Chris Hodges - Daily Time With God
Come on, give God all the praise, everybody, and let me say thank you to you as well for the difference that we all get to make together. Let me look straight in the camera and say hello to all of our campuses across Alabama and Georgia, to the people that are watching live right now online somewhere around the world or on-demand later throughout the week. But how about we give up our best hand clap today for those that now are in 26... we had the honor of being in, not 22 last time I mentioned it, it's now 26 of Alabama's Department of Corrections Facilities.
Come on, say the biggest hello you can. you're not a project to us. You are our church family. God bless you guys today, and thank you for that. That was a very special moment Friday night that we had with the Legacy Team, and honestly, we weren't even intending on sharing that video other than that night, Friday night, but It was so powerful, I told the team, I said the whole church needs to see the difference that we get to make together. And for those of you who are wondering what this team is all about, this Legacy Team, they do what just actually everybody, we hope everybody in the church does, and that is goes through our three-step Growth Track, just three.
We don't need 30 or 300. We just need three Sunday nights that you can carve out to let us take you on the journey of what it looks like to be a member at Church of the Highlands and then also to discover your spiritual gift, your purpose. And so actually, step two, which is tonight, because it's the second Sunday, at 6 p.m., people will be coming to go through two different assessments, or profiles, a personality profile and a spiritual gifts assessment, and it's with the belief that your design reveals your destiny.
How you're made points to what you were called to do. You are fearfully and you're wonderfully made, and so, we help you discover that and so that you can jump on what is now one of 31 different teams: ushers, and parking, and small group leaders, and people who serve coffee, and those who have, they believe, the gift of giving. All these people on the Legacy Team have self-identified. We didn't pick 'em out. They picked it out themselves, the fact that they believed that they were called to make more than they need and to put it in strategic places to advance kingdom purposes.
And so, only thing we really do with that team is we give them a whole lot more information that we have time to give you about the opportunities here at our church to accelerate the vision. So, if that's something you think you might be interested in, just go through the Growth Track and you'll get that opportunity along with all the other serving opportunities. I also wanted to mention one other thing to you before we jump into the message and that is were always had a ministry to take care of widows and orphans.
You know, the Bibles very clear about our responsibility there. It doesn't even really say it in a soft way. It says we absolutely need to make sure that we take care of widows and orphans, and for years, were had a ministry, but about six months ago, I really felt in my heart that we were to take a little bit deeper dive to take care of those who've lost their spouses. And I got a team together and said go study what other churches do. That's what we always do. We try to find some best practices. My team brought back some information, and for the past six months, were been working really to enhance what we all do together to make sure that they are cared for at the highest level.
My mom is a widow, and we need to make sure that we take care of them at the highest level. And so, I'm here to announce today that in a couple weeks, were having a special event for those of you who might be widowed, and we would love to serve you. Were gonna have a brunch together on the first Saturday of May. We wanna make sure we get to know you by name. We wanna hear about the needs that perhaps we could meet at your home or other practical needs, and were gonna serve you. We have small group curriculum our team has written. We've kind of gone through one semester as a beta test of this material. I've actually hired a widow to lead all of this for us. She's a dynamic leader.
How many of y'all think this is a good idea that we take care of the widows that are among us? Amen! And so, one thing I am gonna ask for you to do if you are widowed, there's a spot on your Connection Card that you can mark and let us know, and that just makes sure that our administration, that we have you in our system so that you get all this information. And we wanna make sure that that happens.
Today were in week number two of a seven-part series called "Disciple: The Journey of Spiritual Growth," and it's something I'm very, very passionate about is that not just filling auditoriums and not even seeing all the people that have given their lives to Jesus, but we have some very clear instructions from Jesus himself, not just to see people saved or have church on a Sunday, but to take them on a journey of spiritual growth, that we are discipled. If you'll notice this, you can barely see it, but at the bottom here, there are what we call here the church some badges.
These are actually look exactly like what's at the top of your app experience, and they represent the different steps: salvation, baptism, small groups, et cetera, et cetera. And actually, I don't know if you know this or not, but everybody's app experience is different from the person next to you. So as you mark these, they give you a different experience, give you a different set of information based on where you are in your spiritual growth so kind of an interesting part to this.
But Jesus said this in Matthew chapter 28. It's actually the final words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. It says, "Therefore go and make," say it out loud, "go and make disciples," the word in the Greek literally means a student or one who is being instructed, "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them," we have Baptism Sunday. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were baptized last Sunday, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you".
So there's a lot of commands in the Bible, you know that, but sometimes it's not very obvious of how to actually do them, and what my job is and your church's job is is not just to tell you what the commands are, but to teach you how to observe them. Were gonna show you. In fact, todays message is gonna be very, very practical. It's gonna be as teachy, not preachy as you've ever heard a message. you're gonna go home with some practical ways that you can obey one of the commands that is in the Bible. And surely, if you do that, God's with you in a very special way. He's always with you, but he's with you in a very special way.
The more you take this deep dive into your discipleship, you're growing as a Christian. you're on this spiritual journey, and today, were gonna give you what is really probably the most baseline experience that every disciple needs and that is daily time with God. Some people would call it your quiet time, that you're gonna start your day as a Christian, not just every Sunday but every day as a Christian, and you're gonna spend some time with the Lord. And for some people, that's what you've been doing for a long time, and you love it. And there's many people who know you need to do it, but you've never figured out how to actually make that work.
So you're kinda in, you're out, you're in, you're out. But I'm gonna show you today how important it is, and I'm gonna be very practical. And I think I'll give you enough information today to make this something you'll actually really, really enjoy. Jesus said in John chapter 8, "If you hold to my teaching," so one translation says if you actually abide in what I have said, "If you'll spend time with me every day in my teachings, you are really my," and there's our word, "you're really my disciples," the ones who actually apply this on a regular basis, "And then you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free".
James chapter 1 says, "But if anyone keeps looking," so not just a Sunday experience, "but you keep looking steadily into God's law, he will not only remember it, but will do what it says, and God will," and this is what I want for you, by the way, "God will greatly bless," makarios in the Greek, the original language of the New Testament. Makarios actually means you're happier. So, it doesn't mean your life necessarily circumstantially would be better, but you're happier. I know you'll be happier, by the way, if you can learn this incredible discipline of a quiet time, a daily time with God. I don't actually like to call it a quiet time, by the way, just a funny story, it's because mine's not very quiet. I think some peoples is too quiet, and they fall asleep through half of it.
So anyway, that's not what your quiet time is supposed to look like, but I'm gonna show you how to spend this time with God. I learned it when I got saved. I've been in church my whole life. Some of you know my story. At 15 years old, I came to a church like this, where I saw on fire Christians, and I was kinda freaked out at first. I'd never seen drums on a stage. I'd never seen anything like this before, and I was just right over left, looking around like these people are nuts and I think I want what they have, you know?
I just think I'll have some of this, and so, I kinda didn't respond, honestly, at first. I gave my life to Jesus. I had a radical transformation, a true born-again experience in my bedroom at 15 years old, the Christmas of 1978. I've been knowing the Lord a long time now. Forty-four years, I've known the Lord. Right after I got saved, I got involved in my youth group, and my youth pastor was the one who discipled me. And when I say discipled me, it was things like, "Hey, were gonna show up," and he grabbed some of the student leaders, some of the kids in the youth group, "Hey, whoever wants to be discipled, join me. Come back to the church at 6 o'clock in the morning".
I hadn't set my clock at 6 a.m. in my life, you know, and he said, "Were gonna meet at 6 o'clock before you go to school. Were gonna spend some time with God. I'm gonna teach you how to pray, and I'm gonna teach you how to read your Bible. And I'm going to tea", and he was holding this, he held me to a very high standard, and there was something about it that I liked the challenge. It was something fun about, okay, I've never done this before, and I've got somebody who's gonna walk me through the process.
Well, today I wanna do that for you, okay? I've told you how important it is to spend time with God every day, but I've never actually gone through the whole process, and that's what you're gonna get today, all right? So this is gonna be very practical. Again, I'm not preaching a sermon to you. I'm gonna teach you how to obey this command of spending time with God every day. And I've got four points, and the first one is, I want you to dedicate a specific time to spend with God.
So I want you to carve out an appointment. In other words, I want you to put it on, if you use calendars on your phone, I would love for you to say, man, from this time to this time, I'm spending time with God, and I'd love for you to start with at least 15 minutes. So, even if you've got a 5:30 flight tomorrow out of Birmingham Airport or what, you're gonna go 15 minutes earlier, and you're gonna start your day with God. you're gonna find some time. If it's not the morning, which personally I think the morning is the best time to do that, but I want you to carve out some time. Make an appointment with God every day, so you're gonna set aside a specific time, and I will say, there is something special about mornings.
If you do not spend time with God in the morning, it's later in the day, I don't judge you, but that's not best. Anyway, so I just say, I'm just kidding, but not really, 'cause Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Hannah, Job, Hezekiah, Daniel, all the greats in the Bible spent time with God, the Bible records, early in the morning. In fact, King David, the great psalmist, said, "In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning, I lay my requests before you and I wait expectantly". And of course, we see this modeled by the one we serve as well, Jesus himself: "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off and he had himself a place, a specific place, where he prayed".
You say, "Chris, why is the morning so important"? Well, I think for a couple reasons. One is it does, anything you can do for God first before you do it for yourself or the world is better. So, that's your time. That's why, by the way, we worship God on Sunday, the first day of the week. We're letting God know: you're the priority of my week. That's why we're here. It's how... why we give the way we give. Every part of our life, we gonna give God the first, and I just think it's something special about setting God as the priority of the day. Can I hear a good amen, everybody?
Right, yeah, you know that. And then also, it just helps you start your day off right. So if you've never done this before, I wanna show you how better you'll treat people, better your attitude is. Everything's gonna be better if you started off with worship and not "Good Morning America". Come on, somebody, right? Like, if you aren't looking at the news or Instagram, but if you start off with just a worship song and getting your heart right, and start off the day forgiving people. And I like to even forgive the people that are gonna hurt me throughout that day. Lord, in advance. Just, it's gonna happen. Soon as I get on 280, God, it's gonna happen, right?
Okay, and so, I get my heart right first, you know. I like to think of it as you're tuning the instrument before the concert, not after. Wanna make sure everything's tuned up. I'm gonna get it right. Okay, so I'm gonna dedicate this time. Second thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna prepare a place with some resources. Now, this is probably the thing I've never taught. Actually, I've never brought what I'm getting ready to bring to you. I think this is gonna help you a lot, but I'm actually gonna tell you what my morning time looks like. Yours doesn't have to look just like this, but I'm highly recommending some of these things. 'Cause mine first starts with... and they'll put it on the screen here. I'm gonna bring my little table out in front of me here. But mine starts off with coffee, okay? It's that heavenly bean juice. Can I get an amen?
Before I read my Bible, I'm telling you man, I just need a little something, something on the inside to help me throughout the day, so I get my coffee. Tammy actually makes it the night before, sets the timer, and I get up early. I'm an early riser by nature, so I'm the first of us that are up, and I get up really early. And it's already sitting there, and I thank you, baby. That's just awesome. And then I get my coffee, and then the next thing I do is I go to my Bible. And I actually brought my Bible today to church. I don't bring this Bible out of the house. I've had this Bible since 1982, the year after I graduated.
Somebody gave me this Bible, and I love it. When I say I love it, this is the one I've been reading out of every morning for a long time. In fact, I don't even know where things are in the Bible, but I know where they are in this Bible. Some of y'all know what I'm talking about. I know what side of the page. You can name a scripture and I can tell you what side of the page it's on, and I've marked it. And I've got notes and stuff in here. I've had it rebound three times. Just, I just love this particular Bible. It's very dear to me. I don't bring it out of the house. I used to travel with it when I spoke. I brought it to church.
Years ago, I was on a trip. I was going to speak in the San Diego area, and then I had a second trip up in the San Francisco area. I was speaking at two different events, and I don't know what hit me, but right before I left the house, I was packing my briefcase and my backpack. And I was getting ready to put my Bible in my backpack, and something spoke to me and just said, "Don't bring it this time". And I was afraid I'd lose it or leave it somewhere, and it would be... when I say it would be tragic, it would be tragic if that happened for this particular Bible. It's not like it couldn't be replaced, but this ones very, very dear to me.
And anyway, I had just landed in San Diego. Those that were hosting me took me to lunch, and when we got back to our car, it had been broken into and everything in the car was gone, all my clothes, my computer, everything in there. And I don't know, it's just an interesting story, but ever since then, it never leaves the house. I decided to bring it out today for you because it's helping me teach this right now. Because when I say this is dear to me, this is dear to me. In fact, let me say it this way. My favorite part of my quiet time is the Bible part. I love the Word of God. I love reading it every day. I can read it. It's just the easiest part of my quiet time.
And one of my disciplines is that I read the "One Year Bible" reading. So, years ago, more than 30 years ago, people put together the Bible and gave basically a little Old Testament portion, a little bit of the New Testament, a Psalm, and a Proverb, and if you do it every day, you read through the whole Bible. It's the "One Year Bible". There's days that I miss, and there's days you'll miss. And I don't let it stack up, you know, so where I have a lot to read. I just go to that days reading. I'm faithful to it most of the days, but I love it.
So that's how I start. That's what I read, and that's what we're encouraged you to do for years. And when I finish, and you're gonna think this is weird, and I just don't care, you know, so, when I hold it to my heart at the end of it. Whew. I just love the Bible, and I kiss it. And I thank God for the Word of God. What a privilege it is to have the Word of God and to read God's holy Word every day of my life, and, you know, the Bible says that your words are like honey on my lips. And I just, it's dear to my soul. Can I get a good amen, everybody? I just love the Word of God.
And so, if you'd like to have some other resources, there's two that I'll show you. One is, there's actually a Bible you can buy called the "One Year Bible," where they've broken up the passages for you. You just go to a day. It's like this is. I just happened to turn to April 2, and it already has the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalm, and a Proverb. The other resource that I wanted you to know about is a resource that my pastor, I still have a pastor, by the way. My pastor from Louisiana, Pastor Larry Stockstill, years ago wrote what's called the "One Year Devotional".
So it actually takes the four readings every day and just puts them at the bottom, so I look them up in my Bible, but it has a devotional, just short paragraph that ties all the four readings into one thought. Now, we have this on our website and on our app. I don't use it. So here I am promoting the app and telling you don't use it, all right. Let me tell you why. I don't because I can't touch digital things until I'm finished with my time with God. Because I don't have red dots on my phone. Are y'all listening to me, everybody? Ain't no red dot on my phone.
I've had a friend of mine, I saw his phone and, like, I saw the red dot on his emails, and his, like, had 357 unread emails. I'd need counseling if that was the ca... I can't do that, all right? So, I don't get people like that. That's who you are, God bless you. You don't know what you're missing. Like, there could be something really important. Anyway, so I don't have that. I have no red dots. Everything's red, but if there was a red dot and I showed up to look up this stuff, I'd be tempted to read what's there, so I don't even look at it until I'm done. And here's a little picture of it if you wanna order a copy yourself.
So, then the next thing that I had in my stack, and this is literally my real stack at home, I have a prayer guide. So, I'm convinced that people wanna pray. They just don't know how. And so years ago, we put together this little booklet called "A Prayer Guide," and if you come on Saturday, you can get a hard copy. I asked them to get them for all the campuses today, but we give out literally thousands of these, and we didn't have enough. I'm gonna get some for you guys in the coming weeks, but if you want a prayer guide, this is also again on our app. I don't like to read on the app for that yet, but anyway, it's on there, but yeah, you can use the Lord's Prayer as a prayer guide, the Tabernacle Prayer.
It just helps you through prayer. And then I've even added like an addendum to it all, and this is actually my little sheet. I grabbed it from my study this morning. I spend time with God every day in my little office in the basement of our house. But this is my personal prayer guide. So I have my family's names, the leaders of our church, the leaders of our country, and it has to be updated because, you know, some of those things change, the leaders of our state. Here, right here it's the mayors of every city where we have a campus, and I pray for them by name every day.
I met with Mayor Woodfin this week and told him, I looked straight in the eyes and said, "I want you to know I love you, and I pray for you every single day". And he said, "Oh, Chris, I appreciate that so much". And then Highlands campuses here and their campus pastors and our ministries, and here's our vision. I pray for people to know God. I get passionate right here, find freedom. Lord, let them discover their purpose, make a difference. Here are the churches, some of the churches that I'm involved in, other churches.
In fact, this final section is called "The Pastors That I Pastor". I have about 40 pastors that call me their pastor. I call them my "pips," you know, pastors that I pas... it's PC and the Pips, anyway, so. And so, yeah, and so, some of my close friends, and then the last thing on my list is the people who pray for me. So I have seven personal intercessors, but I'm just saying, what I'm trying to say to you is that you can have a great time with God in the morning if you're ready for it, and I just would love for some of you who've not ever had a quiet time or spent time with God or if you've had it and you just kinda walked away from it, would you spend some time this afternoon and maybe gather some stuff, maybe make your own little list of things you're gonna pray for, and get all this together and get ready for tomorrow morning and watch what happens. It's just gonna help you.
The next thing that I have at my time is I actually have a little boombox. I don't know if we call those that anymore. We probably don't. But it's a little speaker, like a little Bose speaker that Bluetooths to my phone, and I have prayer playlists, a worship playlist. I have a portion of it's instrumental, because I can't pray if there's words being sung, but I like the music, and then I have a whole section that's music with the songs that I like with words so I can worship.
But then I have a notebook so I can write down some of the things that are there that God speaks to me or prayer requests. I actually have a journal. This is the book here at the bottom. This ones called the "Ten Year Journal". It's actually so that you can see what you've done on that day. So like, this particular one starts in 2018, and here's April 28, but I add a little writing for each of the same days, so I can look back and see what I did on that day and some thoughts that I had, and it just helps me with my reflection time. But a journals great. I actually even have a little planner.
This ones called the "Full Focus Planner," but you can use any, and this one basically reduces your day down to three tasks that if you got those tasks done, you could call that day a success, not two, not eight, just three. Three, I'm gonna focus on, getting three things done today, and then I put them before the Lord. I actually, I write them down, and then I put them before the Lord. And then last thing I have on mine is a candle. I'm not Catholic, but I have a candle, everybody, all right? I just, in fact, I start with this. And it's a manly scent. Stop judging me, okay, all you guys, but the point I'm trying to make is that I want you to spend some time with God.
This is the baseline things that Christians, or disciples, do. They spend time with Jesus every day, and my job is to teach you how to observe that command. And I'm telling you, one of the keys is just being prepared for it, and so, hey, take some time this afternoon. Spend 15 minutes. Maybe gather your own materials. If you don't have some of these resources, maybe order them, and just get, create some space for God. When I spend time with Tammy, I take her out once were been, we've had a date night for 38 years, and I'm prepared for it. I know where were going. I know what were gonna do. So, when you love someone, prepare for your time with them. Amen everybody? This is very important.
Third thing I want you to do is that I want you to focus on three elements. So you're gonna have this time with God, at least 15 minutes, hopefully a little bit more, but I want you to focus on three elements. To give you these three elements, let me give you a quick little side teaching. Okay, so there are three named angels in the Bible. So there are a bunch of angels. The Bible describes, you know, just loads of angels, right? But there are three that get a name. One of them, his name is Gabriel. Gabriel was always the one who delivered a message from God, delivered the Word of God.
This is the angel that delivered to Mary in Luke chapter 1, "Hey, you're gonna get pregnant without being with a man. you're gonna be a virgin mother of the Son of God". And of course, the Word of God is extremely important, like I already told you, and there's an attack on God's Word. And were gotta make sure we stand with the authority of God's Word in our lives. Can I hear a good amen, everybody, right? It's very important.
The second named angel in the Bible is Michael. Michael was the intercessory or the warring angel, the angel of prayer, Daniel chapter 10. When you start praying, he's warring in the heavenlies in ways you cannot see. So there's a battle going on every time you pray, and Michaels the one up there fighting that battle. He's the warring or the prayer angel, right? The third named angel in scripture is an angel called Lucifer. He would later be changed to the name of Satan, all right, but he was in charge of the worship in heaven. He got proud, and he's the only one that got kicked out.
In fact, Revelation describes how one third of the angels fell with Lucifer, which means there's two thirds still on our side, everybody, all right? But the Bible describes this. I actually believe there's one third, one third, one third. But the point I make about these three angels is the three areas that they're over are the three most important parts of your relationship with God. That's why in every church service, we make sure all three of these exist. you're always gonna get the worship, you're always gonna get a prayer, and you're always gonna get the Word of God.
And so what do we do? We focus on these three elements in our time with God. I begin by listening to God through his Word, which means I like to think of when I'm reading my Bible, this is when God gets to talk to me, and so, when I'm reading it, I'm not reading it to learn it or just be disciplined to read it. I'm reading it to listen. In fact, I like to read it until I go, "Ah! Now that's good. That's really good". And I'm gonna take that thought, just that one thought, and I'm gonna bring it through my day, and I want you to do the same. I try to actually carry a nugget of truth, and I do like to memorize scripture, so I'll try to memorize that verse if I can, but I want you to spend some time in the Word of God.
But then I'll reverse it, and now, I speak to God in prayer so God hears what's on my mind. And I like, if you wanna know this most basic thought for prayer is it's a conversation with God. Some of you were trained to make this a whole lot more formal than God wants it. So you're trying to wax eloquent, and you speak like God's from England, you know. Like, you got to do it in the King James with all the "thees" and the "thous" and "withers soest thous goest". You don't have to do that. God's not from England, everybody, okay? He just wants you to talk to him and converse with him. I had somebody tell me, "Man, I just don't know how to pray". I said, "Well, you know how to talk. Then you know how to pray".
Get honest. You can complain. You can be mad. You can be sad. You can bring your emotions. Bring where you are. God loves it all, okay? And then when you pray, really focus on two things. You notetakers, jot this down: God's prayer requests first, my prayer requests second. If you really wanna break down all the outlines that I've given you and the ways to pray, it really comes down to: God, I'm gonna focus to what's on your heart and your mind, which by the way, we, as a church, need to be sure that were praying for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem, Psalm 1:22, and praying for a resolution to the conflict in the Middle East, amen, everybody.
But then, I bring my request. Here's what's on my heart, Lord, and God, I give you, I'm gonna offload. I like to think of it as just offloading, and it can't be my problem and God's problem at the same time, so God, I give you this. And then finally, I give God my worship. And I like to leave my quiet time, my time with God, with at least one worship song. And just, I want you to put this to the test. Anybody who doesn't know if this will work or not, you just try it.
You read the "One Year Bible," offload your request to God, and leave with a worship song, you're gonna show up in the kitchen before you go to work and they're gonna be like, what in the world happened to you? you've never been this nice at 7 o'clock in the morning. And watch your attitude throughout the day. I'm not telling you your circumstances will be better, look at me, but you'll be better. You'll be better. you're gonna go into it with a confidence, with an attitude, and you're gonna, it's just gonna be so much better. And I encourage you. I promise you, you start your day with worship instead of Instagram or Facebook I mean, Facebook, you know, watch what happens.
The fourth thing is I want you to overcome the problems that get in the way of your time with God. Why do you say that, Chris? Because all of hell is gonna try to stop you from doing this. The last thing the devil wants is for you to get close to God, okay? So there are four problems, I'll close with this, to teach you how to overcome everything the devils gonna throw at you, and the first problem is the problem of discipline. Discipline. Can I point out to you, would you look up here for a second, that the root of the word "discipline" is disciple?
So, I may have miscommunicated this to you, and I want to make sure I haven't, right here. We always try to make serving God so pleasurable, so joy-filled, like that's the only way you can know God is to enjoy it all. Okay, that's my personality. And I do believe it, and that's how all this is a delight to me. I love y'all so, I love you more than you could possibly know. I love church. I'd come eight days a week if it was open. I love my Bible. I just love it, okay? But you can't let that be the only filter of why you do it. you've also gotta be disciplined. I'm gonna do this whether I feel like doing it or not, and for some of us, you need to get back to the discipline of this before it turns into the delight.
Listen to me, it will turn into delight. But I follow my choices, not my feelings. Am I grateful that I get to feel it? Yes. But that's not why I do it, and that's not why you need to do it either. I do it because it's the right thing to do, and I'm gonna live my life. I'm a disciple. I will be disciplined. Come on, say amen right there. This is important. I want to talk to you about the problem of distraction. So, for some of us, the reason why we're not spending time with God is there's so many distractions.
Okay, you're gonna have to work hard to eliminate those. I already told you mine. I cannot see a red dot. I will look at it before I talk to God. My curiosity kills me, so I have to leave it plugged in. I have it plugged in and face down. Actually, I plug my phone in about 7:30, 8 o'clock every night. Tammy will tell you. Because I believe you have to have a point where you just shut the world off, and I'm not looking at it anymore. I've gotta quiet my soul. Starts much earlier than that for Saturdays and Sundays. Somebody had to tell me what was going on in the Middle East because I've been checked out for hours, hours, and hours, into yesterday. And you've gotta learn the art of distraction.
Listen to me. There's so much of it going on in our world right now, and it's keeping you from the best of God. I'm gonna come back to that in just a second. Third is the problem of dryness. So some of you currently have what I call the spiritual blahs, and you're not enjoying the songs anymore. you're not enjoying church anymore, and you're not enjoying even getting up and spending time with the Word. you're getting nothing out of it. Listen to me, never judge your quiet time by your feelings. Stay with the discipline. But there may be something wrong, and it could be sin. It could be you're way too busy. It could be something that's not even spiritual. It could be physical.
But take note of it, and then probably let somebody know, "Hey, I'm going through a dry season. Will you help me through this"? I actually had several times in 40 years of ministry where I just, it wasn't happening. And I've always told another pastor friend, saying, "I'm really, I'm not in a bad place, I'm just in a dry place". And usually, what we do is we meet together at the church, not pray together, just for the accountability of it, and I get the fire back in my spirit again.
The last is the problem of diligence, consistency. So the beauty of this discipline that I'm teaching you, this discipleship area, is the everyday part. Listen to me say it this way. I'd rather you spend five minutes every day with God than none at all. There's something about the everyday that works. And I'm gonna close with this story. I kinda told you this story a little bit at Easter. I told you about Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, who lived in the city called Bethany.
Well, this is one of the stories: "And as Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village," we know what it is now, it's Bethany, "where a woman named Martha opened her home to Jesus. And she had a sister called Mary," and I told you about these characters at Easter, "who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was," and there's that word. Martha wasn't a bad person, she was a distracted person. And if you haven't spent time with God, please feel no guilt, no shame. You're not a bad person. You're probably a distracted one though, and God is using this service to kind of get you back on track.
She was distracted. She was in there cooking for Jesus, "And she came to Jesus and said, Lord, don't you care how lazy my sister is?'" I mean, okay, "she let me do all this work all by myself. Tell her to help me"! And I want you to see what Jesus said: "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things," let this burn into your soul, "but only one thing is needed".
So in this series, were gonna give you a bunch of spiritual disciplines. Your life will be so much better, and you'll be following what the Lord is showing us to do, "but only one of them really is important". Like at the end of the day, if I had to pick off the list of all the things that wed love for your life, this is the one I want the most: "And Mary chose what is better".
So if you're distracted today, it's probably not because you're a bad person, and it might not even be a bad thing. Listen, let me say it this way. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's just not the best thing. And for some of you, all you needed was a reset. And I hope, I prayed all week for you that today this would be this reset so that you can kind of get it back because here's what I believe. If the enemy cannot destroy us with bad things, he will distract us with good things to keep us from the best thing. And I want you to put this to the test this week and watch your life be blessed. And all of God's people said a good amen.
Let's pray. Just bow for prayer. Let's be very still at all our locations. This is a holy moment. We always end exactly on time, not a minute late. If you're here today, like, you need to reorder some things in your life, would you go ahead and make a commitment to God right now, a covenant with God that, "God, I'm gonna get some stuff ready today, and I'm gonna prepare for my time with you. And I'm gonna make this a discipline that I know will turn into delight. Because, God, I love you, and I wanna be with you like you wanna be with me".
And Lord, I am praying for every person under the sound of my voice. In one of our locations or watching online, God, I pray Lord that you'll just let this area of our discipleship be revived, be created, and let it be as beautiful as you always intended it to be.
With heads bowed and eyes are closed at every location, we never close a service without giving people a chance to choose Jesus as the Lord of their life. For some of you here today, you've never known the Lord, and there's others that you used to be close to God, but you've walked away and you're ready to come home. I'm not talking about joining this church, I'm just talking about making a commitment to follow Jesus. I'm gonna follow Jesus. And you need to repent. Well guess what? He'll forgive you in a second, put his Spirit on the inside of you, give you a home in heaven.
And today, I'd love to pray with you. I'm gonna invite our campus pastors to the stage. Be very still. No one looking around. We're not gonna call you to the front. We're not gonna have you stand up. But if you say, "Chris, I need to surrender my life to Jesus or I need to recommit my life to him without hesitation". If that's you, would you put your hand as high as you can and say, "Just count me in that prayer". Look all over this room. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you today.