Sermon Recap | The Doubting Thomas in All of Us

This week in our Personal Liturgy series, we began exploring our fourth enemy to our spiritual health: cynicism. This enemy is one of the hardest to point out because we sometimes conflate being cynical with being grown-up, rational Americans and because we don’t have a great working definition or understanding of what cynicism is on a day-to-day basis.

Cynicism - a posture of skepticism that leads you to doubt God’s presence and activity in your life.

3 Symptoms of Cynicism:

1. Doubt/Distrust: When we’ve been burned or hurt, we don’t want to feel that again, so we self-protect. We start to believe everything and everyone has an angle and begin questioning people’s motives. We start to doubt God and distrust Him. Our faith gets doubted constantly while our doubts and cynicism go unchecked.
2. Distance: We grow distant from God and people, specifically people who don’t join us in cynicism. If intimacy requires trust, then cynicism is distrust. It holds people at arm’s length and doesn’t expect God to show up in our lives.
3. Disenchantment: Hope, belief, trust, love, intimacy, and life with a supernatural God are all very enchanting things. They are things that brighten our eyes and fill our spirit and fill us with wonder. Cynicism looks at these and rolls its eyes at it because cynicism makes us disenchanted.

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

- John 20:19-22, 24-25

When Jesus died, so did Thomas’ spiritual hopes and Thomas’ reputation. To say Thomas was devastated is not enough. He felt distraught and abandoned. At best, he’ll be mocked for following Jesus, the fraud. At worst, he’ll be tracked down and killed.

That’s the weight of indescribable disappointment and hurt packed in the words: “I will never believe.”

The Doubting Thomas in All of Us

Sometimes, like Thomas, disappointment and wounds are at the heart of our cynicism. Cynicism becomes our defense mechanism. Cynicism grows in the wounds caused by life not going how we hoped.

But cynicism is more than just disappointment and hurt. The truth is, there’s a bit of a doubting Thomas in all of us.

• For some of us, cynicism starts every morning when we don’t see the need to carve out time with Jesus and then stumble into our day godlessly, without prayer or any acknowledgment of God’s presence and power in our lives.
• For others, cynicism shows in us when we attribute something amazing to circumstance or nature, rather than to prayer and God’s hand.
• Cynicism shows up in our spiritual growth when we don’t see the growth we desire, believe that we will never change, and so we stop putting forth the effort.
• It can show up in our relationships with others. When we see sin or weakness in someone and God’s Spirit prompts us to encourage, correct, or rebuke, cynicism creeps in and tells us that conversation will go badly or that it won’t be worth it.
• Cynicism can creep into the mission. We can get really excited about the mission and want to invite people to church or LifeGroup, but when cynicism speaks up, we deflate and convince ourselves they won’t come, so it won’t be worth asking. Cynicism neuters courage and obedience.
• Ultimately, cynicism affects our view of God. We start to see God more as a distant watchmaker in the sky, than as a Father who cares and is involved in the details of our life.

It’s all cynicism. We don’t actually trust God is exactly who He says He is and we don’t actually believe He’s going to do what He says He’s going to do.

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

- John 20:26-31

As Thomas touches Jesus’ wounds, Thomas’ wounds are healed. His cynicism and distrust are shattered. The prophecy in Isaiah 53, that by Jesus’ wounds we would be healed, comes true for Thomas right here.

In the middle of this incredible, powerful moment with Thomas, Jesus stops, and thinks about us. He stops and thinks about all of us who would never get to see Him in the resurrected flesh, and He says, “Blessed are those who don’t see but still believe.”

Jesus extends to us the same offer He extended to Thomas: to look at His wounds and believe. He invites us to believe that Jesus, the Son of God died in our place. He calls us to believe He rose from the grave. He calls us to believe that in the midst of our frustration and doubt, God sees us, hears our every word muttered in cynical angst, and loves us anyway.

Reading the Bible brings us back into the enchanted, supernatural world that God created. It was written so we could encounter the living God, the Maker of heavens and the earth, and the God who sustains our every breath. Time and time again, we get to see God showing up over and over again, bringing life and hope to all kinds of different people and sinners. We get to see the miraculous work of Jesus dying on the cross for us and saving us!

Here’s what this means for us:

1. God pursues the disenchanted and the cynical. The Bible is proof - the spread of this book around the globe is proof! God is coming after us. We have God’s supernatural revelation of Himself to us right here.
2. We fight cynicism by being in God’s Word. If the purpose of Scripture is for us to believe in Jesus and we find ourselves wrestling with cynicism, we should be spending more time in His Word.

This is God’s plan to crush your disbelief and cynicism. The Bible is God’s plan to re-enchant you to the unthinkable grace found in reality. God’s Word never returns void.

Personal Liturgy Challenge

Our challenge for this week is to meditate on Scripture for at least 15 minutes per day. Passages and questions will be provided for us to pray through as we meditate on God’s Word.

Sermon Recap | Pray Like Jesus - Part 3

This week in our Personal Liturgy series, we continued to explore the spiritual practice of prayer as a tool to fight self-reliance. We focused on the communal aspect of prayer and the power of praying together.

When looking at the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, it’s easy to miss that the prayer is filled with communal language. We are family, which means when we pray to our Father, we pray for all of our needs, we ask for forgiveness for our sins as a community and culture, and we pray for help against temptation for one another.

Part of why Jesus teaches us to pray communally is because He knows we will never become the beautiful, supernatural, life-giving community He intends...until we learn to pray together. And the first four chapters of Acts give us a beautiful picture of how right Jesus was:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47

As the early church is devoted to prayer, incredible things start to happen: the church taking care of everyone’s needs, people interweaving their lives together, and God adding new believers into their community. We see a second and equally beautiful picture in Acts 4:

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Acts 4:32-35

We again see an example of a Jesus-centered family on mission. This type of church may seem a bit out of reach for us, but what happens in between these two beautiful pictures gives us the clue to how this kind of community can come to be.

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

Acts 3:1-9

We see from this passage that Peter and John and the early church community are consistently praying together day by day. In that context of prayer, God shows them an incredible opportunity for God’s might to be displayed. God opens their eyes to a kingdom opportunity right in front of them, through prayer.

However, after this amazing moment, Peter and John get arrested and thrown in jail for healing in Jesus’ name. After a long, unjust trial with no basis, the two are let go and immediately go to their friends’ house where they start to ... pray:

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’ — for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Acts 4:23-31

They start their prayer by acknowledging who God is. They bring all their problems to God, interpreting them through the lens of Scripture and through the lens of God’s sovereignty. Then, they ask God to help them keep speaking God’s Word with boldness. Peter and John just got thrown in jail, and they pray for boldness, not safety.

The early church prayed for strength to keep doing what God had called them to. And they asked God to keep doing what only He can do: healing people, performing signs and wonders...all in the name of Jesus.

In the end, we have to recognize that the church is supposed to be supernatural! God didn’t institute the church to be a big, happy get together of nice, polite moral people. Instead, God calls the church to show off to the world what life with God is like. We cannot be a part of God’s miraculous kingdom work here on earth without prayer.

The church is supposed to be a place where things are happening daily and the only explanation is “Yeah, I don’t know. God did it.” Unexplainable things are supposed to be happening in our midst - things that require gospel explanation and point to the mighty handiwork of our God.

In LifeGroup this week, we will practically apply this call to communal prayer, and lift our voices together to God, like the early church did in Acts 4:23. There are normal hesitations to participating in group prayer, but we hope this will be a good, gospel encouragement to join our voices together to our Father:

“Grace means we aren't saved by our prayers. Jesus’ perfect prayer life has been substituted for ours. We stand before God now counted as perfect pray-ers of perfect prayers. And grace means we accept each other freely. We give room for weaknesses and struggles. We help each other grow and learn out of kindness and acceptance. We don't need to impress God or each other.
You are already loved. You are already righteous in God’s sight. You will not be judged by God or by us as to the quality of your prayers. There is nothing to fear."

Member Spotlight | Fighting Self-Reliance

Throughout our “Personal Liturgy” series, we’re interviewing members of our church family to hear how they are impacted and actively fighting against the “joy killers” in their lives. This week, we hear from Midtown Lexington’s Vision and Teaching Pastor Michael Bailey as he shares with us how the spiritual discipline of prayer actively guards him in the fight against self-reliance.

How does self-reliance show up in your life?

You could say that self-reliance is often my default mode of operation. For example, when something breaks in the house or on my old F-150, I find no greater pleasure than being able to avoid calling the repairman and doing it myself. It’s probably fine for me to be self-reliant in those ways, but this mentality often bleeds over into my spiritual life, too.

The most common symptom of my spiritual self-reliance is prayerlessness. I think, “Oh, I don’t need to pray for this. I just need to figure out the solution. In general, my first response to problems is to plan instead of pray. This only increases with particularly stressful seasons. Instead of turning to God with my anxieties, I just aim to keep my head down and work my way through it. I would never say that I don’t feel like I need God, but my actions tell a different story.

Where have you seen personal growth or victory in this area?

On my own, stress was always a prompt to problem-solve before anything else. While I still problem-solve, I’m fighting to see feelings of stress as prompts to ask God for help and guidance before I try to just fix things. Stress is becoming a reminder to me that God is God and I am not.

How has your understanding of the gospel specifically impacted how you deal with self-reliance?

I’ve learned to see that self-reliance, in many respects, has its roots directly in the Fall of man. Life ruled by self was mankind’s original sin and subsequently lays at the root of all sin. The gospel directs my attention to the reality that attempting to do life on my own is precisely the thing Jesus came to die for. It’s not merely a personality wiring or a work ethic malfunction, but a sin - and at the heart of all sin - that required the cross.

What are practical steps or habits you practice to fight self-reliance in your life?

I’m type-A. So, if I don’t have structure, it doesn’t happen. To fight self-dependency, I created a “prayer spreadsheet” where I periodically list the things I need or want to see God do. I track the date that I prayed for it and the date God provided an answer. It might sound tedious, but this process has been such a help:

For one, the task of writing down my prayers reminds me I ultimately need God’s Spirit to do the heavy lifting regardless of how confident I feel in my abilities to accomplish things. It forces me, even for just a few brief moments, to confess to God my need for Him to act.

Secondly, it gives me a practical medium to actually turn over to God the big things that stress me out. Before, I’d believe theoretically that I needed to “hand things over to God”, but never really had a framework for how to actually do that. Sitting down and typing out my prayers has become the tangible way to say to God, “Okay, this thing? I need you here. And this problem? I can’t solve it without Your guidance.”  

Lastly, it puts God’s faithfulness front and center. When He answers my prayers, I can’t avoid it. I can’t simply write it off to coincidence or what would have happened regardless. It’s a one-to-one relationship. I prayed and He acted. I can still remember the first time I checked off a prayer that God answered. I thought, “Wow…He really did it!” And the more of those prayers that get checked off, the more I’m encouraged to trust in God’s abilities over my own.

Have there been any scriptures that have been particularly helpful as you have dealt with self-reliance?

Yes, specifically Psalm 127:1-2 which says, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”

What encouragement would you offer to others in our church family as they seek to fight self-reliance in their lives?

I’d assume that for many of us who struggle with self-reliance, we don’t really consider it to be a sinful issue. We take pride in our work and our abilities to accomplish. The dark underbelly of our position though, is that it often leads us to feeling like the weight of our world is consistently on our own shoulders. So, my biggest encouragement to others would be to realize that it isn’t. He’s powerful enough to handle what you think you’ve got to do on your own.

Sermon Recap | Pray Like Jesus - Part 2

This week in our Personal Liturgy series, we continued to explore the spiritual practice of prayer as a tool to fight self-reliance. We primarily focused on one of the biggest hindrances to and realities of prayer: disappointment.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

- Matthew 7:7-11

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

- Luke 18:1-8

In each of these passages, God’s goodness is the prompt to pray. Jesus shows us that His Goodness makes us want to pray and be persistent in our asking, seeking, and knocking. He is our good, heavenly Father, and we are to go to Him like children, incessantly asking for things.

Our confidence in God’s goodness is part of the foundation on which we build our prayer life.

Which means that if our confidence in God’s goodness wavers, there are going to be problems.

This is why disappointment is such a big deal. When we pray consistently for something good and God doesn’t grant our prayers - it can feel like a cosmic betrayal. We can end up feeling angry, hurt, confused, and like God owed us.

In these moments of disappointment, we’re all asking: Is God good? Does He really love us? Should we really trust Him?

So the critical question becomes, on what basis does God prove His goodness to us? And do we get to decide that basis or does God get to decide?

The Bible answers these questions definitively:

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

- Romans 5:8

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

- 1 John 3:16

God is not on trial. We are not the judge. Our job is not to keep coming up with standards and judging God by them. We know what love is, — we know what goodness is — based on what God has done for us through the cross. In the cross, He has accomplished an eternal salvation for us and His goodness towards us is no longer on trial.

However, we functionally live as though the jury is still out on God. We feel a weight of disappointment when things do not go our way. Oftentimes, that disappointment gets directed towards God, rather than filtered through the cross.

When we don’t filter our disappointments through the cross, we begin to lower our expectations and requests. We don’t want to get our hopes up when we pray because we don't want to get hurt again. But as Christians, we are called to hope - not guard against hope!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

- 1 Peter 1:3

The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

- Psalm 147:11

Jesus, in both Matthew 7 and Luke 18 is in effect, saying, “Get your hopes up! Go to God trusting in His goodness. Expect God to care and respond.”

So what do we do with our disappointment and how do we remain hopeful? We confess, repent, and pray to God about our disappointment. The following questions are to help us process our disappointments and our view of God’s goodness. Boldly and incessantly pray to our good, heavenly Father.

1. In what ways are you disappointed with God?
2. In what ways are you most tempted to measure God's goodness outside of the cross?
3. What do you need/want God to do?

Adapted from Every Moment Holy by Douglas McKelvey. Called “death of a dream.”

O Christ, in whom the final fulfillment of all hope is held secure,

I bring to you now the weathered fragments of my former dreams,
the broken pieces of my expectations. 
What I wanted has not come to pass.
I invested my hopes in desires that returned only sorrow and frustration.

In my head I know that you are sovereign even over this -
over my tears, my confusion, and my disappointment.
But I still feel, in this moment, as if I have been abandoned,
as if you do not care that these hopes have collapsed.

And yet I know this is not so.
You are the sovereign of my sorrow.
You apprehend a wider sweep with wiser eyes than mine.
My history bears the fingerprints of grace.
You were always faithful,
though I could not always trace quick evidence of your presence in my pain,
yet did you remain at work.

So let me remain tender now, to how you would teach me.
My disappointments reveal so much about my own agenda for my life,
and the ways I quietly demand that it should play out:
free of conflict, free of pain, free of want.

Your bigger purpose has always been for my greatest good,
that I would be fashioned into a more fit vessel for the indwelling of your Spirit,
and molded into a more compassionate emissary of your coming Kingdom.
And you, in love, will use all means to shape my heart into those perfect forms.

So let this disappointment do its work.
Let me listen to its holy whisper,
that I might embrace the better dreams you dream
for me, and for your people,
and for your kingdom, and for your creation.
Let me join myself to these,
investing all hope that will never come undone
or betray those who place their trust in it.
Teach me to hope, O Lord,
always and only in you.

You are the King of my collapse.
You answer not what I demand,
but what I do not even know to ask.
Here in the ruins of my wrecked expectation,
let me make this best confession:

Not my dreams, O Lord,
not my dreams,
but yours, be done.
Amen.

Resource Round-up | Self-Reliance

This week we began examining the third enemy to our spiritual health: self-reliance. We defined self-reliance as living our day-to-day lives depending primarily on our own strengths and resources and we looked at how we fight to grow our dependence on God through prayer. We hope these additional resources will be beneficial as you fight self-reliance in your own life.

Book: A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller

In his book, Miller lays out a pattern for living in relationship with God and includes helpful habits and approaches to prayer that enable us to fight against self-reliance and return to a childlike faith.

Video: “We Can Do Nothing” by John Piper

In this short, 3-minute video, John Piper provides a metaphor for how we can glorify God by appropriately depending on Him to do things we are unable to accomplish. Coming out of John 15, Piper reminds viewers that prayer is one of the most powerful tools we have to fight against self-reliance because it is the turning away of ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide what we need.

Article: “Christian Life Beyond the Quiet Time” by Jared C. Wilson

Wilson examines what it means to “be filled by the Spirit” and the connection between not just cultivating a daily “quiet time” but a quiet life that intentionally and diligently focuses on the finished work of Christ in our everyday, ordinary lives.

Article: “A Simple Way to Pray Every Day “ by Nick Aufenkamp

In this helpful article, Aufenkamp summarizes some of Martin Luther’s advice on why and how to use the Lord’s Prayer as a structure for daily prayer. The article also has some nice tie-ins to fighting distraction as well as self-reliance.

Video: “Teach Us to Pray” by John Piper

Breaking down each phrase in the Lord’s Prayer, Piper gives an example for how The Lord’s Prayer is a helpful model for our prayer lives.

Book: Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren

Framed around one ordinary day, this book explores daily life through the lens of liturgy, small practices and habits that form us. Warren sets out to show that every area of our lives is designed for communion and engagement with God. We’d especially recommend checking out Chapter 4: “Losing Keys” as it’s particularly relevant to fighting against a daily mindset of self-reliance.

Article: “Three Ways to Fight Prayerlessness” by Aaron Armstrong

In this short article, Armstrong gives three simple, but not often heeded, steps for fighting against prayerlessness in our lives.

Sermon Series: “Pray”

Check out this 3-part sermon series from the Midtown Archives called “Pray” which looks at what prayer is and how to practice it well.

Sermon Series: “Luke”

During our study through the book of Luke, we dove into the topic of prayer on two occasions. You can check out those sermons: “Persisting in Prayer” and “War-Time Prayer” here.

Sermon Recap | Pray Like Jesus - Part 1

This week in our Personal Liturgy series, we began to look at the third enemy of our spiritual health, self-reliance.

Self-reliance: living our day-to-day lives depending primarily on our own strength and resources.  

Compared to the other enemies we’ve looked at so far in this series, apathy and distraction, self-reliance is a bit harder to identify and fight in our lives.

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:1-3

Jesus says to live life in His kingdom, we must be poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit means we do not expect to make it through a normal day outside of the mercy and help of God and others. It means our need is not circumstantial, but rather, perpetual. Being poor in spirit means recognizing that we don’t have what it takes to help or save ourselves.

Those who are “rich in spirit” never need help, even in life’s crazy circumstances. They have enough resources to take care of themselves no matter what happens.

However, we are more “middle class in spirit”. When we inevitably come face to face with our own inability to change something and our own weakness, we pray. But on our normal days, we try to handle things on our own with no view of our need for God’s help.

Our culture, both secular and Christian, believes that we can handle anything that comes our way if we put our mind to it. We think that God will never give us more than we can handle, but that is not the case. This leads to people never asking for help and feeling crushed whenever they are forced to face their weakness. The truth is God will never give us more than He can handle. We need to acknowledge our weakness and need for God’s help in our lives.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:6

How do we fight against self-reliance?

How do we fight to grow our dependence on God so that over time we experience more of His strength, power, and victory in our lives? The answer is, prayer. Prayer is meant to be an admission of our need, a reminder of our weakness, and an invitation for God to show off in our lives.

Prayer and self-reliance are inversely related.

When self-reliance is high, prayer is negligible. When we know we are in trouble and need help, prayer is flowing. We can use this to our advantage - we can use intentional prayer to decrease our self-reliance.

In Matthew 6:5-13, Jesus gives us a tool to help us cultivate and walk in our poverty of spirit - the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus is teaching us how to depend on God through prayer and reject reliance on ourselves through this prayer. This prayer is short enough to memorize and use as a helpful daily reminder of our dependence on God.

The Lord’s Prayer as a Daily Prayer Guide:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

Being poor in spirit starts with acknowledging that God is God and we are not. He is capable of answering prayers - we are not. We are to reset our mind on God’s worthiness to be prayed to.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Pray that more and more people would submit to Him as their King.  Pray that the earth would look more and more like heaven does and that God would powerfully work to reverse everything that has gone wrong in the earth because of sin.  

Give us today our daily bread.

Asking God for daily bread means asking Him to provide for us physically, but also in every other arena of life - spiritually, emotionally, and relationally. This is again acknowledging our utter dependence on the Lord and asking for Him to provide.

And forgive us our debts,

This is a prompt for confession and a request for forgiveness. This is a chance for us to accept the gospel for our day and confess any outer, behavioral level ways we’ve sinned against God, as well as any inner, hidden ways our hearts have turned from Jesus.

As we also have forgiven our debtors.

If the gospel is true for us, then it’s true for others as well. If God’s grace is sufficient to free us from the debt we owed Him, then that same grace will release the debts of those who’ve sinned against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

This is a chance for us to pray for protection and deliverance; to be honest about any areas we feel especially weak, tempted or attacked in right now. Acknowledge that you need God to help you with those things.

---

Let’s fight our self-reliance by incorporating the Lord’s prayer into our regular lives as a daily prayer guide. Even on our normal days with the regular frustrations and mundane tasks, let us become people who daily confess our need for a Savior and look to God in prayer to do the work that only He can do.

Taking a Break From Social Media: One Member’s Reflections

Stephen Bateman has been a member at Midtown since 2008. He has served on our production team, creative team, and helped create the Personal Liturgy app. The following are his reflections on fasting from social media.

In October 2017, I made a rather awkward public announcement and turned off the social media and news faucet. While social media falls inside the “it depends” category that we talked about in week 2, I knew that for me it tends to beg for my attention, shape my thoughts, and affect my friendships. So after a good deal of thought, I decided to walk away entirely.

Over the past several months, I've experienced more of a mental shift than I expected. The following is a summary of my experience.

I needed to acknowledge the addiction.

Social media addiction works because of biology. I'm no biologist, but I'm told that our brains have two systems that work together to get rewards – the dopamine and opioid systems. The dopamine system is built to tell your brain that you want food, shelter, sex, relationship, etc. Seeking those things releases dopamine. Once you actually get the reward, your opioid system is triggered, telling your body that you've had enough.

But the dopamine system has a problem. The shut-off valve sometimes gets stuck on "open.” This is why it's easier to snack on potato chips than broccoli and also why it feels good to get a text message or an email. The brain's reward system forgets to tell the "wanting" system that it has had enough. Scientists have compared the effect of social media use on your brain to the effects of gambling and illegal drugs, in the sense that they both short-circuit your reward system to keep you wanting more.

My first step to breaking social media addiction was acknowledging that it's an addiction. Quitting wasn't easy.

Facebook wanted me back.

Facebook knows. They knew when I quit. They tried to cajole me. They sent an email saying "they miss me" (they don't.). People started to send me messages. They posted on my wall for the first time in five years. I'm not 100% sure that Facebook mounts a "please come back" campaign through friends, but it sure felt like it.

To put it bluntly, Facebook was selling my time for several hundred dollars over the course of my life. They planned on keeping me addicted while delivering little of lasting value.

Peace came with Do Not Disturb.

I turned off all email and phone notifications. I am still working towards keeping “Do Not Disturb” on, but the peace and quiet are transformative. I have a short list of phone applications which are allowed to ping me: Groupme and text messages. I want to pull information instead of having information pushed at me. There's no reason for Yelp or BedBath&Beyond.com to have the privilege of my immediate attention. By pulling most of my information, I'm reducing the number of dopamine hits I get through the day, cooling my reward system over time.

I needed to start with a trial period.

Leaving forever is sad. Leaving for three weeks is vacation. I started by punting social media for a trial period to see how it felt. After three weeks, I had a ton more headspace to think and learn. I evaluated what social media was providing and found that I was having few meaningful, one-on-one interactions with friends. Rather, I spent most of my time scrolling through videos of dudes falling off trampolines.

I see leaving social media as a first step, not the last step.

The temptation to live an edited life is constantly looming. I want you to think I'm happy and funny and a little goofy and politically-savvy and sensitive and wise and good at cooking. But sometimes I'm just a mess. The good news of the gospel is that the God of the Universe has seen me chase sinful desires and He chooses to display His glory in me by giving His grace as a gift, while I was sinning. 

I believe that leaving social media can create some more room to live in community and pursue the Lord. But leaving social media, by itself, won't do much. We need a positive vision for the kind of life we want to live. A life filled with meaningful interactions between real friends. A life of surprise, joy, sorrow, suffering, fear, love, and hope. A life of learning more about who God is and learning more about who He made us to be.

I read the book "Deep Work" by Cal Newport last year. Several of the ideas included here are inspired by his work. That book had a very positive influence on the quality of my work and focus.

Member Spotlight | Fighting Distraction

Throughout our “Personal Liturgy” series, we’re interviewing members of our church family to hear how they are impacted by and actively fighting against the “joy killers” in their lives. This week we interviewed two different missionary members: Sammie Mogabgab and Patrick Coker. Sammie is a member of Midtown Downtown and for the past two years has worked in College Ministry through our Residency program. Patrick has been a part of Midtown since 2007. He and his family now call Midtown Lexington home. Patrick works at Colonial Life as a Senior Motions Designer concepting and creating marketing videos. 

How does distraction most often show up in your life? 

Patrick: It doesn't have to show up; I seek it out. I have a big sinful tendency to look for an escape (a root idol of comfort) and that usually shows in watching TV shows and media consumption. If I have had a hard day, I subconsciously race to the end of my day to get my "reward" of watching Netflix until I get sleepy. I also subconsciously look at Twitter a lot. Whenever there is some downtime, my first thought is usually to pull out my phone.

Sammie: One major thing I get distracted by often is 'improving myself' in a vain way. I could be on Facebook or Instagram for two minutes, but I get off of social media and I immediately feel worse about myself. I see someone who is prettier or who has cooler clothes or something more spiritually profound to say and I have a list of things I need to do to be more like that. Eventually, I get exhausted by the ways I 'need' to be better and instead of leading me to the gospel, I'm led to more distraction because I need to do something to feel better.
 
Where have you seen personal growth or victory in this area?

Sammie: Something that the Spirit has been impressing upon me is that I cannot simultaneously be seeking to look prettier, have better clothes, and be more impressive to my followers and be moving towards the Spirit. So I am in large part off of social media. I don't have the apps on my phone and the websites are actually blocked. 

Another victory is that I’m becoming increasingly aware that my thoughts are connected to what I'm seeing. Now when the hyper-critical thoughts pop up in my mind and I start to feel overwhelmed, I stop and realize, “I felt fine about myself 10 minutes ago and the only things that has changed is that I saw this girl's really cool Instagram, hmm.” There is now no stronghold in the voice that's telling me that I'm not good enough and hopefully the slippery slope ends there.

Patrick: When I first get home, I put my phone somewhere out of my reach. My kids have started noticing my phone use habits so I’ve started making a conscious effort to not have it on me when they are awake. I’ve recently even switched back to reading a paper Bible because I realized that when I was reading my Bible App on my phone, to my kids, it looked no different than when I was playing a game or checking Twitter. 
 
Media consumption remains a daily battle. I still usually watch something before I fall asleep but I have to make a decision to not “check out” while I do. On a good night, I choose conversation and prayer over media consumption. 
 
Are there any habits that you’ve established to help fight distraction in your life? 

Sammie: I stay off social media the majority of the time. This just takes away the temptation to find people or things to compare myself to. I've also realized that being alone in nature is a really helpful way to fight distraction. When I get distracted, my eyes are down and I am hyper-focused on myself. When I am in nature, my eyes are up and I am reminded of the glory of God. Another helpful habit I’ve established is going on walks by myself to pray. My thoughts often lead me to want to distract myself by doing something but when I'm on a walk, there's not much else I can do but talk with my Father.

Patrick: One simple approach for me is just to ask people how they are doing. There is always somebody hurting and usually something I can do, whether that’s stopping to pray for that person or meeting a physical need. When I take small steps to consciously make life not about me, it stirs in me a desire to play and seek people out and care for them physically and emotionally. 

How has your understanding of the gospel specifically impacted how you deal with distraction? 

Patrick: Because of the way Jesus loves me, I do not have to be a slave to my comfort idol. As I remember what Jesus has done for me and as I look to Him first, I have the strength to now run towards the things that are hard; I can hurt with the hurting or take on part of someone's pain. 

Sammie: When I am tempted to distract myself, I am ultimately seeking to make myself feel better—to deal on my own with the fact that I’m not okay. The gospel reminds me that while it’s true that I’m not okay, no efforts on my own can fix the soul-level reality that I’m broken. Now, while I’m still aware of my depravity, I can rest knowing Christ has been victorious over sin. I have assurance that I have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and now get to be in relationship with the Father because of what He has done. So when those feelings of inadequacy creep in, I don't have to distract myself and numb myself, but they can actually serve as a reminder to give thanks to the Lord that the gospel is true!

Have there been any scriptures, books or teachings that have been particularly helpful as you have dealt with distraction?

Sammie: Isaiah 55:1-3

“Come, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and withoutprice.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.

Incline your ear, and come to me;
    hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
    my steadfast, sure love for David."

The book Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer has been an incredible gift in fighting distraction. When I am distracted, I am not finding God to be all that interesting or inspiring. The Knowledge of the Holy goes through the attributes of God and it has led me into worship over and over again. 

Patrick: Weirdly, it was a Midtown sermon on suffering (Luke: Jesus and Suffering). There was a part of it about voluntarily suffering alongside people and why we do that. It didn't deal with distraction specifically, but it made me realize, "your problem is not your problem - it's our problem."  And that sobering realization helps me fight distraction, by focusing on what's real. 

Sermon Recap | Redeeming the Time

This week in our Personal Liturgy series and focus on distraction, we looked at busyness distraction. Throughout the past three weeks, we’ve defined distraction as: the inability to focus on God because of lesser things. 

Busyness Distraction is: the inability to focus on God because our lives are overfilled.

Types of Busyness:

1. Some “busyness” is just life responsibilities. 
2. There is a category for “good busy” that acknowledges the hard things and responsibilities in life that we have to carry.
3. Some busyness is self-induced. There is another category of busyness that we bring upon ourselves by building our lives in a careless and disorderly way.

Paul addresses this type of busyness in Ephesians 5:15-17. 

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

- Ephesians 5:15-17

We are called to walk with intentionality and take stock of the way we’re living. Paul is warning us against walking through life in a careless way: always busy, always distracted, rushing from one thing to the next.

When Paul says, “because the days are evil”, he is reminding us we don’t live in a neutral world. This means we don’t naturally or accidentally drift towards the vibrant, flourishing life that God wants for us - we have to actively fight for it and choose it wisely.

The translation, “make the best use of the time”, can also be translated “redeem the time. Paul actually uses the same Greek word for how Jesus redeems us - purchasing us out of slavery to sin. Then he takes that same word and tells us to rescue our time, to buy it back from slavery.

To do so, to redeem our time, we need to understand what the will of the Lord is.

Jesus was absolutely clear on God’s will for his life and as a result, he was freed up to say no to lots of good things that weren’t His things. (Examples - John 6:15, Luke 8, Mark 1:28, Luke 4:42-43, 5:15-16, etc.)

This is a big implication of Ephesians 5. If we don’t know what God’s will for our life is, we’ll never know when to say ‘no’. Saying no is good, but we also need to know what to say yes to. And that requires understanding God’s will for our lives:

What is God’s Will For Us

There are some non-negotiables for all Christians (Luke 10:27). God has called us to:

• A Jesus-centered life.
• Love Jesus’ family.
• Love those who aren’t a part of Jesus’ family (yet).

In addition, there are personal non-negotiables:

• Are you married? God’s called you to love your spouse and take care of him/her as a privilege, not a burden, to encourage them with sacrificial love as a little picture of Jesus’ love for them.
• Do you have kids? God’s called you to take care of them, providing for them, protecting them and shepherding them to do everything you can to help them see God’s love for them in Jesus. 
• Other family members to take care of (elderly)?

On the other hand, there are some personal negotiables that should be coming after our non-negotiables:

• Where are you going to work and live? 
• What hobbies and other pursuits are you interested in?
  • How might you use your God-given passions and specific interests to serve back into God’s call on your life to be Jesus-centered family on mission?

Questions to ponder and pray over this week:

• What has God created your life for?
• What are your rhythms and intentional ways to get up with God?
• Who are your people? Who has God given you to love?
• What do you need to say no to? Where is the tyranny of the urgent keeping you from making the best use of your time? 

None of this is about salvation. None of this is about convincing God to love us. All of this is about the privilege of stepping into God’s invitation to walk in a focussed awareness of His presence and purpose in our lives. We are never better than when we are well aware of God’s presence and purpose in our lives. 

Resource Round-up | Distraction

“The mind will always take on an order conforming to that upon which it concentrates.”

– Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline

This past week, we began examining the second enemy to our spiritual health: Distraction. We defined distraction as the inability to focus on God and others because our attention is taken by less important things. As a church, through our “Personal Liturgy” challenges, we are taking daily steps to fight distraction in our lives. We specifically looked at the ways our technology addictions are preventing us from focusing on God and the people He has placed in our lives. Here are a few additional resources we’d recommend if you’d like to dig deeper into the topic of technology distraction.  

Book: The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in its Proper Place by Andy Crouch

Drawing on in-depth original research from the Barna Group, Crouch shows readers that the choices we make about technology have consequences we may never have considered. Drawing from his own family’s experience and fight to put technology in its proper place, Crouch offers much guidance for families (and individuals) seeking to reclaim their real life in a world of devices. 

Article: Ruling Over Screens Crouching at our Door by Lore Ferguson Wilbert

In this article, Wilbert shares she and her husband’s approach and practical steps for putting screens in their proper place. 

Book: 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke

Drawing from the insights of numerous thinkers, published studies, and his own research, Reinke identifies twelve ways our smartphones have changed us—for good and bad. Reinke looks at the positive sides of technology and how God uses it to advance His purposes, while also looking at the potentially harmful effects overuse can have. 

Article: I Used to Be a Human Being by Andrew Sullivan

Written from a non-Christian perspective, this article is a jarring piece on what the pace of distractions in modern life does to us. After 15 years of being addicted to the internet and social media, Sullivan reflects on his decision and journey to “quit the web and live in reality.”

Article: 6 Wrong Reasons to Check Your Phone in the Morning by Tony Reinke

Senior Writer for desiringgod.com and author of 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, writes a helpful piece examining why our mornings matter for the quality of our days and spiritual health. In collaboration with John Piper, the article contains insight into the unhealthy ways we can turn to our phones. 

Article: How Giving up TV for a Month Changed my Brain and my Life by Stephanie Vozza

Written from a non-Christian perspective, Vozza recounts what happened after going cold-turkey on TV. She thought it would be easy, and it wasn’t. But the end result surprised her greatly. 

Resource: Time Well Spent

Tristan Harris, a former product manager at Google, has started a non-profit to help people be more proactive about the way technology invades their lives. This site has lots of information and ideas, with the basic premise that we can’t expect tech companies to change and make their products less addicting, so we have to be the ones to change how we interact with them. His Ted Talk on the topic as well as various news clips and articles can all be found on this site. 

Sermon Recap | Be Still and Know that I Am God

This week’s Personal Liturgy challenge may be the hardest one yet. So to equip and prepare ourselves for this challenge, we turn to Psalm 46. 

Verse 1 of the Psalm describes God as our refuge. Whenever we encounter chaos in our daily lives, He is firm, solid, secure, and unmovable. He’s a very present help, not a distant aloof god who cannot be concerned with our everyday troubles of life. Because God is our refuge, strength, and help, we do not have to fear when our world falls apart and we’re overwhelmed with the broken situations around us. 

The psalmist introduces the idea of God as our fortress in verse 7. The Hebrew word for fortress = “misgab”, and it literally means “high place, secure height, or retreat.” 

Instead of being on the ground encircled by our problems and fears, we can go up to the fortress of God and look down at them. Because God is our fortress, not only do we get safety, security, and rest from the chaos, but we also get perspective, wisdom, and clarity. 

The psalmist hits the peak of this song in verse 10: “Be still and know that I am God.” The whole idea of a fortress is that if we are in it, we can catch a breath and be still and not worry about our life. 

But for it to be our fortress, we have to go there. Otherwise it’s just a rock. If we’re not going to God’s misgab, God is still a fortress, but He’s not our fortress.

The Spiritual Discipline of Solitude

Throughout Christian history, this idea has been described as the spiritual discipline of solitude. 

Solitude - getting away from everything that distracts us to focus on God. 

We see this stillness modeled throughout the life of Jesus. He consistently gets away to be still before His father. Frequently the Scriptures tell us, “He withdrew and went out to a lonely place.” 

Another way to say this would be that Jesus had a hidden life. Not a hidden life of sin or frivolous things, but a hidden life marked by practices that helped Him commune with his Father. When He went away, He came back strengthened. 

He meditated on scripture and practiced the disciplines of prayer, feasting, fasting, and serving. And Jesus is both our Savior (He walked with the Father perfectly and paid for all our failure to seek God above all else) as well as our example. He calls us to follow Him and do the things He did. (1 John 2:6)

“I can flip a switch, but I don’t provide the electricity. I can turn on a faucet, but I don’t make the water flow. There will be no light and no liquid refreshment without someone else providing it. And so it is for the Christian with the ongoing grace of God. His grace is essential for our spiritual lives, but we don’t control the supply. We can’t make the favor of God flow, but he has given us circuits to connect and pipes to open expectantly. There are paths along which he has promised his favor… they are the stuff of everyday, basic Christianity—unimpressively mundane, but spectacularly potent by the Spirit.“

- David Mathis, Habits of Grace

Practicing the spiritual disciplines and developing a life where we incorporate them into our daily liturgies is flipping the switch. We can’t guarantee that electricity and growth are going to come, but we can flip the switch over and over and wait expectantly for it to come. 

This week, our daily challenge is to spend 30 minutes alone with God each day in an effort to be still and know that He is God. 

Tips for Practicing Solitude

1. Pick a place and time.

2. Start by reading the Bible.

3. Pray.

As we fight for our solitude and time alone with God, let’s not get upset over our distraction or inattention, but go to God, our fortress. 

Sermon Recap | You Were Made to Behold

This week we begin examining the second enemy to our spiritual health - distraction.

We typically view distraction as negative and frustrating, but not necessarily dangerous. Spiritually speaking, however, distraction can have profound long-term, negative impact. For the purpose of this series, we are defining distraction as the inability to focus on God and others because our attention is taken by less important things. 

Beholding God’s Glory

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

2 Corinthians 3:18

Paul says that as we behold the glory of the Lord, we are transformed, slowly and gradually over time. 

Behold = To see or observe; to take in; to pay attention and notice.
Glory = Magnificence or great beauty.

When Paul says that we are to behold the glory of God, with unveiled faces, he is referring to Exodus 34:29-35, where Moses returned from beholding God’s glory on Mount Sinai while receiving the Ten Commandments. When he came down, Moses had to put a veil over his face while speaking with the Israelites because of how brightly his face shone after his experience.

This story is a literal picture of how looking at God in all of His infinite glory affects us. God is more glorious than anything else He created and therefore is more worthy of our attention than anything else. He is supremely and unimaginably worth looking at. God is the ultimate source of glory in the universe. 

Even though we might not use the words, we are hard-wired to behold glory. We love to admire and talk about and look at and think about amazing, magnificent, good things -- from sunsets to athletic feats to youtube videos showing people doing amazing things. And, in all the ways that we behold glory, those things are telling us what the Bible has already told us: we were made to look at God. Our souls were made to behold God, to be caught up in Him, and be overwhelmed by Him.

He is the glory behind all other glory. 

Paul says that the act of beholding the glory of the Lord, with the help of God’s indwelling Spirit, is what actually changes us. It transforms us from one degree of glory into another - into the image of Christ and the people God created us to be. 

Distraction as Enemy

Though our souls were made to behold God’s glory, distraction turns our attention to lesser things. Distraction keeps us from becoming people whose faces metaphorically shine with the glory of God.

Today, we have more distractions available to us through technology than we can even consume. The technology that promises to release us from boredom is actually making it worse and is making us more prone to seek empty distractions than ever before. 

While the Internet has only been around for about 25 years and smartphones for about 10 years, technology is now integrated into almost every area of our lives.

• 46% of adults surveyed said they could not imagine living without their smartphones.
• The 2016 Nielsen survey showed that the average American spends 8 hours and 33 minutes per day consuming media on all screens (television, smartphones, computers, tablets, etc.).
• Another study found that we check our phones 85 times a day. With 16 hours of the day spent awake, that means we check our phones every 11 minutes. 

With technology being such a major part of our lives, it’s no wonder that our attention is more and more turned away from God. As we’ve explored earlier in this series, our habits are doing things to us - some of us are addicted to distraction and it is dangerously affecting us more than we realize. Our faces don’t glow with the glory of God because they are always glowing with our screens. 

Personal Liturgy Challenge

If we would begin to limit our distractions and technology usage and simply look at God, our souls would fill with his majesty and glory, and we would gradually be transformed from one degree of glory to another. 

In order to fight for our attention and redirect our time to focusing on God, our challenge for this week is to spend one hour a day completely technology-free. Try using this hour without technology to spend intentional time with God or other people in your life. Practice saying no to the distractions that are keeping you from beholding God’s glory. 

Member Spotlight | Fighting Apathy

Throughout our “Personal Liturgy” series, we’re interviewing members of our church family
to hear how they are impacted by and actively fighting against the “joy killers” in their lives. This week we sat down with Vision and Teaching Pastor Adam Gibson as he shared with us how the gospel motivates him to repent against the natural drift toward apathy.

How does apathy show up in your life? 

I see apathy the most when the day is almost over and I am tired. My work day is full of thinking, reading and talking to people and my kids are young, loud and tiring. So once the kids are in bed, on most days I am exhausted. That's the place where I feel my indifference the most. At that point, I don't want to talk to anyone or have to think about anything at all. I just want to lie on the couch and turn my brain off. 

How has your understanding of the gospel specifically impacted how you deal with apathy? 

I love Jesus’ word for people stuck in apathy in Revelation 3. He describes them as being "lukewarm", neither hot nor cold. Then says: Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Apathy often feels unavoidable to me. When I don't care, I don't care. And there is nothing I can do about it. Even if there was something I could do about it, I don't care enough to actually do it. But the truth is, Jesus has redeemed me, given me His spirit, and promised that I now have all that need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Because of this, I am able to "be zealous and repent" when I otherwise would've been stuck in my apathy. In other words, because of what Jesus has done for me, I am never a helpless victim of my own apathy. There is always something I can do about it. And in moving towards God and being honest with Him through prayer, I usually find my apathy lifting. 

What are practical steps or habits you practice to fight apathy in your life? 

Planning ahead helps with my evenings. If I can decide in advance that my evening, once the kids are in bed, will be spent on something productive, I am usually less inclined to feel like it's killing me to do anything other than lay on the couch. The problem seems to come when I have already attempted to "shut it down" for the night. From that point forward I perceive everything as a nuisance that prevents me from being able to shut off my mind. 

Where have you seen personal growth or victory in this area?

Prayer has always been an apathy killer for me. I find that talking to God about the things going on in my life helps me to have the appropriate amount of concern, neither worrying nor being apathetically indifferent.

For another great resource on apathy with lots of practical application, check out the Apathy sermon from our “What’s Killing Me” series. 

Resource Round-up | Apathy

Over the last three weeks, we’ve been examining how apathy is one of the biggest obstacles in our lives that keeps us from living the abundant life that God offers us. We hope that the sermons and “Personal Liturgy” journal challenges have been helpful in making you aware of where apathy may be stealing your joy as you begin to take steps to shift habits and practices from the “it depends” category of life to the “Spirit” category. If you’d like to dig deeper, here are a few resources specifically related to Apathy that we’d recommend. 

Book: Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren

Framed around one ordinary day, this book explores daily life through the lens of liturgy, small practices, and habits that form us. Warren sets out to show that every area of our lives is designed for communion and engagement with God. 

Book: A Theology of the Ordinary by Julie Canlis

This short booklet is comprised of three lectures that Canlis first presented to Whitworth University’s Academy of Christian Discipleship. After returning to America, Canlis was struck by how much emphasis many American Christians placed on being “radical” or “extraordinary” for God. In her lectures, Canlis meditates on the goodness (and challenge) of living our “normal” lives for God.

Sermon: “What’s Killing Me: Apathy”

In 2015, Midtown went through a series called “What’s Killing Me” which looked at the internal hang-ups and frustrations that most often steal our joy and ensnare us; we then examined how the good news of Jesus frees us from each one. 

An e-book was created to go along with this series and we’d recommend checking out the “Priorities Worksheet” and “Apathy Inventory” found on pages 28-29. There’s also a page of LifeGroup discussion questions that you could work through on your own (or with a friend) after listening to the sermon.  

Sermon: “Proverbs: Wisdom and Sloth”

As part of our “Proverbs” series last May, we examined the characteristics of the sluggard and how his life is in direct contradiction to the life God has intended for us to live. As we’ve dug into how apathy prevents us from caring about the things God calls us to care about, we feel this sermon may be worth a re-listen as you reflect on where you are tempted to fill your life with “mindless consumption.” Perhaps the sermon will expose some “weights” in your life that you need to lay aside. You can check out the study guide questions as well if you’d like to dig a little deeper after listening to the sermon. 

Article: 12 Powerful Habits by Thomas Laurinavicius

This is a non-Christian response to the problem of apathy. In a roundabout way it describes that the things we do do things to us. Laurinavicius gives his best practices for structuring his life to fight agaight drift and apathy. While we would not wholly endorse everything in the article, you may find some helpful practical tips that you can apply to your life. 

Quote: “Shepherding Your Desires” by Skye Jethani

This is a quote from a daily email devotional called “With God” by Skye Jethani. 

Our consumer society has done a remarkable thing. It has convinced us that our desires are immutable and undeniable; that we are defined by longings and are powerless to change or resist them. With some desires this is true. I cannot deny my desire for oxygen—it is hardwired into my brain, but my craving for sugar is a physical and psychological desire that can be heightened or diminished. Our culture and the economic powers that propel it, however, want us to believe that every desire is hardwired; that we are mere victims of our appetites. 

This is important for those who are apathetic toward God. If we have bought into the culture’s message, then we are left hopelessly adrift lamenting our disinterest in God and wishing we could be more “spiritual.” In this condition, the most we can hope for is some divine intervention, a lightning bolt to strike us and awaken a desire for Christ that we are powerless to stir ourselves. 

The truth is, we have far more influence over many of our desires than we want to believe. We can choose to feed or starve them; to awaken or sedate them. When I remove sweets from my diet and eat more protein my craving for sugar diminishes. Likewise, I am more motivated to exercise when I’m part of a community committed to fitness. Learning to control appetites, delay gratification, and acquire new desires is precisely what allows children to mature into adults. We all possess this ability, we’ve just forgotten.

The same applies to our life with God. If you are not motivated to seek him in this season, consider what might awaken this desire. What practices can you add to your life? Which do you need to remove? Is there a community that possesses the qualities you want for yourself? Or consider reading the Gospels again and praying that the Holy Spirit would help you see Jesus more clearly and learn to desire him anew.

Sermon Recap | Lay Aside Every Weight

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Hebrews 12:1-3

Lay Aside Every Weight

The Bible is clear that there are things in our lives that are contrary to what God has for us. Sins and Weights. Sins are overtly opposed to Scriptural commands and keep us from walking in step with the Spirit by leading us to love other things more than Jesus. 

But Hebrews also says to lay aside something called weights. Weights are things that are not explicitly sinful, but they do weigh us down. Weights are things that fall into the “It Depends” category.  They are not sinful in and of themselves, but for a particular point in life, they are not helpful for our spiritual health. 

Weights keep us from the joy Jesus has set before us.

Along with repenting of sin, developing a lifestyle of throwing off weights is monumental for our spiritual growth. 

Problem: We Really Struggle to Say “No” to Ourselves

We have a problem when it comes to obeying this command to lay aside weights because we exist in a culture where saying, “no” to yourself isn’t trained because it isn’t seen as valuable. 

So, our “say-no-to-self” muscles are extremely weak. They have atrophied so much that they can almost become non-existent, and when it becomes necessary for us to lay aside weights or sin, we can’t. 

In 1 Corinthians 6:12, Paul tells the Church in Corinth that all things not explicitly called sin are lawful for them, but not all of them are helpful. He continues in 1 Corinthians 10:23 by saying not all things build up. He’s telling them that they are asking the wrong question and that their focus is off. Instead of focusing on what is technically permissible, Paul challenges us to ask, “What might be helpful for me to lay aside in order to run the race set before me?”

An Unexpected Help

Jesus gives us the perfect tool to help us build up our “say-no-to-self” muscle: the spiritual discipline of fasting.

Our default response to fasting usually is, “Why? Why would I do that?” That response is clear proof that our culture has no category for “telling ourselves no” being a good thing.

The purpose of fasting is to draw your heart toward God and reinforce that He is what we ultimately need. By learning how to intentionally say, “no” to smaller things like a meal, we can grow the muscles we need to say, “no” to bigger things like weights, or sin.

Spend some time this week asking the Holy Spirit to help you identify weights in your life. Consider participating in Lent this year or simply choose a weight in your life to abstain from in order to build up your “say-no-to-self” muscles.

Sermon Recap | The Things You DON'T Do Do Things To You

We are always practicing to become the kind of people that we become. Just like the things you do, do things to you, the things you don’t do, do things to you too. 

A prayerless life is built one day at a time.
A life where the Bible doesn’t matter is built one day at a time.

Throughout our “Personal Liturgy” series, we are trying to push our habits into the “Spirit” category, believing they will have a long-term effect. Often, when we try to push in this direction and establish spiritual disciplines, we are met with resistance and difficulty. 

4 reasons we may struggle to implement discipline:

1. I’m just waiting for an epiphany. 

Galatians 6:7-8 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

When we think, “I’m just waiting on God to change me” we are taking a partial truth from scripture (that only God can truly change us) and using it to hide from our own sinfulness and laziness. 

“The (spiritual) disciplines are ways to position ourselves under the waterfalls of grace.” The epiphanies come as we position ourselves in a place to receive them. 

2. I shouldn’t need rules and structure. I don’t want to be a legalist. 

1 Corinthians 9:25-27: Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Paul says athletes discipline themselves. Discipline is saying “no” to some things we want now for the long-term benefit of choosing what is best. 

The desire to not be fake is a good desire, but doing something you don’t feel like doing isn’t being fake. Being fake is pretending to be something you’re not. There is no need to fake it when practicing spiritual disciplines. Every one of them is an opportunity to confess, “God, I’m not who I want to be and I want you to do something about it.”

3. I don’t feel like I really get anything out of it.

It’s interesting how often the Bible refers to spending time with God and listening to Him through His Word in terms of food:

Matthew 4: Jesus says man should not live on bread alone but on every word of God.
1 Peter 2: We should be longing to hear from God through his Word like a baby cries for milk.
John 6: Jesus says He is the bread of life. We are to feast on Him. 

We are to consistently gather with God’s people, sing, pray, study the Bible, and sabbath because God uses these like a healthy diet to shape us into a certain type of people. Realizing this shifts our perspective in a very healthy way: the point is eating and getting a healthy source of nutrition and life.

4. I don’t have time to sit down with God for an hour.

Be honest about your season of life and do what you can. If you’re not doing anything, doing something is better than nothing and whoever you are, there is a way to start to shift dots from “it depends” to walking with the Spirit. 

Here are a few potential starting points:

• Start doing the “Personal Liturgy” challenges. Put a reminder on your phone. 

• Place prayer/scripture prompts at a place in your house where you regularly deal with frustration or need a reminder that God is present. 

• Reorder the apps on the home screen of your phone. Consider setting your phone to grayscale.

Spend some time this week thinking and praying through what it’s going to take to shift those dots to the right and then make those changes! 

Our Super Bowl Plans

As you may or may not have heard, we will not be hosting our 5:00pm evening Gathering for our Downtown church on Sunday, February 4 because of the Super Bowl. We do this in order to remind ourselves that church is more than a service you attend, and we want to give everyone an opportunity to be on mission during the big game. Since watching the Super Bowl is an event that so many people in our culture participate in, we want to free ourselves up to use it as an opportunity to watch the game alongside them. So this Sunday, attend either our 9:00am or 11:15am Gathering, and then choose one of the following:

1. Host a Super Bowl party. The Bible is clear that Christians should be the most hospitable people on earth in light of the fact that Jesus welcomed all of us into His family (Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9; Romans 15:7). The Super Bowl is one of the easiest times of year to be hospitable, since so many people watch it already. Buy some good food and drinks and get some friends to come and do the same. Turn on the TV and invite your neighbors over to your house for the big game.
2. Attend a Super Bowl party. Jesus was big on going to parties. He was in attendance at so many parties that he was known as the man who "came eating and drinking" with people--while never sinning. (Matthew 11:19; Luke 15:2; Mark 2:16; Matthew 9:11) Imitate Jesus and go to a Super Bowl party (bonus points if you attend a party you were actually invited to).
3. Help us throw a Super Bowl party at Transitions. As one of our Serve the City partnerships, we're continuing our annual tradition of throwing a Super Bowl party for people transitioning out of homelessness together with Transitions. Find out more and sign up to help here.

Whatever you do for the Super Bowl, don't come to our 5:00pm Gathering. You'll be alone!

Sermon Recap | The Things You Do Do Things To You

Galatians 5:16-25

Apathy: not caring about the things God created you to care about

*You can be a very passionate, driven person and still be eaten up with apathy where it matters most." 

The word “neutral” sounds like it means, “having little to no effect on me” but this isn’t actually how life works—especially if you are a Christian. In Galatians 5, Paul shows us how life following Jesus actually works:

Galatians 5:16-17: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

According to the Bible, when you become a Christian, you have two natures inside of you: the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh is that natural, selfish, sinful nature you were born with. The Spirit is God’s spirit that Jesus gives us to remind us that God is for us, not against us. Galatians 5:17 tells us that once you’re a Christian, the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. When you become a Christian, not only do you have a new belief system, a new way of relating to God and others , and a new moral code, but you also get a new set of desires. At the deepest part of you, the Spirit will birth in you new desires that love God and want to trust and obey Him more than anything. Yes our desires will be at war, but the desires of the Spirit are what we really want now. 

Believing and following Jesus is about letting God show you what is best in life and letting His Spirit grow new desires in you that want what is best. 

Galatians 5:18-21: But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy,[a]drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do[b] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

In these verses, Paul describes the kind of life that the flesh wants to pull us toward. The deeper you dig into this list, the more you realize how aptly it describes where human nature takes us apart from God. But in Christ, and filled with God’s Spirit, there’s a new life available: 

Galatians 5:22-25: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

This is what human life looks like when it is led by God’s Spirit to put the flesh to death. This is the test Paul gives us for how we will know if we’re allowing the flesh to pull us or if we’re keeping in step with the Spirit. 

So how, as Christians, should we think about all of the “neutral” items from the first chart? Biblically, the answer is: in light of the battle working between our flesh and the Spirit, nothing is neutral. All of the stuff that we think of as “neutral” must be reframed in a new category called “It depends.” 

Because the flesh and Spirit are always at war, pulling us in different directions, there’s not a biblical category for stuff having no impact on us. Instead of “neutral,” the Bible would say it depends on:

1. Why are you doing it?
2. How much are you doing it?
3. When are you doing it?
4. What effect does it have on you?

For many of us, the majority of our daily habits and rhythms fall into the “it depends” category which seems completely harmless. This is the precise American recipe for an apathetic Christian life. Without even knowing it, we have filled our lives with morally justifiable things that don’t cultivate any real spiritual life in us. 

The “Personal Liturgy” app this week is going to help us do some diagnosis of where we are spending our time. It is going to help us analyze our habits and realize where we might have been cultivating apathy without even realizing it. Be prepared to share with your LifeGroup this week as together we take a look at the “it depends” category in our lives. 

To learn more about the “Personal Liturgy” app, check out this short video where one of our pastors, Brandon Clements, walks through how to use the app:

If you don’t have a smartphone or would prefer to receive the challenges via email, you can sign up here: 

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Handling Finances as a Christian: Budgeting 101

Why budget?

Scripture tells us that our money and possessions are not ours, but God’s. We are simply managers and stewards of what is His. As part of our church family, we want you to be equipped to be a good steward of the finances that God has entrusted to you. Below are a few ways to get started.

Have a written budget

Scripture calls Christians to plan to do good (Proverbs 14:22). This includes planning how to steward our finances and resources. Budgeting can often be seen as an intimidating process. However, in planning a budget, it can actually be a joyful and exciting process to plan for how you are going to invest in the lives of people and advance God’s kingdom through finances. 

Make cuts to your budget

As a starting place, Proverbs 3:9 says to “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine.” In Matthew 6:33, Jesus tells his disciples, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Scripture calls us to entrust ourselves to God with our first fruits, not the leftovers. In doing so, God actually promises all that we could ever need or want (Proverbs 11:24). Therefore, as we begin our budgeting process, we should always begin with tithing a tenth of our income towards the local church and investing in God’s kingdom where we are. This does not mean that we do not financially support other local organizations or missionaries serving overseas. Rather, our tithing to our local church is a baseline for all giving to grow from.

From here, we plan to provide for the needs of ourselves and our family. This will include things such as food, clothing, water, homes and utilities. Crazy as it might sound, this might not include having cable, the latest video game console, the designer pair of jeans or a nicer car. Make cuts in your budgets for things you can go without. 

Review your budget regularly with people you trust that can speak into your life

Our hearts often deceive us and what we may believe to be a need may actually be our heart craving to fill itself and find identity in something new rather than in Christ (Jeremiah 17:9). One way to fight for contentment is to open up our lives, including our budgets, to those around us. Proverbs 15:22 says, “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” On a personal level, this will look like allowing your Lifegroup and other trusted friends to have input into your life and your finances. 

Here’s how we practically implement these steps at Midtown. Twice a year, we go through our budgeting process. During this process, we plan for the coming months in expectation of what we are going to receive in donations and how we are going to steward the resources God has entrusted to us.

• For our spring budget process, an email is sent out to all of our ministry teams on November 1 to begin submitting budgets for the spring (January to July).
• During November, our ministry teams meet together, pray through and come up with a plan for how much money to spend for their area of ministry. The budget for their ministry area is submitted for review along with a description of how the funds will be used and why it should not be cut. 
• By December 10, the lead pastors of our various churches meet to review the requested budgets and make any necessary cuts that are needed.
• By December 15, we meet with our financial advising team, which is made up of a few missionary members within our church family. During this meeting, we do a comprehensive, big picture financial review. We review and receive feedback from this team on our current approved budget and current financial state of our church.
• Finally, we post the approved budget on midtownmoney.com for all of our staff to use and adhere to. In addition, should an expense come up during our budget cycle that was unexpected and not budgeted for, our ministry leaders submit an overspend request to be reviewed by the lead pastors of each church.

Our desire is for our church family to view and handle financial resources correctly through the lens of the gospel. For additional teaching on budgeting and using wealth well, you can listen to the sermons below:

http://midtowndowntown.com/sermons/proverbs-wisdom-and-wealth
http://midtowndowntown.com/series/sermon-series/treasure-hunting

Kidtown Family Challenge #1: Journaling

This past week we launched our “Personal Liturgy” series and talked about how we all have an order to our lives and the things we do are doing things to us. The habits we are practicing every day are shaping us into the people that we will become. 

Over the next five months, we are all together trying to create a personal liturgy that helps us become the kind of people that God has designed us to be. The Kidtown Team has been working hard to develop content for their own personal liturgy series called, “The Things You Do, Do Things To You.” The goal of this series is to help kids understand, value, and practice growing in their relationship with God. 

Each week, Kidtown will provide biblical instruction concerning healthy habits and corresponding tools to help kids practice these habits at home. For the first four weeks, Kidtown will be teaching the value of journaling. During Week 1 (January 21st), children decorated their own 3 ring binders at Kidtown to take home and use throughout the series. (If your child missed Week 1, please let a Kidtown volunteer know so that you can receive a binder!) 

Journaling Tips and Tricks: 

Time: Designate a time and space for your child to journal. It may be helpful for your family to choose the same time each day. You could designate it as “journaling time” for your entire family or if your child needs your guidance, it may be best to set aside a time for them that is separate from yours. 

Place: Designate a special place where your child can be creative. Have supplies on hand like crayons, colored pencils, stickers and glue. 

Attitude:  Let your child see you get excited about journaling. Encourage focus and creativity but don’t enforce too many rules concerning what your child journals. This should be enjoyable. Celebrate the scribbles! 

Preschool Tips- Children in preschool need lots of space on their pages to draw, color, and write. 

Elementary Tips- Elementary students need wide ruled paper and a section for drawing. Depending on your child’s age and creativity, he or she may put more effort into drawing than writing.  Older children may prefer simply writing about their day or how they are feeling instead of drawing.  

Each week, Kidtown will provide daily journaling prompts located on their homelinks. (All homelinks are also available online here!) These prompts will challenge students to direct their thoughts towards God during their journaling time. 

We love that our entire church family will have challenges each week to go along with the series. The Kidtown challenges will be similar to the adult “Personal Liturgy” challenges (which can be found here) but will be customized for kids. You know your child best. If any of the recommended tips and tricks are not helpful, feel free to use your own strategies.  We hope that these resources will serve as a great launching pad for new family rhythms and habits that will lead us into the life we were made for.