SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit Grant Parkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I lift my eyes to the hills.
SPEAKER_01: From where does my help come?
SPEAKER_01: My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_01: He will not let your foot be moved.
SPEAKER_01: He who keeps you will not slumber.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is your keeper.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
SPEAKER_01: The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord will keep you from all evil.
SPEAKER_01: He will keep your life.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of God for the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, thank you that you're so close to us.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that you're our shade, you're our help, you're our fortress.
SPEAKER_01: You will not let our foot be moved.
SPEAKER_01: You start off by telling us that you've made heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_01: And so because you've made heaven and earth, we're mindful of what you're capable of.
SPEAKER_01: You're a competent God.
SPEAKER_01: You're not in the heavens right now trying to figure out what you're going to do next.
SPEAKER_01: You sit enthroned over everything that is bigger and better and beyond us today.
SPEAKER_01: And so we take a sense of comfort and peace and perspective in that.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, as we open up your word and we begin the new year, we want to live in the wind, God.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be liberated from what could be and should be, and we want to be a part of what is.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, speak to our, not just our head, but our heart today, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Say something in the next few minutes that has our name on it, okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's our desire, God.
SPEAKER_01: Make it our experience, we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have a Bible, you forgot to bring one with you.
SPEAKER_01: There's one on your row.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 904.
SPEAKER_01: Page 904.
SPEAKER_01: And uh let me just say, Happy New Year.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you're our guest today, my name's Neil.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the lead pastor here at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: And you are sitting around the best part of this church.
SPEAKER_01: It's the people, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so I want you to know that about this place.
SPEAKER_01: You're welcome to come and just be a part of this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh next week we're gonna start a new sermon series entitled Questions Christians Ask, where I'll talk about things like, you know, what do I do with my unbelieving child?
SPEAKER_01: What happens when we die?
SPEAKER_01: Am I really forgiven for everything?
SPEAKER_01: But today, before we get into all that, today I just want to talk about kind of my prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be selfish and exercise a pastoral prerogative.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about my prayer for our church, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And here's my prayer for our church that we live in the when.
SPEAKER_01: That we live in the when.
SPEAKER_01: Not the could be or the possibly or the maybe or the should have been or could have, but we live in the when.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is talking, we'll drop in in Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking in the server, it's called the Sermon on the Mount, because Jesus was going around.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says earlier in Matthew chapter 4 that he was talking about the kingdom of God, which is the reign and rule.
SPEAKER_01: This is what happened.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom is the realm within which what God wants done gets done.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus began to talk about this in such a way that people were like, now wait a minute, that that's the truth right there.
SPEAKER_01: And so large crowds were following Jesus, so much so that he just kind of went up on the side of a mountain and sat down and said, I want these people to understand what this is all about and what I'm all about.
SPEAKER_01: Let me let me say something real practical right now.
SPEAKER_01: If there's any seats empty, like in the middle where you are, we'll just scoot in.
SPEAKER_01: Just just just can we do that?
SPEAKER_01: Can I stop mid-sentence and say that?
SPEAKER_01: And and by the way, next week, some of you people that get here early, I want you to sit down front.
SPEAKER_01: So, because when people arrive late, how many of y'all have been late to something before?
SPEAKER_01: Let me see your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, some of y'all are kind of like, well, counting today, yes.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it makes it easy for people that come to come in, they'll arrive late and because their wife took so long getting ready, that's why I'm late to places.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: I live with a house full of women.
SPEAKER_01: They can never get out the door on time.
SPEAKER_01: Despite the fact that they go, I got this, Dad, I got this.
SPEAKER_01: You you got nothing.
SPEAKER_01: You're about to get a whipping.
SPEAKER_01: We're leaving in two minutes.
SPEAKER_01: So I left my family home today.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, Jesus has got this big crowd of people, and he, and by the way, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't just want a following, he wants an understanding.
SPEAKER_01: So he goes up and he sits down on the side of this mountain and begins to teach them.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_01: It's probably considered one of the most ethical teaching, one of the most righteous words, some of the most righteous words ever spoken.
SPEAKER_01: We drop in the middle of that, and here's my prayer for uh for for our church.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to be these kind of people and do these kind of things in the new year.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 6, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.
SPEAKER_01: For then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.
SPEAKER_01: Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
SPEAKER_01: But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
SPEAKER_01: And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.
SPEAKER_01: Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
SPEAKER_01: But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
SPEAKER_01: And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they'll be heard for their many words.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him.
SPEAKER_01: Pray then like this our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.
SPEAKER_01: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_01: For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
SPEAKER_01: Do we need to stop right there and think about that for just a minute?
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say this don't think of that in legalistic terms.
SPEAKER_01: Think of it in relational terms.
SPEAKER_01: Because what Jesus is saying is it is a height of hypocrisy to be forgiven by God and then withhold forgiveness from other people.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a whole sermon right there, and I can give it to you right now, or we can just keep reading.
SPEAKER_01: Let's vote.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: We'll keep reading.
SPEAKER_01: Verse uh 16.
SPEAKER_01: And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, that their fasting may be seen by others.
SPEAKER_01: Truly I say to you, they receive their reward.
SPEAKER_01: But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
SPEAKER_01: When you read the Bible, look for things that are repeated.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that's repeated, a couple things are repeated three different times in here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, and when, and when, and when.
SPEAKER_01: Not if, but when.
SPEAKER_01: Not, hey, if you've done everything else, and I hear this all the time, well, I guess all we can do now is pray.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says prayer is not a last resort.
SPEAKER_01: It's a part of the natural rhythm of your life.
SPEAKER_01: He says, and when you give to the needy, and when you pray, and when you fast.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I talk about living in the wind, I'm not talking about the W-I-N.
SPEAKER_01: That's something that the TV preacher will talk to you about late tonight, okay?
SPEAKER_01: After the cowboys beat the lions.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: I know why you're in this service, people, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Somebody said, How do you think it's gonna be?
SPEAKER_01: Because these sinners want to go home and get their cowboy on.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you Texan fans are not taking this well, are you?
SPEAKER_01: See, there's a thing after the regular season called the playoffs.
SPEAKER_01: It's a whole new some people call it the second season.
SPEAKER_01: We'll buy you tickets next year.
SPEAKER_01: Bam! Anyway.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say living in the wind, here's the thing, okay?
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting today, here's my prayer for our church.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to ask yourself, do I want to be a part of a church that wants me to do that and and and encourages me to do that?
SPEAKER_01: That's totally up to you.
SPEAKER_01: But but but when I say living in the wind, I want me to do this.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to do this, I want your families to do this, dads, men, I got something in just a minute I'm gonna ask you to do.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want with no goal or agenda.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do this so that well, no, here's why I want us to live in the wind.
SPEAKER_01: Because you've been made right by God.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to call this practicing righteousness, but who wants to hear a sermon called practicing righteousness?
SPEAKER_01: It's like I shaved my legs for that.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: No, but Jesus says, hey, beware of practicing your righteousness before men.
SPEAKER_01: And so what he's really saying is, hey, people that have been made right with God, that's what being righteous is.
SPEAKER_01: You've been made right with God.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't do it, God made you right with him.
SPEAKER_01: These are some of the things you do to demonstrate.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you in the new year, you need the experience, the external experience of being who you are on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says these things called spiritual disciplines allow us to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to talk about these three when living in the wind.
SPEAKER_01: First thing Jesus says is when you give, I want us to be people that give in the new year.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: That's why he starts off right there in verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Thus, when you get when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.
SPEAKER_01: Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
SPEAKER_01: That's another one of those things that's repeated.
SPEAKER_01: They've received their reward.
SPEAKER_01: They've received their reward, they received their reward.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to get to heaven and there be no reward for you because you got all your reward here on earth.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible calls us to this form of uh of secrecy.
SPEAKER_01: We don't sound a trumpet.
SPEAKER_01: I am now giving to the needy.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone come and look.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, about four months ago, I was here on my day off doing something because I'm also the pastor, but I'm also on the building and grounds team.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and people are like, Why do you do that?
SPEAKER_01: You're the pastor, so I don't lose perspective.
SPEAKER_01: And I like to fix stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was coming down the hall carrying some stuff, and all the staff officers are over here, all the doors are open, and I just yelled down the hall, I'm out here being a servant, come and notice.
SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't matter unless people know about it.
SPEAKER_01: And all the staff just walked up, looked in the office, and like, Wow, you just said that out loud.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, That's just what we think when we serve.
SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to give voice to it.
SPEAKER_01: And they all just went back in their office and closed the door.
SPEAKER_01: You ever done the right thing and you thought this would be more enjoyable if more people knew about it?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all looking like, please do not ask us to raise our hands.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not asking you to raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knows how we think.
SPEAKER_01: To quote that great theologian Jim Rome, he's like, I know how you think, clones.
SPEAKER_01: I know how you think.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're thinking, hey, I'm gonna do this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, hey, when you give, not if, but when you give to the needy, what we would call now in our day and age, the poor or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, I give a simple definition of each one of them.
SPEAKER_01: When it talks about giving to the needy, it's giving your money to help people who need it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the thing: one of the problems in our culture today is defining the needy.
SPEAKER_01: Because in your quest to find the needy, you're gonna get past the lazy and the druggie and a whole other kind of ease to get to the needy because being needy has become a corporate enterprise here in America.
SPEAKER_01: There was a lady on the news a couple weeks ago who was out panhandling.
SPEAKER_01: She was pregnant with a sign begging for money with her little daughter out there, and then when she finishes up her little shift, her husband pulls up and they're Porsche SUV.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even know Porsche made an SUV.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's how broke I am, and I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_01: And the news followed her and they caught her and she was holding her sign up, kind of like, hey, I'm embarrassed.
SPEAKER_01: See, you do not let people like that keep you from being generous.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's easy to kind of look.
SPEAKER_01: And I got friends that I'll be driving down the road, and I don't give to everybody at red lights, and I've got buddies at work in the inner city, and they go, You're not helping that person by giving them anything.
SPEAKER_01: There used to be a guy up here at Highway 6 and I 10 who held up a little cardboard sign.
SPEAKER_01: And it said, Why lie?
SPEAKER_01: I want a beer.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd give him five dollars and go, here, thanks for your honesty.
SPEAKER_01: And my friends would go, crazy.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: You think these other guys are buying school supplies with that money?
SPEAKER_01: No, they're going right to some store and buying as much mad dog 2020 as they can get.
SPEAKER_01: How many of y'all know what mad dog is?
SPEAKER_01: Can I see your hand?
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're preaching to somebody.
SPEAKER_01: And so, yes, I know that they, I know, yeah, I get all that, but here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Do not let the jaded, cynical, look at me, nature.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let the jaded, cynical nature of our culture keep you from living in the wind of giving to the needy.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what this does for us it does two things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it keeps us from worshiping money.
SPEAKER_01: Because love to ourselves, we will worship money.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I don't worship money.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever asked yourself the question, who makes what at your work?
SPEAKER_01: Then you worship money.
SPEAKER_01: When your mind is just in neutral and you're not thinking about anything in particular, do your thoughts go to if you had money, what you would do with it?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you another one.
SPEAKER_01: This slays me.
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever fantasize?
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever tell God how generous you would be if you won the lottery?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I was driving to my in-laws and drove my big billboard and some jackpot, some Powerball, something was like$210 million.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought this thought, oh Lord, if you superimpose those numbers right here on the windshield, I'd pay for the children's building.
SPEAKER_01: How noble of me is that! Yeah, and let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be a generous person, you shouldn't wait to win the lottery.
SPEAKER_01: If you got$10, you can be generous.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second thing that happens when we give to the needy.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I give, I tithe to my church because we because we give to the needy.
SPEAKER_01: And so somebody called me just yesterday and said, Hey, uh, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: and Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: McClendon.
SPEAKER_01: I said, This is Mr.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy goes, Okay, uh, and I said, Are you reading off of a screen?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hello, hey, over calling and we feed the homeless during Christmas and Bible and all this whole big spill.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, You might have seen as we were on the news.
SPEAKER_01: And what I heard in my spirit was, Jesus said, When you give, don't sound a trumpet.
SPEAKER_01: When you do something for the poor, don't call a news crew to come down there.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to, you don't want to let your you don't want to buy jerseys for your kids for the athletes when they give away$50,000.
SPEAKER_01: They have a news crew there filming it for them.
SPEAKER_01: You want the guy that just discreetly writes a check and says, Hey, I make$17 million a year.
SPEAKER_01: This is nothing.
SPEAKER_01: I keep$50,000 in my ashtray of my truck, which is what I would do if I made$17 million a year.
SPEAKER_01: I tell God that all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, God, if you just hook me up, I'll just roll around with 50 G's right there.
SPEAKER_01: Just bam.
SPEAKER_01: As of right now, I've got about 50 cents in my ashtray.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm believing God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Come on down.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you say, what do you mean when you give?
SPEAKER_01: See, the first thing it does is it keeps us from worshiping money.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second thing it does: it reminds us that somebody has it harder than you.
SPEAKER_01: Because we have this infinite capacity to feel sorry for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not down on you.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody like, hey, dude, it's January the 4th.
SPEAKER_01: Lighten up, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Drink decaf.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: When you and I choose to feel sorry for ourselves, what we do is we just kind of close in and we stop looking around.
SPEAKER_01: My mom used to say this.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been in this church any length of time, you know I grew up poor.
SPEAKER_01: I mean like poor, like hungry, headache, that kind of poor.
SPEAKER_01: Not poor like I didn't have$10,000 in savings.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't have a phone.
SPEAKER_01: And my kids are like, What?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, we didn't have a phone.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell them, by the way, and cell phones weren't invented then.
SPEAKER_01: And they just fall on the ground like, oh dad, how did you live?
SPEAKER_01: Quite well.
SPEAKER_01: And so, but my mom used to say this I mean, when we were broker than broke, we had I remember one time for supper, my mom walked in with a can of cream salt corn and four pieces of white bread.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know there were other kinds of lettuce besides iceberg, and I didn't know there was such a thing as wheat bread until I went off to college.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife's like, You never had wheat bread.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I went to Rudy's with lunch for lunch on Friday, where our men are going on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I'm not kidding.
SPEAKER_01: I'm picking up the tab.
SPEAKER_01: It's free.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I just remember myself, I'm not poor anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not rich.
SPEAKER_01: And every once in a while I'll drive by and go, you know, Lord, if I want a power ball, I'd be a generous man.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Be generous right now.
SPEAKER_01: So some guy stopped me and said, Hey man, are you really paying for Rudies?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Got a whole room reserved.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't got to stand in line.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever had Rudy's cream style corn?
SPEAKER_01: It tastes like it's got bluebell homemade vanilla ice cream in it.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I can just get a pan of that and just eat it with a spoon.
SPEAKER_01: But my mom, on the days when my mom would walk in with a can of corn that did not taste like it had bluebell homemade vanilla ice cream in it, and four pieces of white bread for me and her and my two brothers, the four of us, we all got a piece of white bread and a little bit of creamsiled corn.
SPEAKER_01: That's poor.
SPEAKER_01: My mom would say this crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01: She would say, Well, boys, remember this.
SPEAKER_01: If we got everybody we knew in the same room and we all threw our problems up in the air, you'd still reach for yours on the way down.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember thinking, that's a lie, mom.
SPEAKER_01: I would trade my life with anybody.
SPEAKER_01: See, when you give to the poor, it reminds you that there's people in the world that got it harder than you.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't feel guilty for having what you have.
SPEAKER_01: That's not biblical either.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go get in your nice truck or your nice car and drive to your nice house and kind of look at your wife and go, We stink.
SPEAKER_01: We should give all this away and walk around naked, holding up signs saying, Repent, the world's gonna end.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what the Bible calls you to either.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, one of the harder things to do is to possess things and not let them possess you.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of the reasons Jesus says, When.
SPEAKER_01: Living in the wind is, hey, when, let's be people who give.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, let's be people who pray.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says right there.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 5, he says, and when you pray, not if you pray, not well, I guess all we can do now is pray.
SPEAKER_01: Is that your last resort?
SPEAKER_01: Because if that's your last, if you say that phrase, then we've all said it before, what you're really saying is, God, I got this.
SPEAKER_01: We want to put you over here behind the little glass that says, in case of emergency, break glass and pray.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to submit to you, that ought to be your first resort.
SPEAKER_01: That ought to be the first thing.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is way too passive.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in these really antiseptic environments, you know, like at church where it's climate controlled and everyone's on their best behavior except your kid, you're about to beat to death.
SPEAKER_01: Shut up and sit down.
SPEAKER_01: We should take prayer into some really active environments.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Like if you work for an oil company, uh probably some layoffs coming this year.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't say that lightly.
SPEAKER_01: Oil used to be$103 a barrel, now it's about 50 something.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people in a corner office who are not sleeping well at night.
SPEAKER_01: Or they're having one too many single malt scotches over the rocks.
SPEAKER_01: You with me?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine if your boss walked in tomorrow and said, hey, I know the market's pretty uncertain right now, but I want you to know that God is God of all the natural resources in the world, not Chevron, not ExxonMobil, and God is.
SPEAKER_01: So let me just pray so we don't forget that.
SPEAKER_01: Would you not be like, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: Or if your husband walked in from work one day this week, ladies, and took you by the hands and took, put his hands on your shoulders and set you down and said, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I've loved you like you were created to be loved.
SPEAKER_01: Would you forgive me?
SPEAKER_01: Because I want to pray and ask God's forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to give me your forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: And I promise you, I'm gonna start loving you, and I'm gonna pray on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pray to God that'll show me how to love you the way you need to be loved.
SPEAKER_01: I'm tired of saying to you, well, it's just not who I am.
SPEAKER_01: The way you love your wife is not a reflection of who you are, it's a reflection of what she needs.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine your husband saying, Hey, I don't think I've loved you like you need to be loved.
SPEAKER_01: Because I want to love you about the same way every chance I get.
SPEAKER_01: And your wife will be like, Where's my husband?
SPEAKER_01: What have you done?
SPEAKER_01: You know cloning's illegal, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, When?
SPEAKER_01: And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners that they may be seen by others.
SPEAKER_01: Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.
SPEAKER_01: Once again, it is going to be hell to show up in heaven, and there'll be no reward for you because you were such an external, public, outward person, and you weren't secret.
SPEAKER_01: You weren't like, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: There's some things that are just not for public consumption.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is the intentional act of talking and listening to God.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_01: We make it like it's some big rocket science kind of deal.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the guy named John Calvin, who was a Swiss theologian, lived a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: He talked about the divinitatis sensum.
SPEAKER_01: The divinitatis sensum.
SPEAKER_01: Do I sound smart when I say that?
SPEAKER_01: It's Latin.
SPEAKER_01: It means the sense of the divine.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why some of you in this room who don't believe, some of you are here because your girlfriend, fiance, wife, kids, whatever said, Hey, let's go to church.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, okay, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: It's the new year.
SPEAKER_01: Here goes an hour of my life, I'll never get back.
SPEAKER_01: The sense of the divine means that all of us in this room have a sense that there's something bigger in the world, that there's there's a first cause, there's a creator, something did this.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible talks about that.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says in Romans chapter 1, he says, What may be known about God is obvious because God has made it obvious, talking about creation.
SPEAKER_01: What may be known about God is obvious because God has made it obvious.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this part, so that men are without excuse.
SPEAKER_01: No one's gonna stand before God on judgment day and go, I didn't know you were really real.
SPEAKER_01: And God's gonna go, Did you ever see a baby get born?
SPEAKER_01: Did you ever eat bacon?
SPEAKER_01: How do you how do you not know me?
SPEAKER_01: How'd you not know there was a God after that?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, hey, God's made it obvious.
SPEAKER_01: God's put it on public display.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Look around.
SPEAKER_01: You think all this guy there comes some big bang, some cosmic collision in the cosmos?
SPEAKER_01: Are you you think God's that willy nilly?
SPEAKER_01: Which, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're talking about prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: I know atheists who pray more than Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: That's that divinitile sensum.
SPEAKER_01: That's that sense of the divine.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're really I got a friend that's an atheist.
SPEAKER_01: I said, you really pray a lot for an atheist.
SPEAKER_01: Shut up, man.
SPEAKER_01: My praying's personal.
SPEAKER_01: I just I get that, but I think you'd make a better Christian than you give yourself credit for.
SPEAKER_01: Don't, don't, don't start in on me.
SPEAKER_01: Am I starting in on you?
SPEAKER_01: I have a smile in my voice.
SPEAKER_01: You act like you want to fight.
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to fight, just let me know.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'll take this shirt off and we'll go right here.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be like John Jones on you.
SPEAKER_01: Bam, bam, bam.
SPEAKER_01: Which that'd have been funny.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, John Jones is a UFC fighter.
SPEAKER_01: He's the undefeated light heavyweight champion of the world.
SPEAKER_01: He fought last night.
SPEAKER_01: People in our city paid$79 to watch him beat another man half to death.
SPEAKER_01: Not that I know anything about that, or that's my private fantasy, but anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine before, and by the way, I'll tell you, more stuff you know about something, more stuff about somebody you don't know, John Jones has Philippians 4.13 tattooed on his chest right here.
SPEAKER_01: Kind of at an angle.
SPEAKER_01: That Bible verse says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, some of you are getting it, some of you are kind of like, that's jacked up.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine John Jones?
SPEAKER_01: He meets this guy in the middle of the octagon and says, Hey, listen, I'm fixing the blood of your face beyond recognition.
SPEAKER_01: But before I do, let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: That's taking prayer from a passive environment into an active environment and just saying, Lord, I can do all things through you who strengthens me.
SPEAKER_01: So strengthen me to beat this man up really bad where his wife will be embarrassed.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: That's uh uh otherworldly.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say you let me just say you a few things about prayer because here's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_01: I want to demystify prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus says, when you pray, in other words, it is the expectation of God that we pray.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't have to use big flowery speech.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, let me just read to you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to turn there.
SPEAKER_01: It'll come up on the screen from from from Luke chapter 18.
SPEAKER_01: If you're writing stuff down, you can just write down that and check it later and see if it's in there.
SPEAKER_01: This is how the Bible doesn't want you to you to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, prayer is just the intentional act of talking and listening to God.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Luke chapter 18.
SPEAKER_01: He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, God can't stand those kind of people.
SPEAKER_01: Uppity, self-righteous, religious snobs.
SPEAKER_01: They trusted in themselves that they were righteous and they treated others with contempt.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, told this parable to these people.
SPEAKER_01: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
SPEAKER_01: I fast twice a week.
SPEAKER_01: I give tithes of all that I get.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a virgin, and I watch the Fox News channel and vote Republican.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, but the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.
SPEAKER_01: But whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid to be a man or woman who prays, because it's a very humbling.
SPEAKER_01: And humbling is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Experience.
SPEAKER_01: All you may know to say to God is, Hey, God, you and I both know what a screw up I've been this past year.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't look down and go, Yeah, keep going.
SPEAKER_01: You're getting warmer.
SPEAKER_01: God says to that person, hey, you go down justified.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, you get it.
SPEAKER_01: As for the religious hump over there, no, you do not get it.
SPEAKER_01: You self-righteous weasel.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just tell you a couple things about prayer.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, prayer is about submission.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer's about submission.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to write these things down, you can, but let me just kind of point here, just to give you a frame of reference because I want us to be a people who pray.
SPEAKER_01: When you're at work this next week and somebody comes to you with a problem, listen to them.
SPEAKER_01: Let them pour out their heart to you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't try to fix them.
SPEAKER_01: But when they're done, just say, hey, would you be comfortable if I prayed for you right now?
SPEAKER_01: That second prayer out of a passive environment like here and into an active environment there.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to pull out your drawer and get out a candle and light it and turn the lights off.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's hold hands.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I've prayed with waiters and waitresses in restaurants.
SPEAKER_01: I ask them, hey, at the end of my day, I kind of pray back through my day by praying through people I've met.
SPEAKER_01: So now that I've met you, I'm gonna pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: What do I pray for you to be meaningful?
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh seriously?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Do people not pray for you?
SPEAKER_01: No, man, my grandmother, that's about it.
SPEAKER_01: But I smoke a lot of weed, so my grandma's really mad at me, so I don't know if she's praying anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Glad to meet you, pot smoker.
SPEAKER_01: I'll pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: What's your name?
SPEAKER_01: Do you're not gonna like pray at me, are you?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, you smoke the hippie lettuce because I know it puts you at peace or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Also makes you go to the sonic late at night and get a grape slush.
SPEAKER_01: And stuff with cheese on it.
SPEAKER_01: And this guy, we're holding hands in my waiter's like, uh, you want me to turn loose your hand?
SPEAKER_01: Does this make you awkward?
SPEAKER_01: How'd you know that you got get the munchies?
SPEAKER_01: Because I used to smoke weed.
SPEAKER_01: That's awkward when the preacher tells people he used to smoke weed.
SPEAKER_01: Did you feel what just happened right there?
SPEAKER_01: All your kids looked at you like he turned out okay.
SPEAKER_01: I know how you think, clones.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my trump card.
SPEAKER_01: Let me play it.
SPEAKER_01: I was not a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: But I smoked weed with a lot of Christians who I didn't want to be like.
SPEAKER_01: Because even when I was a pagan, I just thought, man, you guys should at least live what you believe.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, somewhere this should like, don't you think?
SPEAKER_01: Prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer's about submission.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is not where we get we use language to make God submit to our ideas.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is where we kind of find ourselves submitting to God's ideas, to God's will, to God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing about prayer, prayer is relational.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You're you're not as you're not his servants, you're his children.
SPEAKER_01: It's relational.
SPEAKER_01: We were in Pensacola.
SPEAKER_01: I always go to see my in-laws uh the day after Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: This year we went the day, we went Christmas afternoon because I just couldn't wait to get there.
SPEAKER_01: For five days.
SPEAKER_01: Day three I woke up, Jesus, are you coming back today?
SPEAKER_01: Uh and one of the things we had to do was my in-laws had to put their dog down, which is a big deal when you're 82 because it's your companions.
SPEAKER_01: We had to go get another dog, go to the pound.
SPEAKER_01: Never take your kids to the dog pound.
SPEAKER_01: Never.
SPEAKER_01: I got two daughters.
SPEAKER_01: I'll never take them to the dog pound again.
SPEAKER_01: I hate the dog pound.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's a humane society.
SPEAKER_01: I'm old school, it's a dog pound, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Shut up.
SPEAKER_01: And so we go to the dog pound, we're walking through there, and I look in, and there's four black Labrador puppies.
SPEAKER_01: And I just said to my wife, no, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to hear.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh.
SPEAKER_01: You've never owned a lab, have you?
SPEAKER_01: They don't stay that long.
SPEAKER_01: So I said, hey, let's go look down this tall woman.
SPEAKER_01: No, my 11-year-old walks in, takes about three steps, follows her, oh daddy, look at these, and starts playing with them through the fence and never moves for the next 25 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: And then, Daddy, please, can we get all four of them?
SPEAKER_01: What did you just say?
SPEAKER_01: What kind of pot are you- What?
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, girl, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: We have two miniature schnauzers.
SPEAKER_01: They get on my last nerve.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You've got two dogs, my 70-year-old, but they're not puppies anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Your mom's not a puppy anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Can I take her back?
SPEAKER_01: Apparently that's not funny.
SPEAKER_01: Because some now they're into the dog pound.
SPEAKER_01: I heard that.
SPEAKER_01: Just saying.
SPEAKER_01: If that's the if that's the fulcrum we're gonna leverage this on.
SPEAKER_01: And so my kids just sat there and played.
SPEAKER_01: They had names picked out and everything.
SPEAKER_01: We left.
SPEAKER_01: I went and ran an errand.
SPEAKER_01: I got to text my 17-year-old, Dad, Dad, are you bringing those dogs home?
SPEAKER_01: Have you lost your mind?
SPEAKER_01: Those things will grow up so big you could ride them to school.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what my kids understand.
SPEAKER_01: They understand the relational nature of our relationship.
SPEAKER_01: They know they can ask me for anything.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't mean they're good.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: What are you afraid of asking God for in prayer?
SPEAKER_01: Because prayer is relational.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, prayer is a place of authenticity.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't gotta try to be some preacher, Billy Graham, oh Lord, um, oh, I'm out of big words.
SPEAKER_01: You go, honey.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Just be yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, God, you know, I kind of drank too much the other night and I overate, and that's gluttony, and that's horrible.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to confess that, and I'm gonna be more mindful of that in the new year.
SPEAKER_01: Your turn, honey.
SPEAKER_01: Your wife wants to live with a man that's that self-aware.
SPEAKER_01: Don't pile up a bunch of phrases like they go on the street corner, oh, lead God and direct, bless the gift of the giver and hide the pastor behind the cross.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean in any planet?
SPEAKER_01: Last thing, prayer is proportional.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is proportional.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean when you say prayer is proportional?
SPEAKER_01: Tim Keller has a new book.
SPEAKER_01: Tim Keller is a pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.
SPEAKER_01: He's a very lucid thinker and a great writer.
SPEAKER_01: He wrote a book on prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It just came out a couple weeks, about a month ago or so.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody gave it to me for Christmas, one of our one of our prisoners.
SPEAKER_01: If you've not had an opportunity to get me your Christmas present, I'll be right here after the service, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you are out of town, but no.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody brought it to me.
SPEAKER_01: So I had all these all these great, you know, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna read this while I'm at my in-laws for these next five glorious, fun-filled days.
SPEAKER_01: I read 48 pages.
SPEAKER_01: That's all I got.
SPEAKER_01: Because there was football on.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife made this stuff called crock pot Christmas crack, and that's what it was.
SPEAKER_01: It was chocolate and peanuts and walnuts, and then you just drop it out on a cookie sheet and cause dine.
SPEAKER_01: And it would call out to me every day, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: Neil! And I was like, take me to your leader.
SPEAKER_01: And then after that, I was sleepy, and so I read 48 pages.
SPEAKER_01: It's like 200 something pages.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read the whole book.
SPEAKER_01: 48 pages.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a failure.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that Tim Keller says in the book, he says it's profound.
SPEAKER_01: I say prayer is proportional.
SPEAKER_01: It's my phrase, but this is what he said.
SPEAKER_01: He said it's profoundly altered.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is profoundly altered by the amount and accuracy of our knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: The clearer our understanding of God, the more ease.
SPEAKER_01: This is my phrase, the more ease to our being in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You ever get around people that you don't know and you're just nervous?
SPEAKER_01: A lot of you are that way towards God and you don't have to be.
SPEAKER_01: Just get to know God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying fake it in prayer, I'm saying get to know God and you just kind of realize, I I, okay, I this is this, this, this, this is this is good.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you two things about prayer, and we'll do the last one and be done.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Uh Rick Brannick, our executive pastor, that read earlier, he's gonna be leading a study on Tim Keller's book on prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it's not gonna be a Bible study intense, hey, we're gonna get together with graphs and flannel boards and uh we're gonna sit around with people and just go through a chapter or two of the book every time you meet on Wednesday night, starting on the 14th of January, right here in one of our one of our small Bible study rooms.
SPEAKER_01: But it's just gonna be real informal.
SPEAKER_01: We'll discuss the book, and then we'll finish the class by praying together.
SPEAKER_01: And know it, if you come, no one's gonna say, Hey, Bill, thanks for coming.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you lead us in a word of prayer?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm Jewish.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the things that we all want to get better at, but seldom do we take steps to get better at it.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing I want to say to you, I told you earlier that me and I had something for you.
SPEAKER_01: Ladies, if you're a single parent, I'm talking to you.
SPEAKER_01: But men, if you're married, I'm talking to all of you in this room, myself included.
SPEAKER_01: I want you starting this week, at least once a week, to gather your family together, and I want you to lead them in a time of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Did you feel that?
SPEAKER_01: All you women were like, rock and roll.
SPEAKER_01: You men were like, I'm gonna get you for that.
SPEAKER_01: This is my second Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: You rolled up on me with that.
SPEAKER_01: I sure did.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just confess my own thing that I don't enjoy praying with my wife.
SPEAKER_01: Did you feel that?
SPEAKER_01: What you talking about, Willis?
SPEAKER_01: I don't really enjoy praying with people.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, dude, you're the preacher.
SPEAKER_01: I know.
SPEAKER_01: That's horrible.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all should get a new preacher.
SPEAKER_01: I told my wife last night, I said, Hey, I want us to start praying, uh, just together, gather.
SPEAKER_01: And we do that, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: I don't mean just at bedtime, but just once she's that'd be great.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hey, I need to just confess.
SPEAKER_01: I don't really enjoy praying.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, I know you don't.
SPEAKER_01: It just feels contrived to me.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta push through that.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the other thing I've prayed all day.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying that's valid, I mean, I mean, that's an excuse, but I I pray for a living.
SPEAKER_01: I pray with people all the time, and and I love to pray with people.
SPEAKER_01: When I get home, there's a part of me that thinks, I'm off the clock now, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm prayed up.
SPEAKER_01: You pray.
SPEAKER_01: You probably need to practice.
SPEAKER_01: I think that, but I never say that.
SPEAKER_01: And so I this is I'm talking to myself.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what I want you to do, and it had to be some high and holy, and now we will go to the Lord in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I got this, honey.
SPEAKER_01: Prepare to be amazed.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's this.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's this.
SPEAKER_01: Look at your wife in the face and say, hey, what's most on your heart these days?
SPEAKER_01: What's weighing you down?
SPEAKER_01: Look at your kids and say, hey, what's weighing you down?
SPEAKER_01: Why do you want to know?
SPEAKER_01: Because your dad's gonna pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to pray specifically.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to pray some, oh Lord, bless Charlotte.
SPEAKER_01: You know, she's a good girl.
SPEAKER_01: Help her be a gooder girl.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Because your kid will go to her bedroom and text.
SPEAKER_01: My dad is a poser.
SPEAKER_01: You won't believe what he just said.
SPEAKER_01: No, just ask.
SPEAKER_01: I ask my kids, hey, what can dad be praying for you?
SPEAKER_01: And they come up with crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife comes up with crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, you can pray that you would pursue me more.
SPEAKER_01: No, hush.
SPEAKER_01: No, pursue you.
SPEAKER_01: We live together, we share a closet, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I see you all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I gotta pursue you?
SPEAKER_01: I already got you.
SPEAKER_01: But see, I want to be pursued.
SPEAKER_01: There's a phrase a man never says a man never says to his wife, I want you to pursue me.
SPEAKER_01: We say other things, but not that.
SPEAKER_01: But my wife says, I want you to pursue me.
SPEAKER_01: And I just think, okay.
SPEAKER_01: All right, thought I was on the team, but now we're trying out all over again.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not that.
SPEAKER_01: No, that's what it is.
SPEAKER_01: Thought we were, by the way, this Friday, it's our 22nd wedding anniversary.
SPEAKER_01: And in my mind, I think, yeah, in my mind, I think, what else do I have to do?
SPEAKER_01: I've been pursuing you for 22 years.
SPEAKER_01: Are you that fast?
SPEAKER_01: Have I not caught up yet?
SPEAKER_01: But I don't say those things.
SPEAKER_01: I just kind of go, okay.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Pursue you.
SPEAKER_01: Make a note of that.
SPEAKER_01: Pursue the person I live with and see every day and work with.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_01: People of the wind, when you give, be people who give, when you pray.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly and finally, let me let me say this and get done.
SPEAKER_01: Are you still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says in verse 16, when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so that their fasting may be seen by others.
SPEAKER_01: He says, hey, instead of He says, Wash your face.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you know, anoint your head.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go around saying, What's the matter, Bob?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just fasting today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so hungry I can eat a horse.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what the Bible talks about, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's not.
SPEAKER_01: I had this horribly revealing, enlightening, and illuminating experience with fasting when I was in college.
SPEAKER_01: Because I was in college, I just thought, hey man, I want to do what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to just become a Christian, go to church, and just I'll have somebody to do my funeral when I die or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I want to actually live this out.
SPEAKER_01: And so I started reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Nutty, I know.
SPEAKER_01: And I read Matthew 6, and Jesus says, win, win, win.
SPEAKER_01: And so I started practicing the discipline of fasting.
SPEAKER_01: No one does fasting, and you fast, you know, sometimes I fast from six in the morning to six at night.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like, for 40 days I'm gonna go without food.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, let me give you a definition for fasting.
SPEAKER_01: Fasting is the intentional avoidance of food for the purpose of focusing on the spiritual over the physical.
SPEAKER_01: That's what fasting is.
SPEAKER_01: It's not punishment, it's preparation.
SPEAKER_01: So I've been fasting.
SPEAKER_01: I was kind of bored in my dorm room.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I was like, well, I could read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: I've read a lot of that today.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I thought I'll go work out.
SPEAKER_01: So I go down to the basement, go down and work out.
SPEAKER_01: The baseball team is down there working out.
SPEAKER_01: And there's part of me that's kind of like, and I said to the coach, I said, Hey, do I need to leave?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, No, no, no, I can tell you work out.
SPEAKER_01: I thought, that's right, you can tell.
SPEAKER_01: Until I got over on the bench, by the way, when you don't eat for a while, you're really weak.
SPEAKER_01: And so I got into the bench press.
SPEAKER_01: And I looked on there, about 210.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I got this.
SPEAKER_01: And this thought went through my head.
SPEAKER_01: They know I'm a religion major.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be blown away when they see how much weight I can lift.
SPEAKER_01: And I racked it off the bar, you know what I'm talking about, and moved it out.
SPEAKER_01: And when I let it down, it almost crushed my larynx.
SPEAKER_01: I could, I was just like, and I'm thinking my mind, this is 210 pounds! I could pitch versus ten times.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't.
SPEAKER_01: It was on my neck, and I was like, and one of the guys walked over and grabbed it and pulled it up and go, Damn McClinn, I thought you were stronger than that.
SPEAKER_01: I was so angry and humiliated in that moment, and I wasn't mad at them, I was mad at God.
SPEAKER_01: You just embarrassed me in front of the whole baseball team.
SPEAKER_01: Now they're gonna think religion majors are all sissies.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the kind of thoughts I used to think.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think those anymore because I'm a pastor now.
SPEAKER_01: And I found an excuse to leave, stomped up the stairs, six flights of stairs to my dorm room, and I remember thinking this thought to God, I'm stronger than that.
SPEAKER_01: And very clearly, God said, That's your problem.
SPEAKER_01: And I sat there in my bed and I just said, I need to think about what you just said.
SPEAKER_01: Fasting is about not being physically strong, it's about being spiritually strong.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just tell you a few things about fasting.
SPEAKER_01: Fasting, first of all, is a tangible form of self-denial.
SPEAKER_01: It's a tangible form of self-denial.
SPEAKER_01: You you're not always going to get your way, and fasting prepares you to not get your way in life, not be so offended.
SPEAKER_01: Can you believe that?
SPEAKER_01: Fasting reveals how often we use food pleasure to avoid discomfort.
SPEAKER_01: Fasting reveals how often we use food pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: I'm bored, I eat.
SPEAKER_01: I'm angry, I eat.
SPEAKER_01: My boss is a jerk, I overeat.
SPEAKER_01: Or over-drink.
SPEAKER_01: Or over-self-medicate, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Food pleasure is what we use to, and fasting reveals how often we do that.
SPEAKER_01: It reveals the satisfying nature of obedience.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 4, Jesus is talking to this woman at a well, and his disciples are going to town to get food, and they come back and they're like, hey, we got food, and Jesus is like, I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: Well, got you a couple taquitos and a large coffee from Whataburger.
SPEAKER_01: Who doesn't love that?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is like, I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this my food is to do the will of my Father.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, obeying God fills us up in the same way that food does.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I mean fasting reveals the satisfying nature of obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Another thing about fasting, it increases spiritual leverage.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus and the gospels tell the story.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had been out teaching and he came back, and the disciples were trying to cast a demon out of this person, and the demon wouldn't come out.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus just walked over and just put his hand on the person and the demon left.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed, and the demon left, and the disciples were like, What's up?
SPEAKER_01: We've been trying it all day.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, This kind comes out only by prayer and fasting.
SPEAKER_01: There's a spiritual leverage that comes on your life when you fast.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk more about this.
SPEAKER_01: When I talk about uh in a couple weeks, when I talk about what do you do with your unbelieving child?
SPEAKER_01: Uh some of you, mom and dad, you need to fast for your kids.
SPEAKER_01: Some of what's vexing your kid's soul is not physical, it's spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that little girl he drug home or that little boy she drugg home.
SPEAKER_01: It's a spiritual battle.
SPEAKER_01: Remember this if you can touch it, it's not your enemy.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, we don't war against flesh and blood, but we war against principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places.
SPEAKER_01: So don't waste your life getting mad at who your kids have chosen to hang out with or friends or date or hook up with or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Just sometimes you just need, and don't tell them, hey, your father and I are fasting for you, you wayward little sinner.
SPEAKER_01: Because I said that to my kids and they don't like it now.
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_01: A couple more things that will be done.
SPEAKER_01: Fasting turns down the volume on the external and turns up the volume on the internal.
SPEAKER_01: Fasting just turns down the volume on all this out here.
SPEAKER_01: It's like light noise.
SPEAKER_01: And turns up the volume on what's in here.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, fasting reveals what controls you.
SPEAKER_01: It reveals what controls you.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you this?
SPEAKER_01: Because I want us to be a church.
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting, you're more than welcome to come be a part of this.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you can't fast for physical reasons or whatever, but I'd like us to get in the habit of just through the through the year that we just fast, we just abstain, we just say, hey, I'm gonna pass on lunch.
SPEAKER_01: We don't tell everybody, I'm not, I'll you guys go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: I'm fasting.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
SPEAKER_01: No, you just don't tell anybody.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe instead of going to eat lunch, you just have a Coke Zero or some orange juice or something and spend some time praying and then go back to work.
SPEAKER_01: But it's just a private thing between you and God where you just say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I want to I want to listen to what's in here and tune into that more than what's out here.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus says win, it's an invitation, it's a reminder.
SPEAKER_01: This is who you are.
SPEAKER_01: You're righteous.
SPEAKER_01: Don't practice your righteousness before men.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, your father who sees in secret, he'll reward you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to get all your reward here.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you when we do this, when we live in the wind, uh a couple things happen.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, you actually have treasure in heaven when you get there.
SPEAKER_01: And number two, you you're you're you're freed from worrying about all these trivial things he talks about in the rest of chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: When he says, Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?
SPEAKER_01: You're you're liberated from that.
SPEAKER_01: So living in the wind invites us into the bigness that God created us for.
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands, Ellen, speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus talks to you about practicing your righteousness because he's made you right.
SPEAKER_01: Depart you and be who God Himself knows you to be.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.