Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is Naim, and you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast if you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward.
[00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy.
[00:00:55] Good morning. Good morning.
[00:00:58] Yes. Thank you for that, Jeff. I'm back with my beard knot.
[00:01:02] Yeah. For those of you who do not know, I'm Naeem Fazel. Glad to meet you. If you're joining us online, welcome, welcome, friends. We are on week two of a series called Margins, and we're talking about margin in life. And here's what we do in Mosaic. We talk about a subject for a couple of minutes, for not a couple of minutes, for a couple of weeks, actually. And yeah, so next. Next series, we're going to be talking through the Book of J.
[00:01:24] We're gonna do that. But today, though, continue this conversation about margin and how to have margin in our lives. Because I think for so many of us, margins are where miracles happen. And so if you were here last week, we talked about how God meets us in the margin, and we talk about spiritual margin, choosing what's better than what's good. And sometimes it's so hard for us. So today we're gonna talk about mental margin. Do you have mental margin or are you on overload? See, here's what's funny about that. You don't have to be, like. Like super old for this. You can be in any age or any stage in life, and you could just be maxed out in all the things you got going on. So here's what I'm gonna do, okay? To get into it, I'm gonna ask you. I'm gonna do a pop quiz. Pop quiz. Everybody up for a pop quiz?
[00:02:10] Some people I know, I know. If you're not. If you're shaking your head, you're going, no, I get you. I hated pop quizzes until I Started giving them. And then I was like, I like that side. Okay. Okay. Anyways, so. No, it's. Easy, easy. Okay, finish this sentence. To every action, there is a.
[00:02:29] There's a.
[00:02:31] There's a. You had it. You had it. There's a. Finish this. To every action, there is a.
[00:02:37] Okay, I'm just not. I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna talk to this group here.
[00:02:41] Okay, there's a. There's a word missing. There's an op.
[00:02:47] Yeah, there it is. There it is. Okay, this is. Okay, how about this side? How about this side? Okay, what is. Who said that?
[00:02:57] So what. What law is that?
[00:03:00] Not Moses, by the way. It's not Moses.
[00:03:03] Newton's. Hey, hey, listen, I thought you were not supposed.
[00:03:06] Okay, what? What? What?
[00:03:09] What?
[00:03:10] Which one is it?
[00:03:12] Yes. Third. Third. That's awesome. Okay, do you guys know the first?
[00:03:18] Just joking. We're not gonna get into that. It's crazy. We're talking about Jesus here. Okay. Okay. So what's funny about that is I was thinking about this idea of, like, how, you know that the third law is like, that every action, there's an opposite reaction. Equal and opposite reaction. And I kind of realized something. I don't know, but sometimes my life, I live in a constant reactivity in life. Like, that's what I feel like I'm always doing. I'm always reacting to a comment or a notification, to someone's drama or someone's problem, to someone's issues.
[00:03:51] I'm always reacting to someone's likes or dislikes. I'm just always reacting to opportunities. Have you ever felt that way? You're just kind of feeling like you're always reacting because the series. This idea of margin. Why this is so spiritual is because God has never created us and never did create us to live a life. Always trying to react to something that God wants us to live an intentional life. And that means that. That we have to stop this reactivity in life. And if you stop and consider how many times you actually begin to have, like, you initiate an action versus just trying to react to something, and you'll be shocked at this. I think for so many of us, when it comes to mentally even we're reacting to some things that we should be, in fact, instigating. And so what I wanna do is I wanna take you to a passage of Scripture and. And it's in the New Testament. It's in the what Testament?
[00:04:45] New Testament. And we're gonna go to the Book of Matthew. Okay. Book of Matthew. It's one of the Gospels, and we're gonna go to chapter 13. Okay, chapter 13. So we'll just jump right into it. And here's what's gonna be interesting. What you'll find is that some of you, if you've heard the story before, you're like, oh, I know, kind of like the message of this. I know the message of this. And I would beg to differ. I would say that this parable that Jesus uses is. Is actually one that asks us some really interesting questions. I mean, yes, you've heard this.
[00:05:15] It's one. You're like, I kind of know what this means, but I wonder if there's a deeper meaning to this passage. So it's a book of Matthew, Gospel of Matthew verses, chapter 13. Okay, so you've got your Bibles, you can jump to it. We got a big old screen. We'll put em on there for you as well. They're on the app as well, so you should download the app. And all the notes are in the app. Okay, so. So let's jump in. Jump in. It says this. It says a farmer went to sow his seed. Okay. He's telling a story. He says he was scattering the seed and some fell on the helping out, on the what path. So, okay, let's just underline that, highlight that. Notice that, okay, the path. And then the birds came up and ate it. Some fell on rocky places, rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, but because the soil was what?
[00:06:06] Shallow.
[00:06:08] But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and withered because they had no root.
[00:06:14] Other seeds fell among thorns. Thorns which grew up and choked the plants.
[00:06:20] Still other seed fell on what good soil where it Produced a crop 160 or 30 times what was sown. And then he says this, this is Jesus. He says, whoever has ears, let them.
[00:06:36] Let them hear. Like, okay, why did you throw that in? I actually like that. You know what I'm saying? If you know, you know, okay, that's like. That's line one. Okay, so he says this. So what he's saying, the big thing Jesus is saying is here is that if you read this before you think, okay, he's talking about just obviously God's word. But I wonder if he's asking us a deeper question, because here's a big difference between Jesus and other religious followers, other religious teachers. See, I think a lot of them gave. Would light a path for us or tell us this is how you're supposed to live. Jesus ends up living a life that asks more questions than gives us more answers, but he asks us deeper questions. And so I think, like, when he's talking about this, he's telling this parable because he could have just told him exactly his point. He used his stories because he wants people to sit in it and understand, like, what is God really truly saying? And in fact, if you go into this chapter, you realize the disciples are like, okay, that sounds great. Whoever has ears to hear, I got ears, but I don't understand what you're talking about.
[00:07:38] And so he starts explaining it to them. And if you step back from this passage, you realize, again, Jesus is doing something really interesting. He's wanting us to create and hold space for his Word and for God to do a deeper work in our lives. And so what I think what he's really saying is, number one, he's asking us.
[00:08:01] He's asking us, are you, Are you, Are you good? Are you good? Ground where God can grow, in one sense is, is your life.
[00:08:14] Is your life really producing any fruit?
[00:08:18] Is it producing fruit? Is it producing the life that you want to live? Or are you, again, living a life that's so much so focused on or so busy reacting to everybody else's issues or opportunities, Everything else, it's just react.
[00:08:34] And so he says, hey, let me. Let me ask you a question. Is your life, Is your life good soil, which is, like, really interesting, or is it just soil that really the important things of life? And even my words, the life. I'm trying to show you my words, and I put so seeds in you, but it doesn't grow anything. See, for some of so many of us, you kind of can relate to this because you find yourself in a place where you're like, I feel like I have a relationship with God, but I don't really hear him. I don't know what he's doing or saying. And I'm not quite sure what he's saying to me. And I wonder, maybe the problem is not the seed. Maybe the problem is the soil.
[00:09:17] I wonder if it's the soil. And what you'll find here is that the soil is not connected to. Because you're just a bad person. No, I think you're just a busy person.
[00:09:26] You're just a busy person. You have no mental margin in life.
[00:09:32] No mental margin. Like, this is the sign. I know when I am maxing out on my mental margin, okay?
[00:09:39] This is the sign. Have you ever walked into.
[00:09:42] Okay, have you ever walked in a room to find something and you're like, what am I looking for? Anybody Is it just age or is it. Tell me it's not just age.
[00:09:52] Maybe it might be. Okay, okay, how about this? Have you. Okay, have you. Have you ever opened up the refrigerator?
[00:09:59] Okay. Okay. Trying to figure out what you're looking for. Okay. And then found a cat.
[00:10:08] Yes, you heard me. I said cat. Have you done that? I have. Thank you. To my family, especially Ashley. Okay? I have done that. I've done that. The other day, I was like. I opened up. I was like, what am I. What am I supposed to eat? What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? What am I looking for? What do I need? What do I need? And I'm like. And I go, there's a cat in the refrigerator.
[00:10:29] See, Ash always. You know, she's like. She's like. She's always getting onto me because I like to, like, open the refrigerator and then walk around it. I'm like, ah, what can I get? What can I get? Some of you guys freaking out. Listen, calm down. It's all good. The food's not gonna spoil.
[00:10:45] Okay? The cheese has already been bad. It's been bad for a month. Okay. Anyways, also the same thing with the oven. She's like, whenever I open up the oven, I was like, I just want to look what's happening in there. She's like, what? No. Whatever. Listen, it's all right. For two seconds. It's okay. It's going to be all right. We're going to cook this thing, whatever this thing is. But see, I know it's not electricity. It's not the power that she's worried about. You know what? She's worried about?
[00:11:10] Cats.
[00:11:12] Cats. Because that's what happened. I opened the refrigerator up, I walked around like, oh, what is the meaning of food? And then I came back and the cat went inside.
[00:11:22] Yeah. And I shut the door, and then I opened up again. That's why she doesn't want me to open up the oven.
[00:11:30] But I think I need to.
[00:11:32] I'm just joking. I'm just joking. I'm joking. No, we're not cooking the cat. Okay. Anyways.
[00:11:36] But you know what's funny, though, is I feel like in life, like, that's when I realized I just have too much. I just said too much going on. Too much going on. So here's what happens when Jesus starts explaining this. He talks about these different paths. The path, like, where the seed falls. And he's kind of asking us, hey, what kind of life do you live? So the first thing he asks is, are your thoughts Too noisy?
[00:11:57] Are your thoughts too noisy? Like, is your life too loud? Are your thoughts, like your negative thoughts too loud in your head? Is it just overwhelming?
[00:12:06] Is someone. Is your boss's voice the voice you hear like you're driving home and you still hear that voice?
[00:12:15] Is that your thoughts, they're just too noisy? They crank up. In fact, the reason why you listen to music all the time, the reason why you always wear your AirPods or the first thing you do is you turn on music in your car, is because your thoughts are too noisy. They're deafening. Sometimes they're just too much. And the reason, the problem, what happens is that you get so distracted. There's so many things happening. And you think, though, and I get this, you put some music on to actually calm your thoughts down. So when Jesus explains this, he says this, he says, here's what I want you to understand. Okay? This is what I mean. What I mean is, is that when anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the first path. The. The path, the first kind of ground, he says, this is what I'm talking about. The seed that falls on the path is a seed that. That basically gets stolen away.
[00:13:18] Like. Like you're bad and evil or bad or depressing or bad or frustration, your fears, they steal away your joy and happiness. They just steal it away. It's like the enemy that comes in just steals away because he. He actually, when he told the first. When he told the. The first time he talked about birds. It's like these birds that come in, these thoughts that come in and they take away. They just take away. They take away, take away. And the reason is, is that the path, the life you're kind of living is a life that doesn't. Is not. There's too much. There's too much, and it's all. You're always, always kind of distracted. So let me ask you this. Could you be a person who's always distracted? And is the answer just margin in your life? There's just too many. There's just too many opportunities. There's too many things that you're reacting to. And maybe you seem to slow down a little bit and just say no to some of these things. You know, people have asked me before, like, like, do you have adhd? And I'm like, I don't know.
[00:14:14] I don't know. You know? Who asked you? Okay. Okay. I don't know. I'M joking.
[00:14:19] But you know what I do have, Trevor? You know what I have? I have time blindness.
[00:14:25] Do you know what that is?
[00:14:27] Okay. You know what that means?
[00:14:29] Okay, Time blindness. Let me talk to you. Time blindness is this. Time blindness is when you don't know how much actually something. How much time something takes.
[00:14:38] I have no idea. Okay, now here's the problem with that blindness. I think I do.
[00:14:44] I think I really do. Until my family will go, what are you doing?
[00:14:49] What are you doing? How many times have you. I'll have you go upstairs and downstairs, in the car, out the car. What are you doing? We're gonna be late. And I'm like, no, we're not gonna be late. We're gonna be fine. Time blindness. And part of it is I have too many things. Too many things in my mind. Now, that's only in me. But when I interact with people and when I have these thoughts, there are too many thoughts. Here's what happens.
[00:15:16] I'm so on all the time.
[00:15:18] Okay, let me explain this. Okay, so recently, this past summer, I've been promoting my second book, okay? So it's been really great, amazing. But I've been doing these podcasts and then several. I don't know how many podcasts, and then also opportunities to get on live radio shows. Okay? So big difference. Podcasts, you're just kind of talking. You got time to edit stuff. Think about what the people are saying, react, all that. It's a conversation. Well, if you ever done live radio.
[00:15:45] No, they're like, hey, 10 seconds to respond to this. Okay, you have 15 seconds to this. We're gonna take a break. You gotta stop. You got two seconds for this. I'm like, oh, my gosh. So here's what I'm doing. I'm not even listening to what the dude's saying. I don't even care what he's saying. I don't know. I have a script in my head or I'm trying to. Like, so when he asks a question and he's getting into it or telling a story or something, this. I don't care. What am I doing? I'm trying to figure out what's the next thing, what I'm gonna say.
[00:16:15] And what I realized is that when my life shows me I don't have enough margin, that's how it does it. It tells me you're not listening to the people you love.
[00:16:26] You're just waiting to get your answer to them.
[00:16:31] You're just gonna. You're just waiting for. You're just waiting for that. So I wonder.
[00:16:36] I wonder if that's what we're doing.
[00:16:39] If we're like, we're always on because we're just.
[00:16:45] We're not really holding any space for people.
[00:16:50] And if people ever accuse you of not listening, it's not that you don't care. You don't hear them. It's just that you have just so many other things going on, and you don't have. You're just always trying to respond.
[00:17:03] And so it could be that you have a distracted, distracted mind because it's too many.
[00:17:10] Too many voices, too many things.
[00:17:12] Then Jesus goes in and he goes on and he talks about the next kind of path. And the question he really asked there is, are your emotions too shallow? Like, that's what he's going to actually ask us. He says here the seed. The seed falling on rocky ground, which is the second one, right? Rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no what, no what root, they last only a short time.
[00:17:44] When trouble and persecution comes because of the word, they quickly. What?
[00:17:51] They fall away. They fall away. When things get hard. When you realize when your commitments are just not fun anymore, you bail. Let's see, that kind of person. He's talking about emotions being too shallow. I think the sign that you know is, honestly, when you're just. Your highs are highs and your lows are so lows. And that happens during one day.
[00:18:16] Happens one day. Like I recently, actually, this past week, I was at the gym, and my coach, he was like, hey, superpowers. Let me ask you, okay, if you had a choice between either flying or teleportation, what would you pick as your superpower? And I was like, that's interesting before you work out. But anyways, okay, so we talked about that. Let me ask you, what would you. What would you. What would you. I want to find out what the crowd is over here. Okay, Superpower. If you could pick between the two, flying or teleportation, what would you pick? Flying people. Flying people. Any flying people.
[00:18:51] Oh, wow. That's okay. The same thing. Okay. Teleportation.
[00:18:56] Yes.
[00:18:57] Yes. It's so interesting. I think you guys understand it. I mean, I love the idea of flying because I wanted to say flying number one. Because if you have a superpower that you can fly, you are totally justified by, you know, wearing a cape the entire time. Like, you can do that. You can do that because you fly. You fly. Now, I said. Initially, I said flying because I love the idea of Flying. Here's the problem. The idea of flying sounds awesome. The actual flying is awful. Here's why. Because I have this thing. It's like I just lose everything when there's turbulence on a plane. You know what I'm saying? So now I'm the person flying. Could you imagine? I'd be like, throwing up the entire time. Flying.
[00:19:42] The other thing I thought about. Okay, I know I'm going off the trails here, okay? Adhd. Anyways, so the other thing is, is that flying and teleportation, you just like, I don't know, snap or think about it, and you're there also. No. We've watched superhero movies. At some point, they lose their power.
[00:19:59] Something happens, they lose their power. If you're flying, you lose power.
[00:20:04] You're not Superman, you're dying.
[00:20:07] But if you're teleportating. Teleportation or teleporting.
[00:20:11] Teleporting, yeah, teleporting. Okay.
[00:20:15] You just, I don't know, snap your fingers and nothing happens and you're like, okay, I guess I'm going to walk. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's all it is. That's all it is. So why am I saying all this? I'm saying all this because I think some of us live a life that your loved ones are throwing up because how up and down you go.
[00:20:36] You are.
[00:20:37] It's exhausting trying to keep up with your emotions.
[00:20:45] It's not smooth, like they don't know who they're going to get.
[00:20:49] Have you met. Have you worked with someone that you're like, I don't know who I'm gonna get. Today you go into work, I'm like, I'm not quite sure if it's gonna be fun Susie or Awful Susie. I don't know who I'm gonna get. Is Nice Bob, Bad Bob? I don't know. I don't know what's gonna happen.
[00:21:05] They're always up and down. And then sometimes, sometimes friends, sometimes I'll just say this. Sometimes our spirituality and our Christianity and us being followers of Jesus, we are so up and down, up and down, up and down, that people don't know exactly what to expect from us because we just need things to be always up because we can't handle down.
[00:21:28] We can't handle it.
[00:21:31] And so the question here is, are you, like the scriptures ask, are you a Christian? Are you a follower of Jesus that has.
[00:21:41] Well, they have no roots?
[00:21:45] You are, I hate to say it, you're a shallow Christian.
[00:21:48] And that's tough. To kind of go, wow, yeah. Are you a shallow Christian? I'll tell you a sign of a shallow Christian and you might go, well, hold up, what is this? A shallow Christian is where you need God to always be good.
[00:22:03] And you're like, what? No, God is good all the time. And all the time God is good. That's in the Bible, actually not.
[00:22:13] See, sometimes God allows some things and it comes across, God's not that good.
[00:22:18] Like, it seems like doesn't care. It seems like God allows pain and suffering in your life. And you're like, yeah, they say this, but I just want to ask you, do you need God always to have to be good in your life? Do you always need him to always provide? Do you need Him? Is. Is your relationship with him based on how high you can go with Him? Or. Or do you have the depth of sitting and wrestling with grief and pain and despair? And you've been. You've sat with him, the lowest point of your life.
[00:22:50] And see, if you see the life of Jesus, it's never an up and down, up and down, up and down. It's always a steady. It's always. It's all. It's. It's. It's not a shallow ground. And I think the scriptures are telling us, could we be doing that? Is. Is your, is your. Is your emotions too shallow? If they are, maybe you don't have enough margin, mental margin in your life because you can't sit in the pain, because you don't have time to process it. And here's the problem with that. The pain that is not processed, you know, ends up possessing you. I mean, like, it ends up bothering you for a long, long time. And when you actually sit down with someone, they might need to go back 10, 15 years to process the things you did not process because you didn't have time or didn't want to either. Because you were shallow. Not because you're just that kind of person. No, it's because you're just so busy, don't have time to sit in the lie of things.
[00:23:45] And God wants you to sit in that a little bit.
[00:23:48] So the next thing, next thing is this third thing is. Is your schedule too crowded? Is your schedule too crowded? Here's Matthew 22, says, the seed falling among the thorns. The thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
[00:24:14] Is your schedule too crowded?
[00:24:19] Is your. You just slammed. You got one thing after another, another. And you kind of like it.
[00:24:25] You. You like that.
[00:24:27] But it's not working because you seem like you're being so productive, but you. You're not producing anything good.
[00:24:36] You're not. I mean, we're in a very busy season of our life.
[00:24:41] You know, we moved Nura. Both our kids are going to go off to college, and Asher's last year is this year, and so.
[00:24:50] And then Nura's first year is this year. So we've been packing. We've been packing. Packing up stuff because. For their apartment, for the dorm and all that. And it seems we were just moving and packing stuff. And we actually came back last night from Boone, taking Asher to set up his apartment and taking furniture there and all kinds of things. And I tell you what, it's so funny. Like, we had, like a schedule. We had to get the. Get the. You know, we get the U Haul truck. We gotta do this, we gotta do that.
[00:25:16] And I'll tell you what happens to me. What happens to me is I get into work mode, okay? And no one likes. Name. Work mode. Name no one. My family doesn't like it. The staff doesn't like it. The volunteers might even not like it. If there is a work mode thing, I've got a schedule to hit. Guess who. Naeem's not fun in games. Naeem's not nice, actually. He's just short. He's just like, whatever. And it's so funny because I realize that. I realize that because when we move stuff and all that, it's so funny. This is my pet peeve. Like, when I'm moving stuff, like, even the other day, we're moving stuff and all that. I'll tell you what I don't want. I don't want you to stop me and ask me a question. Has nothing to do with the box I'm moving.
[00:25:54] Do you know what I'm saying? I don't want to answer. Where are we going to eat when we get there?
[00:25:59] Shut it.
[00:26:01] Pick up a box. See what I'm saying?
[00:26:03] Like, don't do that. We're not talking, discussing anything. Don't ask me a question about theology or, like, I don't. I don't know. It's not. You know. No. I don't even care. Just pick the box. Do like, we got work to do because why? We are on a what?
[00:26:18] On a schedule. We gotta do this. I know. So, yeah. You guys like? Yes. Amen. Okay. Yes.
[00:26:24] Here's the problem. Here's the problem. We are wrong. That's the problem. That's the Problem, okay. The problem is, is that people in our lives are more important than the schedules we meet.
[00:26:34] And I know, I know why.
[00:26:36] I know. But. Yeah. So here's what he's saying is, is that what happens is the seed that falls into thorns is like you've got other things that want to grow and take over, and you're just crowded out with all the things and they're not really good for you, and they're kind of a thorn, and you've actually become a thorn in other people's flesh. Like, when your schedule's too crowded, you're overworked, you're over, you're doing it. And you have too many priorities. And here's what happens. Here's what happens. Here's what happens. We end up thinking, you know, what if this is going to happen, it's up to.
[00:27:06] It's up to me. No one's doing this.
[00:27:09] It's all on me. It all depends on me. And that's when you know. That's when you know that, man, it's your life. It's too crowded. Like, you're not. You don't have any margin in life because you're missing the whole thing. And then Jesus actually tells us what. What mental margin looks like. He asks us, do you have this mental margin? And here's what he says. He says this. He says, but the seed. The seed falling on, helping out on what?
[00:27:37] Good soil. On good soil. So the question we asked you in the beginning is, it's not about the seed. It's not about good seed that you have. Are you good soil for God to grow? So here Jesus brings it back around and he says, but the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the Word and understands it. As in, they hear it, they let it sink in, they settle, they sit with it, and then they understand it.
[00:28:07] They're not just hearing it, listening to it. No, no. They're going to apply it. And says, and this is the one who produces a crop yielding 160 or 30 times what is sown.
[00:28:20] See, friends, I mean, is basically saying, this is the kind of life I want from you. I want you to be good soil. Because what's going to happen in your life is that you're going to have God work in your life. And some of you do you have God working in your life? And you can't see him.
[00:28:37] You have God talking to you, and you can't hear him. And here's what you might be tempted to believe.
[00:28:44] He doesn't talk to me. He's not in my life. He's not doing anything about this illness. He's not interested. He's too busy with so and so. He's not doing it. And what God is trying to tell us here is that the problem is not that you need a good word from God. You just need to be a better soil.
[00:29:04] Like, you just need to stop and have space and have margin to actually hear and. And to see what God is doing.
[00:29:12] It's not gonna work if the speed in which you're going. Have you ever. You've done this, right? Like, if you ever look at, like, if you're traveling and you're. You're in a car, you look and you might be doing 70 miles an hour, and you're like, oh, man, we're just slowly going by. Yeah, yeah, but it's not really true, right? Because when you look at the actual road, you're going back by pretty fast. You can't really understand, hear, see what God's moving. If you're going too fast, could it be possible that you're outpacing? Check this out. You're outpacing God.
[00:29:53] Like, you're moving faster than God wants to move. And if you're like, well, God is God, he should move fast. I'll tell you what, do you not know? God be slow. He's slow.
[00:30:02] He is slow. He's slow to respond. The good thing is he's also slow to be angry.
[00:30:07] He's slow.
[00:30:09] He gives us all the time in the world. He gives us all the grace in the world. But God is slow. Just loves the whole thing of growing up. I mean, he waited for like 30 years till Jesus is like, okay, I'm 30 now. Can we go? Can we do this?
[00:30:23] Okay? And he's like, okay, now. And 30 years later, okay, now start talking to people about God. God loves this process of growth. It takes time, and God wants us to do the same. Good soil. So let me give you some three practical things really quick. They're also, like I said, they're in the app. If you're like, oh, my gosh, there's a lot of stuff here. Let me give you three things. Okay, here's what it looks like. Number one, it looks like decluttering your mind. You gotta declutter your mind. Okay, what does that mean? That means you have to give yourself permission to check this out. Give yourself permission not to know everything.
[00:31:00] You're like, what?
[00:31:01] Yeah, let AI understand that you give yourself permission not to know everything and not to be involved in everything. You gotta declutter your mind. Here's what's interesting. It says, First Corinthians 10 says this. First Corinthians 10 says everything. Everything is what?
[00:31:17] Permissible, but not everything is what beneficial. Beneficial? You might suck yourself into arguments and conversations and people and relationships. I'll tell you what, they're permissible. There's nothing wrong with them. But I'll tell you what they are not what?
[00:31:31] Not beneficial.
[00:31:33] There's gonna be a lot of activity, but there's no fruit. There's nothing. So declutter your mind. How do you do that? I don't know. Maybe it's with your phone. Maybe it's what you watch. Maybe it's just.
[00:31:47] What do you do? What do you do? It's your schedule. I don't know. What is it? Secondly, choose your thoughts. Don't let your thoughts choose you. Like, choose your thoughts. Philippians 4 says. This says, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is helping out, whatever is what true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy. He says, think about such things. Basically, he's saying, hey, I need you to understand, to create mental margin, you're gonna have to choose not to dwell on certain things. And I put it on the app for you. I gave you four you should avoid. Okay, four things. And they all start with the letter F. Okay? It's like your fears.
[00:32:36] Like, if you focus your thoughts on all your fears, it's gonna. You're gonna have no capacity, no margin. Your fears, your failures, your frustrations, and lastly, your fantasies. Like, if you give your thoughts over to those, you're gonna have no room. Your fears are gonna take over. Your fear's gonna come in. Your fears are gonna come in. Then your failures will remind you of the so and so and so. And then you'll be so frustrated with yourself and you don't like yourself. It's a mess. And then you're, like, fantasizing about the past. Past and whatever else, a different kind of life. And it just goes down a bad path. But more importantly, not just a bad path, a busy path. Your thoughts are just. You're focusing on other things. And he says, hey, hey, hey. Choose your thoughts. Choose your thoughts. Choose them.
[00:33:24] Don't choose what is noble, what is right, what is pure, what is lovely, what is true.
[00:33:32] Pick. Pick those things. Pick those things. Lastly, he says, I think. I believe it's. You need to schedule space. You need to schedule space.
[00:33:42] See, some of you, you know, this You've been praying about something, and you just need to know God's opinion on something. And you're like, I wish God would just talk to me. I just wish he would just talk to me. I just wish he would talk to me. And here's the secret. Here's secret, okay? Psalms 46, 10. It says this. It says, help me out. It says what? Be still.
[00:34:02] Be still, number one and know that I am God. Like, he's not saying freeze.
[00:34:09] No, he's saying.
[00:34:10] He's saying, hey, can you do that? Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God.
[00:34:22] See, for some of us, you're. It's not like you don't hear from him. You do. It doesn't mean that. It's not that God doesn't speak to you. God is speaking to you. Here's the problem. You're not standing still. You have no space. You're not holding space for God.
[00:34:39] You're like, I don't want you again. I don't want you to feel bad about this. I want you to know this. I struggle with that myself. I struggle with the idea of. Of like, really, like, creating space in my life. And I've gotta figure out how to be still. Because here's the deal. I'm going to end up believing something that is not true. And that is that God loves so and so more. He's more interested in so and so. And he doesn't wanna speak to me. He doesn't want to give me an answer. And God does. God wants to give you an answer.
[00:35:10] So let's do this. Let's together create margin in our life. And let's be good. Good what? Good soil for God to grow in. Let's be for things that we want in our lives to grow and for the things that God wants for our life, be good soil. Instead of criticizing that we're not getting the seed from God, just be good soil. Be good soil. So that's what I want to pray for us. Can I do that? Let's pray together. Let's do that. Lord God, we just thank you so much for your love for us. We thank you, God, that your.
[00:35:46] Your love for us, God, is.
[00:35:49] It's something that reminds me that, God, that you take time.
[00:35:52] You take so much time with us, God, you have margin in. In your existence for us.
[00:36:00] And, God, sometimes we think. We think we're so insignificant that you would never have time for us. But that is not true.
[00:36:08] Not true at all.
[00:36:12] So, God, I pray that you remind us that the most practical thing we can do, the most spiritual thing we can do, is just a create margin. Because you meet us in the margins of our life and allow us to have that mental margin, God. Allow us to know that what we really need is not necessarily prosperity or all the things that we desire. What we need is just proximity.
[00:36:41] Because sometimes we just want. We long for peace.
[00:36:45] What we don't realize is that peace comes from the proximity that we have with you.
[00:36:52] So today I just pray God over my friends that you would pull them closer and that they would react in such a way that they would actually choose to get closer.
[00:37:04] And that God, as we get closer to you, we would be still and know what you're doing, how you're working in our lives.
[00:37:13] God. That's my prayer for us.
[00:37:16] I thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:37:20] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:37:26] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
