SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Forbes Health reports, quote, the most common mental illness in the U.S., anxiety, is a significant issue that deserves attention as it has an impact on everything from workplace performance to personal relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Anxiety makes one feel isolated and usually leads to depression, end quote.
SPEAKER_01: America is the most anxious and lonely nation in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States and affect over 40 million adults.
SPEAKER_01: That's 19.1% of the U.S.
SPEAKER_01: population.
SPEAKER_01: America has five times more anxiety disorders than the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Young people are more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety than older adults, with nearly 50% of those between the ages of 18 and 24 reporting depressive disorder or anxiety symptoms.
SPEAKER_01: Women are more than twice as likely than men to experience an anxiety disorder.
SPEAKER_01: Colorado is ranked third in the United States for anxiety disorders, with 53.66% feeling nervous, anxious, and stressed at least several days a week.
SPEAKER_01: What about loneliness?
SPEAKER_01: In May 2023, U.S.
SPEAKER_01: Surgeon General Vivek Murphy called loneliness a public health epidemic.
SPEAKER_01: The latest American Psychiatric Association, APA, finds that early in 2024, 30% of adults say they have experienced feelings of loneliness at least once a week over the past year, while 10% say they're lonely every day.
SPEAKER_01: Younger people are more likely to experience feelings of loneliness, with 30% of Americans aged 18 to 34, saying they were lonely every day or several times a week, and single adults are nearly twice as likely as married adults to say they have been lonely on a weekly basis over the past year, 39% to 22%.
SPEAKER_01: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Vivek Murphy, again, Surgeon General in the United States, writes quote, loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling.
SPEAKER_01: It harms both individual and societal health.
SPEAKER_01: It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death.
SPEAKER_01: The mortality rate, this is crazy, the mortality rate of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: End quote.
SPEAKER_01: He continues.
SPEAKER_01: Each of us can start now in our own lives by strengthening our connections and relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Our individual relationships are an untapped resource, a source of healing in plain sight.
SPEAKER_01: Our relationships can help us live healthier, more productive, and more fulfilled lives.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's the surge in general.
SPEAKER_01: Lo and behold, the Bible's been teaching this for 2,000 years.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, 4,000 years if we count the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: The Old New Testament talk about relationships.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why Jesus said the first of all the commandments, the most important commandment, the commandment that sums up all of the law and all of the prophets is love the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Love.
SPEAKER_01: Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, connecting with God.
SPEAKER_01: And then the second is just as important as the first and builds on the first.
SPEAKER_01: Love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: So there is this vertical connection with God that then translates into a horizontal connection with people, and all the studies are showing.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I looked at dozens and dozens, I just picked a few here, that show that spirituality of loving God and loving people is the key to something like 90% of the physical disorders that we have.
SPEAKER_01: Time magazine, can you believe this is Time magazine?
SPEAKER_01: And even use a big word here, which is, which I don't see much in time.
SPEAKER_01: Time magazine writes scientists have found again and again that those with a spiritual practice or who follow religious beliefs tend to be happier than those who don't.
SPEAKER_01: Study after study has found that religious people tend to be less depressed and less anxious than non-believers.
SPEAKER_01: Better able to handle the vicissitudes.
SPEAKER_01: That's a big word for Time magazine.
SPEAKER_01: Able to handle the vicissitudes of life better than non-believers.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the complexity of life is complex, many women.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, life's not complicated, it's complex.
SPEAKER_01: Complex is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: You're complex.
SPEAKER_01: All the cells in your body and all the way in which your pulmonary system and your and your neurological connections work is complex, but it's not complicated.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says if you'll love him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, that means he's like everything that you have, and you'll love your neighbor as you love yourself, which assumes that you love yourself, that means you have some idea of your identity in Christ and in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has an identity that things will line up for you.
SPEAKER_01: So if you if you look at Matthew 6, 25 through 33, don't look there, okay, because we're gonna go to 1 Peter, but that's the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks about you're anxious about this, you're anxious about that, you're anxious about this.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things that you're so worried about will be taken care of.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_01: And so Jordan Peterson, who's not even a Christian, says that's the greatest statement in the history of humankind.
SPEAKER_01: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things to be added.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, he says the most noble statement ever given to humankind.
SPEAKER_01: So there's something here to be said about relationships with God and with people that begins to heal you, heal you of disorders, heal you of anxiety in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So turn in your Bible now, if you would, to 1 Peter 4.
SPEAKER_01: This is where we find ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We've got this study today.
SPEAKER_01: We got one, we got two more after this, and we'll finish up Peter's principles for prevailing over problems.
SPEAKER_01: So stand with me.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna read the whole thing, and then I'm gonna break it down verse by verse.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: But the end of all things is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers, verse eight, and above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9, be hospitable to one another without grumbling, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: If any one speaks, let him speak as it is, the oracles of God.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So I when I was reading this, church, I just was reading it and going, that's the cure for anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: If we were to break this down to four key statements about a cure, a cure for panic attacks, a cure for anxiety, it is right here.
SPEAKER_01: So be seated and look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: So verse 7, he says, Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, give over your mind and heart to God in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Give over your heart and mind to God in prayer every day.
SPEAKER_01: Come to God every day, surrendering your life to Him, and pray.
SPEAKER_01: Pray about stuff you're worried about, pray about stuff that's stressing you out.
SPEAKER_01: Give that to God.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Quit carrying those burdens.
SPEAKER_01: Give them to God.
SPEAKER_01: So psychology today reports recent rigorous scientific studies done by Harvard, done in California and Washington, D.C., all separate studies, found that people who pray daily has significantly less depression and anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: And significantly more of, and let me quote, life satisfaction, self-esteem, positive effect in their life.
SPEAKER_01: Over 70% said that prayer was helpful to their mental health.
SPEAKER_01: Additionally, the studies show that prayer is especially important to those who are lonely and or socially isolated.
SPEAKER_01: Now, probably most of you in this room have read Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, or Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but Luke was a physician.
SPEAKER_01: He was a doctor, and he's very interesting in how he qualifies the lifestyle of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I call it the zigzag lifestyle of Jesus by Luke.
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is that Luke's unique because he shows what Jesus is doing in the public arena, and usually in the same chapter or the next chapter, it says something about Jesus' private life.
SPEAKER_01: So you'll see Jesus is healing and casting out demons and preaching the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: And then a few verses later, it says, Jesus woke early and went into the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: Or Jesus woke up early and went into the mountains to pray.
SPEAKER_01: So you have this public life, very busy, super busy.
SPEAKER_01: How many here have a busy life?
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: All right, so most of us have a busy life, but then Jesus, who had probably a much busier life than we do, because everybody just followed him wherever he went, saw the need in his life, first thing in the morning, early in the morning, to retreat into the mountains, a retreat to a lonely place.
SPEAKER_01: The reason we have the Lord's Prayer is because the disciples took note of that, and it's in Luke, where they come to Jesus and they said, teach us how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: So they didn't ask Jesus, teach us how to cast out demons.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't ask him, teach us how to heal the sick or teach us how to preach the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: They specifically, I think, realized that his power in preaching the kingdom, his power in casting out demons, his power to heal was because of his prayer life.
SPEAKER_01: So if Jesus, fully God and fully man, needed to connect with his heavenly father every day, how much more do we?
SPEAKER_01: Prayer alone can be the greatest healer in one's life.
SPEAKER_01: I would challenge you that if you don't regularly do this, spending we call it PB and J, Prayer, Bible, and Journal, opening each day with the word, getting truth into you.
SPEAKER_01: How many know that out there in the world there's a lot of lies and untruth, but you're gonna be susceptible to the lies and the unbelief of the enemy if you're not pouring truth into your heart to start the day.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm a big believer in early morning, starting the morning that way.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you, you go, well, I work until late hours.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: It could be later in the afternoon or at night, whatever works for you.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm saying get truth into you.
SPEAKER_01: So you read God's word, but then you don't stop there.
SPEAKER_01: You surrender to God the things you're worried about and you're anxious concerning in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Give it to Him in prayer and say, Lord, fill me up.
SPEAKER_01: So this morning I did a habit I have is I went up to my office early in the morning and I sing great gospel hymns.
SPEAKER_01: I love to sing hymns because I know the words.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the newer stuff's hard for me to remember the words.
SPEAKER_01: Um, why do they make it so complicated, you know?
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, hymns are you asked a young person, well, hymns are complicated.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But, you know, so if you had four or five songs or four or five hymns that you love, to just start your day worshiping the Lord and worship him.
SPEAKER_01: And in that in that posture of worship, I gave God several things that I woke up worried about.
SPEAKER_01: Things that I wasn't even thinking about last night, but I wake up and I'm worried because there's something about your subconscious at work in your mind, that's where dreams and visions happen, that God can work in, but also the enemy can work in.
SPEAKER_01: Demons can come in and speak lies to you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how are you gonna flush that out?
SPEAKER_01: How do we flush that out?
SPEAKER_01: I think you start the day, man, with prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You start with prayer and you give it to God, and you go, well, that doesn't work for me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm better in the evening.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care, whatever works for you, whatever time.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the point.
SPEAKER_01: The point is, some point in your day, back off the phone, back off the computer, back off the TV, and just get alone with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what's exciting.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are in here right now and you're carrying so much anxiety, so much panic attack stuff and depression because you don't do this.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's like my when I had a tundra.
SPEAKER_01: When I had my tundra pickup truck, I actually used my tundra.
SPEAKER_01: I actually had a truck that I actually used the bed.
SPEAKER_01: I was I'm just not, I'm not a suburban, you know, trying to be macho cowboy guy that's got a truck that never uses it.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, my truck had scratches on it.
SPEAKER_01: My truck I hunted and fished with, I hauled stuff with, had two by fours in the back.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what I know: this is true.
SPEAKER_01: If you take one two by four and you put that back in the back of a truck bed and you're driving and you're swerving around on roads, it moves around.
SPEAKER_01: Unless you got it strapped, it moves around.
SPEAKER_01: If you put 25 rocks in the back of a pickup truck bed, they rattle around.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: So when I get home from Lowe's or Home Depot or whatever, I take the 2x4.
SPEAKER_01: I don't drive around all the time with a 2x4 rattling around.
SPEAKER_01: I don't drive around with 25 rocks rattling around.
SPEAKER_01: But let me tell you, if you have a hole, a pile of rocks, or you have a pile of two by fours, and you put those in the back of your truck, nothing rattles around.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't rattle around.
SPEAKER_01: All it does is weigh you down.
SPEAKER_01: It weighs you down 1,500 pounds, or whatever your truck can hold.
SPEAKER_01: So some of us are weighed down because you haven't let the Holy Spirit come and start shoveling some of that crap to use a theological term out of the back of your truck.
SPEAKER_01: And so you're walking way down and you're going to doctors and psychologists and all those things.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not against that.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm telling you, the answer's right before you.
SPEAKER_01: And it's giving God your stuff, man.
SPEAKER_01: It's letting the Holy Spirit come in with his shovel and start shoveling stuff out, and it doesn't all get shoveled in one day.
SPEAKER_01: I wish it did.
SPEAKER_01: I wish you could come up here, get prayer, boom, Holy Spirit comes, you get knocked to the floor or something, and suddenly you're changed.
SPEAKER_01: Does that happen?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Does it happen often?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Where it usually happens is gradually, day by day, meeting with God, giving it to Him, and He takes one rock.
SPEAKER_01: And then He takes one two by four.
SPEAKER_01: And He starts gradually tight, and suddenly the axis of your life starts to lighten up because you're getting free.
SPEAKER_01: And as you get set free, here's what happens because you because we all sin and we always continue to sin and we always have shame.
SPEAKER_01: There's always things we're working on.
SPEAKER_01: If we start getting cleaned out, then when there is a stone and it rattles around, you can quickly feel it.
SPEAKER_01: You know it's there because you're walking in a clean life.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that good?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I talk to some ladies, I talk to some men, and they're always depressed.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't even want to talk to them because they got so many things, layers.
SPEAKER_01: I said, give me one thing.
SPEAKER_01: So they give me one thing, and I say, let's work on that.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just start with that stone.
SPEAKER_01: And so we start working.
SPEAKER_01: And the first thing that we have to do is not so much go after the stone as drive the truck to Jesus and let him take the stone.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't want to spend time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I'm too busy.
SPEAKER_01: And I go, man, go read Mad Magazine or Newsweek or whatever you like to do, but don't come to me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm of no use to you.
SPEAKER_01: Because everything in my life goes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You go to Jesus, you start there, and that's where the fire is.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the kingdom revolution is.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to go there, man, we can we can go, man.
SPEAKER_01: And it might take a while, but you'll get there.
SPEAKER_01: You'll start to get cleaned up.
SPEAKER_01: You guys, you'll get cleaned up.
SPEAKER_01: So number one, prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is key.
SPEAKER_01: So turning your Bibles to Philippians 4.
SPEAKER_01: So turn your Bibles to Philippians 4, 6.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you in this room may have even memorized this.
SPEAKER_01: I love Philippians 4, 6 through 9.
SPEAKER_01: You could do a lot worse than memorizing these verses that we're about to read.
SPEAKER_01: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.
SPEAKER_01: And then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will garrison, that's what that word means, guard, will garrison like soldiers around the gate, your heart and mine through Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: What could be better than God garrisoning your mind and heart because you pray?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_01: All right, so that's where the peace of God comes, but he's not done.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, it's like it's like in Philippians, Paul is writing this in prison.
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, okay, I don't think they get it, so I'm gonna tell you a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the next verse.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.
SPEAKER_01: The things which you've learned and received and heard and you've seen in me, these do, and the God of peace, he says it again, the God of peace will be with you.
SPEAKER_01: So he's talking about prayer, he's talking about meditating on good things, and that God, his spirit will garrison, will guard, and protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If I was working with someone who's mentally off, someone who's got anxiety disorders, and someone who's got major depression in their life, I'd say we've got to start with the Bible and prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to start there.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to start cleansing your mind with things that are good and positive and pure.
SPEAKER_01: You may not be able to watch the news forever.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you may not be able to watch these negative programming that just hammers you, makes you angry, gets you all frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe later you can, but not right now.
SPEAKER_01: And then what I want you to do is I want you to just think about good, wholesome, noble, and awesome things.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna ask the Holy Spirit to come.
SPEAKER_01: And when you go into prayer, surrender all to Him.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way.
SPEAKER_01: All I've ever known is anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I know, but don't you want to change?
SPEAKER_01: Don't you want the rest of your life to be way better than your past life?
SPEAKER_01: Well, yes, okay, then we've got new disciplines we got to work on.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer, men and women.
SPEAKER_01: PB and J.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer Bible and journal.
SPEAKER_01: P B and J.
SPEAKER_01: That's number one.
SPEAKER_01: God's cure for anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, number two, verse eight.
SPEAKER_01: And above all things, have fervent love.
SPEAKER_01: Have fervent love for one another.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, develop a fervent love for people.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm not a people person.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you are.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's a people person.
SPEAKER_01: You are all made for connection.
SPEAKER_01: That baby that comes out of the womb, and you were that baby at one time was made by God to breastfeed.
SPEAKER_01: Was made by God to snuggle up with another human being for intimacy to be developed from day one when they come out of the womb.
SPEAKER_01: Well, so I didn't have that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you can have it.
SPEAKER_01: You can start now.
SPEAKER_01: You can change this work of the enemy that's made you fearful of people.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Most kids, not everybody, but most kids have no fear of people for the first three or four years.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, unless it's a really absolutely abusive home, most people don't have any fear.
SPEAKER_01: You learn fear.
SPEAKER_01: So the only fear that everybody has is loud noises and sudden things.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has that.
SPEAKER_01: I've got puppies right now.
SPEAKER_01: I've got lab puppies.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I'm not gonna go to the vet and get everything checked right now.
SPEAKER_01: I just drop a book.
SPEAKER_01: So I paint the puppy in there, and I drop a book, boom, puppy.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I guess they can hear.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And we do it with each one.
SPEAKER_01: We're all that way.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what we learn that's not good, and that is we start fearing people because we start getting hurt by people.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So you start to have these fears growing up and happening in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so what has to happen is through the power of the Spirit, we start saying to ourselves, I'm gonna love people.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna let the shame of my past dictate my future.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna love people with the power of God.
SPEAKER_01: Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, so, mind, so you neighbors yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Fervent love for one another.
SPEAKER_01: It has to be learned and relearned.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually a skill to learn to love people.
SPEAKER_01: It's not, it's not natural to love people, especially people who don't like you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you and you all have people that don't like you, and they think you're a jerk, and they think that you're, you know, obnoxious and all this, and you probably are.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, one of the best things you can do is someone like that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just like that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm totally that way.
SPEAKER_01: I'm obnoxious, I'm a jerk, I'm all that.
SPEAKER_01: Would you pray for me to be transformed?
SPEAKER_01: Instead of saying I'm not, which is a dumb, just don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't say I'm not that way.
SPEAKER_01: No, you are that way, and we all know that about you, because you're human, all right?
SPEAKER_01: But you start overcoming those tendencies by not focusing on yourself, but fervently loving other people, caring about them, being willing to give away your life to others.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, look, have a fervent love.
SPEAKER_01: First, first prayer, second, have a fervent love.
SPEAKER_01: Love is more important than prayer, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Love covers a multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_01: You ever thought about what that means?
SPEAKER_01: Love covers a multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_01: I can tell you from personal experience as a leader what that means.
SPEAKER_01: That means it's really smart when I love my people and I love my team and I love my family because I'm gonna do a lot of stupid things.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna make big mistakes, I'm gonna do things wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And if people feel loved by you, there's so much grace.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're always like a jerk and it's always about you, nobody gives you any grace for you when you mess up, even though you just made an honest mistake.
SPEAKER_01: So love really does cover a multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_01: So, men and women, it's smart to love people.
SPEAKER_01: It'll go better for you because you're gonna make mistakes and you're gonna sin and you're gonna be selfish sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: And I said something to Liz this week was so dumb.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody ever just think, how could I make such a great time so miserable by one statement?
SPEAKER_01: I do it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: But love, our love for each other, covers a multitude of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes she does it too.
SPEAKER_01: So she'll admit that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you if you go out and tell her that Steve said that, you gotta qualify it with what I said first.
SPEAKER_01: All right, nobody gets off the hook.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I have a blog, Steve Holtonline.org.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not signed up, you can.
SPEAKER_01: But on June 19th of this year, I wrote a blog, The Seven Keys to Winning Relationships.
SPEAKER_01: The seven keys to winning relationships.
SPEAKER_01: So look at that.
SPEAKER_01: That gives you some steps of how to love people well.
SPEAKER_01: It's very, very practical.
SPEAKER_01: It's based on like leadership stuff that I've had to do and being a father of seven and all that, and 38 years of marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's things like eye-to-eye contact, it's things like appropriate touching physically, it's things like um focused attention, stuff like that, which I've done.
SPEAKER_01: You that have been with me back in the Mountain Springs church days, they did a number of seminars on how to really love your child.
SPEAKER_01: Because um, here's the deal in parenting, and this is true, I think, even at work.
SPEAKER_01: If people feel loved by you, or if they don't feel loved by you, that's the point.
SPEAKER_01: Not whether you really do love them or don't love them, because every kid will tell you my parents love me.
SPEAKER_01: But if they don't feel your love, then disconnection begins to happen after a while.
SPEAKER_01: So, how do you help people feel your love?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what that blog was about.
SPEAKER_01: Seven keys to winning relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, turn to verse nine.
SPEAKER_01: Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
SPEAKER_01: So give our mind to God in prayer, our mind and heart to God in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, develop a fervent love for people.
SPEAKER_01: Verse nine, open your home.
SPEAKER_01: Hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: Open your home to people.
SPEAKER_01: Now it says, be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because when you're hospitable to one another, you grumble.
SPEAKER_01: Because you get all this stuff ready for everybody and you clean the house, and then they leave you with all the dishes, and they don't even text you a thank you for coming over to your house.
SPEAKER_01: You did everything, man.
SPEAKER_01: That's like that's grumble city, man, and you're the mayor.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Man, we're always opening up our home to people.
SPEAKER_01: We got people over all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you come away feeling like, you know, why'd I do that?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So here's what's happening in Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_01: Colorado Springs, people are not starving for food.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there may be some, but I'm telling you, most people who are starving for food, it's their own fault, but that's that's a whole nother issue.
SPEAKER_01: They're starving for love.
SPEAKER_01: People are starving for love.
SPEAKER_01: So you say, well, I don't think we can have people over because we can barely make it ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, let me tell you, man, I grew up on hot dogs and pork and beans.
SPEAKER_01: And then people don't care what you serve, they care that you serve.
SPEAKER_01: They don't care what you serve, they care that you serve.
SPEAKER_01: They're starving for relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't we be the most hospitable church in the city?
SPEAKER_01: People will come to the road and they go, man, they're always inviting you over to their house.
SPEAKER_01: I think they love God or something.
SPEAKER_01: Or like their house is actually a temple of the Holy Spirit and they want me to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jesus did his best work around the kitchen table, the dining room table with Pharisees and prostitutes and tax collectors.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just read the gospels.
SPEAKER_01: He's spending all this time eating with people because he knew it broke down barriers in their heart and there were things they could talk about that they couldn't talk about any other time.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: Your house has been given to you, your apartment has been given to you by God, not just for you, but to, man, make it a church.
SPEAKER_01: Make it a place.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we we're gonna make a big emphasis into the new year and for the rest of all time at the road called road community groups.
SPEAKER_01: We want 90% of you to be in a road community group this time next year.
SPEAKER_01: That there be a hundred community groups across this city.
SPEAKER_01: Every neighborhood where we live, there's a community group.
SPEAKER_01: Some of that community group would even be people that don't go to the road.
SPEAKER_01: That's totally awesome.
SPEAKER_01: That you have a community group where you're studying a sermon, you guys are praying together, and you've invited your neighbors, you and and by the way, you gotta invite 30 to get three.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking to a pastor, um, Nick, his name, Pastor Nick, he's at Jesus Church downtown, and I was at a gathering with him, and he was asking me stuff about church planting because he's planting a church.
SPEAKER_01: Seems like you've got a really good church going there.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, Nick, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: Do you want a hundred people?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah, and I said, Well, you gotta get 500 in your building.
SPEAKER_01: It'll take getting 500 in your building to get 100 that'll actually stick.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's the same way relationally.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't reached out to 30 people, you're not gonna have three friends.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's this process, right?
SPEAKER_01: So I want to challenge you.
SPEAKER_01: In August, we have training for community groups.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm looking around, I know most of you in this room, and I'll bet you half of you in this room are qualified to be a community group leader or host.
SPEAKER_01: Go to the training in August.
SPEAKER_01: You go to the road.org slash events and sign up.
SPEAKER_01: It'll be second service, so you'll have to change.
SPEAKER_01: You'll have to change to first or third service, second service, all four weeks in August.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's read on.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards, circle good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So that I had you circle good stewards because men and women, you have a stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: You have a stewardship of giving away your natural talents, acquired skills, and spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody in this room has natural talents, acquired skills, and spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Are you giving them away?
SPEAKER_01: Are you using them to bless others?
SPEAKER_01: God gave you who you are to be a blessing to others, not to hoard it to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: That exciting! So you were to ask your parents, what was I like between birth and five years old?
SPEAKER_01: They would tell you stories of who you were.
SPEAKER_01: That's your natural talents command.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are naturally gifted athletically, some of you are naturally gifted administratively, some of you are naturally gifted as leaders.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you could already see it on you.
SPEAKER_01: I kind of grew up as a daring kid, and the stories they tell me about the daring stuff I did on a kitty car was crazy.
SPEAKER_01: But that says something about your identity.
SPEAKER_01: That says something about your identity.
SPEAKER_01: But then you went to college, you went to school, you started getting training, you went to seminars.
SPEAKER_01: That's called acquired skills.
SPEAKER_01: Acquired skills.
SPEAKER_01: That's up to you.
SPEAKER_01: Natural talent, sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_01: Acquired skills, the kind of training you got for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Usually it works best if your acquired skills line up with your natural talents.
SPEAKER_01: And then spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: When you get born again, when you come to Christ, God sovereignly plants spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to steward that well.
SPEAKER_01: And it's amazing in Scripture what Jesus says that I just love.
SPEAKER_01: He says, take heed what you hear, with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
SPEAKER_01: And to you who hear, more will be given.
SPEAKER_01: For whoever has to him, more will be given, and whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken away.
SPEAKER_01: So write this down.
SPEAKER_01: This is really important.
SPEAKER_01: The rich get richer and the poor get poor.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, if you start giving away what you've been given by God, he's gonna give you more.
SPEAKER_01: Whether it's financial, whether it's talents, whether it's spiritual gifts, the more you give, the more you get.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, I don't want to be selfish or anything.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds a little bit like health and well stuff, like I'm giving so I can get.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't say it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said it.
SPEAKER_01: He'll give you more if you'll give away what you've been given.
SPEAKER_01: You will have a happier home if you open up your home to others.
SPEAKER_01: You will become a better teacher if you just learn how to teach a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: You will become a better giver if you just give a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: But if you hoard it all, you don't get more.
SPEAKER_01: Too bad.
SPEAKER_01: You get poorer.
SPEAKER_01: You get poorer and poorer and poorer.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be rich, man.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be rich spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally.
SPEAKER_01: I want to walk.
SPEAKER_01: How about you?
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus says, if you'll give away what you've been given, I'll give you way more.
SPEAKER_01: Even, he says, 30, 60, and a hundred times in the sower in the seeds.
SPEAKER_01: 100x living, man.
SPEAKER_01: 100x living.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Foreign for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.