#468 Permission To Turn Up The Volume

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, CJ and Shelley Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters. Welcome to the Kingdom Writers Podcast. My name is Shelley Hitz, one of your hosts. This episode is an excerpt from our virtual writing retreat we host every month inside our membership, Christian Book Academy. You can join us with a special coupon code just for podcast listeners. And this will get you 50% off your first month. Use the coupon code PODCAST, and this way we can help you take a step of faith and finally finish your book. So go to christianbookacademy.com and enter the coupon code PODCAST at checkout for 50% off your first month. Come join us at our retreats and all the other things that we offer throughout the month, and I pray that the encouragement from this episode blesses you. So today CJ is going to share encouragement with us on turning up the volume. So CJ, why don't you share with us? And I hope you all are encouraged by this.

Yeah, well, as, uh, as you all know, uh, this is the Friday before Palm Sunday, and so I thought I'd read, uh, the story from Luke chapter 19 of Jesus's triumphal entry. You you know, really a week before, just a little over a week out from, uh, perhaps the highest holy holiday that we celebrate as believers in Christ all year long, which is Easter. So it says in Luke 19, starting in verse 28, after telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. "Go into that village over there," he told them. "As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, 'Why are you untying that colt?' just say, 'The Lord needs it.'" I don't advise trying that, you know, with a car if you're out and about and you say, oh, you know, the Lord needs it, I need this car right now. That may not go over too well, but I just— this always makes me chuckle, this whole interchange here. So they went and found the colt just as Jesus had said. And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked him, why are you untying that colt? And the disciples simply replied, 'The Lord needs it.' I bet you the disciples were a bit fearful in that moment, but they just went ahead and regurgitated the words the Lord told them to say. So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on. As he rode along, the crowd spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen. Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven! But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, 'Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that.' And he replied, 'If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers.' And so as I'm reading this, um, I thought to myself, my goodness, it's, it's more likely that inanimate objects like rocks would cry out to Jesus in worship than for the King of Kings to enter his capital city without honor. And, you know, if you know anything about these times, um, in history regarding kings, you know that, that this is the way that there was a pomp and circumstance as kings entered into a city, their particular capital city would, would elicit this pomp and circumstance of laying down garments and, and laying down things before the king, kind of like rolling out the red carpet as the king enters in with his entourage, perhaps his army. It was a momentous kind of thing, and we're seeing here Just a little glimpse of a prophetic future of our King Jesus coming into Jerusalem. And by the way, King Jesus will come into Jerusalem in that Eastern Gate, uh, in that day, riding on a horse and having his people behind him as well. And so it, uh, I thought this was interesting. Jesus actually encouraged the joyful praise of the people. He didn't turn it away. This ought to tell you right there that we're dealing with, with God in the flesh. Uh, he encouraged this praise, this worship, this form of, of pomp. But how quickly things would change in less than a week as many of these same people would be yelling, crucify. And so human beings in God's image, created in God's image, you and I, we make— how many agree that we make much better worshipers than rocks? Inanimate objects that are supposed to just essentially sit there. And sometimes we joke, we've got Pikes Peak that overlooks our city and you can just see its grandeur. It changes all year round regarding how much snow it has, and— but essentially it's a big rock pile that God artistically placed there. But how much more do we as human beings, uh, cry out to the Lord and worship as people created in his image? Jesus was essentially saying that this is the worship and praise that I'm due. I'm not going to turn it away. It's even a foreshadowing of what's to come one day when I do return. But if they didn't worship me, if they didn't cry out, these rocks right here would. Nothing would be able to keep them quiet. And it reminded me of a line— some of you may have watched the movie Troy. That had Brad Pitt in it, and he played the role of Achilles, this mighty warrior, you know, that was revered and his feats of fighting. And there is a scene where he was fighting Hector, the son of the king of Troy. And in the fighting scene, as he's fighting Hector, Hector, uh, trips over a rock, falls backward, falls, uh, falls down. And Achilles looks at him, and, and he could have pounced right there as Hector is on the ground, but he says, get up, son of Troy, I won't let a rock take my glory. Essentially, he was saying I'm gonna kill you myself. I'm not gonna let this rock, like, help me in that. So get up. And it just reminded me, are we gonna let a rock fill in for our silence of worship and praise? Are we going to let a rock take what should be rightfully ours as worshipers, as people who lift up praise to God? Are we going to let a rock take that? No, we as Kingdom Writers are going to do our part in leading others with our words in terms of praise and worship. I want to just mention a few instances of inanimate objects crying out in praise that we find in Scripture, and this is not an exhaustive list, this is just a few references. But Psalm 114:6-8 says, why, mountains, did you skip like rams? Why hills like lambs tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. He turned the rock into a pool of water. Yes, a spring of water flowed from the solid rock. Of course, the psalmist is referring even back to Moses and the people traveling through the wilderness and that miracle that God did where he brought water out of a solid rock. And I think we would agree that if, if, if that same God can bring water out of an inanimate rock that's just sitting there, he can certainly cause the rocks to cry out in praise if he wanted to. Does that— does that mean that's going to happen? This is figurative language, but I think what Jesus is saying is, one way or another, I'm going to receive the praise and worship that I'm due. Don't try to quiet the people. They're giving me that reverence. But if they were quiet, these rocks, they'd fill in the gap more than well. And so another reference is Isaiah 55:12. You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will What? Clap their hands. Some of you, uh, remember that worship song, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. And so we read these inanimate objects, these figurative language of them bursting into song. This is how big our God is. This is how good our God is. All creation cries out. Psalm 148:3-4. Praise him, sun and moon. Praise him, all you twinkling stars. Praise him, skies above. Praise him, vapors high above the clouds. In other words, everything, praise him, whether you're inanimate or whether you have blood pumping through your veins. Let praise rise to this God who deserves it. Psalm 148:9-14. Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds, kings of the earth and all the people, rulers and judges of the earth, young men and young women, old men and children, let them all praise the name of the Lord. For his name is very great. His glory towers over the earth and heaven. He has made his people strong, honoring his faithful ones, the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord. Let me just close with this. As Kingdom Writers And as you're thinking about this, even leading up to, uh, Palm Sunday here and going into Easter week, the Holy Week ahead, may our written words give others permission— and here's that phrase— to turn up the volume and burst into cheers with the joyful praise that our King Jesus is due. Your words and my words in our books have the potential to help facilitate worship and praise from others that receive your books, receive your writings, and they see how big, how good, how incredible this God is. All I have to do is look out at Pikes Peak which I can't see right now because we have some low-lying clouds. I can look up there and say, there is a God that created that. He just set that right there and formed it just exactly the way he wanted to. It's incredible. Imagine how big a God like that is. All-powerful. All-powerful. Our joyful praise and worship right now is practice for the future coronation of our King in that same city of Jerusalem one day. You talk about a worship service, you talk about a praise gathering, that is going to be the coronation of the King of Kings. K, a capital K. There's only one King, capital K. In the universe. That is this Jesus riding on a lowly donkey, leading into Jerusalem during this time, just a week before he's going to be crucified, just a week before so many of these people will turn on him. And we have the opportunity during this season, in any of your words— you could think about a blog post, you could think about social media post. You could think about whatever it is, uh, whatever you're working on in your writing. How is it that we could magnify this King of Kings in such a way that just causes people to pause and say, wow, what a God! That is a God that's due my praise. That is a God that deserves me turning my praise up to full volume, to burst out in cheer, so that the rocks don't take that. The rocks don't steal the thunder of the worshipers that were created in God's image. May we not be silent during this holiday season, this, this holiest of holidays, of celebrating what Jesus has done for each one of us and the resurrection that followed after he was nailed to that cross. So that's my challenge to all of us as Kingdom Writers. As Kingdom Writers, let's lift up the King of Kings with those words that we write, so that others may join in with us in the praise and the bursting out of cheer and turning their own up to full volume.

Yeah, so why don't you pray over us, CJ?

So, Father, thank you so much for your word. I thank you for these stories that were recorded. I thank you that, um, the holiday that we're about ready to celebrate is a holiday that represents, uh, the freedom that you bought for each of us. The opportunity to even write kingdom words is because of what you did on that cross and the resurrection 3 days later. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of being able to write words that help others have even a deeper awe of you. And I pray, Lord, that even as we embark on this virtual writing retreat, that you would even give us a writing flow, that you would give us, um, understanding of how our words can magnify you even in greater ways. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Well, we are so excited for you all to be here at this virtual writing retreat. How many of you are ready to get some writing done? Excited to, to see what God is going to do. So what we're going to do is just pray over you, and, um, then if we have time, we'll have you go to breakout rooms and pray with each other for a little bit as well. And then Deb Butterfield will take over, um, and you'll start your writing at the top of the hour. So CJ, why don't you pray over them and then I'll pray over them, and we'll probably have some time for breakouts today.

Yeah, so Father, again, we're just asking that you would calm our scattered senses this morning, this afternoon, wherever, whatever time zone it is for each person. We're asking, Lord, that you would calm us, that as we go into this, uh, we would have a settling, a peace that comes over us, and that each person would really be, be able to be in a spot where they can sense your voice, your guidance, your direction in what they're to spend their time doing today and into tomorrow. And we are praying, Lord, for fruitful writing or planning, strategizing. We're praying, Lord, that as a result of people setting aside time for this virtual writing retreat, that they will have looked back and said, wow, I, I moved forward because what the Lord helped me in. And so, Lord, I even just pray for God ideas I pray for those aha moments that come to us, and sometimes we don't always give you credit, Lord, and yet we, we just thank you so much that you drop these things into our minds if we just ask. And so I'm asking that each person here would come away with, uh, some gold nugget or aha moment from this weekend where something was unlocked. It was like a key that helped unlock a door that led to other doors opening in their writing. And so, Lord, thank you for what you're going to do today and tomorrow. We give you all the glory in Jesus' name.

If you're ready to take a step of faith and finally finish your book, we have a few ways we can help you. First of all, you can join our free writing week challenge to create writing habit in just 15 minutes a day. Thousands of writers have taken this over the years, and it is incredible the progress that you'll see. So join us at writingweek.com, and again, this is completely free. Inside our Book Writing Lab workshop, you can choose your book topic, write an outline, and create a writing plan in just 90 minutes. So you'll finally feel confident that you'll actually finish your book. Get started at bookwritinglab.com. And finally, you can get more support and personalized feedback from myself and our team by joining Christian Book Academy. Because the honest truth is most writers stay stuck and never finish their first draft. But inside Christian Book Academy, we help you partner with God to write your book so you can become a published author. So finally, ditch your self-doubt and take a step of faith so you can finish your book. Join Christian Book Academy at christianbookacademy.com and get 50% off your first month by using the coupon code PODCAST at checkout. This is a special coupon code for our podcast listeners. We love you. So come on over to christianbookacademy.com, use the coupon code PODCAST, and we look forward to working closely with you.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you as a Christian writer have a specific role to play in the kingdom of heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self-publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy, where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of kingdom writers.