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What's up guys? Thanks for tuning in to 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 North Rock YA 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.

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Who is excited to be in the house tonight? Beautiful. Good to see y'all. Love to see y'all every single time. I'm glad you're here at North Rock Young Adults. We have an amazing, amazing night prepared for y'all as you've already experienced. What a worship set that was. But my name is Deke, uh, and we I'm introducing you into our new sermon series. Not so new anymore. We are in week three, holy habits. As you can see, the big old letters in the back. Holy habits. We're going through different habits and practices and disciplines that grow our relationship with God, that strengthen us, that allow for more intimacy. That oh, that's gonna pop. Okay. Praise God. Holy habits. We're going over practices. Uh, Pastor Alicia kicked us off with prayer on our first week. How a prayerful life looks like, and what that does for our spirit. And then Pastor Winston came in, our midtown campus pastor, and he spoke over reading God's word and what a message that was, how that grows our relationship with God and what that does and how that molds us. And tonight, this would be the point where I introduce our next speaker up to the stage, but tonight I've been given the privilege and the honor to bring the word. Bring the word. So I'm excited and nervous. So y'all help me out. Y'all help me out. Help me preach back. Uh, I love some response. Um, I'll have some questions. Don't ignore me, or the Lord will smite you on my behalf. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Too far. Too far. Well, my name is Zeke Atompi. I am blessed to be the young adult coordinator uh for y'all for this beautiful young adult ministry that we have. Who loves this ministry that we have here at Northruck? Praise the Lord. Um, it's been a blessing. It really has been a blessing being in the position that I am. Uh we've grown so much. We've grown so much from what we started, um, and not just in numbers, but spiritually as well. Um, it's been a great two years, uh, year and a half for me to be in this position and being a part of all that God is doing in our lives uh and in this ministry. Uh, but before we dive in to today's topic of holy habits, I wanted to get a quick gauge of the room. All right, how many extroverts do we have in this room? I thought there was gonna be more, man. Okay. Alright, y'all, y'all, okay. Extroverts are the people you see everywhere, all the time, anywhere, does not matter. You will see them, you will find them there. What about introverts? Okay. There's a lot more. A lot more introverts. Some of y'all are lying. Some of you are lying. Uh, you were lying. Sorry. Um, introverts. I honestly wonder if the real introverts are actually in here or not. Um, but if you are, I'm glad you're here. We never get to see you. It is a blessing. It is a blessing. Um, but if you know me and you've hung out with me, you know I'm an extrovert. I'm an extrovert. I love hanging out with people. Uh lately, though, I've been a little more intentional about not spending irresponsibly. Uh, because y'all love to eat. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat. Y'all know I love to eat. Uh, but it's expensive. So I'm not hanging out with as many people uh as of recently. Just gotta get the gotta get the money up before before I do. Um, but I do love it. I love hanging out with people. I'll go playing sports, I'll go do game nights, uh, any chance that I get. When I first started coming to North Rock, uh, I had a small group for every single day of the week. Um, it was pretty crazy. Uh, Monday I had uh Leadership Academy when it first was kind of kicking off, or a basketball group. Tuesdays before YA was a thing. Uh I led a sports group uh with Brittany. I don't know if she's in here. Uh it was called North Rock Olympics. We played a different sport every single week. That was wild. Uh Wednesdays were for student nights. Thursdays we had our college age small group, so that was a small group before this ministry. Fridays, no small group, but I still hung out with people. Saturday morning Bible study, Sunday church, and then pickleball in the afternoon. I love me some pickleball. Love me some pickleball. But I have no idea how I manage that all, honestly. Um it's a goaded schedule. I think it's great, it works. Um, if you're struggling with community, I think that's uh user error um here at North Rock. Um, but there is lots of ways to get connected. Um, but if you've been around me in those settings, then you know every once in a while I'll kind of step out of the room. Uh I need I need a breather sometimes. I I have my limits, even though uh I will always be there for you and hang out with you. But I have my limits. I need to take a breather. Um every once in a while, Eli, uh my boy, if we're hanging out together, he'll be like, You good? Where are you at? And I'll just say, Yeah, I'm true. I'm chilling. And he's used to it by now. Uh knows I am just fine. I'm just fine. Uh and Loki, as I was trying to come up with an example to give y'all, I remembered that uh that happened a lot more in high school and college because I was hanging out with the wrong, the wrong group. Uh, I'd be in these weird settings and parties, and I'd step out of the room and I'm like, what am I doing? What am I doing? God forgive me, God forgive me. I I'd step out of the room, uh ask for for some forgiveness. Um, but to me it was it's a little much at times. It's a little much, and everyone's got their limits. Some of you can't hang out with one person for any longer than 30 minutes, and you gotta go home. You gotta go home. I I put here that I understand that too. I I don't think I do. Um I I need me, my people. I need my people. Um, but we all need a breather. Do not get me wrong though. Community is important, very, very important. And community, what we have here, is what strengthens us, what uh strengthens our spirit and and leads us closer to God. But just like many things that are good for us, we can we can overuse it and we can use it negatively, right? For me, uh I overused my community irresponsibly. Um, it's a beautiful thing, and I will never take uh take it for granted. But I had times where me showing up and me doing churchy stuff and hanging out with churchy people replaced my alone time with God. Uh it replaced my prayer, it replaced my reading, uh, and I was like, I'm a church people, I'm I'm here at church, I am being filled, right? But I I finally woke up and I was it it just wasn't filling me because I was using it the wrong way. I was using it the wrong way. And so I'll always encourage you for community, I'll always encourage you to do it. But there's times where we just get so enveloped in activity and noise and the do-do-do and the go-go go, right? A whole bunch of stuff is lined up. Um, for some of y'all, uh, you got school, you got work. Um, you're you're doing go, go, go, and maybe your work doesn't pay you enough to do the work that you do, so you gotta go and find another job, or maybe your workload is already too much for what you're already doing, and so you gotta get over time and you're not being paid enough. You're in school, you're doing homework, you're studying, you're going home, studying more, and then you got a small group. You gotta go get ready for it. You get home. Uh, it takes like 30 minutes to get ready, and you're finally on your way there. It's 30 minutes to your small group, you're hanging out, you finally get done, you drive home. On those drives, you're just listening to music, you're just listening to worship or a podcast. Some of y'all listen to some wild podcasts. Uh, I'm more of a music guy myself, though. And we get home, and it's 11 p.m. by the time we get home, and we go to bed. We go to bed. We're tired, we're tired, and we go to bed, and then we wake up and do it all over again, all over again. And I wonder how many of y'all deal with this same issue. Um examples of noise that fill our time are social media, right? Uh, some of y'all work out, that's great. Uh going out with friends, eating out, uh, work, hobbies, you fill in the blank. These aren't bad things, but sometimes their voices are a lot louder in our lives than they should be. Right. I think this is something we deal with heavily in this generation. We have more access to noise and activity than ever before. Transportation is faster, communication is instant, and information is always right at our fingertips. How many of y'all had uh a parent or a grandparent exaggerate their walk to school? Yeah, yeah. If you didn't have one of those parents, you you've definitely seen it online. But I mean, an example is like I had to walk six miles in the snow, waist deep. And then I had to go trade in my shekels for a goat to get me through it, and then we go over volcanic rivers. It was it's just exaggerated, man. It like y'all doing too much. Um but the point is, compared to them, we really do have it easy now, right? They they sometimes did have to walk to work, they did have to walk to school, but we got nice and fancy cars. I don't, but it's it's a car, it's transportation. Um, but everything is quick and convenient, so we just do more and more and more because we can fit more into our days. And unfortunately, we filled up our lives with so much that there's barely any quiet time left to think. Any quiet time. There's too much noise. And somewhere in the middle of that chaos, many of us are trying to find fulfillment in one of those things, right? It you're trying to fill this void that you have in your spirit, that you have in your soul. And we tell ourselves, once I finally get that promotion, then I wouldn't have to worry about blank. Once I finally achieve my goals and have everything that I think I need, then I'll be fine. I'll be able to buy what I need, I'll be able to provide, I'll be able to do this, this, and that. But the problem is not just when we do more, it's also when we get more, and it just doesn't fill the emptiness that is in us. And so there comes a time when we finally start to wake up and we realize we've become numb to it all. We notice there's this huge void in our soul and it needs attention. We're unfulfilled, we're discontent. But instead of slowing down, instead of stepping away from it, instead of stepping out of the room, and our our our answer is usually to do more. To do more, to just fill our time with more. And with the little time we have left, time we should be giving to God, what do we do? We scroll. Uh we we watch some sort of entertainment. So when is it truly quiet? Are we being intentional about stepping out of the room for a second? Right? I don't know what rooms you're having to step out of. You might know now, but it might have to be something that you pray about to the Lord to reveal to you, right? Because all of y'all had something to do before this, right? And this is also activity, right? And so, where in your day have you made time for God? Where in your time have you allowed for you to not listen to something, for you to not listen to your friends uh just yap about whatever, right? To to gossip. When when was the last time you you you stopped watching YouTube, you stopped watching Netflix, you stopped doing this? When is it quiet? Those rooms you need to step out of, and we're drowned in activity. But there is good news. There's good news. We do have a solution. God gives us a solution to these issues we battle with. So it took me forever to get to this point, but the holy habit we are talking about today is solitude. Solitude, solitude, solitude. Now, don't get this wrong, okay? Solitude and isolation aren't necessarily the same thing. When I said solitude, you might have thought of isolation, but here are the definitions of them. Solitude is a state of being alone, typically characterized by a peaceful withdrawal from society for the purpose of reflection, rest, or self-focus. Isolation is a state of being separated or disconnected from other people, places, or things, usually involuntary. So isolation can be a byproduct of certain circumstances while solitude is intentional. In the context we're talking about solitude, it's intentional alone time that creates space. Okay? So if you're taking notes, the first point is solitude creates space. I don't know how Pastor Jonathan does this, man. I need water. Alright, you might ask, space for what? Space for what? It is for prayer, reading, meditation, fasting, and so forth, right? All of these godly habits that we're gonna be talking about and have talked about. But ultimately, it's solitude created to step away from the noise and into the arms of our heavenly father. All right. I want to emphasize how important these habits that we're talking about are, because they are mainly what help in growing and strengthening our relationship with our Creator, but they can also combat against habitual sin. All right? Our bad habits. These holy habits, we're talking about them for a reason. They matter and they replace what needs to be replaced. Okay, and God knows what these bad habits are. I'm not gonna go into the list of them, I'm not gonna go into them, but you know what that is in your life, and God knows too. And he is calling out your name so that you can step into his presence to be molded into the man or the woman that he is calling you to be. So being in spaces of solitude is gonna look differently for everyone. Okay, it's gonna look different, it might not be the same all the time, but it is a space that you've created away from the world and from all the distractions. You're just tuning your heart to the Lord's voice. Here I put, it's like going through radio stations looking for the right channel with the best quality. Y'all don't do that no more. I mean, we we don't we don't do that anymore. Uh y'all's worries now is not having to deal with Spotify ads. Um it's just but it's kind of like tuning a radio station. If you've done it, it takes a while. You gotta get aligned, you gotta get it on the dot. Um but that alignment is accomplished through prayer and reading God's word in spaces of solitude. So the setting doesn't matter. You can do it from anywhere, in your room when you first wake up, or before you go to sleep, going out in nature and taking a walk. I love to do that personally, or even driving around for a little longer before getting to your destination. Right? All that matters is that you are intentionally, intentionally, not by accident, not by coincidence, intentionally stepping out of all the commotion and into a time with the Lord, creating space. All right, let's look at the Bible. Let's look at the Bible. We're going to Mark 6. You have your Bible open to Mark 6. Here's a quick summary of what's going on. Jesus just fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. I think we most of us know this story, okay? But uh, this was just some little boy's lunch. Like he he uh people are following Jesus. Jesus is performing miracles, he's teaching, and this huge crowd of people is following him, and he says, How are we gonna feed these people? It's been it's night time, and we gotta feed these people, so how are we gonna do it? They find this little guy's lunch. I don't know why he was carrying around that big of a lunch just for him, but Jesus used it, okay? Jesus asked for them, he gave thanks to God for the food and began splitting them into portions. Like he's ripping the bread, putting it in baskets, and fed 5,000 people. 5,000 people. He fed every single one of them there. So we're gonna kick off on verse 44. Verse 44. It says, A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed. Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake to Beth Seda. While he sent the people home after telling everyone goodbye, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Alright? John 6, 15 talks about this same story, but says it a little differently, and it says that he flees into the hills because the people were going to force him to be king after this huge miracle, right? I mean, he just fed 5,000 people with nothing. So they're trying to make him king, and he says, It's not time. Let me dip. I gotta go, goes into the hills, and he prays. So this is uh right after one of the biggest works that he has done, but he knows he needs to step away from the demands of the crowds and go be in solitude with just him and the Lord. Just him and the Lord. And so, how are we creating space from our demands? What are your demands in your life? You know, is it family? Is it friends? Is it work? An annoying boss, is it uh uh sports? Is it I don't know if you babysit um or little children demand things all the time. Um, but what is demanding your time? Who is demanding your attention, right? And so we need to create space from these demands because Jesus did it first. Jesus did it first. Funny enough though, if we just keep reading, this time of solitude was right before another famous miracle where he walks on water, he walks on water to the boat his disciples were on. So we got feeding the five thousand with five loaves, two fish, and then walking on water. And what's in between those two moments? Prayer, solitude. Prayer and solitude. And and these these are amazing things, right? Uh, these are great works. This was a part of his ministry. This pushed the kingdom forward, and they were amazing, amazing things that were recorded. And a lot of times we want to do the same, right? We we have this calling over our life, and and we believe uh we're gonna go and do this great work, and you will, but we tend to want to walk on water before we walk into solitude, before we walk into a moment of prayer. How many times do we do that? And so for Jesus, it wasn't step away and get on a boat with the disciples, like he told him. He didn't go hang out with his friends, he he didn't stay with the crowds all night, go to sleep, and then go do whatever the next morning. It was, I need to spend time with the Lord, with my Father in heaven, so that he could be guided, so that Jesus could be guided for the next part of his day, for the next part of his mission. So we all know Jesus often withdrew from the crowds during his ministry. Luke 5, 15 is another example, and it says, uh, but despite Jesus' instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. So these are the early stages of his ministry here, and he's telling people to keep quiet. Keep quiet of all the things I'm doing. It's not time for me to be known, okay? So hold your horses. But people love to gossip, they love to talk, and so word was spreading fast, and people were trying to find them. They were searching them. And I think we all would, you know, if we heard that Jesus was walking on the river walk. I think I th I I'd be the first one out of here. Like. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. We're gonna go and find him. Low key though, I don't think it'd be the Riverwalk. It'd probably be Marbok. Mar Marbach needs Jesus, man. Marbok needs Jesus. I debated putting this in here, but I I think Marbok's like the final boss for a mission trip in San Antonio. We need some Jesus up in there. Just like many areas of San Antonio. But if you've been here, then you know. You know. Anyways, let's look at another example of Jesus being intentional with practicing solitude. Luke 6, if you want to turn there, but it's also in your notes. Again, here Jesus is in his early stages of his ministry here and knows it's time for a very important next step. Okay, very important. He's about to choose the twelve disciples. These disciples were super important to his ministry. And these disciples were also young adults, or at least we believe for them to be young adults. And so he's about to choose and make this huge decision, right? But what does he do before this big decision? Luke 6, 12 says, one day soon afterward, Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak. Alright, so there's no in-between there. He did not sleep. Jesus prayed all night. At daybreak, he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. So he goes to the mountains to pray, so that the spirit could guide him. Like, why would Jesus of all people be intentional with this practice of solitude? It's because he was fully man, but also fully God, but he was walking in the Spirit, and he knew that he needed to spend time in the quiet, in the stillness, to be able to hear the guidance that the Holy Spirit was trying to give him. So your next point is God guides the soul in solitude. God guides the soul in solitude. I have had plenty of important decisions to make in my life, as we all have. Definitely not as important as the ones Jesus had to make. But I've realized that the decisions I've struggled with the most before making them were the ones I was trying to make on my own without having given them to God first. And plenty of times when I didn't recognize I didn't give space for God to work in this decision making, it was taken from me. Or it just didn't work out the way that I had envisioned it to be. And so I was left disappointed. I was left confused and I questioned and I doubted, but then I was like, okay, I didn't give this to you. My bad. I should have prayed about it. And we need to do that. We need to be giving it to the Lord. So now every time I prioritize my time with God and was intentional with times of solitude, whether a decision worked out to my liking or not, I was okay with it. Because I gave it to God first, and so I know he has better for me. I know he has a greater plan than anything I could ever come up with, and I know he will always guide me to what's good and keep me from falling into the hands of the enemy. So I will always be content with him and his guidance over my life. And we have to we have to live that same reality. Like it's not always gonna go our way. Because most of our prayer answers are sometimes a no, right? We we think God isn't answering our prayer, but it's probably a no. But you have to trust and be content with the plan that God is leading you into, that He is guiding you to. So something I like to do, the way that I do that, I go on walks. I'll go to a trail here. I like going to the rim trail. Um, there's plenty of trails. Don't take mine. I do not want to see you all there. I'm kidding. Uh but I will put on headphones. Uh I'll put on headphones, play some worship pads. Uh no, no lyrics, no lyrics, so it's just it's just pads. Um, and honestly, it's more to just not hear the huffin' and puffin' that's that's running by me. Um, I don't need to hear that, but I'm not listening to podcasts, I'm not listening to sermons or music because I can do that any other time. I can do that any other time. But this time specifically, where I'm going on a walk and talking with the Lord, it is to give God his turn to speak. Right? And it's just a conversation. You know, I'll yap for a little bit, I'll just talk, I'll present my needs, I'll talk about my problems that are nothing in comparison to God, um, and then I'll just zip it and I'll listen. I'll listen. I'll just I'll keep walking and I'll let God work in me. And some of you might enjoy doing the same, right? But if not, I encourage you to find something to do or a space that's enjoyable to just talk to and listen to the Lord because there's too much noise. There's too much noise, and you have to be intentional with this time, and it's his turn to speak in these moments. All right? So these moments aren't gonna be comfortable. I already mentioned that, okay? It's not gonna be, it's also not gonna be this super spiritual moment every single time, okay, where you hear God's voice booming from the heavens, okay? I like to do a little God's voice impersonation because my voice is as deep as it is, but he's not gonna say, Oh, yeah, you were totally right about that argument that you had, and uh son and daughter, you're always right. Um, you can never do wrong. Um he's not saying that. He's actually gonna say, you have 10 hours and 36 minutes of screen time, and three hours of silence in your day. What are we doing? I I I struggle with that. I struggle with that. I've gotten it down. I'm at like four hours. I'm getting there, I'm getting there, but we got you loud, we got you loud. We got you loud. But God's voice is sometimes just this little thought in your head that's telling you to or not to do something. I think we can all recall a time where when when we were about to do something we shouldn't be doing, you get this little don't do it, leave. Go home, go and it's just this little thought. But if there's noise constantly running through your mind, going in and out the other ear, how could you possibly tell if that's God's voice or your own or the world's, right? And so we we have to be intentional with our solitude, and God will guide you in that solitude. He he is speaking, he is speaking. Uh, I saw this video. Dang, I would I took this out of my notes, but I think this is funny. This guy, he was like, uh we ask, God, I want to hear your voice. And God's saying, you're listening to NBA Youngboy. I'm not gonna pause that for you and give you revelation. You're listening to Drake. Man, that album was horrendous. I I don't listen to secular music for the most part, and I just I thought I'd give it a try, and now I know why I don't. Now I know why I don't. Um anyways, a lot happens in quiet moments. God will take advantage of each and every moment if you allow him the opportunity. But it's a lot more than just guidance that happens in moments of solitude. He, if you allow him, he will also mold you and shape you in these moments. God shapes your soul in solitude. God shapes your soul in solitude. Y'all know Paul, right? The Apostle Paul? He wrote like most of the New Testament. Wrote most of the New Testament. Well, he was a man who was in prison a lot. A lot. Paul was a warrior. He fought for the gospel, he fought hard in the mission Jesus had given him, but his life was not all sunshine and rainbows, unfortunately. Paul was persecuted. He was persecuted for his faith, and ultimately he died for it as well. But I want you to take a look at his heart as he is writing the book of Philippians during a season of imprisonment. Philippians 4, 12 through 13 says, I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do all this through him who gives me strength. He was content. He lived in a state of contentment. He had learned that no matter the challenges he faced, no matter the pain that he endured, he was content with his Lord and all that he had for him. But this isn't a mentality that just happened overnight. Paul developed this day in and day out. He actually used to be the man who persecuted the Christians. He'd be the one to kill those that were pursuing this faith. But the Holy Spirit made him new. Jesus encountered him. And so he was a new man by the grace of Jesus Christ. And he was continuously being molded and shaped into the man that would ultimately do some of the most important work and most well-known work the kingdom of God needed to be done. It happened every single day. I mean, he was in prison a lot. I don't know how much there is to do in prison. Um, all I know is he talked to the guards, he wrote letters, he was disappointed with some churches, and he spent time with the Lord. He spent time with the Lord, he took advantage of those moments. And so, what are you needing today through a moment of solitude? Maybe it's it's guidance for a next step or through a storm. Maybe you're sick and tired of bad habits in your life and you're wanting to change. It's all possible and it's all found in Jesus. When you finally surrender control and give him the time to work in you and through you, you will be free. You will be molded, you will be guided into what the Lord has in store for you. Philippians 4 13, uh the verse that nobody knows, right? Or is isn't misused at all, says, I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength. Right? Athletes love to use this verse, and they want to use it to win, they want to use it to impress a little lady in the stands or a little boy in the stands watching, and they're like, the Lord will give me the strength to win, to break some records. Nope. Um, Paul is saying that through the hard times, through the good times, he is content and knows he will come out victorious because it is Christ's strength that did it for him. So this week, even tonight, are you going to be intentional with creating space for the Lord? Because he's waiting. He's waiting, he's calling out your name, and it's up to you now to step away from the distractions, to step out of the rooms that are so full of noise and into just a time with him because it's worth it, because it matters. I'm not telling you anything new. Uh honestly, like I'm sure you've probably heard this topic uh multiple times throughout your life. Go and pray, go and read, go spend time with God. But sometimes we take advantage of it or we take it for granted. Uh and I'm telling you now, it works, it matters. It matters, and it's not going to come naturally at first. In fact, it's probably gonna be very inconvenient at times because you have a schedule, you have a calendar, some of you. Some of y'all gotta get organized. Uh, and and it's it might be hard to find time to include God in it, but trust me, that you got plenty of time. You got plenty of time. You just gotta step out, step out of your own world, step out of your universe, and just just let God speak. Just let God pierce through the noise and into your soul. This last example that I'll give here is is in 1 Kings 19, 11 through 13. This is the ESV. And this is the prophet Elijah. The prophet Elijah was a great man. He was actually one of the two that got taken up to heaven. Um, there's no record of his passing away. Um, but in this moment, he's being chased by Jezebel. Uh, they want him dead, they want him gone because he's one with the Lord, and the Lord reigns, and people don't like that. So he uh the Lord sees a struggle and he said, Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord, and behold. So so the prophet Elijah is on the mount, and the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. The Lord was not in the wind. After all that, the Lord was not in the wind, and after the after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? You can go and finish that story, but what God was doing here was revealing his presence to Elijah, but first starting with showing him where he was not. And it wasn't in this huge wind, it wasn't in this terrifying earthquake, and it wasn't in the fires that burned around him, it was in the stillness, it was in the quiet, and he came as a small voice. He came as a small voice. And so a lot of times we tend to look for God in these big dramatic events. You know, we we come to church and we're expecting the best worship service ever, and we're expecting this huge encounter and and bawling our eyes out, and everyone kind of just in a in a revival setting. And I'm not saying that doesn't happen because it does, but more times than not, I have found the Lord in the quiet. I have found God in the in the stillness. So so our tendency is to look for God in the chaos, the busy, and the extraordinary. But when you quiet the noise, you will hear him, you will hear him. We have to quiet the noise. Psalms 46, 10 says, Be still and know that I am God. Be still. There's a certain knowing of God when we're still. There's a certain understanding that we get when we stand still and listen to God. And so, what are you gonna do after tonight? Honestly, I say this week, but your first step should be tonight. Right? Are you gonna create space for God? Are you going to limit the noise in your life because you do have control over that? That is something you have control of. And what you don't have control of, let God handle it. Let God handle it. But right now, you have a choice to make. And I encourage you to do it with the Lord. To spend time with him because he will come as a nudge. He's gonna come as this little voice in your head, and he's gonna bring peace over you. And whatever decisions you're having to make, whatever battles you're having to face, he's gonna guide you through them, and you're gonna come out victorious. You're gonna come out stronger and with more wisdom and with more faith and stronger than ever before. But it starts with solitude, it starts with solitude. Trust the process. God's got you. I like to think of Jesus as you know waiting for us in a little coffee shop. And he's just sitting there with his not matcha. Not matcha. He's sitting there with probably a black coffee, and he's just waiting. You told him you'd meet him two days ago, but he's still there. And and he's waiting. And he's calling out. I'll use my name so I don't call anyone. Zeke. Zake, come to me. I'm here. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I I have great things for you. I have peace. I have joy. I have love. Just come in. Don't forget about it. I know, I know we're busy. I know, I know we're busy, busy, busy doing so many things. But he met you first. He met you where you're at. He died on a cross for you. Your sins don't have a hold on you. And so whatever you're battling with, it's gonna be found in his presence. So when you finally quiet the noise, you will hear him. He will guide you and he will shape you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for this night, God. Thank you for every single person that is in this room, God. I pray that that you continue to call out to us, God, even when we might forget, Lord. I pray that you remind us of how good you are, of how faithful you are, so that we can spend some time with you, so that we can go into a time of solitude to be in your presence, God, because you are speaking to us, Lord. And I pray that you continue to guide every single person that is in this room, Lord, with whatever it is that they do outside of these walls. I pray that you fulfill the needs that they have, the wants that they have, Lord, so that they can walk in your glory, so that they can continue to walk down this narrow path that we call Christianity, God, that we that that we call following you, God. It's hard, it's rough, but we know that we can make it through with your guidance, with your hand over our mind, with your hand over our hearts and over our spirit. And so with eyes bowed, eyes closed, heads bowed. If if your next step is to give your life to Christ, I'm I'm gonna give that opportunity now. But Christ is calling out to you. Whether you're you're an unbeliever or you just need to recommit your life to Christ, this is gonna be a moment for you to start. It's a new beginning, it's a new day. Tomorrow, it God willing, we will be given a new day and we can start over. And tonight is going to be your first step into giving your life to Christ. And so, if that's you, I want you to raise your hand. I want you to raise your hand. No one's looking around, but Jesus is calling out to you. I see them. I see them. Praise the Lord. You can put them down. I want you to pray this prayer with me. Lord Jesus, all of us, I surrender my life to you. This Tuesday night, I'm making a fresh start. I'm making you the Lord of my life. I believe in you, Jesus. I believe that you gave your life for me and that you rose from the grave. And tonight I'm starting over. I'm giving you my life and my everything. And everybody said, Amen, amen, amen.