Accredited – Time

All righty, guys, let's go.

So we're talking about, we've been talking about the series called Accredited, and we

got it from Acts 2 22, and Acts 2 22 says, Acts 2 22 says, Men of Israel, listen to this,

Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs

which God did among you through him.

Men of Israel, listen to this, Jesus of Nazareth, so he's not even saying Jesus the Christ,

Jesus of Nazareth was a man, it's not saying son of man, son of God, was a man accredited

by whom?

By God to you, how?

By miracles, wonders and signs which God did among you through him.

And so we've been going down that road as, okay, so how do we get accredited by God so

that we can in the eyes of the world be shown to be people who have the same things that

are happening to Jesus of Nazareth happening to us?

And so we've finished two of these, and so today we talk about another thing that helps

us get accredited, which is time.

Last time we talked about faith, today we talk about time.

Last time we said faith requires prayer, and we were reading that story about Jesus casting

out the demon from the boy who was being thrown into the fire, one of the things he said to

his disciples when his disciples came and talked to him, this time does not go out except

through prayer.

And so we said that faith requires prayer, but the problem with that is prayer requires

time.

Faith requires prayer, prayer requires time.

And prayer is a form of faith, prayer is a form of faith or a vehicle of faith.

Prayer is a form of faith that connects today's situation, that connects today's situation,

that connects today's situation with the grace, with the grace required and available

immediately, even if it manifests tomorrow.

We'll go over that before we go on.

So our struggle is this, that faith requires prayer, but prayer requires time, because

we're not talking just about conversational prayer, which most charismatics are pretty

good at doing.

We're not talking about that kind of prayer, we're talking about prayer which is intentional,

which is devoted, which Jesus was engaging in on a regular basis every day.

So that's where we're heading, we touched on it last time.

Today we're going to talk about, so how do we work this time thing out?

But before that, prayer is actually a vehicle of faith or a form of faith.

Prayer is a form of faith that connects today's situation with the grace required.

Everything is changed by grace.

Grace is God giving all of himself into a situation.

Grace is God giving all of himself into a situation.

That's what grace is, all of himself into a situation.

Prayer has the ability, or prayer is a form of faith that has the ability to connect today's

situation with the grace required.

And it's available immediately.

This is why Jesus kept saying in Mark 11, 23, whatever you ask, believe that you already

have, received it.

So it's available immediately.

Grace is never tomorrow.

Grace is never tomorrow.

You've got to understand that.

The grace for my situation is available immediately.

That is my difficulty.

Till I see a result, I don't believe I have the grace required.

But grace is available immediately.

That is what I must receive.

What do you mean, how do I receive grace?

I must know that God has for me whatever I need for my sickness, for my need, for my

guidance, for my ability to do something in my inadequacy.

There is grace required immediately.

That I must receive.

And that is usually couched in a promise.

And he's the God of Abraham and the God of covenant.

It's always couched in a promise in the Word.

It is there immediately for the taking.

It's like putting my hands in and taking it.

It's there immediately.

Then it takes a day to manifest, two days to manifest.

But every word of God, that's the idea of manna.

Manna was, what is it?

Actually, manna is the grace required for daily living.

That's what it was.

It was strewn across the desert.

And it had in it what was required to live.

Every promise that you have received thus far and will receive in the future has packed

in it, the grace required.

And once you open it, it will manifest.

Why?

Because he's the God of Abraham and the God of covenant.

He has history to prove it and what he says he does.

And when you struggle against it, struggle through it, vent, cry, complain,

moan, beat his chest and go back to it.

That's the way it is, man.

So when it comes to prayer, prayer request requires time.

Prayer requires time.

So if you look at Jesus, he had both types of prayer.

I mean, you look at Luke 6, 12.

You look at John 6, 15.

Luke 6, 12.

John 6, 15.

Mark 6, 46.

Matthew 14, 23.

You look at any of these scriptures and you find that Jesus had this ability to find

time and it was critical to him.

He knew that if he didn't have that, it didn't matter that he was the son of the living

God, he wouldn't have what it took.

He wouldn't have what it took.

Matthew 14, 23.

So Jesus had both conversational prayer, which we are very good at, at least in this

church.

One of the things that I find quite endearing is that you can call anyone up and when they

pray, they sound like they're talking to their father.

They don't sound like they're talking to God.

They sound like they're talking to their father.

That's not easy.

It's a struggle in most places.

That you have the ability to do that talks about your relationship with God.

So on one hand, Jesus would engage in conversational prayer.

On the other hand, and in conversational prayer, what we need is relationship.

In conversational prayer, what you need is relationship.

But on the other hand, he had these intentional times of prayer, intentional times of prayer,

intentional times of prayer.

And when you read these scriptures that I gave you, you'll find him engaging in intentional

times of prayer.

And the thing with intentional times of prayer is when intentional times of prayer, you need

devotion.

If conversational prayer is based on relationship, intentional prayer is based on devotion.

What do you mean by devotion?

To devote something is to set apart time, treasure, talent, strength.

To set it apart and set it apart so that it has a singular focus or an objective.

That's what devotion does.

Whenever you're devoted to anything, it doesn't matter whether you're a Manchester United fan.

For years I've not seen any success.

You still have this devotion.

Yeah?

And so I hope I didn't ruffle any feathers.

So devotion is when you set aside your time, talent, treasure, strength.

I wouldn't use the same example for the Canucks.

That's not devotion, that's delusion.

It's just been years now.

But some delusions are fun.

Every year you hope again like I'm hoping again this year.

So to devote is to set aside time, treasure, strength solely for a singular objective.

And in this case, for Jesus it was the Father.

And once you have intentional times of prayer, you'll find some other things developing.

Like for instance, when you read those scriptures, you find that Jesus had a favorite place to go to.

Jesus had favorite places to go to.

And his favorite place was the mountain.

Give him a mountain and he'd be happy.

Sometimes favorite places betray your personality.

You just are that type.

I mean I would love mountains but someone would have to helicopter me there before I go climbing up one of those.

So it depends on your personality.

Sometimes the place that you go to depends on your personality type.

Some people just need a couch facing the wall.

But Jesus had a favorite place to go to.

And he'd often be in the mountains.

He'd disappear into them.

He'd send them off in the boat and then he'd go up into the mountains again.

Because these were times of intentional prayer.

So where is your favorite place and how often do you go there?

Where is your favorite place?

And how often do you go there?

And if the answer is I don't have a favorite place or yes I have a favorite place but I don't go there so often.

It says something about you and IA.

Where is your favorite place?

You don't have to have one.

That doesn't say anything about your prayer life.

But do you have a favorite place and how often do you go there?

The reason we aren't devoted.

The reason we aren't devoted is perhaps because we are charismatic.

Because we are or think we are charismatic and charismatic needs inspiration.

And devotional times are not.

Devotion is not inspiration.

Devotion requires relationship may be based out of inspiration.

Oh Jesus I really love you.

But devotion is based out of discipline.

Jesus I don't feel anything towards you but I'm going to anyways do what I'm supposed to do.

So that I begin to feel the things that I need to feel towards you.

One is discipline.

Another one is inspiration.

And so there's a high likelihood in most Pentecostal or charismatic or those kind of circles to wait for that inspirational moment.

When something hits you and you feel really lovey-dovey about God.

But devotion does not carry inspiration.

Devotion requires discipline.

Which is why most of us don't practice intentional times of prayer.

And it will show in the weakness of our lives.

Even though we may be highly gifted.

Any questions?

Any questions guys?

Yeah one of the things you notice in many churches is that people know how to talk to God.

And it's very respectful and very proper.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it.

And then there's people that know how to have a conversation with God as Father.

And that you don't find very often.

But how do you balance that with the words of prayer?

Yeah which starts with our Father.

So the intent, Jesus' intent there was hey can I teach you how to speak to the Father?

And so he teaches them that.

I don't even know how it sounded in Aramaic.

It may have sounded far more personal.

I mean to think of this guys.

It's the same word that's used in Aramaic that we use now.

And that word Abba.

There's something about the very, very, the idea of calling Abba itself does something.

It's so common in so many cultures.

You take the Arabic culture.

You take Indian culture.

You take different cultures.

And the word Abba will have its variation.

But it will still contain that Fatherness.

And so I mean this is going off topic.

But most of us have not a triune God but a quadruune God.

We have, there's no word called quadruune.

It's not even Greek.

So we have the Father.

We have the Son.

We have the Holy Spirit.

And then we have God.

And most of our annoyance, resentment and bitterness is always against God.

But the moment you shift to him as Father, you don't know how to be resentful to him.

Because you know how good he is as a Father.

The moment you shift to the Holy Spirit, you think to yourself, man, he guides me every day.

He's so nice to me.

He talks. I hear him.

How can you be resentful to him?

The moment you think of Jesus, oh gosh, every song is about him.

I cry every time I think of him.

But then who's left?

Let's go make God a scapegoat.

He's the one who faces most of our resentment and bitterness and stuff like that.

Whenever I find myself bitter with God, I immediately run to the Father.

And I say, sorry, it's like we got four gods, man.

It's very hard to be angry with the Father.

Because you know he's good.

Every time you feel that rising against God, go quickly to the Father, Son of the Holy Spirit.

What did the Father do?

He personalized himself through Jesus.

What did Jesus do?

He personalized himself through the Holy Spirit.

A relationship has to be not with God, but one of the persons of God.

Theologically, people could shoot holes in that, but it's quite true.

Devotion isn't inspired.

It requires discipline.

Prayer won't increase if not discipline.

Prayer will not increase without discipline.

You husbands know, right?

You can chat to your wife eight hours out of the day, and then she gives you that look and says, we need to talk.

And you think to yourself, I've been doing that for the last eight hours, but that we need to talk, you immediately know.

This is at another level.

It's very intentional.

Sit down, put your phone away, and stop looking at the TV talk.

And suddenly you see Vivek switching off Manchester United, just paying full attention.

So that's how this works.

It's very intentional.

And it requires discipline.

And guys, you might think, why talk about this?

We know everything about prayer.

We may know everything about prayer, but we do not know how to be intentionally prayerful.

Nobody here does this well.

And if you're doing it well, or if you increase in it, it will show.

It'll show.

You might say, but I do.

Great.

Do it more so that we may benefit.

How will it show?

At times, Dana, let's put it this way.

If I spent time with you, it will show in certain times.

If I spent time with you, it will show in certain changes in my life.

Guaranteed.

If I had deep, intentional conversations with you, if I spent time with you, it will begin to show in my life.

If you as a human being can do that to me, it's multiple times with God.

Because it gives you, I mean, look at what he says after the disciples can't cast out the demon out of the boy.

He says to them, this kind only comes out by prayer.

You guys have been with me.

You're learning from me.

You're having conversations with the son of God himself, who they acknowledge.

But you still do not set aside times where you begin to trust.

There's a statement I'll make later that quietness, to become quiet is to be is ruthlessly humbling.

Where in the midst of a storm, in the midst of loudness, you ruthlessly humble yourself to be quiet.

And in that quiet rely on God.

Psalm 27, verse 4, I long to be in your house.

Psalms 27:4

I long to spend my time only with you.

I want to spend time with you.

When is he saying this?

When there are threats being made like arrows that are falling.

When there are people that are coming against him.

In the midst of that, he says, if I could only find that time, I would be okay.

That is something we haven't learned because of, because we are so busy, right?

And legitimately busy. It's not like sometimes we aren't even wasting time.

The other thing is guys, prayer time can become a ritual.

And so people say, we don't want to be ritualistic in our prayer time.

You're right. Prayer time.

But remember, the time you spend praying intentionally can become a ritual.

And it's okay.

The content should not become ritualistic.

Should not become ritualistic.

The time can be a ritual.

Set aside time.

Ah, don't disturb me between six and seven.

That sounds so ritualistic.

Yes, it is.

But try saying that to your boss.

Nine to five doesn't work for me.

I usually wake up at 10.30.

Can we go 11 to eight?

The time cannot.

You can't blame the time for being ritualistic.

But the content can't get ritualistic.

Content varies.

Because now what are you doing?

You're taking your ability to converse out of the relationship you already have.

And you're putting it in a box.

And what's that box?

Devotion.

And what does that require?

Discipline.

Will it happen in a day?

No.

Will it happen over a period of time?

Yes.

Do you know that I'm actually walking two days a week?

Will it ever get to seven?

I pray God no.

But two days a week took me six weeks to get to.

Most days I'm walking in airports anyways.

But this is like devotional walking.

It does nothing for you.

I step on the waiting machine after that.

It does nothing for you.

But it brings discipline into your life.

And one day I will arm wrestle you.

And I will beat you.

The day I get to walking on all my foes, you know that the time has come.

Once we get to this place, to answer Diana's question,

what happens is prayer then will fuel faith,

will fuel intimacy.

And if faith and intimacy are fueled,

then it is natural that it fuels authority.

Because all authority is based on intimacy.

Intimacy is based on time.

You cannot be intimate with someone without spending time with them.

So prayer fuels faith, prayer fuels intimacy,

and prayer therefore fuels authority.

And a man that has this or a woman that has this,

it will be evident in their lives.

You will see a difference.

When a church begins to behave like this, it's even more evident.

I'm really not talking about having a planned Bible reading.

Because that's what usually happens after a message like this.

Everyone gets a planned Bible reading.

It is important, but it is not the only thing.

We'll talk about that.

Any questions, guys?

Will you talk more about the art sense of prayer?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We said also last time that crisis activates prayer time.

If God could send us all a crisis today,

we'd be praying like crazy overnight.

Crisis always activates prayer.

But when there is no crisis or no pressing crisis,

there's this contentment.

It's a sluggish contentment.

It's a sluggish contentment.

Things are going well.

But sluggish contentment is like leprosy.

Sluggish contentment is like leprosy

in the sense that it desensitizes you to your bankruptcy.

It desensitizes you to your bankruptcy, to your spiritual poverty.

It desensitizes you.

Because we have everything we need.

There is no crisis forming.

There's no need to exert extra faith.

It's like leprosy.

It desensitizes you.

It desensitizes you.

You're not even aware of what you need.

And it dulls prayer.

Pray God that he doesn't send crisis to solve this, eh?

Any questions?

Alrighty.

So let's move on to time.

What does Satan want to steal from us?

John 10, 10 says he comes to steal, kill and destroy.

We don't realize that one of the things Satan tries to steal from us is time.

Among other things, John 10, 10 applies to time too.

We don't think so.

Jesus came to give life and life more abundant.

Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy.

What is one of the things he steals from everybody in this room?

One of the things he steals from you is time.

He steals time.

The one who is timeless, the one who is eternal,

has time that he has given us.

He is stolen by the enemy.

And we are poorer for it.

He steals time.

But here's the other ugliness to this.

He knows, as in the devil knows he is short on time.

The devil knows he is short on time.

And he is working really hard with the time he has.

Our enemy knows he is short on time.

And he works really hard with the time he has

to steal time from us.

And so, this is such a critical factor for us guys.

This Danish theologian, I rarely quote people,

but he had this beautiful line here.

He says, the result of busyness,

the result of busyness,

is that an individual

is seldom permitted,

is seldom permitted to form a heart.

The result of busyness is that an individual

is seldom permitted to form a heart.

As in, it stifles the heart.

It prevents you from returning to that nucleus

of being a much loved child.

Take away time, get busy,

and your heart never gets formed.

And the things of God never get formed.

Take compassion.

You think you can come up with insta-compassion?

Takes time.

Anything that God does through me or in me

requires a lot of time.

Anything that God does through me or in me

requires time, and he needs to form it.

And that forming takes time.

But because I don't have time,

I have to come up with insta-things.

Insta-compassion, insta-mercy.

And they are always sound bites

because the heart is not formed.

I mean, I would personally prefer that children be born

around 13 years old or 14 years old.

Like, they're ready.

You can train them, you can get them going.

For my God, they come so helpless.

And it requires time.

It's very deliberate.

And you ask a mother and she'll tell you,

I hate that my child is growing up so fast.

I don't understand that.

You would think that's what everyone desires, but no.

It takes time.

Everything that God does that is of any value requires time.

The things that he wants to pour into me and pour out of me require time.

And therefore, this guy says, the result of busyness

is that an individual is very seldom permitted to form a heart about anything.

To form a heart.

And this legitimate busyness,

doesn't matter whether you're retired or whether you're working, it's all the same, eh?

Kirka.

It stifles the life of the heart.

I've said this ages ago, I remember saying this,

that the most successful Christians that I've met

are Christians who know what it is to be a much loved child.

Any successful Christian you will meet,

successful by any standard you use,

other than preaching and TV,

any successful Christian you meet

will be a Christian who has found that one fundamental thing

and has gotten it.

And what is that?

I am a much loved child.

He's gotten that somewhere inside him.

That is his identity, that is his description and definition of himself.

But to come to that place of I am a much loved child

on a regular constant basis, on a daily basis,

which is never undone, which remains solid,

regardless of what's happening, remains solid,

that only happens with time,

because the heart has to be formed.

So the secret is not scheduling.

The secret to this is not,

let me get more organized,

or let me get more, let me schedule my life a little better.

That's not the secret.

It's more along the lines of,

can I slow life down?

Can I come back into a place of quietness?

Can I combine that with trust?

Can I combine that with rest?

Where's that found?

Isaiah 30, verse 15.

Isaiah 30:15

In quietness and trust is your salvation.

In returning and rest, you will find peace.

The ability to slow things down.

It's very hard to slow things down,

because the demand is on you, right?

To hasten things up, to slow it down.

And that is the ruthless humbling that is required.

To slow things down.

Isaiah 30, here's how the Spirit of God starts the chapter.

You're making alliances that I did not ask you to make.

You're running after the Egyptians who you think will help you.

You think all this is going to work out.

You're lighting fires that I'm not lighting.

So here's what I want to say to you.

Come, return.

In returning and rest.

In quietness and trust, you will find rest.

In returning, you will find salvation.

Come back.

Slow things down.

Come into a place of rest.

And this we do not know how to do.

It's being robbed every day.

You must understand that on one hand it is our business.

Things like, remember you carry the world in your pocket.

I'm talking about the phone.

You carry the world in your pocket.

We're trying to free ourselves from the world,

but we carry the world in our pocket.

You think that doesn't play its demands on us?

It is impossible, impossible guys,

to have a time of prayer without putting your phone at a distance from you,

where it'll inconvenience you to get up and go check it.

We are Pavlov's dogs.

You put it on vibrate, we can hear the vibrate 20 meters away, man.

Fine tune to it.

It is not possible to cultivate a time of devoted prayer with your phone next to you.

Not possible.

Get this thing called a Bible that has pages.

Quietness.

Quietness is the ruthless humbling of the heart.

In the midst, in the storm, of the heart, in the storm,

to willingly, to willingly, to willingly,

in the midst, in the storm, of the heart, in the storm,

to willingly locate and rely on majesty.

Take that to the bank, guys.

Quietness.

Quietness is the ruthless humbling of the heart.

It doesn't take nothing for an excuse.

It chops down your text messages and WhatsApps and Facebook and puts it away.

It takes care of the soccer teams and the hockey teams.

It shuts the noise. It is ruthless.

And then there is the humbling part.

And what is the humbling?

That even though there is a storm raging around me,

I will humble myself to not deal with the storm.

I know how to mitigate the storm.

I know how to navigate through it.

I know how to deal with it.

I have the wherewithal.

I just need to make one call here and one call there,

and there will be people that will help me with the storm.

But in the middle of it, I will ruthlessly humble myself and say,

I will not use my mind, my hands, my strength, my money, my contacts.

I will not use it, but I will go into a place of quiet,

where I will first locate and then I will rely on majesty.

It will shift your heart and shape your heart.

And it will shape your heart to meet that storm so head on that it will go right through it.

But my God, it is difficult.

No, it doesn't come with any domain.

I wish it did.

I would be so much better off by now.

Any questions, guys?

And if you don't do that, then I will tell you what else will kick in.

Self-reliance.

This increases with age, eh?

Self-reliance.

Because you know how to do it now.

You have done it so many times.

Irrational fears.

Oh my God, if I don't deal with this, what is going to happen?

And ruin.

You will find all this in Isaiah 30.

The Holy Spirit literally says, hey, you are being reliant on yourself.

Please, please come back into quietness and trust and rest.

Hey, if you don't, fears will begin to grip you.

You will run here and there.

It will only get worse.

Please stop.

If you don't, you will come to ruin.

And then in verse 18, Isaiah 30, verse 18, God still says,

Isaiah 30:18

after you have done all this, I will still be gracious and I will come and help you.

So it's not like he abandons us at the end of the day.

Isaiah 30, 18 says, but I will be gracious to you.

I will show you mercy.

I'll gather you in.

But why go through self-reliance, irrational fears and ruin before you come to grace and mercy?

Any questions, guys?

So how do I create time then?

How do I create time?

How do I create time?

One, priorities.

Whatever you prioritize, you'll have time for.

Whatever you prioritize, you'll have time for.

And it'll affect, it'll influence your affections, as in what your heart runs after.

And it'll affect your direction.

Always remember that, eh?

Priorities.

Come.

I'm okay with you coming.

Oi.

Oi.

Oi.

Sing a little.

I'm all right.

You're all right.

All right.

You're all right.

Hi.

Sing.

Hi.

Priorities.

How do I create time?

I create time to, guys, we don't need to labor this.

You know this is true.

Whatever you prioritize, you have time for.

Here's a question you need to ask yourself now.

What do you think God expects of you in any given day?

What do you think God expects of you any given day?

One thing only.

Love him.

That's it.

The one thing he expects of you every day,

any given day, is can you love me?

Can you receive my love and then love me?

When he says love him, he always means,

can you come and receive my love so you can love me back?

When do we see this?

Luke 1042.

What's the story?

Marsha, Marsha, why are you so anxious about everything?

Mary has chosen the right portion

and it'll never be taken away from her.

There's only one thing that he expects of you every day.

Everything else comes out of that.

You don't have that, you got squat.

This is why Christianity is so common to everybody.

There's no special people here.

It's the same requirement of everyone.

Doesn't matter how famous a pastor you are

or whether you're a newbie who just started today.

The requirement is the same.

What is it that God expects of you any given day?

Love, not productivity, not efficiency,

just can you find time to be loved and to love?

Again, it requires time.

You know, you have children.

You know.

The main thing must become the main thing.

And slowing down is one way you allow this to happen.

Slow down.

Find time.

Slowing down always allows you to sense God.

In the midst of the complexities of the world,

you will always be able to sense God when you slow down,

which is why many weeks ago I said,

even if you try getting to places in time,

you will get to sense God more

than when you're driving in haste.

It's crazy how a simple thing like that

changes what you see.

Iris, stop looking at Derek.

Psalm 27, verse four.

Let me just read it.

Psalm 27, verse four.

Psalm 27, verse four.

Psalm 27, verse four.

One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek,

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

to seek him in the temple.

Let me read that again, eh?

One thing I ask of the Lord, and this is what I seek,

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

and to seek him in his temple.

Gazing and seeking requires time,

but look when he's writing this.

Verse two.

When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh,

when my enemies and my foes attack me.

Verse three.

Though an army besiege me.

Verse 12.

Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes

for false witnesses rise up against me,

breathing out violence.

In the middle of that, he knows.

This boy who would sit on a rock and write songs

and beat up the predatory animals

that would try to come and take his sheep,

this boy knows what it is to have the ability

to quiet himself down.

It's critical to our existence as a church.

The next one.

Discipline.

Discipline.

How do I create time?

This is all under how do I create time.

How do I create time?

I create time through priorities.

I create time through discipline.

As in, can I diligently apply and subdue my flesh

to create a habit?

Can I diligently apply myself?

And like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9.27, train my body.

Or can I diligently apply myself and subdue my flesh?

Subdue my flesh to create a habit.

And then can I move from discipline to delight?

All discipline must end up in delight.

Begin in this place called delight.

Let it provoke you to into discipline

and then have you end in delight.

I know I've said this many times before,

but why does an athlete get up in the morning

and then have to go to the gym?

Why does an athlete have to go to the gym?

Why does an athlete have to go to the gym?

Why does an athlete get up in the morning

and run 10 kilometers?

Why?

Because he delights in running.

And so he gets up and it's a discipline of running.

And then there is delight after when he wins an award.

But it is creating habits.

Spiritual exercises that were of old got dry,

but my God, they were helpful in creating habits.

Anybody here who does anything successfully

is because you created a habit.

You think May woke up one day

and just started skiing down a hill and voila,

she was a great skier.

Is that how it happened?

Yeah.

Don tried that.

How did that go?

He stopped.

He was delighting in it until his legs went this way.

And then he said, this is not for me.

Yeah.

So anyone here who has any success

with anything in your life is because of a habit.

Third, rewards.

Habits of grace, habits of grace,

create channels for God's power and love to flow.

Habits of grace,

habits, godly habits, create channels

for God's power and love to flow.

Next one, rewards.

There are rewards, man.

There are rewards to creating time for things, for prayer.

In fact, in Psalm 90, verse 12, it says,

Psalms 90:12

oh God, if I number my days,

I will increase in the one thing

that we are all short of and need desperately in wisdom.

Anyone who knows how to steward time

will increase in wisdom.

Anyone who knows how to steward time

will increase in wisdom.

This might sometimes require sitting down and saying,

okay, I gotta throw this out, not do this, not do this.

That's required, eh?

That's another hard thing.

It's like trying to clean a house,

you don't know what to throw out,

then you take everything into the next house.

Anyone who knows how to,

anyone who knows how to steward time

will increase in wisdom.

On, on one hand, God says, ask me and I'll give you wisdom.

On the other hand, he says, hey, you want to do well?

Steward time well and I'll show you

how to increase in wisdom.

Fourth, how do you create time?

Redeem it.

Redeem it as in, buy it back, buy it back.

Buy, not bite back, buy it back.

What do you mean?

Find out the things that you are being idle in,

purposeless in.

Find ways to unstuck yourself.

Find ways to unstuck yourself.

Redeem time.

Redeem time is to buy it back.

What are you idle in?

What's the last thing you do before you go to sleep?

Facebook?

Just one last look through it.

You've looked through it 18 times already

in the last three hours,

and you've looked through it 18 times already

in the last three hours,

but before going to bed,

surely someone must have said something.

Go through it again.

Buy back time from idleness.

Buy back time from stuff that I do

that's absolutely purposeless.

You know, there are things that we do

that are absolutely wasteful.

Waste some time, but don't waste time on wasteful stuff.

Waste some stuff.

You think there's some stuff

that is just absolutely wasteful.

Watching Hannity, and then watching,

if you watch Fox News,

over and over again, the same news again and again.

Wasteful.

Watching three hours of a game you know you're gonna lose.

Wasteful.

Watching the Leafs in the playoffs.

Absolutely wasteful.

How does that make it look in the playoffs?

We never make the playoffs.

Playoffs are like seven game series.

I mean the Leafs, it's worse,

because they go to the seventh game and lose.

You've now watched seven days.

You don't know how difficult it is.

Well, we'll take a look at the question,

and then we'll actually give it another.

Pardon?

We'll actually give it another.

Yeah, yeah, I don't watch a full game.

I just watch the first 10 minutes,

and I know where it's heading.

Then I check the score.

What's the score?

What's the score?

What's the score?

What's the score?

And if I go and actually watch a game,

I never stay till the end.

There is no last minute Hail Mary

that's gonna happen with the Canucks.

Nobody knows how much I prayed at the finals in 2011

for a miracle.

How do I create time?

Redeem.

Last one, how do I create time?

Beware.

Beware of what we talked about last time, mental drift.

Mental drift.

Mental drift is when you just start praying

and either something legit gets your mind

or you have a busyness that begins to occupy your mind

or you're unable to concentrate.

There's weariness, there's tiredness.

Mental drift is when you begin with God

and you either can't make any progress

because there are 100 different thoughts

that are demanding equal time,

and it's called mental drift.

And it is a disease that is common across this room.

You say beware of it, so what do you do about it?

One of the ways you change mental drift

is by going after your mind that is wandering.

So one of the examples someone taught me long ago was,

if you have a $100 note in your pocket

and it flies out of your pocket, what do you do?

You go running after it and you pick it up

and you put it back in your pocket.

But it happens a second time.

What do you do?

You still go after it, you pick it and bring it back.

It happens a third time, what do you do?

Do you say, hmm, that note looks like it needs to be free?

No.

You go back a third time

before someone else takes its freedom away.

And you go take it and put it back in your wallet.

When it comes to a $100 bill,

you will go after it as many times

as it flies out of your pocket.

When my mind wanders, the way we combat mental drift

is in the beginning by going after it as many times,

because it's only a mind that's wandering, bring it back.

This is part of 2 Corinthians 10,

which talks about bringing into submission

every thought, every reasoning, every argument,

every lofty thing that raises itself up

against the knowledge of God,

bringing it into submission to Christ, bring it back.

And over a period of time,

you will find that it doesn't wander as much.

It's only a matter of creating a habit, guys.

Remember when you had to chew food 32 times?

Oh, okay, this was when I was a kid.

You had to chew food 32 times.

I had only 28 teeth at that time.

Still have only 28.

So that's a different story.

Beware of mental drift and beware of satanic attacks

when you sit down.

Beware of satanic attacks when you sit down.

When you sit down to

spend devotional time with God.

Satan aborts prayer time by bringing in sleepiness,

stupor, and distractions.

Stupor is actually a spirit.

Bible talks about a spirit of stupor,

where everything is fine

till you begin to read the Bible and or focus on God.

And then there's this dullness that takes over

where your mind doesn't even want to connect.

It's like your mind doesn't want to connect.

Mind doesn't even want to engage God.

And it's very hard.

One of the fascinating things that I find about airplanes,

and you might see a connection

when I get to the end of the story,

is that they have those big rubber blocks, chunks

that they take and put under the wheel of a plane.

When the plane has come to a standstill,

okay, this isn't going anywhere.

You don't seem to know about these rubber blocks.

Yeah, you put it there,

and the strange thing is you can gun that plane

as much as you want,

and it will not be able to go forward.

All it is is this bigger chunk of rubber.

That's it.

But despite the fact that this can carry

thousands of tons in flight,

it cannot get over that small little block,

regardless of how hard you pump those engines.

Sometimes these things are like that block.

It doesn't matter how much power you have.

If you are not able to get over that initial thing

by just somehow deciding that,

I will not allow this to stop me.

Stupor is a spirit.

It affects people.

It's a satanic attack.

Sleepiness is another thing.

Soon as you begin to talk to God,

you begin to fall asleep.

Distraction is another thing.

Sleepiness and distractions can be overcome.

Find a time when you're not sleepy.

I'm a night person.

I just love having devotional times

just before I go to bed.

Good luck with that then.

Okay.

Now we answer the next question.

What should our quiet time

or devotional times involve?

I have different names for them.

You can choose whatever name you want.

First thing that I try and practice is

I try and figure out who I am in God,

who he is to me,

who he wants me to change into.

And I begin to talk to him about it,

seek his mind about it.

That's the first thing.

You may not have to follow this order,

but I usually start with identity.

I said, hey, Father, has it come to spend time

with you right now?

It's gonna be very intentional time.

Can I remind myself of who you see me as?

Because that gives me a confidence of approaching you.

Sometimes it might just be this idea of sinking

into that absolute confidence of being a much loved child.

Sometimes it is more than that.

But it is important for me to know who I approach you as.

You told me to approach the throne

with boldness, with confidence.

Well then, how do I approach you today?

And as I come to you, who do you want me to see you as?

Do I come running into your arms as Father,

or do I come with an odd kind of reverence

because today you're a commander?

How do you want me to approach you?

Do you want me to come to you asking for help

or based on the songs we sang today,

do I approach you as one who has tremendous faith

to do whatever you say you said you will do

and to stand and show the world that you can do it?

I think part of everyday devotional times

is to establish your identity

and try to do that early in the day

so that the rest of the day can be faced that way.

Sometimes what I have here

may take you the entire day to get through.

It's only five things,

but these five things may take you

the entire day to get through.

But perhaps two months from now

you can get through it in three hours.

Three hours in a day, Jacob, are you nuts?

Yep.

That's just one hockey game.

But Jacob, I don't have three hours.

You'll be poorer for it.

Put first things first

and you will get the second also.

Put second things first

and you will not get the first or the second.

Put first things first.

Put first things first.

C.S. Lewis, put first things first

and you will get the second also.

Put second things first

and you will get neither the first nor the second.

So this time that I spent, sometimes,

so what about women who have a nursing baby?

What about someone who has twins and two more children?

What about times like that?

What do you do when there are legitimate cries

for food and feeding and all that stuff?

Here's the odd thing.

You are devoting time.

Once you devote time,

a guy like me may be able to spend three hours,

you may be able to spend 15 minutes.

You will get in 15 minutes what I get in three hours.

Why?

Because God looks at the time that has been devoted

in the middle of feeding a baby,

in the middle of juggling the second one

and holding the third one before it falls,

you spend five minutes

and those five minutes are far more effective

than the 20 minutes that I spent.

This is God we are talking about.

The one who lives in timelessness.

The one who brings up accents to the surface of the water.

This is the one we are talking about.

But he sees it based on knowing the demands

on your time, Jacob.

What are you devoting to me?

And that will require sacrifice.

For a mother who is feeding,

to be able to do something like this,

it requires a sacrifice.

What's your sacrifice?

Devotion always means sacrifice

because it's a setting apart of time.

It must sting, it must cost,

it must be painful to give,

it must cause you to give up something to have something.

If that is not there, then you must know

that our prayers are a pittance

and they are pretty useless for a church like this.

And I'd like to say to us as a church,

and I'm the pastor and I'm starting with me,

is that we in this church do not sacrifice time

in terms of prayer.

The grace of God was sufficient as now.

Now it might require a bit of extra work.

And I'm not saying that we should not sacrifice time

in terms of prayer.

It might require a bit of extra work.

Okay, the next one.

I call it dispatch, you can call it anything you want.

Dispatch is when I begin to,

it's like a guy who dispatches messages,

so it'll be, okay, pray for Derek,

or pray for someone's surgery,

or pray for someone's need.

These are things that God puts in your heart and mind

to do for others.

Dispatch, dispatch prayers.

Someone has a need, pray for their need.

And don't take too much.

Just remember the ones you're supposed to pray for.

Start with three or four.

These are the three things, Father,

that I come to you and appeal to you.

I'm gonna spend time over it

so that I actually can figure out what you want.

Someone comes and says, pray for me.

Oh, Jesus, I just pray for them.

Please make them well.

That's not a prayer.

That's getting rid of a responsibility.

The other amazing way to do all these prayers is,

Father, for all the known requests and unknown requests

of all the people in the church,

I now bring them before you.

Oh, Father, you know their hearts, you know their minds,

you know their unspoken requests.

Meet them in the name of Jesus Christ.

70 people done in one shot.

That's not prayer.

That's just being pastoral.

Third one.

There are certain things given to you to steward.

Spend time over that.

There are certain things given to you to steward.

As in, he's given you charge

or he was given you responsibility.

Well then, hone in on those.

Ask for wisdom to rule well.

It could be your office.

It could be the ones that work under you.

It could be your children.

It could be a church.

It could be a house church.

Ask, Father, how do I do this?

Solomon, man, when he was good, he was really, really good.

When he was bad, he was lousy.

But one of the times when he was good,

he pressed his prayer.

He says, oh God, these people,

I don't know how to lead them.

You're giving me a blank check saying,

ask whatever you want.

I can ask whatever I want, but here's what I ask for.

Give me wisdom to rule these people.

Your work, your business.

Spend some time to...

So this is something I...

Yeah.

Next one.

Blueprint.

Blueprint.

How are you building what God has asked you to?

And if you don't know what God has asked you to build,

then that's part of getting the blueprint.

It's Moses went up the mountain, 40 days,

he got a blueprint.

He came back, he did it.

David, fascinating thing about David is

we don't hear of him going up a mountain.

We don't hear of him doing anything,

but here's the statement he makes.

And now I have built,

now I have arranged for everything, my son Solomon,

that you need for the temple.

And you need to do it exactly according to the blueprint

that was handed over to me by God.

Where God handed it,

how he handed it, nobody knows.

But whatever you're building,

be it Nick building a school for young kids

in some remote nation,

be it Dilna doing something in Wall-E,

be it Dawn starting another Wall-E somewhere else,

be it Jacob building something here

or in some other nation.

Doesn't matter who.

What's the blueprint?

How do you build this?

Ask for it.

And if you don't know what you're supposed to build,

ask for that too.

Surely you will not hear

and place here on earth to attend a service.

Blueprints are given through prayer.

He spends an entire night in the mountains,

comes down and there are hundreds and hundreds of people,

but he's walking.

And as he walks, he says,

James, John, follow me.

Peter, follow.

Andrew, how's he picking them?

What did he see that night?

What did he see that night?

He spent an entire night in the mountains.

He comes back and he calls out 12 who are his apostles.

And he also knows that one of them will betray him.

How does he do this, man?

I'm telling you, it's super simple, super simple.

Super simple, a people that pray.

Super simple.

Your lives will change if I become this,

which is an admission that it isn't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Last one, word.

What should I discover from scriptures?

What should I discover from scriptures?

What should I discover from scriptures?

What theme?

What rama?

As in a word that fits the occasion.

What theme?

What rama?

What should I discover from scriptures?

Start with those five guys.

And then if you still don't know how to do,

like I said last week, take Psalm 139,

pray Psalm 139, take Ephesians 116 to 18,

pray Ephesians 116 to 18, take Matthew 11,

sorry, Matthew 6, go over the Lord's Prayer,

take Psalm 23, go over it line by line.

You won't make it.

You won't even make it through one sentence a day.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

You won't get through it.

The Lord, shoot, he's my savior, he ain't my Lord yet.

You get stuck there.

He is my shepherd, really?

I shall not want, my God, I want, I want, I want, I want.

Psalm 23 will take you a month.

Psalm 91.

Can we pray?

Sure.

In number five, what should I explore in scriptures?

Is that sort of like, is this like a

consecutive thing or is this what you're doing

the entire time?

I try and get these five things in every day.

I sometimes make it a three, sometimes a four,

but try and go through this every day.

And so scriptures should be part of it.

And some scriptures deliberate intentional reading,

some scriptures reading.

But I think it's important to start with the identity part.

By identity, you're not trying to say,

Jesus, I'm a champion in you, not that kind of stuff.

Hasn't, can I for a second think of who,

how you think of me?

It just lifts you up or pulls you down and fits you in.

Start there, man.

Let's pray.

Father, I just ask by the power of the Spirit of God

that you would help this church get into a habit

of intentional devoted prayer.

I ask that you would help me become someone

who can accomplish this day after day after day,

regardless of what you do.

I ask that you would help me become someone

who can accomplish this day after day,

regardless of what's happening in my life,

whether I'm traveling, whether I'm not,

whether I'm in town, whether I'm out of town,

that this would become a practice for me

for the rest of my days here on earth.

Why?

Not so that I get stronger,

but so that everybody around me benefit.

I desire that for myself.

Having desired that for myself,

I desire the same thing for everyone here, everyone here.

There have been promises given.

God of Abraham, God of covenant,

there have been promises given.

You are not short on fulfilling things.

But sometimes if you wanna send a harvest,

one needs to build a barn or a granary to handle the harvest.

This is one way to construct a granary

so that when the harvest comes in, it'll be storable.

There'll be harvesters, there'll be laborers.

Jesus, I ask by the power of the Spirit of God,

because there's nothing else that can accomplish this.

The flesh, the Spirit is willing,

but the flesh has been weak.

The Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.

Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ,

could you cause a deep desire, hunger?

Could you cause something to fall upon us,

our hearts, our minds, our hands, our feet,

something upon us, upon our mortal bodies

that will not be able to escape the pressure

of cultivating this habit?

Give us a head start, give us a head start.

Give us that extra boost.

We need help with the start.

Please, oh God, we do that for children.

We help them begin their first few steps.

Spirit of God, please, for us, give us a head start.

Give us that boost we need.

Help us to create this habit.

I ask this, we ask this.

There are hungry people here

who have failed again and again.

We come to start again, for your namesake,

for the sake of King and Kingdom,

for the sake of others in the world,

for the sake of all the promises you have given this church,

all the things you're looking forward to accomplish.

One more time, oh God, do it again.

One more time, do it again, oh God.

Renew it, Jesus, renew it, I pray.

As a people, as a people,

in Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you, guys.

Pleasure.