How to Properly Read the Bible | Grow Your Faith

 TRANSCRIPT

Now the reality is the busyness thing is a real issue. It is a real issue. And I don't know about you. It's it's always puzzled me. Really puzzled me. Why is it that some people can seem to go through life and all the problems and all the challenges with such grace and with such ease, and then others just seem to fall apart at the slightest hiccup, the slightest challenge, right?

We all know people like that. Yeah. You know, people that just kinda lose it over nothing. You know, some of you know people like that. Some of you live with people like that. Some of you are people like that. And if that is you, the person that's beside you, that knows that you please don't do anything like that, just at the moment, it's a reality.

What is the difference with that? And what Sharon is trying to get to out of this busyness is, and I think she's discovered the secret of it, the secret. To actually you being, connecting well with other human beings and remaining stable is just connection. That's what it is. It's just connection. If you are well connected to God, you are gonna be better connected to people.

That's just how it is. I don't know. Have you ever seen This still happens occasionally. It happened after the last storms. People couldn't actually hear their friends on the phone 'cause their reception was down. All the towers gone. And you can see them. They, they're kind of walking around trying to go like this, trying to find that spot.

And I happened to me with Ruth. Ruth rang me with some important information and she's down the phone going like this. And all I'm hearing is, eh, and, and pick up freedom. Got it. No, I don't have it at all. I haven't got it at all. I had no connection. But I'm running around like this guy trying to find this like nut I like, how do I get the connection?

I. So I couldn't hear what she was saying. Sadly, for most people when it comes to our relationship with God, that's kind of how it is. We don't clearly hear his voice. We just get little snippets and we're a little bit. Wondering what's the message that I'm trying to get through? The reason why Taylor and Porsche are over there doing this is the fact that life is busy.

Life has interruptions. Stuff is going on all the time, and you have to learn how to discipline yourself and be quiet and here God in the midst of everything else. So that's the challenge that they got on. They didn't know they were doing that when they first came in. They said, we're coming up at a certain point in time.

Oh no, yours. So they're really happy about that. So I think connection is everything. Now let me read to you just a, a portion of scripture, uh, out of the book of James. Now James was the half brother of Jesus. Uh, James became a very prominent figure in the church. Uh, however, he didn't really start that way because it took a while for his big brother to convince him that he was the Messiah.

That'd probably be the same for you. But he became so prominent in there that he became a great leader within the context of the church. And around 62 to 69 AD he was martyred for his faith in his big brother, the Messiah, Jesus. They threw him down from the top of the temple. He didn't die. So because he wouldn't renounce Christ, then they beat him to death for his big brother.

So James understood some things. So lemme just read to you this here. He says, my dear brothers. Take note of this. Everybody should be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to become angry. I'm already in trouble for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth.

He's talking about sexual immorality, which was so prevalent in that day and isn't ours, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. The word planted in you is what saves you. Don't merely listen to it and deceive yourselves. So what, what, so you're saying listening to people preaching, if I don't actually do it, I'm deceiving myself.

Ah-huh. So you've gotta humbly accept it so that it goes inside, so that it transforms you. Then he goes on, tells a story about how your person looks in the mirror and forgets who they are, and then he revisits it again and says, but the person that looks intently into the perfect law, that gives freedom, which is the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

If you stay in that intentionally looking in it and you continue in it, and don't forget what you've heard, but put it into practice, you will be blessed. So there is a lot of significance to connection. So what we are sharing with you is a simple process that we do around here called soap devotions.

It's how you gain and maintain a relationship with God for yourself, and it is so effective. 'cause essentially what it's doing is sitting you at the feet of Jesus so that by his spirit, he can speak to you out of the scriptures. Something that you should apply, which will transform you into the image of Christ.

And this simple practice that we're gonna share and do a bit together, it covers so many spiritual disciplines. It covers silence, it covers solitude, reflection, prayer, discipline, community, and the discipline of training your ear to hear God's voice. I think soap is the highest form of prayer there is.

Now some of you're gonna go, oh, I think it's the highest form. Why? Because. When we normally pray, we're asking God for something. Give me this, do this. Help me, bless me, fix me, help me, whatever it is. But this is where you stop and you let God speak to you. Say, God, what do you wanna say to me? What do I need to apply?

How do I need to change? It's essentially saying, speak. For your servant is listening. It's understanding that we are not God. He's God. We're just servants. We're just ones that love him, that are doing stuff on this earth through him. So I always say to. To the guys here. And if you knew here, you probably haven't seen Pastor Wayne Cero.

Wayne Cero is the gentleman that actually put together this soap plan that we're gonna show, and he absolutely, I don't think had any idea what would happen in this when he spent a decade putting it together. Uh, but it has gone all around the world. There are millions of people that follow this simple process to gain and maintain a relationship.

But I want you to hear from the well where this started. So have a quick look at Pastor Wayne as he just talks to kind of his students or the church about the soap process just for a few minutes. Hi. We're in a coffee shop and actually I can't think of a better place to do a life group than in a coffee shop because here you have my favorite things life journal.

Bible and coffee. Now, all you gotta do is invite a few people to gather maybe once a week, and it'll just take an hour every morning or once a week in the mornings, whatever you want to do. And if you just think about these three numbers, 20, 20, 20, I'll give you the significance of those in just a moment.

But here at a coffee shop, people will gather together and, and they'll bring these things with them. A pen, a journal, and their bible. And for the first 20 minutes they read. They read according to whatever the life journal's reading is. And it takes no more than 20 minutes, I promise, at just average reading.

And then you open your journal and you journal for 20 minutes and you use the acrostic soap. S will stand for scripture. So you'll find a scripture that speaks to your heart, that grips you, and, and you write that down in your journal, the scripture. Now, some people will, will read the whole reading and then come back to a scripture.

Others will read until they find something. They'll stop. And they'll journal on that. When they're done journaling, they'll continue and finish their reading and whichever way is fine, but S stands for that scripture. You write that scripture down, and then O stands for observation. You just write an observation about what it's saying.

Then you come to the A and the A is where you zero in for an application. That's where you apply what God has just taught you to your life personally, and you write that down, how will I be different today because of what I've just read. And then p. P is a heartfelt prayer that you'll write down and you'll ask God to help you to apply that you write it for, and journal for 20 minutes.

And then after that, take the last 20 minutes and you go around the table and everyone shares, just read your journal. So the first one will read his or hers. They'll pass the baton to the second. You can comment, you can applaud, you can ask questions. And then when you're done with that journaling group, you pray as a group together.

It'll take you one hour. 20, 20 20. And if you'll do that even once a week, not only will you bond with a group of people, but you'll come away with a word that you can apply that's specific to your life and it'll be a great beginning of a fantastic day. Try it. You'll love it. Shoulder, I don't think Pastor Wayne had any idea.

Hello? I don't think Pastor Wayne had any idea that when he put this together for his church, that he was leading in Hawaii just to help them get discipled. So they're discipled by the Holy Spirit through the scriptures. He had no idea what would go on with it, what, where it would go, and how far around the world.

Here's the thing about, so it is so simple, but it is so deep. I'm gonna probably offend a few people here right now, and that's okay. I'm a serial offender, uh, and I'll, if you don't get you on this one, I'll get you another week. You know, preaching does not transform you. Podcast does not transform you.

Reading books does not transform you. Having intellectual debates does not transform you. What transforms you is when you allow God to get down underneath. The head knowledge and those things I just said, and actually transform you at the nine tenths of the iceberg of your life. That's under the surface.

It is the deepest form. So it's simple, but it's deep because it transforms us. But here's the deal, it's not easy. It's not easy. It's gonna require discipline. It's gonna require you to. To intentionally set a Jesus' feet and say, speak Lord, I'm listening. What do you want to say to me to transform me? Soap devotions is not for you to figure out how to fix your spouse or fix your kids or fix the, your boss or whatever.

It's, it's how God transforms you. That's what it's all about. It's a personal discipleship, and it's gonna require discipline, courage, strength, obedience. Once you figure out what you're going to apply, you actually have to apply. And I love the way he said, do your village in a coffee shop. It's great. You know anywhere that you can get together and do this, I think as village is the best thing that you could do is forget about doing Bible studies.

That doesn't transform. It's not gonna transform you 'cause it sticks in the head. Knowledge up above the top, create the space. Let's come, let's sit. Let's listen to God for the first 20 minutes. Let's journal our thoughts, what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. Then let's share them together. Let's share it together and see what God is saying to us and figure out how to apply it.

So here's where it's gonna get real interesting 'cause we are gonna just really see if we can, uh, do this together a little bit to, um, get some application going. So if you guys got your phone, get your phones ready, if you're gonna scan the QR code, if you go on old school and you got the old pad that's ready to go.

So what you're gonna write, if you're using the the old school model where it says scripture, just put Matthew 1422 to 31. That's basically what we're going to workshop together. Now, as Pastor Wayne said, normally when you're doing it, you'll read four chapters. Three or four chapters. Um. Two of them will be connected to the old covenant of ancient Israel when God was founding a military nation to set the stage for when the Messiah comes, and two of them will usually be from the new Covenant, which is the covenant for you.

We were never involved in that. Gentiles were never allowed to the temple. They were never allowed to touch the Torah. That was nothing to do with us in the new one. That is what you have to apply. The new is for you to apply plenty to learn out of the old. But apply out of the new, right? You got that. So in fact, let me just make this comment here.

If you are, if you're exploring faith in Jesus and you're trying to start a relationship, or you're early in the relationship, don't read the old covenant Scriptures at the moment. Stay in the new until you are rock solid, established in Jesus rock, solid in the fact of how much God loves you and rock solid in the fact that the Holy Spirit is mentoring you through the scriptures to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Once you've got to that place, now go back and visit the backstory to the greatest story. Okay, so we're only gonna do 10 verses and I'm gonna get a couple of guys to read them, and then what I'm want you to do is just listen. And the a minute something stands out in your mind, grabs your attention, write it down in that observation section.

And those of you that have the phones, you just get to put it straight up on the screen over here and we'll, uh, just see what kind of transpires out of it. Bit of backstory to what you're about to hear. Uh, Jesus has just done a phenomenal miracle. He's just fed 5,000 people with five loaves and a few fish.

So that's fairly significant. So they're, they're coming fresh out of a significant miracle that Jesus has done. So let me just pray 'cause we want the Holy Spirit to lead us. And, and then I'll, then I'll get the guys to read. They'll read it twice. You guys on your phones. Throw it up on the screens. You guys on the.

Clipboards. Write down whatever God says to you. Okay, father, I just thank you that you are leading us. You are guiding us. Holy Spirit. You've been right through this whole experience. As we're two or together. Together, you're in the midst and I ask that right now, you would highlight to each of us what is the one thing out of this that you want us to grab a hold of and consider that it might be about something to do with transforming us.

We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. So maybe Simon, why don't you read first Matthew chapter 14, verse 22. Immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd after he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.

Later that night, he was there alone. And the boat was already a considerable distance from land buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear, but Jesus immediately said to them, take courage.

It is, I don't be afraid. Lord, if it is you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water. Come, he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he'd saw the wind and he was, he was afraid and beginning afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.

Immediately. Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. You of little faith. He said, why did you doubt? Okay. What stood out to you if you got your phones, get up on Slido. What stood out to you? What, what? Just jumped to your attention through the first reading of that? And we'll just wait for a moment and then we're gonna say Peter needed reassurance because he had little faith.

Okay.

Faith, trust, courage. Okay, Ruy, how about you read it again? Yes. Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side. While he dismissed the crowd, after he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone and the boat was already a considerable distance from the land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, take courage. It is, I don't be afraid, Lord, if it is you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water.

Come, he said. And Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, you of little faith. He said, why did you doubt? Why did you doubt? Okay, now, while this is going on here, Megan has the unenviable task of everything that goes up there.

She's gonna be looking at excess and looking for themes. Any particular themes that are, that are falling out of, and as she, just as she identifies them, they'll come up on here. Hopefully if the, uh, technology works. That'll be very interesting. So whatever God has spoken to you, write it in that first section.

Observation, what is it? Reached out his hand. Catch him. Yeah. Take courage.

You guys on church online, Cass is sending information from you over there in here. So that's getting down to Megan as well.

Here's a couple of things that I just think is really interesting, but 'cause of the way that I'm wired, because of, I know I've been doing this so long that my mind just makes connections. I like the fact that. Why did Jesus send them away on their own? Why did, why did he do that? Why did he want to be by himself?

Now, if I'd have given you the whole chapter to read and we'd have read the whole chapter, you'd have made that connection only a few verses earlier. John the Baptist has been beheaded. That's his cousin. He's just been martyred for the faith. So when Jesus has gone from straightening there into miracles and this, that, and the other, and I think he just, maybe just, I just need some space to reflect on what's happened with John.

I don't know. What other things do you see? I, I think it's fascinating. Like, you know, like Peter Peters gets outta the boat. What are the other 11 doing? Why is no one else getting outta the boat? Why is it only Peter? So now having a look at, oh, put those back up there. Can you put Slido up or is it gone?

Can Slido go back up? It's, oh, there it is. So, um, the old school people out there, have you got anything on your, you've written down that's different to what is on the screens? There's some very consistent themes coming up there. Do you have anything written down? On yours that is different to what we actually have up there that you'd be willing to share.

This is really running. Want one or two got something different? Okay, so we're all fairly consistent then in line with where this is going. Okay. Now to help you just once again see this and reinforce it, I'm gonna ask Taylor and Pia to sh to read their whole devotion that they've actually come up with.

So let's go. Porsche first I just said to Taylor, can you go first, please? Oh, sorry about that. That's okay. Blame it on the Lord. So just read it? Yeah, just, just read through. Okay. So I journaled on number 30, verse 30, but when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out. Lord, save me. Here we see Peter have in a short moment, great faith to meet Jesus on the water, but then great doubt Peter began to sink as soon as he saw the wind.

Peter is so human, which makes me relate to him so easily, and not just in this scripture across the New Testament. Um, Peter had a moment of great doubt when his gaze moved away from Jesus and onto the circumstances, and he was distracted by the current situation. In my life. So this is my application in my life.

I too am like Peter. I'm easily distracted by circumstances. I too think about the limitations.

I too think about how things couldn't and shouldn't work out. And these doubts begin to creep in when my gaze moves away from Jesus. However, I'm encouraged by when Peter asks Jesus for help, he immediately responds. And that shows me that the trust is still there, but Peter just needs to shift his gaze back to Jesus.

And like me, when my trust in God is shaken in the storm, when I let fear of the wind come in, I begin to doubt. So I need to shift my gaze to him. How am I gonna do this? Prayer devotions? This is where I. Learn about who Jesus is and what he does in my life, time and time again, remembering in my own life when Jesus has pulled through and I've trusted him.

And then thirdly, surrounding myself with people who encourage me to shift my gaze back to Jesus. Very good, thanks. Very cool. So you really covered the bases there of you personally and. Friend. Think of the right friends too, to make sure that you are, they're gonna point you back, which is very similar to what Sharon said in the video at the start.

She said when she does get like that, her husband actually helps her points her back to Jesus. That's great. That's great. What about you, Taylor? I. I feel like mine's a bit disjointed. It's quite hard to read. While that's normal, we do that every week. Problem and stuff going next, next to me. Um, but I chose the same scripture, so yeah.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to think, he cried out, Lord, save me. So my observation was Peter had lots of faith moments during this passage where he called out, he stepped out. So he had moments leading up to that. Um. But to me it seemed like Peter treated those moments in isolation.

So he was doubting God based on that scenario that he was facing. Right. In that moment where he has experience so many times, Jesus showing his power throughout his whole journey with Jesus. They just came from feeding the 5,000. But it seems like Peter was just doubting in that moment, just looking at that one scenario of, how can I walk out there?

Why the wind's gonna blow me and I'm gonna sink. It's like that one moment is all he's focused on. He's not even thinking about all of the other um, times that Jesus has come through in his life. Uh, yeah. So Peter and the rest of the disciples experienced the abundance of miracles They had just come from feeding the 5,000.

Instead, Peter's using all of his, uh, instead of Peter using all of his previous experience and examples of miracles from Jesus. In those moments, he just focused on what's in front of him and no other faith moments come into alleviating the doubt. And my application is. My journey with Jesus isn't about each moment in isolation.

It should be accumulation of everything Jesus has done in my lives and all of those moments that God has come through. I can't just look at the current mo, the current situation that I'm facing and question and have doubt. I need to use it based on all of my experience, my whole experience with Jesus. I need to include when I start to doubt.

So no more isolated faith moments. All previous experience with God counts. Yeah. Very cool. So you tied it back to the fact that he, his forgetting, forgetting the fact of what had he'd just experienced. Mm-hmm. And then isolating by just focusing on his circumstance. Very cool. Now I've done devotions with Taylor, so we would have, if we would round our table now, we'd be having a very robust conversation about a bunch of those kind of things.

About how you apply. I've actually done one as well, which I'll read in a little while, which you'll see how it, it's moving from a personal revelation, uh, to a collective revelation. 'cause that's the way that the Holy Spirit works. Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate you doing that. You can actually get off there if you want to thank the guys.

Okay, so now whatever you've got in your observation, now we're gonna move to the application. So whatever's written down that you have, how would you apply that? And we're gonna ask this question together as well about one of the themes. So, but if you've already got something, you just write down there, okay, how would I apply this to my life?

And now for those of you maybe that are sitting there, go, I don't even have an observation. I'm totally in the dark. Well, let's have a look at the. These are the things that, um, megs has brought out. Faith, trust. Don't doubt being with God in prayer. Fear your courage. Focus on Jesus. So let's go with the easiest one, I reckon here.

Let's, let's, let's focus on, focus on Jesus. So if you've got nothing written in your first observation, write, focus on Jesus. Then there and then we're gonna, now gonna, we're gonna apply that. So think about the what happened Peter's. Out there. He sees Jesus on the water. He gets all excited. He wants in on the miracle.

He fixes on eyes on Jesus, and he gets out and he's walking towards Jesus and everything is going fabulous. And then suddenly his focus moves off that and onto all of the circumstances around him. And then what happens? He begins to sink application. What are you gonna write in there that'll help you to not make the same mistake that Peter made?

What would you do for an application to not make the same mistake that Peter made? So you guys, now that you've got your phones up on the thing that's put Slido up, how are you gonna apply out of that one there, out of focus, what would you put up there? What would you put up as your application? What kind of things would you do?

Keep the main thing. The main thing. That's great. Look at who I'm surrounding myself with. Make time to read God's word. Great things more practical. You could even drill down more practical. You could maybe do a, what do you call that? Um, an audit of your life to see how busy you are. Is there any stuff that you could eliminate?

Is there stuff that is just distractions? Is there some clutter? At times when I've struggled with so early on, here's one of the things I had to do. It was very practical. I had a diary appointment with Jesus one hour every day. That's it, that that was the time I sit at Jesus' feet and I allow the Holy Spirit to speak to me.

That's a very practical thing that you might do. You don't have to do it. I'm just saying, just look at these things. Think creatively about how you might do that. Now I've been doing soap for about 30 years now. Same plan, round and round. I get something different every single time. Um, but because I've been, been it so long, my mind now, I, I've read essentially, if you've done that faithfully every day, you've read the whole Bible at least 30 times.

And the new covenant of Jesus. 60 times. I've done a lot more than that 'cause that's just my devotion reading. But what happens is the more you spend time sitting and the more time you spend listening, this is what transforms you. Listening to apply. The more your brain under the Holy Spirit's guidance begins to make connections.

It's these connections, it starts firing all over the place. So normally my devotions can be short, they can be two lines. Yes, in each area. And sometimes they can be big and you are really fortunate. 'cause this one's big. It's big and I don't normally do it. This kind of big, but there's so much going on.

And now that I've heard Taylor and Porsche, it's like if we were having around the coffee table, uh, it makes a lot more sense now and we would be interacting around that after we've all read together. So mine was actually outta the very, very first verse. Where it says immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, and he dismissed the crowd.

Here's my observation. The disciples have just been part of incredible miracle witnessing Jesus feed 5,000 people out of practically nothing, and then Jesus sends them off to reflect for a little while. I can only imagine the conversations in the boat. Peter would be going, did you see that five loaves and two fish?

John, man, he just fed 5,000 people. How did he do that? Of course, Judas would've said, I wanna know who's paying for all that. Where's that extra bread and fish coming from? Then he sends them off straight into the storm to reveal something else about himself. In the midst of the storm, he comes to them walking on water and they're scared.

Obviously, the provision miracle didn't stick. Peter wants in on the next miracle. So he leaps up there and says, Jesus, can I grant me to come out on the water? He gets out there in the midst of it. He's in the midst of another miracle. God's displaying his power and authority even over the laws of nature.

I don't know what happened. Maybe Peter remembered a physics class that definitely without any shadow of doubt that people cannot walk on water. I don't know what it was, but Peter lost his focus on Jesus and the miracles. And he became consumed with the circumstances and he started sinking. So he cries out to Jesus.

And what does Jesus do? He reaches down and lifts him up and says, oh Peter, why did you doubt? You have little faith is my application. I spend a lot of time asking God to use me in significant ways, and then suddenly I find myself in the midst of a storm. And then what do I do? I forget everything. I forget everything, and instead of looking to Jesus and reminding myself of the miracles he's already done, I start to remember the voices of the past.

They keep telling me why this won't work and that won't work and it can't be done. And then I rehearse the voices of failure over and over in my mind, and I become fixated on the circumstances. And before I know it, the flame of my faith is going out and all that remains as a big pile of doubt. Instead of keeping my eyes on Jesus, I begin to sink into the depths of despair and I cry out.

God saved me. I guess my real enemy is my old sin nature, doubting Thomas, who sits in the shadows like a sniper waiting to take a shot at me in the middle of the storm. When fear takes hold, I forget that my God is an expert at making heaps out of practically nothing. And my prayer was, father, help me.

Remember, often I'm in the midst of your will, in the midst of the storm. All I have to do is keep focused on you, and then I can remain in the storm until your plan on purpose is actually achieved. Forgive me for the times when I fail. Please help me get better at not failing in this area. But I'm always grateful to you that you have my back when my old friend, doubting Thomas, takes the lethal shot from the shadows, and I stumble.

Father, I allow the Holy Spirit to have control over my life. Change me in this area, I pray as well. Now, if you listened to that, now that is basically exactly what was in. Taylor and Porsche just in different, coming from different angles. So if we were doing devotions around a table, we would be having the most amazing conversations, and we are not dealing with this.

The, the, the little bit above, the one 10th above, we're dealing with the nine-tenths, the things that's underneath us that keep tripping us up, and we move from personal revelation to collective. I love what Sharon said in the start, in the video, she said, my husband points me back to Jesus and the word.

He's not trying to fix me. Man, this is so simple. This is so simple. I, if I've, the thing I hear the most is I dunno how to lead my family. I dunno how to lead my wife soap devotions. You don't actually have to lead, you have to just create the space where they can get. Quiet before God for themselves and sit at Jesus' feet and let the Holy Spirit reveal to them what they need to change.

That is the best leadership in the world. You're teaching them how to feed and how to connect with God. I think if you've got a village, make that the focus of your village. If you don't have a village, start one. Just find some people anywhere. This doesn't have to be just with Jesus followers. This can be people that are like wanting to explore.

There's plenty of people that don't wanna explore God on relationship. I, I'll coach you on how to do it. Just this is what you do. You just go up to him and say, listen, I, I'm looking for someone to read the Bible with me. I don't suppose you'd be interested. Tell 'em they're not interested. I don't suppose you'd be interested.

Human nature goes well. I might be interested. Don't tell me I'm not interested. Yeah, I'm interested actually. Yeah, let's do it. Well, oftentimes that's what happens in our human nature. Just say, Hey listen, come on, I'm looking for someone to read the Bible with me. I don't suppose you'd be interested.

Sometimes I'll say, no, I've got something in my pocket for you, which is a whole different thing. But um, most of the time they go, well, I don't know. I might be interested. Now, one final thing that you gotta understand about this. Could you tell, tell Cheryl I'll get back to her shortly. I'll be there soon.

Cheryl. I'll be soon. Um, here's the most key important thing here. Soap is not a law to follow. If you make this a law, it's dead. It's not a law to follow. Soap is a spirit led invitation to experience Jesus in community. That's what keeps it alive. That's why I say it's the highest form of prayer. 'cause you're just basically sitting at Jesus' feet.

You know, every so often we have pastors that sneak into our community. I don't tell you, but they sneak in to have a look. And there are a couple things that come out all the time. One of 'em is, what is the matter with these people? They actually look like they like each other. These people seem to actually love each other and they care about each other and no one's running around judging each other and things like that.

And they said, how is it? What's the secret? Is it getting an ice cafe? I said, no, it's not really that. It's the soap devotions. They've learned how to sit at Jesus' feet. They've learned how to do that. Yeah. And now they love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. So guess what? They love one another the same way.

It's so easy if someone came in here now and put a gun to my set head and said, you can only do one thing for your people now what's it gonna be? I'm gonna teach you. So devotions, 'cause you'll be conformed to the image of Christ, not a leader. Conforming people to the image of a leader. I don't want you coming out like me.

I want you coming out like you. Why did you laugh when I said that? Someone laughed. I'm not that bad. No. I want you to become who you are in Christ. Only the Holy Spirit can do that On the scriptures that you pack down, that you don't forget that you live out, you keep looking into, that's what makes all the difference.

So here's the deal. Now what are you gonna do about what you've just learned? Because some seeds have been planted. You could do a little bit, do nothing, change a lot. That's really up to you. That's up to you. But to help you over at the side there, the girls have set up another area on the next steps that if you want a hand to figure out how to get the, the soap devotions on your phone or some resources or help, they, they're gonna be over there to help you.

Now I know what you're thinking 'cause I've been through all this stuff. You don't understand my life. My life is so busy. I'm so busy. I haven't got time to give up an hour. I'm just so, so, so busy. Here's the deal, we make time for what we value and be honest with yourself. Be honest with yourself this, this is what I mean.

Transform the bottom half down, down below. If you don't want to do devotions. Be upfront. Lord, I don't really value this relationship and I'm not gonna sit here. He can handle it. I'm not sure what he'll do with it, but he can handle it. He's not phased by any of that kind of stuff. And I know you can say you're so busy, but I know I'm pleased.

Nobody get offended. Nobody get offended. I know some people that chase little white balls around a paddock. For a lot of hours during the week. Nothing wrong with chasing little white balls around a paddock, as long as that doesn't be the excuse to say, well, you can't spend time at Jesus' feet. I know some guys that love fishing and they got boats and they go out there and they go, oh, this is great.

Nothing wrong with that unless that becomes the excuse that you use for not spending time and valuing your relationship with God. Other of us, we just get on the socials and we get, look at everything. Oh, look what they've got. They've got, we just envying everybody. Or why watching miles and miles of binging movies, it's like it.

It's not about that. None of those things are bad. If they're in their right place. But when they start to take the place and rob you of the ability to sit quiet and allow Jesus to transform you, that's when it becomes a problem. And if you don't, I'm gonna be honest with you. If you don't figure this out like poor old Sharon at the start, you will be continually driven by the tyrant of busyness.

Unless you figure this out, quiet yourself and be there. Could you imagine what might happen in the world? I. Around us, in our cities, in our families, in our home, if we lived in perfect connection with God. Imagine how different it would be if we actually lived in perfect connection with God. We're not trying to like, guess what he's saying, we look kinda like because we can't hear, I think.

I think, well, no, we are living in perfect connection and then what's coming out is you're sitting at Jesus' feet. There's love, there's joy. There's. Peace, this kindness, this gentleness, this faithfulness, this self-control, this all becomes a part of who we are. And then we look and we feel, and we smell and we taste different to everybody else in the world, which we should.

If we're engaging with the God that loves us, it's so amazing. And who knows? Who knows? Maybe he might entrust us with greater levels and dimensions of his miraculous power. Yeah, we saw a lot more of miraculous things happen in the eight seventies and eighties. That shows a little bit of how old I am, although I do, I do agree that the eighties was the best, best season when it comes to music.

Would you agree, Danielle? I'm not sure you're, yeah. Eighties was the best. You know, like, but what I'm trying to say to you is that we saw great manifestations of God's spirit moving, and we abused that power. And we misused it and we were not faithful to God in all sorts of ways, and God just withdrew it.

And I felt God whispered to me when we started changing down here. He said, I am not gonna release a demonstration of my power through an individual anymore. It'll come through the body and I'm, I'm only gonna do it through people that I know I can trust. To represent me well, and I'm praying that, oh Lord, if we could really get this right, sit at your feet, maybe you could entrust us.

Maybe you could do some things in us that would be spectacular. But it all comes through the filter of love. So we gonna make space. Make space, and that's the name of our next series, making Space to Sit at Jesus' Feet. So that the Holy Spirit can reveal to us out of the law that brings freedom, something that we need to remember, we need to do, so it conforms us to the image of Christ.

Let's pray together. Father, I just thank you for just the opportunity just to workshop this a little and, and I'm hoping, Lord, that you've been working in people and they're getting the idea about how easy this is to gain and maintain a relationship with you. Uh, Lord, we should look and feel different.

We should be able to handle things differently and. Uh, sometimes we don't, and that's because we just got that intermittent connection. But I just pray that we'll see the value of keeping that connection so that we are being conformed to the image of Christ and that we'd be a blessing to the people in the world in which we live.

And I'm so thankful for Pastor Wayne and I know he had no idea what he was doing when he put this together under your, uh, under your inspiration. And it's been such a blessing to so many people. So help us to see the value of this. So.