Habits of a Healthy Heart: Part 3

Habits of a Healthy Heart

Part 3: Habit of Simplicity

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, I will tell you, less than 12 hours ago my wife was supposed to be preaching today. And if you guys know when you have kids, nights can be crazy. It can be a roller coaster of emotion and surprises and twists and turns. And in the course of the night, what do we got? We got four. Four in the family got sick. And so I'm here, I'm doing good, praise God. My oldest daughter Adeline is here, she's doing great as well. So you got two of the six Sniders today for you. And with that, that means that I'm preaching. And so I'm preaching my wife's notes. This is the first time I've ever done this. So it may be short, maybe really long, maybe off topic. We'll see what happens, see where the Lord takes us this morning. But it's gonna be a great time. I'm glad you're here.

We have started this Habits of a Healthy Heart series and we're in week three, week one, where we talked about the habit of self-examination and really taking a pause and looking at where we are in life to be really honest with ourselves. And then last week, Pastor Andre talked about the habit of solitude, taking time during our week to pause the crazy and to connect with God, to take moments to stop what we're doing, the hustle, the bustle, the loaded calendar, the driving over here to over here to this appointment to this thing over here to work, to groceries, to all the things in life that we have to do to take time to be 100% intentional. 'Cause it's not gonna happen on its own, right? To be 100% intentional to stop and to say, "God, you're my focus. You're my source, you're my hope, you're my everything." And we learned that if we wanna change our life, we have to change our habits. But if we wanna change our habits, we have to let God change our hearts. And week one, we talked about the lies that we tell ourselves, right? All the lies, "I'm gonna be okay. This is gonna be fine. It's only for a season. It's not that big of deal. It's gonna be okay. I can handle it." We tell ourselves all of these lies 'cause number one lie, we're lying to ourselves, right? We're all lying to ourselves. And so I caught myself this week. And my wife goes, "I don't think that's right." And you're like, "You're right. And I don't like that you're right. Stop it." But I had to check myself and it changed my heart. And today we're gonna focus in on the habit of simplicity. And I know what you're thinking, "Oh, man. Here we go. Pastor Chris is gonna tell me to just go throw all my stuff away, downsize my house, get a bicycle, commute up and down 80 on that bike." I'm just kidding. No, honestly, I want you to stay focused if you could, please. Just the next 30 minutes or so. Just stay focused in that because the more that my wife studied the Bible on simplicity, no, I'm kidding, the more that we look at simplicity, we see such great truths in scripture for ourselves.

I think the biggest lie that we tell ourselves is more is better, right? We tell ourselves that if I could just have the newest, you fill in the blank, all my problems would go away. If I just had the newest phone that I guess now can like auto reply to your emails and your text messages, I would have so much free time with AI, I wouldn't have to do anything. I'd have all this vacation, all my work emails would be taken care of. I could do whatever I want, but I have to have more. More is supposed to make us happier, right? That's what the ads tell us, right? That's what the world tells us that if we have more, everything's going to be fine. My life will be that much better. But the reality is more turns into more stress, more bills, more anxiety, more worry. More is not better. This lie actually started in the garden. It started with Adam and Eve. It was amazing how the serpent was able to convince Eve that more was better. God creates Adam and Eve and they're in the garden, they're living life, they're naked and amazing. They don't have to worry about anything. Weather is perfect. They have everything that they could ever need and hope and desire and wish. God says eat anything in the garden. Do whatever you want. Walk up to that peach tree, go to town. There's an apple one about a mile down the road. There's some grapes over here. Life is great. There's a garden with vegetables if you want to go over to it. Do whatever you want. But there's this one tree. It's called the knowledge of good and evil tree. Don't touch it. Just don't go even near it honestly. And Adam and Eve start living their life and everything is great. And all in comes the serpent. The serpent says, hey, you have free range of everything in here. You can eat whatever you want, but God says you can't touch that. Wouldn't more be better? Wouldn't one more tree in your diet of all the fresh fruits and veggies that your heart's content. Wouldn't one more fruit just make everything perfect? And she falls for this lie and takes on more. And we realize that she ends up sinning. And this starts the world in a different trajectory. They're kicked out of the garden. They have to garden their own food. They have to work the ground. They have to survive the elements, the wild animal, everything around them. And more did not equal better.

Question for you this morning. What if the stuff you have is keeping you from the life you want? What if the things that you have, whether physical things, maybe in the garage, in a hallway closet, a guest closet buried in a box in the attic, basement. Maybe it's emotional stuff. Maybe it's relational stuff. Maybe it's your calendar. What if those things, this stuff, this more is better that we've been convinced that we need to have is keeping us from the life that we want. Now, hear me out. You're not having to give everything away. You're not having to purge it all and go to like two sets of clothing, have one car, one cell phone to share with the whole family. I'm not talking extremes here. But what I am talking about is less is freeing. Don't get me wrong. Stuff is a blessing. So many things that we get in life are a true blessing to our lives and they help us. They're valuable tools and resources that make our life easier to do things. But there comes a point when you have to acknowledge that we have enough, right? We just came out of the holiday season. I love Christmas. One of my favorite times of year. So good. I remember this year just sitting on the couch and kids are opening presents and papers fly and things are just going crazy. Everybody's laughing. It's such a great, great moment. We love it. We love blessing our children. We love blessing our family and giving gifts. But I did some research and the consumer spending on gifts in this holiday season has gotten astronomical. It's gotten completely out of hand, even in a recession with inflation. It's still out of hand. Every single year since 2009, the spending during the holidays from people buying stuff has increased every single year. And in 2024, the sales were expected, and I think they broke this, to break the record in 2023 of $955.6 billion in sales. That's billion with a B. That is just short of $1 trillion. I don't even know how to comprehend that amount of money. And listen, I love the holidays. I'm all for gifts. I'm all for blessing people. I'm all for having supplies and things you need, like socks and underwear and PJs, like some necessities that as a parent I've learned, you wrap up and give to your kids as a gift. And you're like, if this was a July month, I would have just been given this to put in my room. Right? But we wrap it up because it's Christmas.

But we have to ask ourselves, when is enough enough? Christmas is just one area I'm talking about. I'm talking about our everyday spending, our everyday lives. Where do we need to practice simplicity? I love this often looked over story in Acts 27. Paul is on a ship with his crew and they're sailing, I can't remember from what place to what place, but they get caught in this horrific storm. And they're trying to figure out what to do. They're being tossed back and forth. The waves are just beating them down. And the crew is literally going, I'm going to go see Jesus tonight. Like this is the moment when God's calling me home. They are staring face in the eyes. And they've gone about two weeks without eating anything. And yet in the midst of this, they break bread and Paul gives thanks. Read the scripture here, follow on. Paul, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. When he broke it, he began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea. Another translation says, when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea. See, earlier in this passage, they had already lightened the ship once already. They were hitting some rocky waves. They realized they were overloaded. They realized we just got to make this call. Seems pretty extreme for us, right, to think we're just going to pitch this stuff and it'll be what it'll be. But they had to think about the long term here. And so they had already lightened the ship and now they were able to lighten it a little bit more by getting rid of some of the wheat or food that they had. Why? This is better. They can navigate the ship faster. They can maneuver it easier. They can keep going at a quicker pace to get through the storm to get to safety, to get to their destination. But when did they do it? They did it when they had enough.

What is enough? How much is enough? When you have what you need. So to begin to practice this habit of simplifying, you have to believe that you have enough. Say it with me. I have enough. Do you believe that? I have enough. See, we don't think we have enough, do we, truly, deep down inside, right? We don't truly think that we have enough because there's two aspects to it that we have to believe. The first of which is we have to believe that more won't make us happy, more won't make us fulfilled, more won't make us successful, more won't make us less anxious. It's about an identity. We have identity in the stuff that we have, right? I'll admit it. I'll be the first person to admit it. We have an identity with the stuff that we have. I love smoking meat and barbecuing. It's one of my favorite things. It causes me to slow down because you can't rush barbecue. You ever tried rush barbecue? It's horrible. It's the worst thing in the world. There's a reason they call it low and slow, baby. Low and slow because you have to slow down. But I have too much barbecue stuff. I have like three grills. I've got I don't know how many trinkets and gadgets, spray bottles for spritzing to make sure that brisket stays moist. I got peach paper to wrap it up. I got loads of foil. I got wireless thermometers. I have a device that I can connect up to my barbecue that'll keep my barbecue at the exact temperature. It's so funny. This Christmas, my mom was like, "Hey, what do you want for Christmas?" I'm like, "I have enough." I caught myself saying that and I was like, "Wait a minute, I want more." But I have an identity with barbecuing where I want to be the best barbecuer ever. When I sliced that meat, I wanted to be chef's kiss perfection. But it got to come with gadgets and gizmos and all the newest technology and the latest this and the latest that. It's an identity that I have.

The other part of this problem is that sometimes whether we want to admit it or not, we don't trust God to provide for us. This one hurts because we think, "Oh, no, God, you got me. I know you got me. My battle belongs to you. We're going to be glad." We sang all these songs this morning about God being our source of everything. But we want to be the hero of the story, right? We want to be the hero. We want to be the one that goes, "Look what I did for myself. Look what I did. Look what I provided, family. Look what I put on the dinner table, a delicious steak. Look what I did. We want to be the hero." But the reality is we have to let God be the hero because God is truly the ultimate hero, right? We haven't saved ourselves. We haven't forgiven ourselves. We haven't created grace. We haven't created love. We receive that. We receive it from God. When we step into a habit of simplicity, God becomes the hero of the story. We don't. We are not the hero. If we stay in this mindset of my identity is what I have and I'm the hero of the story, it'll ruin our lives. It'll take us to a toxic place that is so dark. It is lonely. It is hopeless. There is no peace. And we're sitting there trying to fend for ourselves. Some of us don't need more stuff in our Amazon carts to check out. We need to let God check our hearts out. We need to let God step into our lives and begin to work through what we have and to say and begin to pray this prayer. A regular is, "God, give me less of what doesn't matter and give me more of what does matter." That should be our prayer every single day. "God, give me less of what doesn't matter and God give me more of what does matter.”

Jesus himself says in Matthew 6:19-21, he says, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Jesus here is telling us we don't need to store up stuff on earth. We're not taking any of it with us anyway. You hear those stories of those people who get buried with their stuff, right? Get buried in their car, the trunk's loaded, the backseat's jam-packed and they think, "I'm taking it with me." The family goes, "No, you're not. We're taking it home." Throw the body in the hole, cover it up and they drive the car home. Stop accumulating for accumulation's sake. Stop hoarding. I need to tell myself this. I have a garage full of things I just don't need anymore. God's been working on my heart, I'll tell you.

Even before this series and before anything, we did a generosity series, practicing generosity as a community group and we went through and it talked about one of the aspects of living generously is living with less so you can give more. One of the challenges was to go give away some stuff. I went home and I started looking through my closet and I'm like, "I don't wear that shirt anymore. I don't wear that. Oh, those pants, those don't work anymore. They're out of style. I got this." All of a sudden, I'm walking out of our bedroom with three garbage bags and Lauren, my wife's like, "What are you doing?" I said, "She's got too much stuff." She's like, "Wow, you had that much stuff in there?" I said, "I know, right?" And guess what? I'm still dressed. I still got clothes. I'm not having to run around nudie day. Like I'm still covered. Everything is good. But I didn't need the stuff and it was just sitting in my closet collecting dust. I was kind of embarrassed, honestly. I was just like, "Oh my gosh, let's get this out of here before anybody sees this." I'm trying to load it in the trunk in the front yard. Neighbors driving by. "Man, that guy's got a problem." "Yes, he does." No amount of accumulation of the stuff or your purchases will ever be enough to satisfy us. It just won’t.

We keep believing this lie that it'll make us happy, we'll be fulfilled, less anxious. We'll be more like this. You fill in the blank. But it's all a lie. And honestly, I believe it's a lie straight from Satan to keep us preoccupied from Jesus. We don't trust God to provide for us. I have a whole bin in my garage of odds and ends hardware supplies. I got whipped cream containers from my grandfather of screws and bolts. And even like yesterday, working on our dryer, I needed a bolt. One of my kids came along, grabbed the bolt, thought it was their bolt. The bolt was gone. And I'm sitting there going, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, oh no." So I went to the garage, opened my trusty whipped cream container. Sure enough, I got my bolt. But what got the bolt in the garage was the fact that I don't trust. Found the screw later. But I didn't trust. And so my garage is filled with stuff just in case. Well guess what? Home Depot's open seven days a week just in case. Where am I putting my trust? We want to feel safe and secure. And we think that money, status, resources, connections will make this for us. We make ourselves the hero of the story. But when we ask God for less of what doesn't matter, we are saying, "God, you are enough for me and I trust you to be my provider." How does this work?

Well it says in Hebrews 11:1-2 it says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so entangles us. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Throw it off. Another translation says, "Strip it off," like it's clinging onto you, like it's stuck. Pull it off. Let it be free. Go. Get rid of it. We're being suffocated by our own fear of our stuff and our schedules and the things that we consume. And the only responsible thing to do is to throw it off. I remember as a kid, my parents were big into backpacking. And I remember, I think it was like one of my birthdays, I think it was like 14 or something, me and a bunch of my buddies, we said, "Let's go backpacking for my birthday." And so talking with my dad, I started gathering up the stuff that I wanted to take on the backpacking trip. And my dad's looking at me in the most loving way, he kind of just starts laughing. And he turns to me and he goes, "Son," he goes, "Do you know everything you take into the woods? Do you take out of the woods with you?" I said, "Yeah, dad." He goes, "Okay." He's like, "So that 10 pound hammer you have, what's that for?" "Oh, it's to be set in our tents. We're sleeping outside. We don't sleep in our tents." "Oh, well I might need it." He goes, "Okay, so that's 10 pounds in, 10 pounds out." You realize that? I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." Okay. So I remember loading up my pack and putting it on, I test it, put it on about fall over. This thing is so jam packed with some of the most ridiculous stuff that only a 14 year old boy would think that he needs to take in for a camping trip overnight into the woods. I got food for a week just in case. I got water on me. I got all this stuff. My dad's like, "No." He goes, "We'll take a pump, we'll pump water out of the lake with the filters." He goes, "We'll take dehydrated food so when it is light, you got like one pot, maybe a spoon, your sleeping bag, a change of clothes, and a shovel to take care of business when it hits." "That's about it." I'm like, "What about this? What about this?" He's like, "You don't need it. Trip it off. You're just going to hurt yourself more on the trip." And I'll tell you what, man, I was so glad. We got about halfway to camp and I was dying. And that was with like nothing in my pack. I was like, "Can I imagine having everything else in this pack?" I would still be out there. They would have just buried me along the trail and said, "Here lies the kid with all of his stuff. Don't be the kid.”

We had to ask ourselves, and my wife's done an amazing job with this in the last couple of years with us. She started having us ask this question of, "Do I want to manage this?" Because we think, "Oh, it's just in the garage. It's in the closet. It's just in the drawer of my desk. It doesn't matter. I don't have to look at it." You have to manage it still because you open the desk. Guess what's there? That thing that you have to dig around to find what you need. You go in the garage and you trip over that thing again because it's in the path where you need to walk. You're managing it. So we started asking ourselves, "Do we want to manage this?" It turns this just stuff that's there like we think it's out of our peripheral to something right in front of us. See, I think the problem is, is as we try to take stuff and put it behind us, like where we put Jesus, and then we're walking forward in life going, "Jesus, where are you? I can't see you. We got all this other stuff in front of us. And Jesus, where are you? I can't see you." And Jesus is like, "There's no room for me to be in front of you. I want to be in front of you. I want to be what you look at. I want you to follow me. I want you to be my focus and my attention, but there's too much stuff there. We can't even see it." Jesus needs to be removed from the background to put in our foreground, but we got to clear stuff out to make room for Jesus. We need to have the prayer of God, "Give me more of what does matter.”

Ecclesiastes says, "Better is one handful of tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind." What do I mean by this? This is what I mean. Because we want stuff, right? See, I can't even hold all my stuff. But we think more is better, right? So we pick this up and we're like, "Yes! I got it all." And then someone comes along and says, "Can you help me? I need a hand." You're like, "I got my stuff." Someone comes along, they're having a really bad day. They want a hug. They want a word of encouragement. You go, "That's awkward." Jesus comes along and says, "I have a project for you. I need you to do this for me." And you're like, "But God, my hands are full. I got my stuff." Jesus tells us to pick up our cross daily. How do you pick up a cross with your stuff? So Ecclesiastes said, "Better is one handful of tranquility. I can bless people. I can go to people. I can care for them. This is enough. This is all I need." See, my hand's even making what is true enough. As more falls off, it's just extra. Have enough. And honestly, the truth is that we have enough. Say it with me. I have enough. But the reality is, the truth in that is, I have enough because I have Jesus. Because I have Jesus, I have enough. Say it with me. Because I have Jesus, I have enough. God... See, I can't even get out of my fingers. God has so much that He wants for our lives. But we sit here holding on to things, and there's no room for Jesus. We think, "Jesus, I'm gonna put down just for church. I'm gonna go to church. I'm gonna worship you, praise you, give you... I'm gonna come home. Pick up my stuff." We may be setting it down for seasons, and that's good. That's healthy. But I think the next step that God wants us to do is to just get rid of it. To just not even have to think about it anymore, and to focus on what we do need.

Paul later, after this shipwreck accident, or storm in the ship, he writes to the church in Philippi. He says, "I know what it is to be in need on a ship facing death, in prison." I made a joke this morning in our team huddle. We're talking about the storm. I said, "It feels like Paul was in prison every Tuesday." Just like you read through the Bible and you flip a page like, "Oh, there's Paul back in prison." He knows what it is to be in need, to be locked up, to be starving, to be captured. He was shipwrecked. He was stranded. He was out in a... He found himself in so many places where he was in need. He says, "And I know what it is to have plenty." There are times where he showed up at churches and they just blessed him. They gave him everything that he needed, and then some. I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in one. I can do all this through him, who's Christ, who gives me strength. Paul understood that because he had Jesus, he had enough. We have Jesus. We have enough. And some of us, just regardless of where we find ourselves, we just want more. And I will say the desire for more is okay. It's the action of accumulating those is where it goes wrong. It's a natural bent in our inner being to want more. Just is. But for us, the problem is this decision then. Do we need the more finances? Do we need the more phones? Do we need the more clothes? Do we need the more house, the more square footage, the newer kitchen, the perfect backyard, the perfect neighborhood? You fill in the blank. And Jesus is here to tell us that you have more than enough because I am with you. Jesus, some of the very last words he says to his disciples before he goes back up to the heaven, he says, "And I will be with you until the end of the age or your age." Because then we're face to face with him in heaven. You know there's no more in heaven, right? God will give you the enough in heaven and you will be for the first time ever in your life completely satisfied.

I find it funny. I talk to different people and they always talk about, "I get all these questions for God when I get to heaven." I say, "Oh, that's really good." I say, "I bet God's gonna wanna answer those for you." But then I think to myself, I said, "You get to heaven, you're not gonna worry about your question. 'Cause your question's here and now is the, "I want more. I want more answers. I want more understanding. I want more of this. I want more of that." You get to heaven, you're in front of Jesus, you will have enough and your questions of more will be gone because you will be face to face with him just worshiping him to say, "God, thank you. You are enough." So this is our prayer. God give me less of what doesn't matter. God give me more of what does matter because I have you. I have enough. Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you for your enough. God, we are so grateful for the enough that you are. So God, I pray this week as we really wrestle, oh, this is a tough one, to wrestle with this habit of simplicity, God, that you would begin to reveal to us where we have too much. God begin to define in our lives of what enough truly looks like. And God, I pray that we would step in boldness. We would step in faith, not knowing what that life without that stuff may be like, but moving you from behind us, not being seen, to in front of us to where we follow you, Jesus. It doesn't matter where we're going to go. It doesn't matter what's going to happen. It doesn't matter what's around tomorrow. If you, God, are in front of us and we are following you, everything is taken care of. We don't have to know the more or the where or the what or the how. All we have to know is that we're following you, our hero, Jesus. And so God, I pray that this week we will begin to maybe start working through some of our more. And it doesn't have to be all done at once because that's just going to be chaos. But God, may it be simple, small steps of walking in faith in the simplicity of the life that you want for us, God, ultimately to have the freedom, the capacity, the availability, the freedom to do what you desire for our lives, God. Because if we're too busy holding up our stuff, we can't do what you've called us to do. And we can't truly, truly love you and worship you. God, I pray that you would become the hero of our story. We would remove our identity from our stuff and our things to you, Jesus our savior. We thank you, God. We love you. Give us the grace, the boldness, the endurance this week to step into a life of simplicity. Everybody said, Amen.

Habits of a Healthy Heart: Part 2

Habits of a Healthy Heart

Part 2: Habit of Solitude

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Last week, we started and Pastor Chris said this, "If you want to change your life, you need to change your habits. But if you want to change your habits, you have to let God change your heart." Last week, we talked about self-examination. Pastor Chris spoke from Psalms and the need to let God reveal to us what might be going on inside of us, what might need to change, what might need to be surrendered, and then let the work of the Spirit do that work within us.

Today, we're going to move on to our next healthy habit. Are we excited? Do you know? I think it says on the bulletin. I can't even do a surprise. It's solitude. We're talking about solitude today. And whenever I bring up solitude in a group, it's usually pretty, some people are excited and some people are like, "I hate being alone. So why would I want to do the spiritual practice of solitude?" But I want to say that there's a difference between being alone and exercising solitude. Wayne Cordero says that there's a difference between isolation and solitude. They may contain similar characteristics, but in reality, they are worlds apart. Solitude is a chosen separation for refining your soul, and isolation is what happens when you don't pay attention to the first. So with that kind of solitude, how many of you, let's take a little time here to get a sense of where we're at. How many of you enjoy solitude, an intentional time of being alone? Yeah, just very few hands. Oh, more hands. Yes, great. How many of you get that regular time? You might enjoy it, but do you actually? Yeah, now I see some less hands. It's hard. It's hard. The truth is getting regular times of solitude is difficult. Our lives do not really allow or encourage for that time. Like Pastor Chris said, our society often values maximizing time, keeping us busy, grinding out every hour, doing work as much as you can.

But the way of Jesus shows us something different. Jesus lived and modeled a practice of regular solitude. The Bible shows us that solitude is where God does some of his most transformative work within us. Now you might be saying, "But my life is too busy. I just, you know, there's too many people dependent on me. It is so hard to practically get this time of solitude." And I hear you. I do. I'm one saying the same thing sometimes. But I want us to think of the life of Jesus for a second and all that he had going on. He had ministry straight for three years, chose disciples. He was teaching the values of God's kingdom. He was healing people. He was casting out demons. He was raising people from the dead. He was cleansing the temple. He was showing love and compassion to everyone, the crowds that came to follow him. He endured persecution and ridicule and opposition from the Pharisees, all while fulfilling the law and all while looking forward in his mind to knowing what he knew was going to come, which was the sacrifice that he would have to make. And he was called while doing the will of God every day. Jesus consistently and intentionally created space to hear from his Father in heaven, to spend time with God. And if Jesus did it, lived it, modeled it, and we are followers of him, want to live life like him, then I think we too should practice regular solitude. We have to realize that it's not possible to be intimate with God, to have an intimate relationship with him without intentionality. That just doesn't happen by accident. God, I know you and I love you and I just hope that we can get close over time. That's very wishful thinking. It doesn't happen like that. Think of your relationships in your life, the closest ones you have, be it a marriage or your closest friend, family. At some point, you are intentional to whatever degree to spend time with them, to invest in that relationship. As one pastor said, you can't busy your way to God, even by doing good spiritual things. If I just read my Bible, and then I do this, I do this, I do this, eventually, that might put your attention closer to him, but it's not going to move you. You're not going to take steps towards God. So one of the most important ways to be intentional with him, to deepen our understanding and our relationship with him, is to spend time in solitude with him.

Now let's further define what solitude is. Ruth Haley Barton, who is an author and has a great book. If you're a person who likes resources and wants to read more after this or wants to listen to a podcast, come find me. I will give you tons of information about solitude. But she writes this, "Solitude at its most basic and profound level is simply an opportunity to be ourselves with God." Just to be ourselves with God. All of who we are, the good, the bad, the polished, the unrefined, to bring our desires, our hopes, our pains, our struggles, and to just be with him. And to listen, often in times of silence. It's time to just focus on our relationship with him. Just the two of you. I don't know if you have someone in life like that that you have where you don't always have to talk with whatever's going on out loud. You just be with that person. They know you. They know what you need. And they know when to speak and when not to. That is solitude with God. Just being with him in whatever you are feeling. Henry Nouwen, another author, says, "Without solitude, it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and to listen to him." This one's a bit convicting. I've had seasons where I'm better at having a regular rhythm of solitude and having a newborn in our lives right now does not naturally lend to that. It's hard. And I know that God understands where I'm coming from. He has compassion on me. But it's no excuse. As the most important relationship in my life, I still need to be spending time, intentional time of solitude with God. However long or short that is. We cannot live our lives to the fullest extent without spending time with God. And then John Mark Homer, author and pastor, he writes this about solitude. He says, "Solitude is not an easy path, but it is an ancient path, the Jesus path to a strong, deep, joyful, vibrant life with God." I love this. The Jesus path. Jesus showed us that it truly does lead to the best relationship with our Heavenly Father. And so for the rest of this morning, with this understanding of solitude, I want to focus on four points that we see from scripture, specifically in the life of Jesus. And that is first, that our environment when it comes to solitude matters. Secondly, in that time of solitude, we're going to encounter ourself. It's what that means in a bit. We're going to encounter the enemy. And then ultimately, we're going to encounter God. So let's take a deeper look into these moments.

Let me pray first one more time and then we'll get into it. God, thank you again for our time this morning, for this series of talking about what our hearts need to be healthy in the way that you intended them to be. And as we talk about solitude, I pray that you would help us to be honest with ourselves. God, that your spirit would speak through your words, your scripture, reveal to us what we can change in life, what practical things might need to change in order that we can have a deeper, more intimate relationship with you. We pray this in your name. Amen.

We’re going to start in Luke. We're going to jump around today. So if you want to follow along your Bible, all for it. But we'll have it on the screen because I'm going to be going pretty fast. So Luke 5:15 through 16 says this, "Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came near to him or came to hear him and to be healed of their sickness. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." I want to focus on that last part there. Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Lonely places. I love that. The NASB says he withdrew to the wilderness. The ESV says desolate places or deserted. Jesus was alone in nature, just him and God the Father. You know what's significant about where he went, about his environment, is that there was no other people. There was no other man-made noise or distraction to draw his attention away from what he was out there to do. People and noise are a distraction from when we're trying to commune with God. The spiritual practice of solitude is often paired and said as silence and solitude. We need that environment to encourage us to focus in on our relationship with him. To find a quiet and lonely place takes great intentionality on our part these days. The noise of the world is getting louder and louder. It's only growing. For Jesus, he had crowds of people in his own mind. He had the will of God. He had to carry out lots of broken and needy people. So he had to get away. He had to be alone in order to commune with the Father. But like I said, for us today to find that lonely place, that's really difficult. To find a place of true silence is even harder. Let me share with you the findings of Bernie Krauss, who is a musician and ecologist. He executed a study for many, many years. He was reflecting on it. In 2008, he wrote this paper reflecting on the changes in sound that he witnessed over 40 years. He would go out and study sound. He said this, "In 1968, it took just 15 hours to record one hour of silence." Just nature, not complete, like nothing. You could have birds, you could have whatever, the wind. But no human noise. So no airplanes, no power lines buzzing, no traffic. It took 15 hours to get one hour of silence. In 2008, it took nearly 2,000 hours to get one hour of silence. The noise of this world is only getting louder. And it's a hindrance to us in getting that solitude with Jesus. Bernie, who did this study, said when he was reflecting on these, and he's not a religious man, he said, "Humans are denied an experience of the wild natural essential to an interaction between themselves and their organically resonant surroundings." As a believer, I think he's just a little bit off. And I would say, with all that noise, humans are denied an experience to be in creation and be drawn closer to their creator like we were intended to.

Another part of our environment that is arguably an even bigger factor in regards to distractions and hindrance is the digital noise that we face. In this digital age, we are dealing with smartphones, alerts, Wi-Fi, e-mails, social media, streaming services, endless queues of information and entertainment. In this digital age, it is now possible, and this scares me when I say this, it is now possible to go your entire life without ever being truly alone with God. Our devices keep us tethered to the world of noise and regularly drown out the voice of God in our hearts. As Mother Teresa said, "We need to find God, and He cannot be found in the noise or restlessness. God is the friend of silence." We were made to commune with God, like Adam and Eve in the garden, taking regular walks with God in the garden. But do we have that time? Do we have a place? Do we have a moment in our day where there is no noise, be it audible or digital? So as you think, as you reflect on your life, you take inventory of your day, do you have a regular time with God? Do you have a place free of distraction where you and God can truly commune? Remember, Jesus often, often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. We want that to be true of us, too. So the first thing is our environment. When practicing solitude, it will either, our environment helps us or hinders us. And so find a place that will help you.

The next point is our encounter with self. When we come to a place of quiet, if we ever do get that time of solitude, we are often coming to it feeling worn out, exhausted, beat down by life. And we expect solitude to kind of be this day spa for our souls. God, if I just get some alone time, my soul is going to feel so good and pampered. I'm going to come back refreshed and renewed. Sometimes it goes that way. I will say sometimes it goes that way. But often it can feel less like a day spa and more like intense emotional surgery. Because we can get away from people, but we can't get away from ourselves. Henry now and again, right? Solitude is not a private therapeutic place. Rather, it is the place of conversion. The place where the old self dies and a new self is born. The place where emergence of the new man and the new woman occurs. And when he writes this, he goes on to talk about how the reality in alone time, we have no buffers for what's going to like distract us from what's going on inside of us. We don't have friends to talk with. We don't have updates to check or social media to scroll through. No music to entertain. No books or shows to immerse ourselves in. We're just there, weak and vulnerable, sinful and broken before God. And that's difficult for us to just sit in our own brokenness, our own sin. That's an uncomfortable tension that we don't like. And so we're often desperate if we start to have alone time and solitude time, we're often desperate to be like, "Oh, should I just go check my phone? I don't like what's going on in here. Let me go distract myself with something else." But when we get free of distractions, we're better able to see the mess of what's going on inside of us, like the self-examination that Pastor Chris was preaching about last week. Every emotion, every emotion, every feeling of exhaustion, worries, sadness, anger, shame. It all rises to the surface when we spend time in solitude. Our soul is thinking, "Finally, I have some time to deal with what's going on inside of us." The problem can be that we don't know how to deal with it. We feel these emotions, we feel these things coming to the surface, like, "What is going on? I don't like this. I don't even know what to do.”

But Jesus did know what to do. And he shows us on the evening before his crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26, it says this, "Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane. And he said, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.' He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him and he began to be sorrowful and troubled." Jesus knows what's coming the next day. He knows what's going on. He knows that he needs some time in solitude. And as he does, he begins to feel his pain. And he shows us how to deal with that by bringing it before God. As we continue, it says, "Then he said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.' And going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.'" It's through this simple but difficult practice of noticing and naming our emotions before God in prayer and offering them up to God in raw honesty. That we are deeply formed to the people that God has always desired for us to become. Don't run from those negative feelings. Rather, lay in them before God. Surrender them. Again, most of us don't like that tension, especially that inner tension. But it's through that tension that God works and transforms us, refines us, purifies us, restores us into being more like Christ. So the first two points. Your habit of solitude needs a healthy environment. And when you are in that place, it will lead to a difficult but necessary encounter with yourself.

Next, we will encounter the enemy. For centuries now, since the early days of the church, it has been recognized that there are three enemies to the soul. The world, the flesh and the devil. All three test and tempt our faith when we are in the quiet. And usually this comes in the form of thoughts that assault our minds with lies, deception and temptation. It did for Jesus in Matthew 4. Jesus goes out into the wilderness. It says this in Matthew 4, 1 through 11. Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' And the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 'If you are the Son of God,' he said, 'throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' Jesus answered him, 'It is also written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' Again the devil took him to the very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 'All this I will give to you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me.' Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan, for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.' Then the devil left him and the angels came and attended him." In that moment of solitude, Jesus faced the ultimate test with Satan right there in the world, in his own flesh of not being, not eating anything for 40 days. When we go into solitude, when we choose solitude, we will feel the resistance of all three enemies. The world conspires against our need for quiet and solitude by polluting our lives with noise. Our own flesh comes up with all sorts of emotionally loaded reasons not to spend time in the quiet. And then the devil, just as we read, is always looking for an opportunity to draw us away from Jesus' call on us to spend time with him. Ruth Haley Barton writes, "All the forces of evil band together to prevent our knowing God in this way, because it brings to an end the dominion of those powers in our lives." Solitude is so important. It's in that time that we will best deal with the enemy. We must be ready, just as Jesus was, equipped with the truth of scripture, ready to call upon his name, because we will face lies and deceit and temptation. So spending time in solitude means being prepared for the resistance that we will face. But if we are willing to fight, it will be hard at first. But if we do this in the long term, it will yield great freedom in Christ and the deepest intimacy with our God. The fourth point is that we will in solitude encounter God. This is the truth that really drives and motivates us to spend time in solitude. Solitude is this place of encounter. We go to encounter ourselves and all the emotions that we are dealing with. We go to encounter the enemy and get free of our hearts entanglement with the world, the flesh and the devil. But ultimately, we go into the quiet to encounter God.

We go there because there is nothing like God's presence. We go to listen to his voice, to hear him speak over us, over our identity and our calling. And while some of it is us speaking to God, much of it should be spent in silence listening for God. And that practice of speaking and listening, it's not just communication, it is communication with God, but that is truly communing with him. John Mark Comer says, "Ultimately, the most important thing that happens in solitude is that we love and are loved by God." If you hear nothing else, take that home with you. Spend time in solitude because that's when we love God the most and that's when we are loved by God the most. Let's look at another example from Jesus in Mark 1. It says, "That evening, after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was." So Jesus had just spent this time pouring out, doing the ministry of God's kingdom. And what does he need? He needs time alone with God. Not alone time, just a veg, just be like, "Man, there's so much people time, so social. I just need to scroll some social media really quick and catch up on my favorite sports team." No, he's getting away from the, not just the noise, but he's being intentional to spend time with God, his heavenly father. Then it says in verse 35, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed." He knew. After doing all that, all that ministry, intense ministry, he knew he needed the time to commune with God, to spend those quiet moments in rich relationship with his father. And it's from that time that his soul feels renewed and refocused and ready for what the next day held. Verse 36 says, "Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed, 'Everyone is looking for you!' Jesus replied, 'Let's go somewhere else to the nearby village so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.'" So he traveled through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out doing this. After that time of solitude, Jesus was ready to continue the calling that God had on his life. And that's what we need, to be reminded of what God has created us for, to be reminded of our purpose as men, women, husbands and wives, friends, co-workers, sons and daughters, followers of Jesus in our communities. When we have an encounter with God, we better understand our identity and purpose.

Spending time with the Creator, our Father in heaven, gives us what we need to live out our lives as ambassadors for Christ. So Jesus shows us how a quiet environment will lead to an encounter with what's within us, an encounter with the enemy, and most importantly, an encounter with God. And so in this new year, let me ask you this. We're talking about healthy habits. Do you want to make it a habit of spending necessary time with your Lord and Savior? Will you make it a habit of spending regular time in solitude? And just our question for the whole series, will you live like Jesus in 2025? I want to end by getting very practical. If you're a note taker, if you're someone who likes to plan permission to get out your notes, bring out your phone and calendar, we're going to get very practical and I hope you're going to walk away today with a plan for solitude. All right. First one, you need to prepare your environment. Where is the best place where you can find solitude and silence? And when in the day? Is it morning? Is it evening? Is it right before work? Is it when the baby goes down for a nap? I would suggest doing it as close to the morning as possible. Start your day with God. And then how often are you going to do it? Daily? Weekly? I would not go any less frequent than weekly. I would aim for daily, even if it's just for 10 minutes. Find a time, put it in your calendar, put an alarm, set the... This is my 10 minutes with God. Find a quiet place. I would suggest if you can do it in nature, get with the Creator in creation. If you can't, maybe it's just in your car before you head into work. You just sit in your car for a little bit. Don't turn on the music. Put your phone on the seat over there. Throw it in the back if you need to. Just sit alone with God. Next, be prepared to deal with what's going on inside you. Don't always view it like, hey, I'm going to have some day spa time for my soul. He's going to sit. He's so good. Again, that can happen. That's awesome. If it does, but be prepared for a lot of the brokenness within you to rise to the surface. Like Jesus in the garden, when he began to feel sorrow, use that prayer that he prays. Identify what's going on within you and give it to God. Give God your feelings. All of them unfiltered. God does not care if you are swearing at him or to him or in front of him. Much of the Hebrew and the Old Testament with David, it's probably not PG. Tell Jesus how you feel. Give God your desires. Tell him what you want. What you really want. Good or bad. Just like, God, this is what I'm feeling I want right now. Just tell him that. And then give God your trust and that time by surrendering your heart to him. Stop grasping for control and instead yield to God. You can pray Jesus own words, not my will, but yours, God. So know that this time of solitude is going to bring up some difficult memories, some challenging feelings that face that pain with God.

Next, be prepared to deal with the enemy as you find your quiet place and you're wrestling with what's going on within you. Also be aware that you're going to deal with the distractions that are going to come with the enemy who doesn't want you to spend time in solitude. And so here's a practical if you're taking notes. Holy reading or lectio divina. What's anciently called. It really means holy reading. Pick a short verse. Short passage, I would suggest the Psalms if you want somewhere to start and in your quiet time, do the four Rs. Are you ready? Read the passage, but very slowly. Don't just like, God, I do my reading time. Somebody just blitz through this really quick. No, read very slowly a short passage, then reflect on it. Read the read it again, word by word, slowly turning over every word that you're going through, wondering, God, what are you trying to tell me in this verse? Then respond. Pray that to God. God, I'm just it seems like you're saying this. I'm getting these ideas. This is what my mind is going. Give that before him and then rest. Rest in whatever you just encountered with God. Whatever you just read. Just sitting there. Our minds want to go to the next thing. God, I read it. Great. Amen. Thank you. Let's go. Take a time to pause and rest in the truth that you just heard.

If you do this, the enemy is going to have a harder time getting to you. The enemy is going to have a harder time lying and deceiving you because you're going to be focusing on God's truth. And finally, be prepared to encounter God. Go into your solitude time ready to listen. Slow yourself down. Ask God to silence the voice of the enemy, to clear out your own mind and then ask God to speak to you. Sometimes we say, like, hey, I've never heard God speak to me. And I sometimes like, have you asked? Have you asked God, God, can you speak to me? I want to hear your voice. I want to hear your truth. Maybe it's audible. Maybe it's through scripture. Maybe it's through a friend. But ask God, God, can you speak to me? And then do the following. Open your mind and your heart to God and just be still. Close your eyes and listen. And hopefully what comes to mind is maybe a line or a passage of scripture. Maybe it's from something you just read, if you just read the Bible. Maybe it's a word or phrase, a thought or a feeling. Maybe it's a picture. If you're a visual person, maybe you're getting a picture in your head. Or maybe it's a memory. Maybe it's a dream of something in the future. Maybe it's something you've recently experienced or thought about, read or heard. But have it be a part of your solitude time where you are trying to listen to God. Now, this is difficult to kind of get a hold of because we spend some time in solitude. I'm like, I'm just being quiet. Am I doing it right? I don't know. Don't strain. Don't you achievers out there are going to have a hard time with this. Don't try to achieve something in this and like, I got it. I did it. I mastered it. Just let yourself be in front of God and just wait quietly. And oftentimes the first thing that comes to mind is from God. Maybe it's a verse. Maybe it's a truth. It's a memory. It's a feeling. Something may come. Maybe it's not. You'll spend that time in quiet and nothing came to mind. That is OK. Our job is to listen, not to make God talk. Sometimes I need to hear that. I want I'm like, God, you better speak. Our job is just to listen, to take time and to listen. Now, if God does say something to you, I want to say this. Just use discernment. Take that thing and hear it against scripture. Go see this. This is true. I heard this from God. That was kind of putting this on my heart, on my mind. Go find that in scripture. Make sure it aligns with his truth and use your community. Check with your pastors. Hey, pastor, I just I heard this this week and want to see what your thoughts were. You're the other people in this community. But reflect and rest. And if something comes to mind, ask the spirit to clarify in your mind what that means to you. God, I heard this. Now, what do you want to do with that?

Our prayer is that we are all spending time, more intentional time with God in silence and solitude this year, because in that time, God will work. He will work. We will be transformed. Our hearts and souls will be renewed. We'll be better equipped to serve others, to love others, to endure life's challenges. I would love. I don't know if I'm going to remember. Maybe I'll put it on my phone. A year from now, 2026. Oh, my gosh, that's scary. We're in 2025? A year from now. If you those who make the point to practice solitude, I would love to hear how a year of regular solitude affects you. I almost guarantee you are going to be closer to God. You are going to love God in new ways. You're going to know Him in new ways. So let's make solitude one of our healthy habits this year.

Let's pray. God, thank you again for your truth and for your word. And for how you show us what is necessary in life. And for our relationship with you, what is necessary is solitude. God, I pray that for those of us in this room who are going to make solitude a regular part of our lives, that you would encourage us, you would equip us, empower us to do that. And God, as we face the noise of this world, I pray that you would help us find a place where we can truly commune with you that is silent and that we can hear your voice. And God, as we deal with what's going on inside of us, the mess within us, God, I pray that you would give us grace and compassion even to have on our own selves. But God, that you would work through all that's within us. And then as we deal with the enemy, the world, the flesh. And the devil, God, I pray that you would give us strength, give us truth. Help us to stand firm on your word, to be able to face those things. And then, God, ultimately, we are coming into solitude to hear from you. So I pray that we would be able to hear your voice. Make it distinct. Make it be that there's no doubt that we heard from you. And God, we're excited. We're anticipating, we're expecting you to do amazing work in us and through us for your kingdom. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Habits of a Healthy Heart: Part 1

Habits of a Healthy Heart

Part 1: Habit of Self-Examination

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I wanna ask you a question this morning is, when you lie, who do you think you lie to the most? When you lie, who do you think you lie to the most? We're gonna start this new year off, we're gonna get a little ridiculous, honest, if you're new here, welcome. We get after it, it's 2025. But when you lie, actually let's do this. I don't normally do a raise of hands, but I kinda wanna do this one. Raise your hands if you lie or if you have ever lied. Look around, if anybody's got their hand not up, they're lying, okay? We lie, it happens, we lie. And when you lie, who do you lie to the most? Oh, we got some people jumping in this morning. Have you ever lied to your boss? Ever lied to your boss? You look outside, the sun is shining, you go, oh yeah. I'm definitely coming down with something. Hey, hey boss, yeah, I'm just not gonna make it in today. I'm sorry, just under the weather. And you're gonna be out in the great weather is really what's going on, right? Have you ever lied to your kids? Boy, I do, I'll be honest. They ask to do something and you sit there and you go, oh, let me think about it, we'll see. There ain't no chance, we ain't doing that. There's no way, there's no way, we are not going to do it. I'm just stalling. Have you ever lied to your parents, kids? You ever lied to your parents? It wasn't me, mom, it wasn't me, dad, I promise. It wasn't me. Have you ever lied to your friends? You get that phone call, hey, you know what? I'd love to help you move, I really would. But you know, I just got a lot going on that day. Lots of things to do, lots of things to do, sorry. You ever lied on social media? Life's great, everything's going great. Post something that isn't really true. My life's so blessed, hashtag blessed, hashtag living the best life. But life isn't good, life sucks. You're in the dumps, maybe you're even depressed. Anyone ever done that? It's interesting to look at the lies that we tell, right?

And when you think about who do you lie to the most, as you said, you lie to yourself the most. You, you lie to yourself. And we tell ourselves all of these lies, right? We tell ourselves all the time, I'll do it tomorrow, when you know you won't. You tell yourself, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm fine, when you really aren't fine at all, right? You're not even a smidgen fine, you're just not fine at all. You tell yourselves, I don't care what they will think when you 100% care what they will think. We tell ourselves, it's really not that big of a deal, right? Not that big of a deal when it's really a big deal. Studies show that when you lie, you lie to yourself the absolute most. And it says in Jeremiah 17:9, it says, "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things. And desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" The unredeemed heart has the capacity not only to lie to others, but to lie to ourselves. It's one of the major reasons why New Year's resolutions fail. We were talking about these this morning at our team huddle before church, talking about the failure of New Year's resolutions. And the problem with these New Year's resolutions is we have all the great intentions, right? We have all this great intention to focus on changing something in our lives. We want to get more organized, right? We're tired of being behind on things and procrastinating. We want to get up earlier in the morning, right? We wanna get up, seize the day, and kick things off just right, get that workout in maybe before the morning, before the kids get up. You wanna stop looking at things that you shouldn't look at. Maybe you wanna start eating better, you wanna save more money, or maybe you wanna start being more kind to your spouse, or your family, your friends, your neighbors. But whatever it is, the problem is with that New Year's resolution, as good as it may be, the reason that it will fail is it's focused on external behaviors. But where are behaviors actually born? Behaviors are born in our hearts. And if you wanna change your life, you change your habits, but if you wanna change your habits, you have to let God change your heart.

And this year, we're starting on the outside, where most people think to start. But I think for God, he wants us to start on the inside. And we're gonna ask God to change our hearts into who he wants us to be. We're beginning a new series this morning called Habits of a Healthy Heart. And we're gonna go through five different habits over the next five weeks, focusing in on different ways that we can have more of a heart that is a healthy heart. And today, we're gonna focus on the habit of self-examination, to give a truly honest, sincere look at our own lives, and then to give God permission to work in our lives. The next part is gonna be the habit of simplicity. Almost all of us, if we're honest, are looking for more and more and more and more and really, it's less is what we need more of in our lives. The habit of solitude, slowing our lives to be quiet before God. This is a hard one. To slow our lives down and to genuinely seek after God and his word, to have his voice speak into our hearts and to direct our steps. We're gonna talk about the habit of sorrow. You may think, God, pastor, I don't wanna be sorrowful. I think when we think of sorrow, we think of earthly sorrow. But when we study scripture, we see that there is actually something as godly sorrow, that we let God bring to us and transform us and actually this godly sorrow leads us into a place of salvation. And then we're gonna talk about the habit of slowing. Where in a world is so, so, so fast paced, we have a hustle culture, a get after it, go get it, take what's yours kind of a world that actually God preaches against that. The Bible says that the opposite that is really where true freedom and joy and fulfillment is actually truly found to where we would slow ourselves down to give God a true Sabbath of rest, which is truly how we honor God with our lives.

But today as we launch into the new year, I wanna talk about the habit of self-examination. It says this in Psalm 139, David writes this, he prayed this prayer, he says, "Search me." Someone say, "Search me." There we go, we're waking up, come on. "Search me," he said, "Search me God and know my heart." 'Cause we know the heart is actually deceitful, deceitful above all things. He said, "Test me and know my anxious thoughts." Anybody have anxious thoughts in their life? God see that there is no offensive way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting. Well, I'd love to do right now if we can, if we could just take a pause. And I want us very prayerfully, quietly, but still, still verbally out loud, we're gonna read this scripture together. Maybe say it as a prayer to God right now. As you start 2025, you begin this new year, let's pray this prayer together. It says, "Search me God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." Search me God, know my heart, test me, see if there is offensive way in me.

This was a prayer that David prayed. And you may ask why did David pray this prayer? Well, if you looked at David's life and you saw as a whole, you would have discovered over time that David began as he journeyed through life to understand, and I hope that you'll understand today, that he had this propensity to lie to himself. And he was the master at it. I think so much like just we are ourselves, a master of self-deception. And he started to discover later in life, especially what happened after 2 Samuel 11. It says, "In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israel army to fight the Amorites. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem." Normally in this season and the flow of life in the Israelites at this time, that when a kingdom was at battle, the king, whenever the season was, we don't really truly know, would go out and join the army in battle. Now he necessarily wouldn't go and battle himself, but he would at least go out, walk among the soldiers, give them the hurrah speech, send them out, encourage his under commanders. But he would be present out in the battlefield area. But David this time decides not to. We don't truly really know why he decided to stay home, but we can kind of read into this a little bit. David might have thought to himself, man, you know what? I've been at war a lot in my life. I fought. I woke up a little sore this morning. Not really feeling it. You know, I am kind of like a war hero. I mean, I did take down Goliath and everybody kind of knows that. I've earned my time out on the battlefield. I've done the chants and I've marched forward and I know all the battle cries. I've written some myself. I know all this stuff that is, but I probably deserve a break. I've been going hard. You know, maybe a little time off might be good for me as a leader, as a king, you know, really some me time so I can be my best so that when I do go out in the battlefield, I can truly be present. Really, I mean, really that's what my men need. I need a break. And so maybe at some point he thought, oh man, it's gonna be a good sunset tonight. Maybe I'll take dinner, I'll go up on the roof, watch the sunset, relax, have a drink.

So he goes up and he finds himself up there relaxing and he looks over and he sees a woman taking a bath on the roof next door. And the Hebrew word here actually is raah. And so Dave is up there having a nice dinner, maybe a drink, enjoying himself. He looks over, he sees a very beautiful woman taking a bath and he goes raah. The word raah means to look at and to continue to stare. David looked over and he continued to stare and he saw this woman and he raah'd at her and he probably thought to himself, I'm not really doing anything bad. This isn't really hurting anybody. I'm just relaxing. And he began to deceive himself again. And then he thought, you know what? Yeah, we could really take this relaxation to the next level, might be some companionship. So he sent one of his people to go bring her over and invite her to the palace and she comes over and they go out on the balcony and they're hanging out and he's probably like, I want to maybe get to know her and tell her about the kingdom and what's her life like, what's my life like as a king? Like she wanna know that stuff, right? So they start talking and maybe he brushes up against her and says, hey, you look a little tense. You could use a back rub, right? One thing leads to another and they find themselves in bed with each other. And David sins. Shortly after that, he finds out that she's pregnant.

David goes, okay, what am I gonna do here? And so he comes up with this brilliant plan. Bathsheba's husband is actually a warrior, a soldier, Uriah. So he thinks, oh, I'll bring Uriah home. He'll get to spend some time with his wife and one thing will lead to another. He's home from a battlefield and maybe he'll begin to think that the child is his. So he brings Uriah home from battle. But the problem was that Uriah was a very standup guy. And he said, if my men who are on the battlefield cannot be home with their family and their wives, neither will I and he actually does not stay at the house. He stays with the soldiers. And so David realizing, okay, this isn't going where I needed it to go. He goes, well, you know what, let's just send Uriah back and maybe he'll end up on the front lines. Oh no, oops. And Uriah goes back to war, front lines, and he loses his life.

And so David, step by step by step, rations. Step by step, rationalized his sin. And the whole time he's thinking, it's not that big of a deal. It's just one soldier, just one look, one back rub, one night. But what he actually did was he abused his power. He violated an innocent woman in Bathsheba. He committed the sin of adultery. He wrecked an entire family. He essentially murdered Uriah. And then when the baby was born, there were consequences. The baby ended up getting sick and died. Step by step by step, sin by sin by sin by sin. To the point that he couldn't even recognize his own sin because the heart is deceitful above all things and we are the master of self-deception. Psychologists call this a cognitive bias. Scripture actually calls it flattering yourself or deceiving yourself, having the deluded heart. Psalm 36:2 says, “In their own eyes, they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their own sin.” This is why it is utterly important to adopt a habit of self-examination.

Looking at the research and all of this, our self-deception tends to manifest itself in five different major ways. You might see yourself in some of these categories. The first would be addiction to distraction. Because we're doing something wrong, we find ourselves unintentionally distracting ourselves by anything that keeps us from facing the truth about ourselves. This might be an addiction to pornography. Maybe it's social media. Maybe it's addiction to news. Maybe it's talking bad about other people. Maybe it's alcohol. Or maybe it's some form of any drug. Any addiction possible that can distract us from facing the truth about ourselves. The second would be manic cheeriness, is what I'm gonna call it. You are absolutely depressed. You're sad. You're not happy. There's no joy in your life. And yet you're always smiling. You're always cheerful. You're always the one making jokes. You're going around telling everybody, life's great. Everything's wonderful. Some might call this the Lego syndrome. Everything is awesome. Yeah? You have to have kids if you get that reference. But it's this lie that we tell ourselves that everything is fine, but the reality is we're depressed, we're discouraged, and maybe even to the point that we're thinking about taking our own life. And yet you don't show it. You don't let anybody in. You're trying to deceive yourself. Third would be judgmentalism. Everybody else is the problem. There's something deep down inside of us that we know is wrong, but we love to point out the faults in everybody else. To the point that we look for things in other people to judge them. We look for the little tiniest scripture says, the speck in their eye, and yet we got a giant log just hanging out of our own. But we're deceiving ourselves because we don't wanna be vulnerable about our own lives and be truthful about ourselves, so we judge others for the very thing that we dislike in ourselves. What about defensiveness? We're offended if anybody makes any indication or even a suggestion that we might have something wrong in our lives. We're never vulnerable. We might be probably most likely, yes, you're doing something unwise. You're probably doing something sinful. But any suggestion in that, you are 1000% against them. You deflect, they have the problem. It's not our fault. It's everybody else's. We're the victim. We're completely against any suggestion to change. The final one would be cynicism. We surrender to being cynical. Everything in life is just bad. Everything's horrible. Everyone else is the problem. Everything is wrong. But we're deceiving ourselves 'cause we don't wanna look at the truth about us.

This was a horrible, horrible thing that David did. He deceived himself and his life fell apart. What happened when he said, "I'm not doing anything wrong. Everything's okay. I can get away with this. I mean, I'm the king. I make the rules. It's not that big of a deal. Everybody dies at some point." Sin by sin by sin, he found himself in a very, very, very dangerous place. And then the Lord sent David a prophet by the name of Nathan. And Nathan comes and he sits down with David, has a little conversation. He says, "Hey, King David, let me tell you a story. Let me tell you a story." And it goes like this, the story of two guys. First guy is rich beyond rich. I mean, he makes the rich look poor. He is loaded beyond all loaded. He has thousands of sheep and cattle and cows and acres upon acres of land. I mean, he has everything that his heart desires and dreams and then some. And then there's a really, really, really, really poor guy. And all that this poor guy has is one little sheep. And the poor guy finds himself with his sheep at the rich guy's house. I know maybe their neighbors are hanging out. Maybe the rich guy had pity on the poor guy, begging on the streets that, "Hey, come to my house, I'll take care of dinner." And so the rich guy invites the poor guy over for dinner and they sit down and the rich guy realizes he has to prepare a dinner meal. And so he goes out to slaughter a lamb for supper. And he has the pick. Any of his thousands upon thousands of thousands of animals he can pick to slaughter. But he sees the poor guy's lamb and he picks that one and he slaughters it, he prepares it, he cooks it. And he feeds the poor guy his own lamb. David immediately says, "That is the most horrible thing I have ever heard." That rich guy needs to go to jail and he probably should be killed because he even thought about doing that. And Nathan turns to him and says in Hebrew, ata-ish He says, "David, you are the man." Man. You are the man. You, David, are the one who did this. You are the one judging this man and his actions. And yet you are guilty of the exact same thing. You're the one that's been defensive. You're the one that's pushed back. You're the one that's made excuses. You're the one that rationalized your actions. You are the one that has done the very same thing. The habit of self-examination. It's a tough one. It's not easy to do. Search me, God. Search my heart. Show me if there is any offensive way in me. Any sinful thing. Anything in my life that I don't see, God. Show me how you want me to change. I'd ask you right now to stop for a moment and let God search you.

What problem are you denying? What sin are you rationalizing? What issue are you hiding? Welcome to church early 2025. We're gonna get after it this year. If I haven't stepped on your toes by now, I probably will. And I'm stepping on my own toes just to let you know. All right? But where does God wanna work in your life this year? Maybe it's a secret addiction. Maybe you're addicted to porn. Maybe it's alcohol. Maybe drugs. Maybe it's the way that you lose your temper over and over and over again. You say, but pastor, if they wouldn't act like that, I wouldn't have to respond like that. Maybe you're flirting with an affair. Maybe you're in a full blown affair. Maybe you're addicted to overeating. You make jokes about it and you think, ha ha, that's just who I am. Oh man, buffet Bob. That's just who I am. Maybe you're addicted to overspending. And you pretend, ah, it's not that big of a problem. I'll end up selling most of them and I'll make some profit. Like it's not that big of a deal. Maybe you're numbing yourself consistently. Maybe it's with a drug. Maybe it's just turning the TV on and just staring for hours on end. Maybe it's scrolling mindlessly on social media all day long. You say, I don't need help. I'm okay. It's not that big of a problem. But you really do. See, asking for help is never a sign of weakness. Asking for help is actually a moment of wisdom. Maybe you're here at church. Maybe you don't know why. It's the first of the year. You're here, but your mind's not there. You're not there. You're here, but your mind's not here. Your heart's far from God. Search me, God. Know my heart. See if there is any offensive way in me.

As we close up this morning, I wanna share three different warning signs. These are maybe three different ways you can watch out for maybe some things that you have in your life. The first of which is, watch for what others have tried to tell you. If someone has tried to tell you you have something going on that's maybe a big problem, maybe a small problem, I always thought of a good rule would be if I have two or more people who I know love me and care for me and truly want the best for me. If two people come to me and say, hey, Chris, you got a problem here, I need to take pause and have some self-examination. Maybe it's someone telling you that you work too much. Maybe someone telling you you're not present. You're spending too much time with video games. Or maybe someone who loves you tells you you have a drink every single night. And you say you can stop at any time, but you don't seem to be able to go without. Maybe there's somebody who tells you that you're dressing immodestly. And you say, well, you know, it's just the style, it's just how everybody's dressing, it's just the look right now. But people are telling you who love you that it's an issue. Or maybe you can never say no because you have a problem with people pleasing. But when you ask God to search your heart, look for what others who care for you and truly love you in life have tried to say to you. Second one is watch out for what you rationalize. Watch out for whatever you try to explain away when someone questions you about something. Ah, it's not that big of a deal. I can handle this, I got this, I got this. I'm not hurting anybody, it's not that big of a deal. Watch for when you're rationalizing. 'Cause reality, it's gonna sneak up on you, that's the truth. Watch out for when you say, you know, I wouldn't have to do this if they didn't have to do that. Watch out for when you're most defensive. Whenever you push back and you say, I don't have a problem, maybe you get a little angry. You say, leave me alone, get out of my business. I've heard it said from someone much wiser than myself that the more convinced that you don't have a problem, the more likely it is that you actually do.

I had to learn this one, the school of hard knocks last year. It was, I don't know, I don't know, but probably about 16 months ago, we welcomed our fourth child, Aliyah, into our family. And I've always been known as someone who's a really hard worker. And I've always had a strong work ethic. It began to become more of an identity than I realized in my life. And it was about that time when I became dad number four and I didn't slow down. I kept driving at a thousand percent, pushing forward, working harder, busy with the family, busy with the newborn and the kids and just constantly go, go, go, go, go, and not realizing and thinking, oh, how much harder could it be to go from three kids to four kids? It's not that big of a deal. It was a really big of a deal. It was actually harder for me to go from three to four than it was to go from two to three, which people say that two to three is worse than anything else. And so for me, it was, I wasn't going to slow down. I was still driving at a thousand percent, even though everything in my life seemed to be harder and harder and harder to just get done. Even this most simplest task in life just took exponentially more time. And it was around February that I started to get a little bit of a cold. And I thought, no big deal, I'll be fine. I'll push through, I'll take some extra vitamins. It's fine, I can drink some tea, whatever. It's no big deal. I kept pushing myself and pushing myself and pushing myself and I'd find myself on Mondays sleeping in until almost noon. I'd push myself so hard for the week to prepare for church, through the family and everything, and then through the weekend that I couldn't even get out of bed on Monday mornings. And that cold kept getting worse and worse and worse. I would be okay after I would sleep in so late on Mondays. I would recover by Tuesday, Wednesday I was good, Thursday I'd start to feel it again. I'd push myself Friday, Saturday, Sunday and I'd be back to where I was. And the cold got worse and worse and worse and it went right into my lungs. And I would call what most over-achievers would say they have and it's called walking pneumonia. It's what normal people have that actually will put them into the hospital. But I thought to myself, I'm gonna be okay. I'm fine, I got this. I'd find myself on my phone looking up, try to find the next home remedy. I wasn't gonna go to the doctor, I wasn't gonna waste my time. I had it figured out. So vitamin after vitamin after regular drugs after, I don't know how many trips to Walmart to try to clear themself out of Sudafed and Mucenex and all this stuff, I was gonna be okay. It's gonna be no problem.

And it got so bad my wife said, "You're going to the doctor's." I said, "Okay." Well, mama says something, you do something, right? So I go to the doctor begrudgingly, sit down, they start taking my vitals. My blood pressure is in stroke zone. The doctor is so freaked out about my blood pressure in that moment, she doesn't even give me any drugs or anything. She literally tells me, "You have to leave right now "and go to the ER. "You're going to stroke." And I'm sitting there drinking my coffee going, "I'm fine, no problem." Do I go to the ER? No. I go home, tell myself it's gonna be okay, no problem, be all right. Two weeks later, it's still not all right. I find myself back at the doctor's office, literally drinking my coffee, waiting, and almost falling asleep in the lobby, waiting to be seen. I dragged myself back in there. And what I told myself was, "Ah, just a momentary lapse "in high blood pressure was just as high, if not worse." And the fear that the doctor showed in his eyes looking at me scared the living daylights out of me. And I found myself in a moment of crossroads to say, "I need to change my life. "Something has to change. "I have to stop lying to myself "that everything was gonna be okay. "Hi, I'm Chris, I have a problem." And so I talked to my wife. I actually got some antibiotics that time. Went home and started resting. Let things slide. Still felt guilty about them 'cause things weren't getting done. But I had to take care of myself before anything else. Because if I wouldn't have taken care of myself, there's no chance that I could have been able to continue to be there for my church, for my family, for my kids. And so, start taking the proper medicine. I get on blood pressure medication. Start getting better, my blood pressure comes back down. I start exercising more. I make different changes in my routine. I start eating better. I start exercising. I picked up boxing, super therapeutic, to punch something. It's amazing. Not thinking about you guys when I do it. Don't worry, don't worry. But all of these changes, I got back to having correct nutrition and vitamins and sleep. And I wanna tell you this today, not to say have pity on me or, "Hey, way to go, Chris, you figured out." I still haven't figured it all out. I'm still working on it. I'm still trying to lose weight. I'm still trying to get healthier so I know I can be around longer for my family and for my wife. I'm still trying to figure out all this stuff. What I want to share with you guys is this.

There comes a time when you have to make a decision. And I hope and pray that none of you ever have to get to that point in your life. I'm so thankful I didn't have a stroke. I'm so thankful I didn't collapse. I'm so thankful I didn't end up in the hospital. I am so thankful to God. But that is directly where I was heading with my life. But we come to ourselves and we have to watch out for what other people are telling you. Because I had people in my life that loved me, that told me, "You have to slow down. "You're going too fast. "You're doing too much." And I said, and rationalize it away, "It's not that big of a deal. "I got this handled. "It's gonna be okay." Even to the point where I was getting cynical of people and you just don't understand, this is what God has called me to. You just don't love God as much as I do. You just aren't as committed to the calling that Jesus has on your life. That is not my problem. That is your problem. But it was a problem. And one of the best things that I did even in that was I began to meet with a counselor or my spiritual director, my therapist, whatever you want to call them. And he graciously sat down with me and started talking through life. And he turned to me at one point and said, "Chris, you got a problem and I think you know it." And I said, "Yes, I do." And I even had opportunity to go out on a date with my wife, which was amazing last week. And we sat down and we started talking about 2024 and she turned to me and she goes, "You know what? "When you started meeting with that counselor, "you completely changed." It broke my heart that I was so focused in that moment, rationalizing my choice step by step by step that I couldn't even see it myself.

Search me, God. Know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting. So the reality is you cannot change what you won't confront. And one of my greatest things that I love about this scripture is the last part. You got to go through some hard stuff first, right? But that last part that says, lead me in the way everlasting is like a breath of fresh air. Yes, we believe that all those who call on Jesus for salvation will have eternal life in heaven. But I think what the Psalmist David here writes in this prayer is that he wants a little bit of heaven on this side right now. We just came through a season of Christmas and Jesus coming and Emmanuel, God with us. And I love one of the names that they call Jesus. Did you guys pick up on that? The Prince of Peace. God wants to be a prince of peace. God wants to give you peace in your life. But it takes letting God to search you, to know your heart, to know your anxious thoughts. What is God showing you right now that you don't want to face? Maybe you're afraid of what it is. Hey, here's the best news. God already knows and he's not afraid of it. God already knows what you are facing because he's active in your life. He's right there with you. So you shouldn't be afraid to let God know. You should be afraid of what that will cost you in the long run. So what are you gonna do? I'd encourage you run to him. I walked out of that doctor's office, got in my car and I almost started to begin to cry and I said, I am so sorry, God. I am so sorry that I have let myself get to this point in my life. Forgive me. I had asked for forgiveness. I was being so selfish. I was holding on to everything thinking I had it all figured out, but I did not. I was so far from it.

I love what David writes in Psalm 51. This is his other prayer. I think it's so good. “Create in me a pure heart, oh God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.” David sinned big time, big time. And yet he is known as a man after God's own heart. If there's hope for David to earn that title after what he did, there ain't nothing what you have gone through or what you have done. God wants to give you a new heart. He wants to free you. He wants to give you life. He wants to give you joy. He wants to give you peace. He wants to give you everlasting life. Don't resist it. He loves you. So week one, habit self-examination. To give God permission to show us what we need to hear so that we can do what we need to do. This is our prayer. I'd love to close this out this morning. Let's all pray together. Psalm 139, we get that back up on the screen. Let's pray this together. Search me God, know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

Jesus, we thank you for today. God, we thank you for who you are. God, the fact that you deeply love us more than we could even ask or imagine. And God, you have a desire for the very best for us. But God, we know that sin gets in that way. And we know that our own choices, as good as they may be in our mind, in our plan, may be just the best thing that we could ever think of, God. It pales in comparison to what you desire and what you want for our lives. And so God, I pray as we start 2025, Jesus, that you would search our hearts. You would take a deep look inside of us and you would begin to stir within us and reveal to us what needs to change and what you want to do in the year 2025 in our life. And God, I pray that it would begin right now in this moment. That your Holy Spirit would begin to nudge us to share with us some of the things that we need to change as we give a thought to self-examination. God, may we honor you with our lives. May we give you full access to our whole heart. God, not holding back this section over here, God, you can have full reign everywhere else, but this over here, this is mine. No, I pray that we would just hand it all over to God right now, offering it up, giving it wholeheartedly over to you. God, I pray that you would transform our lives, you would change our life, you would change our habits, you would change our hearts, and you would transform us, God, into who you desire for us to be. Jesus, we're thankful for who you are. We thank you for your power, God, to transform us 'cause we know we can't do this on our own. There's no way we could figure all this out. God, thank you that you can and you will and you are. Jesus, we love you, we praise you. Everybody said? Amen.

Jonah - Part 5

Jonah - Part 4

Jonah - Part 3

Jonah - Part 2

Jonah - Part 1