Make Time | Part 2

Jeremiah 15:16 | Part 2 | Does your time with God feel like a chore? Maybe you expect huge insights every day and come up empty. What needs to change to help you in your time with God? 

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SPEAKER_00 0:05

Don't play Bible roulette and just open it and start reading. Go in with intentionality and stick with a plan. Hi, Junior. Well, what happens when I run into a text that I don't know what to do with? Listen with it. Study it.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Welcome to the bridge with Junior Ziggler. Junior's the lead teaching pastor at the bridge in Chicagoland. And we are jumping back into the conversation about how to spend meaningful time with God. Which just the thought of that is incredible. The fact that the creator of the entire universe wants to spend time with you personally, engaging with you. It's also sad because how many of us don't really want the same thing? Or maybe we do want the same thing, we just don't have the time for it, or the drive for it, or the plan for it. And we all know life gets busy, schedules fill up, notifications never stop. And before we know it, the thing we say matters most is it gets squeezed out by the things that feel most urgent. In today's message, Junior challenges us to approach our relationship with God, not as another task on a to-do list, but as a relationship worth prioritizing. You'll also hear something I think many Christians need to hear. Time with God isn't supposed to feel like punishment. It's not merely a duty to perform, it is an invitation to enjoy the presence of the very God who loves you. So wherever you're listening today, I think you're in for a good one. Let's jump back in. Here's Junior.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

A major element of our relationship with God is wrestling to know him, to understand him and what he says. In fact, I'll go as far as to say, I'm wary of anyone's faith who doesn't have a wrestle. Because it is so easy to make our feelings our faith. If you're this is what is happening with a lot of Western culture, Western Christianity today. It's like, I feel like God is this way. I kind of feel like God is saying this. I kind of feel like God would want this. And what we do is we put our feelings on God's throne. No, no, no. You rest, there's no wrestling in that. Now you're just doing what you feel, and you're attributing that to God. God says, no, no, no, no. Your feelings are fallen, stained by sin. For my ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts, and neither are my ways your ways. And since this is true, to engage with the Almighty is to enter into this struggle to align our thoughts and our ways with the God of the universe. That's a wrestle. There is no growth without struggle. It's kind of like um, all right, so at the risk of sounding like a gym rat. I know it doesn't, it probably doesn't look like it, but I go to the gym before breakfast. Obviously, I'm no bodybuilder. That's not my goal. I just want to be strong enough to make my daughter's future boyfriend think twice. And that and I like tacos. So when I go in the in the morning, it's it's pretty much like the same crowd. A few of them have kind of become my one more guys that I've been inviting to church. But there are there are two different types of people at the gym, and you've probably noticed this. There are those who are like struggling and they're lifting and they're pushing, and you can tell because they have like sweat marks and they're trying to catch their breath, and they're like, they're belting out Fort Minor and Creed, and they're just like they're very intentional and they're very strong. Then there's this second group at the gym, and I'm glad they're there because they're trying to better themselves, but they drive me nuts because they just sit on the equipment and scroll on their phones and they just kind of like zone out and they're, you know, they're trying to, which I get, they're trying to wake up. But it's like, I want to kind of walk over some. I don't, but I want to walk over some of it and be like, hey, not sure if you know this, but just sitting on the machine on Facebook isn't doing you any good. You've got to wrestle with the weights. You got to break a sweat and struggle to get the value of being there. Which is why I question the strength of those who don't wrestle with God's word. Because any sort of growth demands struggle. The invitation from the divine isn't so much to feel something as much as it is to be overwhelmed and to struggle to align our thoughts and our ways with the God of the universe. If every time you left the gym thinking, man, I feel great today, probably doing something wrong. Because you're supposed to walk out going, dang, I feel that was rough. But like, that's the point. See, often, not always, that's our experience with God's word. Of course, there's times where we're encouraged and we're inspired, absolutely, but we struggle to understand and we're humbled by it and we're challenged by it. It's in the struggle that our thoughts and our ways become more like his. But here's the thing. I get it. The question is still about how, Junior. How? Like, I've tried to get into God's word, I've I've I've failed, I've, you know, I get in for a time and then I quit, or I start reading, I start thinking of other things, I waste time, I'm inconsistent. I need more. Okay, let's let's get more then. How do we wrestle with God's word? Well, first off, you gotta, you have to you have to schedule your wrestle. If something matters to you, you put it in your calendar. If something really matters to you, you make an alarm. And then you guard that time. One of the things I appreciate about our staff culture is we have this very high accountability culture among our staff. And I was talking to um one of our elders, actually the elder who did our premarital counseling like 15 years ago, and um, and this uh this elder had asked me a couple months ago, he's like, Hey, are you taking Nicole out on um date night? And I said, Yeah, you know, not as much as I should. Uh we get out, but like lately it's just been kind of hard because we've got kids and she's in school, working on her master's, and the kids have extracurricular activities, and I'm kind of working on some side stuff. Like we're kind of doing date night, but we haven't really been very consistent. And he said to me, He said, Well, do you put meetings with people in your calendar? I said, Yeah, of course. He said, Do you do that with your wife? I said, No. He's like, remember, we schedule what matters to us, and it should matter enough for you to schedule that. And he's right. Do you do this with God? Do you schedule a time with God? Where this is your time slot with God, and nothing gets in the way with that. Pick a time. Like, let me get really legalistic here for a second. I think that being with God should be the first thing that we do. Before breakfast, before work, before working out, before doom scrolling on your phone, you get with God. Like part of our worship, part of our worship mentality is God gets first and best always. God gets first and best. This is why we see throughout the Old Testament the the best of the herd, the firstborn of the flock that was given to God. First and best goes to God. Do that with your day. First thing, you just get with God. So, one of the things that um I my wife and I love watching is actually we were watching this last night, is Planet Earth. And it for sure has its political agendas, but you can kind of sift through that. I we just love watching like God's God's creation and his creativity. And my favorite animal on these like Planet Earth documents, and even at the zoo, I just love lions. Love these guys. In a lion pride, there is there's one male dominant lion. And when a pride gets the kill, they let that guy eat first. Not because he like bullies his way in. There's actually a reason for this. The leader needs to be bigger. The leader needs to be the protector. If the leader doesn't eat well, the whole pride is in trouble. And so the whole pride will back up and be like, you eat first because we need you to be the biggest. If the lion is well fed and strong, the whole family benefits from that. Parents, especially dads, more than a lion, your kids need to see you eating first. May the children of the bridge have memories of walking up, waking up in the morning, walking in, and seeing mom and dad spending time with God. May they know the lion and the lioness eats first. Before the chaos of getting ready, the attacking the day, getting to work, we start our day with the Almighty and wrestling with his word. Psalm 5.3 says, Oh Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning I plead my case to you and watch. Psalm 63 says, Early I will seek you. Psalm 143.8 says, Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love. There's just something about starting your day with him, and it directs the rest of your day's steps. Pick a time, make it your first and best time, and then guard that time. Nothing gets in the way of that time. I have good friends who make uh personal rules, no consuming breakfast until I've consumed God's word. Or another friend who said, no checking phones until I've checked in with my creator. Just have that, have that time and guard it, make some rules and be legalistic with yourself if you have to. Then pick a place. Pick a place. Last year I was in uh Wittenberg. I was invited to speak at like this pastor's gathering and um flew a little early and I wanted because I wanted to go visit Martin Luther's church and uh and the church down the street. You know, the story of like when he nailed the 95 thesis to the to the door, you can kind of go see it, you see that door. And so we got to walk around in the town, and and then I went into the his his church where he had preached, and it was it was just really cool, you know, walking around there. And I'd asked the the church worker, the building was empty, but the church worker was there, and I said, Hey man, where does uh where did Luther do like his writing and studying and praying and all that? Like, where's his office? I would love, I would love to see where he studied and wrote and prayed. And the guy started laughing, and he says, We got to go across the street for that. I said, Why is that funny? He said, Because it's a pub. Apparently, Luther just had this like corner table where he'd read and write and pray, and that was just kind of like his spot. It's not just Luther, though, we all have very special spots. All of us do. Like my wife and I, we dated on um State Street in Madison, Wisconsin. It's like this super hippie street with all these little cafes. And this is where after classes we would just go, we would hang out with each other. We actually got married right at the end of the street in an old church on the lake, and it's just kind of like our spot to walk up and down. When we go back, it's just special to us. You know, it kind of brings us into that frame of mind when we were college students and meeting each other and hanging out with each other. Spots can be very, very special. They set a vibe, they bring you into that frame of mind. We see this in scripture. Moses would meet with God on the mountain. Prophet Daniel would go to his window and pray facing the town, his hometown of Jerusalem, like it was just his spot to meet with God. Jesus would climb to a high place to meet with the Father. Have a spot. When I train our summer camp staff, mostly high school and college kids, the first week that they come to camp, um, we talk about this. I tell them, like, pick a spot at camp. Walk around, pick a spot, pick a tree, an overlook, a bench, and make that like your holy spot for the summer. Because years from now, you're gonna come back and you're gonna bring back your spouse, you're gonna bring back your kids, and you're gonna point to that spot and be like, man, this is where I'd meet with God. And I remember when God really pushed me in this direction right here. Like, what's your spot? Because of Jesus, we can meet with God anywhere. It's awesome. But there's something about having a place that's just your special sacred place, your spot where you meet with Almighty God. And then have a plan. Jesus said, Nobody built a tower without planning what it's going to take. Plan it out. Proverbs 21:5 says, the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance. And we want that abundance when it comes to our time with God. We want to say what Jeremiah said, that abundance of like, I, your words became this delight, this abundance. But to in order to get there, you have to have a plan to personally dig into scripture, have this meaningful time with God to set up the rest of your day, to dig this deep well of a quiet time that doesn't just come willy-nilly. To dig that well takes time, it takes work, and it takes a plan.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

You're listening to The Bridge with Junior Ziegler. We'll get back to Junior in a moment. We want to tell you about one of his books, The Manual. If you're a man or raising a man, married to a man, maybe dating a man, there's a lot of confusion around what real manhood actually is. In the manual, Junior cuts through the noise, both the over-the-top macho stuff and the politically correct definitions, and he gets to the raw core of manhood. He exposes the toxic masculinity for what it really is, not manhood at all. This book is simple, honest, powerful, and it might just change how you view men, strength, and leadership. We'd love to send you a copy of the manual. Just visit juniorziggler.com and give a gift of any amount towards this show, and we'll send it to you. That's juniorzyg.com. Now let's get back to Junior's message.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Like to stick with that, that whole like gym illustration. Um, when I when I first started going to the gym, I, you know, I wanted to work out, I wanted to get healthier. So I showed up and that was like half the battle, but I did not have a plan. And so for months, I would show up and just kind of meander around, be like, all right, what does this machine do? Let's try this, you know, let's try this over here. You know, and after a while, I kind of think, like, well, you know, I've been here long enough, so let's just head home. And I was getting frustrated, kind of felt like I was doing nothing, just wasting time. It wasn't until I started writing stuff down in my phone beforehand. I'm gonna do this for this long and this for this for this long, and we're gonna go over here and do this. Walk in with a plan. Exact same thing can happen with God's word. You sit down, you can open your Bible, which is half the battle I get. It's like, all right, let's read this over here. Not sure what belly button wine is, let's try this, you know, this over here. And after a while, you're like, okay, I kind of feel like we've been doing this long enough. Close the Bible. Not quite sure that did, you know, anything at all. This is one of the reasons. And no, this is not an ad. I guess it is. Yeah, sure it is. This is one of the reasons that we started our podcast between the lines. A couple of years ago, a bunch of staff came into the office. Um, actually, they called my dad and I into an office because, like, hey, we just we kind of have this concern. It's like, all right what's the concern? Like, what we kind of feel like our people aren't really in God's word enough. And uh, you know, we're hearing from people that's just kind of hard to understand. They don't know where to start, they don't know what to do, and uh, and how to process it. And so we decided in that meeting, okay, well, let's just uh let's get as many people reading the Bible together, and we started this podcast. And my dad and I, we just read scripture for 10 minutes, we talk about it, how to process it, how to apply it. It's just 10 minutes, but it's this plan. This is actually how the early church used to study the Bible. Long ago, Christians they didn't have enough money for a Bible or like a scroll. This is why in Acts, uh, Luke writes that the church would meet together daily. It's not like they're doing like these full-blown worship events, because that kind of seems like a lot. Likely what they were doing is they're just getting together for a while, reading God's word together, and then they would go on with their day. Now we're doing it, we're just doing it over podcasts, which is great. Add over. But have a plan. Don't play Bible roulette and just open it and start reading. Go in with intentionality and stick with a plan. All right, Junior, well, what happens when I run into a text that I don't know what to do with? Wrestle. Wrestle with it. Study it. When my wife became a, I know I like made fun of um Picture Bible earlier, but uh picture Bibles, but when my wife became a believer, she purchased a children's picture Bible just to learn the stories. And that was her start. And I think that's that's quite beautiful. Maybe you gotta do that. Another help is uh we sell these Bibles in the lobby, but NLT study Bibles are great. We make no money off these in the uh by the coffee bar, but we just want to have these available because they're great with wrestling with God's word. They have these little cheats at the bottom of the page. So when you run across scripture like belly button wine, you're like, what is that? And you look at the bottom of the page, and often it'll tell you, well, Solomon is poetically saying, he's just really into his girl, and even her belly button looks good. It's like, okay, we'll just leave it at that then. Like there's just like all these little helps at the bottom of the page that that just help you as you're reading. Another great resource is gotquestions.org. Great resource. This is a site run by trusted seminary professors, I believe it's Dallas seminary professors that answer questions. And so you can just type in your question, and then there might be like a few articles that that explain the question that you have. But or bring your question to a small group. But have a plan, stick to the plan. And when you hit those inevitable difficult passages, wrestle. Don't give up. Look it up, toss it around. This is how we grow. All in all, schedule your time with God. But then number two, make it enjoyable. Make your time with God enjoyable. Too often we treat our time with God like a chore, and so it is. It's like, all right, you know, I got some got some time here, so just kind of sit down, open this up. Hopefully, this goes quick, you know, got things to do, places to go. Man, what if we treated dates like that? What if we treated like our friend hangs like that? Let's just kind of all right, let's just get this over with. I got 10 minutes here. Imagine how that makes God feel. Make it enjoyable. It's like, I get to approach God. And so I'm gonna make this process enjoyable. Get a cup of coffee. It's like, all right, my first cup of coffee is with God, making him, making time with him a joy. Set an atmosphere. I have a Spotify playlist of meditative worship music that I just play as I quietly pray. Just I try to time it with the sunrise, just to make it special. I mean, I don't know, be creative. Light your favorite candle. If you're really into essential oils, get that diffuser run. I don't know, fire in the fireplace, go for a walk. Whatever. Just make it enjoyable. I'm pretty sure that my wife will um will draw a bath for hers periodically. Because, like, man, her time with God's going long. But you know, it's easier if you're just enjoying the time. The psalmist writes, in your, I love this verse, in your presence there is fullness of joy. My friend had texted me that just days before they passed away. This this verse became very special. And I just love it. And in thy presence is fullness of joy. There's a statement that we make when we say, I believe this so much that I'm going to creatively make my time with him enjoyable as I press into his fullness of joy. And then number three, don't expect a burning bush every day. Time with God is a relationship. It's not, it's not gonna have these like insane life-altering encounters every single day. It's a relationship. Any relationship that has like crazy life, life-changing experiences every day, that's a probably a pretty toxic relationship. It's pretty messed up. Relationships, as John Mark Homer wrote, relationships are wildly inefficient. Wildly inefficient. Think about like my seven-year-old daughter, Reese. Um, 85% of my conversations with Reese are ridiculous. She's at this age now where she just follows me around and she just never stops talking. Uh, yesterday I she came to church. It was just um the other two elected not to, because my oldest just had surgery, but um my my youngest came with me here to church last night, and uh on the way to church, I was like talking with her about like, you know, future. And I was like, baby, what's the most important thing to uh find in a husband one day? She goes, Well, that they worship God. I was like, sweet. And she goes, and that they don't have a mullet. I was like, okay, well, I mean, that's opinion-based. You know, it's just like eight, like, just so much of our conversation is just ridiculous. I took her fishing a while back. We did not catch anything because she had shut up. But she had claimed, she had claimed that we didn't catch anything because she said, Well, all the fish swam south for the winter. Because 85% of our conversations are just nonsense. Like, I can't track or make sense of her, but I hang in there for the 15%. We have these meaningful discussions. And it's awesome when we get that 15% sometimes. Now, I'm not saying God is Reese, I'm saying you and I are. That our our thoughts are not his thoughts. And so there's gonna be times where we go at him, it's like, I get like 5% of what you're saying right now. And it's like, that's okay. It's okay. So maybe next time it'll be 7%. Maybe next time it'll be 8%. But just hang in there. Relationships are inefficient, and this is this is a relationship. I think sometimes we set ourselves up for disappointment when we expect every morning to have this genny experience with God, like, well, God spoke to me, he was a magical line, he did this. I'm so fired up. Like, those are fun if and when they happen, but our relationship with God isn't some middle school dating relationship where we need the feels and the romance, and we're just kind of moping when we don't get it. Like, we'd be good to remember that Moses saw one burning bush. And then Moses met with God on Mount Sinai, but there's a lot of desert in between. Time with God isn't this emotional charge as much as it is this wrestle, often in the desert. It reminds me of like uh a few weeks ago, I had lunch with this guy. He wanted to meet, he's from another church, and he's thinking about leaving his church, just like wanting to come to the bridge or something like that. And um, I said, I wasn't like telling him he couldn't come to the bridge, we're not really interested in getting like people from other churches. We'd rather just reach our unsaved neighbors and build it, build other churches. And so it's just kind of meeting with him and trying to support the church that he's that he's at. And he had said, he made the comment to me, he's like, Junior, I just like I've been there for like 10 years and I can't remember one sermon. I was like, I don't think that's the point though. Like, if that was the point, the bridge would have fired me long ago. Because you all have heard me for a while, like you probably can't remember one sermon. Like that, and that's okay. It's totally because that's not the point. The the point of sitting under the teaching of God's word is just these these sometimes often very slow, minuscule little adjustments of our mind and our and our ways of thinking after being in God's word. And that's that's what it is. Not like this emotional experience, like, oh my gosh, but just like this, just forming the mind, changing how we think just a little bit, a little bit, a little bit. It's like the old story of uh old church story of a lady in a church who had dementia, and called her pastor and said, you know, past uh had the pastor come over, and the pastor came over and she said, You know, pastor, I I try to read God's word, but like I can't retain anything because my mind just uh it's going and I don't know what to do. I feel awful. The pastor took one of her wicker baskets and put it under the faucet and turned the faucet on and and he kind of held it under there, and you know, the water's like going through the wicker basket. She's like, Yeah, that's just exactly how I feel. Like I can't retain anything that God that I'm reading in God's word. He says, No, I get it. He said, But what is the water doing to the wicker basket? She said, cleaning it. Yeah, that's sometimes what God's word just does. It's just it's just washing over you. It's just purifying your thoughts. It's just washing over you, and you need that. Like sometimes we have to tell ourselves, it's okay. It's okay. My time with God this morning, it wasn't life-altering. Maybe I didn't feel much here, maybe it felt dry. I don't know, but it's okay. I'm gonna be back, same time, same place, ready for more. I need that, I need that washing. I mean, after all, we believe that all scripture, all scripture is breathed out by God. That same breath that spoke galaxies into existence. I love the line in the worship song. In your in the vapor of your breath, the planets formed. Job writes, by his breath the heavens are cleared. That breath that breathed life into Adam's nostrils, humanity's lungs have been full ever since. By that same breath, we have the timeless, infallible, inerrant, authoritative word of God. Pages that the Almighty invites you to to wrestle with. That same breath that gave Adam life, desires to speak into your days, to reveal his thoughts and his ways that are so far above ours. How could we not start our days of that same breath? The Almighty creator of heaven and earth wants to meet with you daily. How could we ever stand him up? How could we ever resist that? How could we treat that like a chore? Because in thy presence is fullness of joy, better as one day in your courts and thousands elsewhere. I mean, we really believe that. We believe that enough to show up, same time, same place, with a plan, making it the joy that it is.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

You're listening to The Bridge with Junior Ziggler. That was part two of Junior's message, Make Time, from our Make Time With God series. One phrase that kept coming back to me throughout today's message was simple. We schedule what matters. When you really think about it, that's true of almost every area of our life. The things that are most important rarely happen by accident. Healthy marriages require intentional time, strong friendships require intentional time. Physical health requires intentional time. And the same is true of our relationship with God. I think that's why Junior's advice was so practical. Pick a time, pick a place, have a plan. Not because God is impressed by your diligent schedule, but because consistency matters. So maybe the challenge for you today isn't to just completely overhaul your life. Maybe it's simply to ask what's one practical step I can take this week? A specific time, a specific place, a simple plan. And just watch that consistency will build intimacy. And over time, those ordinary moments that you have with God are going to become the most transformative moments of all. As always, great to be with you, but I can't wait for the next time. Well, you have been listening to The Bridge with Junior Ziggler, a listener-supported broadcaster. Junior is the lead teaching pastor at the bridge in Chicagoland, and we're so glad that you joined us today. As we told you earlier, we would love to send you a copy of Junior's book, The Manual. Whether you're a man, you're raising a man, married to a man, dating a man, this book cuts through the noise and gets to the raw core of manhood itself. All you have to do is jump on Junior's website, juniorziggler.com, and give a gift of any amount towards this show, and we'll send it right to you. While you're there, you'll also find great resources like today's message, all of Junior's books and podcasts, plus a link to our church, The Bridge. If you're in the Chicagoland area, we'd love to see you at one of our services. Again, that's juniorziggler.com, juniorz-i e-g L E R dot com. Thanks for listening. See you next time. The Bridge with Junior Ziggler is a production of the Bridge Community Church, a multi-campus church in Chicagoland.