How to Host God | Lyle Phillips

0:31 a lot of times as preachers will travel, you know, we want to play the greatest hits, like our best messages that we know by heart that are easy for us to preach. But today I have a word that I've only preached one time. So I'm kind of breaking the itinerant traveling preacher rules a little bit, but I preached this word. Um, I think it was a couple of years ago at legacy. And as I was preparing in prayer to come to Zoe and I was asking Jesus, what is the word that you would have me deliver to Zoe church? This is the word that I felt like he has led me to. And, um, we're going to start in Luke chapter 10. So if you have your Bible, open it up to Luke chapter 10. I really do believe I have a word from the Lord for you today. Luke chapter 10. We're going to read what I think is an infamous story. One of my favorite stories in the scripture about two sisters, Mary and Martha.

1:30 How many of you have read this passage before? Luke chapter 10. It's a good one. I mean, every single chapter in the Bible is good, but there are some that are just my favorites and Luke chapter 10 is one of those. So Luke chapter 10, we're going to be reading verse 38 through 42. Now I do something really weird at Legacy Nashville. I have everybody stand to their feet for the reading of the word of God. Would you guys be willing to bear with me today and stand up as we read the word? Luke chapter 10, verse 38 through 42, the Bible says this. Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. Everybody say Martha welcomed him in. You got to get that because a lot of times we paint Martha in this bad light, but I want you to notice who actually welcomed God into their home. And that was Martha.

2:27 And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. Everybody say Martha was distracted. I want you to notice that her problem was not her serving. Her problem was her distraction. Notice that. But Martha was distracted with much serving. and she went up to him and she said to the Lord, imagine somebody talking to Jesus like this, Lord, do you not care? How many of you prayed that prayer this week? Thank you very much. Right? Yeah. I heard one time somebody say a man is most like himself when he's screaming at God. And that's when you're really honest and vulnerable, right? Lord, do you, do you not care? Like if somebody were to see you praying like that in LA traffic, they'd be like, that person is crazy right there they see you in the Tesla autopilot Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me alone to serve all by myself?

3:39 Tell her then to get up and help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious. I don't know who the Bible is speaking to in this moment, but for some of you, you walked in this room today knowing that you are anxious, like Martha was anxious. And Jesus went on and said, you're anxious and you're troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Y'all say that with me. One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. that is the scripture today and I'm going to endeavor for the next 30 minutes to speak to you from the topic of how to host God all right how to host God that's what these two sisters did in Luke chapter 10 they invited God into their house and I don't know about you but I believe this about your church is that Zoe church in Los Angeles will be a church that as people come into this room, they will leave with the testimony and they will say that is a house that hosts God. I didn't just go to church, but I had an encounter with my creator.

5:02 Do you believe that? Well, let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for how you allow us to host you. And Lord, more than this is our house that we're cultivating, God, this is your house. And so we want to begin by saying, thank you, Jesus, for hosting us. You allowed us to be here. This is holy ground. Lord, I pray for a heavy, mighty, weighty anointing to rest upon each and every one of us today. As we dive into the word, may we all leave transformed in Jesus' name. And the church said, amen. You can be seated. How to host God. Anybody else in the room, you want to be, I'll say it like this in my country's language. You want to be a host of the Holy Ghost. Is that too much?

5:54 Can y'all handle my like Kentucky thing? I don't know. I mean, I know we're different, but yet we're all the same because we've been blood bought by the same Christ Jesus. and I'm a person that has always had a tremendous desire to host God. Ever since I got saved, I always wanted to have a real awareness that God was in the room with me. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, I don't just wanna do, like go through religious activities. Like, I wanna have a real relationship with a real person that really gave his life on the cross 2,000 years ago so that I could really be saved and really delivered of all of my sin and my bondage. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, I don't want to do just like religion. In fact, I can't do religion. The reason I left church as a kid, I was a prodigal, was because I didn't have a relationship with Jesus, but I had an interaction with religion and ceremony.

6:57 So if we've never met before, I don't think I know very many of you in the room. I was a prodigal. So when I was like 12 or 13 years old, despite the fact that I grew up in church, I remember sitting in a pew telling God, I will never surrender my life to you. I don't want to be a Christian. And I definitely don't want to be like my father who is in ministry and preach the Bible because preachers are poor. like i'm telling you it's it's it's really good to just be absolutely vulnerable transparent real and raw with god can i tell you zoe he can handle it he ain't got no problem with your honesty and so that's what i told the lord at 12 13 years old i was like ain't never gonna happen i'll get saved when i turn 40 jesus i'll come back to church i'll sit in the back road i'll I'll give my tithe and then I'll go to heaven when I die. So I had my own plan for salvation.

7:59 And obviously that didn't work out too well because when I was about 17 years old, I was a full blown drug addict. I actually left my parents' house before I graduated high school. And by the time I was 18, I was homeless and I was a heroin addict. Now you may not believe that today looking at me because you're like, man, you'd clean up kind of nice. You got them, you know, oatmeal, Japanese selvage jeans on. You know, there ain't no way, you know, you used to be a heroine. That was me, y'all. Like I was diagnosed as schizophrenic when I was 19. My best friend and my roommate, Andre, was shot point blank range in the chest, died in the street during a drug altercation. This was my life prior to meeting Jesus. They had me so heavily medicated. I thought I was crazy. I was seeing stuff. Anybody ever been there before? You don't have to raise your hand.

8:51 But that was my life. All right. So whenever I got saved, I didn't get saved as a result of somebody trying to evangelize me. Somebody trying to preach to me. Somebody inviting me to church with a track. I didn't get saved because I had a Bible in my room or because I had Christian television on the TV. When I got saved, I can testify today. I got really saved. I had a supernatural encounter with Jesus as he stepped into a drug infested apartment and spoke to me and said, you better come home right now. Or in six months, you're going to be dead or in prison. Now, this is my story. All right, this is my story. I'm just being honest with you guys, my bad. I should have gave a disclaimer. This sermon is rated R for real.

9:33 But nonetheless, here we are all together. And this is how I got saved. So when I got saved, I didn't get saved like coming into youth group thinking like, I'm going to give my life to a ministry. No, I gave my life to a person, right? And that's how all of us get saved. I don't know where you were when you got saved. I don't know exactly what church you were a part of when you made your confession, but I do know this. You got saved in the same state that I got saved in, which is a state of surrender. That's how we all get saved. It's not like, you know what? I've studied enough. I've decided to mentally assent to Jesus because I believe he has the right way for me. No, there was a moment in your life whenever grace became so heavy on your heart that you determined that you better yield and let go of your life so that you could actually find life in Jesus Christ. So you waved that white flag. You said, okay, I give up trying to do it on my own.

10:27 I received salvation. That's how you got saved. Well, you know, the same state in which you are saved is the same state that you're called to live in, which is a lifestyle of surrender. So I'm telling you, as we're talking about hosting God today, for me, like I don't want to live for anything less than actually really, truly, fully, completely hosting the savior of my soul. Because he said I could have a real relationship with him. Anybody else in here, you know what I'm talking about. Like I want to talk to a group of people today, because I believe you're in the room or you're watching online is that there is a holy frustration in your soul in this moment where you're like, man, I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm trying to be a good person. I'm trying to practice morality, but in reality, if I am honest with where I'm at today, Pastor Lyle, at night when I lay my head on the pillow and I ain't got nobody to talk to except for God, then I'm crying because I know there's gotta be more than what I've currently got.

11:32 Anybody know what I'm talking about? Well, I believe there's an opportunity for us to have more. I believe that there is an opportunity like these two sisters named Mary and Martha who really wanted Jesus to come into their house. They really wanted Jesus to come into their life that they actually show us some key and important principles from scripture that we too can practice to host God ourselves. Would you like to know what those are? Because we're gonna dive in. Now, I don't know about you, but I wanna be a good host of God. And if it's possible to host God well, then I suppose it's possible to host God poorly. You know, if Mary was a good host in this particular, on this particular occasion, like Martha was a poor host. Has anybody ever been hosted poorly before? You know what I'm talking about, right? Like when you've been hosted poorly, like, isn't it?

12:28 It sucks, right? Like when I first started traveling and preaching, like I used to be a missionary, right? So like I have been all over the place. I've preached in 20 different nations. When I moved to India, I didn't even have indoor plumbing. So it's all good. Like my spiritual mom told me, she was like, Hey, when you start traveling to preach, you are allowed to ask for one thing and one thing only, and that is water. And so I'm still doing that 20 years later. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. So like, I'm, I, I, you know, I have a bougie tendency, but you know, at the end of the day, you know, I'm, I'm trying to be holy and stuff. So like, I don't, I don't want to complain. Right. But at one point in time, uh, there is a state that it'll go unnamed Indiana that they invited me to. And they were like, Hey, we want you to come to this youth conference. And I was like, yeah, awesome. That's great. And so I was trying to be a Jesus hippie at the time. And I was like, Hey, look, you don't have to like put me in a hotel. Just put me with a family. Let somebody host me. It's all good. And they were like, yeah, that sounds great. We will put you with an incredible family. I'm like, awesome. I cannot wait. So I pull up to this house where I'm going to be hosted. And it's like, they're having a house party. Like, I mean, it's one of those house parties where it's like, no one even knows who's in charge. So like, I'm showing up, I've got my suitcase as the preacher. And I'm like, who owns this house? Like, I think I'm supposed to be staying here. Like I'm preaching at a youth conference this weekend. They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're the guy. You're the guy. I'm like, yeah, yeah. Where do I go? They're like, hold on just a second. Let me get my dad. You know, it was like kids everywhere. And, and so, you know, the mom and the dad, they come out, they give me a hug, sweetest people ever. And they say, Hey, you're going to be staying upstairs and to the right. It's our teenage bedrooms, uh, teenage son's bedroom. And we hope he cleaned it up for you.

14:18 Now, I don't know if you ever went into a teenage boy's bedroom that's gone unsupervised for like five minutes, but it smells like Axe body spray. It's, it's a, you know what I mean? And so I go in there and I'm like, oh, here's the bed where I'm going to stay. It's a mattress on the floor with a comforter that's been wadded up into a ball and it's sitting on the center. So I was like, all right, this is where I'm going to sleep. It's all good. You know what I mean? I used to sleep in a car, so this is fine. And so I picked the comforter up, I lifted up, and there is a brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tart that has been smashed into all of these tiny little pieces, and it's right there in the center of the bed. Now, by the time I left this house in Indiana, I was hugging these people. I was daffing them up. I was like, you guys are family. This is the best. And so I ended up loving it, but I can't necessarily tell you today that I was hosted well in that instance. You know what I'm saying? It's like, okay, that wasn't the best hosting experience. Uh, recently I was, I brought these pictures cause I thought they were hilarious. My little brother, he was at Disney world and, uh, he, he, he went for his anniversary and you know, he's just now starting his career. He doesn't have a ton of money to spend. And so he was like, I'm going to get me and my wife, a nice room at Disney world. And so whenever he checked in, they said, Oh, we're so excited that you're here for your anniversary. We've upgraded you and we've given you a room with a rooftop view. Now here's the, here's the room. I think so like the picture's a little zoomed in, but that's the balcony.

15:55 of the room. And he sent me this. He was like, bro, we got a rooftop view. I'm like, dog, that's literally the roof. Like, you got to go back down there and tell him like, you're not hosting me well. Recently, I went to Miami. You guys, you guys know, uh, pastor Rich Wilkerson. I know he's a friend of the house, friend of ours now. And, um, they invited my wife and I to come to a pastor's gathering there. And, you know, we had no expectations. We weren't speaking at the gathering, but they sent a car to come pick us up from the airport. And I was like, this is awesome. Like, you know, this is good hosting, right? Like, wow, this feels incredible. I feel like they've prioritized, you know, my preferences.

16:50 And so I jump in the back and I'm with my wife and she says, hi, by the way, she's pregnant and at home with our three other children. Her name is Allison. And she jumps in as well. And they have a cooler in the front seat and they open the cooler, unzip it. And then they hand back, they're like, here you go. Would you like a water? And it's a grapefruit seltzer. And we've never met, but grapefruit is my favorite flavor of all sparkling waters. All right. And so I'm like, yo, this is awesome. Like you're picking me up in a Uber black right now. And you have passed back to me my favorite flavor of seltzer water. And they're like, yeah, bro, we did a little research on you. And we learned that you like grapefruit seltzer. I'm like, where did you get this information? good hosting, right? I'm like, wow, that's good hosting. And you know what I realized about good hosting? It's whenever I make the preferences of my guest, my priorities to be a good host, you're going to have to make the preferences of your guest your priorities.

18:10 And so that's what we see happening in this moment with Mary. And that's exactly the opposite of what we see happening in this story with Martha. But if we are going to be people like Mary was in this story that are good host of Jesus, that we are hosting the Holy Spirit well, that we are hosting Jesus well with our lives, that we are hosting Jesus well with our prayer lives, that we are hosting Jesus well in this room as a church, we must be a people that take the preferences of our guests and make them our priorities. So we start asking ourselves questions like, What does Jesus really want from me whenever I pray? Like, how can I possibly be the best host of the Holy Spirit in the morning when I get out my coffee and my Bible and my Devo and I do my time with God?

19:08 How can I prioritize his preferences? If we are going to be a good host of the Holy Spirit, this is what we must do. Now, to give you a little context about this passage before I get into some points, is I want you to notice that Jesus, the Bible says that Jesus and his disciples were on his way, right? They were on their way. The Bible does not give us any indicator that they had any intention on stopping by the house of Martha and Mary. But because of the effort of Martha, Jesus pulled off and he said, you know what, I'll come in for a little while. I love this about Jesus because although Jesus is focused, on getting to where he needs to go. By the way, he was on his way to Jerusalem. Better said he was on his way to the cross. He was willing to pause for the cause of spending a little time with people. We can never forget that the purpose of Jesus's ministry was in fact people. People were never an inconvenience to the purpose of Christ Jesus. And how often do we treat people as inconveniences that are in our way as we are endeavoring to pursue our destinies.

20:29 I know it's LA. I know it's the city of dreamers. Nashville is not too dissimilar. And I hear people all the time talk about, I got to get to the place where God is calling me to go. Can I tell you, Zoe, that your destiny is not a place, that your destiny is not a measure of influence, that your destiny is not an income bracket. Your destiny is not a zip code. Your destiny is not a C-suite office. Your destiny is a person and his name is Jesus. And if you will walk hand in hand with Jesus and host him well, he will guarantee that you end up exactly where you're supposed to be because he is a good guide and a great shepherd. If you believe that, just say, I believe that this is what Jesus was all about. And Jesus, he knew he was headed to the cross, but he was always willing to stop for people. And there's a few other times in scripture where this comes up, Mark chapter six.

21:29 I don't know if you remember this, but whenever Jesus was walking on water, do you guys remember this story? When Jesus was walking on water in Mark chapter six, it says this, he saw the disciples straining at the oars because the wind was against them. Shortly before the dawn, he went out to them walking on the lake. Now catch this, he was about to pass them by. That's what the Bible says. But why didn't he pass them by? Because somebody said, Jesus, we need you in our boat. You see what I'm saying? Jesus, come over here. Jesus, we want to host you. Just like Martha and Mary said, hey, we know you're on your way somewhere, Jesus, but we want to host you. Come in here. There's another moment in the scripture. It's the story called the road to Emmaus. I don't know if you remember this story or not, but it's in Luke chapter 24. The Bible says, as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going further.

22:27 And then even in that situation as well, the men said, hey, stop. We want to have a meal with you. Can you please sit down and spend some time with us? And this is a key from scriptures away. If we want to host Jesus, if we really want to see him and spend time with him, then we've got to be people who invite him in. We're not just waiting on him to invite us in, but we're also inviting him in Jesus. we want you in our homes. Jesus, get in the boat. Jesus, come to the table. Jesus, whatever it looks like, we want to host you. We want you here. Let us know what are your preferences. We'll make them our priorities. We don't care if you mess up the set list. We don't want, we don't care if you change the planning center flow. Like if we get you, we don't fail. Isn't that the purpose of church? Like it's, it's, it's his house, right? Like we want Jesus. Am I preaching to anybody or, you know, like I want Jesus. So we have to be people like Martha said, you know, come on in here. And this is so important because oftentimes when I hear this passage preached, Martha's always demonized because she's a worker because she's a servant and not here, of course, but at my church in Nashville, people are always bashing Martha and they're saying things like, well, I don't need to serve. I just need to sit. I need to sit at the feet of Jesus. I'm just a prayer warrior. I'm not a worker. I'm just a worshiper. Can I say if there is in fact anybody in here thinking like that, that is an absurdity because Jesus loved Martha. He accepted her invite, not Mary's. And he also clearly enjoys her zeal for service. Matthew chapter 20, Jesus said this, the son of man came to serve. Matthew 23, Jesus said this, the greatest among you shall be your servant. Y'all help me preach this. Shall be your servant, right? So Jesus has no problem with Martha's serving. Jesus

24:36 doesn't actually rebuke Martha for serving. He doesn't rebuke her at all. In fact, he diagnoses her because Jesus is a great physician. Martha's problem wasn't that she had a desire to serve Jesus, but the Bible says that Martha's problem was that she was distracted by serving Jesus from what Jesus's priorities were on that particular occasion. What Jesus wanted on that day was for the sisters to sit at his feet. We don't know the last time that Jesus came to the house, maybe he had asked Martha for a turkey sandwich. We don't know. Maybe he said, hey, Martha, can you make a meal? Me and the disciples, we haven't ate for a while. That was the last time Jesus came over. We don't know. Maybe Martha was just rolling with old information. Maybe Martha was saying, well, we know that God once showed up back in the past whenever we did our services like this. Or I remember going to revivals as a kid when I was 12 and God would show up and move this way. So it must be that he wants us to do the exact same thing today.

25:50 You, you, you, you, you catching what I'm saying? No, if we want to host God's presence, we must discern what God wants presently because we are a people that are not called to live off of leftovers, right? In the old Testament, whenever God was feeding his people with manna, he said, don't try to, don't try to hold on to the manna. Don't store none in the fridge. The leftovers ain't good. I'm going to give you daily bread. So we've got to stay current with God. We've got to be a people that are consistently each and every time we want to host God, we're asking him, God, what are your preferences? What do you want from us today? What kind of prayers do you want me to pray today? What part of my heart do I need to give you access to? I'm not just running through the motions here. I'm not just saying the things that I said last time whenever I prayed that I knew that brought me closer to you.

26:46 Like, I wanna be honest, I wanna be real, and I wanna respond to your preferences and make them my priorities because whatever those are, that is what we're gonna do today because I want to be a host of God. so let me give you a thought here and i'll get to some points and we'll we'll pray is that i really do think that jesus as the great physician he doesn't so much rebuke martha as much as he diagnoses martha now when i look at martha's behaviors then i i've made this up by the way it's not a medical term but she has a real case of what i like to call dwms disorder DWMS distracted with much serving disorder. And like, you're not going to find this on WebMD, but you will find it in Luke 10. And I think that what Jesus as the great physician is doing is he's saying, Martha, you actually are wrestling with a disorder called distracted with much serving disorder. And this disorder actually has some symptoms and I'm going to share them with you because maybe one of them may fit for you in this season of your life. Here are the six symptoms. Number one, a complaining spirit. If this is where you're at right now in life, then maybe you want to consider, am I wrestling with a DWMS disorder?

28:16 What did Martha say? Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? that is a complaining spirit. The second thing is no reverence for authority. Martha invited Jesus into her house. And then the next thing, you know, she's rebuking Jesus in her house. This is God. And she says, do you not even care? Tell her then who does she think she is? She is trying to command God, telling God what God's going to do. That's what happens when you're distracted with much serving, you have no reverence for authority. The third thing is a selfish spirit. She said, my sister has left me to serve all alone. Isn't this what happens whenever you go through a difficult time, you get so inward focused and you began to see yourself as a victim of God's negligence. My sister has left me to serve all alone. The fourth thing is be demanding. She began to demand God, tell her to get up and help me. The fifth thing is focused on things, not relationships rather than be focused on the reality that God himself was sitting in her kitchen. She was too focused on what she was preparing for him rather than the reality of having access in relationship with him. The last thing is this emotional highs and lows, ups and downs. Come on in Jesus. I'm so excited to be going to church today. This is wonderful.

29:57 I'm serving. I'm pumped about what God is doing in my life. And then on Monday morning, I am so low and I am so angry and I am so upset and depressed. My life is the worst. Anybody ever been there before? You don't have to raise your hand. Yeah, I got you. Yeah, I see you, bro. Me too. Me too. Emotional highs and lows. So this disorder, DWMS, is actually brought on by a deficiency, but it's not a nutrient deficiency. It's not that you need more protein powder in your diet. The deficiency is not nutrition. The deficiency is intimacy. Come on, preach. we call that deconstruction I'm going to put God on trial. Well, really, truly, we're just unsure of what God is saying and doing now because we're wrestling through an intimacy deficiency and we're trying to distract our soul by doing stuff. I'm sure you've been there before. I know I've been there before and God's given us a prescription for how to treat this disorder. It's very simple. It's very singular.

31:31 It is this, choose the better portion. Sit down, look at the face of Jesus, gaze upon him, receive his words, and endeavor simply to do nothing more than host him well. Say, I'm here for you, Jesus. Whatever your preferences are today, that's what I'm here for. I am choosing the better thing. If you're anxious, let me give you a prescription today. Sit at the Lord's feet and listen to his teachings. If you're troubled today, can I encourage you sit at the Lord's feet and listen to his teaching. If you cannot stop complaining in your life, can I encourage you sit at the Lord's feet and listen to his teaching. If you're adverse to all authority, sit at the Lord's feet and listen to his teaching. If you are constantly being selfish, sit at the Lord's feet and listen to his teaching. If you just cannot, when it comes to dealing with people, sit at the Lord's feet and listen to his teaching. If you are riding an emotional rollercoaster in this season of your life, can I encourage you sit at the Lord's feet and listen to his teaching. So for us to be a people that host God well. And for us to be a church that hosts God well, let me leave you with these points. Number one is this. Always, everybody say always. Invite and welcome Jesus in because we want him more than we want anything else. Number two is this. Choose, Everybody say choose.

33:23 Intimacy first. See, intimacy must be chosen, my friends. It's very different than falling in love. You know, when you just fall into love, it's not necessarily a deliberate act. It just happens, which is why it's called falling, right? But once you have a relationship with Jesus and you're building a history with the Lord, you have to choose intimacy. You have to say, I am choosing that I will be consistent and I will choose and focus on the good portion. Number three is this, listen and obey his teaching. All right. Not only did Mary sit at the feet of Jesus in prayer, but she also listened to his teaching. And we have that same opportunity by opening up the word of God, sit at his feet and listen to his teaching. You know, before speaking, listen, prayer, my friends is not just a monologue. It's a dialogue. It's a conversation between two people. It's not you just screaming into the darkness. It's you sitting down and taking a moment to shut everything else out and listen to the one who fashioned your soul. That is what prayers.

34:30 The fourth thing is this, trust him to preserve our intimacy. You know, I think this is one of those things that a lot of us wrestle with because we look at everything we have to do in our life. We look at all the stuff that's vying for our attention and we say, you know, I just don't know if I'm gonna be able to pray today. You know, I've got a full-time job. I'm not sure that I'm gonna be able to pray today because I've got six kids. I get it. I'm about to have my fourth, but listen to what Jesus said in verse 42. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. That means that not only did Jesus welcome her into a place of intimacy, but Jesus by grace sustained her intimacy. It shall not be taken away from her.

35:25 Jesus will defend with you when you make hosting him a priority. He will defend the things that try to get in the way of your connection with him. So long as you choose it. He said, it's not going to be taken away from her. We've got to choose it. And this is something that we've got to always want, that we've got to always seek to do. It's something that we've got to be consistent with saying, I am going to be a host. This is something that we see in the life of Jesus, how he consistently was a host of the Holy Spirit. If you go back to Matthew chapter four and you look at the baptism of Jesus, there was a moment when he came up out of the water where the father spoke and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And we see this picture. The Bible says it was like a dove. It was the Holy Spirit that descended upon the son of God. And the Bible said the Holy Spirit came upon him and remained. So he was consistent in his hosting of the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you one last story and then we'll pray.

36:37 You know, if you're like me, you're busy, you got a lot going on and, you know, I'm pastoring a church and married kids, business, life, family, friends, all that. There was a time not too long ago that I laid down on my floor and I was telling the Lord, man, I'm honestly, I'm so sorry that haven't spent more time right here with you, just asking you, what do you want, God? I just wanna host you well. You ever been there before? Like, man, wow, it's just, it's been a lot. And, you know, sometimes like you close your eyes and you're in prayer and you just, your imagination, not necessarily distraction, but just your holy imagination, you know? It's like, imagine having a conversation with God. And I was doing that in this moment, laying down on my floor. And, you know, I looked over and I'm like, oh Jesus I'm just glad you're here you ever done this before three people it's amazing I love it I love it maybe you guys should try it out it's pretty fun just sitting there you're sitting there praying like Jesus I I want to spend time with you but I know you're really busy and I couldn't I don't know why that came up out of my soul it was like very organic it's like you got a lot of things going on like you're saving the world and stuff and uh so in this moment i felt like i heard the lord speak to me and say here you go here's my schedule and as i have my eyes closed i'm imagining looking at this paper and the paper is blank and god speaks to me there's the schedule just cleared it for you listen more than we want to host him he wants to be hosted by us and we can all host him by making his preferences our priorities so i don't know about you church but i'm just going to step in to this season with a renewed sense and desire that i will be a host of the lord i'm not just asking God to bless the things that I am involved in, but I want to get involved in what he is doing

38:47 because they are already blessed. Anybody else? Come on, let's stand to our feet.