GYC 2017: Arise

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Devotions For Decisions

Natasha Dysinger

Sean Nebblett

1. Devotions, or Just the Motions?

This message was presented at the GYC 2017 conference, Arise, in Phoenix, Arizona.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

We're ready for a day full of the grace and glory of God.

We're excited that you've joined us this morning.

We're excited to share particularly this topic over the years and miles, the places that we've gone to share the love of God and the word of God, we find ourselves returning to certain themes repetitively.

In fact, we have kind of an internal, I don't know, it's almost a joke in our family that we can't go anywhere or preach about anything until we have covered the basics of the Word of God.

Maybe that's kind of a no-brainer, yet I find it to be 1 of those things that we know.

We have kind of a cerebral appreciation for, yeah, we need the Word of God.

This is where we get our instruction from.

This is where we get wisdom and guidance from.

This is the life of God is delivered to us through his Word.

We know it in our brains, but so often there's such a gulf between that knowledge and the actual application.

Or we open our Bibles in the morning And again, okay, I'm supposed to do devotions now, and yet try as we might to get, just the bass is heavy here.

Why am I not finding here the power of infinite God?

I know I need power, but I can't find it.

So We're excited to tackle this together.

Let's have a word of prayer together before we dive in this morning.

Father in heaven, here we come, a little cluster of your children.

We're here because we deeply desire the blessing of God.

We're here because we have an appreciation for all that is available to us through your word.

And yet, The stunning reality is that that blessing sometimes seems very difficult to access, very difficult to get.

So guide us in our study, in our discussion today, that we might come to the conclusions that your spirit would have us come to, that we might see in new ways the beauty of the Word of God, that we might be willing to set aside those things distracting us or detracting from the power of the Word of God in our lives And do the brave thing so that you can do what you're good at, which is blessing your children.

I want to pray in a special way that you would take control of my mouth, Natasha's mouth this morning, that as we try to articulate deep truths of the Word of God, we would do so in such a simple and practical and yet engaging way that all of us come away with not just inspiration, but actually practical application.

All right, I want to kind of start with a little mental exercise.

Can anybody tell me what these various words have in common.

Hand, answer, worship, guard, practice, question, order, head, face, battle, challenge, trace, et cetera.

Can anyone have any idea what these words have in common with each other?

They are active, that's half of the answer.

All except I think 1 of them, which is P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S.

1 is progress and the other 1 is progress.

All the others are the same word, but they're both nouns and verbs.

You can cheer someone or you can have cheer.

You can have a question or you can question something.

So they're actions and they're also, they're nouns, they're persons, places, or things.

Now why do I ask you to put your attention on this at the start.

Keen on that word in the middle, worship.

It's kind of a little bit bigger than some of the other ones.

I think In our minds, we have this understanding, worship is a, well, okay, if I just said the word worship, we might be split right down the middle of the room as to what comes to your mind.

You might think of worship the action, or you might think of having family worship.

And sometimes in our minds, there's a great distinction between those 2 things.

My question is, why is there a great distinction?

We talk about, okay, well, let's sit down.

But in our family worship, do we remember that the purpose of family worship, the noun, is worship the verb?

This is not just an exercise of, okay, good grief, we have to read the next page of the EG White devotional and have 3 minute prayer before we run off into our day and now we've had worship.

We may have had worship, but have we worshipped, friends?

I wanna give you, I wanna point your minds to this reality, this dichotomy, this kind of disconnect, because the same thing happens with this word that we use, devotions.

I'm gonna, you know, I need to have devotions.

Devotions are important to have, but devotions, that's a noun.

And the root of devotions is actually another noun, devotion.

But that noun, devotion, denotes a particular kind of action, a particular kind of posture.

We'll come back to this at the end of this segment.

Devotion, let us not confuse this idea of having devotions in the morning with a particular hour, a particular set of exercises, a particular kind of activity that we engage in.

If we go there in our minds, we miss the essence, I think, of what, quotes, devotions are supposed to be, which is, by definition, a devotional exercise.

Okay, so let this thought, this idea, float around in the back of your mind as we continue through this session and if you return with us for later sessions.

We're talking about what we often kind of associate with noun.

No, what we want to do is draw away from that just far enough to say, what is the active ingredient?

What is supposed to be the posture of my heart in response to this activity, this blip on my schedule, and respond accordingly?

So First question for this morning, why devotions?

This is kind of the overarching question for this segment.

And I wanna make an appeal kind of upfront.

There are many reasons why we have devotions, why we pursue devotion towards God, many reasons.

And we'll lay out several this morning, some of which will probably resonate with you more than others.

I don't know, I just want to give you a peek into my heart.

So literally, 2 days before I came to G...

Anyway, a few days before I came to GYC, I walked down the hill at my house.

2. Where Did You Find That?

This message was presented at the GYC 2017 conference Arise in Phoenix, Arizona.

You'll see on the screen a number, and I'll put that number up again at the end.

If as we're going along, you might just want to take a picture of that or write down the number in case as we're going along, if you have a question that's just burning in your soul rather than forgetting that question or, you know, going to other seminars and then trying to come back on the last session so you can ask your question, text us the question to that number and we will try to either incorporate your dynamic questions as we go or we'll take a little bit of time at the end of every session is the goal to address some of those.

We almost got through our theme in the last session, so we'll just pick up with 2 more quotes Natasha wanted to share, and then we'll launch into the subject for this session.

Well, I think this is good anyway, because it fits better almost into this next hour.

So now we're going to be talking about the very practical nuts and bolts of how do I study the Bible in a way that is going to make it highly meaningful to me.

So if I want to have good devotions, I want to have that spiritual worship and devotion, but hey, it's just, it's been the motions for me.

I haven't been really connecting with this.

That's what we're going to be going through in this time.

And so I think This quote follows through, answers almost maybe the first question on the nuts and bolts side of things.

You can use that button or you can use that button.

Okay, alright, it's really great to be speaking with my brother again.

Okay, so very first question that we get asked frequently, how long do my devotions need to be to be quality?

To really get the effect that I need, how much time do I need?

And 1 of the things my husband and I work for Pastor Mark Finley, and that is a tremendous blessing to be under his mentorship.

But 1 of the things that he says that when people ask him, how long do you have your devotions for?

He says the answer that he always gives them is long enough to know that I've truly connected with heaven.

So that may be different amounts of time.

And 1 of the struggles I think in our, especially like as Sean was talking about, our hyper-connected age where, and we know that smartphones decrease our attention span tremendously and actually decrease our IQ.

Isn't that a little bit, wah, wah, frustrating?

Okay, so iPhones actually decrease your IQ too.

Probably our EQ as well, our emotional quotient.

Okay, so in our hyper-connected state where it's like, oh, this is going on, oh, this is going on, and we're so accustomed for switching our attention from this to this to this to this to this to this very rapidly, And then our quality time when we come to the Word of God, now we're supposed to really focus and get deep and everything.

And our mind is wandering to and fro throughout the whole Earth.

And we find, hey, this is just really not, this is not the most interesting book, and I'm just not connecting, and I don't understand this, and I'm not feeling nourished by God, and this is frustrating.

Well, let's talk about how long should we spend in our devotions, long enough to know that we're truly connected.

Many, even in their seasons of devotion, this is probably a familiar quote to us.

Fail of receiving the blessing of real communion with God.

I woke up late, such and such is going to happen, I need to have breakfast, I need to get ready for the day before all this occurs and so I'm having to rapidly go through my thing.

With hurried steps, they press through the circle of Christ's loving presence, pausing perhaps a moment within the sacred precincts, but not waiting for counsel.

They have no time to remain, no time to remain with the divine teacher.

With their burdens, they return to their work.

These workers can never attain to the highest success until they learn the secret of strength.

They must give themselves time to think, to pray, To wait upon God.

To think, to pray, to wait upon God for a renewal of physical, mental, and spiritual power.

They need the uplifting influence of his spirit.

So how long do we need to have our devotions for?

Simply the answer that I was just telling you my mentor gave us.

Long enough to know that you have truly connected with heaven.

It's like, hey, if I know I need to do this, I need to spend 15 minutes, I need to spend half an hour, I need to spend an hour, I need to spend 2 hours, that's defined.

It's 06:00 now, now it's 08:00, I'm done.

And actually, that's not how it works in relationships, huh?

When we're talking with our friends, with our family, with our spouse, if we're married, it doesn't work that way.

It's like, hey, Paul, 7.30, now 8 o'clock, we're done.

So when we're having our devotions, now it is good to say, you know, think to yourself, How long are my devotions right now?

Do I really sense his spirit coming into my life and changing me, changing the way I think, changing the way I process?

All right, so how long should it be to really give myself time to commune?

Really give myself time not to be thinking about this and that and the other and seeing notifications coming up on my phone.

Long enough, our devotion should be long enough to be sure we're connected with God.

Some people like Charles Spurgeon, who was 1 of the most remarkable pastors possibly in history.

Do you know how much time he spent with God?

Actually time specifically praying per day?

He also was running the largest church at the time in the world.

But he still prayed 4 hours a day because he felt he was too busy to pray any less.

So this is something we need to be adjusting ourselves.

Now should we go if we've only been accustomed to having 5 minutes with God and be like, oh, yeah, 4 hours?

And say, okay, if I'm only accustomed to 5 minutes with God, tomorrow I'm going to slow down and maybe spend 15 minutes with him.

And then, after I've spent that much time with him consistently, okay, maybe now I'm gonna increase it and spend half an hour with him.

And really allow the word of God to get through my busy mind and down into my heart.

I don't say, oh, I have 15 minutes with Paul and then I'm done and I have to get into my day.

Okay, today now I'm gonna have 25 minutes with Paul and then I'm done.

So we need to allow our relationship with God to blossom and grow.

And let me paint you another picture just kind of building off of that idea.

Are there any, do you have any farmers in the room?

3. I Don’t Get It

So this morning, for those of you who were not here, we covered very briefly just the rudiments why to have devotions.

We discovered that there are a whole spectrum of reasons to have devotions, but some of the strongest ones are That number 1, the whole point of devotions, devotion itself should be thought of as an action and not just an event.

My devotions in the morning, the active ingredient in devotions in the morning is in fact devotion.

And so why should we have devotions in the first place?

Well, we listed a number of reasons, and we won't go through all those right now, but some of the key ones, obviously, communion.

We were created to be loved by infinite God, and it is that moment of setting aside everything else, letting the world grow strangely dim and fixing our eyes on Christ that brings us into closest contact with Him and allows Him to pull off that miracle.

So many reasons why that was this morning, the first session.

Then we discussed what to study, and briefly discussed studying stories, studying themes or topics, studying books, studying authors, And we find that weaved through that whole, all the options that we have in approaching scripture, stories kind of are a recurring theme, because God seemed to, it seems, You know, when Christ was here, he taught predominantly through stories.

And it seems to me that the reason why is that a story packs in more than just the words.

And we know that because stories have kept giving since he spoke them, even now.

And we can read a story today and it means something more and different than it did yesterday.

So first session of this afternoon, we're going to kind of switch into again more of the practical elements, how to study.

So we touched on what to study, how to study.

And some of this will kind of dovetail into what we discussed this morning, but first let's ask the presence of the Holy Spirit with us.

Father in heaven, here we are again, thank you so much for this opportunity that we have to spend concentrated time seeking you, letting the world and the cares that so often surround us, just letting those go for a time and dedicating some time to our Bibles and Christian fellowship.

We just ask that your spirit would speak powerfully in this place, that you would take control of the discussion that we have, that you would plant the seeds of truth into each 1 of our minds and then let that truth spring up, shoot, bear fruit for your glory is our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, now, before we dive into how to study, I just wanted to throw out a somewhat of an answer to this question.

This is a question that came in last segment.

What do you do if despite every effort at surrender and commitment, your devotion is still unsatisfying and flat?

Is something wrong with your spiritual life?

I'll refer back to the analogy I used regarding the farmer and farming.

No, growing vegetables actually isn't hard.

Preparing the soil, keeping it soft, keeping it watered, keeping the weeds out, that's the hard part.

The seeds grow by the power of God, not by ours.

So our duty when it comes to devotions is to create an environment where God can do what God is good at and what we can't do, because it's, you know, special thanks to ministry of his spirit.

So in reference to this question, what do you do if despite all your efforts and surrender and commitment, your devotions still seem unsatisfying and flat.

I would say my, this is an illustration I've used before, so some of you probably heard it before also.

My siblings have spent most of, they've been spending, my older sister, brother-in-law, and their 2 little ones, have been spending 6 months of the year in Africa on their, and 1 of the things that they do is they, as they're serving, we've had a, you know, we've had the opportunity to go over there and spend some time with them.

They were once upon a time the Democratic Republic of Congo.

And 1 of the things that will Just fly in your face if you ever visit Africa for an extended period of time, is the sheer number of cute little kids with stomachs out of here.

Now in the West, we know this condition as malnutrition, and we would consider them to be starving.

In truth, most of those little kids have full stomachs.

But Most of the little kids that you see on the street, they have full stomachs, but what's their stomach full of?

And white rice by itself is actually not enough to sustain human life.

So they never grow as tall as we do in certain parts of Africa.

Now we would look at them and say, you're starving, you have a problem and you need to fix it.

And yet for them, for the little ones themselves, they're happy as larks because their stomachs are actually full.

And yet we look at him and say, you're starving.

For a number of years before she died, we had the privilege of taking care of a little grandmother, her mother's mother.

And she had advanced and advancing dementia.

And of course, with that kind of disease process, you just start to lose more and more body function as the years go on.

In fact, you can get to the point, we don't know all of how this works because it's hard to get into a brain like that and really understand, but as the years go on, you can actually get so bad you forget how to be hungry And you forget how to eat.

And not just that you forget like the mechanics of eating, like you can't get your food, you forget what eating is for.

So when we were taking care of our little grandma, she got to the point where her disease process was very advanced.

It was all Mother could do, and my sisters, could do to keep weight on her.

And they did a masterful job of keeping weight on her all the way to the end, but that's because the day was basically 1 long mealtime.

Your grandma would take the, you know, 1 bite, open, open, open, open.

Okay, you got a bite of food there, but it would just go in and she would just sit there looking at you.

And you're like, chew it, chew it and swallow, Chew it and swallow.

And it was just a fight, you know, all day long, my poor little grandma.

So you know, it got to the point at the very end of her life, of course, she didn't know what chewing was, and apparently she didn't feel hungry anymore.

But of course, I'm looking at my grandma and saying, grandma, you've got to eat.

You're starving to death, but again, didn't know it.

Well, in the case of the African, you can be starving to death and not know it because your belly is filled with something else.

That I think is 1 of our primary spiritual problems.

We live in a land of spiritual and otherwise plenty, and plenty of other stuff too.

And what we are really, truly, deeply hungry for is this connection.

But there are other things that we can partake of that mimic the kind of spiritual satisfaction that comes from real communion, 1 of those is stimulation.

This may be 1 of the reasons why if you read like Adventist tome or Child Guidance, just some very interesting and very potent things to say about children and highly stimulating circumstances and circus shows and all this kind of stuff.

The reason, 1 of the reasons for this is, is that we can literally be hungry.

We were created to be connected with God.

We were created to have a walk and talk and love and live relationship with God, us and God together.

And then of course the fall broke that up so now we're literally walking around half of what we were intended to be, less than half because God is by far the bigger half.

Series

Devotions For Decisions

4. It’s How You Look at It

Transcript

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