Devote Daily

For those who I haven't got a chance to meet yet, my name is Andrew.

I'm one of the pastors here at CBC.

And today we're going to kick off a series about what it means to participate in the life of the church.

It'd be hard to read the Bible and recognize that, hey, if we're serious about following Jesus, we also must be serious about participating in his church.

I don't think you can read the New Testament and think of Christianity as a set of beliefs to be practiced in private.

There's a very communal element to us following Jesus.

And so it's worth taking the time to ask the question hey, how do we do this whole church thing?

And so here at CBC, with the help of some friends from other churches, what we've done is we've looked at the New Testament, read through all the one another statements that it involves, which is about 52 or so.

And these statements that describe the nature of interactions between Christians, statements like love one another, bear one another's burdens, confess to one another, show preference to one another.

And we've taken all those statements and tried to distill them down into these six core values: devote daily, pursue relationally, live authentically, admonish faithfully, counsel biblically, and engage missionally.

Now, these aren't clever strategies, they're not good ideas that we've come up with.

They are our best attempt at creating Christian community according to Jesus' instructions.

And these core values that we're going to learn about over the next couple of weeks, they make up the DNA of how we do community here at the church, which is how we experience life as the body beyond Sunday.

And so our hopes coming out of this series, you'll get a clearer picture as to what it means to be a part of God's church, and you'll also be willing and wanting to dive into real Christian community here at CBC.

Now, here's why I think this is an important conversation.

In the last few decades, our definition of church here in the U.S.

has kind of drifted a little bit.

In the church growth movement of the 70s all the way up to the early 2000s, we borrowed a lot of practices from American business models, and we got really concerned with packing butts into seats and less concerned with helping people follow Jesus and know Jesus well.

We made church a lot about one day instead of an entire life of people doing ministry.

We made it about a few people up on a stage and not about an entire body wanting to follow Jesus with everything that they've got.

And in that, this idea of, hey, what does it mean to participate and be a member of a church has gotten really fuzzy.

And so it's worth taking the time to understand, hey, how do I participate in Jesus' church?

And we we don't want a church of 10,000 people with shallow faith.

We won't settle for that.

We're not going to aim at that.

And so as you continue to see CBC rolling out initiatives and projects, it's for the sole aim of developing disciples who love Jesus with all that they are and love him every day of the week and do that outside of this place and then some.

And so it's our hope as we continue to roll out more and more community groups over the next months and years that we would want to be Jesus' faithful.

That someone in this church would know what's going on in your spiritual life, that you'd be able to live and experience the kind of church that's described in the New Testament, and in doing so, give Jesus the glory he deserves.

And so today we're going to kick off by talking about devoting daily.

God, thank you that today in the rain we're reminded that we can be cleansed by you, God.

God, just as we remembered baptism last week, today we were reminded that, Lord, you cleanse all things and you make us new.

So, God, today, as we come into this opportunity for a sermon, let it not just be uh tradition, let it not just be ritual, but Lord, in this experience, would we be drawn closer to you?

Would we seriously say, God, would you impact us at our soul level?

Would you transform us and make us more like you?

Would your word be loud and clear in such a way that it would divide joints and marrow and get to the deepest parts of who we are and make us more like you?

So, God, we thank you for this opportunity to do just that.

Help us to listen well.

God, help us to give you the sacrifice of time and attention so that we might draw close to you.

Jesus, we love you and we need you.

We can't do any of this without you.

And so, Lord, we we ask that you'd help us to see you more clearly.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So today we're gonna be talking about devoting daily.

There's some things you just can't claim unless you devote daily to the idea.

Right?

Like you wouldn't look at me and say, hey, that brother devotes to bodybuilding.

If you put me and Ray on his farm and ask us to plow a field or field or feed a creature, it's gonna take you five minutes to find out which one of us is the real farmer and which one is the city slicker.

I'm the city boy.

I pretend to be a farmer one week in a year.

Well, I pick apples and eat apple cider donuts and take cute pictures of my kids.

I LARP as a farmer, as the young people say.

I can't claim these identities.

I can't say I'm a bodybuilder, I can't say I'm a farmer because there's no evidence of me giving time and attention to these things on a daily basis.

In the same way, it's kind of hard to claim that you're a Christian if there's no evidence of wanting to be around Christ and be with him daily.

If there's no evidence of you wanting to follow him on a daily basis.

You see, Jesus intended the life of the Christian to be one of daily devotion.

And so it's worth taking the time to say, hey, how do we do this and why is this important?

And to do so, if you got a Bible, we're gonna head to John chapter 15 this morning.

John 15 · chapter mention

If you look back two chapters to John 13, you'll find that Jesus is right now in the Last Supper with his disciples.

This section is what we call Jesus' farewell discourse.

Essentially, it's his last words.

Right in the next few moments, if you know ahead, I'm gonna spoil it, Jesus is about to get captured and then crucified.

And so these teachings in John 13 to 17 is kind of the last calm before the storm.

And so, in this, they're at the dinner table just one last time, and Jesus is going to encourage them and pray for them and tell them the things they need to know about the Christian life before things get real busy and hectic.

Listen to what Jesus says in John chapter 15, beginning in verse 1.

John 15 · chapter mention

He says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

I'm the vine, and you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, from apart from me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into a fire and burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it'll be done for you.

By this my Father is glorified.

You bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love, these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Man, it's a powerful of all the things that Jesus could have been saying at the end, he's reminding us, hey, you've got to stay close.

And if you've read the Old Testament before, this is gonna sound familiar to you because you find often in the Old Testament Israel is referred to as the vine or the vineyard.

And what Jesus is essentially saying here is, hey, I'm the one who succeeded where you guys failed.

And if you remained in me, you'll bear more fruit than your ancestors ever could.

And so if you want to be a kind of Christian that abides, if you want to be a fruitful Christian that abides, I've got a couple of steps that I think might help us today.

And the first is this number one, you've got to know your role.

Verse 1 it said, I am the Jesus said, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

Man, Jesus is pretty clear here.

God's the vine dresser, Jesus is the true vine.

We're branches.

If you're like me, you know nothing about vines or vine dressers.

A vine dresser is like a gardener, but specifically for vines.

They're a vine expert.

They know how to trim and prune and shape the vine for maximum fruitfulness.

Man, I hate to be bad news to you this morning.

We're not the vine.

We're not the vine dresser, we're the branches.

We're not the main character in the story here.

We're not the ones in the position of power, we're not the ones who are ready to make all the demands.

We're branches.

And branches need the vine to survive and do anything useful.

Man, vines, they can survive perfectly fine without branches, but branches can't even exist without the vine.

And so if we're going to devote daily, it begins by recognizing our role and Jesus' role.

It begins by recognizing that Jesus really is the Son of God who's worthy of our devotion.

Man, he's not just a regular branch, he's the vine.

He's the source of life, he's the redeemer of our sins, the creator of the universe.

He's not just some myth from the past, not just a wise teacher, not just a good moral example.

He's God of the universe.

And we need to treat him as such.

Because if you haven't recognized that, then you're never going to be able to devote daily.

Something else is always going to get in the way.

Some money, some opportunity, some comfort, some pleasure is always going to win out when you're given the choice between the vine and something else.

And here's where it gets a little bit scary, right?

This is where I think you can begin to recognize that, hey, maybe I haven't recognized Jesus for all that he is.

You'll hear stories of other Christians who have gone all in and have made Jesus their everything.

And you'll like what they do from a distance, but in the back of your mind, you'll be saying this thing like, hey, isn't that a little too much?

Like, hey, aren't you taking this whole Christianity thing just a little bit too far?

And in short, if that is an operating question in the back of your mind, I think it shows you that maybe you just think a little bit too less about Jesus.

That if we want to devote daily, it begins by rightfully appraising Jesus as somebody who is worthy of your devotion.

Man, if Jesus really is who he said that he is, then if he is really God who lived the perfect life and died so I could be free from my sin and live forever with him, then I've got to be willing to bow to his wishes and to his demands.

Man, if I'm unwilling to do that, it's gonna be incredibly difficult to produce fruit.

Because I'll be constantly trying to pull the vine and take it to places that I want to go.

I'll be constantly trying to be the one in charge and say, hey, it's cool to grow here and here, but here's your limits, God.

I don't want you to have this part of who I am.

And so the beginning of if we want to be fruitful Christians, number one, it begins by knowing our role.

The second thing we learn is knowing our goal.

I worked really hard on that this week, man.

And that just didn't land like I thought it was gonna.

Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, it'll bear more fruit.

Verse 80 said, By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

Man, Jesus is pretty clear here that fruit is the desired outcome.

The vine dresser isn't looking for longest branch award, he's not looking for greenest leaves, he's not looking for thinnest bark, the vine dresser is looking for fruit, which is critically important for us to realize that if if the goal of our faith walk is not fruitfulness, it's actually really dangerous for us.

Because we could think that we're crushing it in our faith walk, but actually be missing the mark the whole time.

I I've got scary news for us this morning.

And you could read the Bible every day and go to church every Sunday and still potentially have no signs of fruit in your life.

Bible reading, church attendance, they're good.

God is going to use those things to fertilize the soil of your life, but they're not fruit by themselves.

See that the goal of the Christian life is to rightly respond to the cross.

It's to confess that Jesus really is the King of the universe and that by his sacrificial death on the cross, I've got the opportunity to be set free from my sin and now enjoy eternity with God.

And that process is allowing the Holy Spirit to begin to regenerate my dead soul and my wicked ways so that they now go in line with Jesus' plan for my life.

And so practically, I think fruitfulness looks like this.

It's looking more like Jesus because I've correctly understood what he's done for me, and I love him.

Fruitfulness means recognizing the places in my life that really don't look like Jesus yet, and handing them over to him so that all of me gives Jesus the honor and the glory that he deserves.

Paul describes it this way in Galatians chapter 5, he says this beginning in verse 16, but I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.

For these are not opposed to each other, these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things that you want to do.

But if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law.

And now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I've warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And against such things there is no law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Paul's beginning to make it clear, there ought to be some evidence of your devotion to Jesus.

That if we're led by the Spirit, if we're going to be fruitful Christians, there ought to be this growing distaste for the things of the flesh and a growing presence of those faithful impulses that Paul describes as the fruit of the Spirit.

Fruitfulness isn't the amount of sermons you listen to, it's allowing Jesus to transform you all the way down to your reflexes.

And so we've got to ask ourselves the hard question.

And do I want to be fruitful?

Is there something else that's become more important to me than becoming a fruitful follower of Jesus?

When we get to heaven, God's not going to ask us how much was in our 401k.

He's not going to ask you how many sermons you listened to.

He's not going to ask you how many devotionals you read through, he's going to ask you, hey, did you bear fruit?

So I ask all of us today, hey, are we bearing fruit?

If people were to look into the contents of our day and see the priorities of our lives, would there be evidence that Jesus is the supreme object of our devotion?

Would they see a commitment to Jesus' teachings?

Would they see continual submission to Jesus' way against the world's way?

Would they look into our lives and say, wow, I can tell that Jesus is the center point of that person's universe?

Because when we're fruitful, like what Jesus said there in verse 8, when we live that way, that we give everything to Jesus, when he is the center, people will glorify God and know that we're his disciples.

Which tells you your fruit will indicate whose disciple you are.

An apple tree cannot produce oranges.

A follower of Jesus must somewhat look like their father.

And so if that's the case, we've got to say, hey, if I look at my life, do I look like Jesus?

Is there fruit that shares DNA with the Spirit of God in me?

Being a follower of Jesus, it means that it doesn't mean that you're going to be perfect, but there should be some evidence of his work in our lives to know him more.

And I think that's what devoting daily begins to look like.

It's bigger than just the things we do, it's questions we ask ourselves about hey, am I looking more like Jesus today?

The third thing we learn is that abiding is the way to fruitfulness.

Said there in verse 4, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine.

Neither can you unless you abide in me.

I'm the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing.

Yeah, fruitfulness is the goal, but the exciting thing, it's not generated by our labor.

It's generated because we are abiding with Jesus.

We can't save ourselves.

All we can do is respond to the one who can.

All we can do is draw close to the one who can.

Man, I hope you read this and you hear freedom in this.

Your job isn't to fix all your addictions.

Your job is not to modify all the behaviors.

You have it all together.

Your job is to abide in Jesus.

And that the more you abide in him, the more you look upon his glory and recognize how amazing he is, the more you let him put his finger on those areas of your life that need transformation, the more and more fruit you'll bear.

I'm reminded of Jesus' words in Matthew 11, 28 to 30, when he says, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Man, what a God that we serve.

Right?

He's God of the universe.

He could demand endless rituals and sacrifice and the craziest of all things, and he invites us to abide and dwell with him and find rest in him.

So I pray this morning you're hearing that.

Man, the invitation to abide is not a burden, it's a gift.

It's an opportunity to be plugged into the source of all life.

It's an opportunity to know joy from the deepest definitions that are there.

And in that, the more we become people who abide, we'll finally begin to realize, hey, this is what living finally looks like.

For the first time when I was dead, now I can see what true life looks like.

So to get ready to close here, the last one, how do we abide?

So if this is the case, then we gotta figure out what it means to abide.

Jesus invites us with two things I think become clear in the passage.

The first is this we can abide by getting God's word in us.

Verse 7, he said, If you abide in me, and my words abide in you.

Which means one of the easy ways to begin abiding with Jesus is by getting his word into us.

Some of this is gonna happen by reading the Bible regularly, some of this is gonna happen from sermons we listen to, some of it's gonna happen from conversations we have with our friends about Jesus' teachings.

Man, if you're gonna be a Christian, you just can't get around this part.

Like I wish Jesus would have dropped like a six-part Netflix series instead of giving me a thousand-page Bible.

Lord, please, that would have been so great.

I'd have binged that thing last night.

It'd be awesome.

I wish he could give me just a short snippet picture book that tells me everything I need to know.

But he chose words.

And those words are recorded in the book.

And I've got to submit to that.

I just can't get around that part.

I can't change that part.

And so if you're gonna be one who abides in Jesus, it's worth recognizing, hey, it means I've got to have some sort of relationship with his word.

I've got to ask myself the question: am I creating opportunities to get into Jesus' word regularly?

So if you need help with this, uh, there's nothing more I would love than help you figure out what it means to read the Bible.

Here at CBC, we've got classes at 10 a.m.

We're gonna be launching a new one next Sunday, going through some of the gospels together.

I'd love for you to join me in that class.

But together we're just gonna figure out, hey, how do we read the Bible regularly?

How do we understand God's word so that we can become a people who abide in God's word daily?

The second thing Jesus encouraged us, he says, keep my commandments.

Verse 10 says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

Which makes me ask the hard question man, and am I keeping Jesus' commandments?

You see, I think this is the place where things move from theoretical to practical.

Daily devotion doesn't just mean scripture reading and prayer.

It means taking Jesus' commands seriously and obeying them.

And can can I be honest with you?

I think this is where I have grown the most in my spiritual walk.

It wasn't seminary.

It wasn't pastoring.

It was reading Jesus' commandments and deciding not to argue against them.

It was reading Jesus' commandments and not trying to rationalize my way out of obeying it.

It was just reading his commandments and trying to keep them for myself.

And here's the crazy thing.

Time and time again, as I would try and practice, I would find over and over again, yeah, Jesus, you were right.

It moved from, wow, that's a really cool theoretical concept to practice forgiveness that way.

It's a really cool idea to see two people come together who've been arguing for a long time.

And the more and more I tried to say, you know what, I am going to try to be forgiving.

I am going to choose to be an agent of reconciliation like Jesus invites me to, the more and more I got to see Jesus' work up close.

And the more and more I realized he really is King of the universe.

The more and more I sat front row to Jesus operating in this way, I began to realize he is worthy of my devotion every single day.

And here's the cool thing: the more and more I saw that Jesus was right, the more and more I kind of tested out his commandments, the more and more I wanted to give Jesus access to the rest of my life.

It's like, man, if if you were right here, is it possible you could also be right here?

And the more and more just taking Jesus' commandments at his word, the more I realized he knew everything all along.

And that the one who I found, the Savior that I've put my faith in, he is right and worthy of my devotion.

So you're beginning to recognize, hey, this invitation to devote daily isn't just an invitation to do things because the church has done it all along.

It's an invitation to do things because it helps you see Jesus, love him, and be a part with him more clearly.

And you can begin to see, hey, the other things that we're gonna do in the series, the other five weeks, they really can't happen unless this first part is happening with all of us.

That if you want to participate in the life of the church, I'm dependent on you to be devoting daily Monday through Saturday.

That if together we're gonna make Jesus glorified in this place, if we're gonna look like something beautiful for the world to peek in on, it requires that all of us have recognized Jesus for who he is and we devote to him daily.

As we get ready to close, I'm gonna invite Gian and Vic up.

I think you all are here.

Okay.

So you can see why uh you guys can grab some of those chairs there.

We're gonna close with a little panel here in just a minute, but you can see why devoting daily matters.

The church is the community of the devoted.

In this church here, we're always gonna be encouraging you that Jesus is worthy of your devotion, and we're gonna continue to roll out places where you can practice that devotion with people together.

I realize it's so easy to be listening to this sermon and to say, Well, that's easy for you to say, Andrew, you're a pastor.

And so I want to tail end this with some friends who aren't pastors, who have full-time responsibilities outside of the church, and to see how they've practiced it to kind of help us think through together, hey, what does it mean to devote daily as Christians in 2026?

Thank you, man.

Oh we can you can grab that one.

Awesome.

Why don't you share your name and your favorite rainy activity?

Rainy activity?

Um my name is Gian.

And I like I like cooking in the rain.

It's just like cozy, you know?

I have a 15-month-old and a two-month-old, so I can't do that today.

Yeah, that's not happening for a while, friend.

Buckle up.

Um, so we're talking about daily devotion.

Maybe uh you guys have full-time responsibilities, full-time jobs, and things like that.

Talk to me about what daily devotion has looked like in the busyness of life.

Um, I think for me, so for a lot of years, um, I really loved having a time in the Word that was at a coffee shop or with a cup of coffee and like a notebook, and it was like this our time of praying and and understanding God and reading a whole chapter of the Bible.

Um, and then I had two babies.

Um, and that became a little bit harder to carve out that time every single day to do something like that.

And I really had to figure out kind of a new normal.

Um, and so two things.

One, I'm so grateful for the last eight years that it was in a coffee shop for an hour spending that time with the Lord, because now in the busyness of life, I can look back and remember God from what I had studied and remember the verses that I have memorized.

And in a moment of just changing a diaper, reflect on God's promises.

Um, but then also I still need him just as much as I did then as I do today.

If not, I need him more.

Um, I think the busier you are, the more you need to spend time with Jesus.

Um, and so for me, uh, it might look different, it might not look picture perfect like it once did.

Um, but that doesn't mean that I don't need it.

And so it might be reading one verse and then a baby distracts me, and then I have to just think on that one verse.

Like today's uh verse of the day on the Bible app is Genesis 1, 3, and God said, let there be light, and there was light.

And so it's like, how can even that just that one verse go with me throughout the rest of my day?

Like Pac was saying, it's not something that just maybe stops when you read the Bible or stops when you leave the church building, but continue on.

And so it's like as I'm doing the dishes, I'm like putting a dish up and I'm like, okay, God said there was light, and then there was light.

Like he's that powerful, he's that big, that just him saying something caused the whole world to change.

Um, and so it's like, how can I remember just who God is in every moment of every day?

And that's abiding.

So yeah, so for me, I work full-time as an accountant, and then I'm a father to a little girl, Miss Saylor.

Um, and yeah, devotion in this season has looked a lot different.

Uh I used to not be the person who would wake up in the morning and and read, but now I feel the necessity to wake up and I've been reading a psalm a day.

Um, and then later in the day I'll try to read uh a book um that's connected to like right now, I'm reading through First Corinthians, which is more my my study.

And some days I get to it and some days I I I honestly can't.

But I also, if you know me, I love to listen to podcasts and and sermons.

And so, and I also for my audio learners, I have this um this app called Dwell.

And to me, Dwell is really cool because it's narrated, it's just the Bible, it's not a podcast, it's it's literally just a Bible.

It had some pads in the background.

And so when I'm driving home and it's just been um it's been like a long day, I will pop that on.

But something I think for me that I've had to learn in this season, it's not necessarily the amount I'm taking in, it's actually the amount I'm processing.

Um I just don't have the mental capacity some days to just keep learning and learning and learning and learning.

Because I think that's how we start off when we first come to faith.

We we keep learning, we're so excited, and that's a good thing, that's a good thing.

But at a certain point, it reaches we just keep learning, and my the transformation or the actual digest digestion of that word and applying it and thinking through what it looks like in my life in every aspect of my life.

That you can't just keep stuffing your brain with information.

So, like part of devoting daily has actually looked like, hey, I'm going to actually kind of sit in silence on the drive home.

I'm gonna think about the things I just read or the things I learned today.

I'm actually gonna play, I'm gonna purposely play less podcasts and less noise in the background.

Um, I'm gonna read smaller amounts because man, like Lord, like like you said it, like we could read every single morning and we can make it an intellectual task, but if it's not transforming us, like I think we're missing the point.

And I think that's one of the the negatives of having such ready access to the entirety of the Bible.

Like you think back then, paper was expensive.

You get you get it.

If you had a a small parchment, you have a small piece of of parchment and papyrus with with your scripture, or you would do what David did, and he said, I store your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

And that's what I want more.

So I make a practice of of memorizing parts of the Bible and and chewing on that.

Me and my group do that.

We we try to hold each other accountable.

Do we do it perfectly?

No, but we we try our best to really meditate and focus in on the word.

Yeah, it's helpful to think about it in those terms.

Um, I'll add one to the mix.

Um, so I journal every single night.

I pray they burn it when I die.

It's not because I hope one day it's going to turn into a biography that'll inspire people.

That's not what I want.

Um, so my journaling app, it'll pop up every single day.

Hey, you were thinking about this six years ago, last year, two years ago.

And essentially what I'm asking myself the question every night is, hey, am I still wrestling with sinful things that I were two, six, ten years ago?

Like there's who I am tonight, look more like Jesus in light of what I'm remembering a year ago.

Right?

It's that impulse within us to say, God, if I want to look more like you, then I've got to take a moment to look at my day and see what wasn't like you.

And so finding a means, a method to one, examine your day, and then second, to have that follow-up question, what does looking like Jesus more in this next season look like?

A second thing, because you'll you'll start to realize how neurotic I am, um, I like to plan things in advance, very far in advance.

If you look at my calendar, it's a lot of fun.

My wife and I, we plan our date nights in December for the entire following year.

Because if you're like me, something is always going to pop up and get in the way.

And so in December, before anything shows up, if I want to be a good husband, I want to devote in advance what I'm nervous of what might be taken away from me throughout the year.

So before anything else comes into the picture and tries to demand that time, take away those opportunities to devote to her, I put it in writing and say, hey, now.

So simply with my faith walk, every quarter there's a uh, I call it my mid-course adjustment, comes up on my calendar.

Hey, are you still following Jesus the way you should be?

I'm trying to use my tech, use my life, use my calendar to work for me, to help me remember my faith is the most important part of who I am.

And so if getting ahead of it is a way to devote to Jesus on a regular basis, then how do we figure that out to be part of the conversation?

Second thing, maybe um as you've shifted to this concept of devoting daily, uh, how has that impacted your faith journey?

Of like, hey, for all of us, there's this moment in which we realize following Jesus is more than just a set of beliefs, it's devoting to him with all of your life.

Talk to me about how that impacted your faith walk, maybe your love for him as well.

That's good.

Um I think for me, I grew up in the church, um, grew up always going to small Christian schools.

Um, but when I was 18, my dad passed away, and that caused me to have to take a step back and be like, whoa, do I really believe this for myself?

Is the gospel good enough that that proves God's goodness more than anything else in this world?

Um and I came to realize, yes, that the gospel is that good, that Jesus is that good.

Um and that was when I really started reading the Bible differently than I ever had before.

I feel like my whole life as a kid, it was always um reading it and maybe just trying to prove something to myself or feel like I'm in good standing with God, or um even just try to change, like, oh, this says this, okay, I'm gonna do this today, or this says not to do this, so I won't do this today.

And when I was 18, so this was 10 years ago, I really started to read the Bible in a way that was just seeking God's heart, that every chapter, every verse, every word was answering the question, what does this show me about God's love?

What does this show me about who he is?

And that completely changed the way that I saw God, the way that I saw his word, the way that I spent time with him.

Um, my time with him was much more in that point of a relationship with him and me getting to know God than it was just me doing a checklist or me trying to earn something from God.

Um I had to realize that like getting into the word every day doesn't make God love me more.

Um, and missing it doesn't make God love me less.

His love is just freely given to me.

And it's out of that undeserved love that I desire to love him back and get into his word.

And so, yeah, it changed everything.

It helped me see God just way more clearly and see who he was and who he is.

And after years of doing that, it's so uh it's such a discipline.

But what I will say is like that discipline formed a habit and that habit formed a real desire.

And so don't be discouraged if in the beginning it is more of a discipline and it is more of a habit.

Because just like if you go to the gym every day, like you don't feel like doing that.

But then once you're in that habit and you miss out, you're like, oh, I feel terrible.

Like I want to do that again, you know?

And getting into the word is the same thing.

Like when I miss a day, it's like, oh, I feel that.

My kids and my husband probably feel that.

Um, it's like I need it.

I realize how unhealthy I am without it that maybe you don't realize if it's not already a discipline and it's not already a habit.

I have this small dog named Rocket, and Rocket, for those of you who know him, he is very clingy.

Um, he has no idea of personal space.

He is on top of you.

He um and Rocket is is is so like that that when I'm not home, uh he might he might forgo eating.

He might um he might he'll just be like sad, you know, he'll just be sad away.

Um and Rocket could be imperfect in every way, but he so desperately wants me to be around that he he will just like he'll follow me outside downstairs, he'll go wherever I go.

And my wife gets annoyed because Sailor's trying to give me a hug in the morning and Rocket's right in my face already.

Um But that's that's what I want to be with the Father.

And reading the Bible daily has has done that to me more and more.

I I think of the passage where uh sin abounds, grace abounds much more, and as I read the scriptures, I just realize how often I fall short of God's glory, of what he's laid out.

And it makes me realize how much grace he has for me.

And every day I'm just reminded of the the I some days I less than I like, but most days I'm reminded, man, God, God, you saved me.

You love me so much.

You and and it works in my heart um in a way, and I have this this quote from Tozer Um that I saved because I read it.

Um shout out CBC Library, Pursuit of God.

Um it's it's oh God, I have tasted thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.

I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace.

I am ashamed of my lack of desire, O God, the triune God.

I want to want thee.

I long to be filled with longing.

I thirst to be made more thirsty still.

Show me thy glory.

I pray thee, so that I may know thee indeed.

Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.

Say to my soul, rise up my love within me.

Say to my soul, rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.

Then give me grace to rise and follow thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.

As I read the scriptures more and more, it changes my desire to want God more and more.

And every day I realize I need him more and more and more.

And so if you're if you're just starting, don't lose that.

Look look uh in James, it says, like, hold up the text like a mirror and realize, man, this is this is my condition, and yet God chose to love me in that, and it will help you devote, I think, more.

That's good.

I gotta pray for your dog, man.

I think I got some mental health issues.

Oh no, man, that don't sound right.

But helpful is a good picture of like what devotion looks like.

Yeah.

Um, but thinking, I think similarly, maybe a helpful idea too, of devoting daily.

Man, I used to wonder, like, God, where are you?

Right, like I'd go to church and hear these exciting things about God, and then throughout the week, like that that high or that buzz would wear off.

But that commitment to devote daily helped me to identify God's presence on a regular basis.

I wasn't shooting in the dark anymore.

I was identify, wow, that act of kindness from a friend was actually your grace, my way.

It's not coincidence.

It is the hand of the same God that I've read about in scripture now at work.

And so, maybe a good helpful way to think of like it also helped me to identify the same trends that operated at scripture were working in my life.

That same providence, that same grace, that same justice, that same mercy.

I could see them in my day.

And finally, it was like somebody put the highlighter on.

I'm like, wow, that is what it looks like for God to be close.

And so thinking of, hey, it gives you language, it gives you understanding, it gives you the glasses to then view each day with God's presence close.

And so you can see why this matters, devoting daily.

Uh, rapid fire.

What would you say to someone who's having a difficult time devoting daily right now?

What would be your encouragement to them?

Just keep trying, keep doing it.

Um, it's so worth it.

And as you form that discipline, like we've been saying, like that desire you're going to see grow.

Um, but also just maybe look inwards and see how much you need, God.

Uh, truth is, I can't really get through my day without spending time and abiding with the Lord.

Um, it's like a branch, you know, that's just a branch that's not connected to the vine.

Like I am useless.

Uh, all throughout scripture, a lot of times God uh refers to us as like little children or as like babies.

And I have babies.

And if Haven is, uh, that's my daughter's name, if she's in her playroom alone and I'm just watching her, I'm like, what are you doing?

Like she's doing the craziest things.

Like she could never survive in a house by herself.

She would not thrive.

And the same is true for us.

Like, if we are living life without abiding with the Lord, like you are not gonna survive.

And you are not definitely not going to thrive spiritually.

Um, you're going to be struggling.

And it's been the most encouraging thing ever when because I'm abiding, every moment can become a moment that's with the Lord.

But when I'm not abiding, anything can come into my life and be stressful and be overwhelming.

But instead, a regular cup of coffee can be a holy moment because I'm connecting it to the God of the universe and that he's there with me instead of just maybe, oh, I have to go get this coffee because I'm so tired and overwhelmed.

And so, yeah, just keep trying, keep doing it.

Um, it's so worth it and you desperately need it.

Um, I would say change change your view of God.

Um, I think if you keep coming to the Bible with the expectation that God is upset at you, angry at you, that you have not done what everyone else has done, and you're not doing your 30-minute debos, and or life looks differently right now.

It's busy, and so you're not able to do what you used to do.

Imagine coming to the dinner table and your your parents, you you felt like they were just angry at you.

You probably wouldn't want to be at the dinner table with them.

But if they were inviting you in and where you're at, I think that's what matters.

It's like, hey, start where you're at.

If if you can only get five minutes in, start with five minutes.

I know some people here get really excited, they go like, oh, I'm gonna do this two-hour devotional, one hour devotional.

I'm gonna wake up at 6 a.m.

before the lights are on, and I'm just gonna do this.

And then you do it one day, maybe two days, and it just stops.

Start regular practices and rhythms of getting in the word and and realize God is inviting you in.

He's not begrudgingly trying to drag you, He is He is lovingly inviting you in.

And I think this impacted me this season because um, man, it's just been busy.

I I've been fixing up my downstairs, I have work, I have uh the summit is is God is moving so much so much, and there's so many things and so many demands.

Um, and I realized one of the lies I was believing was just like, man, if my circumstances were different, maybe I could be more faithful.

And God met me when I was reading 1 Corinthians 7, and He doesn't even seem like you would think this passage would have anything.

It's about, you know, if someone's married or not married and their husband or wife is an unbeliever, but there's one specific line that stood out to me is so brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

So whatever your circumstances are right now, God is calling you to faithfulness in that moment.

And so don't set the expectation of what your devotional time ought to look like or ought to be.

Don't procrastinate it.

Just start.

Start five minutes, ten minutes, whatever you can.

And some of you are gonna have to remove distractions.

Like look, look at your screen time.

And if, man, if Netflix can get an hour a day, then the Lord can definitely get um some time, and he should have your time.

Um, but again, that's not to shame you, but to invite you to to look at your life holistically and see, man, where is the Lord inviting me in to abide with him?

Yeah, it's good.

Also, just an encouragement too, um figure out so maybe two simultaneous ones.

One, I don't know about you, I hate leg day at the gym.

Look at these boneless chicken legs.

I hate leg day, but I keep doing it because it's important.

But at the same time, I love back and bicep day because it's fun.

Same thing when it comes to your devoting daily.

There's gonna be some things that you just have to submit to because you know it's good and it's not your favorite.

But the more and more you do it, the more and more you'll find growth in it.

But at the same time, find those things that you do enjoy that you do love and make sure they take part of your time too.

Some of you, hey, if podcasts are great, make it part of the routine, but at the same time, strengthen the muscle that maybe you're not as apt to initially go for.

And in both of those things, you'll begin to see that God uh so identify what those things are and walk in that way.

Guys, thank you so much for joining with us in this conversation and understanding what it means to abide in God.

Uh, I'm gonna pray for us and we'll rock and roll.

Jesus, thank you that your invitation to us is to abide in you.

It's tremendous kindness and tremendous grace that you allow us, as unfit and as unholy as we are, to abide in you and dwell with you, and that we even get to produce fruit.

We don't take that for granted, Jesus.

It's actually scarier for you to take that risk of bringing us into you, but you willingly do so because it's good for our souls.

And so, if that's the nature of who you are, if that's how you've designed our lives to work, God help us to run full speed in your direction, to want to abide.

I pray that you would increase that impulse within us to recognize our Father and want to run in your direction and be with you forever.

And so, Lord, help us this week as we try and abide more, to uh create the disciplines, to create the impulses to be like you and to recognize that it's your work within us, and may we give you glory for it.

So, God, be with our friends as we leave this place.

We love you, we praise you, we thank you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.