligence to feed ourselves again. To feed your soul well, God requires diligence toward his word. It shouldn't be a casual option, it should be an urgent priority. God's word should be an urgent priority. I can't wait until I'm motivated or I feel like reading God's word to read it. I can't just go to God's word when I need to feel better. I have to decide this is a lifestyle. This is who I am. This is what I do. I read the Bible. I consume God's word, but I don't just stop there. Even when I get into his word, I can't just settle for the current experience I have with his word. Right? Because there will be a season where you get into his word and you kind of get a rhythm and you get comfortable in his word. But I can't get familiar and get comfortable with God's word because what often happens is when I get familiar with God, He becomes easier to disobey. I can get into His Word and I can read a verse that I've read a hundred times and I think I know what that verse is gonna say instead of coming into it with humility and saying, God, what would you want to say to me today? What would you what is the fresh revelation you have for me? I I can't just settle for my current experience with his word. I have to go deeper, I have to press in, I have to be diligent with God's word. Acts 17 says, and the people of Berea or Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica. And watch this, they listened eagerly to Paul's message. They searched the scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men, that the people of Berea, they they fact-checked Paul. They didn't just receive what Paul and Silas were saying. They didn't just receive the message. They were like, after the message, I'm gonna double check to make sure Paul and Silas weren't tripping. Like what they said sounded good, but actually, let me let me go back and be diligent and make sure that that is actually the truth. They didn't just check the box of going to church, they didn't just they weren't just satisfied with religious activity, they were hungry for the truth. And watch this, they learned how to feed themselves. It would be really weird if I went to dinner with you tonight, maybe taco polenka. And I sat down at your table and I got the foil on the wrapped and I got the taco on. I said, here comes the taco plane, and started feeding you. That would be ridiculous, silly, right? But why do we treat church and spirituality like that? Pastor Winston, feed me, feed me, feed me. Which, yes, this environment, this is what I'm here to do, but who's gonna feed you tomorrow? The people of Berea fed themselves. They heard the message from Paul and Silas, and then day after day, the scripture says, they searched the scriptures looking for the truth. And there are times when I have conversations with people, and uh man, it's it's it's actually super hard and really sad at times when people will say, Oh, you know, I I I left the church because I wasn't being fed, the message wasn't deep enough. And the question there would be, do you know how to feed yourself? Do you know how to feed yourself? Because at some point, once again, my daughter Brooklyn is four, and her relationship with food is pretty immature, but at some point she has to grow up and she has to learn to feed herself, or she will starve to death because I can't feed her for the rest of her life. And spiritually, we have to make a decision: when am I gonna grow up? And when am I going to not be satisfied with just somebody feeding me? But I'm actually day after day gonna search the scriptures to make sure what I hear on a podcast or on a church service, is that really the truth? I want to know for myself. And there are certain revelations that I can't give you, only you can get in the presence of God. As you search the scriptures, there's things that only God can speak to you. You might get something in a service, but after you take that, you take it and you start praying on it. And then you start thinking about it on the drive to work, and then you start talking about it with your friends, and day after day, God starts to shape that inside of you, and you become a different person than the person you were when you first heard that word. Diligence. I gotta lean in, I cannot settle for what I'm currently experiencing. Hebrews 11 and 6 says, But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he comes to God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who what? Diligently seek him. Diligently seek him. The question isn't, am I seeking him? The question is, am I diligently seeking him? Do you stop when the pastor says something that isn't fun? Do you stop when it gets boring? Do you stop seeking when life starts lifeing? The scripture says there's a reward if you diligently seek him. If you don't get discouraged, if you don't get distracted, if you don't stop, but you keep pressing in, you keep going deeper, you keep feeding yourself. What starts to happen when you go deeper is that God's word starts to change you. You can write that down. God's word can change you. The Bible is the only book that you'll read that can read you. That can start to show you areas in your life that maybe you weren't aware of, that can start to show you things that need to change, that need to improve, that need to grow. And the book doesn't read me, not to condemn me, but to convict me towards life, to convict me towards blessing, towards wholeness. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 says, All scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work. Real quickly, as we we close, and after this, I'm gonna pray, and then we'll have about 10, 15 minutes of QA. And so any questions about reading God's word and anything that we've talked about, I just want to open up the room and have dialogue and be able to answer questions in real time after this. But four areas that Paul addresses here teaching. Teaching, the question here, there might be some questions related to these areas. The question I might need to ask is what do I need to believe? What do I need to believe? Because our behaviors are connected to beliefs. If there's a behavior in my life that I want to change, I can't just try to change the behavior. I have to figure out the belief connected to the behavior. What do I believe in that area that's causing me to behave this way? Do I really believe I'm a son of God? If I do, maybe that means this behavior would change. But if I believe nobody really loves me, and if if I do this thing, then I'll get accepted. If I'm only as valuable as what I can produce, there are some behaviors that are fueled by the wrong belief. And if I get in God's word and I get that right belief, the behavior will follow. Teaching. Secondly, rebuke. Maybe the question here is what's wrong in my life? Getting honest about the areas where I'm out of alignment with God and his expectations for me. Not because God is a killjoy, but God has a preferred life. And if I follow his word, my life will actually be full and joyful and healthy. Another question you could ask in this area of rebuke is when was the last time God disagreed with you? Because if God never disagrees with anything that you think, then maybe I'm not following him. Because God's word never changes, but I change all the time. And so the first thought I have is an awesome thought, and God's like, yeah, every thought I've ever had, God's like, yeah, do that. It might not be God. Correcting. Third area. Question might be, what do I need to do differently? Because God's word doesn't just point out what you're doing wrong, but He's directing you to what to do right. How do I change? What are the areas and things that I can expect to do after acknowledging this area of my life that I'm out of alignment with? And lastly, training. This is this is long-term habit forming. We talk about holy habits, being trained in God's word to make this a lifestyle, to recognize what do I believe, what are the areas that I'm out of alignment in, and how do I get back into alignment? And this is a journey and this is a process. So this doesn't happen overnight, but when I get in God's word, day after day, like the people of Berea, God will address what I believe. God will address the areas of my life that are that there's a warning sign, that there's a flashing light on the dashboard, and then he will show me, okay, this is what needs to happen. And this is that process. If I keep subjecting myself to this process, and and I guess I want to paint this picture that God is not somebody who's condemning you, but he's this coach that's constantly calling you up. Right? He's not calling you out, and he's not trying to shame you, he's trying to call you up, sister, daughter, brother, son. There's a greater way, there's a different way. And the way that I have power to subject myself to this is by trusting in Christ. That is, it's his Holy Spirit, the scripture says, Philippians 2 and 13, I believe, it is his power working in me that gives me desire and the ability to please him. And so when I subject myself to God and I in humility say, God, I'm I have wrong beliefs here. God, I'm I'm out of alignment here. I'm not doing what you told me to do. He's like, I got you. I'll give you my spirit, I'll give you my word. And you are equipped to do what it is that I've told you to do. John 1 1 and 14 says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father full of grace and truth. Jesus is the word. If we want to know him, I can't circumvent his word. There's no way I can know Jesus without his word. Anything you know about Jesus that's not attached to his word, I would say you don't know Jesus. That's a dangerous place to be, to have an image of Jesus, but never be in his word. I can't form or shape ideas about Jesus from other people's opinions, from other podcasts, from any. I have to get in his word. Because he is the word. And the secret to making this a lifestyle, a habit, a decision is love. And this is kind of a hard place because we think it maybe it's performance, we think maybe it's okay, I gotta grind this out, I gotta be really disciplined, I gotta. But the fuel to make this a habit is to actually consider do I love Jesus? Do I want to be in relationship with him consistently? That answer should fuel me to get in God's word. I don't pursue God's word out of obligation, I pursue it relationally, not transactionally. I don't wake up and say, Oh, I gotta read his word again. Are there days that happen for sure? But the foundation of it is, do I want to know him today? Do I want to be known by him today? Do I want to spend time with him? Real briefly, I'm in a season, a busy, busy season. And so there are times when, man, I don't get to see my kids as long as I want to. Or I don't get to see my wife as long as I want to. Like right now, I could be at home with my kids and my wife, and that would be awesome. But on days like today, woke up at 6 a.m. to get here by 7 a.m. I'm gonna get home at nine. I popped home and I was able to hang out with my girls for like maybe an hour. I was able to see my wife for maybe 30 minutes. And can I say that hour and that 30 minutes filled me up? Why? Because I love them. And I want to be in their presence. Did we do anything special? Did we did we achieve anything? Did any anything get answered? Did any question did anything change? No, I was just in their presence. I just talked to them. I just was in the same room as them. The secret to all of this is love. Do I love Jesus? Do I believe he loves me? Have I wrestled with that reality? I don't just want to perform, I don't just want to do religious activities, I want to get to know him. I want him to know me. I want to live the life that he has for me. And if I do it any other way than love, then it falls apart. It just becomes another activity, another exercise. And at some point it just gets tiring and it gets old. And Matthew 11 and 28 says, Are you tired and burnt out on religion? Jesus says, Come to me. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. What he's saying is the expectation is just relationship. Do you want to be in relationship? I don't need all this stuff from you. I just want you. I just want you. And so I want to pray. And then we'll get into some QA. If you would bow your heads. Father, we love you. We thank you for your word, and we just acknowledge your presence in the room. Lord, we we ask that you would help us, Lord, to answer the question: do we love you? Do we believe you love us? That that's the starting point, that's the center point for getting into your word, for making this a habit, that this is relational, it's not transactional. Lord, and so I just pray that you would impress upon anybody in the room that needs to pursue you first in love and to receive your love, that you died on the cross for us, proving your love, and that you rose, Father God, and so there's power over anything that would keep us from your love. Scripture says there's nothing in all creation that separates us from your love. As I continue to pray, I just acknowledge anybody in the room that needs to start or recommit a relationship with Jesus. Solidifying, man, I'm loved by him and I love him. I want to learn how to love him more. If that's you and you're in the room and you just need to say yes to Jesus, you need a fresh start tonight. This is the perfect place, the perfect time, the perfect environment to make a commitment to him. And so if that's you, I just want to invite you to raise your hand. I would love to see who I'm praying for. If you need to start fresh with Jesus today, beautiful. Hands going up. Anyone else want to start fresh? If you feel him calling, if you feel him tugging, this is your moment. Beautiful. You can put your hands down now and you can pray this prayer after me, or you can pray it in your own words. Jesus, I love you. I believe you died for me, for my sin, and you rose again. Forgive me of my sin. I'm starting over and I'm following you. I'm leaving the old life behind, and I receive the life you have for me. Make me clean like only you can. Wash away the sin, wash away the shame, wash away the guilt. Start fresh. I call you Lord and Savior. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Come on, come and clap it up for those who just prayed that prayer. That's awesome. Celebrate with you guys.