You Cannot Pour From a Dry Place

Many people are still functioning, serving, leading, parenting, working, and caring for others, but they are doing it from a spiritually dry place.

In this episode of The Morning Charge, Joshua Hommes talks honestly about what happens when we keep pouring out without returning to Jesus to be filled. Spiritual dryness eventually shows up in our attitudes, reactions, relationships, patience, discernment, and ability to carry everyday responsibilities.

Using passages including John 15:4-5, Psalm 23:1-3, Isaiah 40:31, Luke 10:38-42, Luke 5:16, Matthew 11:28-30, and 3 John 1:2, Joshua explains why abiding in Christ is not an optional part of the Christian life. It is the source from which everything else flows.

This episode offers practical encouragement for anyone who feels tired, emotionally drained, spiritually empty, or stretched too thin. The answer is not always doing more, trying harder, or pushing through. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is slow down, sit in God’s presence, and reconnect to the source.

Episode Summary:

•  Spiritual dryness eventually affects your attitude, patience, relationships, and discernment. 
•  Abiding in Jesus is the source of lasting strength and fruit. 
•  Busyness can hide dryness, but it cannot heal it. 
•  Jesus modeled the importance of withdrawing to pray and be with the Father. 
•  Strength is renewed by waiting on the Lord, not by constantly pushing harder.

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Real Talk. Real Jesus. Real Life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the Morning Charge. This is your moment to slow down, breathe, and get your spirit aligned before stepping into the day ahead. Life moves fast, responsibilities pile up, voices compete for your attention. But before the noise of the world takes over, this is where we come back to what actually matters. This is a place for honest conversations about faith, life, purpose, and everyday battles we all face. No pretending, no religious performance, just the truth. Because following Jesus is never meant to be complicated. It's meant to be real. So whether you're driving to work, you're getting the kids ready, you're taking a moment for yourself, you're in the right place. This is real talk, real Jesus, real life. This is the morning chart.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

This morning I want to switch gears just a little bit. And I want us to talk about how you can't pour from a dry place. You cannot pour from a dry place. And and and what the Lord began to download, and I even went back to some old notes and was looking over some things, but but there's a lot of believers who are trying to, you're trying to do a bunch of different things. All right. And once again, he speaks to me through me, which is how I am able to speak these things to you. These are all the things that that that I have been through personally, and I just kind of speak my journey to you guys. He's speaking to me through me. But there's a lot of people you're doing a lot. You're trying to lead, you're trying to serve. I mean, you're building things, okay, whether it's businesses, ministries, whatever you've got going on, you have your work. All right, you're pouring into everybody else, but you seem to be running on empty. And a lot of people are reaching that point where they're just they're tired and they're beat down and they're wore out and and you're feeling spiritually empty and you're emotionally drained. You just feel tired and you just want to go by, you wake up and you you get going and you're ready to go back to bed. And you're wondering why, why everything feels heavier than it actually should. You're like life is just crushing in on me, and everything just feels like this should not be this heavy. It's because you cannot pour from a dry place. If your soul is empty, eventually it's going to show up in a few different areas. It's going to show up in your attitude. It's going to show up in your reactions to things instead of your responses to things. Hello. It's going to show up in the lack of peace, your lack of patience, your relationships, the way that you hear things. It's going to show up in how strong you feel to carry out tasks and do different things. And that is why abiding in Jesus is not an optional side thing for you to do. Well, we know Jesus, and I understand the concepts and I see how he lived his life. You know, no, abiding in Jesus is not an option. All right, abiding in Jesus is where everything flows out of. And that's kind of what we're going to get into. I mean, because you're, you're, there's people, you're trying to parent your children from a dry place. You're trying to lead people from a dry place. You're trying to uh carry out the task and work and things from a dry place. And and and and and and because you're still functioning in things, you just kind of assume that this is the way life is. This is this is the way life is. This is the way life is gonna go, this is the way it is just gonna be. But instead of thriving, you're surviving. You should be thriving. And there's a lot of people who are scraping together old oil. It's just kind of what I see in the spirit right now. You're you're trying to scrape together old oil instead of abiding in Jesus and coming back to the source, who can begin to pour out new oil in your life. There's a lot of people who are operating on yesterday's oil. He wants to be able to pour out new oil on you today. So stop trying to scrape together yesterday when he wants to do something new with you today. And my friends, honestly, skipping to the end of this thing, it all it all comes back to yielding to the Holy Spirit. You see, this morning I'm I've been going through a lot and thinking through a lot, and we've been tackling a lot and doing a lot. Actually, it's probably not as much as my mind will build up. I mean, I'm just as human as anyone else. I'm not perfect. I explain things to you guys, and I'm about the most transparent, transparent person you're gonna meet. So this morning, just got a lot of things I'm thinking through, a lot of things I'm processing. And I am one, if I'm not careful, I do carry things out to perfection. Now, like opening up the merchandise thing. I do want to make sure that's good because I don't need 15 million returns because this ain't right. So that's got to be spot on. But there's some other things I'm thinking through. I'm like, well, it should be this way and it should be that way, but it's gonna take this, it's gonna take that. And I'm thinking through lots of different things in my mind this morning. And I heard the Lord say, clear your mind. And I'm just walking and talking with the Lord. And he told me to be quiet and clear your mind. And I'm like, oh, that's a that's a daunting task for me. So I'm like, okay. So I'm like, he's like, breathe in, breathe out, clear your mind. So I just begin to, I begin to walk in with all of my might, having to rely really on his. I oh good gracious. Start singing, who let the trolls in? Who, who, who let the trolls in? Anyway, I just begin to walk and and I just I made a conscience effort to just begin to clear my mind. And as I did, it's like the Lord began to fill in what was needed, and where I was cloudying my own mind due to overthinking and trying to pull things together on my own because I'm just I'm human like everyone else. I really had to just stop for a moment and give things back to the Lord. He began to drop a strategy into my spirit, and I thought, oh, I've never thought of that. And then he began to download some things to me, and then I began to write this stuff out. And it's the answers I've been looking for. And I'm like, man, Lord, I'm so thankful we had this moment together because I've been going through this. And he said, Yeah. It says because it's because you continue to try to pour out of your own strength and your own oil. He said, I had to reground you in a place and plug you back into the vine. Because, see, when you're connected to something, you literally have what it has. So if we're connected to the vine, and I am a branch on the vine and I keep myself connected, whatever I need just flows right onto me. There's no striving, there's no pushing, there's no pulling. Yes, there is work to be done, but I don't come from a place of striving. I come from a place of peace. See, if it's an inside, outside, upside-down kingdom where you're losing to gain and you're unaliving to have life, then I, it's not more that I can do and more that I can pull together, but it's less that I do, eliminating hurry and worry and spending time in his presence to get the right strategies because now I'm connected and I'm plugged in, and then the whole rest of the day is going to flow. You can sit here in your whole strength, in your own mind, trying to figure things out and put things together. You can try, you can do all that if you would like for the next several hours, or you can un pull yourself out of that and go to the secret place, plug into the to the vine and say, Okay, here I am, Lord.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

And he says, clear your mind and just relax in my presence.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

And then, my child, once you're in a place, I can drop to you what it is that you needed. And it just comes right on in and it comes right on over. And he proved that self to him today. That's why I'm talking this morning about not being you cannot, you cannot pour out from a dry place. You must go back to the source that has the oil so he can give you fresh oil for today. When you are dry spiritually, everything starts to feel heavier than it really is. And that's just the truth of the matter. Little tiny problems feel really huge. All right, normal stress feels like it is crushing you to the point you can't breathe and you can't function, and it messes up you, it messes you up mentally. All right. Little simple decisions feel like overwhelming. Like I cannot take on one more thing to think about, one more thing to try to pull together today. I mean, it could be like the fact of what are we having for dinner tonight? I am doing 10 things right now. I don't want to think about that. I don't even care. You your fuse is really short. You start blowing up over everything. You can't do one more thing. And one more thing comes along, and boom, there you are. And you lose your patience. You're getting discouraged. Lots of things, lots of emotions, lots of things are happening. But why is this happening? It's because dryness weakens your inner strength. All right, when you when you become slightly separated from the vine, you're not getting what you need. Because now you're doing things in all of your own strength and all of your own power, whatever you can try to pull together instead of taking a few moments to come back and regroup with the Lord. Proverbs 18 and 14, the spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness. But who can bear a broken spirit? See, when the inner man is weak, the outer life feels like you just cannot. I just can't life today. That's just what it feels like. All right. This is why your soul health matters so very much. All right. If you do not tend to what is going on on the inside, eventually the outside life just sort of begins to break down and crush under the weight of little tiny things. Little tiny things. Jesus never called us to produce fruit apart from abiding. Your tree cannot produce fruit by itself. Amen. Amen, brother. I'm so glad you're a part of this. I'm so glad you jump in here every single day. This is iron sharpening iron. And I talk to you guys from a place of real talk, real life, from the perspective of real Jesus, because these are the things I go through. And I'm hoping it helps somebody else be able to see the light of why it's supported to go back to the word. We got to go back to the word of Jesus. Start feeling this way, you have to go back to the word. Things start going in disarray, you have to go back to the word. It's everything is done in his presence, abiding in him. It just is. Nothing apart from him is going to be accomplished. You have to be connected for things to be accomplished. Jessica, good morning to you. Amen. John 15, 4 through 5, and don't forget, the morning charge blog will have the recap notes and the scripture references here in just a bit. Okay. But John 15, 4 through 5 said, Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. That's just the depiction that we have to show the importance of staying connected to Jesus. Jesus couldn't have made this any clearer to us. Apart from him, we do not produce lasting fruit. Apart from him. Amen. Prayers tomorrow you have a meeting with your attorney. Well, Lord, we lift Jessica up to you. Father, we pray right now in the name of Jesus as this faith community, Lord, as you are just completely taking her through a process to eradicate, Lord, the past. Father, right now, I pray for a favor as she meets, Lord, that this is also going to be behind her. She is going to move forward in peace, purpose, and that you're going to prosper her life. Continue taking her up with you, Lord. And we just pray that in the mighty name of Jesus, amen. Amen, friend. I know that's what he's doing. And we continue to stand in faith with you, man. Apart from Jesus, we do not produce lasting fruit. Not real fruit. You might be able to produce a little something for a little while, but it's not going to last you very long. Abiding is not an optional thing. It's not like some sort of added bonus in this walk with Jesus. No, no, abiding is the source. Jesus, abiding in Jesus, is your source where everything else flows. Everything else flows from that place. A branch does not strain to produce. Oh, I gotta just, oh, we got to make sure we push to do this. It stays connected. And like I said, whatever the vine has, it flows to the branch. And the branch grows new leaves, and then it grows blooms, and then it has beautiful fruit. And then it starts the process all over again. And new life is always coming. New life is always coming. If you're a branch that's rooted and grounded in him, and you are staying healthy in the Lord, you are one that shall be sustained. Amen. Shall be sustained. I have to talk about busyness. Being busy can kind of hide dryness for just a bit. But I want you to understand that that because and people are deceived by this, you feel like if you're busy enough, you can mistake that activity and all of the it could be good things going on as the the health of your life, the the health of how things are going. You can be you can be active but still dry. Okay, you can do a whole bunch of things and still be dry. You can be productive and good things can be happening and still be dry on the inside. Cindy Lynn, good morning. You can be serving, you can be posting, you can be doing all of these different things and still be dry on the inside inside because busyness is not going to sustain you forever. That's not the answer. The more I do, the better we're going to be. That is not the answer. God has sent me on a journey of being the complete opposite. Luke 10, 38 and through 42, summed up here. Martha was busy, she was distracted, and then she was frustrated. It started off with being busy preparing for Jesus, doing all the good things. Ooh, I mean, if Jesus is coming in, we want to get things clean. We're going to get dinner made. We're going to have to, we're going to serve him. All right. Distracted, though, by all of those things that she's doing, Jesus is here. And you're trying to do all of these things. Got to be clean, got to be cooked, got to be done, got to be doing. And now I'm frustrated with Mary because she's just sitting there. She's sitting there. You're not doing anything to help. We got all this stuff to do. The King of Kings is in the house. But Mary chose the much better part to sit at Jesus' feet. Martha was moving and going and doing. But see, Mary was receiving what Mary needed to receive in that moment. See what's happening is a lot of us are just doing and doing and doing and doing and going and doing and doing and doing. We haven't stopped long enough to sit at his feet and receive. And if we're not willing to sit and receive, we'll never be able to sustain all the doing. That's where we've got it backwards. We feel like we gotta do all this stuff. See, in my mind, sometimes, I don't know how your mind is wired, but my mind, the way it's wired, it's like we gotta do and we gotta get and we gotta go. And then I'll sit down and I'll like if I'm cooking dinner, I I like to try to clean as I go, try to keep things all nice and tidy, make sure everyone's good and everyone's served and all of this, and I'll just I'll just eat later. Okay? And then when later comes, the food is cold and it's like, well, you know, whatever. No. It's okay for things to be dirty for a moment. It's okay for things to be not just so put together that it's not perfect. You gotta let some things go, and you gotta learn how to relax, and you gotta learn how to receive. Being active around Jesus is not the same thing as being filled by Jesus. You can be active doing all the Jesus things. All the things that look good, serving your church, serving your community, serving your family, doing all the things, being the hands and feet of Jesus, helping people when they need help, all of this, all of that. You can be doing all of that, but that is not the same thing as being filled by Jesus. Some people are doing a lot for God. You're you're doing a lot for him, but you are neglecting being with him. That's where we've got it crisscrossed. We have to be with him to sustain us in doing the things for him. Over time, all the good things you're doing are gonna produce dryness. And now you're experiencing burnout, and you're wondering why so many people have fallen away from the ministry and the other people just feel like they can't pastor anymore because it's just too much and and they got so much. I just want to relax. I just wanna, I just want to as you well, number one, you're not taking time for yourself, and you're not taking time to be in his presence. When you take time for him and for yourself, and you plug into the source, hello, that's why we call this the morning charge, by the way, because it's a place for you to come and plug up every weekday. Come and plug in. If you're not plugging in and you're not getting poured into, my goodness gracious, you're not gonna be able to do anything else. He says, You do these things in my name, but I never knew you. There you go, Sherry. A lot of people doing a whole lot of a whole lot of good things that look like God things, but they never spend time with him. Something to think about. Good point, Sherry. Something to really think about. When I get there, I want to know him. And I want him to know me. Amen. The shepherd himself cares about the condition of your soul. Jesus himself. Psalms 23, 1 through 3 says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. That is a beautiful scripture to quote. Most of us know Psalms 23. God is not only concerned with your task and all the busyness and the things you have going on, he's concerned with your soul. He knows when you are depleted, he knows when you're anxious and you're worried. He knows when you're spiritually feeling like you're you're thin, like I just can't, I just can't do this anymore. It's hard to pray, it's hard to bust through. He knows when your soul needs restoration. The scripture tells us he knows. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. It didn't say he makes me get up and get the lawnmower and mow all the green pastures. No, he makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. Not the rushing like a waterfall that makes you anxious. You the depiction of this whole thing, he's my shepherd. He leads and he guides. He doesn't push and he doesn't shove. He leads and guides. He gives you rest. He makes things calm for you. He restores your soul. God is not, he God does not just call you to continue going and going and going and going and going. He leads you into a place of restoration. He calls you unto himself and says, Come and sit right here for a moment and let me love on you for a minute. You seem worried, you seem doubtful, you seem like things are going away. But all you need, you just need to, you need to crawl up in his lap and let him love on you for a moment and say, Come on, now is the time to be restored. Now is the time to regain your strength. Because when you get up from this moment, when when when when when my especially my girls feel feel feel or they're upset or they're worried, I say, come here. And I set them down right here and I love on for a moment and say, What's going on? And when you sit there and you talk to them and you say, What's going on? And you listen to them and you love on and say, Well, I love you. It's gonna be okay. Their whole demeanor changes. And then they've forgotten about what they were upset about. And now they're off going again. Us as God's children, it's hard for us to picture us that, especially us adults. You know, I'm in my 40s. I'm not gonna go sit in somebody's lap and say, hey, you know. But the father, just like his, just like just like my children, the father is calling his children to us to say, hey, come here, because you need to refill your tank again. You're completely on empty. And if you'll go sit in his presence and you'll allow him to do so, you're gonna leave full again, and then out you'll be able to go. Out you'll be able to go do it. Again and again. Amen, Kendra. Lord, teach us to come and sit with you again.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Let us come sit with you for a while. What if what if we showed up?

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Up on a Sunday morning. We're used to the opening and the worship and the word and the and the this and the that and the formalities of the church and things, not at higher planes. But most churches, you have all the different formalities. What would happen if everybody walked into the sanctuary and the pastor got up and said, you know what? We're just going to turn on some just some quiet music today. And what we're all going to do, we're just going to come up here to the altar and we're just going to sit at his feet. That's going to be church today. Would you feel uncomfortable? Would you feel awkward? Would you feel weird? I mean, would you just not know what to do? The problem is, is most of us probably wouldn't know what to do. That's what we're going to do today. That's what we're going to do. Well, I'm just going to go, whoa, what? See, that's something that right there would just it it just got to check your heart. What would you do in that moment? Would you be okay just going and sitting? The worship team didn't sing your favorite song today, the pastor didn't preach that wonderful message that you were hoping for.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

What if you just sat? My guy, amen, Kendra.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

She's been hearing this same thing. What if we just went and sat down in his presence together? What kind of deliverances and restorations could take place? Because sometimes we just feel hurried and rushed in the process. Well, we gotta go and we gotta this and we gotta, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta. I mean, we start our I mean we uh we start our sentences with we we gotta. Do you gotta? No, you gotta get in his presence. Amen. Sherry said we did this last week. Amen. Amen, Creekside Outpost. Host his presence. Cody, I need to listen to him more. Hello? All you guys seem to be in that same place. This is the this is obviously the the word of the hour for us. Getting in the secret place again. And it's almost like a lot of us, we start to go that way, and then we get distracted with all the doing. It's almost like the enemy just wants to get you busy with a whole bunch of good stuff. Obviously, the enemy, if he can't get you to blatantly sin anymore, he's gonna keep you preoccupied. And he's gonna keep you busy with a lot of good things. But you gotta go plug in. You gotta do things from a place of peace and a place of rest. If your day feels rushed and it doesn't feel peaceful, you gotta back up and say, Lord, where did I get this wrong today?

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Dry people also tend to leak on other people. Dryness is not just a personal thing.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

When you're dry, your tone changes, your patience shortens, like we've talked about. You don't really have the joy. I mean, you try to maintain the joy of the Lord, but it's kind of hard for you. Your compassion for other people gets weak. I don't care. I got so much going on, I can't even care about that right now. What your dryness literally, and what the Lord just kind of showed me, your dryness sort of leaks into the atmosphere of where you are. When you're not being filled by God on a daily basis, the people around you often end up feeling the things that you're missing. People begin to feel things, they begin to pick up on things. I mean, look, Brandy's Brandy feels it, because Brandy will look at me real quick and say, I don't know what your deal is. I don't have any, I am perfectly fine. Yeah, you can't fake anything around my wife, by the way. I've tried that. I'm good. I'm fine. It's okay. She's like, no, it ain't. I see it in how you're acting, I see it in how you're talking, I see it in how you're, once again, I ain't perfect. Ain't none of us perfect, y'all. But we're on a journey of following Jesus. But your spouse feels it. Your children feel it. They pick up on it, trust me. If you're leading a team, whether it be at work or in ministry or whatever it is, your team is going to feel what you got, your dryness is going on. Your listeners could feel it. You guys could probably pick up on it. Times that I don't feel, whatever. I don't know. I'm pretty chipper in the mornings. You guys catch me right at almost the beginning. I go spend time with Jesus, and this is where we go. But your whole household feels it. All right. The people you're around feel it.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Your coworkers feel it. Your your congregation may feel it.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

That's why it's not just a personal thing to get full in the Lord, staying connected. This is stewarding things well because if you're right with the Lord and you're in right alignment with God and you're allowing him to fill your tank every single day, you are more productive for your spouse and your children. You are more productive when you go to work. You are more productive in your community, in your churches, in your business, whatever. Wherever God sends you, you're going to be more productive because you took the time to sit in his presence. Waiting on the Lord is how strength is renewed. And that's exactly what Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 40 and 31. What does it say? Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. So that means there's some waiting. You have to set time aside and wait on the Lord for him to renew your strength. That doesn't mean it doesn't say those that rush around and get a bunch done, the Lord will renew their strength. It doesn't say those that are in the grind endlessly, we're going to do this. Yeah. No. It said those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Those who wait, their strength is renewed. This carries the idea of there's hope in what is going on. There is an expectation that God is going to move in ways that you cannot. You are now staying near to the one who gives you your strength, who renews your strength. Strength is renewed in God's presence. Strength is renewed in his presence. All right, strength is not renewed. It's not manufactured by our human efforts, okay, getting out here and doing a whole bunch more. That is not how our strength is renewed. It is renewed in the presence of the Lord. And there's a lot of people you're trying to, we're going to get this. We're going to do this. I mean, you can only caffeine your way through most of what you do. This is temporary. This might get you perked up and ready to go and hoorah for the morning. But when you stay connected to the vine, when you stay connected to Jesus Christ, he will sustain you all day and give you peace and rest at night. And then you connect again the next day, and he sustains you all day and peace at night. No matter the circumstances, no matter the things that are going on in your life. You cannot motivate your, your, your way through life. I mean, you can try, and that's kind of a side thing. You got to get yourself and get yourself going, but you got to allow God to renew you so that you can go. Stop pushing your way through things. Stop pretending your way through life. That's not the way we do it. Our real strength gets renewed in his presence. If you haven't been spending time in his presence, you probably don't have renewed strength. When you are dry, you're going to find yourself doing some things. This is what happens to me. You find yourself getting easily offended, all right? You find yourself getting easily discouraged. You can find yourself getting easily tempted by the enemy. All right. He can become and talk to you. He can try to pull you back into old habits and old things. All right. You're more easily confused. It really is an open door to the enemy to come in and just wreak havoc on your thought life and your mental life. Why? Because dryness weakens your discernment and it also weakens your resilience against the enemy. All right. 3 John 1, verse 2. I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. All right, once again, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. All right, that verse shows that the condition of your soul matters. When your soul is unhealthy, mind, will, and emotions, when the when that is unhealthy, everything else really feels the impact. You ain't thinking right. You're doing things you shouldn't do. Instead of eating a nice healthy breakfast or a healthy lunch, you'd rather eat a dozen donuts and have uh, you know, 10 cups of coffee. You're making very poor choices here. Well, I love me some donuts. Okay. I'm gonna eat one and move on. I don't need the whole thing. Don't eat the whole tub of ice cream feeling sorry for yourself. Okay. A neglected soul creates weakness in places that you don't look at every single day. It just causes weakness in you, and you're allowing the enemy to wreak havoc on your body. All right, that's why you can't, you don't need to play around with spiritual dryness. It has consequences in all areas. Okay? All areas. Amen, Greg. We can't do that. And once again, I've got to mention that Jesus himself withdrew to be filled by his heavenly father, by the Lord. If anyone, if any of us could have stayed constant in pouring and pouring and pouring without withdrawing, I believe it would have been Jesus. I feel like God in flesh could have just poured it out. I mean, a never-ending source, a never-ending well. But yet he showed us to withdraw and to be alone with the Lord to be filled. Luke 5 and 16. He himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

He himself often, often, what in the world?

SPEAKER_01 33:16

If I looked up, I don't have this in my notes, but if I look up the Webster's dictionary definition of often, it is an abverb meaning many times, on many occasions, or frequently. It is used to describe actions or events that happen repeatedly or in great quantities.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

So many times, on many occasions, frequently, he pulled himself aside.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

He made this a part of his of his daily routine with the Lord. I know we hate that word routine. But can I tell you, some routines are good. Getting up early, being in his presence, being in your word, that is a routine you should get into. All right, let's not be so much of hoorah rebels that we that we that we think that's a bad word. It's not. Having a routine. Now, you don't want to make it routine where you just get up and you're just checking the boxes every day. I'm a good boy. I got up, I got my coffee, I spent time with Jesus, and now I'm on with my day. Yes. What I'm saying is it is it is a requirement for life. It's not a recommendation for life, it's a requirement for life to get up and give him your first fruits of the day. Because if I'm not rooted and grounded at the very beginning, the whole rest of the day is going to be a mess. I can just go ahead and tell you. And I know the days when I've really truly spent time with him, and the days I have not. But Jesus had this, he had this daily uh rhythm already set up. He would retreat, he would commune with the Father. Jesus never ministered from a place of disconnection from the Lord. He was connected. Amen. Apostle, you like the word commitment to obey what Jesus did and what he taught. That's it. That's it. Obtaining the lifestyles of Jesus. Jesus would withdraw and he would pray, which means we have to withdraw and we must pray.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

If Jesus withdrew to pray, none of us are more spiritual than he was with the Father.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

But if Jesus withdrew to pray, how much more important do you think it is for us to withdraw and to pray? To rest in him, to refill. If I drove my car and I never put any gas in it, eventually it's going to break down on the side of the road. If you let your gas tank get below a certain level and then completely run out, you're stirring up sediments and stuff, which means it's sucking that into the engine. So you've gotten down to the end of things where there's things that can now damage the engine. If I do that enough over and over and over again, I'm going to cause more damage to my vehicle and it's not going to function anymore. And it's going to need a ton of repair, which is costly. What am I saying through this? Life is going to cost you something one way or another. Life costs you something. I would rather pay the cost of getting up a little bit earlier and getting in his presence cost me a little bit of time at the beginning of my day before the rest of the day happens, than I would just keep fumbling my way through life, never refilling my tank, because that's going to bring damage to the car that's going to be even more costly than if I had maintained it. If I never took my car in for an oral change, if I never changed the air filter, if I never put new brakes and new tires on it when it was needed, if I just ran that thing off the lot and never did a thing to it, I can promise you I'm going to have some serious issues, and it's going to cost me a whole lot more than if I had just maintained it. Your life is like that vehicle. You are just pedaled to the metal, not stopping to fill up, no brakes or no new tires, not putting any oil in it, not changing the required things that you're going to need. And eventually when the windshield wipers wear out, you're not going to see very clearly. Your life is like a vehicle. You have to do the things necessary to maintain it if you want it to go. I mean, there's cars, people getting three, four hundred, five hundred thousand miles on their car because they maintained things and they did things to it. They could run that thing. You can get a million miles out of a vehicle as long as you maintain it. Well, you should. And we're not going to debate different makes and models in here, so don't be getting off track on me. You have to take time for Jesus. Because he took time for you. Cindy, boy, that is a great way to put that. Thanks for putting that there, my friend. Take time for Jesus. And think about the time that he took for you. He didn't really want to go hang on that cross. Excruciating pain to have to go through beaten crown of thorns hung on the cross to his last breath. But he did. And he did it for you. And he did it for me. Coming back to Jesus is how the dry place breaks in your life. If we want some sort of a resolution on this today. Dryness is not the end. You don't have to stay in that place. That's good news. Matthew 11, 28 through 30 is one of my favorites. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? I'll give you rest. Jesus does not cast shame upon the weary. He already knew that we would wear out. Or he would not have made this statement. Which is why he said, Come to me, all who are laboring and are feeling really heavy, because I'm going to give you rest. He invited them in. Revelations 22 and 17, let him who thirst come. See, the answer to dryness is not more just pretending and keeping the mask of I'm okay on and continuing to just do a whole bunch and hoping life is going to get better. If I just keep doing a whole bunch, life's going to get better. The answer to your dryness is coming back to Jesus. Simple. I know, maybe you were hoping for a five-step program. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

You have to get back in the secret place. It's not going to be doing more, pushing harder, pulling.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

It's coming back. It's abiding in him again. It is drinking from the waters again. It is it's resting in him. It's it's receiving what it is that you need to be able to carry out what God has placed in your life.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

I feel like there's a lot of people in here this morning that you really do feel like you're in that place.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

You're dry and you sense the fact that you're dry. But but every day you're still getting up and you're and you're showing up and and and you're smiling your way through it. You're functioning your way through it. You're you're you're you're you're you're carrying the things that you feel like you need to carry, and you're you're still doing what you feel like needs to be done every day, but inside you're just you're tired and you're you're wore out and you feel thin and you you've been stretched, you're feeling empty. There's a whole lot of unsettling going on on the inside of you. Josh, if you only knew, just like, you know, there's there's trouble on my job, and then I can't pay all of my bills, and and and the kids are going through a lot of different things, and and and and and and my parents may not be doing well, and you know, and and I'm trying to hold everything together, and I feel like I'm the glue that just holds it all together. And you got situations and stuff and things, and you're trying to get everything done. And and I want you to know the Lord is not condemning you this morning. The Lord is just simply calling you back into his presence. Hey, I'm calling you back into my presence today. I'm calling you back to the secret place with me where I can begin to pour into you. I'm calling you back to abide with me, to take your branch and connect yourself back to the vine again. That means he's calling you back to the source. Because you cannot continue to pour out from a place that has not been filled up. If you keep neglecting your soul, the people around you are eventually going to start paying the price for what you have failed to tend to privately. This is not just about you, it's about everything that you're connected to if you're not connected to the vine. Lord, I pray this morning that you would show us the importance, Lord. I feel like you have showed us the importance, but God, as we go about our day today, show us the importance of truly being connected to you. I in you, you in me. Lord, that we would be truly caught up in your circle dance of life, God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and that we are a part of that. Lord, that your kindness truly does lead us to repentance. That if we would just get in your presence, that you truly could fill up our tank, yes, by being still and not doing more, but being still. Lord, remind us that in your kingdom that less is more. It's not about the programs and the running and the pulling and the pressing and the doing and the rushing and the, but it's doing everything with you from a place of peace. Father, the things that we have blown out of proportion to be mountains, Lord, will you bring those little situations back as we sit in your presence this morning? Lord, we call everything back into its place. And while those situations and those things exist, God, Lord, I want to trust you with that little bit right there. And I want to trust you again with that little situation over there. And Father, teach me how to trust you with that again. Father, I cannot do this life on my own. Lord, as we do, we just humbly come before you today and say, Lord, fill up our tank today. Refuel and refire us again today, right now. In the name of Jesus, God, call us back to you. Call us back to the source, connect us back to the source, which is you. Jesus, come and be close to the broken hearted today. Right now, right now.

SPEAKER_03 44:21

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