Welcome And Series Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode of the Midweek Podcast, brought to you by a Fresh Wind Church. Each week, our team brings you new content to help you take steps towards Jesus and discover more in Christ. Today's episode is hosted by Pastor Ryan.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. Pastor Ryan joined as always with Pastor Tim, and we are in our final kind of wrap-up week of our series in the shop. And um, man, Tim really, really enjoyed this series. I just uh read a text from a lady yesterday, and uh she said this. She said, Um, meant to catch you on the way out today. Didn't see a great message. She said the whole series was good. You and Tim uh are reading minds every Sunday. She said, I don't know if that's good or bad, but it was a great message and we appreciate you.

SPEAKER_04 1:02

Well, we're hoping the Holy Spirit tells us what to say, but we don't really want to know that and we don't want to read anybody's mind.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Yeah, that it's funny because people will will say that on the way out, like man, it's like you read my mind. That sermon was for me. Will you follow me around this week? Right. You and I we get in here, we try to prayerfully plan out what we're gonna preach on. Like, no, this has been on the calendar for months. He knows, he always knows. Yeah, and man, even I was I was telling you right before we jumped on here, one of your sermons a couple weeks ago. Um, I was like, man, the Lord put that in my life right at the right time. Um, needed to get some stuff taken care of, and that sermon was the kick I needed to get that stuff done. And so um, yeah, he he's faithful to do that. And yeah, I've man, I uh the whole imagery of this series of being in the shop, getting our diagnostic, our alignment fixed, uh, a maintenance schedule. And then last uh Sunday we talked about full detail, um, really kind of diving into the heart behind all of this. I think that everybody kind of gets it. You know, the the imagery there, I think really helped people get what this series is all about. Um, and is it it was a rough one? I would say the third sermon, the maintenance schedule, is probably the the lighter of the four. Right. That's just hey, do these nine things. Um the other ones were like, sit here and let us punch you.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

Yeah. But you know what? It's uh it's something that we need to get a hold of. It's like trying to have a good marriage, right? You want you want to have a good marriage, but some some things go wrong. And when you're not focused uh on your relationship, you're still married. Right. It's just not as good as you'd expect it to be. And uh same thing, you know, Jesus said this in uh the first part of first three chapters of Revelation, he's talking about the church at Laodicea. He said, Guys, you're doing everything right. And and I commend you for it. You're doing everything right. But here's this one thing I got I'm no longer number one, I'm not your first love. Didn't mean that everybody in that church wasn't going to heaven anymore or anything like that. It's not about earning your salvation, it's about making um this Christian life work. It doesn't work without him.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

That's right.

The Shop Metaphor For Change

SPEAKER_04 3:26

And so um that first one uh setting your eyes back on making the choice to make him the priority. Starts the fix. And then um alignment, which was um great sermon. I'd like to preach that one again because I got so many more ideas for it. And uh just uh it's so easy to let your horizontal relationships turn you away from your vertical relationship. You know, things are important and and not just bad things. I think I just focused on, you know, you hurt their feelings or they hurt your feelings. I think I focused on that in the sermon, but there's also they're really sick, so I gotta take all I got and turn towards them and give them the best that I am. And this is what you told me. You said, yeah, you give them the best that you have, and you and your focus isn't no longer on Jesus, so you can't give them the best that you are because you've made them more important than him. Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

And the help you're trying to provide is no longer um as good as I guess it could have been, right? Um because yeah, your focus is misaligned. I read a book years ago. Um I'm trying to remember the name of it. Name escapes me, but he's talking about how when you get on an airplane, you know, the flight attendant comes up, they give you that whole spiel, and they say, you know, if the cabin loses pressure, oxygen mask will fall from the ceiling, and you need to put yours on before you help anybody else.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

Absolutely. That's a great that's that's the way to describe it.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

And you got you know, your kids there, you know, you're flying with your mom or grandma, and you're like, I gotta help them get this thing on. But if pressure's going down and you're so focused trying to help them and you miss yours and you black out and you don't get theirs on, you don't have yours on, nobody's helped. Right. No, we've got to keep our our alignment in check and make sure we're focused on Jesus. So those first two sermons should have put that in that sermon too. That would have been awesome. Um, really, yeah, I think set the set the stage for everything else that we were we were talking about.

SPEAKER_04 5:27

Yeah, and now we're we're here to this uh maintenance schedule, and and let us uh be honest about this. This is not keeping your salvation, this is not earning your salvation. Um your marriage to Jesus is done. Uh if you confessed him as your savior and Lord, you have a relationship with him. This is about how good that relationship is. And um, so you wanna you want God to use you in the kingdom. Um I think um first or second Peter chapter one talks about do you want to be useless in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus or do you want to be um efficient and let him use you for the kingdom? And and you get a choice. It doesn't change your salvation status, but you get a choice. Who do you want to be? And I man, uh once you get a taste of living for the Lord um and he he start you start hearing his voice, and that's one thing the first um thing we're gonna talk about today is fasting. Um when you're focused on listening, hearing his voice, he's gonna tell you to do things, and you're like, Oh yeah, he's gonna tell me to do all these embarrassing things. No, he's not. He's going to uh brighten the world with your life. Uh you gotta buy somebody's coffee. Not a big deal. You know, you gotta um let someone go in front of you in line. You know, their kids are screaming and she looks like she's about to lose it, and and uh you're just like, you go before me. Well, you don't have much stuff. It don't matter. You know, get those kids out of here. Go ahead. And uh those type of things make the world a better place. And uh and that that light shining is is is when we stand before the Lord and those people in those situations said, No, he's this and I thank you, Jesus, for him. And that's that's what Jesus said, right? Uh let your good work shine so that people will glorify the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Not us, but him.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Right. That's so good.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

As we talk about these practices, it it's important. We're not talking about salvation issues. Um, as Tim said, this is you're saved. Uh we said it in the series over and over, you're saved, sanctified. We want you to be ready to go. Right. Um, this series is about helping you experience the was it your dad who said, you know, get to know Jesus as well as a forgiven sinner can. Yeah. That's what we want for you to walk in intimacy with your heavenly father, um, to know his voice and and to be into him, to make yourself ready and available for what he wants you to do in the world. And man, there is truly no better life. Jesus said, I came that you would have a rich, satisfying, abundant life. And that's what this series is all about, helping you find and discover and prepare yourself for. Um, and you know, we didn't make up these nine practices. Um these are these are things that were found in in the scriptures, you know, we we see it modeled by Jesus.

Salvation Versus Healthy Relationship

SPEAKER_04 8:30

Yeah, we I think we left that out when we started these. This is the most important thing. These aren't things we're making up for you, these are practices that are found in the Bible. They're not emotional things like gardening makes me feel spiritual or you know, walk hiking or walking in the woods or going hunting and all that kind of stuff that makes you feel spiritual. We're not talking about feelings, we're talking about things that you actually have to do. Right. They're practices that are found in the Bible, modeled for us by not only Jesus, but people who love Jesus. So we take those things and do them. It's something that you do. And so I want to make sure that everybody understands that because you can't just uh plug and play. You can't say, Well, I like jogging, so I'm gonna make jogging my fasting or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

And man, I think that there's been a little bit of a trend in some Christian circles. I've read even read it in some books. Um, you know, how do you connect with God most? And people are like, Oh, you know, I connect with them through walks or I connect with them through meditation. I can all great things, right? Um these nine things are things that come right out of out of the scriptures, and we see Christians in in the Bible model these things for us, each one of these nine things. And so, yeah, these these need to be a part of your life. And if you love and connect with God through, you know, staring up at the stars, that's one of my favorite things to do. Um that's great. You still gotta have these nine things in your life, right?

SPEAKER_04 10:05

Exactly. Exactly. So we went through prayer, um, and we put that number one because we think it's number one. Um, you gotta pray. Uh the Lord wants his house to be a house of prayer. And then we talked about scripture so the Lord can speak to you through his scripture, and then we talked about worship. Um, and the big thing about worship is it trend training um a desire to worship him. Now, worship is, and we tend to do this in our uh vernaculars that worship is the singing part of church. That's not what we're talking about. When we're at church and we sing, we do that on purpose. Uh so that and we do it before the before we speak, we do it so that we can say, you are this and I'm not that. Yeah. You're the boss, uh, we trust you, we love you, you're precious to us. We say those things um so that we can point our heart towards the next part of worship, which is saying yes before it even gets started, right? We sit down and we open the word of God and and we we start preaching. When we preach, we're preaching for a decision to be made. Um if we're teaching, we're just giving you information. And uh I love that. I love to teach. But preaching is a different thing, and um you're great at it, and um kind of makes me a little jealous, but it comes down to are you gonna say yes to this or not? And if you've already said yes to that, then you can just keep on praising. Thank you, Lord, that you you gave me the ability to see where I was wrong. And if you haven't said yes to that, it's a chance to say yes, you're worth this change in my life. And that's why, that's why it's all worship.

unknown 11:55

Yeah.

Fasting With A Clear Purpose

SPEAKER_02 11:56

And then uh I think we we stopped right around fellowship last week, number four, and um talked about the importance of of community and and why we need that. Um and you know, we had group link this past week trying to get more people plugged into to life groups. We we do best in community. Um, devil loves when we're isolated. Um and when we're alone and in those dark corners and driving us back into the shadows, and community pulls us out of those things. Um, and so it it makes a huge difference in our life. Um and uh then we got we ran out of time. So I was hoping. Do we have time right now? It's coming up against it. I thought I was gonna get all of those done in the sermon that week. And then I was like, well, I maybe I should put it on the podcast. Now we're on podcast part two. So um if you listened to the podcast last week, you you you did a good job. Um, if you didn't, and you're just tuning in this week, you need to make sure you go back to last week's midweek podcast, listen to that one, you'll get the first four. Um, because today we're gonna pick up with number five.

SPEAKER_04 13:05

Don't blame Ryan for this, guys, because this is this is all me. I've written a lot about uh spiritual disciplines, and I've taught them over and over again for 15, 20 years, and and I'm I'm just trying to say this is where it's at. This is where um when you step out of line a little bit, being a little harsh with your kids, um, if you're into the spiritual disciplines, you'll hear the Lord say, you turn around and go back and apologize to your kids. You can't be like that. And uh if you're not in a in a good position with the Lord, and you won't learn how to hear his voice, and then that that thing with your kids, they'll always have a little thing. Is dad gonna blow up like that? You know? Um, am I bad? Am I bad? You don't want that going on in your house. You need the Holy Spirit. That's right. And uh so these things keep you listening, especially fasting.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Yeah, I had a lady uh come up to me after the sermon two weeks ago asking, you know, about fasting specifically. Is this something we're still supposed to be doing? What what is the purpose of it? What is it, what does it look like? Um, what am I supposed to fast from? How long am I supposed to fast? And people get a lot of questions on it. And and frankly, there's there's not a ton of guidance in scripture on how long you're supposed to fast and um what you're supposed to fast from, even though usually in scripture they fasted from food. Um you know, if you take Jesus as a model, he fasted 40 days. It's like I I will die.

SPEAKER_04 14:38

No, and and he fasted 40 days to get ready for his ministry. And I think we forget that that um fasting, um I think you you should have it in your life, but you got to come up with a reason for your fasting. You just don't fast. Um, hey, here's a good thing. I'll fast for you, Jesus, to lose a little weight, that'll work.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

And um this is not intermittent fasting, right?

SPEAKER_04 15:03

We want we want you guys to understand that this is about something. Yeah. So uh somebody's got uh diagnosis that's coming down. I'm gonna take tomorrow and fast. This will be my fasting for the month, and um pray that they'll be healed.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Yeah, you got a a job situation coming up, a career move or uh, you know, a promotion you've applied for, you're you're looking to maybe move to a new city to get pregnant, start a family, to to find someone to to do life with. You know, the these are all huge decisions, and fasting is a way for you to to devote some serious time to the Lord and say, God, I don't want to go into this blind. I want to see this the way that you see these things, and I need you to speak to me. Um and and so though even when we were looking to hire uh a children's pastor just uh was that last year, um, our team, we fasted every Wednesday uh together as a church council from you know time we woke up on Wednesday morning to went to bed. We're like, Lord, today's today's for you. And every time our stomachs growl, it's oh man, we're we need a children's pastor. Let's pray. Right. And it forces you to continue to seek the Lord over and over and over again.

SPEAKER_04 16:17

See, the Lord um knows that you gotta you gotta feed your family, you got things to do. And um, so what fasting does is it keeps your heart and mind tilting towards what you want the Lord to do while you're doing the rest of your life. It's not okay, I'm gonna fast, everybody leave me alone. It's um, no, you gotta you gotta keep living, and he wants you to live where nobody knows you're fasting, too.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Yeah, yeah. He's he explicitly said that. Don't fast like the you know, Pharisees and those guys, these religious, they love to look miserable and gloomy. He's like, brush your dang hair, brush your teeth, get on with your life, right, and fast too.

SPEAKER_04 16:58

And it's important. Here's how it works. Um every time you have a desire, we're gonna use uh eating, but it can be coffee. I tell you what, coffee is probably one of the biggest um it's it's right up there just underneath food. For me. Because um you you you try fasting from coffee and you're about 10 o'clock, you're mad. Oh, angry?

SPEAKER_02 17:27

You got a migraine kicking in.

SPEAKER_04 17:30

So then you're you're focusing, you're really focusing on how bad I feel all the time. Hunger pains, you know, oh man, I'm really hungry. I'm gonna go mow the lawn. Well, while you're mowing the lawn, you're not really concerned about it that much. As soon as you stop, you're hungry again.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

But man, when it comes to uh giving up that coffee, oh, it's a headache kicks in, you go get on a lawn mower, and that noise and the bouncing around just makes it worse.

SPEAKER_04 17:58

It's uh so what what we're talking about is something that reminds you to pray for the reason that you're fasting. And it's important that you understand that fasting has a purpose. It's just not I'm gonna fast because God tells me to. Um, no, this is you the Lord didn't make it explicit that you should fast. We're just saying this is a practice we find that it's really helped the apostles. Um Jesus did it, um, and he wanted to focus on things, so he would fast. Now, there's a lot of rabbinical uh literature on fasting, um, but that's that's a a Jewish thing, and uh I I don't know if you want to get into all that, but I think the most important thing uh here is that fasting gives you focus on uh what the Lord's doing in your life. And we you should focus on buying a new car. You you should fast. You're talking about paying fifty, sixty thousand dollars, five, six, seven years of payments. Yeah, of eight, nine hundred dollars. Um, so those are the things that you need to think about. And it would be good to bring the Lord into that thought, and the best way you can do that is fasting.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

Yep. So I think food is still probably one of the best ways to do it. There's just few things that grab our focus um attention, quite like hunger. Um but yeah, it could be coffee, uh, maybe social media. You know, if you're one of those people you're on, find yourself on Facebook all day, um, or TikTok videos or YouTube videos or reading, you know. Mine is the news app. I love to get on the news app. Um lately, as you know, it's been watches, looking at watches all the time. Um then fast those things. And now every time you pick up your phone and you get ready to click on Facebook, it's that reminder. Oh man, I'm supposed to be praying. Right. Um, and so that's that's what you want it to be, is this constant reminder. And we, you know, I read this yesterday. Um James said, if you seek me, um, or draw near to God, he will draw near to you. Scripture says, Seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart. This is what fasting is, is it's putting our hearts in that position, in that posture. Say, Lord, I want to hear from you. And I'm gonna keep coming back until I get an answer.

SPEAKER_04 20:16

And I'm gonna sacrifice this to hear from you. And uh your word means more. And the Lord responds.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

What did you say? He says, Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, right? We need it. It is sustenance, it's life, yeah, um, it's truth, and and we need to we need to hear from God. And we're saying, Yeah, Lord, I'm willing to give these things up if it means I get to hear from you.

SPEAKER_04 20:40

So let's look at it in a rational way. How do you apply this to your life? Um I try to do it once a month. I'll fast from something for something once a month. And I guarantee you something will come up. You know, this whole attack in Iran, um, Iran. I keep saying that word wrong. Iran, Iran, Iran. Um I I had just before it happened, I had just read um an email that I get I forget what you call them. They send out their little bulletin about the church in Iran. It was it was going crazy. People are getting saved like crazy. And then we started bombing the heck out of 'em. So um put me in a quandary. What what are we doing? Let's not mess up this. So I'm you know, I'm asking questions about God. Uh you know, Iran's been a thorn in the side since the get go, since nineteen seventy nine or whatever it was. And um they're out of control. But we got a revival going on. Do we want to mess with how do I and so that was my thing. I need to I need to not eat today and and pray for the Iranian Christians. Um that their movement would Not be stalled by all this. And uh so yeah, I I'm I'm sick of Iran. I'm sick of it. It's just they're just they're a menace to the whole world. And um their belief system has driven driven them into this, and I I don't mean Islam as a whole, but um their version of it, um Shiite Islam. And but there's a revival going on. It's like you know, where am where am I gonna stand? Who's doing this? What's who's behind it? So I've been praying that uh hard, and you you should too. There's we want people to be saved. And um it's it's kind of hard to for the church to spread while uh bombs are falling. So this is and and I don't this might be the Lord's plan, and and I I won't say that it's not, but I I will say I'm praying for the Christians in Iran. It's uh it's uh I want that to keep going. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

So yeah, as you uh you look to make fasting a part of your life, um, you got a big decision coming up, you got something um in your life that you're facing or someone you love is facing. Um you can take a day, you can take uh two or three days. Um I would I would start there starting with a week um is is pretty hard for a lot of people. Um it's doable, but uh you know, start with a day, start with two or three days. Um you really, you know, looking for some answers from the Lord, give them a week um and say, Lord, I'm gonna drink lots of water, but give up some food and uh fast for a week.

SPEAKER_04 23:46

And sometimes he'll impress on your heart. No, I want you to give up this. Yeah. I want you to give this up, and I want you to pray about this. So I'm doing two things at once here. I'm breaking you from this at the same time, I'm getting you to focus on somebody else. And uh so uh the Lord does that too. So listen to the Holy Spirit. He might, he might tell you you're done um scrolling, or you're done with the news, or you're done uh following this guy, you know, no Joe Rogan for a week, you know, whatever it is uh that you're you're into and you can't miss, and the Lord might say, Why don't you miss that for me? Because I want you to focus on this.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Yeah, especially I can't remember. I think Joe Rogan, he's one of those long format guys, right? He's like two, three hours. What if if you're devoting two or three hours, you know, even once, twice, three all every day of the week. You know, what if you gave those two or three hours to the Lord? Do you think that would make a difference in your relationship with your with your Heavenly Father? Absolutely it would. Um, so yeah, just be obedient when he brings those things up. And uh, man, fasting is one of those ways that you can truly start to to hear from the Lord and and start seeing things from his perspective.

Service That Crushes Ego

SPEAKER_04 24:58

Absolutely. Let's move on to service. And uh I like this note you put out to the side of it. Crushing ego. You know, we are Americans, and uh we think that the um we think the Lord's here to our or the world's here to uh serve us. And uh we need to we need to break that. And I think we all recognize that it's it's not like we're gonna get in a fight with anybody who's saying, no, it's about us. Um but we have uh Jesus came to serve.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

I mean, culture says, you know, curate your life, build your flat uh platform, protect your time, and Jesus says, go wash feet. Right. And you're like, where does that fit into this? Um but this is this is who we're supposed to be. And you know, we had a volunteer workshop here, um, was that last weekend? And I got to, you know, lead a little devotional for all of our volunteers that came. And man, it's so encouraging to see all the people who showed up and uh truly make a difference in this church, uh, how well they serve God's people here. Um and just to remind them, man, this is this is who we're called to be. Service is an optional. Nope, it's not. Scripture says that God has given each of us a gift. So if you've confessed Jesus as your savior and Lord, he's given you his spirit, and with that, the spirit gives you a gift to use for the benefit of his church.

SPEAKER_04 26:21

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

And I told everybody at the workshop, listen, if you can use that gift and go make money in the marketplace, that's great. You know, Travis, um, he is a gifted architect, and he's been able to do that as his profession, but he's also used that same skill, and you're thinking, well, what does an architect do in the church? Man, going all the way back to our last building we were in. We were doing all these renovations, and I got Travis involved, and he did all these 3D renderings of stuff, so we knew exactly what it was going to look like and where things would go. And no, you don't want to place stuff over here. That doesn't make any sense. You need to do it this way.

SPEAKER_04 26:55

And he measured out the flow for after service and and uh where people would talk in the middle of service. And I mean, he had it, he did a lot.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Yeah, and then we moved over here. Lord gave us uh, you know, an opportunity to move into this building, and he's drawing up floor plans and uh security maps, so um emergency exit maps, all this for the rooms. I mean, he he has used his gift to serve the church. Um, and so I wanted to remind our volunteers you have a gift and and we want you to use it for the church, and you won't truly be satisfied in your Christian life until you start to use the gift that God has given you for his church, for his bride.

SPEAKER_04 27:34

And here's the problem with it, we're not gonna punch this one down on you, but um, you don't know where the Lord's gonna lead you in service because it doesn't really depend on your gift. Because sometimes the Lord will lead you into something where you have to depend completely on him and not the gift that he's given you. And uh he's just training you there. So when you go into a church, where whatever church you go to, um, and you step in to serve, step into something, okay, I just need to serve. Okay, I hate this. I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you the rest of the year, but I'm gonna I'm gonna step out of this. Well, that doesn't mean you're stepping out of service, you're just moving. Move, move around, find the thing that you like. And um, you might get into something like the worship team says, oh my gosh, this is so much work. I thought we were gonna get up there and sing on Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

You want me here on Friday tonight?

SPEAKER_04 28:28

Yeah. And uh how early do I got to get up to get there on Sunday and and all this stuff? And so, and you say that wasn't what I was expecting it to be. Don't be ashamed. Just say, you know what, I'm gonna step down from this right now, and I'm uh my life is not ready for this amount of commitment. Where can I go? Send me somewhere else. And that's what that's the kind of idea we need to have. Just because the first thing didn't work out, um, like I I taught fourth and fifth grade VBS for years, and last year they almost killed me. And I'm like, maybe I should get somebody younger in here. And uh so uh those things happen and you you gotta learn to to to roll with the punches and and find the thing that you love.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Yeah, if you don't know what your you know gifting is, there's spiritual gift tests you can take online. Those are those are helpful. I don't know that they're the end-all be-all, but they're helpful, they'll point you in the right direction. But I think the best way is to just jump in, pick something that you think you're interested in and start serving. And if you don't like it, like Pastor Tim said, you can move on to something else. And in the process, the Lord's gonna teach you man, hey, this is what it looks like to serve even when you don't feel like it.

SPEAKER_04 29:44

Right.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

This is how you serve even when the ministry team leader and you bump heads or whatever, or you don't like the people on your team or who they paired you up with next to the door, whatever it is. You get to figure out, okay, man, we're all in this together. This is what it means to be part of the kingdom. Um and how am I gonna fit in? Well, how am I gonna be a part of this thing so that we can help people discover more in Christ? And God's gonna lead you in that, and then you're gonna move around from team to team over the years or months, whatever it is, and God's gonna put you in a spot where you start to come alive. Right. Um, and you're gonna you're gonna love it because he designed you to love it. You were made for this. Um, and so yeah, service, one of the huge things that that we're about here, I think, like I said, it's one of the best ways to be a part of what God's doing on the planet.

SPEAKER_04 30:31

Um if if you're if you're not serving, um you need to you need to do something. Even if it's greeting or picking up the garbage after church or just even if you're not told to, straighten up your chair and clean up around you when you get up. Just serve the church, even if you don't have a designated job.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

And help take out the trash, because uh Carol did just say we need some help with people taking out the trash. So if you're thinking, listen, I don't have time for all this, but you can take out the trash on a Sunday. I uh let me introduce you to Carol. She'd love to get you on the team.

SPEAKER_04 31:08

Yeah. And it's uh and that's a simple thing. I run a couple of bags out to the dumpster and I serve the Lord and I served his church like he wants me to. Let's go get lunch. Absolutely. And so that's that's how the service in the church is supposed to be. Everybody does a little for the whole. That's how he described the body, you know. Not everybody's a mouth, not everybody's the head, you know. We need fingers and toes and everything else going on.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

And kneecaps. Right.

SPEAKER_04 31:37

Right. So when we talk about service, and you talk to me and Ryan, we're talking about, okay, this is where we need some help. Okay, but there's other services in the church like encouragement, like prayer, praying for the church, encouraging your brothers and sisters who it's having a hard time, or encouraging brothers and sisters who are having a great time. Let them remind them that it's from God and that they need to um keep your hands open so when God blesses you, you can pass it on to someone else. So we have those type of ways to serve in the church, and those those things are so important, especially encouragement.

unknown 32:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Uh Carol, she runs our cleaning team here, but one of the things that I absolutely adore about her, and I didn't know she was even doing this for years. Um, but every person that gets baptized, she writes it down in a journal and she prays for those people every week. And then every time we have a child dedication, she writes down all the families and the kids' names who who are dedicated, and she prays for them every single week. What an incredible way to serve your church and the families here. Amen. Um, but to to bring them before the Lord every single week. So love it. All right, number seven. Um, trying to move a little bit quicker. I don't know if we're doing a good job or not. No, but we're not. We're terrible. No, number seven. Sorry, this is my thing.

Sabbath Rest That Reorients Life

SPEAKER_04 32:56

And Ryan said two words, and I've been speaking the whole time. So I'll try to bring it up.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

Well, this one I think is a one that you're also pretty big on. So I'll I'll let you kind of take over here. But uh talking about a Sabbath and something that I think um this is one of those spiritual disciplines I think in the church it's been real easy for us to to ignore um and not pay much attention to. Um, so so help us define what this is.

SPEAKER_04 33:21

Well, we see that the Lord rested after he created was he tired? No. But he rested, and he was trying to, I I think what he's trying to do is place a rhythm in your life. Now, uh he worked six days, he didn't get the weekend off. Okay, he worked six days, and he took a day, he took a day, um, that he called the Sabbath. He didn't go to church on that day. I know we we said, well, Sunday's my Sabbath, and I go to church and you know, hang out with the family, and that's good. But I'm just letting you know that it has nothing to do with church.

unknown 33:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:00

But Sabbath is a way that you can reorient your life. Because when we get in the grind, and I know some of you guys, and I feel for you, uh, your job's like if you can't work twelve hours, seven days a week, I'll find someone who will. And and it's tough. It's hard to find a Sabbath. But we need to understand that um there's some there's some things that we gotta rest from. And that's not just the busyness of life, it's um emotional rancor, you know. Sometimes when you don't take a time to rest, you can't see where you're you're angry, you know. And how much does that have to do with you? You know, Paul said, uh as much as it's got to do with you, live at peace with everyone. And uh we don't get a time to think. And uh I read a book a long time ago, and I know I I kind of beat you with it for the last 15 years, called uh the Contemplative Pastor.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

I was already thinking of it.

SPEAKER_04 35:08

And it's about you need to sit down and take a day and open your mind and let the Lord speak to you. Especially if you're a leader in some way. You you lead at your work or you lead at church or and uh you're in charge of some things, you need the Lord let the Lord speak to you. And um and you need to think about things, not just about spiritual things, but about everything. You know, uh how am I doing this? You know, one time I was on a Sabbath and I I was just sitting there in the backyard and I said, Man, I I hate mowing this lawn. It takes forever. Um I had this old lawnmower that was really slow and and uh then I had to weed eat and I had all these places to weed eat. And I was just sitting there and I was thinking, why don't I make this easier? I'll get a lawnmower that fits all these places that I won't weed anymore. And if that bush is in the way, I'm gonna pull it up. And suddenly I took a three-hour deal, and just because I took some time off and thought about things, I wasn't thinking about it for years. And I just had to do the same thing over and over again, giving up three hours. Now I give up 45 minutes. I can mow it, weed eat, just because I got rid of that tree and I moved that over there, and now my mower fits in there, and I don't, you know, and you're thinking, Tim, what are you talking about? That everybody knows to do that. Well, I didn't know. I was so busy doing everything that I was doing that I didn't get a chance for those things to compute, and I got two hours and 15 minutes out of my week back just by setting down and resting.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Yeah, it gives us a chance to hear from the Lord, man. Um, we are constantly just going all the time. And then I mean the pressure level for so many of us is just 100% maxed out, you know. Um, I was talking to a a dad on Sunday in between services, and he, you know, hadn't been able to come a lot here and there, and he goes, Soccer. He goes, it sucks. It sucks. And I started laughing. He goes, I'm serious. It sucks. Um, and I mean he loves playing or watching his kids play soccer. Don't get me wrong. He he they enjoy it, they their kids do well at soccer, but he's like, it just takes over. It takes over. And you try to balance your kids' sports and their, you know, different programs they have at school and musicals and all these things that you got to be a part of. And then you got work and you got all these other obligations. And it's like, I don't ever have time. And I mean, just most of us don't even realize we're so used to the pressure, we just call it life.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

Right. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

We don't know what it would feel like to take a break, to take a breath. Um, and we, you know, whether it's the pressure of work or your house or whatever, you know, like, man, if I'm not doing it, everything's gonna fall apart.

SPEAKER_04 38:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 38:12

You need to sit down and let God be God and let Him prove to you, I got this. You don't have to do it all. You know, I'm here. And we think, man, I gotta, I gotta work, I gotta work, I gotta work. And and you do. Six days, he wants you to work hard. You gotta work hard enough in those six days that on day seven, you can rest. Right. And problem is a lot of us, we you know, just putz around until day seven gets here.

SPEAKER_04 38:41

Dave's done studies to say if you take a day of rest, you get more done than the person who doesn't. And I think it's important, especially your kids, to uh see that modeled in front of them. Now, let me uh the Sabbath you need to be focused on yourself. Oh, that's selfish. I should be focused on God. No, God is focused on you, and He wants you to focus on you sometimes too. Uh, so you're resting. Um and it when you take a day off, it helps you sleep better. Um and it's important uh for you to get your sleep. I mean, health-wise, mental-wise, and and we run, run, run, run, run. Let me help you what this looks like. It doesn't have to be on Sunday or Saturday, it can be on Wednesday. Uh, it doesn't have to be Wednesday morning at 7 o'clock till Wednesday at 10 o'clock. It can be after I get out of work on Wednesday at 5 o'clock, I'm gonna take till noon the next day and rest. I'm gonna watch what I want. I'm gonna feed my soul, I'm gonna set out in the backyard and stare at the clouds, and you know, I'm not gonna mow the lawn. I know, I know that it's a draw in the summertime. Everybody loves to mow the lawn. Just let me get away from it.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Only when you get a rider, man. You get a zero turn, and all of a sudden you're like, Joy and I fight over mowing now. You had to push the lawn. We weren't fighting over.

SPEAKER_04 40:10

And it's a couple hours where you don't get interrupted, and it's just and it's nice. I get that. Um, so that might be involved in that, but take those that time, and there's eight hours of sleep in the middle, so you're you're getting good rest, and um you can take that day, and it'll it'll change your life. The Lord will speak to you and say, I've been trying to get to you, uh, especially um Ryan and I, we we hear things from the Lord on our Sabbath that are like, okay, we need to start a new ministry. And that's where he gets us because we're we're just we're chasing our tails the rest of the time. And uh so when you slow down and you take that Sabbath, mine's on Thursday right now, and uh, I just get up in the morning and look at Teresa and say, What are we gonna do? And uh and we run around and essentially we do nothing all day. And and we need that day, and everybody needs that day. So I encourage you to put it into your life. Is that gonna, you know, make all this um connect you to the Lord and and no, these other things are gonna connect you to the Lord. This is for you. This is the you part of serving the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

This is you know, Pestin a little bit ago said, you know, feed your soul. We talked earlier about you know, you connect with God through gardening or through taking a hike or a walk. This is a great thing to do on your Sabbath. You know, spend some time out in the garden. If that's what feeds your soul and you helps you feel connected with God, that's a great thing to do during a Sabbath. Man, God, I'm just gonna get out here. I just wanna, I'm just gonna be with you. Um, you can plant and and do that, or go on a walk, take a hike, stare at the clouds, you know, whatever it is. Um, and it man, it'll it'll make a huge difference in your life.

Witness That Starts With Care

SPEAKER_04 42:01

It'll change your life. Let's go on. Witness. Uh, I think sometimes we we have started it here and and uh one thing we've been pushing is you know these gospel conversations, but we we need to understand that our witness extends further than that. We call it evangelism, and we've got all these schools where we're gonna set people down and explain salvation to them and all this kind of stuff, but that's that's how it ends. That's not how it starts. You feel that? How it starts is are you okay? Can I pray for you? Or you want to come over for some dinner? You've been my neighbor for years. How about I I make you a steak? Um that's how it starts. And we're always focused on how it ends. Well, it'll end with the Holy Spirit handling all that for you, but it's how it starts. It's how it starts. Every time I'm in a hospital, um there's someone who's hurting, and if you open your eyes and you can take a take a moment and pray for 'em, even the nurses, you know that's a tough job. I was up in the ICU and um there was a nurse, and I told her, I'm lost, how do I get out of here? And she had to get herself together to tell me you know the elevators are this way. And I'm like, she's having a rough day. Everybody dying around her. And so I just prayed for her. I I want everybody to be able to be like that. That is the beginning of the witness.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

It's why when we, you know, decided on our mission here to you know, 30,000 gospel conversations. Um, that we really took gospel conversations and said, we want this to mean a lot. I when people come to New Here gathering, I tell them all the time, we are very liberal in what we count as a gospel conversation. Absolutely. But it is. It is because I don't want it to be you have to sit down and share the Romans road and Force them to make a decision. Right. Eventually, that would be great if we got the relationship progressed to that point. But yeah, I want you to sit down in a break room and see someone who's having a bad day and say, oh man, they look like they're having a rough day. Let me go encourage them and pray for them. Hey, Aiden, I know you got that big project coming up. Can I pray for you? Do those things and you start to open the door. And we tell people all of those are gospel conversations.

SPEAKER_04 44:23

Absolutely, because it's leading to the gospel. A witness is not a momentary time interaction with another person. That's good. That's just the beginning of your witness. And I so many times this has happened. Um going out of a checkout line, got something under the cart that they didn't get. It happens all the time. And it pulled out. The next person is coming in. And I said, Did you get that pop on the bottom? And it she's like, Oh no, I didn't get that. Now she's she's all nervous. And I'm like, Okay. I'll I'll wait here and we'll do it after you're done with them. And she's like, Thank you, thank you, thank you. Well, the person who is getting done in time, he's like, I never seen anybody do that in my life. Most people charge out of here when they they know that they haven't charged that thing. Well, there was my witness and uh and I I said give credit to the Lord. And and so he's walking around the rest of his life. I know a guy who got away with a free case of pop and he went back and paid for it. And and I know there's a lot of people out there who aren't Christians who wouldn't let that happen either. Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying I gave credit to the Lord.

unknown 45:41

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 45:42

And uh that's that's gonna be in his soul, and that's a witness, and somebody else is gonna come along and do something honorable, and he's gonna say, Why did you do that? And they're gonna say, Well, give credit to the Lord. I wouldn't always done that, but I do it now. And pretty soon he's gonna say, I gotta figure out what's going on here. That's a witness.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

Absolutely. Um, and I I think that there's some people that you know have a more evangelistic sort of bent to them. You know, I think of Dave Meyer. You talk to Dave Meyer for five minutes. If he doesn't know that you're following Jesus, he's gonna find out. Um, I I think two of my kids, Ty and Ellie, are both that way. Ty, uh, he was on his way to work the other day, saw this uh homeless lady um on the side of the road by the gas station on 58, and he said, I'm gonna pull in here, I'm gonna go buy her something in this gas station, I'm gonna walk out here and share the gospel with her. And so he did. Um the dad and me's like, listen, I don't want you going talking to people on the side of 58.

SPEAKER_03 46:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:47

The other part of me is like, man, I'm so proud of that kid that he would even have that thought.

unknown 46:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

Um, then he sat down at work and there was some lady, she was trying to find a phone charger, whatever. He's on the clock. Now he works for Chick-fil-A, and they kind of give you some flexibility here, I guess. But he sat down for 30 minutes and had this extended gospel conversation with this woman, got to talk about the gospel, invited her to church, all while he was, again, on the clock. And then Ellie, man, she we got those door hangers for Easter, and she rode around our whole night. Reese did too, but I think Reese got over to Chip and Theresa's house and he just hung out with Chip. Um, Ellie, she she did the rounds, man, got them door hangers on all these doors, and she'd knock on people's doors and just ask them, Do you believe in Jesus? And I'm like, man, that boldness is is awesome.

SPEAKER_04 47:35

It is.

SPEAKER_02 47:36

Um, but man, this is who we're supposed to be. Jesus said, go into all the world and make disciples. Um, and if you're if we're not being intentional about that, then then we're missing a huge aspect of what it means to follow Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 47:49

Yeah, and so let me personalize that. This is what Jesus said to you. Go into your world and preach the gospel and make disciples. That's and we hear that all the world, okay. We gotta give to missionaries. And no, no, no. Go into your world and do it. And it's important that in that we do. Look, it it'll be a fire. It's it's just a little coal, which is your I want you to be saved. But man, you start blowing on that fire, it'll rage.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

And then you'll be praying for people at the hospital and and uh the first time someone you you lead them to the Lord, they say yes, and you you pray a little prayer with them, there's no going back. Right. When you s watch someone cross over from death unto life, um it changes, it messes you up forever. You're like, man, we I gotta do this all the time. Um script says, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. Um so if you want to have beautiful feet, bring the good news. Um, and so I would encourage you, uh, if you don't have a list of of people that you're praying for right now, you need to make a list and start praying for them. Scripture says no one comes unless God draws them. And so you need to be praying. God, draw these people to yourself and then give me an opportunity, or put people in their life um that's gonna share the gospel with them. And you need to start praying with those people. Um and then look for opportunities to to pray with people, to encourage people to just live this life out.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

I was it, oh man. Was it Saint Francis? Can't remember.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

Oh gosh, can't remember who said it, but they said, you know, preach often and when necessary, use words. Absolutely. Um let your life be a witness. But then when it comes time, use words. Yeah, use words. Um, how can they know? How can they believe unless they hear, you know? Um so open your mouth, communicate the goodness of God's truth and his love for them. Um, and I know we're we're so afraid to offend somebody or whatever. You have the greatest news on the planet that God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son. So if this person would believe, they won't perish, but they'll have eternal life.

SPEAKER_04 50:05

What a what a mission. And and like I said, it doesn't start with, let's sit down and go through the scripture. It is, it starts with, are you doing okay?

unknown 50:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 50:17

Or running over and where the garbage is uh garbage can got knocked over in your neighbor's yard and there's trash everywhere and you know he's at work, and just go pick it up for him. Um one of these days he's gonna know you did that.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

And um, with everybody's ring doorbells and stuff, he'll probably know why you're doing it.

Generosity That Becomes Sacrificial

SPEAKER_04 50:37

Right. So it it's uh it's important to let our witness shine. Let your good works shine, Jesus said. That's good. And number nine is uh is that and I think we're in a culture where we're generous already. And I I I know everybody preaches on this like the United States is they're all about them. That's not true. Uh we're the givenest nation uh nation on the planet. We give to everything. Um matter of fact, uh in New York, uh right now they're given uh if they get uh housing, it's$120,000 a year to homeless people. That's what they're spending on each one. I think can I apply? Yeah. Well, no wonder you got so many homeless people. Um we are we're a country that believes in in giving and and helping, but most of us the way we want to give is I'll just write a check and give it to the people who know how to do it. And that's that's important. Um but once we do that, we cut our lives off. I've already given at the office, you know. So um uh no more. You know, I got it in my budget, I'm gonna give away this much. And and I'll tell you this most of these millionaires that everybody's pointing at saying you're selfish or whatever, they give more money away than I've made in my lifetime. You know, they just give it away. And and that's great, and that's generosity, but it's not the generosity we're looking at here. We're looking at God blessed me, so I'm gonna bless others. It might be financial, it might be time, the thing that we don't have enough of. Right. Um, so this trust of God, I'm gonna give up my time, or I'm gonna give up my money for this well. We just had uh an announcement for our well on Sunday. I'm gonna give up my money for this thing, and I'm expecting you to give that back to me. You know? And uh this is what generosity is, is when you uh you're breaking scarcity for someone else. And we we need to understand that and that it's okay to give that, even when it's outside of your budget. And uh so I got some budgeted things that I I give to some charities here in Lorraine County and I give uh to the church, and it just automatically comes out. But when the other things come up, it challenges my generosity. And uh because I've already budgeted that in, I know I can give this much and I'll be okay. That's not what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

Well, I mean, scripture says every every good and perfect gift comes down from our Father in Heaven. Um, God owns it all, and so every penny we think, well, I gotta give God, you know, just this little bit. This is all I owe him. It's his. He owns it all. He owns every penny in your bank account and your 401k, um, the value of your house. He he owns it all. Um, and so when you see it that way, man, I think Joey actually um was talking about this on Facebook the other day. Um, talking like, man, when I see it all as his, then I just become a steward and a facilitator of God's money. Um, and we need to do it well. You know, God wants you to do it well. Um, but man, we we need to be generous. And years ago, um, I preached a sermon on generosity, and I called this guy up on stage and I put some money in his hand, I told him to close his hand, and I tried to add more money on top, and then you know, money would fall off, and I try to add more money, but it would just fall. He couldn't get any more.

SPEAKER_04 54:25

Right.

SPEAKER_02 54:26

But I you know, opened his hand and I told him, All right, let go of that. And then I put more money in his hand. I told him to drop that and I put more money in his hand. Man, I think that's the way God views giving.

unknown 54:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:36

Is if when we try to hold on to it, he's like, even if I wanted to, I couldn't give it to you because you won't let go. You won't let go. Um, but if we'll trust him and say, God, I'm gonna I'm gonna give this to you, he goes, Okay, well, here's this. God, I'm gonna give that to you. All right, well, here's this. Um, and and we we learn that we can trust him. You can't out give God. It's the one time in scripture God says to test me, right? Is when it comes to to our tithe and our offering. Um, and I know there's a lot of debate on tithes, and is it, you know, is that something we're supposed to be a part of today? And is that only the old testament? Um, here's what I'd tell you. I think 10% is a great spot to start. Um, I would also say if you're banking on God's grace um to give less, be careful because every time Jesus talked about the Old Testament law, he never lowered the standard. Right. He said, You've heard, you know, do not commit adultery. I say don't lust. You heard don't murder. I tell you, don't hate. So if you're gonna say, Well, Jesus didn't say 10%, it's like, yeah, because he said 20. Ah, well, hold on. Right.

SPEAKER_03 55:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02 55:42

He he usually leveled it up. Um, but if you can't start with 10% or whatever, Paul said each of you need to decide in your heart what you're gonna give and give cheerfully. God loves a cheerful giver. Um and and as you start to give, I think you're gonna experience, man, when I trust God with these things, he's faithful, he comes through every time.

SPEAKER_04 56:02

And that's why it's important to um put it into your budget, okay? That predetermined giving. I'm gonna give to the church, I'm gonna give to a couple of these charities, and I'm gonna give to Uncle Joe because he's not getting by, whatever. I'm gonna send him$10,$20 a month or whatever. And you get all that in there, but that's just the beginning. Because then the Lord's gonna say, okay, you've trusted me with this. Um, I want to give you more, but I can't give you more because you're you've made this decision on how much you're gonna give. So you're gonna, I'm gonna give you some situations where you're gonna give out of your pocket. That might be your golf money, that might be uh whatever the money you had set aside for that new bow, whatever it is. Things are gonna pop up and God's gonna give you an opportunity to spontaneously give. And uh, and I'm I'm just gonna say it, the Lord will give you that money back. You you don't have to worry. When you when you feel the Holy Spirit um Holy Spirit urging you to give your time, to give your money, to give your talent to something, um, He's gonna He's gonna refill that hand so you can do it again. Absolutely. And uh so you got your predetermined giving, and then you got your spontaneous generosity. Um and then there's gonna be times when it's when it's risky. And we struggle with this here at the church uh all the time. We had so many people come and and uh uh ask the church for help and then we see them on Facebook taking picture of their stake at that steak place you really like, and and we've been burned, you know, and we feel like I just don't want to give to anybody anymore. Uh and uh but uh sometimes we gotta give not just wisely but recklessly. You know, I just feel like the Lord wants us to do this this time. And um and sometimes you're gonna give uh money and you're gonna think you're great and they're gonna laugh at you and and and use that money for whatever. But you gotta remember you're not given to them. You're given to him.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 58:15

This is what generosity is about. Not just be generous to the people around you, to the uh organizations that are trying to do great things. When you give that money, you are giving it to him.

SPEAKER_02 58:27

That's good.

SPEAKER_04 58:27

That's his money.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

When uh I preached a sermon on I think it was the most recent one on generosity. Um I told the church that said, Man, if we would give God our first and best, he'll bless the rest. Um and so continue to bring to bring God your first and your best. Because you truly are. You're giving to him. Um and especially when you give through the church, you're you're giving to the Lord. Um and he he multiplies the impact of that. And I challenge people to level up their generosity. I said, if you've never given before, then today give spontaneously, and maybe that's five bucks. Um, and for a lot of people, that's where they're at. You know, I'm a spontaneous giver. You know, I come to church and I'll throw whatever I got sitting in my purse or my wallet.

SPEAKER_04 59:13

Um we've seen it. Uh well cost$12,000, and we got four or five of that, and and the Lord puts it on our heart, whatever the cost is for the rest of it, I got it. Yep. And uh so uh the Lord may call you to do that. I'm not I'm not gonna pull that out of your uh wheelhouse because he when he sees things uh growing in your life that he's gonna do something that will break its growth if it's something that he don't like. And it you I just need you to remember that when you give back to him, you need to let him own it. Yep. And that's that's the the difficult thing for a lot of people is I don't get what if that guy, matter of fact, there was one guy he told me I give to everybody I see on the street, and I tell him, I said, if you use this for drugs, I'm gonna pray God kills you. And I'm like, I'm not sure that that's the way we should be, you know, handling this spontaneous giving thing. So, but I'm telling you, sometimes uh the Lord's gonna uh ask you to give, and it's gonna be a wise thing, you're gonna be in agreement, but sometimes he's gonna ask you to give in risky situations, and that's more for you than it is for the person you're given to.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

Well, I so I kind of laid out three three levels. We'll wrap up with this. Um there's the spontaneous givers, those who just kind of give based on the need or based on what they have available in the moment. Um, that's level one. Then I said, if you're a level one giver, I'm gonna encourage you to level up to level two, which is to give strategically. And that's when you what you talked about, starting to make a plan to give. Right. It's in the budget. I know what I'm giving, and I do it every month. And I think recurring giving is the best way to do it. Um, so just like you, Joy and I, we have our giving to the church automated. It comes out as soon as I get paid, comes right back out. Um, and and we know that's done, it's in the budget, it's happening every single month. Um, and that's man, churches can't function without people who give strategically that way and say, man, we're gonna make this a part of our life. And then I told the church, if you're a level two giver, the next level is to be um a level three, and that's to give sacrificially. And this is what you keep hitting at, you know, going above and beyond. Um, Lord, I've I've given you the 10% or whatever number you and the Lord agreed upon. I've given you that. I'm going above and beyond. I'm gonna, I'm gonna give sacrifice, I'm gonna have to change my lifestyle because of this. Um and man, I can we got a minivan that we've been driving around. It's I don't even know if it's on its last legs. It it's crawling sometimes. And I can go buy a new car if I'd stop giving to the church. Yeah, it changes my lifestyle. Um, but I'm like, I'm gonna continue to give. And as I've continued to give, that van keeps running. I'll tell you that. Right. Um, he's he's been faithful. He shows that he's faithful over and over and over again. Um, and and I want you to know you you can't out give God. And so I issued uh during that sermon a three-month generosity challenge. Uh, you can find it on our website. If you just click on the give button, uh scroll down, you can find a three-month generosity challenge. If you've not done it, I would encourage you to do it because uh I I believe that your faith will explode as you start to trust God with those things, um, especially with your money and your time, but especially with your money, right? You start to trust him with that and you let go of it, just watch himself prove himself faithful.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:45

And you know it. Listen, money makes the world go round, but it also is is the start of all kinds of evil. That's right. And that number one evil is selfishness. God wants to break you from that. That's right. He wants you to be like him, who is the least selfish. Yeah. And uh so um don't make him break you.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:11

Just do it. Just do it. Just do it. It's so much easier.

Prayer And Next Steps

SPEAKER_04 1:03:14

Tell my kids that all the time. So all of these things that we talked about uh today and last week is about you becoming more like Jesus. That's right. And uh these are the things that um we you preached uh Sunday that the Holy Spirit is involved in making you not only become like Jesus, to want to become like Jesus. He's already working on you. These things, these nine things that we talked about, are nine nine ways that you can open up your life to the Holy Spirit so he can make you more like Jesus. And they will.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:50

They will. Absolutely. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you for the series and and the impact that you you made and continue to make in people's lives through this. Um, Lord, we we want to put you number one, we want to fix our alignment. Um, Lord, we want to have our maintenance scheduled, these spiritual disciplines in place. And uh, and Father, we want to have our heart to be fully detailed so that we're doing the right things for the right reasons, not to earn your love or your approval. We know that um if we've confessed to you as Savior, that you have saved us to the uttermost. Um, but Father, we want to be available to you, to be used by you, to hear your voice. And we know that these are the things that position us to do that and to live an abundant full life. And so, Father, I pray for each person in AFresh Win, every person who's gonna listen to this podcast, I pray that you would do immeasurably more than all they could ask or imagine as they begin to say yes to you in each of these areas. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:49

Thanks again for joining us for this episode of the Midweek Podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know how God is using this resource in your life or send any podcast questions or topic ideas to podcast at a freshwind.org. If you would like to support this ministry financially and help us continue offering new resources that equip you to discover more in Christ, simply text any amount to the number 84321. We're so grateful for your support. Make sure to tune in next week for a brand new episode of the Midweek Podcast. Be blessed and have a great week.