- You know, I know of, of no better way to start my day slowly and
calmly, then with a quiet time with God. If I start rushed, I'm gonna stay rushed. If I start my day in a
hurry, I'm gonna spend my day in a hurry. But if I start my day with
God, I'm gonna spend my day with God. I have a choice to make. If I start my day with God, he stays in the front of my mind all day. It's like a continuing
conversation that gets started. It lets God set the agenda. It lets Him set the the pace. It puts God in control, if
I start just by giving the, the first part of my day to Him. Somebody once said that God
is your Commander in Chief. So don't forget your daily briefing. Now, the challenge for me,
some of you know this about me, I grew up in a household of musicians. So for us, the day didn't
even start until 9:00 PM. (laughter) And so, if you just leave
it to my natural instincts, I'll stay up till two
or three in the morning. Cause that's just, that's how I'm wired. So, if I'm gonna spend
some time in the morning with God, before I rush off to work, well then I've got some decisions to make. I gotta, I gotta get up a little earlier. Well, if I'm gonna get
up a little earlier, then I gotta, I gotta get
to bed a little earlier. Which means I gotta turn off
the late night television a little earlier. And when you stop and think about it, there's really nothing you're
gonna hear on late night TV that's gonna be any better for you, than what you're gonna hear
in a conversation with God. Just spending a few minutes
with Him to start the day off, with Him. But when you think about it, you realize that time
with God, quiet time, is actually God's idea. Because if God didn't
want to speak to you, then He wouldn't have given us His word. He wouldn't have given us the Bible. If God didn't want to hear from you, then He wouldn't invite you to pray. I mean, why would God invite
you to come into His presence, if He didn't want to be in yours? He loves you. And He's very communicative. God is a chatter box. He wants to talk to you. He has something to say to you every day, in His Word, and He wants to hear from you every day in prayer. He's highly relational. So, if I'm gonna set time
aside in the morning, to have my quiet time with God, just a few minutes, well,
what does that look like? How do I actually do a quiet time? And that's what I'm
gonna talk with you about for the rest of this message. Now, when Pastor Rick asked
me to do this message, I knew he was gonna be out of town. And you know how they
say, when the cat's away the mice will play? So, I asked a friend of
mine, Pastor Anthony Miller, who's our Pastor of Communications, I asked Anthony to share
in this message with me, cause he's got some great insights on the quiet time and,
and hearing from God. So, we're gonna hear from
Anthony in a few minutes. But I want to start out by
giving you the first rules. Something to write down, alright. The first rule in this setting time aside for a quiet time, is slow down. Slow down. That probably sounds obvious, but sometimes, obvious
things are not so obvious. You have to slow down, because
God is never in a hurry. And you can't hear God's
voice if you're just rushing all the time. You have to slow down to hear
what He wants to say to you. That's why you have to get
up a little bit earlier, so you're not just rushing into your day and you don't have time to listen to Him. Here's what Jesus said about us, in Matthew Chapter 11. He says, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?" He says, "Come to me. Get away with me and you
will recover your life." Anybody here feel like you
need to recover your life? Things just going too fast. He says, "Get away with me,
you'll recover your life." He says, "I'll show you
how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with
me - watch how I do it. And learn," I love this phrase,
"learn the unforced rhythms of grace." He says, "Watch how I do it." You watch how he does it,
by getting into the Word and reading about how
did Jesus live his life. That is an invitation
that you can't pass up. He says, "Walk with
me, I'll give you rest. I'll show you how to do this." So, here's the first
thing that you have to do, if you're gonna slow
down for a quiet time. You ready, write this down. Slow down to read God's Word. That's where it starts. Slow down to read God's Word. I am so glad that He didn't leave it to us to try to figure things
out all on our own. How to live the Christian life. Instead, He gave us His Word. And He gave us the Holy Spirit. To direct us into the life
that He wants us to live. The Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It was inspired when
the words were written, and it is inspired by
the Holy Spirit in you when it is read. These are spiritual words,
they are words of life. Words of hope. Words of wisdom. Words of comfort. Words of direction. If you need any of that in your life, those words are found in this book. And it's the Holy Spirit in
you who brings them alive when you read them. Just as He brought them alive when they were first
written down on the page. You cannot live your life
without the Word of God. You'll wind up headed
in the wrong direction. You'll wind up thinking, why
isn't, why don't things work around here? Why am I so confused all the time? You've got to be getting
into the Word of God. It's not enough just to
have a Bible in your home. You gotta have the Bible in your heart. The Bible is not a good luck charm. Where you say, "Yeah, we got
a Bible, it's sitting there on the shelf." Is the Bible in your heart? Are you hiding God's Word
as, as the Bible says? Are you hiding it in your heart and building your life on it? Here's what the Bible says about itself, in second Timothy. Is says, "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize
what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we're
wrong and it teaches us to do what is right. So, if all Scripture is inspired by God, then that means that God
can meet you in any book, on any page, in any verse of Scripture. Because all of it was
breathed our by His spirit. It's breathed out by
God, and when you read it it's like it's being breathed in by you. You're, you're inhaling
through the spirit of God, drawing it into yourself,
and strengthening and building your life on it. So, all of it can speak to you, if you'll just take the time to listen. Now, I love to talk about
how to have a quiet time, cause it, because any of you
been around here long enough, have heard part of my story. Of how frustrating it was to me for years, in trying to have a quiet time. Trying to figure out how to do it. Because I had always
wanted to be godly man. And so, I had been told,
I had been lead to believe that if you want to be a
godly man, or a godly woman, well then you, you gotta
pray for an hour a day. Cause that's what godly people do. You gotta pray for an hour a day, you gotta read through
your Bible in a year. And I thought, "Well,
okay, I'll show them. I got what it takes, I can do this." Read through my Bible in a year. So I went out and I got
one of those one-year guilt trip Bible reading programs. (laughter) In the King James of
course, because after all that is the translation that Jesus read. (laughter) And I thought, "Okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna go from the Book of Genesis, to the Book of Maps, in 365 days. No problem. I had great intentions. But, I was setting myself up for failure, cause remember I am not a morning guy. So, I'm getting up to pray for an hour and I kept falling asleep on the couch trying to pray for an hour. So then, when I fell asleep on the couch, that means I fell further
and further behind in my one year Bible reading program. I was doing okay in the beginning. Because after all, in
the beginning, right, in the first four chapters of the Bible, you've got a nude scene and a murder. (laughter) So, you know, it's kind
of interesting reading. Hey, I didn't write it, okay, I'm just telling you what's there. And I was doing alright, struggling along, trying to keep up, trying
to speed up and catch up until I got to the begats. You remember the begats? Those long list of names
that you can't pronounce. Name after name,
so-and-so begat so-and so. And so-and-so begat so-and so. And this guy begat that guy, and it, it just, at that point, it just, it just, it
all fell apart for me. I just gave up. I was like, "I don't
know how people do this? Maybe their lying, cause I can't do this." And what I want to share with you today, is a way that I taught myself, just a simple change that
made all the difference in the world for me. And I'm gonna tell you today, what took years for me to get through my thick bald head. And it's this, first
thing, write this down, that prayer and Bible reading are not two separate activities. They're two parts of a conversation. They're two parts of a conversation. And it is a conversation with God. God talks to you in the Bible you talk to him in prayer. So you just find a quiet place, you grab your Bible, maybe a journal, get a cup of coffee or tea, or whatever you want in the morning, and just go spend a few
minutes with the Lord. Here's what Jesus said
about it in Matthew Six. He said, "Here's what I want you to do: just find a quiet secluded place so you won't be tempted
to role-play before God." You're not gonna try to put on airs, or impress anybody. He says, "Just be there
as simply and honestly as you can manage. And the focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace." Now, since a quiet time is
a conversation with God, then you should probably let
God start the conversation because, this may be news to some of you, He is God, and you are not. So you probably ought to start by letting Him start the conversation. You don't start with an hour of prayer. You don't start by telling
Him what's on your mind. Start with just a moment of prayer. A simple moment that
says, "Lord, here I am, I'm ready. I want to hear from you today. Would you just open my eyes, open my ears, open my heart, to whatever
it is you want to say?" And you just let God
start the conversation, by getting in to the Word. Now, you say, "Well that sounds great, but I gotta problem. Cause I understand where you
were going with this thing. I couldn't get through the Bible either. I couldn't understand what I was reading. I couldn't do it fast enough. This doesn't work for me,
what am I supposed to do? Well I got a couple suggestions for you. The first one's simple,
find another translation. You don't have to read the King James, find one that speaks to you. I generally read out of the N-I-V. But the New Living translation, the New King James, the ESV, there's all kinds of contemporary
English translations, that will help you understand what God is trying to say to you. So just find a Bible that works for you. But the second thing to do, and I think this is even more important, and this is, this is a, a, a real key is read for depth. Write that down, read for depth. Not for distance. Read for depth not for distance. In other words, don't speed read your way through the Scripture. "Oh, I gotta cover five
chapters in ten minutes." I gotta cover 15, you know,
15 chapters in an hour. Don't speed read your way
through the Scripture. Slow it down. Read for depth not for distance. That whole speed reading thing, is like having a fast conversation. That's no way to have a
relationship with anybody. You gotta slow it down and
think about what you're reading. See reading the Bible is not a race. It's an exploration. You don't explore in a hurry. You take your time when
you're exploring something. And even if you can read
through your Bible in a year, even if that program does work for you, I want to encourage you to try
what I'm talking about today. And see what difference
it will make for you. Because, here's what the Bible
says about reading for depth. This verse in James 125, he says, "But the man, or woman,
who looks intently," you might want to circle
that word, intently. "The man, or woman, who looks
intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and
continues to do this, not forgetting what he
has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does." This is what Bible
meditation is all about. Not, Eastern meditation, Bible meditation. You're not emptying your mind, Bible meditation is filling
your mind with the Word of God, and then thinking deeply
over, and over about what is in that verse, what is in this passage. What is God saying to me as
I fill my mind with His Word. So, let me give you an example, let's just go back to the verse
we just read out of James. Again, take your pen. Cause having a pen in your
hand is really helpful in a quiet time. I want you to circle a few words as I read through this verse again. And I'm just gonna pause and talk about certain words as we go. So he says this, he says,
"The man, or the woman, who looks intently," so
you circled that already. Intently, that means
you're looking deeply, you're, it's, it's like
coming in a humility to gaze into something. He says, "the looks intently
into the perfect law that gives freedom." Circle the work freedom. Do you need freedom in your life? It comes from looking
into the Word of God. He says, "It's that perfect
law, it gives freedom," Not bondage, not rules and regulations, it brings freedom to you. He says, "and continues,"
circle continues. "Continues to do that." You don't just do it once. It's a habit. You do it over, and over, and over again. And then, "not forgetting
what he has heard." Circle heard, cause I
think it's interesting that it doesn't say, not
forgetting what he has read. Not forgetting what he has heard. God will speak to you
through the Word of God. I like to tell people, read with your ears. What's he saying? What does it sound like? He says, "not forgetting
what he has heard, but doing it." Circle doing. Doing it, putting it into practice. Bringing the application. "That person," he says,
"he will be blessed." Circle blessed. He'll be blessed in what he does. Now, it might be that that's
all you can read in a day. It's just one verse. But, if you think deeply about that verse. You're getting so much more out of it, then you would have if you had just raced through a couple chapters because, hey I gotta schedule here to keep. But you're gonna think, how
does this change my life? How does this change my perspective? How do I see things differently
than I'm facing today based on what's in this truth? You see, you can not meditate
on Scripture quickly. You can not look intently in a hurry. There's big difference
between a deep long gaze and a quick glance. But, reading for distance
is a quick glance, you're just moving on by
and not really stopping to pay attention to what is on that page. Some people read their Bible
like they're on a deadline. They say, "Okay God, here's the deal. You got three chapters, or ten minutes, whichever comes first. So, if you have something
to say to me today, you better say it fast cause
I'm not waiting around." Well, that's no way to
carry on a relationship, or conversation. Try that with your spouse,
see where it gets you, right. So, why would you do that with God? He says, you gotta read it intently. That verse says that if you
want your life to be blessed, you gotta slow down and focus. And read deeply on what
you're seeing in the text. Here's one of the blessings
that comes from doing that with your life, of reading it intently. It's in Psalm 119, it says here
that the Bible will keep you from sinning. Look at this verse. "I have hidden Your word in my heart." You can't hide something quickly. You hide it after this deep meditation. He says, "I have hidden
Your word in my heart so that I will not sin against You." Hiding the word in your
heart, reading deeply, can keep you from sin. I heard somebody say one time, "Show me a Bible that's fallen apart, and I will show you a life that isn't." Now, Pastor Anthony Miller is gonna come and bring us a second
step of slowing down. (applause) - Oh stop, you're gonna
make a black man blush. Okay, so if the first part of slowing down is to read God's word, the second part to slowing
down, it to hear God's voice. See these two go hand in hand. Because the more you know God's word, the better you hear God's voice. So when you read Scripture, talk to God. Ask him questions. Ask him, "Lord, what's
in this Scripture for me? What is it that You're trying to tell me? Teach me God, what are
You trying to show me through this Scripture?" And don't be surprised if He answers. See, everybody thinks
that hearing God's voice is just once in a lifetime opportunity. And it's this, every once in
a while He only talks to you on special occasions. That's not true. He's talking to you everyday. He wants to talk to you every single day. Look at the Scripture in Isaiah 50, it says this, "He awakens
me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to
listen as a disciple." Look to your neighbor, and tell him, God's trying to tell you something. Tell him again, God's trying
to tell you something. It's true. God's trying to talk to
you every single day. You just have to listen. You just have to listen. Either you don't know His voice, or you are too busy to listen. Either you don't know what He sounds like, or you're like, "Talk to the hand, I don't got time for that." Right, because I'm too busy. See, don't let the busy of your day drown out the voice of your God. Let me tell you something about busy, busy, B-U-S-Y, being under Satan's yoke. Busy, busyness will rob you of the ability to hear your God. Because we, we like to fill up our day with all these things to do, and before you know
it, you go days, weeks, sometimes even months and years
without hearing God's voice. And the enemy will use busy,
to keep you from God's, doing God's will and hearing His voice. See, margin is the opposite of busy. Margin says, "I'm gonna
value my quiet time with God, it's the most important part of my day." So that's where I'm gonna invest my time. See Pastor Rick is absolutely right, he talks about how, the
way you start your day has a profound impact on the
way the rest of your day goes. It's true. You want to start your
day off with quiet time. But let's be a little honest,
you in church don't lie. (laughter) Some of us aren't morning people. In fact, some of us ain't
really Christian before 8:00 AM. (laughter) You be walking around
like a fire-breathing fool with laser beams coming out of your eyes. Until you drink that coffee and be like, ♪ Jesus loves me. ♪ Some of us ain't morning
people, it's okay, I get it. I'm not really a morning person either. So, some of us has to get real creative about our quiet time. For some, maybe it's just
turning off the radio on the way to work, so you
can spend of your time, a few minutes of silence with God. Maybe it's the first 15
minutes of your work day before you do anything
else, I'm gonna spend time just listening and praying. Or maybe at lunchtime, you eat your food a little bit faster, for 15 minutes. And spend the rest of your time with God. Or maybe at night, instead of
binge watching six episodes on Netflix, you watch five
and use that last hour to spend some time with God. Whatever it is, that's not the point. The point is make sure
you value margin enough to protect your quiet time with God. Because God absolutely
wants to speak to you. He loves speaking to you. And He does it in a lot of different ways. And before, I get into the
different ways God likes to speak to you, I want to
put these guardrails in place because one of the most
common questions I get as a pastor is, "How do you
know when it's the voice of God? How can you tell the
difference between, you know, self-talk? Or, how can you tell it's God
or you know, the other guy? The devil, right. And so, these are kind of
two things that I found really helpful for me
to discern God's voice. First, is God's voice will
never contradict God's Word. It can't. It's not that He won't, it can't. It's He's incapable of lying, so therefore He cannot lie. He cannot contradict himself. So when He speaks to you it
has to align with the Word. That's why it's so important
for you to read this thing so you know what He's saying
to you and what He's not. If He's, if you're hearing,
you need to rob a bank, it ain't in there. It ain't in there. If you're hearing Him say
you need to leave your wife and join the circus, no,
brother, it ain't in there. It ain't in my Bible. I don't know what version you got. The second way I help
discern the voice of God, is see the enemy, when he speaks to you, it feels like a push. He likes to push you. When God speaks to you,
it feels like a pull. See, when the enemy speaks,
he wants to pressure you, he wants you to, to, to buy now
because the sales gonna end, or buy this thing, you
need this thing because everybody else has it. Or you need to cheat on this
test because you have to pass. He pressures you, he
pushes you in to decisions. God doesn't push you. He actually wants you to have freewill. And make the decisions on your own. But what God will do, is
He'll pull you to Himself. What He'll do is He'll draw you to Him. Like a shepard, like, hooks
a sheep around the neck and pulls the sheep out of trouble. He will pull you to Himself. He will lure you to Himself. That's what he does. It's kind of like a father
calling out to his little kid that's walking for the first time. He's calling out to him, to come to me. I remember when my little,
my son, when he was little. Titus. When he first started walking
he would pull himself up on you know, a little table. And he'd be all excited, looking at me, with his big ole' wobbly head, you know. Right, and I'd be like, "Come
on, come Titus, come on, come to daddy, come on you can do it. Come on." And he's like, "Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha." Right, and I'm like, "Come
on Titus, you can do it. Come to daddy, come on, you can do it." And he's like (panting)
and then he stops, freezes, cause he's scared. He's like, right, terror
on his face, like whoa. And then he takes another
step, "I think I can do this. I think I can do this." And he takes another step, and I'm like, "Come on Titus, you can do this. You can do this." And he starts walking to me. And he walks all the way
to me and I get excited and I pick him up and I'm
like, "Yeah, you did this." That's what God does to us. He's calling us to Him. He's calling the person
He created out of you to come to the place He's already at. The place He's prepared for you. He's like, come on Peter,
come on, got out of the boat. Get out of the boat Peter. Come on, walk on water, come to Me. Come on, you can do this. Come on Moses, come on. Come out of Egypt. I got a place for my people. Come on I need you to lead my people. Come to Me, come on, let's go. You can do this. Come on Deborah, come on my people need a profit and leader. You're it, girl. Let's go, let's do this, come to Me. Right. Come on Mary. Come on, I know you're a little girl. I know you're afraid right now, but I need a mother because
the world needs a savior. Come to Me, come. Come on Anthony. I know you never preached before. I know Saddleback's a big stage. (laughter) But, but, (applause) but I got a message for my people and I need a messenger,
come on, you can do this. You can do this, come to Me. See God calls us out. And see, His voice is so encouraging. He's so encouraging. When you hear His voice,
the more you hear His voice, the more courage you have
to take one more step, and one more step, and another step. And each step, you're
faith builds stronger and stronger until you realize
you're walking on water. That's our God. That's our God. So now that we know how
to hear God's voice, let's look at three common
ways in which He speaks to us. Now, there's a lot of different ways in which God speaks to us. But, I want to just focus on these three. The first way God speaks to us is through His Word. God speaks to us through His word. Now, Buddy already spoke about this, so we don't have to spend a lot of time. But the more you read God's Word, the more you realize that
it's not just text on pages. His Word's alive. His Word is actually speaking to you. It's calling out to you. Let's look at the
Scripture in Hebrews 4:12. I love this Scripture cause it says this, "The Word of God is alive and active. It is sharper than the
sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost
thoughts and desires." I love the message translation. It says, "It's like a surgeon's scalpel that lays us open to listen and obey." I love that. So first, God speaks
to us through His Word. Second, God speaks to
us through His creation. If you want to learn
about God's character, one of the best things you can do is actually spend time in
which, what he created. So maybe for you, instead of
doing your quiet time at home, maybe you need to get outside
and go sit in a garden. Or maybe you need to go to a local park. Or, to the beach, or go on a hike. Or maybe at night just lay
out and look at the stars. Cause I guarantee you, if
you spend time in creation, He will begin to speak to you. The waves will begin
to speak of His power. The colors and the patterns
will begin to express His creativity. The birds in the air
will declare His love. Creation will speak to you. Look at this verse in
Romans One, it says this, "What can be known about
God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them." "...For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes
- His eternal power, His divine nature -
have been clearly seen, because they are understood
through what He has made. So people are without excuse." So, if you want to hear from God, go spend time in what He created. God speaks to us through His creation. So the third, the third one,
this is perhaps my favorite because it really
explains the relationship we have with God. The third way God speaks to us, is through His still small voice. I love this because it's found
in this Old Testament story, this amazing man name Elijah. This dude was awesome. I mean he made it rain,
literally made it rain. He prayed and it started raining. This is a cold brother, he was awesome. But at this point of the story, he's running for his life, he's afraid. And he's so afraid for losing his life he goes hides in a cave, desperately wanting to hear God's voice. And look what this says in First Kings 19. It says this, "...And
behold, the Lord passed by and a great strong wind
tore into the mountains and broke the rocks into
pieces before the Lord, but the LORD was not in the wind." "And after the wind an
earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord wasn't in the
fire; and after the fire a still small voice." Look how God chose to speak to Elijah. Elijah's in this cave
desperately needing to hear God's voice, and God
didn't speak to him in this big giant wind that
nearly broke a mountain. He didn't speak to him in this earthquake that shattered the ground. He didn't speak to him
in this big fire show that probably lit up the cave. He spoke to him with a small whisper. Now, there's a lot of
speculation of why God chose to whisper in this moment of crisis. But here's what I think. I think God chose to whisper to Elijah because he was that close to him. He was that close to him. You don't need to shout at
somebody that you're close to. God was in the cave right there with him. Which tells me that God
is not afraid to enter into our caves. God is not afraid to enter into our fears. God is not afraid to
enter into our doubts. God is not afraid to enter
into our depressions. God is not afraid to
enter into our addictions, into our shortcomings. God is not afraid of that. He comes into that and He
speaks to you with a whisper cause he's, he's that close. He's right there with you. Come on people, this is good news. This is good news. Because our God, our God is
not some judge in the sky. Our God is not some distant
king from some foreign land. Our God is not some old dead guy. Our God is not some ancient relic that you only find in old texts. Our God is alive, and
our God is here with us. (applause) It's in His very name
Emmanuel, God is with us. Our God is right here,
and He's so close to you, that all He has to do is whisper. See, I don't know where you're at today. I don't know why you decided
to come to church today. I don't know what trouble
you may be facing, or pain you may be feeling. But I do know this, you need to hear God's voice. And the way you're gonna hear God's voice, is if you slow down and listen. Buddy's gonna come and finish this out. (applause) - I gotta say, a preacher is born, and
you were here to see it. Good job, man.
- Thank you. - That was awesome. I can retire. (laughter) Wow, Rick can stay on vacation. So, you slow down to read God's word. You slow down to hear God's voice, and here's the third part,
slow down to respond in prayer. Slow down to respond in prayer. Remember, Bible reading
and prayer are two parts of the conversation. God started the conversation, not you. He's the one who brought up the subject that He wanted to talk to you about. It was right there in His word. Now, it's your turn to talk. God spoke, you listened,
you thought, you pondered, you meditated on it. This is when all of that
thinking and meditating and, and, and all of that
now turns into prayer. What is God saying? And you begin to say back to God, what He was saying to you. It's sort of like for those of you who are married, and I, please I don't want to
accuse anyone of arguing with your spouse. Let's just say it's maybe
in one of those times when you're having intense fellowship. And you want to make sure
you're hearing each other. So you say back to them
what they said to you, but you put it in your own words. You see, now hang on a second, here's what I hear you
saying and you put it in your own words so they know, yeah, you got it, that's what I'm saying. It's the same way in your
prayer, in your quiet time. God spoke, you listened. You thought, you took it in and now you say, "Lord, this
is what I hear you saying." And you tell God, this is
where I stopped in the word. This is what I read, this is what I saw, this is what I heard you saying, this is what I think. Lord, this is how I feel about it. Listen, don't be afraid
to engage your emotions when you read the Bible. The Bible's an emotional book. Prayer is an emotional activity. Just read the Book of Psalms. It's a very emotional book. Jesus was emotional when he prayed. God gave you your emotions. Don't be afraid to tell Him how you feel. Oh you'll hear people
say, "Well, you know, you can't trust your heart
because the Bible says that the heart is, you know,
wicked and deceitfully evil." Well, yeah. The Bible does say that. But it also says that you are
to love the Lord, your God, with all of that deceitfully
wicked heart of yours. You engage God at an emotional level. How can you have a
relationship with anyone, when you don't engage
at an emotional level. It's just a dry intellectual
exercise of talk. God has emotions. He gave us our emotions. Tell Him how you feel. As you read this passage, as
you read it with your ears, as God is speaking to
you, how do you feel? You say, "Lord, I feel hopeful. I feel grateful. I feel joyful." Maybe I feel convicted of something. But tell God what's on your mind. Tell Him how you feel. Tell Him what you're
learning as you read it. Tell Him what you're still confused about. You may need to come
back to the same passage two or three days in a row. To think it through. Cause sometimes, you know how it is, some subjects need more than
two or three conversations. It's the same way in the Word. Don't just read that
James 1:25, that one day and then just move on the next day. If you still have thoughts
and questions about it. Go back to where you left off and continue that conversation. Your prayer does not have
to be anything fancy. We're not talking about the
eloquence of public speaking. What we're talking about
is a personal conversation, a private conversation, between
you and your best friend. You're not trying to impress God. You don't have to impress anybody. You just speak to Him
as honestly as you can. You're prayer might be
a prayer of gratitude, of Thanksgiving. It might be a prayer of confession. It might be a prayer asking God for help, or for courage, or for, or for wisdom, or for provision. It might be a prayer of intersession, where you're praying for somebody else that came to mind as you
were reading that passage. But get this, your prayer does not have to be out loud. It doesn't even have to be spoken. God hears silent prayer. I want you to see this in Scripture. Look at this verse from Psalm Five. And some words I want you
to circle in your notes. He says, "Give ear to
my words," circle words. "Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing," circle sighing. "And listen to my cry
for help," circle cry. "My King and my God, for to You I pray." He's given us three
different ways to pray, with your words, with your
sighing, some translations say groaning, or meditation, your thoughts. Says with your words, with
your sighing, and in a cry. Sometimes, all you can do is sigh. So sigh. There's sometimes when you can't
even put things into words, all you can do is groan. So groan. God hears you. It's like a father hearing
the groaning of a sick child. He hears it, He gets you. He understands. The prayer doesn't have to
be in complete sentences. You're just talking to a
father, you're talking to a best friend. Prayer is the language of the heart. So you're not here to impress anybody. You just tell God as honestly
and as openly as you can what's going on. See here's the bottom line of all of this, and you can write this down. Is that the ultimate
objective of a quiet time, the ultimate objective is
not to study about Christ. It is to spend time with him. It's not to study about Christ,
it's to spend time with him. Because we become like the
people that we spend time with. Any of you who have kids,
you know this is true. They become like the
people they hang out with. We become like the people
we spend time with. If you want to be like Christ, you got to spend time with Christ. Now, I want to wrap this up by giving you a simple five-step process,
because some people like a process, of how you
can have just a 15 minutes with God. But before I go there, I just want to mention this one thing, If you have never taken class 201, I want to encourage you to do that. You know we have our class
system, 101 through 401. Class 201 takes you
deeper into understanding how to read the Word, and how to pray. A big piece of that class
is just on how to have a quiet time. If you haven't taken the class, you really, you really should. It'll be so good for you,
and help you with this. Here on the Lake Forrest
campus, we're having class 201 a week from now, next Sunday. We're having class 201 here. You can sign up for it online. If you're at one of the other campuses, just talk to the campus
pastor, find out when the next class 201 is on your campus. But, I want to encourage
you to take that class. Now, let me get down to
this 15 minutes with God. We're gonna break it down into five steps. So write this down, here's number one, first thing you do is just relax. Relax. Remember, you can't hear God in a hurry. So you have to relax. Slow down, be still. Before you open your
Bible, open your heart. And just say, "Lord,
I'm here, I want to hear from you today." Here's what the Bible says
about that, Psalm 46:10. It says, "Be still and
know that I am God." So if you want to know that He's God, you've gotta be still. And be still doesn't
mean, don't say anything. What be still means is calm down. Just relax. No freaking out. God's saying, "Look, I got this. Just calm down, you'll
know that I got this. Be still and know that I'm God." Number two is read. Remember, you're gonna let
God start the conversation, you're not gonna start with prayer, you're gonna start with the Word. So, just read. Take four minutes, read the passage, wherever you are in the Bible, just pick up where you left off. Now, if Bible reading is new for you, if you like me, have
given up so many times by the time you got to First Chronicles and you couldn't get in
to the New Testament. Well let me suggest something,
start in the Book of Matthew. It's the first book of the New Testament. It's my favorite book in the Bible. But, start at Matthew. Well, I will say this,
just want to give you a little warning. That the first 17 versus of chapter one are kind of like reading from a phone book in the Middle East. It's just a list of names. It's another one of those begats. Okay, but it's the genealogy of Jesus. Alright, skip it. It's what the pastor said, just skip it. Okay, you can come back to it later. But, starting at verse 18 of chapter one, all the way through the end of chapter 28, the, the narrative, the
story of the life of Jesus unfolds in front of you. And it is absolutely breathtaking. You read about the miracle of his birth. His baptism. His teachings, his sermons, his miracles. His love for people. His love for you. You read about his death and resurrection, the ascension, it's all
there in the book of Matthew. Start at Matthew, but, where
ever you're gonna read, the, the key is you start
in the beginning of a book and you stay in that book
until you reach the end of that book. Don't just hop around from point to point. Stay in the book til you reach the end. You want to let God complete His thought. You want to let Him finish what He's been trying to
say to you in that book. So no matter how long it
takes, if it takes you a day, a week, a month, it
doesn't matter remember it's an exploration not a race. You just stay in that book until you come to the end of that book. So, you're gonna read the Word. There's a wonderful verse
about this in Psalm 119, about this reading for depth. He says, "Open my eyes
to see wonderful things in Your Word." You can't see 'em if you're in a hurry. Number three, reflect. Reflect. You relax, you read, now you reflect. This is that Bible
meditation I'm talking about. This is that intent, intense
reading of Scripture. You think about what the passage says. Think about what it means to you. How does it apply to your life? The Bible describes itself as both a lamp and a mirror to the soul. So ask yourself, as I stand
in the light of this truth, the lamp of this truth,
this verse, this paragraph, what am I seeing that
I've never seen before? What am I seeing about life,
about God, about other's that I haven't seen before? Or as I stand in the mirror of this verse, what am I seeing? How do I look? How does this reflect upon me? The Bible says in Psalm 119:97, it says, "Oh, how I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long." I find that if I start my day this way, I keep thinking about that
passage throughout the rest, it just keeps coming up in my mind. He says, "I meditated on it all day long." Now number four, after you have reflected, now record. Record, this is where the
journal can be helpful. You just write out some
kind of an application statement, that is practical. Something measurable. Writing brings clarity to your thinking. Writing is what turns all the
gray into black and white. See, if you can't write something down, then you haven't really
clearly thought through it. So, just take a minute and write down what your thoughts are. What is God saying to you? What are you seeing in the Scripture? What are you going to do about it? When you begin writing it down, you're on your way to
becoming a doer of the Word. Because you've, you've recognized
what the application point is going to be for you. Another benefit of writing it down, is that it creates a
record of how God met you in the Bible. So, years later maybe, when
you come back to that passage you can remember, "Wow, I
really had a, I had a profound encounter with God in
this passage once before." And, looking at that, it builds your faith for what you're facing today. And another benefit of
it, is that it gives you something to give away to somebody else. Because, this kind of
reading and meditating on the Word is not just for your benefit it's for the benefit of other people. It might even be for the
benefit of another generation. Look at this verse from Psalm
102, it talks about that. It says, "Let this be written
for a future generation, that a people not yet
created may praise the Lord." See, journaling is not
commanded in the Bible, but it is demonstrated in the Bible. That's how we got the Book of Psalms. The Book of Psalms was David's journal. He wrote poetry. That's how he responded to God. And you find over and over as
you read through the Psalms, that what he was doing is, he was reading the first five books of the Old Testament, and he was writing out his thoughts in the form of poetry and song lyrics. As a response to what he
had read in Scripture. That's how we got the prophets. Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, and all those other guys. They were writing down
what God was saying to them so that it could be passed
on to another generation. And we continue to receive
the benefit of that. That's how, that's how
sermons get started. It's just this encounter with God and you write down your
thought and you think, I could share that with somebody else. So, you'll want to record those thoughts and then finally you
come to the fifth point which is request. This is your prayer time. You finish your time with God by talking to God about
what he has shown you and then you write down
what your prayers are. I've done this. I did this through the whole Bible. I went through and I prayed
through the Scriptures and I wrote down those prayers. They continue to build my faith today as I read them. Here's one other promise, another benefit of reading the Word like this. First John Five says, "This
is the confidence we have in approaching God, is
that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. " Now get this, the Word of God teaches us the will of God. So, the more you know God's Word, the more you will understand God's will. And the more you know God's will, the more you will be praying according to God's will. You'll be praying biblically. Lord you said, and so I'm asking. Lord, you said, and so
this is what I confess. Lord, you said this is what I believe. You'll be praying according to Scripture. And when you pray according
to the will of God, you will see more and more answers to your prayers. So, you slow down to read God's Word. You slow down to hear God's voice. And you slow down to respond in prayer. It's just that simple. Don't race, it's an exploration. Take your time. Read with your ears. And let God speak to you
because He has something to say to you every day, and He wants
to hear from you every day. And before I wrap up, I just
want to say one last thing. I want to go back to
what I was joking about a minute ago about falling
asleep when you pray. And don't look at me like
you've never done that before. (laughter) But when you fall asleep in your prayer, don't worry about it. No loving father has ever
been angry with his child for falling asleep in his arms. So don't worry about it. Just pray, just talk to him. (applause) And I want us to close in prayer, would you bow your heads with me. Father we are so thankful that you didn't leave
us without the comfort of the Holy Spirit. That you did not leave
us without your Word. To direct us, to guide us, to show us how to live the
life You want us to live. Lord, would you continue to call us, to allure us, to woo us
into fellowship with you? Help us Lord to hear what
are You are saying to us. Help us to be people, in fact Lord, we, we commit ourselves. We're gonna take a step of faith and say, "yes, Lord, I will slow down to read Your Word." Even if it's only for a moment. I'll slow down for that
moment to read Your word. Lord, I will slow down to hear Your voice. And Lord, I will slow down
to tell You what I'm thinking and to respond in prayer. Lord, we look to You
to give us the strength and the discipline to put
these things into practice so that we can truly
be people of Your Word. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. - Thanks for checking out
this message on YouTube. My name is Jay and I'm
Saddleback's Online Campus Pastor and I would love to invite you
to join our online community. Here are three ways you
can take a next step, First, learn more about
belonging to our church family by completing class 101 online. Second, don't do life alone
anymore by getting into an online only small group
that meets on platforms like Skype. Or learn more about hosting
a group with your friends in your home. Third, join our global
Facebook community to connect with others with the online community and be more engaged in the day-to-day. To take any of those next steps, visit saddleback.com/online, or email online @saddleback.com. Hope to hear from you soon.
