Regaining Your Power - January 5, 2025

Turning your Bible to Mark chapter number six.

We're in our series I've entitled Walking with Jesus.

Are you all enjoying walking with Jesus?

I just love walking with Jesus, like he's my favorite.

Just every single day reading my Bible, praying, and talking with him and enjoying his presence.

Mark chapter six, we're going to read verses 14 through 33, and I'll make comments throughout as I'm reading.

And then I'm going to give you five killers of the faith and five steps to resurrect your faith.

Amen.

And in this passage, we're going to see that the disciples, if you've been a part of this series, Jesus sent them out to preach.

And they're ministering and they're seeing results.

And they're casting out devils and they're anointing people.

And then we see all of a sudden they get word that Herod beheaded John the Baptist.

And I'm sure that would have been very, very discouraging for them to hear that bad news.

How many of you ever heard some bad news about a friend or a family member that died and passed away or something violent, something sudden, and it's like the rug getting pulled out from underneath you?

And I think that Jesus was aware of what was taking place both in their ministry and their life and basically says, hey, let's come apart, let's disattach for a little bit, and uh begins to minister to them.

And so today I've titled this message, Regaining Your Power.

Regaining your power.

How many of y'all need to regain some power?

Yeah.

You know, there's a verse in the Old Testament that says, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

It's part of the human condition.

You're gonna kind of ebb and flow, you're gonna have moments where you're feeling like you're on top, and other moments where you're feeling like, man, I don't have any energy.

You're gonna have, you know, moments where you're, you know, a great is the anchor Jesus Christ.

Amen.

He's the friend that sticks closer than a brother.

He's the one that always loves you, will never forsake you.

He's the one we're singing to, right?

Like when we're singing, like I love our our musicians and our singers, but I want to tell you this, they're not necessarily first and foremost singing and performing for you.

So if you don't like it, that's that it wasn't for you.

It was for God.

Right?

And uh, how many of y'all ever sit next to or stand next to somebody who doesn't really have a good voice?

Yeah.

Guess what?

That that wasn't for you either.

That was for King Jesus.

And uh just let people worship the Lord because listen, we're here to magnify him and to love on him.

And so today we're gonna talk about regaining your power.

Let's jump into it.

Mark chapter number six, verse number fourteen.

And King Herod heard of him, heard of Christ, heard of Jesus, for his name was spread abroad, and he said that John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him.

Others said that this is Elias, and others said that it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets.

But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John whom I beheaded.

He is risen from the dead.

I think Herod had some paranoia and some fear over what he did, because he knew that John the Baptist was a holy man of God.

And we're about to hear the story about how he was somewhat duped or tricked or deceived through lust and through kind of a weak moment and putting a promise out that he should have never put out.

And it gives a story about how John the Baptist died.

Look at verse 17.

For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her.

So time out.

You ever do that in your Bible reading?

Time out.

What did it just say?

So Herod took his brother's wife.

That's a problem.

That's a big problem.

And John the Baptist was man enough to point out the problem.

And this is why you have to have people of God that are more loyal to the truth than they are to politics and power, no matter the consequence.

And so the Bible says in verse 18, for John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.

So he spoke truth to power.

He says, What you're doing is sin.

That's not right.

You shouldn't be taking your brother's wife.

Like that's wrong.

And so it goes on to say this, and that's why he was in jail and imprisoned.

Verse 19, it says, Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him.

Why do you think she had a quarrel against him?

I don't think she liked being called out.

Right?

Can you imagine the kind of words that were coming at her for some of her actions?

So Herodias had a quarrel against him and would have killed him, but she could not.

So she physically couldn't get to him.

For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and holy and observed him.

And when he had heard him, he did many things and heard him, what's it say?

So it looked to me like Herod had this affinity, this likability towards John the Baptist, was somewhat curious about his power.

Why are all these people following him?

And like enjoyed kind of watching what was taking place.

But here we see the political game.

Like, he's doing wrong, John the Baptist calls him out, he ends up in jail, and even though he liked him, he was going to be duped or deceived into doing something that he probably didn't want to do.

Verse 21.

And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee, and when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, so this would be his niece.

Right?

So when his the daughter of Herodias came in and she danced and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee.

Now that's not a really wise thing to do, Mr.

Herod.

Like, you don't just throw out you're gonna do anything that the person wants.

And now watch what she does.

The daughter of Herodias goes to her mama, and uh it says this, and he swore unto her, whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee on the half of my kingdom.

Bad promise, dude.

Shouldn't have done it.

And she went forth and said unto her mother, What shall I ask?

Oh, this is this is not a hard one for her, right?

Like, I'm sure she still ticked off angry over the fact that John the preacher Baptist called her out on her sin.

And so the Bible says this, What shall I ask?

She said, Well, I'll tell you what I want, the head of John the Baptist.

And she came in straightway with haste unto the king and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist.

And the king was exceeding sorry.

Yet for his own sake and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her.

So, because he spoke up in front of everybody else, he was in a bad spot.

And he didn't want to look bad in front of his peers.

He's trying to look all haughty and proud and big and in front of everybody, throwing on this big party, and look how powerful I am.

Now all of a sudden, because he spoke, you know, presumptuously in front of everybody, and she's asking for this, he's like, Man, I don't want to do this, but he's in a political kind of tight spot.

And he couldn't back down now.

The Bible says in verse 27, immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought and went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a charger and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to her mother.

And when the disciples heard of it, I mean, twisted, right?

Like, you ever read your Bible and be like, what is wrong with these people?

Like, you ever just do that?

Like, I do timeouts all the time.

Like, what is the deal here?

And how about this?

Back up a little bit.

Like, what kind of weirdo is Herod to be all getting all like seduced by his niece?

Like, what a twack job is this guy?

Like, seriously.

That's what the Bible says, right?

Like, you just read it in there and you're like, sometimes you've got to pause and just ask a lot of questions.

Like, what in the world's going on?

And the Bible goes on to say this.

Verse 29, and when his disciples heard of it, I kind of I kind of have a lot of respect for the disciples for doing this.

They came and took up his corpse and laid it in a tomb.

Like, I have a lot of respect for those.

Like, they honored John the Baptist.

They said, you know, even though he was killed, let's go, let's do him right.

Let's honor him.

A lot of times in Christianity and churches, people will be like, well, I just like the man of God as long as I'm blessed by his ministry.

But what about when he dies?

Like, are you still going to give reverence and respect and honor when you're not getting something out of it?

See, they had everything to lose here.

They could have been captured, they could have been killed, but they said, no, we need we owe some respect here and some honor.

Now, what kind of play do you think this had on their psyche, on their heart, on the political landscape, on what's taking place?

I'm sure this had some impact on their heart.

And so they they go and do it anyways.

They they they put his body in a tomb.

Verse 30, the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught.

So they're giving a debrief.

They're giving a report.

Hey, we went out, we preached like you said, you said, whoever receives it, great, let's enter into the house, let's bless them.

Whoever doesn't, we'll shake the dust off our feet and we'll do our thing.

By the way, John the Baptist is dead, and like they're given that debrief.

And by the way, that's always a good thing.

If you have a leader, somebody that's a boss or a pastor or somebody that's a coach or captain, make sure you give the feedback.

Make sure you're giving the communication upward.

Don't always wait for them to come and ask you for it.

You know, the the whole idea here is you want to have communication and you want to have connection.

You've got to close the loop inside there.

And so that's what they're doing.

They're trying to have a good communication with Jesus.

Jesus hears this and he says, okay, guys, verse 31, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while.

For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

So they were so busy.

You guys ever been there before?

You're so busy doing schoolwork, doing uh um hustling on the job site, uh, doing everything you possibly could to minister to everybody else that you didn't have time to eat.

No time to like rehab, to regain your power.

You've just been spending, spending, spending.

Anybody relate?

You've just been putting it out, putting it out, putting it out, and like you're just exhausted.

And I think that's kind of what was taking place.

And I'm so glad that Jesus is a wonderful, benevolent, kind Savior.

Like, look at him, he's like, okay, I see where you're at.

Let's let's let's take a time out.

Let's get away from everybody.

Um, this is a wise piece of counsel for married people.

Husbands, if you ever see your wife super taxed and stressed out, it might be a good thing to say, hey, let's take a break.

You ever see the kids already like spent, like reeling out of control?

Sometimes you see the little kids are like one and two and they're like going crazy right before they're about to have a nap.

Mama says it's time for a nap.

They start rubbing their eyes.

Adults do that kind of stuff too, where they're they're acting not the right way.

And we need to have enough wisdom and insight as spiritual leaders to say, the answer here is not to push forward and push through.

The answer is to back up and let's get a little bit of rest and rehydration and refuel.

Let's regain some perspective and some focus.

And that's what Jesus does for us.

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is rest.

Did you hear that?

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is how about this?

Um, have some leisure time.

Like, I hope you guys have something that you do other than work and church.

You need to have something that you're that you're able to recover, let your mind rest.

You need to have be able to have some good food and some nourishment in you, something that rebuilds you up.

That's what Jesus is advocating here.

Come yourselves apart and rest a while into a desert place.

And the Bible goes on to say they departed in verse 32 into a desert place by ship privately.

We'll stop right there.

Let me give you five killers of the faith that I see in this passage.

Number one, I see envy.

I see envy.

Envy is resentment and discontent because of what others have.

I mean, it looked to me like Herod was just like completely envious of his brother's wife.

I mean, why can't you just be happy with what with your wife, dude?

Why can't you just relax and just be thankful for what you have?

Why do you always gotta want what somebody else has?

Why do you gotta be upset and angry all the time?

Well, it's envy.

It's wanting what doesn't belong to you.

You say, what's the solution to envy?

Um, how about how about um just rejoicing over what you have?

Rejoice over the fact that, okay, I have this, I'm thankful for this.

The second killer I see to our faith is greed.

Greed.

Greed is an intense, selfish desire for more.

Greed.

Remember a time when greed came upon you and just think bad in the future is gonna happen to you.

And a lot of times people live think bad in the future is gonna happen to you.

And a lot of times people live in fear and worry because their mind is playing this in this loop that the devil has put on the screen of their mind of all these dangerous, bad situations that are gonna come upon them.

It'll just kill your faith.

It'll like cause you to be paralyzed where you're at.

It will cause you to not be able to move forward.

You say, what's the solution to fear?

Faith.

Right?

You gotta get faith.

Faith is God speaking into you, giving you a positive projection of the future, having confidence in the fact that what God has promised you, He's actually gonna do.

How many of y'all got some faith today?

Anybody got some faith today?

Man, I'm super charged with faith.

I mean, Jesus said if you have the faith, the grain of a mustard seed, you'll say to that mountain, it'll move and it'll be cast into the sea.

And a lot of times it's because we don't, we're not activating that faith.

And so don't let fear kill your faith.

Let your faith kill your fear.

Amen.

The fourth killer I see of our faith is confusion.

Confusion.

Confusion is this state of bewilderment, unclear thinking.

Have you ever had that brain fog before?

Where you're just, I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go, I'm kind of uncertain on how to do things.

And a lot of times people walk around completely confused.

I want to remind you of this.

God is not the author of confusion.

The devil is.

The devil uses, he uses doubt, he uses division, he uses discord.

All are these we see attempts that he made in the Garden of Eden.

And he's still still doing it today to undermine us and to sabotage us, to kill our relationships, to cause us to make very terrible decisions, confusion.

You say, what's the solution to confusion?

Trust in God.

It's trust is this.

You're transferring your trust over to God.

It's like sitting down in a chair.

You're relaxing into the confident thought that that chair is gonna hold you up.

When you're trusting God, you're certain that God's gonna hold you up.

You're certain.

Listen, I have a certain future.

I'm not gonna live in confusion of what's gonna happen to me.

I know where I'm going.

How many of y'all know where you're going when you die?

How many of y'all know that Jesus loves you?

How many of y'all know that the promises of God are yes and amen and good things are supposed to happen to you?

Yes, yes, yes.

Listen, I live there.

I live there.

Listen, when bad things happen to me, I'm I understand the devil's gonna try to sabotage me and get me into confusion, but I have a choice.

I can let him bait me along and live in this bewildered negative state of consciousness, or I can back up and get on the Word of God and say, God, you said this, you said this, you said this, renew my mind and decide and choose to live in the trust of God.

And I gotta tell you, it's so much better when you groove those mental neuropathways inside your heart and mind on a daily basis to where whenever confusion enters, fear enters, greed enters, envy enters, you automatically get over into the faith ruts in your mind that build you up.

And you'll be like all the patriarchs in days of old, Daniel and David and Job, where you're just gonna magnify the Lord.

So we see that we see these five killers: envy, greed, fear, confusion.

Number five, lust.

Lust.

You say, what's lust?

Lust is a very strong sexual desire.

It's not confined only to sexuality, but it but it certainly has that component.

When I look at Herod, I see a man that's just making really terrible decisions based off lust.

Listen, there's some things, you may look at it, you may like it, and you may want it, but you shouldn't take it.

Adam and Eve, that was the first thing that we learned in the garden.

Listen, just because you want something and something looks good doesn't mean it's good for you.

There's a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

How many of you guys are reading the book of Genesis?

You're gonna read all the way through the whole Bible this year.

Raise your hand.

Yes.

Okay, so it's the beginning of the year, right?

We're in Genesis and we're walking through.

I read about Joseph, right, with Potiphar's wife.

Like, Joseph was a man of God.

Like he was super blessed.

Everything he did, God made it to prosper because God was with him.

And the Bible says that Potiphar's wife was like, hey, good looking.

I'm just making that part up, but she was just like, you know, she was just like, hey, lie with me.

Like she was trying to seduce him.

And she kept coming at him, kept coming at him.

You say, Preacher, what do I do if somebody's trying to constantly use like lust to seduce me and get me to be tripped up and messed up?

Run.

You say that, isn't that the coward thing?

No, that's the courageous thing.

It's easier to avoid temptation than it is to endure temptation.

And in some situations, if you're gonna survive and have your faith live, you've got to get out of there.

Right?

And so when I look here at this, I see lust, this killer of the faith.

You say, what's the solution there?

The solution is to get filled with the Holy Spirit.

That's why we're in church.

That's why we sing these praises, because we want to be filled with God.

Because when we're filled with God, we're gonna have, we're gonna have trust, we're gonna have faith, we're gonna have gratitude, we're gonna have thankfulness, and all of these killers of the faith are gonna be destroyed.

Amen.

And so we see these five killers of the faith.

Now, how many of you guys over the last, I don't know, uh week, month, few months, you've had some bad news come your way.

Yeah.

It's just part of life.

You don't always get to choose what happens to you, but you always get to choose how you get to respond.

See, things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.

And I'm gonna choose Christ every single time.

I'm gonna choose to say, you know, I am not going to let the hardship and the difficulty hold me down.

No, I'm gonna rebuild my faith.

How many of y'all want to rebuild your faith?

I want to have a strong, vibrant, healthy faith.

And so here's five steps to resurrect your faith.

Number one.

Really simple.

This is a really simple message today.

Number one, disconnect from the busyness of work.

Disconnect from the busyness of work.

You understand, activity doesn't always equal accomplishment.

Sometimes you have to be able to work smarter and not harder.

You gotta be able to say, you know, thank you for the opportunity, thank you for this, but no, I can't do that right now.

That's why God says, here, you're gonna work six days, you're gonna rest one.

Question, how are you guys doing with taking a one-day break in the week?

How are you doing at disconnecting from social media?

How are you doing at saying, um, no, no TV one day a week, or no cell phone one day a week, or no uh no YouTube, or whatever it is?

You say, Well, why why do that?

If you're always listening to everybody else's thoughts all the time, how do you even know your own thoughts?

And even better yet, how do you know God's thoughts?

So you've got to be able to take a break from busyness, disconnect from the busy work.

That's why Jesus says, Hey, hey guys, great job teaching and preaching.

Let's come apart, let's rest a while.

That's why for the whole month, like the whole month of December, I took a little bit of flack from this, but listen, I don't care.

I will fight for you.

I I I I told a lot of our ministry workers, I said, hey, listen, we're not gonna do groups on Wednesdays, we're not gonna have nursery on Wednesdays.

Y'all go be with your family.

You say, why'd you do that?

Because I love my people.

Because Jesus loves us.

And if you're always working, working, working and beating people down, you're you're gonna get a short-term gain, but you're gonna lose everybody in the long run.

But if you back up and you say, hey, listen, it's okay, we could take a break right now.

And sometimes ministries need that, sometimes people need that.

And I see Jesus, Jesus say, okay, good job, guys, preaching, go work again, go to the next city.

No, no, no, no.

He said, let's let's come apart a little bit.

What a great leader.

Number two, how to resurrect your faith.

Give yourself some margin and leisure time.

You look at the a piece of paper, on a piece of paper, there's always margin around it.

How many of you guys are like uh what what um movie is that?

The little guy's going around.

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late for a very important date.

Yeah, Alice in Wonderland.

How many of you guys are always late?

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, I know who I'm talking to.

I got you right in my sights.

Listen, all of us are late at times, okay, so I'm not throwing any rocks at anybody, but I am saying this.

If you're habitually late, it's a character issue.

But even deeper than that, it's a margin issue.

If you if you never have enough money at the end of the month, it's a margin issue.

It means your expenses are too high and your um your income's too low.

You gotta flip them.

It means you stop eating out.

Right?

And and bring it down.

The concept here is you who's gonna give you margin time?

Who's gonna give you leisure time?

You can't wait for somebody else to do that for you.

You have to do that for you.

You have to do that.

How about this spiritual leaders, dads, moms in here?

You need to do that for your children.

You need to say, hey, listen, you're working hard.

Let's let's give you a little bit of a break time.

Let's recover.

Hey, let's go play some video games.

Preacher, I thought you said to cut it off.

I said one day out of seven.

I didn't say every day.

Okay?

I'm being there beating my son at UFC.

No, I'm not.

He beats me every time, you know.

But some things in your life, they're gonna help give you some leisure.

They're gonna, and I don't know what it is for you.

For my wife, she loves uh plants.

Uh for me, I love adrenaline.

I'm an adrenaline junkie.

Like I want to go 15-foot waves, and right before they're about to kill me, I want to dive underneath them.

You know, or I want to jump out of an airplane where my heart's going, you know.

You know.

But that may not build you up, but it builds me up.

It's some margin and some leisure time.

For some of you, it's crossfit.

For some of you, it's sewing.

Whatever it is, it needs to be something that builds you up and recovers your mind and your heart a little bit in a good way.

And by the way, what builds you up may not build her up.

And I've seen this in marriages and relationships.

You try to force the other person to like what you like.

I'll give you an example of this.

I hate Disneyland.

Okay.

Now, those that love Disneyland, I knew I didn't like this preacher.

Anybody that doesn't like the mouse, you know, gotta be wrong.

No.

Listen, but what I do is I'll go, listen, not every day, but occasionally with my wife.

If she drags me.

But not all the time.

I just, otherwise I'm gonna be a very terrible person to be around and I'll ruin it for her.

It would be the same, like I love the gym.

Like I'm an absolute freak in the gym, okay?

I'm the guy that's grunting, going, rah, you know, and just like doing the Hulk, you know, and people are looking around like, you know.

That's why I work out at home now, okay?

I got kicked out.

But I don't force my wife to work out with me.

Well, if you love me, you no, no, no, no.

If I if if I love her, I give her individual soul liberty.

And if she loves me, she gives me individual soul liberty.

We'll do some Disneyland together, and occasionally she'll come out to the gym with me a little bit.

Occasionally.

Right?

My point is this we need to give each other the margin that we need and the leisure that we enjoy so that we all get built up.

Not forcing each other to become like the other person.

We're all different.

Number three, how to how to resurrect your faith.

Oh, this is you're gonna love this one.

You're gonna love this one.

Uh eat some good food and enjoy edifying fellowship.

Eat some good food.

How many of y'all had some good food over the holidays?

Hey, I found this.

If I'm having a bad attitude, a lot of times I just gotta eat something.

Right?

Give me a piece of chocolate and I'm gonna be happy really quick.

Like last night it was, I was about ready to go to bed and I found I found some um, it was healthy chocolate.

Okay, is there such a thing?

It was I don't know how I got it, but it was like Trader Joe's.

Anything Trader Joe's has to be healthy, right?

So it's like, oh, this is Trader Joe's chocolate.

Not one, but three.

My point is this like, enjoy some food that you may not like chocolate, but find some good food that you like.

And I'm not saying chocolate's always the answer, okay?

But I am saying find something you enjoy and eat that.

And then be with people you that make you laugh.

Like I was just coming out of the uh the pastor's uh prayer meeting.

We were cracking up.

We went around the horn, right?

I call it going around the horn.

We're passing, everybody's praying, and after we got done praying, we're laughing, we're enjoying each other, chest bumping, high-fiving, ready to come in.

I love that.

Here's what I'm saying.

You gotta get with people that build you up.

I get in church, sometimes you're around not everybody in this church builds me up.

Listen, some of you are like the Sith Lord, like, you know.

And I don't I don't like it.

I don't like it.

I'm like, run from the Sith Lord.

But but some people, you they just they're edifying.

And they offer value, they offer encouragement.

Here's my point to you.

You gotta find those people that build you up, and it's edifying for you.

And and and have times where you're enjoying food and fellowship and cutting up together.

Number four, rest your body, mind, and soul.

You gotta rest your body, mind, and soul.

All three aspects.

How many guys have ever been laying in the bed before?

But your mind isn't resting.

So physical rest is different than mental rest.

You say, preacher, I'm I'm struggling to get this thing to shut off.

How many guys have ever been there before?

It's like, okay, so if you're ever there, there's a few things that you can do.

Sometimes it's a workout, a good, healthy workout.

Sometimes it's a journal.

You've got to get all your thoughts out of your head onto a piece of paper.

Okay?

Sometimes it's asking, asking God and praying it out, getting it off of you, praying it out, and saying, God, please take this, this, and this.

Because as long as it's on the spin cycle in your head, it's not coming out and it's gonna keep you up late at night.

But if you if you get on your knees, go to find a spot, and you're trying to get it, Lord, this is what I'm thinking, this is where I'm at, and after you dump it out, you've got to get to the spot where you say, Lord, I'm giving it to you.

I surrendered all of this to you.

I am not the Lord of the galaxies.

You're keeping this together.

And I can't rest mentally, I can't rest inside my psyche, inside my soul, emotionally, until you take this.

So please, God, I'm giving this to you.

Now check this out.

After you do that, thank him.

You say, Well, hasn't he hasn't taken it?

Yes, that's how faith works.

You have to get on the other side of it through gratitude and thanksgiving, saying, Thank you, God, for taking this, taking this, this, this, this, and list it off.

And then here's what happens: here's how you can tell you actually release.

Because it takes faith to both receive and it takes faith to release.

And so what'll happen is your mind will be calm, it'll be clear.

And so, working out, um, journaling, praying, sometimes just good, healthy music, a lot of there's a lot of different things to get yourself to a resting place.

The concept here is this, though.

You've got to get to a place where you rest your body, your mind, and your soul.

You know, after I get done preaching, it was one of my most dangerous times, not today because I'm not too like action-packed on this, but a lot of times if I'm giving everything I have with my emotions, right when I get finished, I am so depleted on empty that it's such a dangerous spot for me because I feel so empty.

And so I know I have to hustle and get some rehydration and get some spiritual feeling back into me because I'm I'm pouring out.

It's very much like a mama that's nursing a child.

After she nurses that child, that mama needs to get a bunch of nutrients back into her again if she's gonna stay healthy.

And so when you're thinking about resurrecting your faith this year, you've got to disconnect from the busyness, you've got to give yourself some margin and leisure time, eat some good food, enjoy edifying fellowship, rest your mind, body, and soul.

And the last one is sit, number five, sit at Jesus' feet and charge up in his power.

Sit at his feet and charge up in his power.

That's why I want to highly encourage you this year, read the Bible through this year.

Like challenge yourself to read the whole Bible through.

Um, we'll have, we'll post an annual Bible reading plan from Genesis to Revelation.

We'll put it on the app.

And uh just every single day, just read through the Bible, sit at Jesus' feet, and just soak in his power, his energy, his word.

Ask him, Lord, speak to me, please.

What do you want me to do?

And if you'll do that, it's your your energy level, your wisdom level, your power level will increase.

And as it increases, here's how you'll know when you're when you're when you're doing good.

It's kind of like how I felt over the last like four days, five days.

I couldn't wait to get back here.

You guys ever been there before?

Where when you're empty, you're like, oh, I gotta go to work again.

Like you're happy to do it because you like to work, but you're also emotionally depleted, mentally depleted, spiritually depleted.

But after you take that come apart time and you're built back up, like you're like like a like a horse about to run the race, right?

You're like, you know, uh that's how I've been over the last three or four days, like kicking at the gates, waiting for this for this this year to start, you know, just ready.

Just just go ahead and let's let's let's get this thing going.

That's how you know like you're refreshed and you're blessed.

Now let me I'll I'll leave you with this.

When you're feeling refreshed and you've regained your power, you're a lot easier to work with.

You're a lot smoother in your delivery, you're calmer, you're a lot more clean in your your approach.

You don't rub people the wrong way.

It's because you're you're at your you're at your best.

And so in today's message, I want to encourage you like, let's let's regain your power.

Let's regain it all by sitting at Jesus' feet, and then let's go out serving from a place of overflow, overflowing of Jesus.