WEBVTT 00:00:02.959 --> 00:00:03.600 All right. 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:05.679 Morning, everybody. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:12.160 Well, super excited this morning. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:17.199 We're starting a brand new series on spiritual practices. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:24.719 You'll notice, hey, anyone walk in this morning and just feel like with these tables all kind of weird and you don't have your normal spot that you normally sit in and everything else? 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:31.280 Well, kind of like Gina mentioned this at the very beginning, is that once a year we love to do, we call it a roundtable series. 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:41.520 You know, I guess now it's square tables or cafeteria tables, rec tables, where what we do is we learn in a different way. 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:44.880 We normally, kind of in church world, right? 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:53.840 We have a sermon 30, 35 minutes where you sit and listen, but this time it's gonna be shorter, maybe 15 or 20 minutes, and then we're gonna have some time discussing everything. 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:58.159 These next couple weeks are extroverts dream and introverts nightmare. 00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:02.719 So um, but it's really a great way for a couple reasons. 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:07.519 One, it gets us to kind of learn um in a different way. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:09.760 It also is a great time for us. 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:11.040 We are too small of a church. 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:16.319 If there's people in this room that you don't know yet, we are too small of a church to not know everybody here. 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:18.879 Uh so I want to invite even people to get up and move. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:22.400 There's people that you don't necessarily know as well as we go. 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:45.359 I'm excited to talk about spiritual practices, though, because these spiritual practices and the idea of making intentional time working on our souls, I think it's one of the biggest things that hits at the center of societal curse today. 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:51.040 This idea of superficiality, this idea of instant gratification. 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:55.920 What spiritual practices do is they force us to go deeper. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:00.480 They force us not to just stay at the surface, but to get to that next level. 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:14.719 And one of the best parts about spiritual practices here that we're gonna be talking about in the idea of spiritual disciplines, is that they're not only for people who have been Christians for like a long time, or they're not only for people who are gifted in them, right? 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:18.639 Like there may be some people, Courtney did a great job of preaching last weekend. 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:22.000 Uh, it was, you know, her first time kind of preaching a solo sermon. 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:25.919 There may be some people who are like, I will never preach and I don't want to preach, and that's great. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:26.960 You don't have to do that. 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:29.520 That's not something you uh have to do. 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:34.000 With these spiritual practices that we're talking about, they're meant for every single person. 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:40.400 Whether or not you have been a Christian for a day, maybe you're not even a Christian yet, but you can still take part in these. 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:46.560 Or if you've been a Christian 50, 60, 70 years and you've never done them, you're invited to go in them. 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:48.319 Or let's say you do them all the time. 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:53.680 They're meant for people who have jobs, they're meant for people who are busy, who have kids and everything else. 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:55.919 Just ordinary people. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:02.479 And the way that these are structured is that they're not overly complicated. 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:05.039 They're actually incredibly simple. 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:11.280 But in life, how many of you know that simple doesn't mean easy? 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:12.560 Right? 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:17.360 There are things in life that are very simple for us to do. 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:20.240 It doesn't mean that they're easy for us to do. 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:27.680 So we're going to be talking about how we can make these practices and work on these things together. 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:38.960 There's a couple of, I think, challenges or obstacles as we talk about spiritual practices that I think just really make it difficult for us to do. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:42.319 I think kind of the first one is just we don't know how. 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:44.479 They're not a part of our normal society. 00:03:44.719 --> 00:04:00.960 When you read God's word, there's not a whole lot of instruction on how to do spiritual practices, things like prayer or fasting or meditation, silence, solitude, a lot of these other things, there is a little bit that we're gonna be looking at. 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:05.360 It's just kind of assumed when you read the Bible, you do them and you know how to do them. 00:04:05.599 --> 00:04:09.520 And that's because in the first century church, everyone did them. 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:14.719 Even if you didn't do them to Yahweh, maybe you did them with another God or something else, or you were a part of it. 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:20.240 If you just knock on the door like a random person, maybe who's not religious at all and said, when was the last time you meditated? 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:21.920 They may be like, I don't know if they've ever done that. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:26.560 Or when was the last time you prayed, or when was the last time you read the Bible or you read scripture or something? 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:28.000 It's not a normal thing. 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:30.560 So for us, we kind of we have to learn that. 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:39.040 It's difficult for us to train our minds to do something that is very foreign to our society. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:49.680 I think the other thing when it comes to these practices is that like many times in life, we try to wait until we're in the mood to do them. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:50.879 You know what I mean? 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:55.920 Like, it's just kind of like I'm not really in the mood to do that, so I'm just not gonna do it. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:03.360 Very rarely in my job do I wake up on a Monday morning and feel like going to work, like going down. 00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:09.439 I work, I work down into kind of in my garage, and it's rare that I'm just like, oh man, I am so excited. 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:15.439 The times that I get down there quicker, it's not out of excitement, it's out of like stress and anxiety, like I just have to get going. 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:16.480 Right? 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:24.000 It's not this idea of work or things, but how many of them in life like we have to do things even though we don't feel like them? 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:34.480 How easy is it for us in the work of our souls and our soul work that we will just simply wait until we feel like them to do them? 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:47.040 And then we wonder why our souls are wrecked, and we wonder why we have anxiety, we don't feel close to the Lord, or we can't go more than two or three minutes without grabbing a phone or grabbing something and just be comfortable with ourselves. 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:47.920 And we wonder why. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.240 It's because we don't spend the time to work on them. 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:58.720 It's you know rare that I am super excited and thrilled about going to the gym when I'm on my way there. 00:05:59.519 --> 00:06:03.600 But every time, I'll tell you every single time I've walked out, I'm so glad I did. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:07.120 And it's the same way with these spiritual practices. 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:15.120 Every time you're done, if you were to just spend an hour doing any one of these, you're not gonna, after you're done, you're not like, well, that was wasted time. 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:18.240 Every time it's so incredible. 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:23.680 So, what we're taking a look at today, we're taking a look at the spiritual practice of prayer. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:34.480 I decided to start with this one because prayer is something that I believe that most of us on some level in some way know. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:45.600 It's something that we, even if we don't entirely know, or we're like, I don't know if I would ever be comfortable with praying out loud in front of people or on a microphone or something. 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:50.560 Most of us in some way have spent some time just communicating with God. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:07:01.040 And when you boil down what prayer is at its simplest, is that it is just direct communication with God as a part of a personal relationship. 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:03.199 It's just communicating with the Lord. 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:10.560 Even if you're not entirely sure that you've prayed before, but in some way you have prayed to something that's outside there, you've talked to something that's out there, that's prayer. 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:17.680 There's a verse here that I think just I love that just is a very simple kind of model of what prayer is. 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:19.839 This is by David who wrote this, Psalm 5.3. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:22.399 It says, In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice. 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:26.319 In the morning I lay my request before you and wait expectantly. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:30.399 When you see this, it's more than just, oh wait, what's up, man? 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:33.519 Afraid I'm gonna tumble on it and break this, break it. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:42.639 There's uh there's this picture here that's more than just a one-way relationship, right? 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:52.079 It talks about that God hearing, he's actively listening, and you're actively speaking, and David's actively waiting. 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:58.959 So it's God is a part of prayer, we're a part of prayer, and then we have to do something, which is just sit and wait. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:10.079 A lot of times in my prayer, I do a lot of like speaking out, but I don't know if I spend a lot of time like waiting for the Lord and just spending time with him. 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:20.000 So before we get into our discussions, there's three observations or three things that I wanted to talk about briefly that'll help guide our discussion here. 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:23.920 So the first one is that prayer is something we learn. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:25.360 Did you know that? 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.360 You can start praying and not be very good at it. 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:30.639 Hallelujah, right? 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:31.680 Does that make you feel good? 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:34.240 That, like, hey, I can start something and not be good at it? 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:40.559 Doesn't that like give freedom to you to be like, oh, you mean that it's something that like I can be bad and get better? 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:41.519 Like, yeah. 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:44.320 One of the reasons we call these spiritual practices. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:46.080 You have to practice them. 00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:50.159 And you have to continually move and continually work on. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:54.879 I want to take a look at a pro at a at a passage here in Luke 11. 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:58.399 It says, one day Jesus was praying in a certain place. 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:04.960 When he finished, one of his disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:08.960 So these disciples, they were people who grew up Jewish. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:11.840 They were very well acquainted with praying. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:16.240 The amount of time that they spent praying was a lot compared to what we do. 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:24.559 But yet, there was something that when they saw Jesus pray, they said, there's something that we're missing. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:30.000 Jesus, there's something that you do that I want to know. 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:33.279 There's a way that I can get better at it. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:44.399 I think so many times we can become so discouraged about praying because maybe we compare ourselves to people in the Bible, to Jesus, or even David, or even other people. 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:53.039 Have you ever met some of those people that are just prayer warriors and they like will just pray the right things out loud or like they just spend all that time and we can compare ourselves? 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:54.559 And it's like, I am just nowhere like that. 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:58.159 It's okay to realize, well, that's fine because I'm learning. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:09:59.440 You know? 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:04.000 You don't immediately tell me in a couple weeks is gonna be running a marathon here, right? 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:06.559 I have jogged in my life. 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:09.039 You don't have to laugh at that. 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:14.000 I have in my life, I have in my life spent time jogging. 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:16.960 It's absurd for me to compare myself to him, right? 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:19.519 And he was like, well, I'm just I'm not, it's like obviously not. 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:27.120 Now, if I got to the point where I was jogging, I can get to that point, but like the absurdity of trying to compare ourselves with things that we're not good at. 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:32.480 I, you know, I I've gotten away from it the last couple years, but I love like carving and and whittling. 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:35.759 I started uh having Vivi do some of that stuff, and it's kind of fun. 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:37.200 I'm showing her how to do that. 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:43.519 And the things that I carved in the very beginning were not as good to the things that I did after a couple years into it, and that's okay. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:46.879 It's okay. 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:49.840 Prayer is something that we learn. 00:10:53.279 --> 00:11:03.679 You know, I think of it the way that like my kids started talking to me when they were younger, and I was just so excited. 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:10.080 You remember if you have kids, or remember like that first word or that first time they have the sentence and they kind of go and they move? 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:17.600 I never looked at any of my kids when they had a sentence and never felt judgment, like, man, you just are so bad at talking. 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:24.080 Of course, they're not as good as someone who's 15 or 16 or 30. 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:27.039 That's the way that God views our prayers. 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:31.279 If we just have very meager prayers and we don't know, that's the way God looks at those. 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:41.519 The next observation that I want to take a look at to talk about is like, let's not make our prayers too complicated. 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:54.879 We many times is try to turn these prayers into something that they're not supposed to be. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:02.559 Prayer when you go very and you boil it down, it's just direct communication with the Lord. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:09.440 Going back to our passage here, Jesus teaches the disciples to pray. 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:19.120 So I'm excited to read this verse because if you want to know, like God Himself, an expert on prayer, is going to teach us to pray. 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:26.320 How there have been hundreds of thousands of books in the last 2,000 years to deal, to teach us how to pray, right? 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:27.919 Have you ever read some of those books or you see them? 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:29.440 They're like everywhere. 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:35.120 So you have to imagine that this is the best teaching ever, and this is like what it's going to be. 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:41.519 But when you let's read what Jesus' prayer, and you the Luke 11, 2. 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:48.720 He said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:59.120 Give us each day our daily bread, forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us, and lead us not into temptation. 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:03.200 That's it. 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:05.840 I mean, think about that. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:11.919 You have these disciples who have grown up praying, they see something special in Jesus, and it's like, Lord, teach us what to do. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:14.320 And it's a couple of sentences here. 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:17.360 So incredibly simple. 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:25.759 I would think that, like, if you were to ask a Jesus, Jesus, Jesus today, like, Lord, just I really want to get better at prayer. 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:26.799 Tell me what to do. 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:28.080 Like, how would I do this? 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:29.919 He would just say simply that. 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:38.559 He starts out by saying father in that relationship. 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:45.039 There's intimacy in how we talk with parents and how we talk to our kids. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:46.080 And you know what? 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:49.200 There's all different types of communications with kids, isn't there? 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:53.919 There have been times that our kids have come and then be like, hey, you know, I've been thinking a lot about this. 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:56.720 I've done a really good job, I'm very responsible. 00:13:56.799 --> 00:13:59.200 I think it's time for me to get a cell phone, right? 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:06.159 And they come to like bring up all of their arguments and kind of talk very formally about all these things when asking for something. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:10.480 But there are also those places where kids just go, I need a snack now. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:28.000 There's places in communication with silliness, and there's times where we know that kids, when they communicate with us, don't aren't always the most rational, but you know that it's real, what they are feeling is real for them. 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:38.399 There's just this intimacy that's there that you see that right at the very beginning Jesus talks about. 00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:42.559 And then look at the rest of the prayer. 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:44.879 He says, Father, hollow be your name. 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:47.679 Hollowed just to mean, mean your name is holy. 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:48.799 There's another way of saying that. 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:50.000 Your name is holy. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:52.879 Your kingdom come, your rule and reign come down. 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:56.240 Wherever, Jesus, you are not, I pray that you go there. 00:14:56.879 --> 00:14:59.279 Where you are not in my heart, I pray you go there. 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:01.440 Where you are not in my marriage, I pray you go there. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:03.919 Where you're not on my job, I pray you go there. 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:06.159 Your kingdom come. 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:10.159 Give me what I need today. 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:17.519 Just, these are the things I need, and these are the things I'm asking for. 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:20.480 And by the way, Lord, forgive me. 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:22.480 Here's a part of the prayer that's introspective. 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:24.559 Forgive me for what I've done. 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:31.679 But also help me remember that I also need to forgive other people. 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:39.120 It's so simple, but doesn't mean that it's easy. 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:45.519 The last observation that we're looking at is that prayer changes us. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:56.080 One of the main thing that prayer is, is that prayer just prayer equals change. 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:05.679 Prayer, I believe, is the main way that God changes us. 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:07.120 It doesn't have to be. 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:08.720 It can be changed anyways. 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:11.200 I believe that prayer is the main way. 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:20.480 I know many times, at least for me, and I think others, when I've talked to you, it's like, what's a big struggle with spending time praying? 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:27.039 And a lot of the times it's because there's something that I know God wants to work with me on, and I don't want to work with it yet. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:28.960 You know what I mean? 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:34.720 There's this sin that I'm doing that I just know that if I spend time, I'm gonna get it. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:42.559 There's this idea that we know that prayer equals change. 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:46.480 But the best part is you don't have to get all that sorted out. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:48.639 Quite the opposite. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:56.320 Going back to the child relationship example, my kids don't have to speak to me perfectly in order for me to know what they're trying to say. 00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:03.840 They don't have to have the right grammar or the right attitude, they just simply make their requests and I listen. 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:13.680 And I'll notice, I'll tell you what, I've also, there's been times where I have in discipling other people. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:26.319 If you have somebody who's does not want to change in some way, if it's just like, nope, I'm doing this and the heels are dug in, I'm not looking at anyone in particular here. 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:28.160 So if I catch your eyes, I'm not talking about you. 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:42.559 I found that for those people who have who just either refuse or just change his heart, prayer is the first spiritual practice to go out the window. 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:45.599 See, it's much safer for me. 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:46.880 I'll just sit and read my Bible. 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:49.200 I'll just sit and listen to worship music in the car. 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:54.799 Prayer is the first one that goes because we know there's something about, like, for lack of a better word, it's just like God rubs off on us. 00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:56.640 Like, as we spend time with him. 00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:00.240 Jesus, everywhere in the gospels, was moved to compassion with people. 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:06.960 The more time you spend in one-on-one time with God, the more you will have compassion for other people. 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:21.279 The more time you pray those prayers, when you mess up really bad and you're asking God for forgiveness, in the moment it will expose the people that you have chosen not to forgive in your own life. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:34.559 There's this verse here in James that says, When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend what you get on your pleasure, your pleasures here. 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:37.839 See, this prayer can reveal your own motivations. 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:47.039 That is you pray, as you begin to do that, you begin to notice, like, oh, I think maybe the thing that I'm asking is not for the right reasons. 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:51.680 And this is something for us to be really important. 00:18:51.839 --> 00:19:00.559 I've heard, you know, sometimes it's like you have to pray a certain prayer, you have to ask for certain things, but the condition of your heart matters more so than what you ask for. 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:06.400 And the best way to overcome this is just to be honest with God. 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:12.880 It's okay to say, God, I'm asking for this, but I think my motivation is messed up, but I still want it. 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:21.839 God, I know I have that big hairy sin in my life and that big area that your kingdom is not there yet. 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:28.000 Help me get to the point where I want to change it. 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:29.920 You don't even have to want to change it yet. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:32.400 Help me get to the point where I even want to, because I don't want to. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:33.839 That's okay. 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:39.920 So this week, we're about ready to break into our uh into our groups. 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:49.200 This week, I what I want you to do is I want to challenge you to pick a time when you can spend some moments praying with God. 00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:51.359 And there's two ways that you can do this. 00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:54.000 There's the easy way and the hard way. 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:55.200 We'll start with the hard way first. 00:19:55.279 --> 00:19:56.960 This is what I think is the hard way. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:02.240 Uh go into your calendar and actually find some time on the calendar that you can just pray. 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:03.839 You gotta put it in there. 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:07.519 You just you gotta find it and you gotta put a reminder in your phone. 00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:12.640 I have a, you know, I have a you know, an iPhone, so you can, I love like even just the Siri stuff. 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:13.200 You can just press it. 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:17.440 Like, hey, remind me to pray every day at one o'clock or whatever, and it will do it. 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:21.599 Or however it works, but find some time to actually schedule. 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:25.119 And remember, this is something that you get better at. 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:31.680 I know for me, a lot of the times, like when I start working out to the gym and I haven't been for a while, I won't start small. 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:36.000 I'm like, I'm gonna make up for all the time that I miss, and I'm just gonna work out for an hour and a half super hard. 00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:37.759 And that never works that well. 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:44.720 The same thing for spiritual practices, too, is like, don't feel free, don't start with like an hour. 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:48.400 Start with like 10 minutes and get better at it. 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:51.200 The other way, so that's the hard way. 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:53.440 I think that that's one of the best ways to do it. 00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:59.920 The second way that I think is a little bit easier, find something that you're already doing and add prayer to it. 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:03.599 Find something that you're already doing and add prayer to this. 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:05.680 I have gotten away from this, I will confess. 00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:09.359 I got back into it this week because I knew I would be preaching. 00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:15.759 Um I started having a time that anytime I was driving alone, I would pray. 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:23.920 I would shut off my, you know, the music or the podcast or whatever else that I would listen to, and I would just spend that time in prayer. 00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:28.960 And it was amazing because it was like I have just built-in prayer time when I just drive. 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:33.039 And sometimes, if it was a 20, 30-minute drive, I'm praying for 20-30 minutes. 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:40.960 And sometimes if I'm just picking gunner up for the ninth time that day from school from doing water polo practice, it's just a four-minute prayer, and that's okay too. 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:49.599 It could be anything that you do chores, dishes, getting up in the morning, or hopefully most of us are showering every day. 00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:51.599 Just time in the shower, whatever it is, right? 00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:56.880 Find just something you're already doing and just take that time and pray. 00:21:57.119 --> 00:21:59.359 Such a simple thing that we could do. 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:12.880 There's a great book called Practicing the Presence of God by a um Carmelite monk named Brother Lawrence, and he talked about how he would just do these menial tasks. 00:22:13.039 --> 00:22:17.920 He was like repairing shoes and he would do dishes, and he actually hated doing these tasks. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:20.000 But as a monk, you just really can't complain. 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:24.720 But he said that as he was doing that, he invited God into it, and they were the most precious times to him. 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:28.400 And he would just practice his presence with him. 00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:33.839 So, right now, what I'm gonna do is we're gonna go to this. 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:35.039 Bob, are you in here, Bob? 00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:37.039 We can pass these things out. 00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:38.240 Oh, there you go. 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:40.240 So we can go ahead and pass these out. 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:42.960 We're gonna break up into our tables now. 00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:44.799 So we can go ahead and slide. 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:50.480 If you, uh, like I said, feel free to get up and you can move or go to another table or spread out. 00:22:50.559 --> 00:22:54.799 Probably like no more than like six, so I know that they're kind of mixed, so maybe we can move them out. 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:55.759 Feel free to get up. 00:22:55.920 --> 00:22:56.960 I'm gonna ask you a question. 00:22:57.119 --> 00:22:59.839 Who here, everyone listen to me, who here really likes to talk? 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:00.640 Raise your hands. 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:02.960 Raise your hands. 00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:06.960 There's a couple of you that I never like to talk, then your hands aren't raised yet. 00:23:07.039 --> 00:23:12.079 I'm not talking about. 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:14.000 All right, here's the deal. 00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:19.920 If you like to talk, I want to ask that you talk the least. 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:24.720 Because what you can do is, is you will talk the entire time. 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:29.599 And I do, and I say this as a guy who really likes to talk and loves to hear the sound of my own voice. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:30.079 Amen? 00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:32.319 I became a pastor and a preacher. 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:34.400 So we're gonna go through these. 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:36.400 There's four uh questions as we go through. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:39.440 You don't have to get through them all if you only get through one or you want to skip them. 00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:41.680 These are here to serve you, you are not here to serve these. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:46.720 What I'm gonna do is at the very end, I'm gonna call us back together and kind of end in prayer and go ahead and go. 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:48.880 So go with God.