Sermon
The Bible Guys LIVE: The Importance of Our Habits
Publisher transcript
Transcript
-
You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk
-
about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Jeff and I would like
-
to welcome you to another episode of The Bible Guys. Man. We have
-
a great episode for you. A while back, we did a Bible Guys
-
Live event in front of a live crowd, and it was all about the
-
life that we're living is built around the habits that were prioritizing. Yeah,
-
and because we ended our series sort of in the middle of the week,
-
we have a couple bonus episodes this week. We hope you enjoyed them.
-
I think you're going to enjoy today as well. So Jeff, Yes,
-
they asked us to do a segment here tonight because this is sort of like
-
a podcast taping, right, even though we're really not taping it, but
-
it's supposed to be like one. So we normally do a segment, and
-
today's segment is this. We're going to do a draft. Yes, we're
-
rock Paper scissors, shoot at love first, and we're going to do what
-
we think are the most over rated restaurants. They have to be national chain
-
restaurants. Most of oh, I got plenty of those Okay, okay,
-
okay, I've been to all of them. Ready, rock paper, Sis,
-
there's one. I went, okay, always does that. So I
-
want to apologize if you own this restaurant or if you work at this restaurant.
-
Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. So we're picking, we're picking
-
the top three, we're drafting. We're drafting, okay, and what you're
-
gonna find is most people agree with my drafts. I just want you to
-
know that right off the toctually I agree with your drafts after we do the
-
draft. But here's my first one. Okay, it's it's the restaurant across
-
the street. I've seen him in other cities, Black Rock. Let me
-
tell you why, because I think it's overrated. It's way overpriced, and
-
I and I don't think the steak it's it's, oh look it's cooking on
-
a rock. Whatever, Well, if you knew how to cook, if
-
you knew how to cook, you could get a good steak out of it.
-
Never right, it's overpriced. He's like, it's on a rock.
-
I'm like, okay, yeah, this feels I feel bad about this one
-
this draft because overrated. This is probably borderline heresy. But I'm gonna say
-
Red Lobster. Oh yeah, yeah, well you see what I'm saying.
-
Everybody almost bowed you for yours, but the crowd was like, yes.
-
The best thing at Red Lobster, though, is those biscuits? Right yet?
-
See there you go? Why do iways feel inferior next to you?
-
All right? Well, I grew up Italian, so I'm gonna say I
-
think it's incredibly overrated. Don't say it. Don't say it is the Olive
-
Garden. Oh sorry, heyes, Wipe to marry at the Olive Garden.
-
That's where I proposed. I proposed at the Olive Garden. It's just it's
-
overrated. It's not overrated if you knew it like I know it. I
-
mean, you know, is that really the place to go for Italian food?
-
I don't know. No, Hey, Luciano's is the place to go
-
for Italian too. Okay, see that I can get people to cheer too.
-
Okay, Okay, here's here's my next one. Overrated Chili's really,
-
Yes, Chelis, I like Chili's. Okay, I'm just saying, yeah,
-
you heard the crowd though, Yeah, well, the crowd agreed about
-
to turn against you, all right, I didn't think is this your last
-
one? Yeah? Last one making good? I hadn't think them through.
-
Hang on, give me two seconds here. Uh yeah, that's probably okay.
-
I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. It's TGI Fridays.
-
Oh yeah Friday. Let me tell you why. Okay. I went to
-
sag it Off okay, and actually I ordered some fajitas and I got sick,
-
didn't I with you? Guys? I got food poisoning. Do you
-
go see John Christ? John Christ Excellent food poisoning, tjffod TJ Friday's.
-
All right, so I was gonna say TGI Friday, so that yeah,
-
yeah, yeah, yeah, so we were no no, no, oh
-
man, I should have traded you for the second pick or the last pick.
-
That's what I should have done. Okay, so, uh let me
-
see my my least favorite or my number three, number three. I'm gonna
-
say, don't be afraid I can't think of one. Yeah, well,
-
I'm gonna go ahead and say Applebee's. Then, since I already picked Chili's,
-
IM gonna say apple Bee's. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
-
yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, okay, I think that's pretty
-
good. That was good Hey, I don't know what your overrated restaurant might
-
be, but I would love to hear one shout out. Somebody shout a
-
lot of restaurants overrated. What chick for? Nobody have her taken out ushers.
-
You can't talk bad about Jesus, enemy of Jesus chicken. Oh my
-
goodness, that is Jesus chicken. Don't say that too loud. I'm like,
-
you're gonna be able to get into heaven the lightning rod up. Oh
-
my goodness, what is happening. We don't need that kind of negativity in
-
this church. Hey, you know what's so funny. But so funny is
-
like there were forty people that yelled and I only that's all. I heard
-
the blasphemy for the second over here. It was like horrifying the audacity of
-
that woman. Oh my goodness. Okay, So where we are going to
-
actually read from Ephesians chapter four, that's probably a good idea we should bring.
-
What's interesting about this reading is that actually, if you're following us live
-
or you know, daily on our podcast, it's called the Bible Guys.
-
The Bible guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was looking for the
-
word daily, which is also in the titles. By the way, we
-
are actually going to be doing Ephesians four in just a few days. Yeah.
-
Yeah, it's coming up in just a couple of days. Yeah,
-
So this is sort of like a preview. Yeah, this is bonus material
-
that's behind the scenes. Yeah, this is extra. Yeah, this is
-
you guys, get the bonus materials today. So we're going to read from
-
Ephesians chapter four. We're going to go one through sixteen, so it's not
-
the whole chapter. But I love the Book of Ephesians. I think if
-
I could only pick two books, Romans and Ephesians be my two favorite books.
-
Yeah, love it. And let me just give it a little context,
-
just like we talked about yesterday actually on our taping. A lot of
-
Paul's writings are the first half of the book is theology, and then the
-
second half of the book is sort of behavior, right, Yeah, and
-
he's telling us what to do, and so Ephesians gives us some good advice
-
here in chapter four. Yeah. So the first three chapters are all about
-
what you should believe about Jesus, and then the last three chapters are all
-
about how you should live as a follower of Jesus. So that's why he
-
starts it off with, Therefore, he just spent three chapters telling us what
-
we should believe about Jesus, and now he's saying, because of this,
-
therefore I a prisoner for serving the Lord. Beg you to lead a life
-
worthy of your calling, for you've been called by God. Always be humble
-
and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults
-
because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit,
-
binding yourselves together with peace. For there's one body and one spirit,
-
just as you've been called the one glorious hope for the future. There's one
-
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,
-
who's overall and in all and living through all. However, he has given
-
each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That's why
-
the scriptures say when he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of
-
captives and gave gifts to his people, not says he ascended. This clearly
-
means that Christ also descended to our lowly world, and the same one who
-
descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he
-
might fill the entire universe with himself. Now, these are the gifts of
-
Christ gave to the Church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists,
-
the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his
-
work and to build up the Church, the body of Christ. And this
-
will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of
-
God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the
-
full and complete standard of Christ. And then we will no longer be immature
-
like children. We won't be tossed or blown about by every wind or new
-
teaching, or think that Chick fil a is bad. We will not be
-
influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the
-
truth. Instead, we will speak the truth and love, growing in every
-
way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body,
-
the Church, and he makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each
-
part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that
-
the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Well, there
-
you go. It's a great passage. And I hope that somebody over here
-
heard that one spot, that one special spot in the Yes. But because
-
we're speaking the truth in this that's true, that's true. It does you
-
know, it does say it not to add a jot or to So this
-
is this is a great passage. And by the way, a couple of
-
hours those bad passages as that you said, this is a good one.
-
Je that's gonna make a Bible forget it. So before we jump into sort
-
of the main bones of the day, I just want to say I think
-
it's really cool that Paul quotes Psalm chapter sixty eight. Here is what he
-
was quoting, and then he actually sort of broke down Psalm sixty eight and
-
he says, notice that he said ascended, which means he descended. And
-
then he also connected it to Christ, which means like even back in the
-
Book of Psalms, you know, you know, probably that song was written
-
by David, most of them were. And he's actually connecting it to Christ.
-
And it's the Bible breaking down the Yeah, which is really cool.
-
It's actually it's a tangential statement, right, it's not what he's talking about.
-
But Paul does all kinds of tangents. Man. He chases rabbits all
-
the time, and this is one of them. What's what he's referring to
-
here is you got to remember that the Book of Ephesians was written partly in
-
the same way that he wrote the Book of Colausians, pushing against gnoscissism,
-
which was really questioning who Jesus was right, whether or not he was human,
-
or whether or not he was only a spiritual god that looked like a
-
human or whatever. And so there was this false doctrine that was popping up
-
that Jesus wasn't actually human. And so he's trying to really highlight that that
-
he did this descend and that's why he was able to send back. That's
-
the purpose behind him throwing in that little tangent theories. This is another opportunity
-
for to reinforce that. Yeah, and narcissism is the collection of knowledge which
-
they which they viewed it so important. And we have to remember too that
-
back in the first century, you know, most people who weren't Jews and
-
they were gentiles. Those who were non Jewish, they had multiple gods.
-
So the emphasis saying there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
-
one God, one Father of all, who is over all in all and
-
living through all he you're sort of saying like, hey, this is it,
-
right, Yeah, Jesus isn't a god among gods, he isn't the
-
god among gods. He's the only God. And he's really kind of he's
-
lays out at the beginning of the chapter, he's laying out theologically, this
-
is what every Christian needs to believe, right, So he's kind of laying
-
that out, and then at the back of the chapter the end of the
-
chapter, after that kind of that tangential statement, the second half of the
-
chapter, he's unpacking the idea of here's how you grow. This is why
-
we go. You need the apostles and the evangelists and the pastors and the
-
teachers, right, you need them, but it's for growing you up to
-
do the work of the ministry. Right. We tend to think more in
-
a clergy laity kind of mindset, where the laity has ministry done to them
-
from the clergy. But that's not the way that God really the church that
-
was supposed to be the church was supposed to be that the pastors and teachers
-
prepared and developed the people to do the work of ministry. You do the
-
work of the ministry. We are the ones that are supposed to be preparing.
-
Yeah, And I read a book one time that talked about how those
-
gifts were given to number one to describe the people in the church, not
-
like you said, not like clergy, but the people. And then number
-
two he gave them in order for a reason. Now I don't know whether
-
it's in order for a reason or not, but the order is very cool
-
in this book. I still remember the points. It says, the apostle
-
is the one who goes, the prophet is the one who knows, The
-
evangelist is the one who recruits, the teacher is the one who explains,
-
and the pastor is the one who cares. And those describe the gifts.
-
So, in other words, if an apostle were to say, hey,
-
God's telling us to take that city for Christ, that's the one who goes.
-
The prophet is the one who knows. He has discernment or she has
-
discernment. That would say, I think God wants us start, wants us
-
to start in that coffee shop. And then once you have a mission,
-
and then you have discernment, then you need an evangelist to recruit some people.
-
And then once you a bunch of people, Then what do you need
-
once you have a bunch of people, Because the apostle, profit and evangelist,
-
or the outward gifts look outside the wall. They're the mission gifts.
-
Right. Once you have a bunch of people, then you need a teacher
-
and a pastor, one who explains and cares. And I've always thought that
-
was really cool the way that it sort of is. And by the way,
-
let me say one other thing too, and that is I believe one
-
of the reasons why a church is inward focused. And let's just say a
-
church has trouble growing, a church has you know, And there's nothing wrong
-
with different styles of churches. I believe that God has all different kinds of
-
churches for all different kinds of people. But when a church is small and
-
it's not growing, and chances are it's inward focused. They care about like,
-
teach us new things, feed us, take care of us, and
-
meet our needs. It's the inward focused gifts. There's nothing wrong with that,
-
But pastors and teachers, if you only focus on that without the mission,
-
then you're not going to grow. So then he says that the purpose
-
then behind all of those gifts are so that we will do collectively, the
-
people of the church will do the work of God's ministry. Ministry just means
-
serving right and taking the gospel. And then he says, then we will
-
no longer be immature like children. That's what verse fourteen says, coming right
-
out of thirteen. Will live will start to when we begin to serve Christ,
-
when we begin to serve each other in the ministry of the church,
-
when we begin to bond together, then we will be living up to the
-
full measure or standard of Christ. And then will no longer be immature.
-
Right, So his goal is that we would grow up to become like Jesus.
-
And then this is the point because we're going to talk about all that
-
stuff in the next podcast that we do. But he says, so he
-
makes the whole body fit together perfectly as each part does its own special work,
-
and it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy
-
and growing and full of love. So each of you are a part of
-
this body, right. It's one of God's favorite descriptions of the church was
-
the Church is a body, and each of you are a part of the
-
body, and one of your jobs. This isn't optional. This isn't like,
-
wouldn't it be nice if one of our jobs as part of the body
-
of crisis to help all the other parts grow, right, And the only
-
way we can do that is by being connected. When you take a body
-
part away from the body, what happens to it? Cut your little finger
-
off, just leave it on the table, come back a week from now.
-
What's going to happen to it? It's gonna get rotten and stinky,
-
right, just oozing all over the place, making a mess. Right.
-
That's what happens is when we when we take a part away from the body,
-
it doesn't thrive, it begins to die. And that's natural spiritually for
-
us. But we need to be together and together as the body we grow.
-
That's why I connect night matters so much. And Jesus would say in
-
John he talks about the vine and the branch, and the branches being disconnected
-
to the vine spiritually in some of the same ways. So this is a
-
probably good time to lay up the truth for today. And the truth is
-
this is that the life we're experiencing is often a reflection of the habits that
-
we're prioritizing. Right, Because one of the things that we're supposed to do
-
is help each other grow. And one of the things we need. We
-
used to call them spiritual disciplines, right, but I don't think anybody likes
-
the word discipline, so we call them habits now. But it's the same.
-
There are a few things that we need to be doing in order for
-
us to develop the habits that will help us grow. And the best way
-
to do that is in the context of other friendships being connected to the body
-
it goes. You know, there's an African proverb that says, if you
-
want to go fast, go along. If you want to go far,
-
go together, and that's true. How many of you do better? And
-
if you have to work out, how many of you do better in a
-
workout class than you do just working out in your basement. How many of
-
you do better in a class most people? The research on that is approven
-
research. Most people do way better if they have a workout buddy than if
-
they're just trying to work out on their own, right, And that's true
-
in so many areas. We need one another. If you want to go
-
far, you got to go together. So here's habit number one. Habit
-
number one is this is that we believe, and of course the Bible supports
-
and teachers that a daily time with God would be the first in you know,
-
the biggest habit that you could develop. So daily time with God in
-
his word and also in prayer. It's the importance of prayer in Bible reading.
-
And you could do that in a lot of different ways. One way
-
is a very small way is to watch the podcast or podcasts like ours,
-
because there are there are so many resources available to people you know that they
-
could do it. Another way would be to join the two on one class.
-
Yeah, and you've taught the two on I've never taught it. Yes,
-
So the two one class we really unpack not just what you should know
-
about reading your Bible and praying in the various habits. We really unpack all
-
the main habits of how to grow spiritually, but not just what you should
-
know about it, but how, how should how can you read your Bible
-
in an effective way? What is a model maybe to use to pray effectively?
-
And how to put together maybe a prayer to or something. How to
-
grow in your faith not just the what's but the house and I think that's
-
really important. So the twol one class I think is really powerful. We've
-
got another one coming up here. When is it? I think I hit
-
somebody knows? Oh, this this Sunday? I think it is? Is
-
it March twelfth? Kyle? Is it this Sunday? Is it this Sunday?
-
Yes? Yes, he said, yes, it's the Sunday. Yeah.
-
We weren't paying attention in our previous meetings, so we don't know.
-
We have a hard time paying attention. Anytime we do anything, we get
-
the cutting up, don't we Yeah, we do so. Anyways, that's
-
coming up March second. And you guys are here. You can get signed
-
up online March twelve. What I say? Second? Whatever? I just
-
work here, man, I don't know what's going on. You want to
-
take number two? Sure? Are you trying to move me along? I
-
am so These habits, these habits that we're prioritizing. One is this idea
-
of a daily time with God. The second one is learning to give back
-
regularly, giving back a tithe to God. Right, and so our second
-
point is giving back to God through tithing. And this is incredibly important when
-
we begin to prioritize our resources for Christ, because we don't give. Because
-
God is saying you must give we give because Jesus said, where your heart
-
is or where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. Jesus isn't
-
after your money. Jesus is after your heart. But why do we fight
-
so hard to hang on to that part of God? We'll give you everything
-
else, make all of our wildest dreams come true, answer all our prayers.
-
But we're not going to obey you in this tithing thing, right,
-
But we still want him to bless us. And God says, listen,
-
I'll pour open the windows of heaven, pour out a blessing on you when
-
you tithe. And so this isn't about what we can get from you.
-
This is about what God's offering to you. But it really is a heart
-
issue and maybe one of the hardest things. So when we're talking about this,
-
it's always easier when we are growing in this together with other believers,
-
right, and then collectively we're able to accomplish a lot more with our resources
-
for the Kingdom of God together than we can any one of us individually.
-
Yeah, for certain and then problems, we have two tools. They have
-
two tools. I'm supposed to tell the tools we already said to it.
-
One. Yeah, there's there's more tools. You see that says tool.
-
On the next one there one yes, right underneath that, it says,
-
I said, Jeff, check out our Rich Living series that we did in
-
November. Also use the push pay is a great tool we have. It
-
says it right there on this sheet. So you just wasted the twenty seconds
-
I tried to say. I'm just trying to do what Kyle told us to
-
do. That's so linly. So what want't you go on with number three
-
real quick? If you can finish that, well, if you're gonna do
-
it, hey, since forgive me each other hard time? Push pay I
-
did, says pay. You weren't listening. Have you ever seen Guardians of
-
the Galaxy? Who's wasting time? Now? Hey, but he says what
-
he says, He goes, I'm too fast. It would just fly over
-
my head. That's what it was, Okay. And then finally number three,
-
which is probably the most important part of the night in terms of it's
-
why we're here here tonight. That's why we're here, which is connecting with
-
others. Right, So there's a story that actually, in fact, you
-
want to tell us, Yeah, let me tell you a story. So
-
Nevey is a guy that got baptized here just a while ago. He's a
-
fairly new attendee, began at attending in January. And the reason he's here
-
is that Jason Wallace, he's one of our security team guys. And thank
-
God for our security team. And so Jason Wallace a part of that.
-
And he saw Nevy walking or riding his bike down the road and he was
-
carrying some furniture on his bicycle, which you don't see that every day,
-
right, And so Jason pulled over and said, dude, I don't see
-
this all the time. Let me help you and hooked him up with a
-
ride and got this furniture delivered and all this stuff struck up a friendship and
-
then invited him to come to Heritage Church. He winds up given his life
-
to Jesus. They wind up developing this amazing friendship. And it was all
-
because Jason felt like God said, hey, you should help, and he
-
just followed that nudge, right, He followed that leading from God and it
-
opened up. This began this relationship that form Nevy's life. They actually had
-
him over for Christmas, Right, isn't that so great? And this is
-
what it's all about. Right. Nevey was recently baptized and then joined our
-
security team, so began volunteering on the security team. And this happened because
-
one person decided to connect with another person in a meaningful way. We need
-
each other and we grow. We grow when we're helping other people grow.
-
Do you know who grows the most the host? The host grows the most
-
in a group, the people who are working to help other people grow grow
-
the most. So I'm not trying to tell you guys to be selfish,
-
but I'm telling you, if you want to grow spiritually, get it and
-
be the one that's engaging with the others, helping the others grow, and
-
you grow more. It just happens. And so Jason grows even while he's
-
helping Nevee take these steps. So iron sharpens iron. We need these friendships.
-
That's what happens. Yeah, and you referenced that verse. It's one
-
of my favorite verses. You know, you think about especially in the context
-
in which it's written. You know where swords were number one weapon and everything
-
like this, and it says iron sharpens iron. So one person sharpens another,
-
or the countenance of a friend I make you so much more sharp you
-
there's a joke in there somewhere, but I'm gonna go out with my spiritual
-
point. So so the yes, I know you do, and hopefully the
-
other way around. But the bottom line is is that the Bible, the
-
Bible talks about how we need one another. And listen, you know,
-
it's it's very appropriate that we're having connected night because you know, for me,
-
I always think about these things. I know you do too when the
-
church grows. I don't know if you know this or not, but if
-
you've attended on a weekend here at Heritage, I think just in twenty twenty
-
three, we have broken a non holiday weekend record and all time Heritage weekend
-
record I think four or five, five times. Five times. Since since
-
January, we've broken five records, right, So and that's that's with only
-
three services. I mean, had we gone to four services, you know,
-
we would have probably done more about you know, we're just having all
-
these you know, problems with space and chairs and things. We just had
-
one hundred and fifty new chairs delivered, we did. Yeah, we're setting
-
them up for Sunday. Yeah, yeah, that's really really cool. So
-
we're we're gonna be squeezing chairs in here. But here's the point. As
-
the church grows bigger, there's a need for it to be smaller. And
-
you can only survive coming to a church and not being known. You can
-
only survive for so long. So what's the average, what's the statistic if
-
somebody doesn't get connected. Yeah, so a new person coming in the door.
-
The research says that a person needs to know or be known by seven
-
people in six months or they have If they don't, they have an eighty
-
percent chance of disappearing, never connecting. But if they know or are known
-
by seven people in the first six months, they have eighty five percent chance
-
of staying for five years or longer. So, believe it or not,
-
it's not how amazing Chris's messages are. They're amazing, it's not incredible,
-
you know. It's not about how high the note that Trey hits, you
-
know, on Sunday. Those things capture people's attention for a little while.
-
But the reality is, real life transformation doesn't happen from what we do on
-
the stage. Real life transformation happens in the context of friendships. That's what
-
happens, right, You're the ones who help set the hook. You're the
-
ones who help everybody else grow. That's why he says the body needs to
-
be together, and we help each other grow together, because it's silly to
-
think that clergy or staff can do all the work of the church, right
-
right, And that's the reason why we all know a church where the speaker
-
is a wonderful speaker, but he's terrible one on one, or maybe he's
-
a really great counselor one on one, but it's like he can't lead out
-
of himself out of a paper back. Right. We all know people,
-
we know, we know people like that. We know churches where the congregation
-
members put that expectation on the clergy to be all things to all people.
-
And that's why churches are run poorly. And that's why preachers get burnt out,
-
right, because that's why Ephesians tells us, no, no, no,
-
it's us. We're the priesthood of the believer. He has gifted something
-
to be apostles, something to be some to be evangelists, them to be
-
pastors, some to be teachers, for the working of together, for the
-
sharpening, for the building up of the congregation, for each other. So
-
all that to say, as the church gets bigger, we get to know
-
one another smaller. And then it's very appropriate that our group study with the
-
Andy Stanley group study that we're doing starts, and this is the last week
-
to sign up. So I would just say, if you're coming here to
-
connect it and you've not yet signed up for a group, it's the absolute
-
perfect opportunity, and just jump in and just say, you know, I'm
-
gonna give it a run, because I believe at the end of that experience
-
you're gonna say I'm glad I did it. I also think one other benefit
-
as we wrap up, one other benefit to this. A lot of Christians
-
feel like they you know, if you just come and you consume, you
-
consume what Jeff and Chris are producing, you consume what Trey and his team
-
are producing. You come and consume what the youth group is producing, or
-
the children's mystery. After a while, your faith starts to feel empty because
-
you don't know it, but subconsciously you're aware that you have a consumer oriented
-
faith. And after a while, we all get bored with the things we
-
consume. That's why you know, the new car smell is gone and you're
-
already thinking about your next lease, right, is because consuming doesn't satisfy.
-
So many of us have this sense that there's got to be more to this
-
faith thing. And where it really happens is when you are fulfilling the purpose
-
God has for you. And a big part of that purpose is in connection
-
with other believers. Very quickly, I'll tell the story and then we will
-
finish up, because we want you guys to spend some time talking. I
-
had a pastor as part of a very very large church at one point a
-
number of years ago, and about twenty thousand people, and a woman came
-
in to meet with a senior pastor, and he had just come from a
-
meeting where they had several hundred shut in seniors who couldn't get out they had
-
different sicknesses or whatever, and so he had the whole stack of cards of
-
names of shut ins and he was trying to figure out how can we minister
-
to them. This lady came in and she sat down. Her husband had
-
passed away and they had one of those relationships where he did all of the
-
business of the family and he wasn't really aware of the banking and all that.
-
Next thing, you know, she's trying to figure out how to navigate
-
through this life became too heavy, and so she felt like she was on
-
the verge of a nervous breakdown. And he said, listen, we have
-
some people that can help you, help counsel you on the financial side,
-
but this nervous breakdown thing. He said, I'd like to come back and
-
talk to you in just a few days, but would you do me a
-
favor. And he just took the top five cards and he said, here's
-
some shut ins in our church. You make amazing pies. Would you go
-
bake a pie for each one of these people, Just drop one off each
-
day for them and just tell them that we love them and pray with them
-
real quick. And she went, yeah, sure, that's kind of weird.
-
She stakes those five. Then he came back in about two weeks later
-
and all the cards on his desk were gone, and then he didn't see
-
her for months. Then he runs into her like three months later, and
-
he says, hey, how's that nervous breakdown going, And she said,
-
oh, I don't have time for a nervous breakdown. We have so many
-
shut in people. I'm busy baking pies. So when it was all about
-
her and she was just consuming from the church. The weight of life was
-
heavy, and her faith wasn't very strong. But when she began to realize
-
it wasn't just about her, and she began to serve other people and begin
-
to help others grow in their faith, she grew stronger and stronger. Right,
-
So I'm not saying that's the only solution for a nervous breakdown. But
-
what I am saying is the importance of living outside of our lives instead of
-
only just for ourselves. So this idea of being connected is incredibly important groups
-
as the first step. So let me write this down. The solution for
-
breakdown pies pies, yes, pis yes yes. And by the way,
-
in reference to what you said about like not being a consumer, just like
-
taking what the pestor gives you, you could say that our job then is
-
not to feed you. Our job is to make you hungry. Yes,
-
So it's to make you hungry and prepare you. Yeah yeah, yeah.
-
So Father, we thank you for today. We thank you Lord for this
-
time together, for your word and your truths. Thank you for a time
-
of laughter and fun and connectivity. And I pray Lord that these following discussions
-
that happened just right now, that you would just be with us and help
-
us connect and praise you in Jesus name, we pray Amen Amen m hm m