Living with Jesus and Ourselves

Moments with God become less about us and more about Him. When God comes to us He reveals Himself, it is about Him. The central event of Scripture is the revelation of God. God does the saving, speaking and revealing. Our responsibilty is to respond to Him. And oh, how great that response is. And oh, how lovely He reveals Himself to be. And oh, how majestic He becomes to us.

For more about Joshua Hoffert and Wind Ministries, visit: https://www.windministries.ca/
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Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;26;26
Unknown
I love when our moments become less about us and more.

00;00;26;29 - 00;00;40;26
Unknown
Well, so much of the modern culture is like, you know, we had a couple of years ago, we had the MeToo movement. Right. Right.

00;00;40;29 - 00;01;14;09
Unknown
I think that we could probably characterize our culture as the me first, you know, the sort of certain value in the autonomy of self and understanding what it means to be healthy and holy and whole and so I'm not denigrating the fact that when we do take consideration of ourselves. But, my goodness, is it going overboard? And and I've been thinking.

00;01;14;09 - 00;01;36;14
Unknown
I was just thinking this morning well, I've been thinking recently about how, you know, we characterize sea a worship service or not even learning. We get to worship service. We characterize the time of prayer as whether or not it was kind of full of life in the sense of the presence of Jesus came to us, or whether it was dry and desolate.

00;01;36;15 - 00;01;59;21
Unknown
You never, ever use that language when it comes to your prayer life. Sometimes we get pretty You read the book of songs like it gets pretty dramatic sometimes, right? And I was thinking, like, how we we think through how, you know, essentially we estimate the value of the time of prayer based on our feelings of that time. And I was thinking, oh, my goodness, we can make our prayers about us.

00;01;59;21 - 00;02;27;08
Unknown
We're not supposed to be about him. Like we put ourselves at the center of our prayer and we go, it's like I mean, the whole it's like the whole world says, Put yourself in the middle. And then we all come on to spend time praying today. Oh, I didn't feel the presence of Jesus. It must have been a failure of a time or or, you know, some of us, we try and make a start of it and we feel so discouraged because we didn't feel anything or nothing happened or sparks didn't fly or anything.

00;02;27;08 - 00;02;49;07
Unknown
And I'm like, I've just been thinking about this lately. That I'm not the central figure he is. And so what does it matter what I feel in those moments? Because it's pleasing to him. That's what Scripture tells us, that the prayers are like. Revelation talks about this. The prayers are like the offering of incense up to him that the aroma that pleases his senses.

00;02;49;09 - 00;03;12;19
Unknown
And you're like, That's a prayer. That's all about him, not about all about me. It doesn't please me. Sometimes I enter into that pleasure for sure. But it's not about me. And we treat our women, you know, funny enough, we just had a particularly powerful moment with the Lord, Right? Don't go making that moment about you. That's moment is of Don't go.

00;03;12;19 - 00;03;38;14
Unknown
Don't come here next week and go. Okay. Well, he didn't touch me the same way, so it wasn't as good of a worship service. Well, the worship is not about you. It's to him. But he's the central figure in worship, not you. If you let your culture teach you how to approach these moments rather than Scripture and the Spirit teach you.

00;03;38;16 - 00;04;16;02
Unknown
I might not be fiery Pentecostal like Colbert, but I can see some pretty and stuff. So I get excited sometimes over one of my ah, I had we've got this kind of language now, this going on where we're in the middle of our story, right? A reference to Steve Schroder has said that he's a good friend of the house here and that's his language.

00;04;16;02 - 00;04;44;17
Unknown
And we're adopting that language because you're always in the middle of your story. One of the other things he says is it's not about you, it's about him, It's not about you, it's about him. So we get our eyes off of our self. Our prayer isn't about looking at our self, our prayers about looking towards him, our worships, not about looking to our self and our experience about looking towards him.

00;04;44;19 - 00;05;22;25
Unknown
I do have a lot of thoughts this morning, just where to start. I know. I understand there's a barbecue also. So you want me to take too long? You know, I've been, but I got to get all these things around so this man doesn't live. But by every offering of that meat griddle out there, it's a special heifer that's being sacrificed.

00;05;22;25 - 00;05;48;15
Unknown
Okay? Yes. I mentioned last week I think I mentioned last week how, you know, I was talking through some of my story and some of the ways God came to me. Right. And it was about him. It's not about me. And that's a constant battle. I'm to I'm telling you, that's always a struggle because that's I mean, from the get go, right, from Genesis three on, the world has always met.

00;05;48;15 - 00;06;11;24
Unknown
The spirit of this age has always made it about you, always putting you at the central figure of any truth. Right. Like has the the the servant to Eve, right. As has God really said this about you. Now we've put you at the central figure, not the revelation of the majesty of God. So I shared last week some of my story.

00;06;11;24 - 00;06;35;13
Unknown
Right. And one of the things I mentioned, because I've been reflecting on this, this week, one of the things I mentioned is how the kind of the initial moment that the Lord drew me didn't happen because I wanted to be the embrace it. I walked into this church service, this church I'd gone to and the Lord spoke to me and he said, You haven't been here in seven years because you've been mad at your dad.

00;06;35;15 - 00;06;59;05
Unknown
Because remember, I shared that last week. So I'm not going to rehash the whole thing. And and I was reflecting on that moment, you know, as I want to reflect on the moments God comes to us, actually, you ought to reflect on those things all the time. And sometimes we get into this like next big thing moment by moment.

00;06;59;05 - 00;07;24;24
Unknown
Like when's the next big moment God visits you? Well, he's visited you before and he's eternal. So those moments never die. They're always alive and present with him. Like you didn't move on. You may have, but he's still there. You can think about that one for a second. Reflecting on this moment. And I was thinking about the moment God spoke to me and how his voice kind of rose above the din of God.

00;07;24;26 - 00;07;44;07
Unknown
I'm like, offended in this service, right? Because these people are going, Oh, it's the prodigal son has returned. And I'm upset and anxious because they're thinking, Oh, we can make him back part of the church fold again. And all these people recognizing me is the kid that used to go to that church but hadn't for a long time.

00;07;44;07 - 00;08;10;00
Unknown
And, you know, I've got all this internal wrestling and noise going on in my life. I was quite depressed at that time in my life as well. Like very actually very depressed at that time in my life. And it reflecting back like thinking about it, I don't know if I would have characterized myself as depressed, but I was living my life from one party to one high, one drunk to the next.

00;08;10;02 - 00;08;36;26
Unknown
I was quite depressed. And so the Lord spoke above the noise. Right? And he often does that with us. He speaks above the noise. But what would it mean if you actually cultivated silence so they didn't have to speak above the noise? Because he will he will sovereignly speak above your internal chaos. But what if he didn't have to?

00;08;36;29 - 00;09;15;21
Unknown
What if you could move through these chaotic moments and come to a place of quiet before him? And I'm convinced that there are and I can't prove this because I'm not all knowing, but I'm convinced there's many moments that Lord spoke to me that I totally missed. Oh, well, you guys all agreeing? Yeah. You still I'm convinced there's many moments that Psalm 62 says deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfall is right.

00;09;15;23 - 00;09;43;24
Unknown
Like I have a deep place designed to respond to him. But that deep place can also be obscured by many things. I'm 64, says that man's heart is deep and it devises schemes. How many of you have a scheming heart? All of you can raise your hand. Really, right? And all of you can. Like we cover up and we protect and we quiet out.

00;09;43;24 - 00;10;08;21
Unknown
We like, we we edge out the noise of God's voice, you know? And a moment like every single one of you is going to have a moment like that where the Lord spoke. I don't He may not have been an audible voice or an internal audio boys, as some people call it, something you clearly heard. But there was a moment where you knew God was God, right?

00;10;08;22 - 00;10;33;12
Unknown
You didn't create that moment, by the way. But that moment really had nothing to do with you. I think it's some 33. It's somewhere in there, maybe some 37, says the Lord. Maybe it's on May 18. It's in the book. It says, The Lord saved you because he delighted in you. Right. Had nothing to do with you. Has everything to do with the pleasure he takes in his creation, the delight he takes in every one of you.

00;10;33;12 - 00;10;54;14
Unknown
Not that you're special, but he's special. And he loves to save because it's who he is. And so these moments, like, as I've been reflecting on this, this moment, like how easy it would have been to miss that moment, because I didn't create it, I didn't sustain it. All I did was listen, but I didn't even give myself the capacity to listen.

00;10;54;14 - 00;11;37;09
Unknown
He did. I can't. My whole point is I can't save myself. All I can do is respond in the moment that he and he instigates the whole thing. He comes, he reveals, he speaks. I get the choice to respond. Again, this journey is not about me. It's about him revealing himself to me and coming into an awareness of how in credibly majestic, awe inspiring, terrifying, loving, tender, merciful this God we serve is the sum of my life becomes a life that's not about me.

00;11;37;12 - 00;12;21;14
Unknown
It's about how he's revealed through me. This is why, like, like, you know, we've talked a lot about the disciplines over the years, the spiritual disciplines. But like, silence is a self-emptying discipline. I'm emptying myself of all the noise. Why? So that I can fill myself with his annoyance When these spiritual disciplines are about unbecoming myself and becoming more like him, He does the saving, he does the speaking, he does the revealing.

00;12;21;16 - 00;13;10;00
Unknown
You, you know, you can't say you're I mean, you're as close as you can be to a passive observer because the only thing you're responsible for is responding by the whole how great the response is. Oh, how lovely. He begins to reveal himself to be and oh, how majestic you get to see him. In regards to all that, I've been thinking about meditating on Psalm 119 when take you a while to get through what?

00;13;10;00 - 00;13;48;23
Unknown
I've been stuck on a couple of verses and someone 19. The whole thing is great actually. I mean, it's the Bible, so it's like the statement of the obvious. But I've been stuck on verses nine, ten and 11. Psalm 119. I'm not even very far into it. Right? Some 119 nine, ten and 11. I was I was just before I say that I at the monastery was saying that they had a book on prayerfully reading the scriptures and prayerfully reading in general.

00;13;48;26 - 00;14;06;10
Unknown
You guys heard of the the left? Yo, Davina, maybe you've heard that term before. You've ever heard of that term? Let go, Divina. You know some of you. How many you have heard of it? Well, it's a pretty good amount of people that have heard about it. Good. I'm not going to go into a long thing about left you.

00;14;06;10 - 00;14;30;24
Unknown
Divina is prayerfully reading the scriptures, putting yourself in the middle of the story and realizing who God is through it. It's essentially what it is, but it's it's a way of slowing down and reading, right? So I'm reading this book on Lecture two Vino and the author of the book shared his initial experiences with it. He had gone to a spiritual father, and the spiritual father had given him a book to read.

00;14;30;26 - 00;14;50;03
Unknown
And that book, near and dear to my heart, because it's an early desert father book, nobody else probably cares about it. But when I read that, I was like, Oh, I like that book. And so he's talking about his experience of reading it, and he picks up the book and he starts reading and his is this spiritual father.

00;14;50;04 - 00;15;09;16
Unknown
This comes to him a week later and says, How's the reading going? And he's he's ashamed because he's only read 15 pages. And so he says to his spiritual father, I, I'm sorry, I've only been able to get through 15 pages. And how many have ever felt that pressure like you. You've got a book club, right? And you're like, you're supposed to.

00;15;09;16 - 00;15;24;13
Unknown
Did you Google what the chapter meant because you're 30 minutes before having to share your thoughts, right? How many have ever done that? None of us, right?

00;15;24;15 - 00;15;49;03
Unknown
So he confesses is great shame. You know, I've only been able to read 15 pages. I'm sorry I failed you. And his father says, what, 15 pages? You should still be on the first paragraph. Go back and start again. So now I'm like, I'm reading this right? Feeling bad. If I read it more than one sentence a day, like, what am I supposed to do?

00;15;49;05 - 00;16;07;24
Unknown
I want to go. It's a short little book that I wanted to read the whole thing in one sitting. And I'm like, I don't know that I can do that now. So I'm sharing that to say, like being stuck on was a story in the in the early church about a woman who was assigned to read that it was said read through the Psalms and the Lord will come to you and He will help you.

00;16;07;24 - 00;16;47;13
Unknown
And so a year later, she was still on someone, you know, Let that sink in for a second. A year later, she's still on Psalm one. You know, one, there are certain verses in Scripture that you could spend ten years on just every day thinking about ruminating on digesting and just sitting with, because there's an eternal truth of the nature of God.

00;16;47;19 - 00;17;14;21
Unknown
But we get so hurried in our modern world. It's all about me, right? Anyway, I've been thinking about Psalm nine, ten and 11 in the last week or so. Says is how can a young man keep his way pure by keeping it according to the word with all my heart. Have I thought you do not let me wonder from thy commandments, thy word I have treasured in my heart that I might not sin against the So the fruit.

00;17;14;21 - 00;17;33;13
Unknown
My first reflection on that is the first part of the verse. If you're if you're reading in the newspaper or the ESV says, how can a young man keep his way pure, that the new King James says, How can a young man cleanses way, but not to pass out the Hebrew there? But the the particular verb tense is better represented in the NSB in the ESV.

00;17;33;18 - 00;17;53;20
Unknown
How can a young man keep his way pure? And doctrinally, it's a much better way of saying that because you can't purify yourself like you can't take your way and then make it pure. You can't do that right. The Scripture is very clear that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. See, I know I know that.

00;17;53;22 - 00;18;21;09
Unknown
Oh, how to say this, How to say it. Sometimes I sometimes this thought goes through my head how to say this in the most controversial way possible. I know that I'm a sinner because of my great propensity or my great propensity, my great ability to absolutely devastate the lives of people around me and myself. I know I can do that.

00;18;21;09 - 00;18;42;15
Unknown
Every one of you knows you can do that. Right. I also, however, on the flip side, know that I'm a saint because Scripture calls us that, because I know God has placed His grace in me to wrestle with that so that I become like Him and give myself to the acts of love. So I know I'm both I can't cleanse myself.

00;18;42;15 - 00;19;12;19
Unknown
He comes to me and makes me holy meaning I participate in his life and he sets me apart so that I can recognize all that's in the world in relation to all that. He is one one Greek Orthodox monk said one time that holiness is defined when you're standing in the midst of it and you know everything, that it's not because you can't define something that's completely other than your experience.

00;19;12;19 - 00;19;32;24
Unknown
It's what the term holy means to be set apart, to be other then God is holy. When you see Him, you start to recognize, Holy moly, I don't have all of that. There's a lot of things I need to get rid of in the light of eternal holiness. It's really easy to see the things you need to let go of.

00;19;32;27 - 00;20;04;17
Unknown
It's not as easy to see the things you're becoming, but that comes along. But it's a lot easier to see the things you need to let go of. So he alone makes me pure. I can't purify myself. However, to or I'll say this my responsibility isn't to purify myself. My responsibility is to keep my way pure because he sets me apart, he cleanses me, he makes me holy.

00;20;04;20 - 00;20;28;15
Unknown
I can defile all of that because I know I have the ability to damage myself and everybody around me. But I also know his grace has come to me. So my responsibility is to keep it, not make it happen, to preserve it, not initiated, because he initiated again, it's not about me. It's about him. He's made himself the center of my life.

00;20;28;15 - 00;20;57;00
Unknown
And now I preserve that. As soon as I get my eyes off that, I get into all kinds of weird things. I started my I started my time at the monastery just in repentance, which is a great place to start, you know, clear the slate. I want to hear God. Let's get rid of some of the things. God.

00;20;57;00 - 00;21;28;19
Unknown
Search my heart and reveal this to me. I can't do it. He does. And in fact, I know my heart is a mystery. So Jeremiah 17 nine, says the heart is deceitful and wicked above all things. Who can know it? The whole point isn't that you're without hope. The whole point is that the verse ten, you know, a lot of the people forget about verse ten, where says, God knows the heart, and we kind of think we're stuck at Jeremiah 17 nine.

00;21;28;21 - 00;21;51;00
Unknown
The heart's deceitful and wicked. Okay, well, might as well go be deceitful and wicked. The God knows the heart. He searches the heart. He reveals what's in there. So again, I maintain this sensitivity to him, and I do that through daily routines and daily disciplines and creating space for him and all those kind of things. Right. But he's the one who does it.

00;21;51;00 - 00;22;14;27
Unknown
So my responsibility isn't to purify myself. My responsibility is to maintain as pure what he's already pure, purified. Like you think about that if you find water in its natural environment from a spring, you can't. You don't make it more pure. It's pure. You can make it, you can distill it and remove all the good nutrients in it.

00;22;14;29 - 00;22;45;27
Unknown
Right? It just kind of makes it neutral. But water in its natural environment is only it's only made contaminated by adding things to it. If you find it in its natural environment as it's coming into spring, natural spring water is pure and full of all kinds of life enriching things. You're like that. Your responsibility is to protect yourself from the contaminants.

00;22;45;29 - 00;23;13;29
Unknown
How do we get contaminated by the things we pay attention to or the things we give ourselves to by the thoughts we entertain, by the entertainment that we entertain? We should say this way by the thoughts we entertainment, by the thoughts we entertain, and by the entertainment. We think about, by the practices I give myself to Netflix bingeing.

00;23;14;02 - 00;23;53;05
Unknown
You know, that's a cultural thing. By allowing or even even simply by allowing my selves to be myself, to be constantly distracted. How do I hold on to that sensitivity? What I love just moving down as you guys are all distracted thinking about barbecue. I think one of the keys to this whole thing How can a young man keep his weight pure by keeping it according to their word?

00;23;53;11 - 00;24;30;09
Unknown
Well, he says this in verse 11 thy word. I have treasured in my heart this verse has been really convicting me lately. This word I have treasured in my heart. And I was thinking about this In what ways what steps do I take on a daily basis to treasure his word in my heart? That's not just I mean, okay, this is the Old Testament, right?

00;24;30;13 - 00;24;47;24
Unknown
Ultimately, we know what the word of God is. When you read the whole when you get further along, you read the last chapters. You know, if you're one of those people that reads the last chapters before the first chapters, you get the insight about what the word of God is, sounds not referring to the written text that's come before.

00;24;47;24 - 00;25;07;26
Unknown
That's not what David's referring to here in someone 19. He's not referring to, Okay, I'm going to start at Genesis one and start reading because that's going to get into my heart. That's one way of getting the word into your heart, and that really gets it into your mind. And occasionally it kind of settles down into a deeper place of who you are.

00;25;07;26 - 00;25;31;09
Unknown
Your heart, as Scripture defines as kind of the total being of who you are. But it's not just simply reading more and more and faster and faster. Again, that can be a benefit to that. I'm not denigrating that and reading scripture is good and it's important, but it's not so much the way that you get the word into your heart.

00;25;31;11 - 00;25;56;20
Unknown
So Psalms not talking about that because when when the author of Someone 19 speaks of the Word of God, as we would classically call it the Bible, he's he calls them precepts or he calls them statutes, or he says by law, those thing he refers to the written text that's come before that moment as precepts, doctrines, statutes and laws.

00;25;56;23 - 00;26;18;20
Unknown
So when he says thy word, I've hidden in my heart, he's not talking about what's been written. He's not talking about what they would have at that point, the Torah. And it's not talking about more broadly speaking, as it applies to the Christian life, just reading the Bible. So we know the word of God as what the word of God is.

00;26;18;23 - 00;26;44;14
Unknown
John one one in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. So who's the Word of God? And more specifically, Jesus. Okay. All right, good. We're we're in agreement. There, you know, But we get these cultural things right. When I say what's the word of God, it's easy to just go well off the Bible.

00;26;44;16 - 00;27;12;21
Unknown
Well, it's not really like the Bible doesn't refer to itself as the word of God. The Bible refers to like when when when Paul says to Timothy that all Scripture is given to be profitable for all instruction and correction and discipline, he doesn't refer to it as the word of God. He refers to does Scripture. When the Bible refers to the word Word of God, it's referring to a particular simply the wrong way of saying this, but it's going to convey this.

00;27;12;27 - 00;27;37;21
Unknown
What I mean by this is it's referring to a particular function within God, particular essence of God, or as maybe some of the early church fathers would say, one of the energies of God is not referring to text. So when the almost is saying your word, I have hidden in my heart, he's not saying. I just know the Bible line by line.

00;27;37;24 - 00;28;08;10
Unknown
That's not what he's saying. So what does it mean to hide his word in your heart? Because I think that's probably when it says, how can a young man keep his way pure? One of the prescriptions for that is treasuring his word in your heart. We ever thought about that? How how am I actively practicing today? Treasuring his word in my heart, treasuring the the the living and active presence of Jesus in my life, in his heart.

00;28;08;15 - 00;28;45;22
Unknown
How am I taking all that stuff that's in here and all the experiences we've all had and all the moments we've all had and shoving it in here and holding on to it. So it's my treasure and it's locked up in here and it's telling me who to be. How am I doing that on a daily basis? I would hazard a guess, myself included, that most of us have hazards approach that some of us don't approach at all, and some of us it's it's kind of like every now and then when we remember, you know, you're in the car alone, it's just not a necessarily a thing we think about all the time.

00;28;45;22 - 00;29;20;11
Unknown
So it's been something I've been pondering and pondering and pondering this week How do I store and treasure your word in my heart? I mean, Jesus said in Matthew six that where your treasure is there your heart will lie. Also, you know, like we've been given this kind of system of Christianity where you say his salvation prayer and then just kind of hold on until you get to the end.

00;29;20;14 - 00;29;46;03
Unknown
But what practices do I make to know him? How do I employ that in my daily life? What kind of disciplines am I walking with? How am I teaching myself or learning that it's not about me, it's about him in here. He's becoming my treasure. He's becoming my life. He's becoming my joy. He's becoming the thing I crave.

00;29;46;03 - 00;30;26;13
Unknown
He's becoming the thing I desire. One of the desert fathers, Apollonia said If a man does not say in his heart in the world, there is only myself and God. He will not gain peace. Because. Because think about this. If you say in the world there is me and God and Netflix say so. Okay, so how much how much percentage of my time do I give to each now and then when I'm not with this, I'm thinking about this.

00;30;26;13 - 00;30;57;01
Unknown
When I'm not with this, I'm thinking about this. So I have divided interests now in the world is Netflix God and my truck. I don't have a truck, so this can't be about me. But I see the trucks Eddie Shay posts on his Facebook. Okay. The really nice trucks so in the world is me this. Maybe this works better for like Calgary or something in the world as me.

00;30;57;01 - 00;31;27;04
Unknown
My truck's and Netflix and God. Okay, now I'm dividing my interest again to what do I give a portion of my attention in the world is me, God, Netflix, my trucks and my job. Now all of a sudden, you know now, okay, now we're talking about 20% here right? And so when I'm spending time in prayer with God, I'm I actually I'm actually not even living presently.

00;31;27;04 - 00;31;45;20
Unknown
I'm living in the future because I'm thinking about my drive and how much I like my truck. And then oftentimes when I'm with my truck, I've enjoyed the pleasure of it for about 30 seconds because that's how fleeting worldly pleasure is. But then I'm going thinking about this show on Netflix that I want to watch, right? So I constantly live in the future.

00;31;45;23 - 00;32;06;24
Unknown
I'm sending my thoughts all over the place, and none of them are with God or, you know, a classic one is I'm sitting down in a moment of silence or repose before the Lord, and I'm thinking about my tasks that I have to do at work is so easy to send your thoughts into the future, into the past, and not leave the present moment with them.

00;32;06;26 - 00;32;27;20
Unknown
And you send them into the past by thinking about the things that have happened to you. Send them into the future by thinking about all the things you've got to do. But in the moment, in the present with him, when we've said, Well, in the world is God and all my staff, we divide our interest. So how much of his word, how much of his word is hit in your heart as a 10%, as a 5%?

00;32;27;23 - 00;32;47;08
Unknown
Let's just just think about this. Look, I'm not I'm not trying to put a heavy on you and say, oh, no, we're all feeling we are all failing. The Bible already tells us that we are all failing. Okay. There's no way around that. But the father is inviting us into this depth of union and relationship. One of the one of the desert fathers.

00;32;47;08 - 00;33;08;25
Unknown
He said if a if you if you would just consider for a second that you're invited to abide in him. Yet you don't, you would be driven to tears. The God of this universe is given an open invitation to you to dwell with Him, and we'd rather dwell in the future with our things that we're not even with presently.

00;33;08;27 - 00;33;42;02
Unknown
That's crazy. It literally it sounds mad when you put it that way. Why would you not spend time with him? Why would you not take measurable steps to treasure his word in your heart? Why would you not make him your treasure? I love you. I love moments like what happened in worship today, because it reminds us it calls to memory again how beautiful and good he is.

00;33;42;02 - 00;34;31;17
Unknown
We need there always be a tug. We need to be reminded constantly about how good and tender and kind and sovereign and just and loving he is. Because, I mean, one of the greatest human problems is forgetfulness. We forget him and we forget ourselves. When we forget him, we forget ourselves. And we live with this kind of this kind of mental insanity where we spend time with everything else but ourselves and we've let everything be imprinted upon us except for him.

00;34;31;19 - 00;34;51;10
Unknown
So what do we what are we going to do about that? Well, it's something that's really simple, right? Like, this is why it says the Book of Psalms also says that his gracious voice and slow to anger but quick to mercy. Now we flip those around, right? We think he's quick to anger and slow to mercy, but he says he's quick to mercy and slow to anger.

00;34;51;10 - 00;35;09;18
Unknown
He's gracious. His tender mercies are renewed every single morning. So what do you do every morning? You make a new start on his tender mercies, and maybe throughout the day you forget about his tender mercies. But then you wake up the next morning and you make a whole new start. Every day is a new start in him. Every day is a new opportunity to turn your heart all over again.

00;35;09;20 - 00;35;30;11
Unknown
Every day is a new opportunity to imprint his presence upon you. Every day is a new opportunity to learn and grow. Every day you make a new start. And you know that sometimes that new start, oh, my goodness, it it builds upon the start you made yesterday and then it builds upon the other start and it builds upon itself.

00;35;30;13 - 00;35;55;27
Unknown
But you have the opportunity every morning you wake up. His mercies are new every morning that that term mercy literally means the loving kindness or tender heartedness of God is new. Every morning, every single day you wake up. And David David so trained himself in this in the book of songs that he says, At one point I awoke and you sustained me.

00;35;55;29 - 00;36;22;17
Unknown
Like that means I made a new start. I recognize your sustaining life giving presence, right? The very first thing doesn't mean I felt it right because it's not about feeling or sensation. That happens occasionally, but it means I value it. I treasured it. I let it bring itself to me. I dwelt upon it. I embraced it, and it became the lifeblood of my life.

00;36;22;20 - 00;36;43;23
Unknown
It proclaimed the presence of my life. And I didn't send my thoughts into the future, into the past, but I dealt with it. Sometimes that dwelling on a daily basis can happen for like 30 seconds. It's super easy to get distracted. You know, 99% of us, myself included, see a squirrel, and 35 minutes later, we forget where we are.

00;36;43;25 - 00;37;07;12
Unknown
But there's always an opportunity to bring it back. And that's that is the graciousness of the father. He doesn't go, forget you. You let your mind wander somewhere else. Will Fine. I'm going to go away from you now, David said. I can't go anywhere from your presence. I'm 139. No matter where I go to the highest of highs, lowest of lows, I can forget everything about you, but you never forgive me.

00;37;07;15 - 00;37;40;09
Unknown
The invitations always there is always present is life giving sustaining presence of two years. So spend time in silence before him. Spend time set apart even if it's just 5 minutes. Start somewhere, turn everything off, remove all the distractions close your eyes. Just do this. This is the simplest thing you can do. Close your eyes, turn everything off.

00;37;40;09 - 00;38;10;10
Unknown
Wake up 5 minutes before you need to. I mean, I get it. Believe me, I get it. Like I have three kids. Okay, I understand. It's difficult to find those moments. I get it. But. But I also know that when I'm driving, it's easy to just turn the music on or a podcast on or whatever. Even though there's a moment of silence right there, we can find the moments of silence if we look.

00;38;10;12 - 00;38;36;25
Unknown
And again, they might only be a couple of minutes, but a couple of minutes is better than no minutes. Turn the music off, turn the sound off. Quiet yourself, Close your eyes. Unless you're driving. Don't close your eyes Unless you have that much faith and just whisper Jesus does it. The word Jesus. How do I treasure his word in his heart?

00;38;36;28 - 00;38;59;21
Unknown
By making him my treasure. Jesus, just whisper Jesus. You could say it out loud. You can sit in audibly, whatever. Just whisper it, just whisper it. Make that moment about him and not about you. And there'll be moments. You'll get swept up into something incredible. But they'll also be moments where you have no idea he's doing. Because sometimes he just likes to work in hidden ways.

00;38;59;23 - 00;39;21;04
Unknown
Just whisper it. Father. I just thank you for Summerside community church. I thank you for this community. I thank you for what you're doing, Father. I just. I ask right now for a grace to be present on this house and on the people that we'd be drawn into moments of quiet repose before you. 30 seconds. 5 minutes, an hour, 4 hours, whatever.

00;39;21;04 - 00;39;41;09
Unknown
We have the time for, whatever we have, the patience for that you draw us wherever each one of us are, and that in that kaleidoscope of who you are in each one of us, father, that you draw us into that place. I ask for grace to be present for each with each person. That the moments that like what happened today during worship would be little treasures.

00;39;41;11 - 00;40;07;27
Unknown
There'd be little treasures. They'd be in there that would remind us of how good you are, of how kind you are, how loving you are, how tender you are of how present you are with each of us. Father, help us to value who you are and in valuing who you are, we find value and who we are. So, Father, just descend upon us, be with us.

00;40;08;00 - 00;40;31;24
Unknown
Let our hearts be open to you that we treasure you. And we wouldn't live too far in the future, too far in the past. But be present with you. Be present with your thoughts, Be present with your presence. Be present with your goodness, your tenderness, your loving kindness, your mercy. That you would help us to make new starts every morning turning our heart to you.

00;40;31;29 - 00;40;49;12
Unknown
Those first few moments of the day as saying, Father, I'm here, I'm yours Jesus, I'm whispering your name in my heart. I'm going to value this moment and I'm going to give it to you so that you are the center of my life. And my my ego can take a check and stand aside. It's you're the central place in my life.

00;40;49;12 - 00;41;23;23
Unknown
You're the central figure in my life. You are So, father, let your grace come. Let your beauty be present. I thank you for this morning. And I thank you for the bread we're about to break today. So.