SHIFT YOUR FOCUS | DAILY DEVOTION | Pastor Chad Veach

0:00 Hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another message from Zoe Church, Los Angeles. We are a community in L.A. that is all about the person and the message of Jesus. I'm excited to start a brand new series today called Daily Devotion. We're going to jump into Luke chapter 9. It's the first Sunday of the month here in L.A. We are jumping into August, and we want to take a moment to thank everybody that gives to and through Zoe Church. Just yesterday, we were able to help give away 1,100 backpacks to students that are in need as they go back to school. Thank you for your generosity as we help try and make a difference in people's lives. If you'd like to give today, go to our website, and you can give there. But let's jump into this week's message called Shift Your... Can I wait? Luke chapter 9.

0:52 We're starting a brand new series today called Daily Devotion. Daily Devotion. And I want to talk just for the next few weeks about God's heart for our life. God does not want you just to come to a building on a Sunday. God wants you to follow him every single day. And this is our prayer is that I'm telling you, Sundays should just be a celebration of everything God did Monday through Saturday. And I just want to confess, God is just as good, if not better, Monday through Saturday than he is when we gather on Sunday. And you're missing out if you're only getting the Sunday Jesus. You've got to get you some Monday Jesus. And so we are daily devoted to God, daily devoted. Raise your hand if you want to be a disciple of Jesus. Let me just see your hand. You want to be a disciple, okay? Now just remember you put your hand up.

1:45 Watch what Jesus says, Luke chapter 9, verse 23. Then he said, Jesus said, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross, how often? Daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it if someone gains the whole world and yet loses or forfeits their soul? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in glory and in the glory of the father and of the holy angels. Go back up to verse 23. Whoever wants to be my disciple. Let me give you a working definition of disciple. A disciple is a wholehearted, committed follower of the teachings and the teacher.

2:41 So let me just say that again. A disciple, anybody that's a disciple, is a wholehearted, committed follower of the teachings and the teacher, Jesus. So let me ask you one more time. Anybody want to be a disciple? Yeah, come on. That's all of our prayers. We want to be wholehearted. I don't follow God with half my heart. I follow God with all my heart. I am not halfway committed to Jesus. I'm all the way committed to Jesus. So I'm a wholehearted, committed follower of the teachings and the teacher. And he said, if anybody wants to follow me, they must pick up their cross. How often was it? Daily. What is your cross? Your cross is your ego, your agenda, your plan for your life, your will, your dream. You got to pick up that thing and deny yourself so you can follow God. You got to make life not about you. Now it's about him. And he said, anybody that dies to themselves will live for God. But if anybody that's still living, they're going to lose their life. I don't know about you, but I want to gain eternity and lose the world. Amen to that. I want to preach a message today. Write down the title. It's called shift your focus. Shift your focus. And I feel like we just got to get our eyes off the wrong stuff and we got to get our eyes on the right stuff. We got to stop looking at stuff that will take us out and start looking at things that will bring us in. There's a number of reasons why people don't follow God every day. There's a number of reasons. I want to just give you seven reasons to put on the screen. Some people don't follow God because their spirit is willing, but their flesh is weak. Some people don't follow God because they're busy or they're distracted.

4:31 Some of us are filled with so much shame and guilt over bad, poor decisions of what we've done. We don't follow God. Some people, we don't follow God because we're disappointed and we're filled with doubt. Some people don't follow God because of spiritual warfare. The devil is trying to stop you from following God. Anybody, you've ever experienced that before? The devil tried to stop you from following God. Every Sunday night, 11 o'clock, the devil tried to stop me from following I mean, God, McDonald's, McFlurries. so there are a number, some of us, we don't follow God because we got so much pride and self-reliance. We've got to discover today that the power is not in following God Sundays, it's in following God every single day. And I'll just say it to you this way, you cannot change your life until you change what you do every day. When you change what you do every day, you can then change your life. We start with motivation, but what keeps us in the story is our habits. You are a sum total of your habits. And if you just stay disciplined in following God, here's what spiritual maturity is. Spiritual maturity is long obedience in the same direction.

5:46 It's just long obedience. It's saying, man, I've been in church for three decades. I've been tithing for three, since I made a hundred dollars a week, I've been tithing. I just had long obedience in the same direction. I've been following God and serving God planted in the house of God. And now I can look back and say, man, when I was younger, I did whatever I wanted to do. I talked however I wanted to talk. I spent however I wanted to spend. But the more I followed God, long obedience in the same direction changed my life. I took my nuggets. I took my dogs. Who let the dogs out? I took my dogs on Thursday to Runyon Canyon. And I'm trying to teach my boys how to be hikers. Because every time I take them on a hike, I say, say this with me. yeah. I can do hard things. I can do hard things. That's right. So I took him to Runyon. I took a little video when we were at the bottom. I'm like, boys, where are we at? Runyon. That's right.

6:54 What are we about to do? Hike. That's right. Let's go. Who let the dogs out? Dogs on three, watch of these dogs. Two minutes into the hike, they're crying. Say it with me. I can do hard things. I can do hard things. That's right. Do you know how many times we had to stop for water and shade? I mean, it took us forever to get to the top of Runyon Canyon. And when we got to the top, I said, boys, look at the city the Lord has given us. Look at the land God has sent us to. Look at what God's about to do in LA. And the nine-year-old goes, can we go down now? yes, we can go down now. I can do hard things.

7:43 Maturity is long obedience in the same direction. I'm just going to keep showing up. I'm going to keep getting a connect group. I'm going to keep serving. I'm going to keep following. I'm going to pick up my cross daily. I'm going to deny myself. I'm not just going to serve God on Sundays. I'm going to serve God on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, daily. It's a daily habit. It's a daily decision. I didn't just get motivated. So you come to church on Sunday to get motivated, but you apply your faith on Monday to stay habits of following Jesus. You understand? And so I just want to give you four things that you need to do daily. Here's the first one is that you need daily presence. You need the presence of God every day in your life. You need to be in the presence of God. By the way, there ain't nothing like the presence of God. Once you get into the presence of God, you understand. No concert can touch this. I can go to Coldplay, see a CEO on the screen, and it don't touch this. You can go to SoFi, and you can see somebody throw a game-winning touchdown and win a Super Bowl, and it don't touch this. You can go to Crypto and see somebody hit a game winner, Luke, a three-year deal, and it don't touch this. You can go to Dodger Stadium, see Freddie hit a grand slam to win a World Series game, but it don't touch this, because there ain't nothing better than the presence of the living.

9:09 Come on, if you love God's presence. Come on, if you're addicted to God's presence. Ain't nothing like the presence of God. When I was growing up in church, we used to sing songs. there was this one song, when I was growing up, it took us a long time to sing one song. because the guys would just take forever to say what they're trying to say. But there was a song I love when I was in elementary, and it said, I just want to be where you are, dwelling daily in your presence. Take me to the place where you are. I just want to be with you. But man, did it take him a long time to say it. I just want to be where you are. dwelling daily in your presence.

10:05 I said, my God, it's going to take 30 minutes for you to do this. even though I hated the way this man sang that song, I'd be like nine years old being like, take me to the place where you are. I just want to be with you. I just want to be, because I've tasted and seen that nothing compares to being in the presence of the living God. And you need to recognize, you need to recognize that you're in a lot of people's presence every day. You're in your family's presence. You're in your roommate's presence. You're in your spouse's presence. You're in your coworker's presence. You're in the presence of a lot of different people. Everything that you follow, you're allowing them to have a presence into your house, a presence into your car. You're allowing that to be a voice into your life. That's why, listen, My influences don't choose me.

11:04 I choose my influences. Let me just say it to you this way. You show me your feed, I'll show you your future. Because you're deciding who your influence is going to be. And I have decided I need to get into God's presence because I want him to have all the influence over my life. And so I'm addicted and I'm hungry to be where he is. Look at this scripture. I love this. 1 Chronicles chapter 16. Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his presence continually. Seek his presence. I mean, go after it. There's things that you're going to do every day. Every day I drink coffee. Where are the coffee lovers at? If you drink coffee, come on. At our church, we're a coffee drinking church. If you love matcha, we have a deliverance ministry. We're going to pray that spirit at you.

11:52 I drink coffee every day. I eat and sleep every day. I try and get a smooch from Julia every single day. I discipline my kids every day. But every day I try and get into God's presence because I know that is the only thing that will satisfy. That is the only thing that will fulfill. That is the only thing that I need. I need his presence. As a deer pandeth for the water brooks, so my soul longs for his presence. You didn't come to Zoe today to see a worship team. You came so that when we worship, his presence falls like rain. You didn't come to hear a preacher today. You came because when the preaching of God's word goes forth, no matter who's preaching it, the presence of God is in the room, and the presence of God is all you need. You don't need more money. You need more Jesus. You don't need more opportunity. You need more God.

12:44 You don't need more stuff, more cars, more things. You need more of the Holy Spirit in your life, and it's a daily presence that you desire. You got to shift your focus. Stop focusing on the things you don't have. Start focusing on the things that you do have. I woke up and I have access to the one that told the son to get up this morning. I've got access to the presence of the living God. So you need daily presence. And here's how it comes for most of us. Write down number two. You need daily reading. Daily Bible reading. You need to expose your life to the Bible. Let me show you two verses and watch how Jesus emphasized these. Matthew, let's go six and then four. Matthew 6, verse 11, give us this day our daily bread. Now go down to Matthew 4, man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So twice he calls God's word bread. What is he teaching us? He's teaching us that the Bible is our sustenance, that we don't just live off of air one and whole foods. Okay, Trader Joe's too.

13:54 we live off of God's word. But in fact, put this on the screen. Jesus connects daily dependence with God's word. Just like you feed your body daily, your soul needs the nourishment, needs the nourishment of scripture. You need the Bible. This is so crazy. You think that you're studying it, it's studying you. And when I get into the presence of God, I do it through the Word of God. And this is the only book that's ever been written where the author himself comes to sit with you to show you what he wrote. And when I sit and I read this book, your word is a lamp unto my feet and it's a light unto my what? My path. It shows me what to do. It shows me what not to do. It shows me what to do when I haven't been doing what I'm supposed to be doing. And so God's word, I need daily reading because this is my true mirror. This is my true identity that shows me who I really am.

14:54 This book reminds me, you're a nobody trying to tell the world about a somebody. If I don't read it, I think I'm a somebody and that I'm bigger or greater than I really am. I am just a servant. Anybody else? If I forget to read it, I forget who I really am. And so you need daily reading because that nourishes your soul. It reminds you who you are and your identity. It strengthens what remains in your life. Look at this next verse. Look at Psalm chapter 1. I love these scriptures. Psalm chapter 1 verse 1. blessed is the man or the woman who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly clippers, nor stands in the path of the sinners, cowboys, nor sits in the seat of the scornful angel fans, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and what's the last word? Day and night. So God doesn't just want you to read the Bible in the morning. God wants you to read the Bible day and night. So in the morning time, I wake up and I set my agenda. Good morning, Holy Spirit. Teach me, lead me. I'm going to die to my stupid agenda and my dumb dream.

16:06 Your way's better. Your will's better. And as I read God's word in the morning and the night, it teaches me. It leads me. In fact, put on the screen, it's not just about reading the Bible in the morning. It's about letting it rest in your mind and letting it shape your decisions all day long. It's not just about just going like, I did my reading, done. Well, you know, I did my reading today. Yeah, I did my reading. Do you even read the Bible? For sure. I read it every day. And I read, I just read it. No, the point of Bible reading is so that this thing governs our decisions and teaches me what to do. Uh-uh, I ain't going there. I'm not spending that. I'm not talking like that. Y'all can gossip. I ain't gossiping. Y'all can be deviant. I'm not being deviant. Y'all can stay at home on Sunday. I'm going to be planted in the house of God.

17:07 You cannot tithe. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So it leads me and guides me every single day. And it says to meditate on his word both day and night. Meditation is not a hot yoga idea. Meditation is God's idea. And God wants you to meditate on the Bible. He wants you to not just listen to podcasts and listen to preachers. He wants you to meditate on the Bible. When you, God, let me say it this way. God speaks loudest and clearest through his word. and so I read it and I get a daily reading and I get a daily reading look at Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 it says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate in it day and what and day and night there it is again that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success Let me see your hand.

18:06 Pull. If you'd like to be a success or have success, let me see your hand. Come on, put your hand up if you want to be a success. So the Bible just taught you how to be successful. It just taught you how to prosper. He said, if you meditate in this word both day and night, and you're careful to observe everything that I wrote, then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will make your way successful. It doesn't matter what your GPA was. It doesn't matter whether you went to community college or you graduated from an Ivy League school. If you meditate on that book day and night, you be careful to observe all that's written in it. God will make your way prosperous and God will make your way successful. I don't know about you, but it sounds like this book has all the answer for me to be a wholehearted, committed follower of the teachings and the teacher. So how could you follow the teachings if you never opened the book?

19:04 There used to be like cheesy, corny preachers that would be like, you spend more time on Facebook than you do the book. And they were like, oh. No, he didn't. He woke up and chose violence. you know it never motivated somebody you spend more time on tiktok than you do i don't know nothing rhymes nothing's there it's shame and guilt never led me to read my bible wanting to be in the presence of the king and wanting to know god and desiring to pick up my cross daily to learn who I'm really supposed to be. That's what motivated me. By the way, there are so many mornings I don't feel like reading the Bible. There are a lot of mornings I don't feel like going to church. I don't feel like worshiping. But the thing I've learned about feelings is that feelings come and feelings go. I'm not building my life off feelings. I'm building my life on faith. And by faith, I open this book and say, speak, your servant is listening.

20:24 So we got to get into his presence daily. And we got to get into his word daily. There's a study recently done, and they say, reading your Bible once a week, we'll do nothing in your life. Reading your Bible twice a week will do nothing for your life. If you read your Bible three times a week, no growth. The moment you get to four times, life change begins to happen. I just want to encourage Zoe people, let's get into the book day and night, and let's study and learn about who God is and who we are. Come on, clap and give him a praise today. I'm going to get my Bible on both day and night. So it's daily presence. It's daily reading. Here's the third one. We need daily prayer. We need to pray every day. We got to pray just to make it today.

21:17 That's why we pray. This is AMC Hammer fans right there. Look at this. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 17. Pray without ceasing. That's all the time, just praying. And I want to encourage us. we want to develop at Zoe a prayer life. By the way, I'm so excited to announce to you this last Thursday at All Church Prayer, we had the most amount of people we've ever had in All Church Prayer ever. Come on, clap for everybody that's coming on Thursdays to seek God. You want to know why they're showing up on Thursdays at 10 a.m.? Because they're hungry for the presence of God, because they know that we need to pray. Prayer is not me getting God onto my agenda. Prayer is getting my life onto his agenda. I don't come to God and tell him, Lord, I need a car and I need more money and I need a house and I need a job. God is not a genie in a bottle and I'm just trying to get all my stuff. No, here's a powerful prayer. Pray this week. Not my will be done, but your will be done. When you start praying, God, it's not about what I want. It's not about what I need. I know you are good. I know you are faithful. I know you're going to take care of me.

22:25 It's not about what I need. What do you need? How can I serve? How can, here's my gifts. Here's my talents. Here's my time. Here's my treasure. You know, the Bible says when you pray, God already knows what you need. There's nothing you're praying about today that God's like, wait, what? hold on wait what hold on slow down you said what yeah god and like you know in in then and so and so and that and god's not in heaven going like this is crazy i just i want to apologize i had no idea you were going through that and I'm going to fix it right now. And they are in so much trouble.

23:17 No, God says before you pray, he already knows what you need. And I don't know about you, God has sorted things for me that I didn't deserve. God did things for me that I didn't even pray about. How about you? And so when you pray, you need to pray to a God that is for you, not against you. You need to pray to a God that wants to bless you beyond your wildest dreams. And because I know how faithful and compassionate and merciful and good he is, I stopped praying for stuff and I started praying, not my will, but your will be done. And it's a daily prayer. It's a pick up my cross prayer. It's a die to myself prayer. It's going, you know what? I got all this stuff I think I need, but I have found that the things I thought I needed, God knew I didn't need. I have found things that, you know, some of the best answered prayer in my life has been when God said no. How about you? And if you weren't careful, you would have married the wrong person. You should have seen the joker before me that Julia was dating. I'm just saying.

24:32 I'm just trying to preach today. I'm just trying to talk about it. Am I still hurt? No, I'm good. Just trying to testify about the goodness of God in her life. But prayer is that thing, you know, when we pray, it's expressing gratitude. Prayer is a conversation with God. You know, God is not impressed with your volume or your accent. God is not moved when you pray in a certain style. Some of the best prayers you could pray are simply saying the name Jesus. and confessing your need and your dependence on God. And so daily we pray.

25:25 We pray because we need prayer. D.L. Moody once said, when I stopped praying, coincidences stopped happening. You ever notice when you're a person of prayer, it's like, man, I was just praying for them. Man, I was just praying for them. Man, didn't we just pray yesterday? And God just starts moving. Why? He's looking for somebody that would pick up that cross die to themselves and say, I'm all in. He is not interested in attendance. He is interested in disciples. So it's daily presence. It's daily reading. It's daily prayer. Here's the last one. You need daily rhythm, daily rhythm. Just get into that flow, get into that rhythm. Ain't nothing like getting in God's rhythm. Nothing like getting in that flow. I love Jesus. Jesus says, come to me, all you who are burdened and heavy laden and I'll give you rest. I love how the message translation says, it says, come to me and I'll teach you the unforced rhythms of grace. When you walk with Jesus, it's just easy. There's a flow. There's a dance. There's a rhythm. It's like, have you ever seen somebody dance that's good at dancing? Have you ever seen somebody who's like effortless?

26:36 If you watch me dance, you're like, let's lay hands on him. Let's just, we cast out that spirit of robot. Lord, we just thank you right now. But you watch somebody that's just got flow and rhythm. I just marvel like, wow, what would that be like? When you follow God every day, you get into this daily rhythm where it gets easier to follow God. It gets easier to pick up your cross. It gets easier. Worship team, come join me. It gets easier to serve him. It gets easier to love him. I'm just telling you when you follow God, it doesn't get harder. It gets easier. And what if we got into that unforced rhythm of grace? Where do you read the Bible and what time? Where do you pray and how do you pray? Where do you get tapped into God's presence? Get into that rhythm in your life. We do this thing at our, at our house. We play this game on our basketball hoop called around the world and around the world, you got to hit five shots going to the baseline and five shots back. And we kind of got so into this that people that come over, we time them to see how fast they could do the five and the five. And I wish to God, I didn't come from such a competitive family, but the Lord blessed us with it. And so Julia and my son, Winston, they're like trying so hard to beat their record and their time and to get around and all these people, you know, we do five and five. And then as soon as they finish, what's my time? What's my time?

28:15 What's my time? And then someone will say, you did it, you know, a minute 25. Oh, a minute 25. Oh gosh. Let me go again. Let me go again. I can beat it. And what I've learned about this game around the world is that somebody could do really well if they get into a flow, they get into a rhythm, but if they get stuck at a shot and they can't hit it, man, that could take them forever. And then you can see them, they're just defeated. They're like, why am I even shooting? I'm not going to beat my PR. This is such a dumb game. I hate this. But if they get in that flow and they get in that rhythm, they'll finish and they'll be like, what was my time? And they'll tell, someone will say, this is what your time was. And like, knew it, knew I was going to kill it, but it's all about rhythm. Following God is just a rhythm. Just getting into your rhythm. So I go to church on Sundays. Every time I get paid, I just tithe. I don't even think about it.

29:12 I'm in a connect group because I need to be discipled and I got to find freedom. I serve at my church. Why? Because I've been served so much by Jesus. How could I not serve him. And I help I love my city. Why? Because God's got a burden for Los Angeles. And it's not just going to happen through prayer and worship. We need to serve our city. And I just found myself getting into the rhythm of God's grace. My prayer for you, my prayer for us, online families, Zoe family, my prayer is that we would daily be devoted to Jesus. Just get into that rhythm. morning time I wake up get my coffee good morning Jesus just want to say good morning to you I love you I'm thankful today help me to die to myself and what I want I want to say, God, today is the day you've made.

30:08 I will rejoice and I will be glad in it. Come home from work and all your activities and before you rest tonight. God, I'm just thankful. We do this thing at our house called highs and lows. We go through the highs and the lows. And you know, no matter how high the high is and how low the low is, what you find is God was good and faithful the whole day long.

30:36 Look here, two more scriptures. Look at this, Psalm 5, 3. My voice you shall hear in the morning. Oh Lord, in the morning I will direct it to you. And I will look up. Tomorrow morning, Monday morning. Worst morning out of the whole week. Somebody say amen.

30:59 Tomorrow morning. I'm going to look up and in the morning you're going to hear my voice. And I'm going to direct it to you because you're so good. Psalm 141 verse 2. Let my prayer be set before you as incense, the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice. I love those verses because all through the Bible, in fact, the Bible mentions the word daily 60 times. 60 times the Bible says daily, daily. every morning and every night make it about Jesus. And I just want to encourage us to go long obedience in the same direction. I'm going to let my morning be about God. I'm going to let my evening be about God. I'm going to let my life be about God. Why? Because every day I'm going to pick up my cross. I'm going to deny myself and I'm going to shift my focus, not from what I want, but from what God wants. He said, if you do this, look out because you're going to gain your life because if anybody loses their life, they're going to gain real life.

32:01 And I just want to say to you today, let's die to ourself so we can live for our Jesus. If he's looking for disciples, if he's looking for disciples, say we raise our hand again, say I'll be a disciple. I'll be a wholehearted, committed follower of the teachings and the teacher. And I'll do everything in my power to morning to night to serve and follow God. Say, well, I'm a believer. The Bible says even the demons believe and they tremble. God's not looking for believers. He's looking for those that would pick up that cross and say, no longer do I live, but Christ lives through me. Amen to that. Come on, let's clap and thank Jesus today.

32:51 Stand to your feet. So thank you so much for listening to this week's message. Again, I want to just remind everybody, hit the like and subscribe button wherever you are listening and join us from. And also, if you don't mind, share the message on social media and let's help spread the word to as many people as need hope and life today. Thank you for joining us and we'll see you next Sunday.