United Wknd Sunday

So me and Russ, we get um on Sunday mornings, we get 35 minutes.

Okay.

That's the time allotted to our sermon time.

If you're a regular attender here, covenant family member, you know that is not always the case, right?

You know that 35 minutes is very lenient.

Um there's no way 35 minutes could do justice to what God has done over the past two days in the student ministry in our lives.

Um we have been spending this entire weekend learning about what it looks like to go deeper, taking these students who have such a genuine desire to grow in their faith and teaching them what it looks like to step out in faith and go deeper in their relationship with Christ.

So, to be honest, my sermon is very focused to all the students are coming to the 11 o'clock service, by the way.

That's why you don't see any of them.

So a lot of my sermon is kind of geared towards them and kind of wrapping up our weekend.

Um, but I'm gonna do my best to kind of bring y'all into what God did over this past weekend and kind of leave y'all with the same kind of application that I'm gonna leave the students with um during the 11 o'clock service.

But like I said, this past weekend we talked with our students about what it looks like to go deeper in their faith and their relationship with God.

The the whole um idea behind this weekend is that that we so often treat our faith, our relationship with God like the shallow end of the pool, right?

We we kind of we we stay in the shallow end, we're we're kind of content with what we have, um, but but we know there is more to it.

We know there is more to this idea that we can have a relationship with God as human beings.

We know there is more to it as we come to church and we see other people in our lives have a relationship with God.

We might see the relationship with God someone else has, and we know there's more to it.

We know that we can go deeper, but we have this tendency just to kind of want to stay where we're at, to stay with what we're comfortable with, to be just kind of complacent and content with staying in the shallow end of faith.

But this weekend was all about encouraging students to take this leap of faith and go deeper and jump into kind of the deep end of a relationship with their creator.

The desire to grow spiritually, this desire to kind of step out in faith, this attitude of knowing we're missing out on something is very common among Christian people.

The question, how do I grow in my faith with the students is one of the most common questions that I get.

And I believe that's that's the case with with a lot of Christians, with a lot of adults.

How what does it look like for me to grow deeper in my faith?

This is a common desire, however, it's something that that so few of us truly understand, but not only understand, but take the courage and faith to actually chase after it and figure out what it means to grow in a relationship with Jesus.

We often think that change and this growth comes through outward improvement, doing more good things, or we may think change comes from learning more stuff intellectually.

Maybe we think change comes through felt experience and a weekend like we just experienced, or when you were young, if you went to summer camps, things like that.

We may think that change and growth only happens through experiences like that.

But the idea behind this entire weekend is that growing in Christ is not, it's not improving, it's not adding, it's not taking something away from your life.

It's just deepening, it's going deeper, it's pressing more and more into the person and glory of Jesus.

So the basic point of this past weekend was that change, our change in our relationship with Christ, spiritual growth is just about going deeper.

The first night we talked about going deeper into the gospel, specifically going deeper and trying to figure out more and more about who Jesus is, who we are as his creation and fallen sinful people, and then how our union, our relationship with him actually works and how that relationship brings growth.

So that was kind of the first thing we talked about night one.

The second session, we talked about the love of God and this idea that if we want to grow deeper into our relationship with Jesus, then we have got to go deeper and deeper into the love that he shows us.

2 Corinthians 5 says that it is the love of Christ that controls us, it's the love of Christ that compels us to actually begin living our lives for him.

So we have to constantly be pressing deeper and deeper into the love of God.

And it's something that we could dive deeper and deeper into every single day, and we would never reach the bottom of God's love.

We would never fully comprehend God's love for us.

The third session last night, the last thing we talked about was how if we want to go deeper in our faith, then we have to come to a place where we are broken before the Lord.

We cannot afford to be content with our sin and just allow sin to continue to reign and rule in our lives.

We have to address it, we have to recognize it, and then we have to bring it before the Lord.

If we want to grow deeper, we have to bring our sins before Him in brokenness and humility.

And I know that the video you just watched, it was upbeat, it was hype, it looks like all we did was jump around all weekend and play games, but I'm telling you, last night, it was uh it was a scene that that I will never forget.

Last night we had a um, sorry, I'm gonna go, I'm just gonna read.

Last night we had a response call for students to do this, to bring their brokenness before the Lord, to come broken before Jesus.

Nathan, he kind of set up this response time.

Um, and he, you know, you know how it goes.

Pastors, you know, we always kind of set up this response time, and we, you know, typically it it ends with us challenging people to move.

And then when we challenge y'all to move, it it usually takes, you know, a couple minutes.

It's just quiet.

No one does anything.

Um, but Nathan kind of set up this moment for these students to bring their brokenness and their sin before the Lord.

And he made it very clear hey, this is not about just coming up with your friends and and looking cool or trying to make people put your attention on yourself.

He was very adamant that he wanted genuine brokenness to be brought before the Lord, that he did not want students just to move for the sake of moving.

He wanted them to move because he wanted them to bring their brokenness before the Lord and confess their sin before the Lord.

Immediately, I'm telling y'all, immediately as soon as Nathan set this up and he offered the invitation for students to come forward, immediately about a hundred students stood up in unison.

I mean, like at the same time, immediately they stood up and they threw themselves at the feet of Jesus.

Middle and high school students were on their faces, on their faces before the Lord.

Throughout this time, all you could all you could kind of hear is just this sound of weeping throughout throughout the room.

Leaders were, we were asked to kind of begin after a little bit of giving you know the students their time, we were asked to to just go and pray with students.

Um, and I, to be honest, I didn't even know where to start.

I was literally just like stepping over students like this on the ground.

Like I didn't know where to go.

I would pray and then I would just kind of look around and be like, I don't, I can't walk anywhere.

The floor was just covered with students on their knees before the Lord.

As I would lay my hands on students, I could feel them shaking, shaking on their knees, just shaking, crying, weeping before the Lord.

I could feel them, literally feel them being overwhelmed by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

And I remember um after some of the students kind of started making their ways back to their seats and the floor kind of started to clear up.

There were still some students, so I was walking around continuing to pray with students, and literally on the floor, it's just tears.

It's covered in tears.

This just gross, nasty social circle theater floor is covered with tears of God's children crying out to him.

It was cool to see that not only did students individually, like this was an individual thing, bringing their brokenness before the Lord, but kind of after they did that, they just naturally began to huddle up with one another.

They naturally began to start praying with their friends.

There was there was it was cool to see some of our brothers, like sibling students in our student ministry just pray and love on each other.

That's something that y'all may not ever see in your houses between siblings.

Um we know that brothers and sisters don't always get along, but brothers and sisters just hugging one another, praying for one another, friend groups just circling up and continuing to pray even after this moment had passed.

The worship leaders at one point weren't even worship leaders.

They had kind of come out and sung a few songs by this time, and they were singing a song, and they just kind of like stopped singing for a little bit, and the students didn't.

Like the students literally picked worship back up and kept leading the room in worship while our worship leaders are just up there playing music.

The students were singing, continuing to worship.

We were supposed to end last night at 9:30, and I believe at 10.30 we were still singing.

And an hour, an hour extra.

Could you imagine if that happened on a Sunday morning?

But it but it was like a moment in time hadn't even passed.

And these students who are oftentimes just so consumed with other things, all they wanted to do was just be with the Lord in that moment.

They didn't want to leave, they didn't want it to end, they just wanted to be with the Lord and be with one another.

You could tell in that moment that there was nowhere else they wanted to be, even though we were there an hour after we were supposed to be there.

But not only could you just, not only could you feel these students pressing deeper and deeper, you could feel it, you could feel the Holy Spirit in the room, but it was also one of those things that you could see it.

You could see it, you could hear it in their praise, in their worship, in their their weeping, you could hear these students' desires to press in deeper and deeper into the Lord.

And it was just a it was one of those moments that that as a student pastor, like it's just one of those moments that I never want to forget because it's there, it's so student ministry is hard sometimes.

Y'all are parents, I'm not a parent.

Um, I know for for parents, sometimes it seems like kids just might not be getting it, right?

Working in student ministry, it feels like sometimes these kids just don't get it.

It feels like I'm talking to a brick wall or I'm talking to students and it's just going one in one ear, out the other.

But it was one of those moments where I'm like, okay, these students get this.

They understand the person and the power of Jesus and they want to press deeper and deeper into that.

But it was just a moment that I never want to forget, and a moment that I wish I could invite the entire church into.

I was talking to Nathan, I was like, dude, what if we just text the parents and say, hey, y'all come check out what's what's happening here?

And then if you want to pick your student up and leave, you can.

But if you want to say, we would love to have you.

And like, I was like, let's just keep going.

Um, but that wouldn't have been a good idea.

But it's just something I wanted, I'll I'll I will never forget it.

I will never forget it.

But over this entire weekend, we were just showering these students with these over, you know, just kind of overall themes, these overall messages about what it looks like to go deeper into their relationship with Jesus.

That's kind of what this past weekend was about.

This morning, once they get here for the 11 a.m.

service, um, all we're going to be talking about is what are the tools that God gives us in order that to for this growth to continue happening in our life?

What are the tools that God gives us so that when we experience the power of the Holy Spirit, how do we allow that to continue growing and developing in our life, not just for a weekend, but for the rest of our lives?

So if you're anything kind of um like me, um I need practical kind of how-to directions for a lot of stuff.

Um you can cast vision to me about something all day long, especially something about growing in my relationship with Christ.

I will catch on to the vision, but all I care about is to how to actually do that, how to actually carry it out.

I need practical how-to application and directions to so many things in my life, and that's kind of what this morning is about.

Okay, so y'all didn't necessarily get the full vision behind growing deeper in your faith, but I'm gonna give you some practical tools.

I'm not, God gives us practical tools for us to press in deeper, to grow deeper and deeper into our faith.

So we're gonna make things simple this morning and we're gonna look at two things.

Okay, two things that allow us to grow deeper in our faith and allow deeper growth to take place in our lives.

And so look at those two things.

We're gonna use this metaphor of breathing, okay?

Metaphor of breathing, just inhaling and exhaling.

Inhaling and exhaling.

And I like using this metaphor because when you think about the most basic kind of necessities for life, of whatever the most basic necessity is, it's it's breathing.

It's breathing.

When you think about all the things that go into living a healthy life, there may be hundreds of things that come to mind.

You may think about food and water and how necessary they are to your lives.

You may think about having shelter and clothing and how different your life would look without these things.

You may think about exercising because whether you like it or not, exercising is healthy for you, and we need to exercise as human beings.

God has created us in that way.

But while there may be hundreds of things, hundreds of things that contribute to a healthy life, there is nothing that is more necessary than just breathing.

If we don't take our next breath, then nothing else matters.

Nothing else can replace breathing.

It is the most basic thing that we do and the most basic thing that we need.

And the same is true spiritually.

When you think about all the things, all the things that may go into growing spiritually, there may be hundreds of things that come to mind.

You may think about going to church, you may think about the importance of having godly friendships, you may think about being kind and loving people well.

And obviously, all these things are incredibly important and even vital to growth in the Christian life, but there are two things that are even more necessary than these than these things.

All these things are important, but like I said, I want to focus on two vital practices that are the most necessary, the most vital to bring deeper growth into our relationship with God.

And the two things that are gonna blow your mind is reading the Bible and it's praying.

Reading the Bible and prayer.

This is the equivalent of breathing in the Christian life.

Reading the Bible is inhaling.

It's inhaling.

Reading the Bible is inhaling.

We are taking in the word of God, and prayer is exhaling, where we speak those words and we exhale those words back to our Father.

So for the rest of the morning, this is what we're gonna be focusing on.

These two simple tools that allow us to go deeper.

So, first, inhaling scripture.

Inhaling scripture.

We're gonna start in 2 Timothy 3, 14 through 17, where Paul tells Timothy, his disciple, a new pastor of a church.

He says, But as for you, continue in what you have learned and affirmly believe, knowing from whom you learned it.

And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings.

What do you think the sacred writings are?

Scripture, right?

It's the Bible, it's the Old Testament, the prophecies.

He says, Um, how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

And then he says, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

And I believe that that, especially verses 16 and 17, they contain two reasons why scripture should be a daily, a daily, a daily practice, a daily habit in our lives, a daily foundational aspect of our lives.

The first reason is that scripture is the word of God.

Scripture is the word of God.

It's probably something that you have surely heard at some point in your life that God's word is God's word, that it is the word of God.

And 2 Timothy 3.16 tells us that all scripture is breathed out by God.

2 Peter tells us that God has essentially given whatever words that human beings wrote in this book, they were given to them by God.

All everything in this book is breathed out to us by God.

In other words, when we read the Bible, we are reading God's very own words.

And when you think about how crazy that is in light of the power that God's word has, the same words that spoke creation into existence, that's what we get to read in this book.

The same words that created the sun and moon and stars, the same words that spoke animals and birds and fish into existence.

The Bible that we have today and can hold in our hands and read with our eyes are words from the same person that created us and breathed life into our lungs.

And we have allowed this idea of scripture being the word of God to just kind of become dull and something that lacks power in our life.

A lot of us will claim that we believe scripture is the true word of God.

And we know that we should read it, but so often, so often, and it's so easy to just let this book sit somewhere and collect dust.

We say we believe this is the word of God, and yet so often and so easily we can let this thing collect dust on the cover.

Sometimes I think it's important for us to remind ourselves of how absolutely insane it is that we can physically read God's word, because if we truly believe that, if we can come to a place in our life where we truly believe that this is what God says it is, and it is his word, that we have access to the words of the creator of the universe, and we come to that realization and we truly believe it, we cannot help but to devote the rest of our lives to figuring out what this book says.

If we get that part, that this is the word of God, we will read this book.

We will read it.

I recently listened to a sermon where he said, if we believe scripture is God's word and we don't read it on a daily basis, then we need to examine whether we truly believe scripture is God's word.

Because if we believe it's God's word and we don't read it, we're insane.

People who don't believe this is God's word and don't read their Bible, they they have a they have an excuse.

How can you blame them?

They just think this is an old dusty book.

But if we believe this is God's word, then we're insane if we don't read it on a daily basis.

We're insane if we don't meditate it and memorize it and allow it to transform us from the inside out.

When we understand that this book contains the very words of our Creator, we cannot help, we cannot help but devote the rest of our lives to understanding what it says.

So this is the first reason scripture should be a daily and foundational aspect of our lives.

The second reason is this is that scripture is profitable.

It's profitable, it has something to bring us, it has something to offer us.

Another reason we often allow our Bibles to collect us is we just simply think it's not worth our time.

We may think it's outdated, we may think that there is nothing in the Bible that could pop possibly teach us something that we don't already know.

But if we go back to what Paul said in 2 Timothy, he says this all scripture is breathed out by God, and then he says, and profitable.

It's profitable.

We can gain something from this.

He says it's profitable for teaching, for approval, for correction, and for training and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Reading Scripture adds something to our lives.

It's not just an old book that we should read, it's the living and active resource that God has given us to bring life into our souls.

Scripture is profitable and useful for teaching.

Paul says it can teach us.

You could read the Bible a hundred times, cover to cover, and you will never know everything that's in this book.

You will never fully understand it.

You will never not be learning from God's word if you are constantly reading it.

There is infinite amounts of wisdom and truth found in God's word, and we could devote the rest of our lives to learning it, and we would never reach the end of knowledge that it holds.

He says scripture is profitable and useful for reproof and correction.

As we read God's word, we will be rebuked and convicted of our sin.

And which is crazy as that sounds, that is one of the most loving things God could ever do for us is convict us and rebuke us for our sin.

Because God knows that our sin, if we continue to allow sin to reign and rule in our lives, he knows that we will end up eternally separated from him in hell, away from his presence forever.

And he knows that is the worst thing possible for us.

God's word rebukes us and corrects us because he wants us to live in his presence.

He knows what is best for us.

And when he tells us what is wrong, he also tells us what is right.

He doesn't just condemn us, but he invites us into eternal life with him, and all that is found in his word.

We are sinful, we are not good.

However, God is gracious and loving enough to call us out on it and then offer us correction that leads to life.

If we do not become students of God's word, then we cannot possibly know the correct to the correct way to live out our lives in the way that God has called us to live.

Lastly, Scripture is profitable for training and righteousness, which again is the whole reason behind this entire past weekend and even this morning.

It's just training and righteousness, growing deeper in our faith, and scripture is profitable for that.

In other words, Is profitable for growing deeper and deeper.

If you have the desire to grow in your faith and become more like Jesus, that is exactly why God has given us the gift of His Word.

It's an instruction manual, not that just has a bunch of do's and don'ts, but it's an instruction manual of how to become more like Jesus and experience the life and peace that He offers us.

God wants us to train in righteousness, and He gives us His Word in order to do that.

This word makes us more like Jesus to the point that it completes us.

That the man of God may be complete.

So this is why Scripture should be a foundational everyday part of our lives.

But where do we start?

How do we truly begin to inhale scripture?

You ready for this?

You just open it up and you just start reading.

Just read it.

Just read it.

That's another question that I get asked a lot is how how do I how do I read my Bible?

With a student, it makes sense.

Some of them are still learning how to read, if we're being honest.

And while while I'm all about there, there are certainly ways and methods of reading scripture that are helpful and kind of help help us digest God's word better.

But at the end of the day, just read it.

If you don't understand it, keep reading it.

And we're about to get to prayer in a second, but if you don't understand something, pray.

As you read God's word, pray.

And just meditate on it.

And it will, God will begin to bring wisdom to you.

So my my two pieces of advice when it comes to scripture is read God's word and then memorize it.

Read God's word and memorize it.

For some reason, we stop memorizing God's word once we leave like a kid's growth or something like that.

We memorize God's word as kids to get a piece of candy, but as adults, we can't we have to memorize this word.

We have to memorize his word because what happens when we memorize it, it moves from here into here.

What happens when we memorize God's word?

We we can take it with us wherever we go.

When we're driving down the road and someone cuts us off in traffic, we can go to Ephesians 4.29 that says, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such as good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.

When we're struggling with sin, we're facing temptation, the devil's throwing lies in our ear.

We can run to Romans 6, 12 through 14.

It says, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you.

Since you are not under law but under grace.

Memorizing God's word, it holds so much power.

And when we fail to do it, we are we are we're leaving we're leaving it behind.

We're leaving God's power within the leather covers of this book.

We're not allowing it to take root in our hearts and actually begin to change the way we live.

So we we scripture has to be a part of our lives.

We have to read it and we have to memorize it and meditate it on it throughout day and night.

So if we want to go deeper, we have to inhale scripture on a daily basis.

Taking a deep breath into our lungs gives us oxygen and provides us life.

What inhaling does physically, reading God's word does for us spiritually.

Next is we have to exhale prayer.

As we inhale scripture, the life-giving words of God, we simply exhale them back to Him in prayer.

I love this metaphor of inhaling scripture and exhaling because it shows how related and interchangeable prayer, like reading our Bible in prayer, actually is.

So often we separate prayer and reading the Bible as two different things, but in reality, they should be intertwined.

They should overlap with one another.

The best way to read the Bible is prayerfully.

The best way to pray is to turn your Bible reading into prayer.

Once again, our theme throughout this weekend is that growing in Christ is not a matter of doing more or being better.

It's a matter of going deeper.

It's a matter of pressing deeper and deeper into the relationship that we have with God.

And prayer is what makes our relationship with God a real relationship.

No relationship is a one-way street.

No relationship only has one way of communication.

A husband and wife cannot stay married in a healthy way.

If communication is a one-way street, that would not end well.

The same is true for our relationship with our groom, with Christ.

As his church, we it cannot be a one-way relationship.

We can't just read our Bible and leave it there.

We have to communicate back.

As God speaks to us, we have to speak back, and we can't just speak to God without hearing his voice.

If we're speaking to God, we got to hear his voice as well.

It is a two-way street.

The Bible is God's way of speaking to us, instructing us, and more importantly, revealing himself to us.

And prayer is our way of speaking to God, but more importantly, revealing ourselves and making ourselves available to him.

So again, we know prayer is important, but where do we start?

Just like scripture, where do we start with prayer?

First thing I want to talk about, I'm gonna go through these quick.

We must view God as Father.

God is an actual person.

He's an actual person.

And similar to the way we approach scripture, if we don't pray, then we don't believe God is an actual person.

Or in other words, if we don't believe God is an actual person, then that's probably why our prayer life isn't very fruitful.

We oftentimes have this idea that God is impersonal, he's just this force or being that's off in the distance, and our lack of prayer points to the fact that we might know and believe God is powerful, but we also believe that he's abstract and unapproachable.

The point I'm trying to make is that our prayer life comes alive.

It comes alive when we truly view God as a father.

As children of God, we will naturally find within ourselves this impulse just to cry out to him.

Romans 8 15 says, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons.

The Holy Spirit is the spirit of adoptions, of adoption that brings us into this son and daughter relationship with God.

He says, when we receive that, we will cry out, Abba Father.

If you have placed your faith in Jesus, then you have received the spirit that naturally brings us and gives us this natural impulse to cry out to our Father.

Now that we're in Christ, we have the privilege of being able to relate to God as a father, the same way that we see Jesus relate to God as a father.

And if we don't, if we don't get this, if we don't view God as someone who loves us and wants the best for us, the same way a good father loves and wants the best for their children, then we will not just naturally go to him in prayer.

It will be a fight, it will be a battle.

But when we can wrap our minds around that, that God wants to hear our voice and he wants to hear our cries, we will be a lot more likely to run to him in prayer.

The second way that we just bring fruitfulness into our prayer lives is we must establish a rhythm of prayer.

Throughout the entire history of the church and even throughout the entire history of God's people all the way through the Old Testament, we see people establishing rhythms, rhythms of prayer.

Throughout history, God's people have scheduled out time during the day to devote to prayer.

The same way we may schedule time throughout our day to eat a meal, go to class, go to a business meeting, whatever it may be.

We see this in the life of Daniel.

If you know the story of Daniel and the lines then, the whole reason he was thrown in the lines then is because he had a rhythm of prayer.

Daniel 6 10 says, When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem.

He got down on his knees three times a day, and he prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously, meaning that this had already been a rhythm in his life, and he wasn't going to let anything stop it.

Psalm 55, 17, evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice, talking about prayer to the Lord.

Psalm 5.3, listen to my voice in the morning, Lord.

Each morning, every morning, I bring my request to you, and I wait expectantly.

Not only do we see this rhythm of prayer in the Old Testament, but we see it in the life of Jesus.

Jesus, the Son of God, who has all power and all authority, is still utterly dependent on prayer.

On spending time with his Father, speaking to his father, but also listening to what his father would say.

These are all the, not all of them, some of the times that we see Jesus praying in the New Testament.

Luke 5, 16.

Jesus would withdraw to desert desolate places and pray.

Matthew 14, 23, after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.

When evening came, he was there alone.

Mark 1.35, and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

Even on the last night of his life, Jesus sought out this intentional time in prayer with the Lord.

Matthew 26, 36.

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray.

If Jesus, the Son of God, intentionally carved out time during his day to spend time with his Father in prayer, then so should we.

So should we.

Prayer has always been and always should be something that we intentionally practice throughout our day, the same way we schedule out anything throughout our day.

And then the last thing with prayer is not only should we have a rhythm, but we should pray without ceasing.

We must pray without ceasing.

1 Thessalonians 5, 16 and 18.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

So we see not only should we establish prayer rhythms in our life, but we should um we should be available to God at all times.

He has given us the gift of his Holy Spirit so that as we walk through our day, we are still with God.

We are still walking in his presence.

God is not just right there in the morning during our quiet time.

God is not just right here on Sunday mornings when we gather together at a church.

God is dwelling within each one of us.

And he has given us the spirit of adoption, his son, so that we can cry out to him at any time we want to, anytime we need to.

Abba Father.

You may ask, how can I constantly be in prayer?

How can I talk to friends?

How could I sleep?

How am I supposed to pay attention in school?

How are we supposed to sit through a business meeting all while praying?

But that's not the point.

The idea behind this is to simply pray as we move throughout our lives.

Let prayer be something that is done throughout our lives.

Praying without ceasing is simply understanding that God dwells within each one of us and we can come to Him as Father at all times.

So if you feel stuck right now in your relationship with God, you have this desire to go deeper, you have this desire to grow in your faith, you see other people and their vibrant faith that they have, and you want that, you know you're missing out on more, then all I can encourage you to do is just start with these two things.

Read your Bible and pray.

Inhale God's word and then exhale it back to Him.

Build time in God's word into your day the same way you build time for breakfast, exercise, any other habit you already build into your life, all the habits in our life, they reflect this acquired taste, meaning it might not have been enjoyable at first, but the more we commit ourselves and devote ourselves to it, the more enjoyable it becomes, the more vibrant it becomes.

We all have so many habits, but it's our responsibility to make sure reading God's word in prayer are at least some of those habits.

So the way we're gonna kind of close is to literally give you all a chance to do this: a chance to inhale scripture, take it in, breathe it in, meditate on it, chew on it, and then exhale it back to God in prayer.

So these little pieces of paper in every one of your seats, this is Titus 3, 3 through 7.

It's just a verse that um or a passage I've had memorized that that just displays the truth of the gospel.

As you read this, I want you to see the gospel, the good news of Jesus.

And I want you to inhale it.

I want you to take it in.

I want you to meditate on it, chew on it, and then as you do that, I want you to exhale in prayer back to God.

I want you to thank God that even though we were once foolish and disobedient and led astray, thank him that he, out of his loving kindness and goodness, he saved us.

Not because of our works of righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

Just inhale the scripture, exhale it back to God.

Let me pray for us.

Um, Father, we are so dependent upon you, and we ask you to meet us in this place, Father.

As we spend time reading this passage of Scripture and just reflecting on the good news of Jesus.

Uh Father, give us wisdom.

Help us understand your word, help us understand this text and the beauty of the gospel.

And as we do, would our natural response to be to you be prayer?

Would it be speaking back to you, exhaling back to you?

Father, we love you.

We thank you for Jesus and the gospel.

We thank you for your word and the unexplainable gift that we we can communicate with you, that we can hear your voice and you can hear ours.

God, you are so good and so loving to us.

Fill us with your spirit and meet us in this place.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.