Devoted to His Table | Devoted | Twin Rivers Church

Last year Kayla and I took our three oldest kids through a what I believe is a rite of passage for Any kid which is to go to a go-kart track? You know, there's just something about the smell of those fumes and that hum of a four-stroke engine That's just it. I don't know it is does something for you as we were getting ready to get on our carts I noticed an attendant who was working on them and I noticed the one he was working on He did not put on the governor now if you're not know what a governor is It's a mechanism that keeps the cart from performing at its full potential Because there's obviously guidelines and things that they want to keep with kids on this this track They want to keep the speeds low when I saw that he did not keep put the governor on the competitive part of me Led all of my kids to the slow carts, and I took this fast cart now. They didn't know so I'm lapping them I'm making fun of them. I'm Handily beating them and They think I am just like NASCAR champion Of course what I know is is that my cart does not have any limitations on it. It can go to its full potential I was thinking about that this week because many believers feel like their faith is has a governor on it Like there's a limitation on God's activity in their life compared to other believers And if we were to get into why there's obviously nuance But I want to say this most people do not experience all God has for them because they commit to a what I call casual faith Casual faith is where you love church on Sundays, but you you know I mean it doesn't really affect how you live on Mondays It's where you want God to bless your life But you don't really give him leadership or access to your financial life your dating life your social life your work life It's where you consider yourself a person of faith, but if we really inventoried what you do with your life There's not much that you're doing to build your faith and a lot of people live this and they're dissatisfied They're frustrated and let me just say this is a common form of Christianity, but not one Jesus himself endorsed The reality is is that I am spending this year trying to get you to take the limits off by giving up casual Christianity I'm trying to get you to Resign from kind of all things convenient and instead go I'm gonna give this my all and I'm going to be a fully Devoted follower of Christ and out of that there be a richness and kind of a fullness to what you set out to do Anyways when you chose to follow Jesus We're doing it uniquely through a single passage of scripture Luke chapter 24

Which kind of shows these two guys who were followers of Jesus? But casual become or transition to fully devoted followers now just to give you some context This is a few days after Jesus's crucifixion at Jesus's arrest and crucifixion his his followers dispersed and scattered for fear that this would also happen to them and We know because we have the text three days later He's raised from the dead greatest miracle that's ever happened takes place, but they don't know that still unclear. There's a lot of confusion There's some rumors So most of them are trying to get out of Jerusalem where the events have taken place and the Bible zooms in in Luke 24 These two followers who are leaving Jerusalem going to a place called Emmaus and something Incredible happens Jesus himself the resurrected Jesus joins them He walks with them. He talks with them for about seven miles now. Let me say The funny thing is they don't know it's him so they are following someone they don't even recognize and And so Jesus kind of lets them if you read the text it's almost a little funny they start evangelizing Jesus with the gospel of Jesus Christ and Then eventually there's some things that happen where Jesus opens their eyes and here's what I've done I've just kind of taken them week by week to show you what those things are practices that you could adopt So that you could have the same transition from kind of casual not recognize him in your life to devoted You really see him in the fullness of what you want to see. Okay, so zoom in on Luke 24 starting with verse 28 as They approached the village to which they were going Jesus continued on as if he were going farther But they urged him strongly stay with us for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over So he went in to stay with him now This is the first I want you to see verse 30 when he Jesus was at the table with them. He took bread Gave thanks broke it and began to give it to them and everybody say this next word with me then Their eyes were opened and they recognized him Now they've walked nearly seven miles with Jesus. They've talked endlessly with him but it wasn't until they said at this table that the Bible says their eyes are Opened and recognized him and that's not because the mood lighting was good or the flatware was, you know, kind of appropriate What jogged their kind of?

Recognition of him is how he handled the bread You see he took the bread. He blessed the bread He broke the bread and then he gave it to them and that may not trigger a memory for you But it definitely would have for them because just days earlier Jesus gathered his closest disciples in a meal called Passover what later would become the Last Supper before his crucifixion and in exactly the same pattern he takes the bread blesses the bread breaks the bread and starts giving it to them as a commencement of Passover this Old Testament Festival, but also the announcement of a new covenant that he is now offering where that through him you can have Right-standing with God in eternal life and So immediately their memory is just jogged by this because Jesus said at the Last Supper He said that from now on you will participate in this meal again and again and again and you'll do it in remembrance of me What he's referring to is what we now call communion now Every year I asked the Lord to give me Something to keep my faith fresh Obviously many years in the ministry It would be easy for the things of God to become very common And so I always I asked the Lord to give me something just keep my heart tender to him and my faith growing And so some years I feel like he's challenged me to give more than we normally would give Read more than maybe my daily Bible reading plan would offer Journal more last year when I asked the Lord that here's what he spoke to me He said I want you to take communion privately every single time before you speak So last year every time before I spoke here or abroad I took private communion now Let me just say I grew up in church So I've had an enormous amount of communion elements as a matter of fact when I was a kid They were just a snack. It's like goldfish. Okay, so it didn't have a lot of meaning to me It was just that you should grow up around church. That's what happens It became meaningful, but last year I cannot tell you how meaningful it has been at the vibrancy the the sincerity but it's because I

experienced a deeper work or Deeper meaning in this and I want to teach it to you because I think God's got it for you And it's ultimately here's here's where it as it is core and we're gonna talk about this today Communion or coming to the Lord's table is not a meal. It's really a mirror It's not a meal as much as it's a mirror Spiritually and Paul references this in 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verse 28. Let me this kind of a core verse for you today everyone ought to examine themselves Before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup Now there's a lot of talk about what is God's plan for your life Everybody wants to know what God's plan for the life is and and I'm gonna tell you this after years of doing this Your plan or what you think God's plan for your life is and what his actual plan for your life is are rarely Do you know the fullness of what he expects to happen? But I can give you the overarching and here's kind of the overarching plan God has for your life He wants to shape you in the image of his son His goal is at the end of life. You look more like Jesus than when you started following him So let me just say this Christ likeness is possible, but it is not Natural your natural is to pull you away from Christ likeness and all the the work The Holy Spirit does is to pull you into Christ likeness. So let me say this though How do you end up like Christ if you don't have a practice? That examines what's not like Christ how do you end up with more of the nature the character the disposition of Jesus if you don't have a practice that ever holds you up against Jesus and This is ultimately what Paul's saying is when we come to the Lord's table What we're doing is we are examining ourselves in our is this shaping God desires taking place Is my character becoming more like him my thoughts becoming more like him my nature my my the good way I treat people is it becoming this is the practice now Let me say I have kind of a tall order today with you because getting you To buy into the idea of rarely looking at your shortcomings is not something you're probably eager to do

Very few people came in here to go and go. You know what? I'd like to be encouraged by looking at all my flaws Okay, but I'm saying to you if that's God's plan then your posture to either resist or invite that plan is going to determine how much of God's plan can come about in your life and And ultimately what I'm trying to help you and I do is to become fully devoted which means we must Invite this practice now. Let me say that I'm gonna teach you how to have time with God to where he examines you and does that work at his table. But the very first thing I have to say is there's a risk, and here's the risk, is that you have to understand how God shapes you. Many of us have no clue how God does this shaping, and so we end up in error, and I'm gonna tell you a couple of these errors. The first error is this, is we just think God's gonna zap us, like he's just gonna do all the work. Like, well, if God wants to change me, he knows where I live, he can come change me. And we don't do anything, we don't participate in anything, we don't examine anything, and we just think, oh, that's the way it's gonna be. And let me just say, the thing about, if you believe that, like one day I'm just gonna pray for you and you're gonna have integrity, or one day you're gonna hear a certain song and anger's not gonna be an issue. Let me just say to you, nowhere in scripture does Jesus do that. Nowhere does he just download character, humility. As a matter of fact, his disciples

were stubborn and prideful and selfish in year one, and guess what they were three years later with him? Prideful and stubborn and selfish. And at no point does Jesus wave his hand and go, have integrity, have compassion, be kind. It never was, here's what he does. He teaches them and rebukes them and loves them and teaches them and rebukes them and loves them and teaches them and rebukes them and loves them, because maturity is a process, it's not a zapping that God does in your life. Now, that's one end of poor thinking, but let me tell you what the other end of poor thinking is. It's not that God does it all, it's that you do it all. It's a work of willpower. Many people believe it's my job to turn me into the image of Christ, and it just doesn't work. I read about Justin DuBois, who is a 27-year-old in Minneapolis, who was standing at a bus stop trying to go to a meeting, and the lady who was in front of him kinda was sharp with him, and he was sharp back with her, and they kinda got into an argument, and then because they were in an argument, it tried to intervene, and a gentleman put his hand on Justin. Well, that sent Justin off. Justin takes this blue folder he's holding, and he hits the man, and they get into a scuffle,

and Justin was arrested and was given a fifth-degree assault charge. Now, sadly, people are assaulted all the time. That's not really newsworthy. The reason this was newsworthy is Justin was standing at the bus station because he was on his way to anger management class, and the blue folder, it had his homework for anger management that week, and I'm just saying willpower doesn't work because it's a finite resource. You got enough willpower to change very small things about you, and the problem is the things that are on the inside of you that really need changed, they're too strong. Family thinking for decades, fears that are ingrained, biochemistry that has unhealthy appetites, thinking that is completely godless. These things are so strong that if it is your job to change you into the image of Christ, you're gonna be frustrated and you're going to fail, and so you have to understand how God shapes us, and he has chosen that we have a part and he has a part, and here's how it works. We bring the sin, he brings the mercy. We bring the humility, he brings the grace. We sit at the table, he does the shaping, but for many of us, we're not sitting at the table at any point.

Now, again, I'm gonna teach you how to do this, but before I do, there's so much nuance to this, and it's this. I have to get you to look at your sin without becoming overwhelmed with your shame. See, one of the things that happens when we look at our shortcomings and our failings is we immediately just go into shame, and shame is powerful. Shame is like a blanket that removes your identity and makes you, like you didn't do something wrong, you are something wrong, and I think it's important for me to just say that's not the way Jesus works. Jesus does not sit at the table with these two guys and berate them for not recognizing him. He feeds them to open their eyes. God doesn't work through shame. So what's gotta happen is is that you have to have this nuance of thinking, which is this. You have to understand God accepts you the way you are, and at the exact same time, has no intention to leave you that way. So let me say what's gotta happen when you do this. You have to be willing to look at your sin and yet recognize you have a savior. Sin without the savior leaves you to shame, but sin with the savior allows you to be shaped. And it reminds me, there was a guy who wanted a,

his whole dream was to have a perfect yard, and he kept getting dandelions in his yard, and so he'd go out and pick them, and guess what they do? Grow back. So then he started using weed killer, but they grew back. So then he started, he actually had all the sod taken up and put new sod down, and there, dandelions grew back. And then he read somewhere that it might be coming from his neighbor's yard, so he started caring for his neighbor's yard so that it didn't affect his yard, but guess what? The dandelions grew back. In desperation, he writes a letter to the Department of Agriculture, the federal government, and he asked them. How do you deal with dandelions he gives them all the data everything months go by he finally gets a letter back from the Department Of Agriculture and they say to him sir we've reviewed the data we recognize You know what what your goal is we talk to our lead botanists and to our experts and here's our advice learn to love dandelions Okay, and I want to say to some of you and this is a mature thought but listen some of you are miserable Because you constantly look at yourself and you see what you're not you see where you're failing you see all the things that haven't been Shaved and you've just you live in a cycle of trying harder and shame because you couldn't get there Trying harder because shame couldn't get there. And what I'm saying to you is when it comes to your shortcomings learn to love them Not because sin is acceptable, but because sin is what takes you to Jesus See if you can start seeing your shortcomings as the reason you get to have deeper intimacy with Christ You can even learn to love the shortcomings But let me say it this way John Newton who wrote amazing grace said this my memory fades But there are two things I will never forget. I am a great sinner, but he is a greater Savior and

At the table we get to look at who we are, but it's never more than who he is Okay. Now what I want to do is I want to take that attitude that heart and I want to teach you How could you actually? Sit in prayer and invite the Lord To examine you Okay. So here's the first one first thing you do is very practical examine yourself in light of Scripture Now this is the this is the season of gyms being full fitness You know routines and goals are at their peak some of you have chosen to carnivore some of you have chosen to do, you know Crossfit some of you have chosen to hot yoga no matter what you've chosen to do There is one piece of equipment every single one of us have to use if we want to get our fitness goals And it's this the scale Because how could you know if you ended up where you wanted to go if you don't know where you're starting? Okay, so let me ask you this. How do you end up with? Godly character if you never take a look to see what's ungodly And for many of us we just never examine ourselves to see what what's ungodly about me. Okay now let me say this is not natural and That's important for you to understand because it's a matter of fact many people come to Jesus throughout the Gospels and ask for many miracles and things from food to opportunities to even You know miracles for their physical bodies Do you know what no one ever asked Jesus for in all of the Gospels for him to do something in their character? Like for example, one guy comes to Jesus says my brother has our inheritance tell him to divide it He doesn't say Jesus. Will you heal me of greed? Martha comes to Jesus and says make my sister help me as I'm doing all this work She doesn't come to Jesus and say hey, will you heal me? I'm too controlling G James and John's mother comes to Jesus They send her to Jesus send her to Jesus and she says my boys want to sit on the right and left hand of your Throne she does not come to Jesus say my boys are selfish and narcissistic. Will you heal that? So here's all I'm saying here's all I'm saying if you don't do this intentionally it will never happen Nothing about you will ever practice this so you must make a decision to practice it now now

Let me say there. This is where I want to spend a moment because there is a movement in modern Therapy that sounds like this and it's called introspection Introspection is self-discovery. It's to look within it's to consider my motives all those things But introspection is not what I'm talking about. This is called self-examination. Let me tell you the differences Introspection is when you are by yourself and search yourself Self-examination is when you are with the Holy Spirit and let him search you Introspection is when you compare you to your standards self-examination is when you compare yourself to God's standards Introspection is going to always lead to a downward spiral and you're gonna end up in one of two places either pride or despair Let me say it this way when you take a real good. Look at yourself. You're either gonna think I'm awesome or I'm awful Self-examination is an ascension into recognizing Christ in you is being revealed through this process introspection is an emotional experience that almost always gonna end in regret because you're gonna come to this I wish I hadn't said that I Wish I didn't do that. I wish I didn't feel this way Self-examination is a spiritual experience where you recognize. This is where I need Jesus's help Okay, two totally different now. Let me take practically This this looks like you setting down and instead of praying about what you want What you would like what opportunity to have what you want to do in somebody else's life This is where you sit down and you go God. I want you to shape me. Okay now just practically that means you Could sit down and take the Ten Commandments and just say Holy Spirit. Which of these am I misaligned with? Personally I've been reading the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 6 and 7 and I'll just read it and when I feel like something doesn't look like me I just make note of it like for example I mean when it talks about blessing your enemies or you know, not cursing another person or or you know Look, you know not doing something so that it can be seen I'm writing all those things down because I the Holy Spirit's going. Oh, this is this is the standard This is where I'm not meeting. Okay Ultimately regardless of what passage of Scripture you want to use Let me give you the heart or even a prayer if some of you say well, I just I give me a prayer I got it for you. Psalm 139 23. This is the heart of the whole thing search me Oh God and Know my heart

Test me and know my anxious thoughts Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life Like if you just wanted a prayer just to start with before even comparing you that's a perfect prayer Okay, now let me teach you something if you set down to do this and at the end of it you're discouraged Something went wrong You said what do you mean I'm gonna be looking at my faults my my flaws Of course, I'm gonna be discouraged. Nope. And here's why because Jesus said this anyone who comes to me. I will not cast him away He doesn't say if you come to me with double the effort. He doesn't say if you come to me with an attrition He says anyone in any state who comes to me. I will not reject him So if you have a sense of rejection you didn't meet with Jesus Let me explain. I am probably the president of beat yourself up Club. I Have very high standards. I don't blame others for him when I don't meet it I looking at myself and I'm not that long ago. I reacted harshly towards one of the kids I felt really bad about it. I hurt their feelings and I you know, I went to prayer But all that my whole praying was in shame God, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done that I'm hurting it and I even almost flippantly said like God, why would you give me five kids? I'm just gonna mess him up and And this is what immediately I heard the Holy Spirit speak to my heart and he said because you're a good dad And I knew it was the Lord because it was so contrary to my own faults Because you're a good dad and of course me not being one to accept the Lord on his first instruction I said well God, you know I don't think I'm a good dad as if he doesn't know what a good dad is and he immediately put my mind Proverbs 24 16 though a righteous man falls seven times He gets back up and then I heard the Lord say he's righteous because he keeps getting back up You're a good dad because you just keep showing up Okay. Now here's what happened had I did that by myself. I Would have left that time burdened Instead I left encouraged, you know why? Because when we truly bring ourself to the Lord's table and reveal our heart to him

He doesn't berate us with shame instead. He encourages us. He says we're going to work on this together So let me just say this if you are ending your time with the Lord and you feel more burdened you lost the Lord somewhere in the journey and You need to go back because he does not cast out any Who come to him? Now here's the second thing when we find out what he's highlighting we confess what the Spirit brings to light now Christians are strange It's funny we're perfectly comfortable confessing we are sinners But no one is comfortable confessing their sins You notice that like today if I said hey, how many of you are a sinner all of you to raise your hand? I say, okay. What'd you do this week? Nobody would raise their hand Right, I mean that's true like we we're all yes sinners saved by grace. Okay. Well, how'd you treat your wife? I don't want to talk about that So there's this dynamic of we want this this general sense of sin, but not the specific So let me tell you what happens when you have a superficial confession grace becomes superficial So the Lord's not just pointing this out so that we can know what's wrong He's pointing it out so that we can confess it confess means we agree with him and And here's what I want you to understand when you don't take time to go Okay, God, I see that and I agree with you and I'm inviting you to do this my life when you shortcut this process You shortcut intimacy with the Lord and I'm gonna tell you why first sin grows So at our new West County campus, which is under construction, you know hundreds of you kind of said you're going there Which were so excited But last fall they called us and said hey we found a small patch of mold in one wall And we have to investigate see what the issue is Well, the first thing they had to figure out is was this on materials that were brought in or was this already there? Because this was pre-existing building. Well, what they found is it was it was hidden covered. It'd probably been there a long time So they had to take everything out eradicate it uncover it all that to where it's it's obviously taken care of and it's safe But it stayed there for who? Who knows how many years, because it was covered.

If you don't uncover sin through confession, it grows. It's thoughts that become attitudes, attitudes that become beliefs, beliefs that become actions, and actions ultimately become bondage. So this isn't just about, do I want to do this? This is about, I don't want sin to have a power in my life. And I'm going to show this to you, 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. Now most of us stop reading right there, but I want you to look at this. We know He forgives us. Look what else happens when we confess, and purifies us. Listen, by you simply saying, I see that too, God, and I admit it's there, not only do you receive forgiveness, sin loses its power because there's a purification of the residue in your heart. Some of you are struggling with things, and it's because it's just covered. Now I'm going to give you a little more motivation. I've never seen this before. Look at verse 10. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His Word is not in us. Look at this. Here's what it says. It don't matter how much scripture you read if you have unconfessed sin, because keeping unconfessed sin shows you're not really taking in the Word. Some of you have unfulfilled promises from God's Word because you have unconfessed sin. You cannot have a daily Bible reading plan and receive its power and keep unconfessed sin in your life. They work hand in hand. Now so sin grows, but here's what else, grace stops flowing. I want to explain this to you. The cross is a place of exchange. For example, 1 Corinthians 5.21 says this, He who knew no sin became sin that we may

become the righteousness of Christ. Here's what it means. At the cross, Jesus said, we're open for business, I'll take sin and you get righteousness. If you read Isaiah 53, you actually find He offers more exchanges than just sin and righteousness. He says, I'll take brokenness and give wholeness, I'll take iniquity and give peace, I'll take brokenness in your body and give healing. It's a place of exchange. Here's the problem many of us have. We're showing up to a place of exchange, but we don't want to exchange anything. We just want to receive. The cross is not a place of handout, it's a place of exchange. You can't receive righteousness and not offer sin. You can't receive healing and not offer brokenness. So when we show up and confess, we receive by our confession because it's a place of exchange. My mom has worked her whole life, she's a hardworking lady, and she works now. So a couple years ago, we decided that we wanted to do something that would help her as a practical gift. So we hired a cleaner to come in and clean her house so she didn't have to do it. So it was about a week before the cleaner was to come, and either Kayla or I, I can't remember, we called her and she's like breathing hard and we're like, what are you doing? She goes, well, I'm cleaning. Like why are you cleaning? The cleaners are coming. She goes, oh, I know, but I don't want it to be dirty when they get here. That's so ridiculous, isn't it? Until you realize that's the exact same way we approach God, right? I got to clean myself up before I go in there and interact with him. He's the cleaner. We can't purify ourselves.

There's no exchange that can happen. We show up with the dirt and that's how we get to receive the cleaning. And so listen, confession is not admitting something God doesn't already know. Confession is an invitation to say, God, I can't clean this up. I need your help. It's not even about, some of you picture the confession is like, like we're doing this in a court of law and then punitive action comes next. Jesus has settled the punitive action. We're showing up and getting to make a request for what we cannot clean up that only he can clean up and we receive his help because we confess it. Listen, this is beautiful. If you're bound by guilt, there's help. If you're weighed down by, by lust, there's help. If you have an addiction, you cannot beat, there's help. If you have anger, you can't shake, there's help. If there's bitterness so deep in your heart, you can't get rid of it. There is help. If there is resentment that filters everything you see, there is help that you don't have sin that's too strong. You don't have a wound that's too deep. You don't have a mind that's too fractured that the grace of God cannot clean it up, but grace only flows to the humble and the humble ask for help. Now here's what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you the third one, but I need you to know this. The first two are practical how to do it. The third one is your motivation why you're going to do this. And the third one is this. You remember God's greater work. Okay. Now, um, sitting and examining yourself and confessing sin, I mean, frankly, it's intimidating.

Most of us would rather get a root canal than do that. Okay, but I'm gonna tell you why you're gonna do this, okay? Because to be devoted requires a deeper work, okay? And deeper works of God in you always precede the greater works of God through you. And many of you for years have been asking God to do a greater work through you, but you didn't realize it requires a deeper work in you first. See, this passage is not just an account of a meal, it's a template. I want to show it to you. Luke, we just read this, Luke 24 30. I want you to notice this specifically. When he was at the table, he took the bread, he blessed the bread, he broke the bread, he gave the bread. God is a God of patterns, and this is a pattern. I already told you that the last summer, last supper, Jesus took the bread, blessed the bread, broke the bread, gave the bread. If you go read on a hill on Galilee when he fed 5,000 men, specifically it says he took the bread, he blessed the bread, he broke the bread, he gave the bread. This is not just how God serves meals, this is also the process of how he shapes lives. He took Abraham out of Ur, he blessed Abraham with a son, he broke Abraham on Mount Moriah when he asked him to sacrifice the son, and then he gave the world Abraham as a chosen people. He took Joseph out of a pit where his brothers had thrown him, he blessed him in Potiphar's house, but then he broke him in prison so that he could give him as a prince of Egypt to save all of God's people. He took Moses out of the waters, he blessed him to be raised in the house of Pharaoh, but he broke Moses in the wilderness by a burning bush to give him back to the nation as a deliverer. He took Jesus out of divinity, he then blessed him with the ability to do miracles and teach the truth, but he broke him on Calvary so that he could give him as the Savior of the world. This is how God does greater works. He first does a deeper work through this process. Right now you're somewhere in this process. I don't know where it is exactly, but I'm telling you, you're gonna go through it many times in life because you pray prayers like, God use me, God do something significant to me, God I want to do something for your kingdom, and he says okay if you're up for a greater work now we're gonna start the process of a deeper work. And for some of you

in this season right now where he's taking you, and he's taking you from what you enjoyed, he's taking you from what was familiar, he's taking you from the place you worked, or he's taking you from the neighborhood you grew up in, or he took you from a relationship that you've always had, and here's the problem with the taking, the taking season's not fun because you were familiar with where he took you from and you yet do not know where he's taking you to. And then for some of you it's not just the taking season, but now you're in the blessing season, and that's wonderful because God doesn't just take you to deprive you, he takes you to bless you. And some of you have been blessed right now. I mean you God's really finally, the marriage is finally working, your kids are thriving, you know, you found the perfect school, or your business has come off, you know, they got the resume, the opportunity came, your finances are shaping up, your mental health has gotten straight. He's blessing you. Enjoy the blessing season, it's wonderful. Just don't think it's the finish line, because after the blessing comes the breaking. And the breaking is what he's doing in many of us right now, it's this, he's breaking stubbornness, and he's breaking pride, and he's breaking the fact that we always have to be the one who who helps and can't receive help, and he's he's breaking in us ambition, and sometimes he breaks associations, and sometimes he breaks dreams that we thought were his dreams, and they're not even his dreams. And here's the thing about the breaking season is, we know how painful it is, but we don't know how deceptive it is. The enemy comes in the breaking season, and he says this is punishment, but it's not punishment, it's preparation. Because what comes next is the giving, and God takes you and he gives you to a new neighborhood, or he gives you to a new new office, or he gives you to a new family, or he gives you to some new friends, and it's because whatever he did in you they need, because God's a giver, and that's just the nature of what he is. And at some point way back when you prayed, God do something great through my life, and he said okay well let's do something deep through your life, but eventually you come to where he gives you, and the great thing happens. We just didn't know that the deeper work

was required before the greater work. Now I don't know where you're at in the process, but I'll tell you this, it's confusing, it's challenging, and you want to quit, but don't. And here's the only assurance you get, because at no point are you not in his hands. When he takes you, you're still in his hands. And when he blesses you, it's his hand that's doing it. And when he's breaking you, just like that bread of Emmaus, you're in his hands. And even when he gives you, he doesn't really give. Give you he just does something through you. He's the one who satisfies and it's through you. It's not actually you So you stay Because you're in his hands Now it wasn't until this process took place that the two guys at Emmaus recognized him and I believe this with all my heart for those who will set at the table this year You're going to find a recognition of Jesus's work like you've never seen an intimacy like you've never shared or the antithesis of it is for those who refuse to set at the table Don't be surprised as you go this year and don't recognize much of Jesus's work Devoted means devoted to a deeper work. It's to set it at the table and invite his partnership in shaping your life