Am I Abiding? | Who Am I

Well, I want to begin today by reading a scripture together, so all of us together. This is such an awesome scripture, a call from Jesus that kind of reflects what He wants, the life that He invites us into. So if you can follow along, if you can read along together, Matthew 11, 28, it's going to be up on your screen. And so if you could turn your hearts and focus on this verse as we read, that would be incredible. 1128. Gonna read it together. Here we go. Come to me. and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I want to read that over you again one more time. Come to me all you labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Those are the words of Jesus himself. I grew up in a pluralistic, multi-religious society. The thing about that is spirituality and religion were so woven into the fabric and the DNA of the society. Everyone was spiritual. Everyone had a religion. In fact, you wore it on your sleeve so that we know what religion you are based on your name. So if your name is Mohammed, you know you're Muslim. If your name is Gopal, we know he's Hindu. If your name is Christopher, everyone knows you're Christian. So you've got to behave like Christian. I'm thankful sometimes my name is Ajit, so people are like, what are you? So I can do what I want and get away with it, I guess. Not have it reflect on Christianity. But I grew up around a lot of folks from other religions. Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs. I went to a Christian school, and you would imagine that Christians would be a majority in our Christian school, but out of a class of 60, 65 that we normally have, if you get five max 10 Christians, I mean, that's a good number. The rest were Hindus or Muslims. And here's my biggest takeaway growing up in this multi-religious society where everyone was spiritual. Is that religion looked exhausting. Religion is. Religion was. Exhausting. You know, take the case of my Muslim friends. You know, they had a prescribed rhythm of prayer. And so we had mosques all around our city. So at 5 a.m., whether you liked it or not, you're going to hear those chantings on speakers. So it doesn't matter. You got to wake up because there's that noise of people getting up at 5 a.m. and worshiping or praying to their God. And then you had my friends. Ramadan was just crazy, you know, from sunup to sundown. They were fasting. That's 30 days of the year. They're fasting sunup to sundown. And here's the kicker. There's no food, no water. You can't even swallow your own spit. You can't swallow your own spit. And life goes on, right? I had my friends, you know, we're 15, 16, we're in high school. These guys are all fasting from sunup to sundown, but they still want to play cricket during lunch breaks. They're exhausted. They're tired. They're so zealous because they feel that's how you earn God's favor, by obeying his divine command, right? And so these guys, poor kids, by the end of the day, they're fried. And you'll see, you know, you'll see a few of them drop out after two weeks. They're like, you know what, I couldn't do it. You know, and my parents were very angry, but I had to break my fast. And they're sad about it. They're like, let me try next year. Religion is exhausting. And then the Hindus were even harder to watch. I grew up in a second floor apartment on a street corner right at the intersection of two busy roads. And one of my favorite things to do was my grandma used to, both of us, we used to go up to the balcony and just people watch for an hour or so. So we're just out there looking at people walking on the streets, whatever they're doing, and just hanging out. And there was a pop-up idol or, you know, a hole-in-the-wall type temple right across our home. And you could see all of these pious Hindus. Every time they walk across, every time they see that idol, you know, some folded their hands in respect. Some knelt down on the street, right on the street. Doesn't matter if there's traffic, if there's people walking. They kneel down. And you know, some, I've seen some with my own two eyes even prostrate at that idol and worship their God. Every single person paid some sort of respect to that idol. And on certain holy days, there were some extreme expressions too. people would literally walk on fire. Hot coals laid out on the street, and they would cross those, walk on those hot coals, because that's how you please God and earn His favor. Other times, massive idols were placed on carts, and men would pull them through the streets with ropes, straining their bodies, showcasing their utmost devotion to their God. And the most spiritual ones, and these are the ones everyone admired and wanted to be like, they went on a pilgrimage. And this pilgrimage was not just like any other. They had to walk about 150 miles and then climb, go on top of a mountain and then worship their God there. But here's the kicker. There was a time of consecration preparation where they had to wear only a specific set of clothing. They had to shave their heads and they had to walk barefoot. So think about it. Dusty roads, doesn't matter. So I had my friend who did this pilgrimage in college. He was actually seated right next to me in college in my class. And for about a couple of months, his head was shaved and he didn't wear shoes to school. So he was barefoot every day. And then just walking, showcasing the devotion, trying to earn God's favor and God's approval. So believe it when I tell you I've seen it. Religion is exhausting. Exhausting. People striving, enduring, suffering, proving, hoping that they had done enough to please God. But here's the kicker. Here's the hardest part. As a teenager, even in my early 20s, I didn't understand Christianity either. Or maybe fully understand. I went to church. I did the right things. I checked the boxes. I used to serve. Very active. I was categorized as a good kid, a spiritual kid. But in many ways, I hadn't grasped the beauty of the uniqueness of Christianity. I hadn't understood how profoundly life-giving and restful Jesus' following was supposed to be. And that's what makes Christianity. That's what makes religion. Or our religion. Or following Jesus unique. When Jesus says, come to me all you labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. This is the call that God has for each of you if you are his follower. God doesn't want you to come to him so that you would be burdensome. You would try to win his favor. Or this frenetic activity just to please God. Or to prove yourself to him. That's not what he's calling us for. I love the message paraphrase of this verse, and I want to read that for you. This is how it goes. If we can go to the next slide. It says, are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Jesus says, come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. That is Jesus's promise. Call every other system, every other religious system, even the systems of the world. Well, you got to do more, says, you got to do more. You got to strive harder. You've got to prove yourself. And that's when Jesus looks at those who are weary, burdened, and striving and says, come to me. I will give you rest. You know what, when Jesus says these words, he's not speaking into a vacuum, right? He is speaking into a world where religion was and still is exhausting. He's addressing people crushed by the religious burden that the rabbi's first century Judaism had turned faith into a heavy system of rules and expectations and performance. And in Jesus' day, a yoke was a common idiom for a rabbi's teaching. So you follow a rabbi. You adopt their teaching. They place their yoke on you, which is figuratively all of what they know, their interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. And you learn it. And then you got to do everything. You got to obey. It's your effort. It's a lot of work. And Jesus redefines what a yoke means here. He offers his yoke. He says, my yoke is not built on rule keeping or on you performing, but one that's rooted in a relationship with him, right? A life lived in close dependence with him. We're in a sermon series called, Who Am I? And we're looking at foundational concepts that undergird the faith. So if you're a seasoned follower, it's a great time to refresh and go, where do I stand in relation to these foundational truths? And if you've never been a Christ follower, you're just new, this is a great time to be acquainted with some of the core truths that hold our faith together, the pillars of our faith together. And so over the past few weeks, we've asked ourselves many questions. Pastor Carl's kicked us off by saying, are you a Christian? And then we did, are we committed to sanctification? And last week, we talked about, are you unashamed of the gospel? Talking about baptism. But today, I want to ask the question, are you abiding? Am I abiding? And I want to give my punchline right away. If there's one thing that you want to take home from today's message, it's this. The foundational rhythm of Christianity is not burdensome or frenetic spiritual activity. but rest in the finished work of Jesus and a real dynamic relationship with Him through daily abiding. This is it. This is the foundational essence of how our lives are supposed to be. It's not meant to be burdensome. It's not meant to be frenetic spiritual activity. We're not required, much like the Hindus, to do all of those hard, difficult things or Fast so that we, like the Muslims, to earn God's favor. That's not what God is asking us to do. There is nothing. There is nothing that we can do to earn God's favor, His approval, or put us on the right path to heaven. Because Jesus has already done that. Salvation is God's gift to And it's by His grace and it's by His work. And when we believe and trust in Jesus, we enter into a relationship with Him. The foundational rhythm of Christianity is not burdensome or fanatic spiritual activity, but rest in the finished work of Jesus and a real dynamic relationship with him through daily abiding. For the rest of the time here, I want to dwell on the word abiding because this is at the heart of Jesus' invitation. The word, you know, abiding just comes from the Greek word meno, meaning to remain, to stay, to dwell, abiding. To make your home in. To remain. To stay. To dwell. To make your home in. So I want to just quickly give you a bird's eye view. What is the concept of abiding? What is Jesus calling us to do? What is this life-changing invitation? So just a few truths about abiding from the scriptures. Firstly, abiding is an invitation into the communion that God himself has. enjoys. So it's an invitation that God is calling you that He Himself enjoys. And it flows from the very nature of God, the triune nature of God, where God the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, they are in communion with themselves. They abide in each other. And God goes, you know what? I want you to abide in the Trinity, in us too. And you see that throughout the whole Gospel of John, Jesus reiterates that he is in the Father and the Father is in him. And that riles up the Jews. It riles up the religious leaders of the day because Jesus is equating himself to God right there. And they go, you know what, that's blasphemy. In John 14, 10, this is what Jesus says. He says, do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me, that word again, abide, dwell. The Father who dwells in me does his works. So Jesus experiences the abiding presence of God the Father. And He says, I don't do anything without my Father because I abide in Him. So everything that Jesus does stems from His abiding in the Father as well. And then it goes on. Jesus invites us to enter into the same communion. So John 14, verse 18, where this happens the week that Jesus is going to be crucified. So this is Jesus' final message to his disciples who are wondering what life's going to be. They have left all. They're following Jesus. Now Jesus says, I'm going to be crucified. Their life is at stake as well. And Jesus says to them, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more. But you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. You see that? Jesus is inviting us into communion with himself. And abiding is an invitation to the communion that God himself enjoys. And then Jesus makes this abiding presence tangible by telling his disciples that the Holy Spirit abides with them and will be in them in John 14 verse 16. Just before he says, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. Right? The Holy Spirit is the sign of God dwelling in us. Indwelling in us. 1 John 3.24 says that as well. It says, whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. Abiding is an invitation into the communion God himself enjoys. And I don't know what your conception is about Christianity. I don't know what your conception is about following Jesus, reading your Bibles, things like that, right? You know, a lot of times we're socialized into this. Oh, you know what? If I don't read my Bible this morning, God's going to be angry with me. So I got to do something. So we just read like a verse. And our Christianity is kind of motivated by fear that God's going to get us if we do something wrong. That could be some of you guys. Some of you guys go, you know what? God is like that. He's very capricious. You know what? I don't want a God like that. I'm going to reject religion. That's not for me. It's all these rules, no's that I'm not supposed to do, and I'm going to go and live my life. But that is not the invitation that Jesus has for us in following him. He wants us to abide. Abiding is an invitation into the communion God himself enjoys. And then secondly, abiding with his people is God's desire throughout the storyline of the Bible. I could make a plausible argument that the story of the Bible is God's desire to abide with us. From Genesis to Revelation, God has always wanted to dwell among His people. In the Garden of Eden, when man and woman was created, God dwelt with them in the garden. He fellowshiped with them. And this fellowship was broken when they sinned, and they were banished from the garden. And God could have gone, you know what? I'm done with these guys. I don't want to abide with them anymore. That's not what God does. That's not the story of the Bible. As we go in the book of Exodus. God brings his children. He chooses the people for himself to reflect to all of humanity that he's their God and wants a relationship with them. And he says, God had Israelites build a tabernacle in the wilderness so God could dwell among them. Exodus 25, 8, this is what it says. It says, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. God says, I want to dwell with you guys. You build that sanctuary. I'm going to come. I want to dwell in your midst. And then it goes on, you know. Once the kingdom of Israel is formed, you have kings. David wants to build a temple. And God says, your son will. And Solomon builds the temple. And God chooses to dwell in the temple in Jerusalem. There's a lot of reference, 1 Kings 8, 27, 9, 3, Psalm 132, 13 to 14. Go home and read it if you want. But you know what God does in the New Testament? He goes, you know what, I'm just so done with just having one temple to dwell in. Again, I'm paraphrasing. Those were not the words that God used. I'm just paraphrasing his heart. Because you know what? I'm going to reconcile this breach between man and God once for all. I'm going to send my son. He's going to bear the sins of all of humanity. And now I can have a restored relationship with them. So what he did, what does he do? He sends Jesus, the Son of God, dwelt among us. John 1.14 says, Jesus dwelt among us. The word Emmanuel, name for Jesus, God with us. So literally, it's almost like Jesus moved into our neighborhood. Right? He was with us. We got to celebrate that a month ago. Just the beauty of the incarnation. And then it goes on. And now Jesus is leaving. He goes, I'm going to give you my spirit so he can abide in you. So even though I'm not there physically with you, I have the spirit dwelling with you. And we read that verse from John 14. But you know what? The final ultimate expression of God's abiding presence is in the new heavens and the new earth. At the end of times where there's complete and unfettered access to the presence of God. In Revelations 21.3 it says, God's God's dwelling place is now among his people abiding it's God's storyline in the bible and that's what God's God desires for each and every one of us here are we abiding I want to read the most foundational passage on abiding in the New Testament. If you've been here at 180 at any point of time, you would have been exposed to this. This is one of Pastor Carl's favorite passages as well. So if you can follow along with me, John 15, and then we're going to look at a few more principles from there. John 15, it says, I am the true vine. Again, Jesus is saying this, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it might bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. So a few, continuing on a few principles of abiding in the scriptures. Number three says, abiding acknowledges Jesus as the source of life and staying connected to him as the secret to a fruitful life. This is key. Jesus is the source of our life. Abiding begins with recognizing Jesus as the true source of For life and our fruitfulness. It's just staying connected to Jesus. Not striving, not performing. Jesus clearly says, apart from me, you can do nothing. He goes, you can't bear fruit if you don't abide with me. And conversely, in the positive, you will bear fruit if you abide in me. Right? Right? We don't have to be so concerned about, oh, is my behavior right? Am I behaving like a good Christian? What are the essence of the Bible? What am I not supposed to do? That's not the focus of our Christian living. Our focus is going, I want to abide in Jesus. What do I do to abide? How do I abide? And as we abide, as we lean on and draw from the source that is Jesus, we automatically begin to live out the Christian life and bear fruit. There's no performing. There's no striving in our own strength. God does the work in us. Any meaningful spiritual growth and victory are impossible apart from Jesus Christ. Abiding acknowledges Jesus as the source of life and staying connected to him as the secret to a fruitful life. Point number four. Abiding brings blessings to us and glory to God. There's at least three incredible blessings in this passage for those who abide in Jesus. Number one is verse 7. It's answered prayer. It says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. So Jesus says, when you abide in me, and then we pray, our prayers are answered. Blessings of abiding in Jesus. And it goes, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. So you have an ongoing experience of God's love. You get to really cherish God's love. Internalize it and live it out when you abide in him. So that's number two. Number three, it says... These things I've spoken to you that you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. There's fullness of joy when we abide in Jesus. I'm not sure where you are in your walk with God. But if you want joy, if you want to experience God's love, and if you want your prayers to be answered, Jesus says, hey, abide in me. Number five, abiding is inseparable from knowing and obeying God's word, especially in this passage. It says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you. Abiding in Jesus means his words. are abiding in us. Intimacy with Jesus is formed as we remain in His Word, listening and meditating and allowing it to take shape in our lives. And we're going to look, we're going to practically look at how that works out. But I want you to kind of understand that concept. And if we can go back to that slide, I'm going to read the other verse. It says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. So resting in Jesus doesn't mean that we get to do whatever we want, you know. It means we're abiding in him, abiding in his words. And Jesus... Leads us, right? So how do we abide? Now, I'm sure, I hope I've made a plausible argument why abiding is so foundational to our Christian rhythm. But what do we do? If you do want to abide, how do we actually put this into practice? And I want to mention that for the rest of our time. But before we do that, I want to say this. We all abide somewhere, right? We are abiding somewhere. You know, John Mark Homer in his book, Practicing the Way, which is a great book. If you haven't read it, it's one of my favorites in this in particular, you know, about abiding and discipleship and spiritual formation. So I strongly recommend you to read that. It's called Practicing the Way. Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did. This is what he says. Talks about the concept of an emotional home. We all have our emotional home that we abide in, you know. One of the things my wife knows, if I have a hard day, I got to have my Indian food, right? So if there isn't Indian food at home, I'm going, you know what? I'm going to get some Uber Eats. She's like, that's not in our budget. You can't do that. I go, Katie. This has been my day. You know what? I'll make more money. Please let me have my Indian food, right? We have our emotional home. We want that. John Mark Comahee, this is what he says. All of us have a source. We are rooted in a kind of default setting we return to. An emotional home. It's where our minds go when we're not busy with tasks. When our feelings go, when we need solace, when our bodies go, when we have free time, and where our money goes after we pay the bills, we will make our home somewhere. The question is where? And this matters because whatever we abide in will determine the fruit of our lives for good or for ill. Are you abiding or where are you abiding? That's the question for us, right? So how do we abide in God? And not just in theory, but in everyday life. How do we move from just a concept to reality? Because that's where the blessings are. How do we order our lives, our time, shape our attention so that we actually abide in God and experience the fullness of life that God promises? Or else because there's no difference between being a Hindu, a Muslim. or a Christian if we don't capture the concept of abiding, right? It would be like my Muslim friends whom we had so much fun. We used to play cricket together. Some of them are still friends every day playing cricket. But just seeing them striving to please their God, that could be even us. So how do you abide? Spiritual disciplines is the way that the church has used to abide in Jesus. So I'll give you a quick definition and explain this. Spiritual disciplines are practices that promote growth in our walk with God and help us abide in Him. They are not a means of earning God's approval. That's important. They're not a means of earning God's approval, nor do they carry power on their own. Rather, they create space for God to work in our lives. So scripture points us to practical, intentional rhythms that we call spiritual disciplines, right? That helps us to abide, helps us to tap into the abiding power that Jesus has for us. And so they're not means of earning God's approval. We don't read our scriptures so that we're right with God and now we can punch our ticket to heaven. And they don't have power on their own. You can read this Bible as much as you want. And, you know, I've had... Professors who are not even professing Christians, but who teach the Bible. Not at Moody, by the way. This was my secular school. Right? My undergrad, we went there. We looked at scriptures. And these guys were able to talk about scriptures like that, but had nothing to do with God. So just your Bible alone doesn't carry that power. What these spiritual disciplines do is they create space for God to work in In our lives. The best analogy of that is that of a sailboat. You know, I wish we were there right now, skipping Chicago's weather and all of that. So sorry to remind you of blue skies and the ocean. But think of it like this. Right? You're on a sailboat in the ocean. You know the destination that you're sailing to. It's a beautiful day. There's a light wind. And what do you do? You steer into your wind. You unfurl the sail. And what does it do? The sail catches the wind and it propels you forward. Right? Those, that's the role of spiritual disciplines in our lives. They're the sails that help you tap into the wind of the Spirit. helps you to join God so if you're wondering why do I need to read my Bible why do I need to pray why do I need to fast ah well if we want us if you want an abiding relationship with Jesus where there's no frenetic activity where you're not burdened by the cares of the world we're not carrying all of your burdens alone This is how we tap into that abiding relationship. In our spiritual vitality, the state of our spiritual life is contingent on how much we abide, right? It's those disciplines that we cultivate when no one's looking. And you see that even from the beginning of the church. The church understood that a growing desire for God needed to be supported by intentional practices, things that create space for God in our everyday life. So if you look at Acts 2, verses 41, this is the first time. the Holy Spirit comes upon them Peter stands up he preaches his first sermon and this was the response it says those who received his word were baptized and were added that day about three thousand souls I mean I guess the first church was a mega church three thousand souls were added to the church when Peter prayed I mean preached And then it goes, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of the bread and the prayers. So they're not, well, I just prayed a prayer. I'm good. I'm saved. I'm done. That wasn't what these souls did. What did they do? They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. In other words, the truth of God's word, the fellowship. Breaking of bread, which is what we're going to do as well, the Lord's Supper right after. And prayers. So intentionally practicing the presence of God. Intentionally creating space for God to work. In their lives. This is what the early church did. So here's what I'm going to do today. We don't have time to go deep. I'm going to actually give you a few resources if you want to go and do extended study, you can. But I want to kind of give you what are some of these spiritual disciplines? What are some inward disciplines that you can use in your own personal lives to tap into the abiding presence of Jesus? Number one, prayer. It's a long list, and there's a lot more than what I'm going to give you. Prayer. Prayer is a way. Fundamentally, prayer is communion with God, talking with God. And next week, Jonathan's going to actually be going deeper into this because this is key for our lives. Number two, reading the Word. Number three, meditation. They kind of go together, reading the word and meditation. I want to just give you, again, in a couple of weeks, we're going to go deeper into this as well. Helping us understand why do we need to read the Bible? How do we read the Bible? What are some tips that would help us to... read the Bible and chew it in a manner in which that works for us. But I want to read this quote from Richard Foster that talks about just the importance of the discipline of study, which is reading the Word, meditating, memorizing Scripture. So hear me out on this. He goes, many Christians remain in bondage to fears and anxieties simply because they do not avail themselves of the discipline of study. So we remain bondage to our fears, to our anxieties. You can add whatever you want, our problems, our circumstances, because we don't avail ourselves of the discipline of study. They may be faithful in church attendance and earnest in fulfilling their religious duties, and still they are not changed. I am not here speaking of those who are going through mere religious forms, but of those who are genuinely seeking to worship and obey Jesus Christ as Lord and Master. They may sing with gusto. They may pray in the Spirit, live obediently as they know, and even receive divine revelations. And yet the tenor of their lives remains unchanged. Why? Because they have never taken up one of the central ways God uses to change us. Study. Jesus made it unmistakably clear that the knowledge of the truth will set us free. John 8.32, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. Good feelings will not free us. Ecstatic experiences will not free us. Getting high on Jesus will not free us. Without a knowledge of the truth, we will not be free. It's the importance of the word and the discipline of study. And then moving on, fasting is another inward discipline to align our hearts, our minds with God and seek His voice. And this might be the appropriate moment to mention this. Last year, just before Lent, we took about 40 days for us to pray and fast. I've heard so many stories from you guys from both campuses of how God came through as we took some time to intentionally fast. And we want to do that again even during this Lent season. So we're calling it Hungry for Only God Fest. 40 days of fasting for God's presence and power. So this is how it's going to be. February 18th is when Lent starts. So about 40 days. What we want to do is we want to fast one meal daily. Monday to Saturday we want to fast one meal daily. And then Sunday is going to be our feasting day. So we're going to feast, go crazy that day. But again... I'd love for all of you guys to join, if possible, fast with just one meal. If you do have a medical condition and you can't fast, here's what I propose. Just move your breakfast time, whatever meal you're skipping, just move it for like 15, 30 minutes and use that 15 minutes to intentionally focus on God. And God shows up like crazy when we do that. And so February 18th, save the date. What we're going to do is we're going to have an elder-led prayer at 6 a.m. right here at Daystar in our parking lot. It's a drive-through prayer. So you just come symbolically. We'll have you. We'll kind of like pray for you and then kind of launch you into this 40 days of fast. And it's going to be awesome. And then it ends on Resurrection Sunday. Easter is going to be a celebration. So save the date, plan for that. We're going to do this together and we're going to supplement you with resources on fasting, resources on abiding and spiritual disciplines throughout that journey as well so we can come alongside you. So fasting is another inward discipline and then it goes on. You have silence and solitude, just taking some time to slow down in silence. In quietness and seeking God. And then confession is another inward discipline where you name your sin and your brokenness and you go to God. Because that's what God wants in 1 John 1. It says we are children of light. And if we veer away, we go to God and he forgives our sins. But we come to, we bring our darkness. To light. So that's the spiritual discipline of confession. And then you have the discipline of worship. And this is something I truly believe that we got to grow as a church. I mean, the songs that we do. I mean, worship, again, just doesn't necessarily refer to the songs that we sing. It's a lifestyle. But I do want to spike our worship times at 10 a.m. You know, a lot of you guys... I'm wearing my pastor hat, so hear me right. You know, we stroll in 10, 15 minutes later. You know, we miss out on worship. I think it's because we don't understand what corporate worship does. Really, it helps us to focus on God away from our problems, away from the issues. And it kind of helps us really, in an emotional level, connect with God. And so it even helps the truths of God's Word. When we sang that song, I'll take you at your word because we know you'll come through. It really gets that truth into us. So we want to sing. We want to be intentional about the songs that we sing because that becomes the truth that we really hold on to. Songs are powerful. You know, this season of life, I wake up with Old MacDonald at a farm, right? I'm like, man, why am I waking up with that song? Because, I mean, with my son, I would have listened to it about a thousand times. But it has a haunting way of being in your system. And in some ways, that's what worship through music does. And we want to get the Word of God into our system so that we're constantly meditating on that. So I strongly encourage you, if you can make it 10 o'clock is when our worship starts. And again, we're not going to force you guys to be here or like guilt you. But we really want you to lean into that discipline and abide in Jesus as well. And then finally, rest. Sabbath. Just taking some time. To not do anything and just being, taking a step back and even giving our bodies rest. So if you guys are interested in knowing more, I want to give you three resources. It's on the next slide. Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster is a really good one. Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Practices that Transform Us by Calhoun. And then Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney. So if you want to grow deeper in all of these disciplines and learn how to abide even more, this is the way to go. So we're going to end this morning, but we're not going to leave without putting this into practice. We call it a why in the road. I'm going to get our worship team up on stage and get them situated as we look at what are we going to do. Jesus is inviting us to abide, right? What are we going to do? Spiritual disciplines, abiding. requires intentionality. It's not going to happen accidentally. It's not going to happen. In fact, I would argue that the system of this world is constructed solely to pull you away from God. Everything that we got to be focused on is done in a way in which eats your time with God. And the enemy is hard at work to distance us from abiding, right? Well, if you get this right, if you have an abiding relationship with Jesus, Your life is exponentially different, right? And the enemy doesn't want that. And this is one of the things that we truly believe here at 180. Our creed is come as you are, overcome God, you know, and experience God. And then overcome what seems impossible and live as you never imagined. In other words, live as you never imagined is impossible. tantamount to abiding in Jesus that's what we want for each and every one of you that's what we want for us as leaders too we want to abide and we are we're trying and God wants you to as well so what are we gonna do I'd love for us to take some time either today or this week to create a plan for yourself to abide more closely with Jesus for the next month. So we'll look at the month of February. We're gonna create an intentional plan that helps us to tap into these spiritual disciplines that would further help us to abide. So I'm gonna give you a few tips on how to do that. Choose two to three spiritual disciplines that you would like to intentionally practice. Just two to three, you know what I mean? I give you a list of nine, you don't have to take all Nine, just two to three, whatever God is leading you. And here's what I would say. I would start where you are and give yourself a goal that is within reach. You don't want to like aim for something where you want to be. Just take the next step, right? So if your current intake of scripture is zero, try to read scripture maybe once, a couple of times a week. If your current intake is a couple of times a week, do it every day, right? And if you're doing it every day and it's five minutes a day, then do it 10 minutes. Keep growing, keep growing. And I would also consider using technology that would help support you and remind you of your new habits. For instead, find a Bible reading plan on the YouVersion app. Or use the Remember Me app for structured techniques to memorize Scripture. Or use the Prayer Mate app. There's a lot out there. If you just go on ChatGPT or just put it on Google, you'd be able to find. There's so many apps that actually help you Create that plan and structure so that you could lean into this. And then finally, choose one to two habits that you would like to decrease in your life to intentionally create more space for God and abide. When you say yes to something, you're always saying no to something, right? How about you say no to some of these things that take you away from God so you can say yes to God. activities that may crowd out your time with God, scrolling on social media, excessive time on Netflix. You know, I'm not asking you to stop Netflix. Feel free. You know, the Bible says all things are lawful for us, and God's not asking you to give all of that up. That's not how the Christian life is meant to be. But if you're binge-watching for an hour, how about you cut down to about 45 minutes and use the other 15 to seek God small incremental steps towards him overly busy schedules too many activities or commitments that crowd out time time with God and maybe some others as well maybe you're struggling with energy so maybe God's asking you to cut down some unhealthy food choices or maybe if you cut down on some non-essential spending you don't have to work as hard and you can use that hour to abide I want to end this morning with this quote again it was in John Marcoma's book because this is the danger this is the danger for you and me for many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of our faith. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them. So distracted, rushed, preoccupied, settling. Are those some of the words that could describe our lives right now? What we have in God. You know, I hope I've communicated just the beauty of this abiding relationship with Jesus. I'm pretty sure I've not done justice to it. But what God has for us in this abiding relationship is exponentially more than you could have even imagined. This is the kind of relationship that God, God wants you to abide in Him and live in the fullness of life. And think about that. The God of heaven and earth wants you. There's nothing greater that we can do than to abide. Religion is exhausting. I mean, just put everything there. Life is exhausting. Work is exhausting. But Jesus calls us to a radically different way of living, to abide. Here's what we're going to do at the time of reflection. We're going to go into a time of communion. We're going to do it a little differently. I want you guys to really reflect. Communion at the heart of it is just reflecting on what Jesus has done, his death and resurrection that has made this abiding possible. Right? So I want us to bow our heads, our hearts for a few minutes and reflect on what is God asking you to do? What is the next step that God is asking you to take? Are you abiding? If not, what could you do to tap into those disciplines and abide in Jesus Christ?