The Problem of Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality | EHS Part 1

there's so much more to your story [Music] than what's on the surface god is calling you to dive deeper to see how your joys losses dreams and experiences have shaped you [Music] what will the holy spirit speak to your soul through emotionally healthy spirituality good morning liquid church hey great to see you guys hey have i told you lately that i love you i really do i love you guys i love being your pastor and it really thrills my heart to see our church family together in fact can we just send some love to our live locations in church online make some noise for you guys love seeing you guys so excited you're here for the kickoff of this eight-week series called emotionally healthy spirituality and i told you it's a discipleship course it's based on a best-selling book by my friend pete's gazero from new life fellowship in queens new york queen's in the house and pete was a mentor to me and i went through the course with him online during the pandemic actually with a group of pastors from all over the world and it was uh i would say it's life-changing i don't say that about a ton of stuff but i really think this series has the potential to kind of awaken in you a much deeper intimacy with jesus as we go under the iceberg of our lives slow down for silence and prayer and listen for the voice of the holy spirit speaking we actually believe at liquid that god is still speaking today say amen if you agree he wants to talk to you so this series starts today this is week one if you're new you've actually come at a perfect time to jump aboard you're going to want to pick up your books today if you didn't pick them up last week there are three books that go along with the course the main book there's a workbook but then there's also a a daily devotional and they're available in the lobby after today's service also let me just encourage you sign up for a small group if you aren't in one yet uh for the next eight weeks all our small groups we're going to be diving deeper into this material not just reading the book but meeting in groups and processing the material and breakouts so this course is really meant to be experienced in community here's why you need to process what god is speaking to you alongside trusted brothers and sisters we do that in small groups of 8 or 12 people during the week and here's the exciting news last week we had hundreds of folks sign up to join a group so this fall we now have over 1 700 people in small groups taking ehs together give god a praise that's awesome it's awesome leaders i'm so proud of you guys you're on the front lines it's not too late to join a group some are completely virtual they meet over zoom some are in person some are hybrid unfortunately if you're not in a group you won't be able to access the live teaching by our pastoral team now i'm going to tell you something this week somebody said to me tim i don't have time for a group i'm just going to read the book on my own can i just encourage you do not read this book by yourself otherwise it's just information what we're after is transformation the goal is to grow in your first-hand experience of christ not just have head knowledge about jesus but it happens best in community when you experience the material with others for me personally my small group was vital and helping me really process what god was saying to me what it was is listening to the stories of other people helped me understand how god was speaking into my own story so let me tell you how this works okay every week you want to come to church or go online listen to the sunday sermon i'm going to preach a live sermon that introduces the main scriptures some key concepts so you listen to the sunday sermon and then you read the matching chapters so tomorrow you open up the main book and you read chapter one called the problem of emotion and healthy spirituality now don't read ahead okay you don't want this is the book you rush through to read read one chapter a week don't microwave it let it crock pot read it slowly let it simmer underline sentences that speak to you let it percolate and then meet with your small group again in person over zune and then myself pastors kyra and karen we're gonna be doing live teaching for your groups over zoom on tuesday wednesday and thursday nights it's actually a combination of short teaching and then breakout discussion then the day after your group meets you start the daily devotional it's called day by day and there's 40 days worth of short daily devotionals so you can actually make room twice a day to just be with jesus making room for silence stillness and prayer you're going to clear the clutter so you can really hear god's voice that makes sense guys i'm telling you it's going to be an exciting eight weeks i can't wait to hear how god speaks to you in fact today we're going to end today's service with communion and invite god to really consecrate our time together so church online you're going to want to get some of your elements to get ready for a communion all right let's jump in today we are going to look at the problem of emotionally unhealthy spirituality so let me start with a question have you ever looked at something that it just seems so good on the surface only to discover that it was like a complete disaster underneath okay i'm listening to two um podcasts right now they're fascinating one is called the dropout it's about a medical company called theranose and its founder elizabeth holmes who a lot of investors called the next steve jobs the female steve jobs um anybody hate having their blood taken at the hospital or like the doctors elizabeth homes was a brilliant young inventor when she had an incredible idea she claimed to invent a revolutionary blood testing technology called the edison box so instead of jabbing people with painful needles and extracting tubes and tubes of blood she claimed that with one tiny pinprick in your finger she could take a single drop of blood and run hundreds of medical tests helping prevent disease and giving you access to your medical records forbes magazine put holmes on their cover and announced she's the first female billionaire and she's going to revelation healthcare she recruited secretaries of state military generals to be on the board at theranos and catch this she raised over not 900 million one billion dollars from silicon valley investors there's this one problem the technology never worked a functional version of the edison box never existed it was just an idea a dream but with no basis in reality and on the surface thermos appeared to be this the next apple of healthcare but under the surface it was rotten to the core and the security and exchange commissions just charged elizabeth holmes with massive fraud and she is now on trial for her life that's what the dropout's about prosecutors say holmes behind the scenes lied to investors gave inaccurate medical info to patients told them they had cancer when they didn't that they were miscarrying when they had a healthy baby bullied employees who were going to blow the whistle manipulated the market and deceived her on board she actually flew on private planes all over the world the cover of forbes magazine while her company culture grew bitter brittle toxic and fell apart theranos went bankrupt from 1 billion to worthless thousands of people lost their jobs and she lost every penny of her investors money a billion bucks how can something that this man looks so great on the surface and fools so many people become so unhealthy and toxic underneath it's not just companies right it can happen in churches too you know the second podcast i'm listening to some of you have probably listened to is the rise and fall of mars hill which tells a tale of mars hill church in seattle found in 1996 by a charismatic pastor named mark driscoll and the church had a very promising start reached young gen xers at the time and it grew rapidly to a church of over 15 000 people they opened multiple campuses they're reaching thousands for christ in seattle this is a city that has more dogs than christians okay and it grew into kind of this mega ministry the popular podcast millions of downloads it was all about biblical preaching and evangelistic growth and they they baptized thousands of new believers again on the surface man everything looked great but in 2014 whammo the church came crashing to the ground the board had relational conflict the pastor resigned the campuses closed and mars hill dissolved as a church and some of you are like yeah what what happened bro another sex scandal nope pastors steal money nope what brought mars hill down it was a case study in emotionally unhealthy leadership behind the scenes the pastor and board chose an authoritarian style that that bullied believers steamrolled over staff and relationally shunned anybody who got in the way of the expansion of the church for all the talk about being we're on mission for jesus their pastor brag that there was a pile of bodies under the bus and at the time staff leaders rationalized well thousands of people are getting saved so the end justify the means but mark this under the surface mars hill had this toxic culture that turned a blind eye to spiritual abuse objectified women protected power above all else left the trail of broken hurting believers in its wake another spectacular scandal and another black eye for jesus see guys i think the world kind of laughs they say see christians they're just like the rest of us you know for all their pious talk about love and grace church is just a religious business that operates on the same worldly principles and and how can something that seems so so spiritually successful on the surface led by gifted smart people grow so toxic underneath this my friends is the problem of emotionally unhealthy spirituality if you notice on the cover of the book you see an iceberg that's the symbol for ehs that represents how we're all kind of made up of these different layers that exist beneath the surface of our daily lives and the thing is about icebergs is this only 10 percent is visible above the surface did you know that that 10 represents the external activity of our lives the the decisions behavior everybody can see hey that's what christians are they're nice people uh they they go to church they pray they try to treat others with kindness and respect but notice about icebergs ninety percent is hidden underwater that ninety percent represents what's really going on deep beneath the surface of your life there's things we can't see there's hidden motives your your fears your jealousies your your sadness your anger your your shadow side that actually only come out in times of stress or pressure and guys i'm just telling you this is what jesus wants access to he wants to transform your inner world the truth is most christians in most churches we focus on the top 10 of the iceberg we engage in helpful things like worship like prayer bible studies fellowship that's great but it really only scratches the surface so a lot of christians mistakenly believe i'm doing fine man things appear in order on the surface but in reality the relational world is falling apart because their interior world is unexamined huge swaths of our soul remain untouched and untransformed by jesus and so we stay stuck emotionally immature christians who have a tip of the iceberg spirituality can you just hear my heart as your pastor i don't want you to stay a baby christian skimming the surface of faith i want you to go deeper under the iceberg that's what ehs is about as we invite jesus to go under the iceberg of our lives and give him full access to your interior world that's how you mature emotionally and you grow deeper spiritually now i want to open our bibles and show you what i'm talking about in real time so if you have a bible or a bible app on your phone you can turn to first samuel chapter 15 and this is a story i want to share about king saul king saul is a case study in emotionally unhealthy leadership a little background saul was the first king of israel he was a gifted man he was chosen by god he was anointed by god he was a strong leader very successful as he led god's people israel in battle in other words on the surface everything looked good but underneath saul was a little bit oblivious emotionally unaware he's a man of action but he lacked a deeper contemplative life with god he wasn't aware of his iceberg he didn't see his fears and insecurities and he's very dangerous as a leader who's unaware read with me first samuel chapter 15 we'll start at verse 7 it says this then saul attacked the amalekites he took aegod king of the amalekites alive and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword but saul and the army spared agag and the best of the sheep in the cattle the fat calves and lambs everything that was good these they were unwilling to destroy completely but everything that was despised and weak everybody say weak weak they totally destroyed now let me give you a little background pause here king saul had been told by god to actually destroy the amalekites that's how they rolled in the old testament and they were kind of a wicked violent barbaric tribe and god said wipe out everything that belongs to them but notice saul destroys the army but he saved a little something something didn't he he saved the cattle he saved the lambs everything that was useful to him in other words saul was pragmatic he said god i'll do half of what you ask of me but i'm going to keep the other stuff that's valuable to me you know the spells of war i may want hamburgers for my men later it says then the word of the lord came to samuel now samuel is the prophet who speaks for god and god said i regret everyone say regret i regret that i've made saul king because he's turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions samuel was what angry and he cried out to the lord all that night so god has a very strong emotional reaction to saul's half-hearted obedience god feels regret he feels anger samuel cried out to the lord all night and it says early in the morning samuel got up went to meet saul but he was told saul has gone to carmel and now this is where you're going to see his true colors start to come out watch this there he has set up what a monument in his own honor it has turned and gone down to gilgal so there's under the surface of saul there's this there's this ego there's this pride there's this vanity a spirit of glory and self-promotion he's like look at me king saul hashtag blessed even though god gave me a victory i'm going to set up a monument in my honor when samuel reached him saul said now this is amazing this is so funny this is like the church i grew up in the lord bless you brother i have carried out the lord's instruction in other words watch how saul is trying to spin this he's trying to pretend everything's okay with some religious jargon hey the lord bless you my brother blessed and highly caffeine praise god i did everything the lord asked in other words he's a spiritual poser but samuel sees through it he said what then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears what is this lowing of cattle that i hear samuel is calling saul in the carpet he says not so fast you didn't obey god you kept something something for yourself and saul answered me no never the soldiers brought them from the amalekites they spared the best of the sheep and the cattle the sacrifice of the lord your god but we totally destroyed the rest do you notice the blame shifting bs doesn't just stand for bible study this is some blame shifting going on here this devil says so you're the king bro what happened and saul's like the soldiers did that not me i mean they just want to keep a few but we totally destroyed everything else he blames shifts he rationalizes enough samuel said to saul enough stop let me tell you what the lord said to me last night sit down all right tell me saul replied samuel said although you were once small in your own eyes did you not become the head of the tribes of israel the lord himself anointed you king over israel and he sent you on a mission saying go and completely destroy these wicked people the amalekites wage war against them until you've wiped them out here's my question saul why did you not obey the lord why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the lord but but i did obey the lord saul said listen to the the rationalization the self-deception i went on the mission the lord assigned me i completely destroyed the amalekites i brought the king back the soldiers took sheep and cattle from the planet the best of what was devoted to god in order to sacrifice them but samuel replied and this is probably a famous verse you may have heard does the lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the lord in other words does he delight in in worship services and in bible studies as much and actually hearing him and obeying him listen this key verse to obey is better than what sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams now this is important i want you to circle that word heed in your bible the hebrew word he actually means to listen what's better than anything to actually listen to the voice of god what saul's greatest sin on the surface saul looks like he's serving god he's praying he's leading he's making sacrifices he does some of what god wants on the surface but deep below he's skimming on his spirituality he's not even aware of his shadow side his motives and so he gives god this half-hearted obedience and so samuel delivers a verdict look at verse 23 for rebellion is like the sin of divination he's like this is as bad as witchcraft arrogance you think you're humble it's like the evil of idolatry because you saul have rejected the word of the lord god has rejected you as king bro do you see what's happening saul just got impeached by god god's like you're not even fit for office anymore turn in your crown god's like you lost your leadership because even though you're outwardly successful inwardly you're not humble enough to slow down sit heed listen to my voice and obey me and this must have shocked saul into like reality because in the last verse he finally admits the truth then saul said to samuel i have sinned i violated the lord's command in your instructions now listen carefully these words last verse what was behind all of this what was driving saul deep under his iceberg listen to this i was let's read this together i was afraid of the men and so i gave in to them what's driving saul as a leader fear specifically fear of man saul was a world-class people pleaser i i just felt pressure for my team and what the others think yeah so i caved i compromised it's like saul has some vague awareness of like some things swirling around in his soul this insecurity this controlling fear of what people might think of him the need to be popular with everybody catch this guys saul is king over israel and he has the emotional maturity of a middle school girl the reality is saul is shallow he's unaware of his interior life and he's really not paying attention to god oh oh he's got a head knowledge of what god wants offering sacrifices but he doesn't have a heart inner knowledge totally surrendered to the lord's will think of it this way there's a gap between saul's role and his soul his role as a king and his soul before god saul's doing for god is far outpacing his actually being with god he has more leadership activity going on in his outer life than his inner life can sustain and because he failed to pay attention to his soul the results are disastrous now contrast this with king david who actually succeeded saul who the bible you guys know describes david as a man after god's own why he was a murderer he's adultery after god's own heart well when you read the psalms david wrote you quickly see that david is emotionally aware of what's going on inside of him i read the psalms every day and in the psalms i'm always surprised by david's deep emotion that he's sharing with god you see david saying god i'm angry you see i'm dancing with joy you see i'm saying i'm depressed i'm downcast you see him broken and repenting forgive me god i'm a wicked man you see him rejoicing god you've forgiven and restored me you see the whole gamut of emotions and most importantly david is authentically broken and transparent before god and other people he doesn't fake it like saul does he's transparent i mean who else would commit adultery and murder and then say you know what i'm going to put it in a song that people can sing in church that's psalm 51. at the same time david has this deep passion for god he's he's hungry for god he he writes music he writes songs he writes poetry he holds nothing back emotionally and all through scripture you sing king david saying i'm going to be silent i'm going to still my soul before god you never see this with saul in fact you know what happens saul eventually winds up depressed and actually grows mad with jealousy in his last acts he's chucking spears at david's head because he's so jealous of the young guy this is an emotionally unhealthy king this would be a toxic ceo and that's because saul is operating not out of the holy spirit but out of a false self have you ever heard of that false self is the personality that you and i project to god and others to impress them to survive perhaps a conflict or avoid exposure for who we really are or just get our way and the reality is all of us have a false self it's like the immature often childish broken part of our soul and jesus like i want access to that that below the iceberg stuff that i want to rip up by the roots and transform with my love it's the part of us that's fearful of what people think defensive why why why are you blaming me self-promoting like saul blame shifting it's not me it's clint manipulative i tell half half truths you know half truths are they're half lies it's the people pleaser it avoids showing weakness or vulnerability and it's deadly it's not self-aware and this is so important if you want a church or a family to be emotionally healthy because when you sprinkle religion and power into the mix man there is a lot more complex false self to dismantle think of the pharisees who killed jesus and they're like i think we're doing god a favor very easy to be self-deceived and have a religious veneer over things to excuse it saul's chosen by god he's gifted by god he's anointed by god but because he failed to pay attention to the under the iceberg his motives he failed to confront his false self god impeached saul i have rejected you as king catch this shipwrecked his life so actually lost his leadership because he wouldn't make room to slow down really listen to the voice of the lord in his life and obey now just be honest guys can can anybody relate at all to this no no i'm not like suddenly i would never be slaughtered i i do i do guys i do all sorts of things that are motivated by getting people's approval any approval addicts out there okay i'm tim an approval addict like so i can be tempted by my pride towards you know how do i look is self-promotion will this post make me look good on social media i noticed that my tendency my default is to charge ahead with doing a lot of religious activity doing stuff for god like writing sermons and stuff and i can kind of neglect being with god actually just making room to quiet down and open my interior life to christ and let me tell you something when that gets neglected watch out confession i've got a mini saul inside of me but so do you and so do you we all do it's so easy to live go through life like saul being one person at church plus your brother and a whole another person or making decisions based on what other people think or not making room in your life to just be still and listen to the lord the truth is guys you go to church your whole life and grow in bible knowledge you can read books you can sing worship songs but it doesn't guarantee you will grow into a more loving humble approachable broken teachable person who loves god and and loves others well which is the whole heart of the christian life can i tell you about a man i'll call i'll call him george that's not his real name okay but he was a real person who attended our church this was over a decade ago the church was first starting out george was a sincere christian i know that he knew his bible very well uh very devout very sincere guy faithful to his wife never cheated he sent his kids to christian school but he's also dangerous kind of tough to be around george had a pretty low eq you guys know what eq is emotional intelligence in other words he lacked self-awareness and he was blind how others experienced him and so every week after service i'd i'd watched george corner people in the lobby and kind of invade their personal space you know i'd come over like george you want a breath mint you know just give a hint or something never could get it it would take that as a cue to corner me in which you would critique the sermon why didn't you use this verse i don't know why i don't even use the kjv now george was highly opinionated he was in a small group and the leaders had challenges because he was always spouting his opinion about politics and and race with very little sensitivity to the diversity of others he stepped on a lot of toes hurt a lot of feelings we're always putting out fires and whenever we talked with him he was defensive judgmental touchy it made me sad he would often steamroll over his wife but whenever they were together and she would actually try to share something he was yeah what doris really means is he'd actually cut her off mid-sentence and speak over her and he could just kind of see his wife kind of like her shoulders just she just kind of shut down emotionally i remember colleen said i just feel so sorry for tim and it was so strange to me because on the surface i have zero doubts george loved jesus we'll see him in heaven he read his bible he volunteered he tithed he came to church all looked okay on the surface but everybody avoided george because they knew he was emotionally unsafe person he wasn't self-reflective he didn't have any curiosity to say i wonder what it's like to be on the other side of me and he often judged people for not agreeing with his views it was so sad george actually ended up having so many conflicts at church things would blow up he didn't he didn't know how to resolve conflict in a humble way it was always be aggressive so eventually he just left the church and i remember when he was leaving he said well tim i was like i'm so sorry he said joy know what nothing i take this as a badge of honor jesus said we'd be persecuted for telling the truth and just moved on to the next church what's my point guys there's a crisis in the modern church we are full of immature christians who have a tip of the iceberg spirituality saints who know scripture but they don't know themselves the truth is emotional health and spiritual maturity are linked together and it is impossible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature like how can you love how can you authentically love god and others which he said is the whole point of life when people experience you as angry or always anxious how can you live in the freedom of christ when you're controlled by the fear of what people think see there's all these hidden dynamics swirling underneath the iceberg of your interior life and if you don't slow down and invite jesus into what's really going on inside you you get stuck as a spiritual infant you will repeat the same patterns over and over and fail to mature into a spiritually mature adult you know in our ehs small group pete shared how one of the church members in his church actually described this in his life he said i was a christian for 22 years but instead of being a 22 year old christian i was a one-year-old christian 22 times i just kept doing the same things over and over and over again guys i got good news for you today your god loves you so much that he wants to take the saul out of you and crucify the many saul in you and me that tendency we have to pretend to live a shallow life to go through kind of the religious motions in church where we follow god on our terms not his god wants to make you and me like king david men and women who are fully alive after god's own heart we're going to talk about david next week but this week in your group you're going to read about 10 symptoms of emotionally unhealthy spirituality i don't have time to go over them you'll read about them in chapter one this week before your group meets but i want to challenge you in a moment of honesty to circle the one or two that are most relevant to your life today do you want to hear my top two as long as you keep it here don't share this with anybody the first one i struggle with actually is ignoring difficult emotions of anger sadness or fear again i'll just be honest with you guys i have a hard time i don't know if it's like my family origin or just as a man i just have a hard time being honest with myself about the feelings hurts and pains that are beneath the surface of my life there i guess there's a reason for that growing up i was taught feelings are unreliable don't trust your feelings to me christians should never be angry sad or afraid if you do is probably something wrong with your spiritual life we should have the joy joy joy joy down in our heart the problem of course is that view is not biblical i mean think of jesus who we follow jesus was a man of sorrows familiar with suffering he actually wept when he lost friends he got angry he flipped tables over we saw last week and jesus experienced great joy and he felt deep grief in other words to feel a range of emotions is part of what it means to be human and made in the image of god and what i've learned is that if i ignore my god-given emotions i actually end up like robot tim and i miss the many ways that the holy spirit is speaking to me under the iceberg of my life for instance there was a season when i was found myself getting really mad at my kids not not just frustrated i get it all kids are frustrating you're like so unique i was mad but as i spent some time processing my anger with god and with my wife the holy spirit revealed that i wasn't actually mad in reality i was sad about the struggles they were having at the time i want you to catch the connection between mad and sad anger is a surface emotion i had anger on top but there was actually grief underneath i never realized i had all these unspoken expectations about how my parenting should look and how my kids should respond it all came out my family of origin and that god was actually calling me tim i want you to actually let go of your expectations grieve that loss because your kids are different and you're different than your dad and actually trust me with your children see god's often speaking to us he's shouting at us from under the iceberg of your emotional life the question is will you take the time to listen that's the second symptom i struggle with doing for god instead of being with him by nature i'm an activist i like to do great things for god and get people uh to get a catch a vision for the kingdom and i i tend to evaluate my spirituality based on how much ministry is happening in my life now on the one hand that's great right but when my activity my doing for god isn't balanced by contemplation time being alone with god i can become like saul doing the right things for the wrong reasons last week i told you about my brush with burnout right in fall of 2019 i became so busy doing very helpful things for god you'd be like look at tim wow he's a spiritual superstar he's preaching sermons he's writing books and doing interviews guest speaking here that i started skimming spiritually on my devotional time with jesus i was reading the bible but i was reading it for message preparation instead of letting the bible read me and if you asked me to draw a sketch of where my activity level wasn't was in relation to my contemplation my inner life with jesus here's what it would look like pete said draw it out tim so i did there it is i put on a balance you can see my doing for god man i was very busy i was so zealous but i was way out of whack my doing for god far outweighed my being with jesus and that's a dangerous place to be you got to understand something about how the gospel works understand something work for god that isn't nourished by a deep interior life with him becomes easily corrupted with ego in power and needing approval from people and worldly ideas of success and over time this is what happens watch this our sense of worth shifts from god's unconditional love for us as sons and daughters in christ to my works in my performance and you lose touch with grace you know what happens the joy of jesus dries up you ever go through a dry season like i'm just not feeling anymore and we become human doings not human beings have you ever served in a church or mystery and gotten burned out anybody just anybody else for now my guess is things got out of balance the reality is you can't give what you don't possess and if jesus isn't regularly refreshing your soul with his love how do you think you're going to love others authentically from the heart but that's me how about you be honest with yourself and your group this week what symptoms of emotion and healthy spirituality do you see in your life because over the next eight weeks i just want to challenge you to take a peek inside and invite jesus under your iceberg what ehs is going to teach us to do is combine two very powerful forces the first is emotional health some of you are like what's emotional health it's defined as your ability to be self-aware and love others well and so that be includes things like becoming aware of your shadow side your blind spots your triggers i don't know why my parents act like that i'll never act like that why am i acting like that how your family origin impacts you how do others experience me and when you combine emotional health with contemplative spirituality what's that tim can it sounds like a monk it's just slowing down your life to be with jesus through silence and stillness and scripture you invite god under the iceberg and he speaks in the depths when you bring those two together that combo can spark a spiritual revolution in your life i'm telling you for some of you if anybody here today is like i feel stuck tim in my journey with god i feel stalled i feel apathetic anybody feels you know scattered or fragmented or disoriented we all do after covid or anybody here feel constantly tired like i'm just always physically tired i'm spiritually worn out i'm emotionally exhausted the reality is most american christians actually pray and commune with god very little it's like a one-inch deep spirituality where you feast on sunday but then you starve monday through friday so each week we're going to teach you how to make room for silence and stillness in your life with jesus can i show you how it works okay let me get a drink here this is going to buckle up because i'm going to demo something here and if you have a phone pull it out after your group meets this week the morning after you begin using this day by day devotional 40 days of devotions got a scripture a short reading and then a question to consider and you do this twice a day once in the morning you do once in the afternoon or evening and don't get freaked out could be as short as five minutes or 15 minutes it's up to you be flexible the main goal is i'm going to pause throughout my day to experientially rest in the presence of jesus the key verse for this is the psalmist that he writes this he says be still and know that i am god now this is an ancient spiritual discipline where you quiet down your soul you find a comfortable place to be you ground your feet you center your thoughts and you reorient your soul around the love of god and you're going to see every devotion begins and ends with two minutes of silence and stillness so i suggest you actually find a good place to sit down or kneel and i actually suggest you set a timer can i show you how i do it siri set a timer for two minutes there you go there's my two minute timer and then what i do is i'm quiet for about 15 seconds and i begin breathing like this quieting my soul sometimes i'll put my hand out in a posture to receive the father's love and then i do what's called a breath prayer you guys know what a breath prayer is it's just a word or two for instance my main breath prayer as i go like this i go abba i belong to you jesus i surrender to you holy spirit speak to me abba i belong to you it's a breath prayer it's a way of quieting your soul releasing your anxieties and actually focusing on the presence of christ now this is going to be difficult for some of you because most of us have a hard time sitting still right and quieting our minds i want you to stick with it because it's very powerful because you're clearing the noise and making room for jesus to be the center of your life in the middle of your day and that is no small thing i mean we got live this busy noisy world of distractions revolutionary in fact i like what mother teresa wrote in this week's devotional she said we all must take the time to be silent and to contemplate especially those who live in big cities like london and new york where everything moves so fast i always begin my prayer in silence for it is in the silence of the heart that god speaks my timer went off can you hear it two minutes of silence and then there's a scripture reading very short so that you can meditate and chew on what god's saying and then there's a question to consider and you may want to actually even write out a prayer to god to that question whatever works best for you there's flexibility understand this is going to take you some time to get used to to practice there's flexibility but it's so vital that you practice this and practice it to make progress with very few of us actually have daily rhythms so rearranging your day like to stop and be with jesus tim twice a day i know major shift again give yourself grace this starts the day after your group meets and if you miss a day just pick up with the next devotional okay remember the goal is simple you just want loving union with your jesus it's devoting time to communion with your creator and invite him under the iceberg of your inner world over the next eight weeks the goal is to exercise your muscles your stillness muscle your silence muscle everybody flex everyone say silence silence stillness do it twice a day to increase your appetite to be with jesus and cultivate this this deeper relationship with him it's going to be life-changing guys i'm telling you as your pastor at the end of this what am i hoping here's what i'm praying i'm praying some of you are actually going to start feeling relaxed and unhurried amidst the pressures of your daily life i'm praying some of you feel the insecurity and that you're going to be more anchored in the love of god and he able to hear his spirit speaking i pray that you're going to grow in your ability to remain thoughtful and loving even when i'm triggered by people and establish some sustainable rhythms of sabbath so you're not chronically stressed or exhausted i want you to grow in self-awareness you can offer your life as a gift to the world because that's how good god designed you amen so to kick off our ehs experience i thought this week let's start with communion communion literally is coming into union with jesus news flash jesus is here you know right like wherever to earth you're gathered i'm right there jesus is here he's real he's been waiting to talk to you and so you should have gotten a communion cup on the way in you can take that out and peel off the foil the cracker represents the body of christ broken on the cross out of love for you the cup represents the blood of jesus shed to forgive your sins actually to cleanse your heart can i just tell you if you feel frazzled today let god refresh you if you put your trust in the death and resurrection of jesus christ you're invited to have communion but let's first do this let's take a moment just for silent prayer and confession tell him where you need renewal tell him where you've been like saul and then we'll partake together father we confess some of us feel overwhelmed right now some of us feel anxious some feel guilty some feel apathetic and that's why we're coming to you for refreshing with these these elements god right now we're holding in our hands the evidence of your great love we thank you jesus for laying down your life on the cross and dying in my place so that i could come to life spiritually and commune with you my father in heaven right now father we confess any sin we repent of them we turn from them and we invite your holy spirit to fill us afresh jesus i ask you would you crucify the many saul in me i want a heart like david fully alive fully free no pretending no half-hearted religion jesus said we give you full access right now to every part of our iceberg for the next eight weeks we dedicate ourselves as a people to slowing down and making room to be with you daily holy spirit come and do a fresh work in us we consecrate our groups to you i ask for a spirit of safety of vulnerability transparency and unity in these groups so we can grow deep roots in christ together grow us transform us change us in jesus name everybody said together amen you can go ahead and receive communion [Music] thanks for watching liquid church youtube channel hey don't stop here i want to invite you to be part of our online community subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a single video or live stream and share this with a friend you know everybody's welcome to join us if you're blessed by this message you can support our ministry by clicking the give now button to help us continue to reach people around the world for christ thanks so much for watching god bless

Channel: Liquid Church

Views: 822

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Liquid Church, #LiquidChurch, New Jersey, Christian Church, Tim Lucas, Pastor Tim Lucas, Non-Denominational Christian Church, Christianity, Contemporary Christian Church, Emotions, Health, Spirit, Spiritual, Spiritual Life, Anger, Fear, Relationships, Anxiety

Id: mA9pr_agW-k

Length: 45min 44sec (2744 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021