First, The Sonrise - Believing Big

Um to tell you, let me give you a quick little I know you've had a lot of history, but this is pretty interesting.

First missionary ever in America was a man named John Elliott.

John Elliott came in 1628.

When was Plymouth Rock history, people 1620s when the pilgrims came over.

1628, John Elliott comes over from England.

Uh, and uh uh in answer to that come over and help us deal.

First Bible translation in America was done in the Algonquin language.

You can go to the Billy Graham Evangelism Museum in Wheaton College and you can see the work of John Elliott there.

It's the first thing ever happened in America in the work of the gospel in the New World.

John L.

First Missionary, First Bible Translation, formed the first missionary society in the history of the planet, organized a support group in London.

The first missionary support group like that ever was to reach Native Americans.

It was the first missions frontier in America.

John Elliott was amazing because not all the missionaries that followed did it right, but he really did it right.

Learned the language, spent two years learning the language, just so he could preach one sermon.

To the people in their language.

They were blown away when this white guy shows up and presents Christ to them in their village, in their language.

They kept them all day asking questions When I went to Maranatha this summer, I shared with some of the people in the missions hour some of the history of the work done for Christ among Native Americans over the years.

Starting, you can't tell the story without telling about John Elliott.

And then I get there and find out the guy leading the praise and worship is a guy named John Elliott.

And he said to me, as we're getting ready to pray before we went into the first meeting together, he said, did you ever hear of somebody named John Elliott?

I said it's really funny you'd say that because this morning I was telling the people here, the guests here, about uh the first missionary named John Elliott.

That's John's ninth great-grandfather.

He's a direct descendant of the first missionary, the Native Americans.

Isn't that something?

So you talk about there's always something bigger going on than what you can see I get a chill telling you that he's amazing.

He's a direct descendant that's been to his grave in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and John told me the beautiful story of hearing the gunshots in the background because it's a pretty bad neighborhood right now, gang territory, and uh I won't tell you about him crawling over a fence he probably wants to say supposed to crawl over to get into the cemetery.

But John Elliott's grave is right in the middle.

And he just said, Dear Lord, what if you would just give me a touch of whatever you gave on gave my great grandfather.

I'd be so grateful.

So uh pretty amazing stuff.

I just had the your friends and I had to take a little time to bring you into the inside of the story here.

So there was an amazing God plan connection that week and that that continues today.

The interesting thing you might, just a little sidebar there , on another part of the family tree, another direct descendant of John Elliott is a young man named Jim Elliott. who was martyred by the Alcahuarani Indians, one of the five martyrs in Ecuador that launched a generation of Christian workers around the world, Karen and me being two of them.

And Jim Elliott, direct descendant of John Elliott, the first missionary, the Native Americans.

Do you see the panorama of God?

We're all focused on our little dot.

Do you see the canvas?

This canvas.

No, you don't.

You don't see it all.

But all you gotta know is there is one.

That's what's so amazing.

Now we got we got uh fun today.

We're gonna we're gonna show you how.

When you gotta rebuild, when you gotta rebuild the temple of God surrounded by people who don't want you to do it, what's the very first thing you gotta do?

We'll talk about that in just a second.

But we had some people come in late last night, so I'm going to give you a quiz so you can help them.

Okay?

So you ready?

Here we go.

Oh.

All right, morning people.

This is your moment to shine.

Okay, so um in that first wave that came from uh from uh from uh uh Persia, there were two guys who headed that up.

Remember one I did the my it did his signature?

Okay, not Zorro, that's not Zorro.

That's my problem.

I shouldn't you don't need my problem.

You remember the big name of that guy?

Z uh Zerubable, very good, yeah, that's good.

And uh I just still see him going around with the sword doing a Z on the bricks, you know.

Would you like my uh autograph?

Uh and uh that's just Weird.

Uh and then who is the then who's the other guy, remember?

Jeshua.

What was he?

What was he?

He was uh he was a minister, he was a high priest, that's exactly right.

And uh that was their mission in that first coming back.

There they had a mission to rebuild what?

The temple of God.

That's right.

Their job was to rebuild the temple.

Now about 58 years go by after that they get that done.

A second wave comes.

You remember who headed that up?

Ezra.

If you just look at the name of the book, you got that one.

That's really easy.

You can that's a cheat sheet right there.

So uh Ezra comes out.

What's Azure do for a living?

Anybody know?

He was a priest, that's right, he was a priest, and he brings them back.

And their mission, they had a different mission.

They were they had to rebuild something else.

What?

God's people.

They had to rebuild God's people.

Their job was to change the people.

That was the next big thing God had to do.

And then there was one more wave and uh came with a guy and starts, his name starts with an N, ends with an H.

And he said name of a book of the Bible?

That's right, Noah.

No, uh Nehemiah.

No, that's right, Nehemiah.

And uh so you got that, and they rebuild the rest of the city.

By the way, this whole story, and there's a point to this, this whole thing takes about a hundred years.

Now you read the book of Ezra, it looks like it's all happening and like, oh, and then they and then Ezra shows up, yeah, fifty-eight years later.

I mean you don't see all of that, but Do you realize that this whole thing of rebuilding God's people, rebuilding God's temple, rebuilding the city, this is over a century long that we're watching?

The guys who started it weren't around for the rest of it.

I'm thinking probably all those guys in the original cast, Zerubabel and Jeshua and Haggai and Zechariah, they're all bye-bye.

By the time we're rebuilding that we're rebuilding the walls and the city, they don't all see it all done there.

Nobody does.

Because what we are our job to do is to show up in our part of the plan.

We may not see it all happen.

We may not be around when it all comes together.

But our job is to play our part faithfully.

And thank God Zerubabel didn't, all he saw was a temple sitting there in the middle of nowhere.

He never saw the God's city rebuilt As far as we know.

But man, the great thing is that you are part of a much bigger thing that God is doing.

Show up, play your part.

That's how this, that's how 2,000 years, more than that, many thousands of years of God's work have been done.

Now um uh by the way you texters I have one more job for you right now and you can do this uh anytime in the next uh five minutes or so but I'll if if you've ever experienced something that robbed your joy in the middle of serving Jesus I want to identify joy robbers in serving Jesus.

You say, you know what?

When I've been doing stuff for Jesus, here's one of the things that Man just took my joy away from me, right in the middle of it all.

So we're going to see if we can identify joy robbers in serving Jesus.

If you got one, text it in.

We'll take a look at it.

Now After ten reservations and uh speaking twelve times at Marinatha and speaking at the cove, uh thank the Lord Karen and I did have a little time alone and away and together and it was three people went uh Karen and Ron and Jesus.

And so we had a great time.

And I had the privilege of seeing quite a few sunrises.

And I was, by the way, I I did pass the test of real manhood.

I shared with a couple of guys this morning.

Real men were out on the porch in 32 degrees having time with Jesus this morning.

So if you were a real man, you were out there sitting in the cold meeting with Jesus.

It was a brief time with Jesus.

We had a little visit, but uh anyway.

Uh and I was on a s it was pretty cold sometimes when we were gone.

And uh man, I'll tell you I love to watch the sunrise Uh and and I I actually waxed poetic.

You should read my spiritual journal.

I mean I'd like that could get this published.

It was beautiful disc all inspired by the sun coming up and you know it it's it was really dark when I go out on the porch And then and man, you just you watch that.

Any of you ever driven through the night?

You had to drive all night and you just, it seems like the night lasts about 20 hours.

It's like, is it and when is it darkest?

What's the old saying?

Right before the dawn, and it is it's like it's just pitch black, and then you start to see this just a little bitty glow, teases you a little bit.

And uh it ain't much, but it and and most of the sky's still dark.

You see this little bitty glow, and I'm watching this happen, and then I'm watching the the this pan this beautiful palette of of uh rainbow colors just starting to cut sky starting to be tinted and you're like something's coming something's about to change I see that something's about to happen here and then they come up over the tree line looked like the trees were on fire You know, where the sun is kind of hiding behind me like the trees are on fire.

Look at this.

And then it comes up and it and it starts to illuminate things that I couldn't see before.

And it wasn't very long before the entire landscape was changed by the sunrise.

Now, yeah, this is you like Ron, how much I know by the sunrise, but it's pretty amazing to watch the process.

The Bible says from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

So it's really great to watch because pretty soon there were no more shadows all of a sudden.

There were no shadows, nothing was dark.

Things I couldn't see when I went out there.

I could see when the sun came up.

Then in the middle of this, I discovered Proverbs 4.

18.

I love this.

Look at this verse.

This is so fantastic.

I actually memorized it, so I should be able to quote it.

The path of the righteous, look at this, is like The first gleam of dawn shining ever brighter Till the full light of day.

I watched that happy morning after morning.

I saw the first gleam of dawn.

It wasn't much, but it penetrated the darkness.

It told me the darkness was about to be over.

It told me the darkness wasn't going to be there forever.

And man, the first gleam, and then it started to shine brighter and brighter, and pretty soon everything was illuminated.

That is a description of how a day in the life of a follower of Christ ought to be.

The path of the righteous.

There is a first you wake up, you got a brand new day.

There is a first gleam of dawn and pretty soon Everything is illuminated by the presence of the sun.

Actually, just before Jesus comes in Luke chapter 2 If you don't read the Bible, at least you know that Linus can quote Luke chapter 2, right, in the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

But the passage we know so well about swaddling clothes in a manger is preceded by a prophecy in Luke chapter 1 that says this.

This is John the Baptist's daddy said this.

He said, because of the tender mercy of our God by which the rising sun, speaking of Jesus, will come to us.

Jesus is the rising sun, will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness.

And in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the path of peace.

By the way, I wrote Native America next to that verse in my Bible The rising sun will cut has come to us to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace.

Now, with all that said, the day begins.

The day begins when the sun S-O-N shows up.

The rising Son of God is the first gleam of dawn.

The epicenter The epicenter of a supernatural life.

An epicenter, I looked up the definition, the focal point of activity.

No, like an earthquake.

The focal point of activity.

Everything comes out of it. is the epicenter, the epicenter of a supernatural life, the point from which everything radiates Is identified in the first step they took in the book of Ezra when they got back for this massive job of rebuilding the temple of God.

And we'll look at it in just a minute.

Now let me give you the picture.

They are surrounded by enemies who absolutely do not want this temple built, and mount a challenge back to Persia to stop the project It is an overwhelming challenge.

We are going to rebuild the great temple of God.

Where do we start?

Oh, I know, I know what we'll do.

You start with a foundation, right?

You lay the foundation.

No, that is not where you start.

You start by cleaning up the rubble, right?

No, that is not where you start.

No, you start where every great work of God and every great life for God starts.

Ezra chapter 3, verses 1 to 3.

Let's take a look.

This is under the leadership.

Now this is in the first first return under Zerebel and Jeshua.

When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns.

Now they've just they've just come back.

Those 50,000 people have come back, said, man, I think our tribe used to be in that town, or we used to come from this town, and so they go back and they kind of unpack their bags.

Then the people assemble as one man in Jerusalem.

Then Jeshua, son of Josedad and his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel and son of Sheotil and his associates, I want you to read out loud with me. began to build the altar of God.

Read it with me again.

Began to build The altar of the God, and I'll go on from here, of Israel, to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.

Now we're going to drop down a few verses.

Despite their fear, here, in the second month of the second year, after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, and it lists all the all the names again, began the work.

Now, I'm gonna stop right there.

I want you to notice the order.

Build your altar.

And then, and only then Begin your work, but not till you build your altar.

Don't touch the work till you have built your altar.

This is the second Step in supernatural outcomes.

The first one is to embrace God's plan and to say, I embrace the bigger thing you are doing, God.

The second step is beginning with Jesus.

There is no supernatural outcome unless your days begin with the rising sun.

That the first gleam of dawn in your life, the first thing after the darkness of the night, is the gleam of the rising sun.

Jesus and you together.

Six steps to supernatural outcomes.

Step two, beginning with Jesus.

Exodus 29, verse 42.

Now we're imagine this They're not they got this whole temple to build, but they start with they start with an altar.

So in the middle of this rubble, there's an altar.

That's all you see.

It's all there is.

There's no temple, there's no walls, there's no city In the middle of this pile of rocks, an altar.

Here's what the altar meant.

For the generations to come, this is the way back in Exodus now.

This burnt offering is to made regularly at the entrance to the temple of the meeting before the Lord, and there is an altar there, and at that altar God says, there I will meet you.

And speak to you.

The altar is the place where God and you meet.

The altar is the place where God speaks personally to you like there's nobody else on this planet.

That's where the altar is.

I uh had this, uh let me see if I can find it here.

Yeah, uh great uh devotional writer of a past generation said this, you must not face the day.

You must not face the day until you have faced God.

Before the first Facebook check, before the first text, before the first email.

Before the first call, before the first conversation, maybe not before the first cup of coffee if you have a problem there.

But before any other voice, before anybody else gets you, God gets you.

Begin with the altar.

Build your altar every new morning.

You must not face the day until you have faced God, nor look into the face of others until you have looked into his.

Let his be the first voice you hear, let his be the first face you see, and let the sun rise This time with Jesus is not so you can check a box Oh , Christian's supposed to have time.

Yep, supposed to read my Bible.

Check.

Did it?

Yep.

Forget it.

So you're not getting anything out of that.

I checked the box.

I did my duty.

I fulfilled my obligation.

I'm a good Christian.

It is not a box to check.

It is not a duty to fulfill.

It is not a good luck charm.

If I don't read my Bible, I'll break my leg.

I know why this didn't I know why this happened today.

I had a somebody put a scratch my car in a Walmart parking lot because I didn't have my time with Jesus.

That's not how it works.

It's not an information exercise to get smarter and say, today I read some verses.

It is in the in the in the words of the ancient of the Puritans, they used to talk about being shut up to God.

I'm in a room all alone with my God.

I'm shut up to God.

There's nobody else can have my attention.

Nobody gets your attention until he has your attention.

That's what it means to start with your altar.

It is a key to supernatural outcomes, and I'll explain how they're connected as we go along in the next few minutes.

I want to show you a great example of this, Galatians chapter 1.

Let's fast forward to the New Testament.

And Saul of Tarsus has encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and of course had this amazing turnaround from persecutor to apostle.

But this is what the this is his first step.

God has given him the assignment.

He said, I want you to go out and reach the Gentiles.

I want you to spend your life telling people about me.

But he doesn't do that first.

When God who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased, can't wait to find out what was pleased.

Is that the only verse we have?

Oh, there we go.

To reveal his son in me.

I thought this was my mistake.

To reveal his son in me, so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

I did not consult any man.

Interesting.

Nor did I go up to Jerusalem.

To see boy Peter's there, James is there, John is there.

I better go check in with the leaders.

Nope.

He said, I'm going to Jerusalem to see the Christian leaders.

No, he said, I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

And so for a long stretch of time Saul of Tarshus goes away to just be with God.

He doesn't start out on his worldwide assignment.

He has a worldwide assignment from Jesus.

He doesn't do that first.

He builds his altar.

All alone with God.

That's how the work of the Apostle Paul starts.

In a place alone with his Savior.

Now You see in your notes, four holy objectives in building your altar.

Here are your objectives in building your altar.

This is what you want to get done in your building of your altar.

Number one is experiencing Jesus Not just learning about Jesus, experiencing Jesus.

And while I was away, I got this wonderful, it's a familiar picture.

I got a wonderful picture and it just warmed my heart and gave me a mental picture of having my time with Jesus that has re-energized me.

Luke chapter 24 is right after Jesus is alive, you know these two disciples of Jesus are walking, not one of the twelve, but These two are walking along the road and they're talking about the horror of the crucifixion and Jesus is gone and is it over?

Look at what happens here.

And then I want to show you this great this great picture.

That same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.

As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them.

I thought Wait a minute.

This is an early morning walk with Jesus.

I'm gonna go for a walk with Jesus.

And you know how when you walk with somebody, if you unless you're out of shape and can't talk, because you out of breath.

But when you when you when you when you walk with somebody, you you have uh it's kind of a relaxed conversation.

It's not tense.

It's not, there's not, you know, you're not looking each other in the eye all the time.

It's just a relaxed casual but but a lot of a lot of stuff comes out as you walk just kind of walking along the together and I thought okay Jesus we're gonna go for a walk every morning whether I'm I might be sitting in the living room but we're gonna be going for a walk every morning It's a walk with Jesus.

I like that.

And here's what happens in a walk with Jesus every morning.

First of all, Jesus meets you where you are.

That's exactly what happened here.

Look at Luke 24, 15.

That's exactly what it is.

I think we just looked at that.

That Jesus came up and walked along with them.

He met them.

He didn't say, can you guys come and meet me somewhere?

He steps in and literally comes up and meets them exactly at the point on the road where they are and suddenly there's a guy walking along next to them.

That's what Jesus wants to do every morning with you.

I don't know how you're starting your morning.

You might be crabby.

You might be tired.

You might be disappointed.

You might be angry.

You might be jubilant.

You might be off the charts, happy, happy, happy.

You might be, but well, I don't know where you are on this particular morning, but he will join you where you are.

Aren't you glad?

He doesn't ask you.

He's going to change where you are when you walk with him.

You won't be the same at the end of your walk as you were at the beginning of your walk, but he will step He moved just picture him moving right in next to you, where you are emotionally, where you are spiritually, where you are physically, where you are mentally, where you are in the situation of your life.

He steps right.

I love this.

Jesus comes right up and said, I know where you are.

I know where you were.

Come on, let's walk together.

We'll start out talking about what you want to talk about.

That's fine.

Let's go.

And um that's I love that picture, don't you?

So that this is this is the how you experience Jesus.

It's got to be with Jesus, not with the Bible.

You don't walk with the Bible.

You walk with Jesus.

The Bible can't walk.

Jesus walks.

So this is about experiencing Jesus.

I love this picture of walking with him.

Now, the thing is if he's going to join you where you are, realize there is no point in you give coming to him all dressed up.

Because the Bible says you come to him naked.

Yeah, Hebrews 4. 13 says, all things are naked and open before him with whom we have to do.

There's no point in putting on a tie. putting on a hat, putting on a nice dress, because he knows who you really are.

I remember a couple Halloween ago, I was going to this convenience store and uh and I saw a sign.

It says remove mask before entering.

I just struck me funny.

It's probably up only one day a year.

Remove mask before entering.

I went and the guy said, I thought I told you to remove your mask.

I was very insulted, but um But the yeah I mean I and I thought you know what?

That's probably we ought to post that sign on our altar every morning.

Remove mask before entering.

There's no point coming in all faked up about who you aren't.

He's joined you where you are.

So you come to him whatever condition you got to bring, just as I am without one plea, you come to him So, Jesus meets you where you are.

I love that.

Secondly, let's go to verse uh uh uh verse thir uh let's say where are we here?

Uh Luke 24, 32.

Notice this.

As they uh they asked, no, no, no, no, I think, yeah, that's it.

We're not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road, and read these words out loud with me.

Opened the scriptures to us.

Next thing that happens is Jesus opens the scriptures to you.

Let's take a look at Psalm 119, 72.

This is how David approached the scripture The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.

In other words, David says, I it's like you're talking to me.

This is what Jesus is in the chair over there.

He's the other guy in the room.

This isn't coming out of the book.

It's coming out of his mouth.

You say, well, Jesus, it sounds like you're saying Bible verses to me.

He's like, that's what I say.

That's me.

That is me So it comes out of his mouth.

And he opens so Jesus says, I am now going to open the scriptures to you.

The first thing you ask Jesus for is even where do you want me reading at this particular situation in my life?

I that's the first thing I I kind of get disappointed and a little tense when I get to the end of a book I'm studying because I'm like, I don't know where to go next This is a big book, Route 66.

All 66 books of the Bible.

What am I gonna?

I don't know.

Lord, and I know that he knows What the next part of my life has got that I don't know, and he knows what in here will prepare me and get me through that part of my life Well and still following him.

So Lord, where so would you open the script literally open the Bible to where Lord here show me open the scriptures literally open my Bible and show me where I should be right now Isn't this cool?

So you walk in with Jesus and he opens the scriptures.

I think that is so cool.

I've used the word cool 26 times this morning, but that's okay.

This is supposed to be, remember, this is an interactive time with Jesus.

This is not like reading any other book in the world.

Now, this is a good check.

If you read the Bible like this and it's not a conversation , You might as well be reading Shakespeare.

Might as well be reading something else.

There's no other author you interact with while you're reading what they wrote.

You're reading Julius Caesar back in high school.

Don't you wish you could have said, what in the world do you mean by this, Bill?

You know, I mean, you you don't interact, you don't talk to the writer as you're reading it But with Jesus you do.

He's opening his scriptures to you.

So only book in the world that you actually converse with the person who's saying the words in the book and they're opening the scriptures to you Did I mention that's cool?

Okay.

Thirdly, is this.

This let's go to Luke 24, 45.

This actually happens with the disciples, the 12 disciples, a little later. 24, 45 in that same chapter.

Then he opened what?

open their minds so they could understand the scriptures.

So first of all, Jesus meets you where you are, then he opens the scriptures, then he opens your mind so you can get it.

Like what does this mean for me on this particular day of my life?

Now it you shouldn't leave till that happens.

While you're taking a walk with Jesus, he opens your mind so you can get it Taylor, who Doug told us about last night, praise God, man, in two weeks he's going to have his eighth birthday and rode over in the car with me this morning.

What a miracle boy he is.

And when Taylor comes out to the little farm, used to be Karen's grandparents' place, but the little farm where we live.

We have since he was very little gone out on the front porch occasionally and he will just sit in my lap and I'll go Taylor Shhh, he 'll put his head on my chest maybe and I say that's not like any sound.

Um I grew up on the south side of Chicago, there was no such thing.

So I enjoy this out in the country.

I'm like, let's not talk at all Let's just listen.

Let's see what we can hear.

It's really cool.

Because you hear things you never hear otherwise.

You know, you hear a little bird thing you wouldn't hear otherwise.

Sometimes you can hear, you know, a plane, but long before you see it, you can hear a little buzz in the sky out there.

And uh sometimes you can hear a cow in the distance or a barking dog or even the wind blowing.

It's so cool, and we'll just see what we hear And he can heal my heart too, because his head is on my chest.

And it occurred to me one day, as much as I cherished those times.

The tailor is me.

And I am God in this picture.

And God is going shh.

Shh Just listen.

You'll hear things you never ever hear any other way.

And maybe you'll hear my heart.

It's so beautiful.

So just Remember that he wants to open the scriptures to you and then open your mind as you're just listening to say, Lord, what are you trying to say to me?

Then here's the this is really Cool.

Luke 24, 31.

Their eyes were opened.

He opens the scriptures.

He opens their minds so they can get it.

And he opens their eyes so they can see him, the purpose. of ever getting at the altar, your altar time, is to see Jesus again that morning, the rising sun.

If you haven't seen him, you didn't do what you went for.

You went in the store, but you didn't go, you didn't get what you went in for You came out empty-handed.

You're to see Jesus at the end of this walk.

They didn't see him at the beginning.

They didn't really know who they were dealing with Charles Spurgeon said it so simply.

He said, we should sit with our Bibles before us in our studies and feel Christ.

Do you feel Christ When you open this book, you sit there until you feel Christ.

You open your eyes to see him and you know what the final step is?

Luke 24, 32.

On your walk with Jesus, Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us and opened the scriptures to us, he set your heart on fire.

He sets your heart on fire.

And whatever condition you went to the altar with, you leave the altar with your heart ignited You enter your day with a heart, a holy heartburn.

A heart ignited by Jesus.

I do you love this picture?

I hope I can I hope I halfway communicated it to you.

Because it really spoke to me to let Jesus on your walk with Jesus move in where you are, open the scriptures, open your mind so you get it, open your eyes so you'll see him as a result of that, and then set your heart on fire.

Woo!

That's the first step is to experience Jesus.

Here's the second objective in built in your altar.

And before I tell you what it is, and before we put it on the screen, do we have those texts?

We got those texts ready?

Let's take a look at what we said robs our joy.

These are things that serving Jesus cause you to lose your joy.

Physical illness.

Ha ha.

People see the glass as half empty.

Uh-huh.

Anxiety?

Yeah.

Selfish desires, anything else, what else robs a Joe more?

People who have nothing but criticism to give when you're trying so hard to give your all.

Aren't they wonderful?

And they're always there.

I had my first boss in ministry.

He would run into something like that and he would misquote it.

He would misuse a Bible verse.

He'd say, yes, the poor you have with you always As the negative people.

But look at this.

People who have nothing but criticism to give.

Tiredness.

The negativity of other Christians.

No kidding.

Man, that'll beat you up.

Being too much Martha.

And not enough Mary.

Control issues.

Being treated badly by others in your church.

I know that probably whoever wrote that, you are probably the only person here. who's had that happen.

I know n the rest of us have only had wonderful experiences with God's people all the time.

When I make a mistake or anything comes up negative about me, oh boy, yeah, there that that's like, you know, I failed again.

Disunity.

Personal attack boy, this is a profile sadly of a lot of what happens in serving the Lord.

This is the real stuff.

This is reality.

Personal attacks. hurtful manipulations over the years of ministering to wow to a declining parent.

Man, joy robbers.

Actually, we're going to talk about the joyrobber right now.

That's behind all of those, I think.

Here's the second holy objective in your altar, built in your altar, rebooting.

The relationship.

I like you reboot a computer, get her fired up and going again, rebooting your relationship with Jesus.

Listen to the question that is asked by Paul of the Galatian Christians in Galatians 4.

15.

What has happened to all your joy?

It's apparently not a new problem.

It's like you guys used to be pretty joyful.

You just you know I I grew up with a song.

There is joy in serving Jesus.

And after I got into serving Jesus, there were days when I went, really?

I I'm not sure I'm gonna sing that hymn again.

What happened to all your joy?

That literally was asked of those people.

Well, let's go back to chapter 3 and verse 3.

Here's part of the answer.

Are you so foolish?

After beginning with the Spirit, you're now, I find this one of the most disturbing questions in the Bible for me, by the way Are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

Hey, when you started out, you were all over me, man.

You needed me crazy.

You were doing a new thing.

This was a hard thing.

You were scared to death.

When you're doing a new thing, you really were hanging on to me.

But you got running pretty good and you said, I don't, yeah, I think I'm doing fine now.

And all of a sudden it was Ron doing it.

It used to be God through Ron.

Now it's God, Ron doing it for God, and everything has changed.

And you lost your joy because of it.

So what happens is your list becomes your lord.

That's what happens to me.

I have this huge to-do list, and I'm controlled by the list of things I have to do.

Write this down.

It's not in your notes.

The percentage that's joy is the percentage that's Jesus.

The percentage that's joy of what you are doing is exactly the percentage that's Jesus of what you're doing.

The rest is is you're gonna lose the joy.

I put this in your notes.

We start so dependent, and then guess what we have?

I invented a word.

I've done that before.

Fleshbacks.

Not flashbacks.

We get fleshbacks.

We go back to flesh mode.

I go back to me mode.

And I don't know about you, but I'm in and out of this.

I can't say I've ever got it right I keep going and I have these fleshbacks.

You know how you can tell?

You're doing the same things.

You believe the same stuff.

Nothing has changed externally.

But you know how to tell you've gone back to flesh mode and you're running things?

When it was really Jesus, your spirit was light.

And now it's heavy.

That's a fleshback.

When it was really Jesus, you were pretty patient with no matter who, whatever term, you were okay.

Now you're suddenly touchy.

Fleshback.

When it was really you and Jesus doing this, it was you were peaceful in the midst of all you were doing.

Now you're just stressed out Welcome back to Flesh Mode.

Still doing the right stuff.

Still believing the right beliefs.

Still showing up the right places.

But it's flesh.

It's you again.

When it was Jesus, you had joy in serving others.

All day long you're thinking, I wonder what other people need.

I wonder how they're feeling.

I wonder how I'm making them feel.

I wonder if there's anything I could do for them.

Without even realizing it, you're back to thinking a lot about now my needs, it's all about me.

How are they treating me?

How not how are they being treated?

How am I being treated?

Welcome back to fleshback.

You're having a fleshback When you were really close to Jesus, you were really aware when you did something wrong.

When you start to get into flesh mode, you're really aware when the other guy does something wrong.

It's not about what you're doing wrong, it's about what they're doing wrong.

Sound familiar to anybody other than me?

You know why I can talk about this?

It's biographical.

Autobiographical, that's why.

I know what fleshbacks are.

You know what's the cure for that?

Remember this, here's your notes.

It's the relationship that matters, not the work.

This is all about the relationship.

Let me go to Luke chapter 10 and show you.

Jesus is giving his briefing to his disciples about how to be in ministry for him.

They come back.

And um and and and and and he's he's they're all they are so excited about the results they got.

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome All the power of the enemy, nothing will harm you.

They're like, this is so cool, serving you, Jesus.

He says, however, that shouldn't be what you're excited about.

He says, don't rejoice that the spirits submit.

Jesus, we were dealing with demonic stuff.

We see this on reservations.

A man, we're dealing with with the enemy face on and and and the enemy lost and we won.

This is so cool.

He says, no.

Rejoice that your name's written in heaven.

That's the big deal.

Is that you and I are close.

You and I have a relationship.

We're gonna be together forever in heaven.

That's what matters.

It's not the Not the conquests that matter.

It's the relationship.

And unless you are tight with Jesus, unless it's all about Jesus, it'll just become religion.

Routine and rat race.

Because you lost the relationship part of it So it happened to Martha.

Somebody said, and I made that into a verb, to be marthed.

You get marthaed.

A lot of us have that tendency.

And Jesus said to her, Martha, Martha, I love it when he says somebody's name twice.

Murder mark, you know, can you just hear Karen say me, run, run.

I hear God saying to me, Jesus is going, run, run, there you go again.

There you go.

And it's become she is miserable serving Jesus.

You got Jesus in the house, Martha.

You've given dinner to the Son of God, and you're a mess.

You were all stressed out.

She forgot who she was doing it for.

Jesus says, will you sit down?

Sit down.

There's work to do.

In fact, my sister is a lazy bum.

It's the Greek.

King James, Bumoth.

Lazy Bumoth.

Jesus says, Jesus says, no, Martha, you need to do what Mary's doing.

No, Mary needs to do what I'm doing.

She needs to get busy for me for you.

No, she doesn't.

You need to sit at my feet and listen to me.

You forgot it's about a relationship.

It's all about me, Martha, not about what you do for me.

Some of us are so performance driven, getting worth and strokes from our performance.

We're approval junkies And Jesus says, do you understand?

This is just stuff you do because you love me.

That's all I want it to be.

Will you sit down and just, can we just love together?

Everything radiates from being with Jesus, from loving Jesus. from listening to Jesus.

So all day long you just go, I love you, Jesus.

Why am I doing this?

I love you, Jesus.

I swear you Jesus.

That's just another way I say I love you.

Just another way to say I love you.

Another way to say I love you.

People uh who listen to you on the radio really are weird in the comments they make to you.

Because they they don't know what you look like.

But they think they do.

What are you laughing for, Tom?

Put it.

They when they meet you, it's really weird.

You always know who's been listening to you on the radio because they look disappointed.

And they're like they're like, this is it?

Really?

Really?

Now we know why you're on radio, Ryan.

Um So yeah, you have a great facial radio.

That's the classic line.

Everybody on radio 's heard that one.

Great facial radio.

But It's really funny because uh the kids would like they would tell me to shut up in Christian bookstores.

Because no, this is serious.

It did happen, isn't it true?

What'd you say?

Because there'd be somebody two aisles and wind to go, that voice.

I know that voice.

And so I go.

I would like a book by Chuck Sundah, please.

I mean, you know, but It's really weird because all they know is the voice and they know the voice because you know especially if the daily program if they They like to know that you get all this like, oh, I hear about you.

I'm I'm late for the train if I miss or miss you and I are you're doing I'm doing this when I listen to you and one lady one guy wrote and said you're in the bathroom with my wife every morning and I thought for heaven's sake There's got to be a better way to say that.

But I know what you mean, but that's terrible.

So you get all these weird things, but But people know the voice because they listen to it all the time.

I and all of us who are married probably know this experience.

In a cacophony of voices in a room, you can hear the voice of your mate.

You know the voice of your husband, you know the voice of your wife, you know the voice there are people who call you on the phone and you don't hear from them often.

So say, hello, I'm Ron Hutchcraft, you remember me?

We were together at the firm.

And but then there are people who just start talking.

So how you doing?

You know, they're like, well they don't have to tell you it is.

You hear the voice all the time.

Well I said, oh I wonder what God's will is.

I don't want to miss God's will.

God's will is a matter of being able to recognize his voice out of all the others.

You know how you recognize his voice out of all the others?

You listen to it all the time.

You've been hearing him all the time.

You're not going to know his voice.

Unless you listen to his voice constantly.

So in your time at the altar, that's why you begin every day at the altar.

You listen to his voice and when you really need to know it's him, you'll know.

You'll know you say, that's how he sounds, that's him again, that's Jesus.

I know it is So each new day, you know why you need to begin with the altar?

Because during the day you will default to flesh mode You will hear all those other voices, hear all the other opinions, get all the jazz out of Facebook and all the already status.

I am I am just sneezed.

Thank you.

We needed to know that.

Um and and uh so you got everybody's statuses and you got and you got the all the and the guy what CNN said, oh boy, look what happened in the news today and yeah, I can't believe what George said to me.

All those things that we said are joy robbers.

Because somewhere we forgot that it's all about one relationship.

It doesn't matter what all those Christians say.

It doesn't matter how anybody treats me.

I'm not doing it for them anyway.

No matter whether they appreciate it, whether they criticize me.

I just, it's you and me, Jesus.

And so the purpose really of that time with him is it gets back to being all about Jesus again.

Otherwise, you're going to have a mechanical Christianity, and then it's going to be fun at all.

Colossians 3, verse 4.

When Christ, and this is the only part I want to read, just to put these words, Christ is your life.

Christ is, is that true?

Is he why you put the money in the offering?

Is you say not I'm giving this to the usher.

I'm giving this to the church.

I'm giving this to this ministry.

I'm like the little boy with his lunch.

Jesus, I'm just putting it.

I know it's not you.

I know this is one of the disciples who's picking up the lunches, but Jesus, I'm putting this in your hands.

This is going to you.

I love you, Jesus.

I love you.

Here.

Here, have some more.

I love you.

Is it why you do what you do?

I love you, Jesus.

All about Jesus.

I heard a pastor on a radio talk.

I thought this was great.

He said he took his kids to the circus.

I mean a really big like Ringling Brothers, one of the big, not one of those.

Some of those are really funny, like the, you know, JoJo Brothers circus comes to the state fair, county fair or something.

Those don't go to those.

But this is like the big deal.

And he said, I told them how cool it's gonna be the big elephants and the big, you know, they're gonna see they got all these big animals and clowns and everything.

And he said, they were very unimpressed.

He said they were bored.

He said they're wandering around, they want to go for food He said the reason was we had cheap seats.

He said we were way up top.

He said the elephants didn't look big.

It weren't very impressive from up there.

The clowns we could barely see.

They didn't know what they were doing.

They were just little funny guys running around doing something down there.

He said they were pretty unimpressed.

But he said, had we had the the seats up close.

Now that's where it's impressive.

It's the same show But man, when you get up close seats, man, those elephants are, whoa, he's right there.

He's huge.

So much bigger than I am.

Those clowns really are funny.

Look at that trapeze artist.

And the problem with so many Christians is that they have the cheap seats and they never really have their time with Jesus and they never get very close.

And so he never looks very big.

How could they believe big?

They have a small God.

He's not small.

They're just sitting far away But when you begin with your altar before you begin your work, you got your big Jesus going into the day.

And you got the best seats in the house.

Now there is another step, and that's adjusting your course.

Did you see that?

You don't just be with Jesus.

After you've been with Jesus, you adjust your course.

I was talking to a guy in the Navy, I was speaking to Corpus Christi, Texas, a big naval base there, and guy said, you know, uh they have to go out uh on the bridge about every ten minutes or so and and they make sure they have to and and they're really checking their course.

Because he said we drift without even realizing it.

We slide off course and don't even know it.

And he said, in in a very short amount of time, we can be really off course and we're not going to get where we want to go.

So you have to constantly be adjusting your course.

And I thought, boy, isn't that true spiritually?

I mean every new day at the altar, I need to see if I have, because I've probably drifted off course a little bit during the day.

And I really got to do my mid-course correction.

Look at what the purpose of being in the Bible is.

Joshua 1 8 says this.

Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth.

Meditate on it day and night, so you may be careful to know everything written in it.

What does it say?

What did I read wrong?

Do you see the word?

You read it to do it.

You read it to change something.

James chapter 1.

Actually, I don't I don't have that on.

I do have it later.

We'll get to that in a minute.

But Psalm 119, direct my footsteps according to your word.

My footsteps are supposed to know where to go because I've read your word.

Let not sin rule over me.

Verse 133 says, I've hidden your word in my heart.

What's supposed to happen is your word in my heart is supposed to be a sin stopper.

It's the sin stopper for me.

2 Timothy 3.

16.

The great verses is all scripture is God breathed.

Is that the end of the verse?

Wow, what do you know?

I'm reading inspired words.

I really want to know these verses.

Thank you.

It is useful to teach you, to rebuke you.

You, when you come away from the Bible, you should either be teached, what?

Rebuked?

Corrected, or trained in how to do something for them.

Or be something for them.

You should change because you read it.

James chapter 1 says that the Bible is like a mirror.

We won't go there, but James 1, 22 and 23 says you look in the mirror.

How many of you looked in the mirror this morning?

I can tell who didn't.

No, no, no, but I mean, you know, you look in the mirror and you don't look in the mirror to get information to go, oh boy, I'm a wreck.

No, you look at it and you actually you go to work, you comb something, or you you moose something or you wash something or you you squeeze something uh you know I mean you you cover something you do something to something it's the reason you look in the mirror you know and the Bible says The person who looks into God's word and walks away unchanged is a fool like somebody looks in the mirror and says, I'm a wreck and doesn't know anything about it You're supposed to do something after you read the Bible.

What are you gonna do differently today?

Because Jesus moved in and walked next to you and he opened the scriptures and he opened your mind and he opened your eyes to see them and he made your heart burn within you.

What are you gonna do different because of that You heard a keynote address from heaven.

He said, I want you thinking about this all day today.

If you think about this, that I just showed you, if you think about this all day today, you will do, you'll be my guy.

This is what I want you to think about all day today.

You don't even know why you need to be thinking about that.

Trust me, you do.

You adjust your course.

Ezra showed us the example.

Let me show you the kind of guy Ezra was, chapter 7, verse 10.

Notice the three things he did with the Bible.

He devoted himself to the study, the observance, and the teaching of God's word.

You notice he did three things?

He learned it Then he did it.

Then he talked about it.

That's a model for all of us.

You learn something from God from being your walk with Jesus and then you live what you learned.

You say, what am I going to do differently today?

And then you tell somebody, you try to, it's important for you to verbalize what you got out of God's word today and what you're doing it because of it.

Tell somebody.

Tell somebody.

It gets more real when you express it.

He learned it, he lived it, he talked about it.

There should never be a no K-N-O-W without a do.

You start to put your Bible down.

What what if Jesus was there every time he put your Bible down and said, wait a minute, just a second.

So what's your assignment for today?

What are you going to do differently today?

Because of what you read told me, what are you going to do differently?

I can tell you I I read about temptation today.

I read about trials.

I read about love today.

Thank you.

That's good.

This is another content test.

And what are you gonna what are you gonna do differently because of what you read?

today.

Just picture he's going to be there going, what are you going to do about it?

What are you going to do about it?

What are you going to do about it?

Always answer the question, so what?

With the okay the Bible says it, so what am I going to do differently today?

And James 1, 22 and 23, we will look at it because I want to show you this this is a one of the great dangers for all of us Bible people here in the room.

Do not merely listen to the word.

And so read the next two words.

Deceive yourselves.

The church is filled.

With people who are kidding themselves.

Fooling themselves.

Lying to themselves.

Because they think they're doing fine with God.

Because they listen to the word.

He says you're not doing it.

Thank you for listening.

Now what are you doing about it?

And it's a great, and it hardens your heart to keep hearing it and not doing it.

And you sit there and you're like, I know this.

I've heard this.

Yeah.

But you're not doing it, are you?

Last of all, last objective, holy objective in your altar is downloading God's greatness.

This is fun Downloading God's greatness.

When you download the greatness of God, it right-sizes your problem.

Did you know that time with Jesus is what I call the great giant shrinker?

When you go into your time with Jesus, you've got this looming problem, and here's how people are treating me, and here's the huge list of things I have to do, and here's the here's the burden of my heart, but nothing seems to be changing.

And here's all of this, and you come in this big thing looks, and then you see how big Jesus is and the problem compared to him.

Starts to shrink.

It was so big when you started your walk with him, but by the time your walk is over, you're like, Jesus is big and this is nothing. compared to him.

And God's greatness shrinks your pride.

It shrinks your pride.

You may have gone in there all about you, but man, you cannot come out all about you.

I love the Lord's Prayer in this regard.

Did you know the Lord's Prayer?

You know, of course, our Father art in heaven.

Hallowed be your name.

That is the cosmic God.

That 's the God of the cosmos, our Father in heaven.

Hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Come here to earth.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Now he's the global God.

He's the cosmic God of the whole of all a hundred billion galaxies.

But he's also the global God.

Lord, bring your kingdom to this planet in the midst of all of that, all of that cosmos is this planet that you put your plan to work on.

Now, would you have your will on this planet?

Then I love this.

It goes from the cosmos to global to now about my lunch.

Give us this day, our daily prayer.

We've got this cosmic God, our Father who art, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, the global God.

And now suddenly He is this your God.

Caring about your daily bread.

And the baggage you're carrying from the ways, things maybe things you haven't forgiven.

And the temptations you're going to be facing today.

And suddenly it's about you.

I gave Micah some verses to add to the notes last night and he thought I was thinking dyslexically because I put Verse 4 before verse 3, but you'll see why.

Psalm 147, verses 4 and 3.

Yes, I am backwards.

Psalm 147, 4 says this.

He determines the number of the stars, calls them each by name.

Now 100 billion galaxies.

It's estimated there's 100 million stars in each galaxy.

Anybody want to do the math on that?

Whatever 100 billion times 100 million is.

That's how many stars there are.

We see on our bright best night about 3,000.

Girl, that's really something.

He determines the number of the stars.

He can tell you how many.

Oh, he'll tell you the name.

Listen, I have a hard time remembering the names of everybody at the president's retreat sometimes.

He calls each star by name.

It's mind-blowing God.

Infinite.

Look at the verse right before.

He heals the brokenhearted.

And he binds up their wounds.

He's the God who runs the galaxies.

And hears you crying.

Man.

Big enough to rule this mighty universe, an old song says, but small enough to live within your heart.

He is so big.

He is so close.

And you feel that again when you go to the altar and it's just you and him.

Downloading God's greatness gives your situation cosmic context.

You see the little dot that you're in, and as you go into his word to hear from Jesus, suddenly you begin to see the bigger picture and you see it in a more cosmic context.

Gypsy Smith was a great evangelist in the South in the 1920s.

He started preaching when he was 17.

He stopped when he was 83 because he died.

And they they said they said that he was he had the energy and enthusiasm of the young man that had been called into ministry.

He was just as excited as an 83-year-old as he'd been as a 17-year-old.

And they'd go to him and they'd go, Gypsy, what in the world?

How can you be doing this for all these years and still have all this energy and excitement?

And he'd always give the same answer.

He said, I have never lost the wonder.

Have you That's why you gotta be consciously with your Jesus every morning.

So you never lose the wonder.

So grace is always amazing.

Hence faithfulness is always great.

And it's always how great thou art.

And here's the result of beginning every day with Jesus.

Look at what was said about Ezra.

Look at this.

This was said by a pagan king about a godly priest.

And you, Ezra, in accordance with the wisdom of your God, which you possess.

And he proceeds to give a a priest, not even a high priest, a lowly priest, Who knows who he even is?

He gives them the power to appoint the officials in Israel, administer judges, justice, and I mean he gives them all this authority.

Why?

He says, you have wisdom.

I've not seen it.

You have the wisdom of your God.

That's what happens when you are with Jesus every day.

You see things nobody else can see.

You have insight into people. insight into situations, could you be with him and you can see through his eyes and you can feel through his heart and you have wisdom.

In fact, we don't have the the the verses um did I give you psalm 119 mica Psalm what not the whole Psalm.

Psalm 119, verse 98.

I just thought of this last night.

That's why.

Listen to this.

This is this is, I was going to say cool, and I refused to say it again.

Psalm 119 and verse 98 says this.

Your commands make me wiser than my enemies For they're ever with me.

I have more insight than all my teachers.

What?

I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.

I have more understanding than the elders.

For I obey your precepts.

There's two ways you're supposed to get wise.

One is through education, the other is through experience.

The elders represent experience, the teachers are education If you become immersed in God's view of things, God's wisdom, you start to absorb God think.

You actually don't have to wait all the years to have the wisdom.

You don't have to have all the education to have the wisdom.

Because you got God smart from being in his book.

And Ezra God said this pagan king goes, You're the wisest guy I know.

You can run it all.

You got the wisdom of your God, man.

That's what happens.

That's the result of beginning every day with Jesus.

And You have a contagious passion.

Let me just show you.

In the book of Nehemiah, I don't know if you remember I told you, but when Nehemiah comes in, the third wave that comes in, as you're still alive for a little while.

And he's ministering to the people.

And it says, for the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest, now this is when they're rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. brought the law before the assembly, which in just, you know, in those days, that's like that's the Bible, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand He read it aloud from daybreak till noon.

What pastor is going to get away with that today?

Daybreak till noon?

Twenty minutes, I'm out of here.

He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the water gate in the presence of the men, women, and others who could understand.

And all the people listened attentively to the book of the law So what's happening is that these people who haven't cared about God's word, there is such a passion for God's word in the heart of Ezra.

It's like a disease spreading, a good disease.

All the people suddenly get interested in what God's saying, because of one guy who is.

It's a contagious passion.

Well, in just a minute I'm going to tell you how ordinary people become extraordinary, and we'll wrap up When I was um my early days of uh youth ministry on the south side of Chicago, my dear friends Chuck and Robbie were they're part of the Youth for Christ board.

I mean I've known these people, I mean they knew me before my voice changed or anything I was, I had a gal in my campus life club named Colleen, and uh when everybody else was still sleeping in the morning, she was at the skating rink.

The ice skating rink. 5 a. m. every morning Colleen's at the skating rink.

Everybody else is still sleeping.

Everybody else is goofing off all summer.

She goes out to Colorado.

Ice skates somewhere every day.

Early in the morning to late at night.

There was even a tornado that actually hit that rink one time.

And she was injured by the tornado.

And she fought her way back through rehab, back on her skates, skating, skating, skating, skating.

Colleen gave her heart to Christ during our time there.

And she graduated and that was it.

Several years later I'm in Holland teaching youth leaders there And I'm in my little apartment.

Karen 's with me.

And I'm listening to the Winter Olympics.

I think they were in Austria.

And most of the commentary I can't understand because it's in Dutch.

And then I hear, Colleen O'Connor, USA.

There she is, representing our nation in the Olympics.

And the whole world saw her.

I said, gee, I knew her when.

But I knew why she was there.

She was there for all the world to see what she could do because of a thousand invisible mornings that nobody ever saw That's how champions are made.

If you see somebody who exudes the radiance of Jesus The authority of Jesus.

The heart of Jesus.

There's just like a magnet in them.

I'll tell you where it came from.

A thousand invisible mornings.

On a walk with Jesus.

Where he opened the scriptures and opened their mind to understand it and opened their eyes to see him and ignited their heart.

You're catching the Jesus glow.

And now how extraordinary ordinary people become extraordinary?

Acts 4.

13 And when they, the Sanhedrin, who hated these guys, saw the courage of Peter and John And they're like, these guys are nothing, man.

We got degrees and they're unschooled.

Ordinary men.

They were astonished And took note, and I want you to read the rest out loud, that these men had been with Jesus And do you know when Jesus called them, what their assignment was?

In Mark 3 it says, and he chose twelve that they should be with him And ordinary men became visibly extraordinary men.

Not because of their education.

Not because of their position.

They were nothens.

Except they had been with Jesus.

And you can always tell somebody who has been with Jesus.

Build your altar.

Then begin your work.

And remember, you want supernatural outcomes.

You always begin with Jesus.

Let's pray.

Look, maybe you have a little work to do on your time with Jesus.

Your Jesus walk.

You haven't been paying much attention to the sunrise.

You want to talk to him about that right now?

Maybe you've neglected him or maybe you've just been checking the box.

I should take a minute and tell him how you'd like it to be.

How it's going to be.

Lord, we thank you for the amazing availability and intimacy That you extend to us rebels and fools to walk with Jesus To have you, the author of the book, tell us what it means for us.

Lord, as our days go by and our day, the pressures of our day unfold, we We forget it's all about you and it becomes all about other people or other things.

Then we lose a joy Jesus, you understand because every day you had to re-establish your father connection.

Every morning you'd get up as early as you had to, to get away from everybody, and hear one voice before you heard any voice.

You heard the Father's voice, and so we need to hear yours.

I ask you to forgive me, Lord, when the days I have begun the work, but I did not build the altar.

The place where you've said, there I will meet you, and there I will speak with you May we make our altar non-negotiable.

And may we recapture the wonder.

Of it being all about Jesus.

Not all about Christianity.

Not all about church.

Not all about duty.

Not all about performance.

The joy of it being all about Jesus.

Before we run around serving you, may we sit at your feet and listen to you Every new morning, as the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn.

As the sun rises until everything is the full brightness of day.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.