Scripture referenced
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Psalm 27 Read aloud in full by members of the congregation as the foundation for the whole sermon
1 Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident.
4 One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in Yahweh’s house all the days of my life, to see Yahweh’s beauty, and to inquire in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble, he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. In the secret place of his tabernacle, he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock.
6 Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me; I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh.
7 Hear, Yahweh, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me.
8 When you said, “Seek my face,” my heart said to you, “I will seek your face, Yahweh.”
9 Don’t hide your face from me. Don’t put your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Don’t abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then Yahweh will take me up.
11 Teach me your way, Yahweh. Lead me in a straight path, because of my enemies.
12 Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living.
14 Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
Psalm 27:8
The key verse of the sermon: 'My heart has heard you say, come and talk with me. And my heart responds, Lord, I am coming'
8 When you said, “Seek my face,” my heart said to you, “I will seek your face, Yahweh.”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Jeremiah 12:5
Read aloud and applied as a personal word to a woman named Maddie about being trained to run with horses
5 “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? Though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Brian preached on December 30, sitting in the quiet stretch between Christmas and New Year's. Using Psalm 27 as the text, he made the case that this in-between week does not have to be a spiritual dead zone, and that the Lord's invitation to "come and talk with me" is as open now as at any other time of year.
What was said
Brian opened with a picture from his years as a ski instructor. A beginner skier can get the pizza wedge technically right, and still be completely rigid, just going through the motions without actually skiing. He used that image to name something he said can happen in worship and in the Christian life generally: following the form without really being present, which makes it harder for us to encounter the Lord.
From there he moved into Psalm 27, which the congregation read aloud together by passing a microphone around the room. He drew attention to verse eight, where David writes that his heart has heard God say "come and talk with me," and that his heart responds, "Lord, I am coming."
He spent time on the idea that a person is made up of spirit, soul, and body. Before someone is born again, the soul and body run the show. After, the spirit is meant to be in charge, taking direction from God and activating the soul and body to respond. He argued that verse eight is a picture of exactly that: God's spirit speaking to the human spirit, and the spirit then needing to bring the soul and body along into a response.
The practical problem he named is the "pajama predicament," his term for the way the holiday week tends to slide from legitimate rest into a kind of spiritual deadness he called the doldrums, a nautical word for being becalmed with no wind and no direction. The danger is not rest itself. He was careful to say several times that rest is good and necessary. The danger is coasting past rest into a place where we have let the sail down and stopped listening for the Lord's voice altogether.
He offered four simple steps to try for the remaining days before New Year's: set aside time each morning, put on some worship music, read through Psalm 27, and then sit quietly and listen. On that last point he suggested that people who feel they cannot hear the Lord may be listening with the wrong device, through the five senses rather than through the spirit. He said the Holy Spirit, given to every believer, is like an end-to-end encrypted communication line, and that practicing stopping when you hear that still small voice, even in small moments, makes it easier over time to feel God's peace in the middle of chaos.
He closed the main message by returning to the sailing image. The wind of the Holy Spirit, he said, is always blowing. What changes is whether our sail is up to catch it. These few days, rather than being wasted, could be the time the Lord uses to prepare people for what he has for them in 2025, if they are willing to make room and respond quickly when he calls.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
- Put on instrumental worship music first thing in the morning before checking your phone, and sit in it long enough to quiet your mind.
- Read through Psalm 27 more than once, and wherever David mentions enemies, replace that word with whatever pressure or struggle you are actually facing right now.
- Sit quietly after the music and the reading and listen, not with your five senses but with your spirit, for whatever the Lord wants to say to you.
- If something comes to mind during that quiet time, write it down, even if it is just a memory of a moment in 2024 where you felt God carry you through something.
- Try all four of these steps on December 30, 31, and January 1, treating it as a three-day experiment before the new year begins.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Brian used the ski instructor pizza drill to talk about going through the motions without really engaging. Where in your faith life do you notice yourself doing that, and what does it feel like when you break out of it?
- Psalm 27:8 says 'my heart has heard you say, come and talk with me.' When is the last time you sensed that invitation from the Lord, and how did you respond to it?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Resumen en español
El mensaje resumido, en español.
El domingo entre Navidad y Año Nuevo, Pastor Brian habló sobre algo que todos conocemos bien: ese período raro donde los días se mezclan, las pijamas no se quitan, y la energía espiritual baja junto con la motivación general. Le puso nombre: el "predicamento de la pijama". Usó una imagen de cuando era instructor de esquí para describir cómo uno puede seguir los movimientos correctos sin realmente estar presente, y dijo que lo mismo nos pasa con la fe cuando nos volvemos rígidos o indiferentes.
El hilo central del mensaje vino del Salmo 27, especialmente el versículo ocho, donde Dios dice "ven y habla conmigo" y el corazón del escritor responde de inmediato: "Señor, aquí voy." Brian explicó que esa conversación ocurre entre el espíritu de Dios y el espíritu de la persona, no a través de los cinco sentidos. El punto era este: Dios nos llama todo el tiempo, incluso en estos días flojos de fin de año, y la pregunta es si estamos escuchando con el dispositivo correcto.
Para salir del estancamiento espiritual sin caer en el activismo de siempre, Brian sugirió cuatro cosas sencillas para practicar los pocos días que quedan antes del Año Nuevo: poner música de adoración instrumental al despertar, apartar tiempo cada mañana, leer el Salmo 27 varias veces reemplazando la palabra "enemigos" por las presiones propias de cada uno, y sentarse en silencio a escuchar. También compartió una palabra personal para una joven de la congregación basada en Jeremías, sobre ser entrenada para correr con caballos, no con hombres.
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Pasajes bíblicos usados
- Salmos 27 - leído completo por la congregación, con énfasis en el versículo 8
- Jeremías 12:5 - "Si correr con hombres te cansa, ¿cómo correrás con caballos?"
Read the full transcript 9,007 words
Good morning, everyone. All you prompt people. When I start worship, there's this many people. I open my eyes at the end of worship and it's full to overflowing up. Tis the Jackson way.
I love it. Let's stand together. Let's invite the presence of the lord in here today. Oh lord, we ask right now that you would align our hearts with what you wanna do today. We're We're to name in the take for granted what needing you and being in your presence can do.
Let us just long for that. Would you come and rest on us today? Rest on everybody in this room. Come and speak to us. That we would lean into you and that today god that we would take the burdens that we come in here with them and we would lay them at the foot of your cross again today.
We tell you we love you as we worship you and lift our voices because you are worthy. That's why we come. That's why we worship. Not because we necessarily feel like it or our flesh for thank word. Word.
Your you for are awesome, but guests in town, different schedules, and all the things. I just feel like right now, maybe we just before we keep singing, we would just take a minute. Just Just close your eyes. Just exhale. And just inhale and say, holy spirit, come on.
We're gonna breathe you in today. We're gonna breathe in all that you have for me today. The busyness of this season. You're all we want. You're all we want.
Wherever we find ourselves today, far from you we're in close intimacy with you today. Take us by the hand today. In a moment. Is there shame in his presence? He can just wrap you up in his love and just like that.
Shame is gone. That's why we invite his presence like we do.
Good morning. Great to see all of you here. So I I got this picture in my mind's eye that I wanna share with you. But before I share the picture, I just wanna invite you if if you're like, oh, where do I sit this morning? Just like, go ahead.
This is your chance not to like, you're not an interruption or a distraction. Come on in. Get a seat. If you have your, like, jacket on, if you're cold, like, yeah, keep your jacket on. But if you're like, whatever you need to do to just get settled.
Here's the picture that I saw in my mind's eye. I was a ski instructor for a a long time, and I love teaching the beginner lessons because the learning curve is really steep. You can take a guy in like, you know, car hearts and his boots on the wrong feet at the beginning of the lesson. And by the end of the lesson, they can control their speed. They're working on their turns.
They know how to get on the lift, get off the lift, and like they think that you're amazing. And one of the drills that I would do with people as I teach them how to ski is the first thing is controlling your speed and being able to come to a stop. And we do that by what? Making what food? Pizza.
Right. Exactly. So that wedge helps you control your speed, come to a stop, you can even turn with it. And you would see these people that were like trying so hard to get the pizza right, they would like they would turn into a statue. They could get on the lift, they could get off the lift, they would get into that pizza, they would just go straight down the hill, get on the lift, off the lift, straight down the hill in the pizza, but they weren't really skiing.
They were doing exactly everything I said, but they weren't really skiing. They they had the pizza, but they didn't really have the pizza, if you know what I'm talking about. So what I would do is I would tell them, okay, in that pizza, as we're sliding down off a tewanat, I want you to practice putting your hands up in the air and then putting your hands down and touching your ski boots and put them in the air because that would disrupt and get them out of that rigidity. And you would find out really, really quickly and they would find out how well they actually had that pizza mastered.
If you don't know what pizza is when you put your tips
the church. Been
but it's just super rigid and you're just like like
following in the motions. And when we follow the motions, it makes it harder for us to encounter the Lord and or for the Lord to encounter us. And so, far be it from our tribe fam here today that you would just come only go through the motions in a in a rigid form and not meet with the lord. So, let's do this. Everybody, have a seat.
Okay. Awesome. It feels like like once you get your seat, you're like, okay, now I'm here. But you can settle into your seat. Everybody looks good and comfortable.
Now, let's stand up and worship the lord. Right? Like, settle in. He longs to meet with you. He set aside this time on his calendar knowing that you would be here so that he could meet with you.
Let's meet with him and press in. The words of this song is so good. Let's just sink into this.
Sing that first verse. There's nothing worth more. There's nothing worth more that could ever come close. No Lord, we could search a whore. There is nothing else that could set us free like you.
And you came so that we could be free. May you turn mourning into dancing. So I don't know what every heart is going through or experiencing today. Maybe for some it's just being lukewarm, complacent. Maybe it's a deep place of hurt.
Maybe it's just a journey that they're on that they think they can do it without you. But, Lord, we just declare today that we could search the whole world and nothing could fill us like you. Lord, we just declare that in this place today. That we could search the whole wide world that some of us have. I know that I searched into every dark place, every dead end, trying to find something.
I didn't even know that it was you, Lord, that I needed so desperately. But everything just ended up in a dead end. More shame, more hurt until just one glance of my eyes towards you, God. When you were chasing me down, chasing me down my whole life. But that one glance of my eyes, that day, that moment, that meeting, that collision with your presence changed me forever.
Because, Lord, once we experience your presence, everything else pales in comparison, and that's how you intended it. The creator connected to its creation. So, Lord, I pray right now for anyone in this room who feels disconnected from their father god today, that they would glance your way. They would dare to just cry out. And lord, you are faithful.
Your word says that if we draw close to you, you promise to draw close to us. So if we feel distant today, it is not because of you. There may be sin just like we sang, that as we repent and turn from sin, revival in our hearts, Lord, that you would just blow on those embers today. Speak to us through your word today. Thank you for everyone that is gathered here that set aside this time, Lord.
Meet us. Meet us. Meet us. I thank you for every precious heart in this room. And our expectation is high because of who you are and what you're gonna do in this place today and what you already are doing.
Speak to us in pictures and words through your word, your dreams tonight. Thank you that you are closer than our very breath even right now. Maybe the Lord even just now is bringing to mind some sin that you need to repent of and ask him to forgive you. Maybe that's why it feels like there's distance between you and him. Maybe you need to repent of apathy, laziness, for not getting in his word, setting time aside to draw close to him.
Say, Lord, help me. Thank you that you still call us friend even in our sin. Wash us today with your word and by your spirit. We tell you we love you. Just don't feel the release to move on yet.
Let's just be still before you. Because our sin can't stand before a holy god. Let him search your heart. Just be quick to run into his arms. He already knows.
He already knows every secret. We give this time to you. Come and do whatever you long to do today. In Jesus' name, amen. Go ahead and have a seat.
Yes, please.
None of us like to think of ourselves as lazy
I'm I'm
do
not not
And and he's really I'm I think he's just really tugging on me, and I think a lot of people in here about get your priorities straight and laziness. I've called Clay lazy. Having a And
that's Clay, everybody.
And that's Clay. Nancy's husband. And it's and it's just something the devil really wants to take, and and he will say you've worked hard. You deserve this time. You've you're you're a hard worker and it doesn't mean we have to go out and plan things.
It's just spend time with him. Quit being lazy. So wake up, Nancy.
Will you pray that over us?
Yes. Lord Jesus, thank you lord for every person that got up this morning and came into this place. I thank you lord because it would have been so easy to stay in on this snowy, cold day. Father, we are here expecting great things. God, we need your word.
We need your spirit and we need to leave here equipped, Lord, to go out and quit being lazy and spend time with you. And if lazy hurts to say that, then so be it. But God, we need you. There's nothing better than you. And help us to remember that and help us to realize that and share it with others.
And I pray blessings on Brian's word as he brings it to us or your word as Brian brings it to us today, God. And I pray hearts will be open in Jesus name.
Merry Christmas. So great to see so many of you on Christmas Eve service. How many of you got to make it out, brave the cold, bring friends, family to Christmas Eve service? That was great. Probably our single biggest Christmas Eve service that we've had to date, I had who did I have give oh, I had, Mike get a head count, and he was like, there were a lot of people coming.
He lost count at a 175, but he was able to count seven dogs. So so that was that was just really great to see whether they had planned on coming to Christmas Eve service or they were doing the last minute shopping and or just walking by. I remember seeing so many of your faces. It was great to see you guys out there. I hope that you are proud of your church and of Jesus that night to see so many people and all the work that went into it.
And so whether you made cider the night of or were baking cookies days before or helping set up out there in the cold lights. Like like, let's give a round of applause to all of our volunteers to help make that Sunday or that Christmas Eve happen. So thank you, guys. And didn't doesn't does he look really cute in her glasses today? The cutest.
Mhmm. If you have a bible with you today, would you turn to Psalms 27? It's great to see all of you here. This is like that that one Sunday in between Christmas and New Years. It's like national let the youth pastor preach Sunday.
Where you get me this Sunday and I'm glad to see that pastor Steve has Sunday off and he's getting to sit in church with his family that is just really exciting, blesses my heart. I'm so glad that you're here joining us. Psalms 27 and we are going to read all of chapter Psalms 27 and we have a mic in the room and Kat has it and if somebody would be willing to start us off, read just a few verses and then you can pass the mic off to somebody else. We're going to read all of Psalms chapter 27 together. I mean, not simultaneously.
We're not that kind of church, but, like, one at a time. So Nancy's gonna start us.
I have this first verse highlighted, so I love it. Oh, okay. The lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Is that not great?
That's so great. If it's so good, just like read it again.
I will. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the lord that I will that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the lord all of the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the lord, and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in the shelter in the day of in his shelter, in the day of trouble, he will conceal me under the cover of his tent.
He will lift me high upon a rock. Anyone
else now? One of your keys or something? Yeah. Send it. Yeah.
Send it that way.
Here we go.
Next generation of the church. James, you got it. Yeah.
Hear, oh lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, seek my face. My heart says to you. Your face, lord, do I seek.
Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, oh you who have been my help. Cast me not off, forsake me not. Oh god, my of my salvation.
Yes. Love it.
Through my father and mother, forsake me. The lord will receive me. Teach me your way, lord. Lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors. Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes.
For false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations. Yet
I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I'm here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the lord.
If you're taking notes this morning, you can do a couple things. Number one, if you're new to Tribe, there's a connect card in your seat. If you fill that out, we would love to have a record of your visit. Also, it's a great way to stay in touch with our Tribe fam. We send out a text blast occasionally.
Where are we meeting? What are we up to? And if you fill that out, we'll add you to our text blast, and then we'll be able to give you information. Also, at the what did I say? Oh, yeah.
Yes. If you're taking notes, number one, you can fill out a connect card. Number two, you can write the title of the conversation that we're gonna have together today at the top of your notes, and it's called come and talk with me, a call to quiet. Come and talk with me, a call to quiet. I thought this would be a good conversation for us to have this morning as we find ourselves in that weird limbo time between Christmas and New Year's.
It's kind of like like the the Bermuda Triangle of, like, the holiday season where, like, we don't really know what's up or what's down. Like, we're not sure what day it is. Like, I don't know what what clothes do I wear. Am I is this house clothes all day? Like, do I have do I really have to get up and, like, put my clothes on to go, like, out to work?
Like, I don't even, like, I don't even know what to eat. There's just kind of food out in various places. Are we eating, like like, yesterday's breakfast that are leftovers still on the counter, or should I eat last night's dinners that are also leftovers? Or do I just go straight to the snacks that are, like, ubiquitous around the house? Anybody's house is like that right now?
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Alright. It's 9AM. Do I start a new episode now or wait until later? Another an alternative title to this morning's conversation is the pajama predicament. Like, will these even come off?
I've been wearing them for so long. Like, I need to run to the store. I just keep my pajamas on and run to the store. I'm not looking at you, Colin, or any other greens. Like like, it's kind of like this weird season where, like, pajamas are, like, weirdly, oddly acceptable, like, through a multitude of occasions.
So when we find ourselves in this time of year in the middle of the pajama predicament, A lot of people just as you said, Nancy. Once again, were you reading my notes? Because this is we're not gonna talk about laziness per se, but we're gonna talk about this season between Christmas and New Year's where we find ourselves, like, either in this, like, this weird holiday Bermuda triangle or really the the doldrums. And the that word doldrums, maybe you've heard it before, it's a sailing or a nautical term, and it is when there is no wind, and you're just essentially dead in the water if you have a sailboat. Doesn't matter what sail you raise.
It doesn't matter what you do. You're just kind of rubbing along, floating in the water with no direction. But we justify. But we justify. Alright.
Give Nancy the mic. Let her let her preach. She wants to elaborate. When I say this morning's conversation, this is what I mean. I welcome your participation in the conversation today.
So if you have a question, comment, feedback, or maybe you just need to preach, then Add to. Add to. Then then all you have to do is raise your hand. We have a mic in the room so that we can hear you, but it's also so that all of our livestream families that are watching, folks that are traveling and are back home for the holidays, get to still be involved in the conversation. So, Nancy, what were you gonna say?
I said we justify our dead in the water and being lazy because we think we have just worked so hard getting ready for Christmas, wrapping presents, going to parties, doing whatever. I mean, okay, confession. I kept the same pair of pajamas on two days in a row. I did take a shower last night. Only two?
Two. Yeah. So we justify our fatigue, quote, laziness, and I was a lazy bum. And I didn't spend any time with god during those two days in my pajamas. I mean, I'm just telling it like it is.
I appreciate your honesty, and I've and you're being forthright enough for probably a majority of us. The most the the the time of year or really any time that you get the most work done is always what? Like, those two, maybe three days before you have to leave town for, like, work or or vacation or something. They're always so productive. You just squeeze all that work, and you get so much done and accomplished.
Similarly, just before the holidays, because we've all this is our not our first rodeo. We've all been through this holiday season before. The holidays are coming. I gotta crank out all of this work either to get the house ready for guests that just will never leave or family that like, oh, their flight is delayed yet again and Here in the church world, we have a lot to get ready for for big Christmas Eve service. And the Sundays, they just keep rolling week after week.
Seems like we just did this last week. But there's this little voice that says, hey. You've earned a break. Should just take it easy. Now there's attention to manage here.
Right? There's attention to manage. Because on one hand, this is a time of year when we can rest and recalibrate, rejuvenate, and have your tank filled by family and puzzles and Christmas movies and Christmas cookies. But there's also the the the other side, if we're not held intention, is this this slipping into laziness or really what I would call the doldrums, where we're in this limbo time in between Christmas and New Year's. And we all know that when 2025 rolls around, like, alright, time to, like, climb back down into the salt mine, Kinda time to, like, get back on the grind.
Time to go back to the gym. Whatever it is. Here we go. Winter sports are picking back up if they even took a break. Right?
Like, here we go. Let's let's get back to it. But what do we do with this time? Like like today, this Sunday is right in between Christmas and New Year's. Like, what do we do with this time?
What if there was a way that we could skip? Maybe not skip, but but instead of experiencing a lack during this holiday season, what if this holiday season could be an addition, not added on to your to do list and all the things, but most people think of this time as, like, a time to, like, to to coast. What if instead of coasting, we could actually accelerate during these few days? What if what if there was a way that we could avoid being lazy without falling into the trap of getting back on the treadmill of running the rat race, doing, doing, doing, going, going, going. What I'm and I'll have to say this several times.
Please don't hear what I'm not saying today. What I'm not saying is we should never be restful. What I'm not saying is you always have to be going, going, going. How do we go, go, go, but yet rest, rest, rest? There's attention to manage here.
There's attention to manage that that we can take a break from all of our year round normal intense schedule and activities and demands and to do list and rest, but yet not slip into laziness. How do we manage that tension? Well, I would suggest to you that the answer can be found right here in Psalms 27. And there's one verse in particular. James got to read that portion, and I wanna put it up on the screen here and it's verse eight.
Verse eight just says this, the lord is speaking and he says, come and talk with me. That verse, there it is. My heart has heard you say, come and talk with me. And my heart responds, lord, I am coming. Let's let's talk have a brief conversation for just a moment about some interesting theological components to this verse, and then we'll unpack it further.
So the first quote, my heart has heard you say, come and talk with me. Let's dissect which part of the total person is speaking in that moment. And if you don't understand my question, stay with me. So we know that the Bible teaches that a person is made up of how many different components? Three.
Three. The Old Testament and the Jewish ideas is just two, but we live under the new covenant, and we know that there are that that there are three parts that make up a person's personhood. Somebody tell me one component of a person's being. Ego. Ego.
Yep. That would fit in that would fit as a a smaller circle in a larger circle in a Venn diagram, but what would be another word for that, or what would an umbrella term be for that? Conscience, soul. Your soul. Okay?
So your soul is made up of your mind, your will, emotions. It includes your ego. It's your chooser. Your soul is happy. Your soul is hungry.
Your soul feels satisfied. Your soul longs. So that would be your your soul. What is another component of our personhood? Our body.
This is just our earth suit. It is the meat machine. Fun picture. Right? So our body is is what carries out the will of the soul.
But then there's another component. It's the spirit. You're exactly right. The spirit. Before a person is born again, their spirit as a part of their personhood, remains or lies dormant or unregenerate.
And so your soul, your ego, your conscience, it is in charge, and it tells it tells your body what to do. Your your soul and your body combine to make what, like, churchy word, the flesh, the flesh. So you're ruled by your flesh. When a person invites Jesus into their heart, makes him the leader of their life, they get born again. Their spirit comes alive, and their spirit is intended to be the boss.
So think of the boss as the superintendent on a job site. The boss the boss. He gets directions from the architect and from the owner. That would be god. God speaks to the superintendent on the job site.
The superintendent then tells the foreman, hey, here are the plans and here's what we're doing today. We're gonna build this wall. We're gonna sheet this roof. We're gonna do whatever. And then the body is intended to be the laborer, to carry out the will of of the superintendent.
Now a lot of Christians, even though they have been born again and they their spirit has been made alive, their flesh still seems to run the show, and it wants to. So, of the triune person, spirit, soul, and body, with that in mind, let's look at verse eight. My heart has heard you say, come and talk with me. Now do you think excluding the five senses because that's how our body interacts with the world around us. Alright?
Because you're gonna you I don't want you to be thrown off by that word heard, which is the past tense of here, which happens in our sent five senses. Don't be thrown off. So let me ask you, who of the triune person do you think is speaking when the person says, my heart has heard you say, come and talk with me? Does my question make sense? Does you say the spirit, and, tell me a little bit more why you say the spirit.
Please defend your answer.
That's just what I thought of immediately because, I mean, even though the heart is flesh and we could say it's soul because emotions, how you know, you could justify it. But it seems like the spirit because that's god is a spirit. And if we have a spirit, that's what's communicating those things. So when he when David says, my heart has heard you say, come and talk with me, that would be something that for me, for example, I would hear the holy spirit say to me, like, today. You know?
Yeah. I like that. I like it. And I agree with you. That's who is responding.
There are times there's there's a verse in Psalms. Somebody can look this up and and tell me. Where in the Psalms, the psalmist says, why are you downcast, oh my soul? So the spirit in that moment is speaking, and he's bossing his flesh or his soul around. Why are you why are you down in the dumps?
I understand, soul, that you may be experiencing the emotion of sadness, loneliness, whatever, but who's the boss here? In this verse, Psalms 27 verse eight, my heart has heard you say, come and talk with me. That's god's spirit speaking to the human spirit. My heart has heard you say, come and talk with me. And then listen to how the flesh responds.
Excuse me. The spirit responds. The spirit responds, and my heart responds, Lord, I am coming. And carried within that response, Lord, I am coming, implies that the spirit needs to activate the soul and tell the body what to do. Can we get a whiteboard and map this out?
I like it. I like it. Here's what you here's what you need to do is get your bible and you draw some diagrams and and and put this on the in the margin of your bible. My heart responds, Lord, I am coming, implying that the spirit activates, brings into activation, calls up not only the soul, hey. You need to you need to do something, but also the body.
I need to respond somehow, some way. Maybe put the phone down and stop doom scrolling. My heart has heard you say, come and talk with me. Now don't raise your hands, but when is the last time that you heard the voice of the Lord whisper to your heart, to your spirit, come and talk with me? Don't raise your hands, but I want you to consider that.
When is the last time? Sometimes at Tribe, we talk about the lord tapping you on the shoulder. Bink. Bink. Bink.
Can you even remember? What?
That'd the same thing as conviction.
The question is, would that be the same thing as conviction? The answer is it depends. It depends on what happens next. And my heart responds, lord, I am coming, and you meet with him. And he says, I just wanted for you to lift your gaze and look at me.
Wow. Or I wanted to talk with you about something. I I'm gonna modify the answer that I just said and say, yes. It is always conviction. We can be convicted.
We can be convinced of god's great love for us. I'm just so convicted of his great love for us. We often associate conviction with sin. And, yes, he does convict us of sin. But Jesus says, he's speaking of the Holy Spirit, and he says when he comes, he will con he will convict the world.
He does say of sin, but there's this idea conveyed within the definition of conviction that includes convincing. I just want to convince you, even if it's just for a moment that I have not forgotten about you and what you're going through. That feels good. That feels good. When is the last time that you have heard the holy spirit say, come and talk with me?
Let's acknowledge this for just a moment. There are perhaps some of you either watching the livestream or later will listen to the podcast or even here in this room that aren't convicted or convinced that the lord even speaks like that today. And I feel sorry for you. Not in a, like, a mean way, like, oh my gosh. I feel so sorry for you that you don't know the reality of the truth of the nature and character of god.
He longs to talk with you. His word says, my heart has heard you say, come and talk with me. And notice that there is a response on our part. And my heart says, as soon as I get these ski boots off. And my heart says, as as soon as this episode is over, as soon as I get through this massive to do list, as soon as I figure out how I'm going to pay for all the money that I spend at Christmas, Whatever.
There's an immediacy implied to the response that the person writing these Psalms gives. David, who wrote this. And my heart responds quickly. Lord, I'm coming. Implied is that that David is going to respond to the invitation.
And by way of responding to that invitation, it is implied that everything else, even if for just a moment, becomes neglected. We're so busy doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, and and that we tend to neglect responding to the invitation during this season. Some of you have been so good about reading your one year bible. Some of you are like, in January, I'm gonna start that one year bible. But these these these weeks, this gap between Christmas and New Year's, I'm just gonna let myself get spiritually flabby.
Seems like a good measuring stick that I've noticed in my life for where you are with that is when you do so the more you practice something, the better you get. The more you practice stopping when you hear that still small voice say, come and talk with me. It's a good measuring sticks when you stop right in the middle of all the things. Our flesh wants to finish the to do list or finish untying our shoe or finish the Netflix series we're watching, whatever it is. But the more you practice stopping immediately, a good measuring stick I've noticed is how much peace you feel when you stop amidst the chaos.
If you're still like, ah, then you you still got a little ways to go. But if you can stop and feel the lord's supernatural peace and presence in the midst of the chaos, it's a good measuring stick that you're doing a good job listening to his still small piece. Practice it. Practice it. Practice it on the tiniest of things.
So when he asks something big of you, it's not it's a natural response, and you've changed, you know, your whether it's your neurological pathway or it's just spiritual, it gets easier and easier amidst even more and more chaos to feel his supernatural peace.
Yes. So how do we disrupt that I don't know. I'll call it the pajama predicament. Just really quickly without spending a lot of time on each one of these, I wanna share with you the four steps to beat the pajama predicament. And I would invite you to implement, do an experiment with these four things that you can apply.
And they're so basic, and they're so practical, and they're so straightforward. Please forgive my elementary explanation of these practical things. But these four things, And if you implement them what what what is today's date? '29? So today's twenty ninth twenty nine, the thirtieth, the thirty first, and then the fourth.
'3. If you don't start today, then three days. Just for three days, try this. When you wake up in the morning, before the clock has a PM on it this side of the room over here. Just do this.
When you wake up in the morning, put on some worship music. Like like, you can put on your ear pods, put play it on your phone. But number one, put on some worship music. Now here's what is that on there? Set aside some time each morning.
Thank you. Thank you. Set aside some time each morning. Put on some worship music. And the next slide, I have two songs that I would recommend.
Now you might have your own playlist, and you're like like, it's great, wonderful. These are, like, your own Jesus songs. But these are two that I like and that I would recommend for this specific reason. There are no lyrics. They are it's instrumental.
And if you put it on, you're like, oh, Brian listens to that. Oh, just don't judge me. But, one of the songs, the purple song called rest is what is that? How long is that track? Forty three minutes?
No. It's, like, forty three. What does it say? It
says nineteen.
We're halfway through. Somebody needs to do some math. Oh, boy. Thirty one. Yeah.
Thirty seven. There you go. 37. So it it it it's a long one. So, like, one one stop shop, one song.
Thirty seven minute robust quiet time to hear the lord call to you. Though
we did as a church.
Yeah. How many of you remember us doing this as a church a couple of years ago? We did it for the entire month of August. Listen to it one time every morning for the month of August. The one on the left is an another song that I like.
If you have your own thing, great. Just just take a picture. Let's keep going, Brian. Here's the second thing. Yep.
Third thing. Read through Psalms 27. You can read it through more than once. When you go to the gym and you, like, do those kettlebell swings, do you do one kettlebell swing and be like, yep. I got it.
Swing it a couple times. As you read through Psalms 27, you'll see that David, it talks a lot about being surrounded by enemies. Enemies. Enemies. Enemies.
His enemies are threatening to do this. His enemies are breathing down his neck. Enemies threatening to do violent physical harm to to to David. You may not be under the threat of physical violence in your life right now. The greatest threat that you feel like you might be under right now is the Christmas cookies calling your name from underneath the saran wrap on the kitchen counter.
Ah, if that needs to be your enemy, okay, fine. But replace enemy with stress and pressures that you're facing. Sometimes, we read the Psalms and we're like, okay. I'm not getting much out of this because it doesn't feel very relevant to me because I'm not under threat of physical harm or violence right now. Well, the holy spirit will help you translate it, and you can replace enemies with what what sort of opposition are you facing right now?
Is there an emotional hang up that you just can't quite get over that you can't be healed from? Is there is is the the the voice of that dirty devil who is your enemy trying to dog your heels by reminding you of of failure or shame. Maybe it's financial stress. Maybe it's some pressure. Just replace that as you read through.
And who knows? Maybe you even want to rewrite Psalms 27 and every time it says enemy, insert that thing that you're bumping up against and wrestling with. And then here's the fourth thing. Sit quietly and listen for his voice. As you sit quietly and listen for his voice, he will speak to you.
Maybe not here. Ding, ling, ling, ling. Because this would be this would be getting your attention through your five senses through your earth suit, and maybe some people have heard the audible voice of the lord. But the lord, the bible says that the lord is spirit. That's what he has given every single person who has invited him into their heart.
He's given him their spirit. It's like in like an end to end encryption communication device, and he will speak to you. If you're listening here, well, can't hear the lord. Well, can't hear the lord. You might just be not listening with the right device.
You have to listen with your spirit, and he will speak to you. He may invite you to go on a journey, like, you know, like, on Spotify or Strava, you know, how it says it wrapped. You know, like, you can look at like, you can look back at the past or, you know, through your your iCloud photos. Like, let's see what you did last year. The holy spirit will take you on a wrapped 2024 journey.
Look how I led you here. Look how I carried you here. Look how I saved you from this. Look at this time that you just turned the glance of your eye towards me. The goodness of god.
Maybe you wanna write it down. And so when we do that when we do that, it helps to defeat the doldrums or break out of our pajama predicament. When we talk about as Nancy said a moment ago, this idea of laziness, it's like we have the sail up, main sail, the spinnaker, and we're just cruising really fast to get to Christmas. As soon as Christmas happens, oh, finally, we can let down the sail. But then what tends to happen is we run out of forward momentum really quickly, and then we find ourselves in the doldrum.
The wind of the holy spirit is mean, I'm talking pajamas, wind, sailor. I'm I'm all over with my metaphors. Are you with me? All the ADHD people are like, oh, yeah. I'm tracking.
Jump from metaphor to metaphor to metaphor. The wind of the holy spirit is always blown. What tends to happen to us is we let down the sail during the holidays, and then we find ourselves thinking, he's not speaking, or I'm dry, or this is just awful. These four steps, just try it for three days. It helps to raise the sail to catch the wind of the holy spirit once again in your life so that instead of just spiritually laying around in your pajamas on Christmas break, The lord can be speaking to you.
He can be preparing you for the amazing things that he has for you in 2025. But we have to make the time. We've created some time here this morning to practice just what we've been talking about. This is not a time to like, oh, okay. I'm gonna like check out.
This is a time to engage your spirit. Be still. Listen for his voice. He has healing. He has comfort.
He has answers. He has peace. I can I know where you're going with this song, but at the bottom of my notes sorry? Sorry. Just do something different?
Yeah. Just do something different. That you didn't pick up on my brain waves. But could we do that song, there's nothing? Sure.
Is that the name of
the song? We sang it earlier. Yeah. It's
graves into gardens. What's it called? Oh, yeah. Graves into gardens. But just the, like, there's nothing.
Part. See. Okay. And I think she's gonna see everybody. Oh my gosh.
Let's just make some room so that we can, with our whole being, say that there's nothing there's nothing better than you. And we won't go long. This is just an opportunity for you to get out of your spiritual pajamas for a second and get dressed for the day. In just a moment, Amanda's gonna come up and share some, next form of worship with us before we get out of here. But before I sit down, I feel like the Lord put a verse in my heart share with you, Maddie.
So don't leave yet. Is cool. Jeremiah 12 and verse five, it says this. I'll I'll read it, and then I'll explain it. If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses?
If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan? And as we were being still and listening for the Lord to invite us to him, I I saw you, felt like you were highlighted to me in my mind's eye, and then this verse came bubbling up. And in this passage, Jeremiah's complaining to the lord like, oh, it's so hard being a prophet of the lord. And god's like, bro, like, if you're complaining about racing against mere men, how are you gonna race against horses? If you're stumbling on the dry, flat ground, how in the world are you gonna race over uneven terrain or through thickets and marshes?
And the Lord is kind of telling Jeremiah to put his big boy pants on. It's a little bit of a rebuke. That is not what I have for you. What I feel like the Lord would say to you is right now in this season that you're in, as difficult as it may be, and I don't know what that means, maybe I'm not even gonna say. But the lord is like, I am training you to run with horses.
Don't get tired. Don't give up. And also, don't wish for the standard that I have for your peers to be applied to you. I have a different standard for you because I have called you to race and win against horses. I'm training you right now because you will you will race with horses and win.
You will run on uneven, unstable ground or ground where everybody else is like, it's too rocky. It's too hard. You'd be like, I got this. So, I command a blessing over Maddie in that word. And, God, I ask that you would, by the power of your spirit, help her, Train her to run with her.
And and I'm gonna just really quickly invite any teachers or alumni of Jackson Hole Community School to come lay a hand on her shoulder. To on Help her, Lord. Help her, Lord. Help her, too, Lord. Run with horses.
Give her endurance, and help her, Lord, not to be distracted by the standards that others are living at and to resist that that very reasonable human cry like, oh, why do I have to do this? God says, I've got a special race marked out for you, dear one. Give her great endurance. Feel the strength of those laying their hands on your shoulder to pray in agreement with you. And, father, I pray for all of us in the sound under the sound of my voice.
You've called all of us to run with horses. Give us great endurance. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Thank you guys for praying for her.
I love the holy spirit so much. When we when you invite him, whether it's in a formal church service or taking a shower, whatever it is, when you invite him, man, he's such a he's, you know, always present with us, but when you invite him, he loves that. And he wants to move and do something whether it's to one student or 4,000,000 people. It doesn't matter. He's so amazing.
I love him so much. We're gonna just continue worshiping in a new way just for a moment before we get you guys out of here, and that is bringing our tithe and our offering to the Lord. When we do that, in the natural, we're bringing hard earned finance. Like, we don't just fiddle around like we work hard, and it's hard to live in Jackson for a lot of people. So when we bring our tithe and our above and beyond the tithe and offering, it pleases the Lord so not because he needs your money.
Right? I mean, practically, it does go and do the work of the ministry. That's where tithes go. But, man, he sees your heart, and he sees what he's speaking to you about, talking about listening to the still small voice of the Lord. Ask him, if you want every time, Lord, what do you want me to give today?
Because he doesn't have this blanket number for everyone. It's what is he speaking to your heart? He's gonna work something out with us. So when we bring our tithe to our local church, and if it's not tribe, don't worry about it. Bring it to your local church.
It's an act of worship, and we say, God, I love you and I trust you in every area and something that feels so significant in life, which is our finances. I'm bringing this to you with open hands and open heart and saying it's all yours anyway. This is me practicing being a good steward of something that you've given me. So let's do that. We're gonna pray together whether you're bringing it now or payday, whatever it is.
It doesn't matter. In fact, a few practical ways here, we don't pass buckets at tribe, but if you have something physical, cash or check, there's a little bucket by that mini Christmas tree and saloon doors you can put in. That's also where where you'll put in your connect card over there in the little tribe box. As you can see on the screen, the easiest way to give is by sending a text with your smartphone to 84321. If it's your first time, it'll give you just a really quick instruction, but that's the easiest, most mobile way.
And then always on our website, tribejh.com. There's a giving tab. But but don't see the tithe whether you go to tribe or not. Don't see it just checking the box. I go to church on Sunday.
I put some money in the thing, and I'm good. That's not what it's about. It's an act of worship, and it's between you and the Lord. And we do it corporately when we're together at Tribe. So let's bow our head.
We'll pray over this today. Father, thank you so much for who you are and how you love us and how you never change. Thank you that you are so faithful. When it feels like life is good, you're faithful. When it feels life is crumbling, you're faithful.
And Lord, we just, in this act of worship, between us and you, our hearts and yours, we say here is a portion of our hard earned finances. We give it to you freely because we trust it in your hands. We love you and we thank you. Lord, I pray that every penny given will go and do exactly what you wanted to do through this avenue called the local church. May you be glorified, and may people be brought to you and healed and chains broken and forgiveness take place because of our natural act and you putting your supernatural on it.
We love you and we thank you for honoring our obedience in that way. You're so good. In Jesus' name, amen. As we get out of here today, just a couple quick announcements. Like I said, if you filled out one of these connect cards either as a first time visitor or you wanna get on our text blast so you know what's going on and or if you have a prayer request, please write that on the back.
In staff meetings on Mondays, take these very seriously. We spend some time praying over you and praying over those. And then the second thing, next week, when you come, we have a special guest, Joel Richardson. He's one of our dear friends.
And he how do you
even describe Joel? He's so in tune with what the Lord is doing. He's written several books. He's on several podcasts, and he's one of the most fun humans, I believe, I've ever met. He's the very different definition of what we say at Tribe to take your faith seriously, but not yourself.
I don't know if you'll see that side of him, but he's pretty pretty fun. And then the next thing is this, once a month, Tribe part well, we partner with our Jewish brothers and sisters all the time. But as an outward act of partnering with our Jewish brothers and sisters, we meet on the town square once a month, and it's next Sunday. Not today, but next Sunday at 5PM. And we're not picketing.
We're not anti anything. We are just loving and partnering with our Jewish brothers and sisters to say we see you, we love you, and we pray for those hostages that are still not returned from October seventh of last year. So that's something that tribe does once a month, and it's next week at five. Do not miss Joel. We'll be here at the Virginian next Sunday, 10:00.
Brian, would you pray
Stand up. Can I pray for you? Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you for being so good to us. We love you so very much.
I command a blessing over each and every member of our tribe fam here. Help us. Help us. Help us to run with horses. Help us to reject the pajama predicament and just be quiet in our hearts so that we can hear you calling our names to come and spend time with you and may our response be a quick and and immediate.
Lord, I'm coming to spend time with you. Give us a great week. Give us a safe and happy New Year. We're looking forward to all that you're gonna do in our lives in 2025. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God.
And everybody said, amen. I love you so very much. And for the last time in 2024, you got this.
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