Live in the Funnel!

Good morning, Kingdom Kindreds. It's Chrystal Hurst, and I am once again videoing on my way to the rest of my life. I'm sitting in front of the gym, and this was great that I'm doing it this morning because God gave me something fun to share with you. This gym is next door to a donut shop, right next door. And so, you know, for me to come here every morning and not get a donut, I It's a major act of both the will and a major act of God's mercy on my life for allowing me to be able to have the power not to go to the donut shop. But you know, when I talk about and joke about the whole fat demon thing, it dawned on me the other day, there are a lot of things I'm doing to fight the fat demon. I'm exercising, I'm running, I'm thinking about running a half marathon in December, or walking, or running and walking. But I'm thinking about doing it and trying to cross the finish line. I'm going to the gym, I'm taking my kids bike riding, I'm doing things to try to be active, and that's good when you're trying to get healthy. Moving is a part of that. But if I move all day long and don't change what I'm eating, I'm going to slow my progress way down. So let's think about this for a second. Yesterday I had a cookie from Panera Bread and I looked it up and was very distraught to find it was a free cookie and I couldn't pass it up. It was a free Panera Bread chocolate chip cookie and those cookies are good. So I looked it up and the cookie is 500 calories. Yesterday, or yeah, yesterday or the day before, I went to, um, with my family and I ran 4 miles. The 4 miles was 550 calories. Well, they'll do the math. The same amount of calories for an hour's worth of work, or the same amount of calories in 10 minutes or 5 minutes or whatever it took me to eat that cookie. So when you're losing weight, the point is— and I am getting to a point with this whole thing— you can go a lot further by taking care of what you put on the inside than by staying super busy and doing things on the outside. And this whole concept in our last few chapters together, chapters 9 through 12, of your personal life and your family life, your community and your church life, it centers around this concept of abiding in God. And there's a— I believe it's in chapter 8 and 9 where it talks about that, abiding in the Lord. Because there is absolutely, positively no way that you can maximize your efforts in your walk with the Lord if you're doing it in your own power and trying to figure out on your own what you should be doing. If you don't spend time with him so that he can tell you what's important to him, then you're not gonna know what to do with your family and you're not gonna know what to do with your personal life. You're not gonna know what activities you should be involved in at church or where you should engage in your community. And I want to tell you that when Jesus was alive, he lived life in kind of this funnel approach. There's this funnel, you know, that opens up to the top and then narrows down. He spent a lot of time with the crowds at the top of the funnel. Lots and lots of people got to hear the Sermon on the Mount or got to eat when he fed the 5,000 the fish. And in the middle of the funnel where it kind of narrows, he spent regular time with 12 disciples. That would be like time that you share with people at church or people that you're discipling in Titus 2 fashion. And then at the bottom of the funnel, Jesus spent limited time with 2 or 3. He only took 2 or 3 to the mountaintop to pray. He spent lots of time by himself praying and talking to God, resting. And he lived life in a funnel. Lots of people in the community got him at the top. People that he was discipling got him in the middle. And then his close friends and family members got him at the bottom. And I just want to tell you today that if you choose, um, to live your life like that, in a funnel where certain people get you at a broad place, a few people get you at a middle place, and even fewer people get you in a very close space, that will set you up for success to know what you should be doing with your family, to know where you should engage with your church, to understand where you should get active in your community, and to understand and to live out well your personal life with the Lord. So anyway, just a few words just to hopefully encourage you this morning. Um, I'll write some stuff for you to look at and, uh, study in terms of Bible verses on the blog. Have a great week, and I'll see you a little bit later in all our spots. Bye!