Welcome to the River City Church Podcast.
Our prayer is that this message would inspire and encourage you
build your faith and point you to the life changing love of
Jesus. May you enjoy the goodness of
God as you follow him today. Welcome River City.
My name is RJ Strouch. My family and I have been
attending River City for probably about.
Nineish years now I've been part of the teaching team.
I've been fortunate enough to to be part of the teaching team
last three or four years. I've worked with the youth and
taught in youth for for many years as well.
So it's just a blessing and an honor to be up here first time,
the new place for me and it's exciting.
Wow, so, so really just so thankful and so blessed to to be
able to share some words with you today.
Wow. Before we get going, that
worship set I'm always. I'm always an awe of things like
just artists. I'm the worst artist in the
world. I Can't Sing it all like that.
That's just awesome. And the last words, some of the
last things that that Alyssa was saying.
Don't look to the left or to the right.
Just keep your eyes on me. That's pretty much my message
today. So y'all have a good Sunday, but
but for real right, don't look to the left or to the right.
Just keep your eyes on me Through the tough times, through
the good times, through the mundane times.
Don't look to the left or through the right.
Keep your eyes on me. Wow, what a great way to start.
So we are. Before we get to our confession,
I just want to you know, a couple reminders.
Maybe you are aware of this or not.
But but please just keep your keeping your prayers this week.
Kids. OK, the children they just got
back from kids camp. They just got back yesterday.
They were there since I believe Wednesday.
But but keep the, you know, all the volunteers, all the people
on staff that help put that together.
Just, you know, prayers of thanks and prayers of recharge
for them for sure. And then for those kiddos, just
that they keep that fire lit as they as they approach school
this year that they keep that fire lit that was hopefully put
into their bellies and that they will just be on fire for the
Lord. And then we also were kind of
smack in the middle. So tomorrow our youth take off
for camp. So again.
Keep them in your prayers this week.
The staff, the volunteers that again put that together and are
going with them and and it's going to be an awesome time but
just pray that they really hear that spirit and then are led to
do just amazing things. So I know my daughter just got
back from from kids camp and we're driving home yesterday and
she's in the back seat and lost another one.
I am free and I'm like there you go that's what I'm talking
about. So yeah we got a kids camp
volunteer in the back. Heck yeah, so.
So, so keep them in your prayers for sure.
So we are going to, we're going to say our our confession here
here in a second, but before we do.
And then if you're new, here is your first time, you're like
confession. What are we talking about here?
So, so every week we kind of start ourselves and and and kind
of ground ourselves and the fact that we're badly broken, but
we're also deeply loved by an infinite God, right.
And then so we'll go through that.
But but more than ever, and we've been in this series for a
few weeks now. Of no other, right.
We've been talking about counterfeit gods.
We've been talking about this idea of false idols and other
things that we put on the throne of our lives instead of King
Jesus. And it's been heavy, right?
I know for me it's been a lot of soul searching and you know last
week with Rebecca the the successes and the idea that.
Success in an instant can change.
What you define as success in just one second can totally be
changed. So why not hang our success on
what Jesus calls success And then Jason with identity.
You know, just always looking to find our identity in Christ.
And you know, I know begin. Personally, I'm always looking
at other things to find my identity and it was such a good
reset. And then, Aaron, setting it all
up is just what a counterfeit God is, and the idea of these
false idols in our lives. So it's been heavy, is what I'm
trying to say. And and for you, maybe it has
been too. So when we say our confession
today more than ever, let's really remember and believe that
second part, that no matter how many times we're putting
counterfeit gods in our lives and putting them up top, no
matter how much badly broken this we have.
That we are loved. So when we say that confession,
let's make sure all our neighbors here in Creekside hear
just how loved we are. So we are badly broken.
We are deeply loved. Yes, indeed we are.
Grace and peace to you. And that was awesome.
So as I said, we're kind of right smack in the middle if you
haven't seen some of the other other teachings on on this idea
of no other. You know, they're on the YouTube
page or on the on the web page. Definitely go check those out.
You don't want to miss them. They're they're really awesome
and and every week we've been kind of setting the setting the
stage with this idea of what even is a counterfeit God.
And the teaching team, you know we kind of one of the books we
studied to prepare for this was Tim Keller's book entitled
Counterfeit Gods. And so to take the definition
that he. Came up with is probably a lot
better than some of us coming up with it cuz he's a pretty smart
dude. So the idea what what he comes
up with is it says this anything so central.
So this is the definition of a counterfeit God.
Anything so central and essential to your life that
should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living
so. No matter where you are in our
in your journey, right. Whether they again, this is your
first time in church, first time even hearing about Jesus, or
you've been following the Lord for 50 years, every single one
of us struggles with this idea of counterfeit gods.
Nobody has it all figured out. So that's, I think the first
thing to understand is there shouldn't be any guilt.
It's not like, oh, and everybody else has got it.
And I keep putting this thing up on top.
We all struggle with it. We all do.
Okay. And and so in knowing that I
kind of struggled on okay, well, there's so many counterfeit gods
and I know I personally battle a lot of them.
So like which one? What am I, What am I going to do
my teaching on right. And it came to me in the best
place to to find a sermon, the pediatrician's office.
So. I have just a maybe just a touch
of white coat syndrome where I get a little bit nervous around
doctors and whatnot, even when I take my own children to the
pediatrician. Yes, a little bit.
So I think it was one of my kids was like having to get a shot or
something. And of course I'm not looking
away. Hey, you got it, man.
Here. Good job toughing up, buddy.
And I'm looking away and I'm looking at the door of our
pediatrician's office. Has all these things on the
backside of the door to kind of keep you entertained while
you're waiting for him. Okay.
And one of them was a prayer. And I noticed this prayer and
I've seen it a couple times. And the last time we were in
there recently, a few months ago.
And again when we're kind of getting ready for the series, I
read it again. And man, it was such a gut punch
to me. And it really got me thinking
about a very sneaky counterfeit God.
That I know I struggle with and I think we all probably struggle
with at times. So let me read the prayer.
It'll be on screen. But let me read the prayer and
we'll kind of mush it together to see what what we're looking
at here. Okay.
So the prayer says this. It says, Father, we confess that
we are satiated and bored. Creation has bored us.
Work has bored us. Family has bored us.
Friends have bored us. Our homes bore us.
Television bores us. Redemption has bored us.
Truth has bored us. You have bored us.
No generation in history has ever had so much to entertain
it. We are jaded and cynical.
We think the world is our servant, so we're not thankful
when things go well for us. And we're not patient when they
do not. We believe every desire should
be satisfied. So we're not delighted when they
are, and we're not humbled when they're not.
We laugh, but we don't know joy. We're captivated but are never
really awed. We celebrate, but we don't
worship. Have mercy on us and forgive us.
Amaze us with grace Incarnate. Blood stained, resurrected
messianic grace. Oh, that's a lot, right?
But I count myself reading that. And man, how many times just do
we get caught up in this mundane life and the idea of distraction
as an idol? We're distracted by so many
things in this modern world that it kind of becomes.
Comfortable. It kind of becomes the norm.
Whether it's the distraction of our busyness, whether it's
distraction of the noise, just the noise in our life, it seems
like it's never ending or the distraction of technology, the
endless and mindless scrolling day in and day out.
But it just becomes the norm and we don't open our eyes.
To what God has intended for us and the relationships He's
intended for us in the world that he built around us.
Even in our modern day of buildings and skyscrapers, he
inspired someone to have that architecture in mind.
We can be awe inspired all the time.
Yet I know I find myself caught up in the idle of distraction.
So that's what we're going to kind of look at today.
It's a sneaky 1, right? It's not the the money or
success that I think is a little easier to define.
I think distraction is going to mean something to maybe
everybody did a little bit different to everybody in here
and that's okay. Hopefully you can hear something
that you going to catch on to maybe realize and then we'll
look at some strategies at the end to okay.
How can we combat this idea of this idol of distraction?
And even how can we combat this idea of counterfeit gods in
general? So maybe that prayer spoke to
you, or maybe you're more of a visual person.
I'm an old educator. I like to, you know, different
modalities of of learning. So maybe this visual here will
speak a little bit more to that idea of distraction.
No interaction, just busy staring at phones, walking, no
looking again. Maybe it's like a nice, crisp 65
day degree day and nobody's, you know, thank you Lord, for this
awesome weather. Just Boo, Boo, Boo, Boo all in
there. Just busyness, distractions all
around, right? I read this this quote in a
Devotional 1 morning and I think it was just one of those.
Kind of devotionals that there wasn't like an author attached.
So I'm not going to take credit. But this really spoke to me.
And again, whether you've been following Jesus for a long time
or or this is your first time in a church, I still ask.
I go, you know that that question okay the the Christian
walk. What what like what do we what
is what is the end game what are we doing here?
Right. And I know Jason talks about it
sometimes it's not just so we die someday and go up on a cloud
and strum a harp, right. That's not what it's about.
Okay. So this really spoke to me and
it clarified like okay the Christian walk, here we go.
In a nice little sentence, it says being a Christian means
becoming who God intended me to be.
Being a Christian means becoming who God intended me to be.
That's a lifelong process, right?
And how easy and and it's no wonder the enemy wants to try
and use distraction. The busyness of noise, of
technology now to try to stop us and hinder us from becoming who
God intends us to be. So instead of constantly, you
know, scrolling through massive media and worried about the busy
schedule and all of that, what if there was something truly
new, something truly refreshing we could have?
That sounds pretty nice, right? Well, these are the words of
Jesus and how he wants your daily life to feel like.
So I'm going to read out of Matthew Chapter 11.
It's going to be verses 28 to 30.
You've probably if you've been in church for a while or been in
church at all, you might recognize this.
But this is the message version. I usually, when I read, I think
this is ESV. Yeah, NIV.
But the message version, I think it's on the app or somewhere.
Man, this spoke to me. So let's read this and let's see
what Jesus wants our daily lives to feel like.
These are Jesus's words. So he's talking here, he says.
Are you tired? Worn out.
Burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me and
you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real
rest. Walk with me and work with me.
Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of
grace. I won't lay anything heavy or
ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll
learn to live freely and lightly.
Think about that video up there. Do those people seem like they
were living freely and lightly? Not to me at least.
And how many times in my life am I just running ragged?
Or find myself just scrolling away and Oh my gosh, an hour
just went by. What am I doing?
He wants us to live freely and lightly, learning those unforced
rhythms of grace. That's what he wants our
day-to-day to be. So we're going to keep coming
back to that verse as we go through.
But I think I mentioned, you know, I'm an exeducator, right?
And I was never one in the classroom to have big surprises,
right? Kids are supposed to learn this.
Here's what you're supposed to learn.
It's not like, you know, you hear kids all the time.
We had a review and none of it was on the test.
Well, my reviews was literally a video where I would just pretty
much go over the whole test. And if they watched the video,
hey, we're going to be good. I wanted them to know where we
were going. Right.
I want you to know where we're going to.
So, spoiler alert, there's no magic bullet to the Counterfeit
Gods in our life. But I got that Tim Keller book,
and I knew we were going to study through it.
I, like, flipped to the end. And I was like, all right, Tim
Keller, here's a smart theologian.
You're going to have an answer, right, for counterfeit gods.
You're something simple that I can just make sure I do that
every day and I'll stay away from those counterfeit gods.
There wasn't anything. There wasn't anything.
There's no magic bullet. Just like becoming who God
intends us to be is a lifelong thing.
So is combating these counterfeit gods in our life and
especially the idol of distraction, especially in this
day and age. So as we go through this and we
start looking at some scripture and breaking some things down,
we'll talk about some strategies.
But just remember it's not just about a six or seven week
series. It's a constant conscious effort
that we have to battle these counterfeit gods in our lives.
It can't just be the month of July and a little bit of August
and OK, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep focus on that.
It's got to be. It's a constant walk every day
where we try and take steps forward.
OK, So the scripture we're really going to kind of hang
into for a little while today is it's a famous parable of Jesus.
It's the parable of the sower, so it comes out of Matthew.
Chapter 13 is where I'm going to be and verses one through 9 and
our scripture you'll see here in a second when we get to it.
It it starts with the words that same day and I always love, I
love when there's that same day or something about and then
Jesus, because I love to go back and look at like OK.
Like what else was happening cuz you know, the idea of the sewer
is it's a pretty big story and I would read that if it was alone
and just think man, that's a pretty good day for Jesus.
He taught a ton of people and maybe he slept late and but now
there was a lot more going on that same day.
So just to kind of give you the background, the behind the
scenes of what else was going on, so.
This was a Sabbath day. So it was a it was a Jewish
Sabbath. Okay, meaning no work, right?
Not supposed to work at all. No healing people, no working in
the fields, None of that. Well, his disciples were hungry.
They were traveling around as always.
They were walking through a field, and they picked some
grain. Pharisees saw this.
They're like losing their minds. They're working.
Jesus, your disciples are working on on the Sabbath.
Jesus calmed them down a little bit, or at least rebutted to
them. And then Jesus heals a man.
So his disciples are working in the field.
Technically, he's healing someone.
I mean, the Pharisees are losing their minds by this point.
They even go so far as to say that Jesus is under Satan's
power. I mean, that's pretty heavy
stuff. So if I was Jesus, I'd be like
battling them and then go take a nap.
But he decides to withdraw and do what Jesus does best.
Teach people, Teach people the the way, right?
And so he goes into this parable of the sower.
And so let's read that story together here.
And it says, this says that same day Jesus went out of the house
and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered
around him that he got into a boat.
And Saturday while all the people stood on the shore, then
he told them many things in parables.
Same. A farmer went out to sow his
seed. As he was scattering the seed,
some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil.
It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the
sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered
because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns
which grew up. And choked the plants.
Still the other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a
crop 160 and 30 times what was sown.
Whoever has ears, let them hear. Now before we start breaking
down the scripture and kind of how that molds into this idea of
distraction as an idol, that last sentence, you hang your hat
on that one again. That's what these weeks are all
about. I know you know, I can sit there
next week or I can sit there and and hear, but am I really
hearing, Am I taking it in? Am I understanding the message
and then changing how those idols affect my life?
He who has ears let him hear. So keep that in mind as we keep
going through this series. Some of it's hard to hear.
This was hard to prepare for cuz I struggle with all of this
distraction idea. And so I get that, but have
those ears have that open mind. Go to Jesus and let him take
care of those counterfeit gods. So the first one he talks about
is the path, right? And he says that he says that
that birds came and ate the seed even before it could even start
sprouting, right. Is that the noise in our life?
Maybe We have so much noise in our life sometimes that we get
the message. We hear the seed.
The seed is planted, but it doesn't even the birds come and
Peck, Peck, Peck, and it's gone. Maybe the birds of those people
that you work with or in your neighborhood, they're just
constantly negative. They're just constantly pecking,
pecking, pecking, pecking, stealing that seed before it
could even get planted. Or maybe the birds sometimes are
even wooing you, right? Maybe they're Why do you need
small group? And you're a great guy.
What do you need to go to small group for again?
They're wooing you away from that message.
Just Peck, Peck, Peck, taking it away.
There's a guy in the Bible, in the Old Testament named
Nehemiah. He had a lot of birds in his
life. So Nehemiah, he was taken out of
Jerusalem. He was in Persia.
He was working for the king of Persia, and he heard that the
wall surrounding Jerusalem that fortified the city had been
destroyed, and by fire and enemies that destroyed the wall.
And So what he felt God intended him to be, was the person to go
and rebuild this wall. So he got permission from the
Persian king, went back to Jerusalem, started working on
the wall, and then the birds came.
The people in his life trying to steal away that seed, came and
telling him, you'll never finish this wall.
Why are you even trying? What are you doing?
Stop. There's no time.
And then other birds came and started stealing the seed,
trying to woo him off the wall. Oh, Nehemiah, come on, you've
worked hard enough. Come on down off that wall.
But he stuck with it, kept focus on God, and became that person
that God intended him to be. And remember, back in Matthew,
when there's so much noise in your life and the birds are
pecking away at that seed, remember Jesus's words?
Are you tired? Are you worn out?
Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life.
The second example that Jesus uses is rocks.
He talks about the rocks and how the rocky soil wasn't very deep
and the roots couldn't really form.
And so the sun came and scorched it out.
And to me again, just personally, most of the time
when I'm teaching, I'm talking to myself the whole time.
It's technology, Technology In our life of the rocks, maybe we
have good intention. Maybe we have the Bible app and
we open it in the morning and then two minutes later we're
scrolling through Facebook or we get an alert from Instagram of
somebody made a post and we're scrolling mindlessly.
Or maybe it's Twitter is your thing, and then oh, and do
somebody's new tweet. And now I've got to respond to
that. And it's on and on.
And you have good intentions but then there's just too much other
distractions on that device. So good timing So oh I did
forget one and I have got to give a little shout out to to I
don't. I do have a lot of apps.
I don't have TikTok, but and my second oldest son he attributes
it to TikTok made some of the best smoked ribs I've ever had a
couple weeks ago so maybe that was is 1 we can pay a little
attention to. But but let me give you some
some statistics. You might have heard things like
this before but it's always eye opening right when you hear some
of these things. So so like this on average.
And there were lots of different studies so I went with the
lowest average to give us all the benefit of the doubt.
But on average, Americans have a screen time of 4 1/2 hours a
day. In 2011, only 35% of Americans
used a smartphone. Today, 85% from 2011 to today.
That's how much that's grown. The average American touches
their phone 2617 times a day. Now hold on, because when I was
talking to my family, they're like dad.
No, no way. But if you think about it,
touch, unlock, touch, send a text.
Touch, touch, touch, touch. That's 10 times just to say hi
to somebody so easily. If we're counting every single
touch 2000 / 2000 times a day. Bank of America found in a study
that 91% of people value their smartphone as much as they value
their car or deodorant. It's pretty valuable thing
there. And here's where it gets just in
all honesty, scary and even I've got to take a hard look at
myself, right? But let's before I read this
last statistic, let's go back to Tim Keller's definition.
Remember his definition of a counterfeit gun?
Anything so central and essential to your life that
should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.
So USA TODAY did a study that found almost half of US adults
report they can't live without their smartphones.
That kind of sums up the idea of a counterfeit God right there.
And I know for some of us in here, maybe this isn't your
struggle, and that's awesome. But I know for a lot of
Americans, half according to this study, I mean it.
It's a reality that we face. But remember what Jesus has for
us, and I'll share with you my own struggles with technology I
had, I had to have. It was years ago.
Maybe like 10 years ago. I had a simple, easy little
surgery day in, boom go day out. But remember my white coat
syndrome? I was a nervous wreck.
I was anxious weeks leading up to that.
But instead of going to Father and praying and talking to
father about my my anxiety and how nervous I was, or talking to
my wife or my family, that would have supported, Nope, downloaded
shooties guys and played a little game on my phone all the
time just to take my mind off of worrying about the surgery.
So I get it. I totally get it.
But remember what Jesus wants to offer us instead of that
technology, that tool or torture device?
I don't know, he says. He wants us to learn the
unforced rhythms of grace. And how can we learn the
unforced rhythms of grace with our heads down all the time,
instead of our eyes up looking to him and thanking him?
The last one Jesus talks about in this parable is the thorns,
right? And the thorns come and they
choke out the the, the, the plant.
They choke out the crop and I feel like that's the busyness in
our life, the distraction of busyness, that again, maybe we
sit here, we have good intentions, and then Monday hits
and the busyness just starts rolling in.
The kids activities and the work activities and the trying to
battle and climb the ladder and all of that.
The busyness just chokes out who God intended us to be.
The Mayo Clinic did a study on cortisol.
Cortisol is a hormone that is released when we're under
stress, OK? And busyness tends to lead to a
lot of stress for all, for all of us, right?
And it says that this too much of this cortisol can lead to
anxiety, depression, headaches, heart disease, sleep problems,
and even memory and concentration impairment.
But all those physical things aside, let's think about for a
second Jason's message since Easter.
And again, if this is your first time here, spoiler alert, it's
been about love. Since Easter, we've been talking
about nothing but love. And if you have been here, you
remember talked about love of God and loving each other and
all Love has been the theme since pretty much Easter.
And the Christian author John Ortberg says this though about
busyness and love and hurriedness and love.
He says love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible.
Love always takes time, and time is the one thing that hurried
people don't have. So the distraction of busyness
is keeping us from what God intended, right to love each
other, to love him, to let him love us.
But that distraction blocks it out.
So fertile soil is the last one he talked about.
That fertile soil is needed for those deep roots, those deep
roots to make it through adverse times, to keep taking steps
forward of becoming the person that God intended us to be.
So even in our busiest moments, go back to Matthew, remember
Jesus's words, how he's calling to us.
Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and
lightly. I can't go back to that message
enough. We're not alone in our
distraction, though, right? Jesus went through distraction,
and he was preparing for his ministry, and the devil took him
out to the desert. That was a lot of distraction in
that, too. So we're not alone.
Jesus understands how distractions can creep in and
block out what he intended for us.
And really, you know, this idea of distraction, it comes down
again for me about selfishness, but also about my neediness.
I think we're all needy by default, right?
The need to be accepted, the need to compare.
The need to live up to expectations and think about how
the noise of people trying to please those around you and
please the noise Okay. Comparing nothing more than
technology to compare each other with and living up to
expectations. The busyness.
You're expected to be busy, you're expected.
It's just the norm of society. Why?
We just read what Jesus wants us to have.
Keeping focus on that can help keep taking steps forward of
becoming who God intended us to be.
So remember I said there's no magic bullet, right?
That was that. Spoiler alert, there's no tada
moment here. But I do want to go through some
things here at the end of just some strategies, right?
Just maybe some tools that we can put in our toolbox.
Maybe one of them will help you to kind of keep those
distractions at Bay in your life and keep your eyes focused on
King Jesus. So the first thing is identify.
It's important. And Aaron touched on this a
little bit too, right? But it's important to identify
where these distractions are in your life and what the
distractions are before we can kind of combat them.
So when your mind has nothing else to think of, where does it
wander? What does it get distracted by?
Is it straight to your phone when you have free time and
there's nothing else to think? Is it straight to your phone and
you're scrolling? Is it straight to the 100 things
you have to do at work? Straight to maybe the drama of a
relationship and the birds that are pecking at you?
OK, insert Jesus into these moments of your daily time.
Instead of picking up your phone and mindlessly scrolling through
social media intentionally to go through a Bible study instead of
multitasking to try and get the job done and be the first done.
Pick one task and go through that and remember who you're
truly working for in the 1st place.
Second thing, prioritize. Prioritize.
It has to. We have to prioritize if we're
going to combat these distractions.
An example in the Bible of making sure Jesus is first is
there's a story in the New Testament where John the Baptist
and Jesus, they were actually baptizing people kind of at the
same time in the same area. And John's disciples, all the
people are going over to Jesus and John the Baptist disciples
run up to him and they're like, dude, all the people are going
to Jesus, what are we going to do?
And John just tells him calmly, look, he must become greater.
I must become less. And if we can just keep that
mantra in our head of prioritize, he must become
greater. I must become less.
That's going to keep those distractions at Bay.
I know it will for me because my distractions are all about
selfish reasons. Just personally, He must become
greater. I must become less.
Prioritize that relationship with Christ.
The next one is spiritual disciplines.
So spiritual disciplines, They're tools, right?
They're tools to keep stepping forward on that way and becoming
that person that God intended us to be.
I'm not very handy. I'm not very handy at all.
My dad, my fatherinlaw, my neighbor.
They can all tell you how unhandy I am because pretty much
anytime something goes wrong, I'm calling one of them with the
house, like, hey, can I borrow this?
But a few years ago, a few years ago, I inherited a big set of
tools for my grandfather. My grandfather passed away.
He left these tools. They were in my dad's garage.
My dad's an electrician. He's got more tools than he
knows what to do with. And he asked me one day he's
like, hey, do you do you want these tools?
It's like 4 big old tool boxes. I was like, yeah, sure, I'll
take them. And I've found since I have
these tools at the house, I'm a little bit more handy, at least
because I have the right tools. And the same thing in our
Christian walk, when we're trying to take steps forward to
the person that God intended us to be, having the right tools is
a big thing. And so I'm going to share just
two tools that help me sometimes.
Again, I'm no one, no one's got it all figured out, but these
help me to stay focused and prioritize.
The first one is, and I always give this a shout out whether
I'm teaching in youth or here, but it's it's an app.
I know technology, but get an app.
It's called it's called Through the Word, OK, Through the word.
It's it's a Bible app, but it's a pastor in your ear and then a
message. So it's a chapter of the Bible a
day. A pastor gives you the
background of it, breaks it down for about 8 or 9 minutes.
Love it, it's awesome. It makes it again.
I love kind of the behind the scenes of the Bible and what's
going on and give you some ideas to think about.
It's a great way if you're like me and you struggle with Bible
reading because again you open some of this and it's like makes
you go cross eyed through the word is awesome because it
really helps kind of break things down and and walk you
through some of the scripture. So there's one and then the
second one if you're if you're old school physical type of
Bible person, life application Bible.
He's actually a pastor but a guy I coached with gave me this
sheesh 20 years ago probably and it is great tool as well to to
make you more handy in your walk with Christ.
The life application Bible, it's a regular Bible, has scripture
but then underneath it has again kind of teaching points almost
or breakdown of maybe historically what was happening
at that time or it gives you again the behind the scenes or
little points to think about. It really is a great companion
and a great tool to put in the toolbox.
So spiritual disciplines next one bring Jesus.
I said earlier I teach in youth sometimes I love teaching in
youth. I love teaching in here too.
Don't get offended, but in youth we it's a conversation a lot of
times, right? It's not just me talking for 30
minutes. Usually I'll have them do
something. I'm sure they love an
assignment, right when when they're not in school.
So I'll have them like do something and we'll share out
and we'll talk a little bit about it because I love to hear
their voice. They have a lot of awesome
things to say. And so I was kind of
workshopping this over with, with youth a few months ago.
And we were talking about counterfeit gods and we were
brainstorming some ideas. Okay.
Well, how can we combat the counterfeit gods in our life?
And this one gentleman raised his hand.
He was like, well, just bring Jesus.
And I was like, what do you mean by that?
He said. Like, I love to hike.
And so when I go out on a hike, I just, I stopped for 30
seconds. And before I go out on the hike,
I just thank Jesus for the beautiful scenery and the
awesome nature that he created and that I'm able to go out on
this hike. So I just bring Jesus into the
things that I love to do. Like, man, you got to figure it
out. That's pretty awesome.
And it sounds simple, but how? How many times do we go and do
the things that we love and we're not bringing Jesus along
for the ride. So bring Jesus.
You love to play Shooty Skies on your phone.
Spend 30 seconds saying Lord, thank you so much for inspiring
some app developer to make this game that I love.
You're an awesome God. Help me get to level 20 today or
whatever it is, right? But for real, we can bring Jesus
into all these moments with us. So bring Jesus.
I like that one. Thank you, youth.
Two more. Take five, take 5.
This is a great strategy that I think can kind of ground us and
keeping our focus on Jesus and keeping those distractions at
Bay. So when we find ourselves
distracted, maybe we started that scroll in or we've, you
know, the the the birds are pecking at us and on all that
things, the busyness, right? Deep breath.
Just ask yourself these five questions Will this matter in 5
minutes? Will this matter in five days?
Will this matter in five months? Will it matter in five years?
And does this matter to the five most important people in my
life? Take five.
If the answer is no, well then maybe we shouldn't stress over
it, right? Maybe we shouldn't let that
cortisol build up and we should put the phone down for a little
bit and go interact with people and see the world that God has
intended us to see. So take five.
And the last one. I love this one, right?
It's feels like a little bit of a cop out.
But perseverance, It just takes perseverance.
There's no magic bullet, right? It's a baby steps every day to
keep those distractions at Bay. Not one person in this room has
it all figured out right? We're all in this together.
But keeping that perseverance, getting those spiritual
disciplines in place take 5 All prioritize.
All of them will help us to become more and more the person
that God intended us to be. I love hoops.
I love basketball. I'm an old basketball coach, and
Tim Duncan's my favorite, favorite player.
He just, he just did it right. Like went out fundamental boom,
just did his job. And he says it like this.
Good, better. Best.
Never let it rest until you're good is better and you're better
is best. Isn't that kind of the Christian
walk in a nutshell? Especially when we're talking
about counterfeit gods and this idea of distraction.
And some days it feels like I'm never going to, I'm never going
to make it. Keep taking steps forward.
Don't lose heart. Have that perseverance.
Good, better. Best Don't let it rest.
Don't get discouraged, keep taking steps forward.
Because as we walk through this, we're going to be shaped and
molded into something, right? And the more we keep our eyes
focused on Jesus and not to the left or to the right, the more
that he can mold us into that person that he intended us to
be. So this week, as you're
scrolling through or the noises of life is too much, or you feel
that the busyness is just crushing you down, go back to
the basics. Go back to what Jesus said in
Matthew. Are you tired?
Worn out? Burned out on religion?
Come to me, get away with me and you'll recover your life.
I'll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won't lay anything heavy or real fitting on you.
Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and
lightly. Let's pray Lord, thank you so
much for wow. Just an opportunity to to be
together in in this space and just to learn more about you and
and to love on you and to let you love on us.
Lord, Lord, when when the distractions of life try to
creep in and sneak in and and steal who you intend us to be.
Lord just help us to to combat those and keep our eyes focused
on you. Lord, gosh we love you.
We just thank you for your message.
Thank you for your word. Help us to to be there for each
other in these tough times when the counterfeit God seemed to
just be coming from all angles. Help us to focus on you.
We love you, Lord, We thank you for our blessings.
Amen. Thank you for joining us today.
River City Church is all about experiencing and expressing
God's love in our lives and community, and we hope that
you've been able to experience that today.
As grateful as I am that you've spent this time listening in
this morning, this podcast is no substitute for full
participation in a local church. I love it when River City people
listen to other pastors, but it is those who show up week after
week faithfully giving their support and time and resources
that make all of this possible. If we can help you get connected
to a local church, pray for you or support you in any way, click
the link in the description and let us know.
If you'd like to financially support the ministry of River
City, Click the give link on our website in the description.
Don't forget to subscribe and don't forget to share this with
your friends. Thanks so much for listening.
May the Lord bless and keep you in all grace and peace.