Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Hey New Life Gillette Church, we are thrilled you decided to listen to our teaching on your favorite podcast app. If you made a decision to follow Christ today, would you let us know by visiting? Yes.newlife gillette.com Here is this week's teaching.
[00:00:25] Hope that you're doing well this morning.
[00:00:28] We are finishing our series through the Book of Colossians today. We're going to be in Colossians Chapter four. While you're turning there, I want to say good morning to everybody joining us online over at Church 307. To our friends down at the prison, wherever you're joining us from, we're stoked that you're here. And I have just an exciting announcement.
[00:00:48] Many of you remember that we have been for the last approximately year or so, doing the all in two project, completing a renovation project that we started back in the 2020, and we've renovated the west wing for a place for our youth. We're doing some renovations downstairs. What I want to tell you this morning is that we're all in. The project is completed. We got notification from, yes, absolutely. From, from Justin and the team at Lad Key who have done an incredible job that the project has been completed. We've got a little bit of stuff for our team and some volunteers to do some painting and moving stuff around. But. But the construction project is completed. We're really excited about it. God has blessed us and it's making space for all the growth that we've experienced over the last year. So we are gonna pick up right where we left off last week. Colossians, chapter 4, verse 2. Here's what it says.
[00:01:42] Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. Let's pause here for a second. If you pray for the staff, for the team here at New Life, which I hope you do, Paul tells us here how to pray for our pastors, for the people who serve in the church. If you would like to also pray for vacation homes and boats and things like that, I fully support that.
[00:02:16] But the way we should pray is, is that the gospel message is preached clearly, because that's why we're here. That's why anyone who works in a church works in a church. That's why we gather. That's what it's all about, is that the message of Jesus is preached clearly to people who know Christ so that they can grow and people who don't know Christ, so that they can come to know Him. Amen.
[00:02:36] All right, let's keep going. Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer. Everyone, let's pray.
[00:02:55] God, we thank you for your presence here with us this morning.
[00:02:59] Thank you for every person that's here, everybody that's watching online, and over the next few minutes, God, I ask that my opinions would be forgotten. If there's anything in this sermon that's just my opinion. It doesn't matter. Let us let it go.
[00:03:11] But if there's anything that's consistent to your character and faithful to your word, would you plant it in our hearts? Jesus, we love you.
[00:03:18] Amen.
[00:03:21] My wife and I have been married for 13 years.
[00:03:26] Yeah, we did it. Our marriage is now a junior high student, which is not as impressive a way to say that our marriage now has acne and BO.
[00:03:35] But actually, next week is our 13 year anniversary. Easter Sunday is our 13 year anniversary. I would like Brownie points for not forgetting. She's sitting over there. I just want it on the public record. I remembered when it was.
[00:03:50] Here's the thing.
[00:03:52] My wife does not share my passion for Duke basketball.
[00:03:58] I know it's been hard. Pray for us. It's been tough, actually. If you could pray for me at like 3 o' clock this afternoon when Duke plays.
[00:04:06] Don't pray for Duke to win. That's fine. Just pray for my heart rate and my stress level. And my wife tells me that I'm not very fun to be around when Duke's playing, which is a character flaw that I need to work on. For the record, a lot of you are thinking, cj, this is silly. All right? You're just making this up. So you had an excuse to talk about Duke basketball and to wear your jersey and a sermon. And that is an offensive accusation. It's true, but it's an offensive accusation.
[00:04:29] Here's the thing. I grew up in a part of the world in the Carolinas, where you decide early where your allegiance lies. As soon as you're old enough to pay attention to college basketball. If you grew up in North Carolina, where I did, you pick between the University of North Carolina Tar Heels or the Duke Blue Devils. And you pick early and you never flip flop. If you are a real basketball fan, you are loyal till the end, through the good times and the bad times. Fortunately, as a Duke fan, it's Mostly good times. So I don't know what it's like to cheer for the underdog and I'm not sad about that.
[00:05:01] But I picked when I was about 12, I was about 12 years old when I started paying attention to basketball and I became a Duke fan. Mostly I think because my youth pastor was a UNC fan and I wanted to annoy him. But I have been consistently a Duke fan since then. I am passionate about it this time of year. March Madness. I'm not a big sports guy, but March Madness is the time where it's what I think about. I love Duke basketball. Like I said, I have been a fan all throughout the years. Consistently. No bandwagon here. I was a fan when I was young and I'm still a fan now.
[00:05:35] Now, hopefully, what I'm about to say is obvious.
[00:05:38] I love basketball. I love Duke basketball.
[00:05:41] I am passionate about the Duke Blue Devils.
[00:05:45] I'm devoted to my wife.
[00:05:49] Those are different, right? Once again, some of you are thinking this is silly, but I just want you to honestly say you've never seen a marriage that was affected negatively because someone liked sports too happened. I didn't think so.
[00:06:02] I'm passionate about the Blue Devils. I'm devoted to my wife. I made a decision 13 years ago to say, for better or worse, for richer, for poorer, till death do us part. That's devotion, passion, love, excitement, energy for the Blue Devil, sure. But if I had to pick, guess which one I'm picking? The Blue. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. That was a joke.
[00:06:24] That was a joke.
[00:06:26] I'm picking my wife because I'm devoted to her.
[00:06:30] I love hunting. I've talked about this before. I love hunting.
[00:06:35] If I have free time, I would rather be hunting than almost anything else I'm doing. I don't even care what it is, Honestly. I'll hunt anything. I just like hunting. I want to be out there hunting. If you looked at the podcasts and TV shows I watch and the books that I read that are for. For fun, it's almost all hunting related or outdoors related in some way. If you looked at the money I spent, that's not on food and bills and the child, it's hunting. If you could look at my thoughts and figure out what is he thinking about in his free time, it would be mostly hunting. I just. I love hunting. I'm passionate about it. It's what I want to spend my vacation days doing. It's what I organize my life to do. It's what I plan for. I absolutely love It. I'm passionate about hunting.
[00:07:17] I'm devoted to my wife.
[00:07:21] Those are different.
[00:07:22] This might be an important thing that somebody needs to hear. I'm passionate about hunting. I'm devoted to my wife. What does that mean? It means I made a decision 13 years ago, for better or worse, for richer, for poorer, to prioritize, to stick with her, to adhere to her, to make that my highest loyalty.
[00:07:44] So if it came right down to it, and I had to pick. If I had to pick between hunting and her, I would sell the guns tomorrow. I would give my camo away. It wouldn't be a competition. Why? Because I'm passionate about hunting. I love it. I give a lot of energy to that. But I'm devoted to my wife.
[00:08:03] Paul begins this section of Scripture with this phrase, devote yourselves to prayer.
[00:08:14] That word, devote is interesting, isn't it?
[00:08:18] It's a word that makes us think about marriage. That's generally the context we use it in. You're a devoted husband, a devoted wife.
[00:08:28] Other translations say something like, continue steadfastly or continue in prayer. They all mean the same thing. Adhere to it, stick to it. You made a commitment to it, stay with it, prioritize it. Make it your highest loyalty. Now it's interesting. This is the last piece of advice that Paul, who wrote the book of Colossians, gives to this church that was in the city of Colossae in the Roman Empire in the first century ad. This is the last piece of advice he gives them in the letter. The rest of the letter, if you keep reading, is basically saying, tell your mom and them I said hi. It's just people saying hi to one another who know one another because they had friends in different cities. This is really the last piece of advice that he gives. And that's interesting because if you've been here for the last four weeks, you know that Colossians is a heavy hitter. There's a lot of big claims that are made in the book of Colossians. Paul starts by saying, Jesus is the supreme over everything, that he is before all things, and all things hold together in him, that if you believe in him, that affects every part of your life. That. That all of your life is spiritual because all of your life is devoted to Jesus. Because Jesus is before all things, and all things hold together in him. And then he goes on and he says, jesus is your hope for glory. He's the meaning that you look for. He's. He's what you're longing for. That's where your purpose is found. It's because Christ is in everything, that his love for you is what gives you meaning and significance. And then he goes on. So he says, build yourself on that. Root your life in your identity in Christ. This is your foundation. He says, don't build your life on traditions or rituals or rules that people use just to manipulate God to try to get something out of Him. Build your life, root your life on Christ because He's before all things and all things hold together in Him. And then what we talked about last week, if you believe that, if that's really what you believe, it's going to affect things and then you're expected to obey it. Because if we believe he's king, then that means he's in charge. So that affects who I sleep with and what I do with my money and how I forgive and how I parents, and it affects my marriage and it affects my work and it affects how I treat my boss and how my boss. It affects everything.
[00:10:38] And then we get here and his last piece of advice to the church in Colossae is, devote yourselves to prayer. It's almost like he's saying, look, if you don't remember anything else, remember this.
[00:10:53] Devote yourselves to prayer.
[00:10:55] And he gives us how we're supposed to devote ourselves to prayer. And then what the result of devoting yourself to prayer is. He gives us how.
[00:11:08] And then the result.
[00:11:10] How does he tell us to do it? He says, be watchful and thankful.
[00:11:17] How do we devote ourselves to prayer? What does it look like? We are watchful and thankful. Let's start with watchfulness.
[00:11:23] Here's something that's really important.
[00:11:26] Watchful does not equal fearful.
[00:11:31] You've probably noticed this.
[00:11:33] We as humans are drawn to the negative. Do you notice that we are attracted to when things go wrong? If there's a news story and they're both in your feed, and one of them says, murderer kills 35 people. And the other one says, child saves puppy. Most of us are clicking on the murderer one, right? That's why true crime podcasts are so cool. Nothing wrong with true crime podcasts. It's just this is just how we are as humans. We are attracted to the negative. That's why news cycles and so much of what they tell us is negative because they know we're going to watch it if it's negative. We have this tendency to be drawn towards the things that are wrong, the things that are bad. It makes us feel some sense of control. If we can figure out what's wrong and we can prepare ourselves for what's wrong, then we feel like we've got an edge up on the world. So he tells us to be watchful. But we often turn that into being fearful. What's the next bad thing that's going to happen? What's the next thing that's coming? What's the next tragedy? And what we wind up doing. We have this temptation to take this book and to turn it into national Treasure. You remember that movie with Nicholas Cage where he has to turn the back of the Constitution over and hold it up to a black light or something to save the world? I didn't see the movie. I just know about it.
[00:12:48] This is what we do. We turn this book into some puzzle that we've got to solve.
[00:12:52] If I can just unlock the mystery in the Bible, if I can figure out what all the illusions are and I can add up the math and I can figure it out, then I'll know what the next big tragedy that's coming is, then I'll be prepared. This book is going to tell me where the next explosion, where the next bad thing's coming from. And if I can figure it out, then I'll be prepared. And we wind up being fearful, focusing our minds on what the next negative or bad thing is.
[00:13:17] Here's the thing.
[00:13:19] This book is not a puzzle.
[00:13:22] This book is not a mystery that we solve. In fact, the whole book of Colossians tells us what's the mystery. The mystery is Jesus. It's revealed in Jesus. The mystery of everything we're looking for is revealed in Christ. There's not some puzzle we've got to solve to be prepared for the end of the world. Jesus prepares us for the end of the world whenever it's coming. And only he knows when it's coming. So we don't really have to worry about it.
[00:13:45] Jesus isn't hiding things from us. He's not tricking us. He's not creating a Rubik's Cube that you have to figure out how to solve so that you're prepared for what's coming next.
[00:13:55] Jesus wants us to follow him. He wants to reveal himself to us. We are watchful, not fearful.
[00:14:04] Now, before we move on, there's something I want to say.
[00:14:07] When we are tempted to become fearful, we wind up looking for villains.
[00:14:14] We wind up looking for who the bad guy is in the world. Because if I can figure out who the bad guy is, then I know who I can't trust, I know who I don't like, and more importantly, I know that I'm not them.
[00:14:28] The thing is, when I Start looking for villains Biblically, I'm not going to like where that answer lands.
[00:14:34] Because Romans chapter one says that we were all enemies of God before Christ.
[00:14:38] The line between villain and victim goes through every single one of our hearts. And when we start looking for the bad guy, we find ourselves on the other side of the fingers we're pointing. We don't like it very much.
[00:14:50] If we want to categorize people, there's only one dividing line that matters. If we want to divide people into categories, there's only one way that actually has any sort of eternal significance. Duke fans and UNC fans. I'm kidding. That's a joke.
[00:15:06] It's a joke. There's only one that actually has any sort of significance eternally. If you want to divide people, here's what it is. There are people that Jesus has saved because they have put their faith in his death and resurrection. And there are people Jesus is trying to save by them putting their faith in his death and resurrection. There are only two types of people on Earth, People Jesus has saved and people he is trying to save. Any other division that we create is temporary. Human, earthly, and has no eternal significance because the book of Hebrews says that it is God's will that none should perish, but that all should come to salvation. Now, will there be people who say no to Jesus and resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit? Absolutely. But when we're looking at the world, there are only two types of people. There are people who Jesus has saved and people that he is trying to save. When we look at the world around us, we're not looking at bad guys and good guys. We're looking at people that Jesus has saved and people that Jesus wants to save. Do you want to know why the gospel is so offensive? Do you want to know why the gospel causes ripples and makes people angry everywhere it goes? It's because it offers the good guys and bad guys the same death and resurrection and the same forgiveness of our sins.
[00:16:20] It puts me and the person I can't stand in the same category, both in need of the cross. It puts me and Hitler on the same playing field. All we had to do was accept the death and resurrection of Christ to receive forgiveness. That's offensive. I don't like it. I would rather find a way for me to prove that I'm different and better than other people. But actually, there's only one dividing line.
[00:16:39] People that have been saved and people Jesus is trying to save.
[00:16:45] So we are watchful, not fearful.
[00:16:49] What does it mean to be watchful it means we pay attention. We pay attention to what's going on in the world around us. As Christians, we don't put our head in the sand and pretend like everything's fine. We're not naively optimistic. That's not what God asks us to be be. What it means is that we notice what's going on in the world and we pray about it. Why? Because we actually believe prayer really matters and it actually makes a difference. And God desires to respond to the prayers of his people. So we pray about the things that are going on in the world. When I notice things are crazy in the Middle east, what's my first reaction? Pray about it. Because I believe prayer actually changes things. When I notice that the stock market is crazy and the price of oil is up and down and no one knows what's going to happen in the month of April, economically, I. I pray about it because my hope is in a different economy and my hope is in a different kingdom. I pray about it because I believe Jesus is the authority over everything and everything will submit to Him. So I go to my King about it. I pray about it. Watchful.
[00:17:41] When I have problems in my marriage, I pray about it. Is the only thing I do pray about it? No, absolutely not. I try to grow in my relationship. When I notice that there's injustice or pain or poverty in the world, I pray about it. Do I only pray about it? No, of course not. I do everything in my power to bring justice and God, care for the poor and care for the widow and provide for those in need. But also I pray about it. I'm watchful in my prayer.
[00:18:05] And prayer teaches me the thing that happens when I'm watchful is that I start seeing that. For as much as I would like to be fearful, what's actually happening is the Holy Spirit is already at work everywhere. I'm afraid the Holy Spirit is already at work. That was Colossians, chapter one. Christ is in all things and all things hold together in him. That means there's never been a person the Holy Spirit is isn't already convicting. There's never been a person the Holy Spirit isn't already maybe trying to convince them not to do the thing they're going to do. But the Holy Spirit's there every situation. The Holy Spirit's working to bring about the purposes of God in. So when I'm watchful, I start noticing the Holy Spirit and I start noticing what God is doing instead of only what I hope he's doing. I start noticing where he is working instead of just the darkness.
[00:18:50] And it changes my perspective. We are watchful.
[00:18:53] Watchful and thankful.
[00:18:56] But why are we thankful?
[00:18:58] It's because thankfulness is the antidote to fearfulness.
[00:19:04] Thankfulness is the antidote to fearfulness.
[00:19:08] When Jen and I got married, very early in our marriage, we made a decision to pray together every night before we go to bed. Anytime we're in the same house, we pray together before we go to bed. Now, look, don't imagine some sort of romantic or super special.
[00:19:22] It's not like we're knelt down at the bed for 45 minutes praying in tongues or something like that. Most of the time it's like, oh, my gosh, I forgot we didn't pray. And then I drape my arm over her and I'm like, God, thank you that today wasn't horrible.
[00:19:34] Please don't let tomorrow be horrible.
[00:19:36] And that's it.
[00:19:37] That's it. And it's not very romantic. Not a flex. But we learned something pretty early. I started deciding to do something, and it was when we pray to do my best to list the things we're thankful for more than I list the things that we need, do both bring our needs to the Lord, but list the things we're thankful for. And a lot of times it's silly. It's, God, thank you that we had food today and it wasn't that bad.
[00:20:01] God, thank you that we have a house that's warm when it's cold outside and a house that's cool when it's warm outside. God, thank you that we have friends. God, thank you that the dogs didn't destroy anything today.
[00:20:11] Thank you that we're all mostly healthy. You know, it's just going through that list of things, anything that pops into our mind that, you know, reminds us that we're happy about it. I didn't think much of it until we'd been married for about five years. And on Father's Day, I believe it was, Jen decided to put sticky notes all over the house. And she wrote these very sweet notes to me. And one of the notes I remember. I remember two of the notes she wrote. One of them said, I like that you know a lot about sharks. I was a big Shark Week guy back in the day.
[00:20:42] The second one was, thank you for how you pray. It changes my perspective.
[00:20:49] And that hit me when I read that.
[00:20:53] I mean, we didn't have a lot of money, but we were trying to be thankful.
[00:20:58] It changed our perspective. Why? Because we have this tendency towards the negative. Right, left on our Own without trying to be thankful.
[00:21:05] Instead of saying God, thanks that we have food, we're going to say, ah, the food was burned today. The chicken was overcooked. My goodness, can't we just eat out?
[00:21:13] Left on our own devices without trying to be thankful, we're not going to say God, thank you, I have a house. We're going to say, my goodness, if I have to spend one more year in a two bedroom house, I'm going to go nuts. We have got to find more space.
[00:21:26] Left on my own without trying to be thankful instead of saying God, thank you that I have a car. Even if my car won't get me to Rapid City and back. Thank you that I have a car and I don't have the carpool to work. What we start saying is, God, how could you let me keep going like this? How dare you.
[00:21:40] And we become negative.
[00:21:43] We're brought into the negative and we become fearful when we become negative. What if I never get out of this house?
[00:21:50] What if I never get a raise? What if things never change and we drift right back into that fearfulness? Instead of being watchful and thankful, we become fearful and our prayers become fear based.
[00:22:02] So we're thankful.
[00:22:04] Thankfulness is the antidote to fearfulness.
[00:22:09] So that's how, how do we devote ourselves to prayer? Being watchful and thankful. But what's the result?
[00:22:15] He goes on, he says that you should make the most of every opportunity. Being wise in how you treat outsiders, people who don't know Jesus, that you should have every conversation full of grace and seasoned with salt. Now it's interesting that he said devote yourself to prayer before he said any of that. You know, at New Life we say often that we believe we are called to live our lives on mission. We're called to live our lives on mission. Every single one of us as followers of Jesus has a mission and we live our lives that way. In fact, we say that there are five basic skills is the way we talk about them. These are the skills that we learn to live our lives on mission. There are skills you would learn to play basketball. There are skills you would learn to be a baker or a chef. These are the skills we learn to live our lives on mission. They are gather with God's people to worship and learn, connect in life groups and with the Lord. We give generously, we serve selflessly and we influence the world around us. Here's what that means. It means that there are people in your neighborhood and they need you to invite them to church, not somebody else.
[00:23:21] There are people at your work. And they need to hear the gospel from you, not from me.
[00:23:27] There are people in your family. They need you to pray for them before they ever get to the prayer wall.
[00:23:34] Because we live our lives on mission.
[00:23:37] We have a mission. Genesis chapter one tells us that God gave humanity dominion over the world. It means our decisions actually affect things positively or negatively. We have a mission. We have the ability to make things different in the world. And what prepares us for the mission?
[00:23:54] Prayer prepares us for mission. Being devoted to prayer prepares us for the mission. I grew up in the South. I talk about that all the time. Because we've got the best music and barbecue and college basketball in the country. Amen. I don't need other amens. Mine's enough.
[00:24:09] I'm confident of it.
[00:24:12] Funny thing is, where I grew up in North Carolina, people will move there from other places. They'll come from New York or something like that. They'll live there for six months. This is a person from New York City. And they're like, hey, y'. All. How y' all doing? That's not how you talk.
[00:24:24] But they're around it, right? They show up, and everybody around them has a Southern accent. So they develop a Southern accent. I have lived in the north off and on since I was 16. That's why my Southern accent is kind of thin. I kind of wish I could get it back sometimes, but you just learn to talk like the people that you're around, like the people you talk to. Humans mimic one another. It's kind of how we learn things.
[00:24:50] So if you want to have your conversations full of grace, what do you do?
[00:24:57] You talk to Jesus, who's full of grace and truth, because you learn to talk like the people you talk to the most. If you want to have your conversation sprinkled with salt, which is to say to have truth, the actual gospel. Not just, hey, have a good day, but Jesus loves you and he died for your sins to forgive you and give you new life. The gospel. If we want that in our conversations, we have to talk to Jesus, who's full of grace and truth and who embodies the gospel. Because when we talk to him, we learn to talk like him. When I learn to be watchful in prayer, I learn to make the most of every opportunity. Why? Because I'm watching for opportunities.
[00:25:35] When I become thankful in prayer, I start assuming the Holy Spirit's already working. He's already working in the people around me and in the world around me so that I just participate in what the Holy Spirit's Already doing. I don't have to force stuff to happen. I just assume the Holy Spirit's already doing it and I'm looking for the opportunities. I become watchful and thankful and it prepares me for the mission. And I learn to talk the way Jesus talks because I'm talking to him. Devoting yourself to prayer prepares you for the mission.
[00:26:06] Now there are probably some of you here today who are thinking, CJ, You've already compared being devoted to prayer to marriage.
[00:26:15] That's a big commitment and I don't have time for that. And you're not like trying to blow this off? You're serious. Maybe you're thinking, CJ, I work at a coal mine. I get up at three in the morning every day and I go and work until 5 and I get home and every minute I have left is spent with my family until 8 o' clock when I go to bed so that I can get up and do it again the next day. You're thinking, I don't have time. That sounds great, but where in the world am I going to find time to devote myself to something?
[00:26:46] I want to ask you a question. Think about a marriage that you know, that's devoted, that you would think of as devoted. Maybe you're in a marriage that you would consider devoted. Maybe your parents, you've got friends or someone in your life that you say, wow, they have a really godly, really devoted, awesome marriage.
[00:27:03] Okay, you got that person.
[00:27:05] Do they have a date night every night?
[00:27:10] No. All the married people say, yeah, I wish. Absolutely not. Right? Like you've got kids and lives and other stuff to spend money on. You're not having a date night every night.
[00:27:19] Ideally, you might have a date night once a week or so, right? Maybe a couple times a month. That would be great. Where you're taking the kids to a sitter or to family's house and you're just putting aside the distractions and you're focusing on just the two of you. And a devoted marriage, that's important. That's part of a devoted marriage. It's not every day. It should be regular, regularly, part of our lives. Maybe you're here and you're thinking, I don't have the money for a sitter and we don't have family in town. So maybe you're just going to put the kids to bed early every once in a while, maybe once a week or so, and you're just going to have a special night. You're going to watch the movie and make special snacks and that's Going to be your date night. But you're having intentional time where you're putting aside the distractions and focusing on one another. But that's not every day, right? That's on occasion. That's every once in a while. So what is the day in, day out thing that defines a devoted marriage?
[00:28:05] That's the stuff you do after the kids go to bed. Not that. Get your mind out of the gutter.
[00:28:11] It's the folding the laundry and just talking about your day.
[00:28:16] Hey, what did you do today? Was it a long day? Was it stressful?
[00:28:21] Oh, what do you have planned tomorrow? You can have a busy day. You have another doctor's appointment.
[00:28:27] What are you doing with the kids tomorrow? It's just the conversations, right?
[00:28:31] Oh, the neighbor called. They're not feeling well. We should go take them a meal. We should help them out. Oh, what are we doing this weekend? Let's make sure we get to church. Whatever. It's the normal conversations that you have. It's when you wake up the next morning and before work, you're getting ready, you're making breakfast, but you're also talking. Do you have a busy day today? Hell, yeah. Me too. Got a lot of stuff going on.
[00:28:49] It's the text that you send during the day. Hey, just thinking about you, love you, can't wait to see you tonight.
[00:28:55] Or hey, can you pick up milk from the store on your way home?
[00:28:59] It's all of the texts. It's the conversation that you're having. It's not all of the romantic stuff. It's the conversation that you have. The devotion is reflected in the communication.
[00:29:13] Really, who you're devoted to is just who you talk to the most.
[00:29:17] If you want to find an indication of devotion, it's who are you thinking about and who are you talking to most often? Which, just for the record, maybe there's somebody here who. You don't really need the prayer side of this sermon. You just need the marriage side of this sermon. And you just need somebody to say, if you're not talking anymore, that's a red flag. That's a symptom. That's something you need to deal with. Please go to marriage counseling. Please come talk to me or somebody else on staff. The Lord wants your marriage to survive. Marriage reflects Christ in the church. He wants to bring healing and wholeness and you to have a joyful, fun, exciting, passionate marriage where you two are best friends and you get along and you talk. That's what he desires for you. So if you find yourself drifting apart and never Talking, let's do something about it. But our devotion is reflected by who we talk to. So what does a devoted life to prayer look like? Well, it means you talk to God. Yeah. You should have some time where you put aside the distractions and you focus on him uniquely and specifically beyond everything else. You might go to the women's retreat coming up on the weekend of April 19, and you might set aside all the distractions and focus on worship and God's people. You might go to base camp where we take the men of the church up to the mountain, up to the Bighorns this summer, and we focus time on our spiritual walk with Christ and on brotherhood and on spiritual disciplines. You might do that, you might say once a month you've got a Saturday morning where you carve out an hour or two just to read scripture and pray and put aside all the distractions. But what does the day in, day out devotion look like? It looks like talking to God because you think about it.
[00:30:49] And when something goes wrong at work, do you pray about it?
[00:30:52] Are you talking to God about it? When something goes good at work, are you thanking God about it? Maybe it looks like when you're getting up in the morning, you're making breakfast, you're making your coffee, so you're going to turn the Bible app on and let it read scripture out loud to you. Maybe you're going to be just talking to the Lord throughout the day. Maybe at the end of the day you're going to go back and thank the Lord for the good things that happened today and acknowledge to the Lord the things you need tomorrow. And you're just going to talk to to Him. The devotion is reflected by communication. What I'm trying to say is that God isn't trying to make it hard for us.
[00:31:24] He loves us and he desires for us. He's not trying to create puzzles we have to solve to get to Him. He's not trying to set the bar so high we can't accomplish it. This is the crazy thing about the Gospel. The bar was too high for us to accomplish it, so Jesus did it for us. And he tore down the bar so that all we have to do is be in Him. Yes, he expects us to obey, but he forgives us when we don't. It's crazy, but it's true.
[00:31:46] He wants us to talk to Him. He desires it. He's not trying to set some crazy expectation that's impossible for your life. He wants to talk to you and he wants you to talk to Him.
