Best of 2022: Staying Connected to God: A 60 Day Challenge (Part 1 of 2)

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Call 800 the letter A and the word family or donate at focusonthefamily.com slash hope and your gift will be doubled. If you fall, if you do wrong, you know, just like in the Lord's Prayer, you know, he said, Forgive us our sins as we forgive others. He already has paid for that sin 2000 years ago, which means he already knows the ones you haven't even done yet. And he paid for those two so that we won't stay disconnected from the very source of love and life and the meeting of our deepest longings and the leading us on this healing journey, this adventure of life. There's nothing better. And all you have to do is stay connected to him.

The fruit happens naturally. That's Pastor John Burke, and he's with us today on a best of 2022 Focus on the Family. And thanks for joining us. Your host is Focus President and author Jim Daly, and I'm John Fuller. John, these can be tough questions, but do you know someone who's 100% in tune with God?

This is a tough question. I'd have to say I know people, I've known people who are really close to and they hear God a lot. I've never known anybody that's 100% in touch with God.

It's kind of like who got a perfect score on the SAT. But, you know, hey, 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18 tells us, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And what a great reminder. And it does get difficult. I got to admit that we get into squabbles maybe with our spouse, our kids, things chew at us to where did we really get an A plus in how we reflect God's character? Maybe not always, but the good news is he makes a way for us to repent, to try again and do over those things that we don't do so well the first time. Today we're going to give you a clear picture of what it looks like to do life with God, to challenge yourself actually to deepen that relationship with the Lord. So that more often than not, you're responding exactly the way you should.

I like the way you put that. And John Burke is the right man to help us unpack this. He's the pastor and founder of Gateway Church in Austin, Texas. He's married to Kathy.

They have an adult son and an adult daughter. And he's the author of a number of books. One that we're going to be talking about today is called Soul Revolution, How Imperfect People Become All God Intended. And we have that here at the ministry. Check the program notes for details or give us a call.

800, the letter A in the word family. John, welcome back to Focus. Thanks for having me back, Jim. It's so good to have you. In from Austin.

In from Austin, Texas. I think Amy's ice cream is pretty good. You're right. There's a couple down there though, right? Oh. Amy's just one of those great ice creams. There's great food.

When it gets hot, you want ice cream. That's it. Hey, listen, obviously you're a pastor, but there was a time, maybe even when you were a pastor, which is probably the core of my question, but there was that time when you really struggled with God over trusting him. I think that's every believer's challenge. I mean, Lord, seriously. There was a time? Yeah. If, then, those kind of questions.

If you're so good, then why is this happening to me? Yeah. And yeah, I love that refreshing idea that even pastors have that challenge sometimes too, even though they know the word really well. So what was the battle for you in trusting God?

Well, there hasn't been one. I appreciate that. No, I really do think, you know, God is trying to peel us like an onion down to the core of who we are and who he is.

Why is that? What is his goal in that? Well, I think it gets to what he really wants, but I think part of getting to that, he doesn't force us. He leads us gently, sometimes not so gently. And so my first disappointment, you know, I was not necessarily, I wasn't a believer.

I was an engineer before I became a pastor, but my dad died of cancer. And I remember standing at his grave site and looking at, you know, these two dates separated by a dash. And I was just looking at them and I was thinking about how life gets summed up in two dates in a dash. You know, when we're born, when we die, and yet there's this dash in between. Yeah. And what's the dash for, right? What are we going to make of the dash?

What's it really about? And as I was standing there just thinking about that, you know, my dad had kind of defined success the way everybody defines success in our culture. You know, you make a lot of money, you have a great family, you know, take great vacations and, you know, you're independent, financially well off and all that. And yet on his deathbed, he had said something to me.

He said, John, I'd give it all back if I could just have my health and my family. Wow. And that marked me.

Yeah. And I stood there thinking about that and it actually led me on a journey coming to faith in Jesus. Yeah, I mean, that's really good. Let me pull you back a bit because in the book you also mentioned an experience with your dad about building a train, I think, when you were a boy. And that had a good analogy for you.

You learned something out of that. I don't know why you took so long to come to Christ, John, but I mean, what was that analogy with the train set and building it? Yeah, when I was, you know, I don't know, maybe eight, ten, my dad got one of those HO train sets. You remember those, you know, electric trains. But we decided to build a Colorado-like landscape, Pikes Peak, you know.

Beautiful. We did. And, you know, so we paper macheed, we sculpted it, we laid out the track, it went through mountains and tunnels and there were, you know, towns and all this. And it was amazing.

It took us, you know, I don't know, five months probably to build it. And it was awesome. And when it was done, we high fived and, you know, we turned it on and it went around and it was just, it was amazing. But after about a month of watching the train go around and around, it started to lose its interest. And what I realized looking back is that it wasn't just the train moving and going around that was so wonderful about that. It was me and my dad doing it together. Uh-huh, sure.

It was us making it together. The point for us is that there are a lot of dreams we have, there are a lot of hopes, there are a lot of ambitions. They're not bad. They're not necessarily bad. In fact, many of them are good, but many of them are like a finger pointing somewhere. And I believe where it's pointing is relationship.

Without the relationship, first with God and then with others, all those other things, they lose their meaning. They're just a train going around and around. Yeah. So that's one of the things I talk about in Soul Revolution. We all have deep longings. They're good.

I think they're from God. But sometimes we have shallow strategies. Huh. In other words, we don't really understand how are these deepest longings going to be met. But what if you have all those but you still don't have contentment? Right. So our deepest longings, when we start to drill down, they're spiritual.

Right. They're what God promises by His Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, chillness, faithfulness, self-control, those kinds of things. And our deepest longings only get met when we understand what God's deepest longing is too. And God's want, God's dream is for intimate relationship with you.

With me. Yeah. Let me get into that a little bit because in the book you talk about God's longings. I don't know that I've ever thought of that other than God loves us and God built us for relationship with Him.

But I didn't carry it to the next conclusion, which is why did He do that? Yeah. And that's your point. Well, and if you think about it, you know, if His main desire was to get people to do right and quit doing wrong, if He's God, couldn't He make us? Couldn't He force us to stop doing wrong and do right?

Right. He could. So why doesn't He? Well, because there must be something deeper He wants. He allows free will even against His will. Why? Well, because you can't have love without free will.

You can't. Exactly right. I mean, let's say you fall in love with some person, right? And you want them to love you back. You could shower them with gifts, right? With good things. But they might love the gifts, but not so much you still.

Right? So you can't actually buy real love. You could try to force them. I guess you could put a gun to their head and say, Marry me or love me or – and they might, out of fear, parrot it. But we would all know that's not love.

Love must be free. That's true for God as well. And so that explains a lot of why God allows the things He allows in this world and even uses our disappointments to show us what it is deep down we really are longing for as well.

No, that is so good. You know, it's interesting, though, because we typically in the church will lean toward living a life that's more perfect, that is sinless, because it's pretty obvious in Scripture that's the goal. But the irony of ironies is the Lord is saying everything that you've just said, that you're going to learn more about me through those valleys that you go through, sinful valleys, right?

And we don't really – we don't understand that, I think, as well as we should. We're not – we tend to think of God as like a grandfather who's shocked at our behavior that would have never thought that you could do that. But He knows everything. He knows how we behave as human beings, sinful human beings.

Nothing is going to shock Him. And the other incredibly freeing truth is that the life God wants with us is so simple. It's so simple.

It really is. And we don't have to work real hard. We don't have to try real hard. You know, when my dad said that on his deathbed, the reason it struck me is because what someone says as their last words is what – It's poignant.

That's the salient point of life to them, right? Well, you know, Jesus did the same thing. He told us what matters most, and it's one thing. There's only one thing you have to do as a Christian. Listen up.

Yeah, lean it in. But think about it. When Mary and Martha were preparing dinner for Jesus and the disciples, remember? You know, and Martha's busy, busy, and she's frustrated with Mary, sitting there listening to Jesus. And Jesus says to her, Martha, you're working so hard.

You're so stressed out. There's only one thing necessary. And Mary's chosen it. Okay, so just pause. Like, one? Only one thing is necessary? We better figure out what that one thing is and focus on that. And that is the same thing Jesus was saying his last night on earth. So John chapters 13 through 17 is actually what I base Soul Revolution, the book, on. Because Jesus said to us what was most important, and it's the same one thing. So the one thing he said to Mary and Martha was listening.

Listening to the Lord is what's most important. But he said it in a different way his last night on earth. So he knows he's going to leave.

He's trying to get it across to them. John chapter 15, he says, look, I am the vine, you are the branches. And I believe they're actually going from the upper room down to the Garden of Gethsemane. I think they were going through the vineyard. He picks up a branch, and he goes, let me just stick it in your head, guys.

It's this simple. A branch doesn't have to work hard to produce fruit. All it has to do is stay connected to the trunk, the vine. And fruit happens naturally. I'm the vine, you're the branches, stay connected to me, and you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do some good things.

No. You can build big businesses. You can have great families. You can do this and that. But nothing that he intended. Nothing that gets at the deepest longings.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. So this would be the one thing. That's the whole point that I'm trying to get across in Soul Revolution. That actually, all we have to do is learn to stay connected moment by moment to God's Spirit.

And the rest of the things take care of themselves. John, that's the core of the book, this idea of the 60-60 experiment. So describe what that is, and let's talk about it.

Well, let me tell you how I came to it. Because just like anything else, many times it only comes through disappointment. Trying to get my deep longings met with a shallow strategy, and God using that to show me how do I get what I really want with connection to Him. So when we planted Gateway Church, nothing went as planned. And here's a disclaimer. Normally with the Lord, it doesn't work out the way you think it should. It's rare.

Yeah, and we all know that, but when it actually hits, our response is different, right? So we were supposed to launch in the General Cinema movie theater. We had built this core group, raised money.

We sent out invitations and mailers. And two weeks before, General Cinema Los Angeles calls me and says, you can't do church in our movie theater. It's bad for business. So I go back to the guy in Austin who signed the contract. Well, he wasn't supposed to sign the contract apparently.

I'm talking to lawyer friends. I'm trying to figure out what to do. We're going to have a bunch of people show up in two weeks and no one, we can't meet.

And nothing worked. And finally, in desperation, finally, we call prayer meeting of our core group. And on my way out the door to this prayer meeting, the phone rings. This is back when phones rang. You know, when you had to go back and get them. You didn't put them in your pocket.

I'm holding my cell phone. And it was a pastor friend in Cincinnati who had this prompting to get someone he had led to the Lord connected to our church who was moving to Austin. And I told him, well, I don't know if we're going to have church. And I told him why. And he said, well, I think there's someone in my church who might know someone in the movie industry. You want me to talk to him? And I said, sure. I didn't think about it.

Right. We go and we pray. The next week, I was like one desperate attempt. I go back to the movie house in Austin. And when I walked in, the guy goes, well, you guys have good connections.

I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, you haven't heard? He said, the president of General Cinema in New York called the Los Angeles office and said, work it out with the church in Austin.

So you're good to go. That was a good friend. Well, it was God's prompting of my friend to call me.

And he knew someone who knew someone who knew the president. Now, I thought everything was going to go great. Six months later, because, hey, God worked it out.

Yeah. But then six months later, we get kicked out. And then we had to move to six different locations during two years.

Every time we moved, we lost people were reaching me. It was so frustrating. I'm like, Lord, what am I doing wrong? And I got to the end of myself in disappointment and frustration and frustration with God. Yeah.

Because he's not doing his will the way he's supposed to. And look what I'm trying to do for you. Look what I'm doing for you. Look at all I've given for you. And in that, he started whispering something into my mind over and over when I would start complaining for about a year. But it was the same thing every time. Am I enough?

Hmm. Am I enough? And at first I was mad.

I was like, what? I left my engineering career to follow you into ministry. I left that ministry to come plant a church to help reach people. What do you mean am I enough? Haven't I showed?

And then I realized, oh, I guess not. Because the truth is, if God, you know, loving God, loving my family, loving the people who are coming, and even with the difficulties that come, is not enough. God has to do things my way or I get mad and angry and frustrated with him. And so what I realized in this, and this is getting to the core of this whole 60-60 experiment in Soul Revolution, is Jesus' prayer, what he taught us to pray is, your kingdom come, God, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Because God's will mostly is not done on earth. Because we spend most of our time trying to get my will be done.

And that includes Christians and even pastors. And so I spent a whole year just practicing waking up every morning, surrendering my will, and trying to only do God's will during that day as best I understood it. Right? And it was amazing. Well, and that's the challenge you put in the book. So let's talk about 60-60. What are you challenging your readers to do?

Yeah. So it came from that year of this experiment I did personally, and the joy I started to feel. The peace I started to feel. A deeper love for my children.

I mean, these things that I really wanted, it was amazing. And I'm mowing the yard one day, and I'm talking to the Lord about it. And I'm just saying, I wish the people in my church could understand how great this life is with you. And I had the thought, do an experiment for 60 days. You know, it takes time to change a habit. Right. So 60 days, every 60 minutes, set your watch beeper to go off, set an alarm to go off, or something to remind you, abide in me, remain in my love, as Jesus said in John 15, you know, and you will bear much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. So just get them to try it for 60 days and see what happens. And we did, thousands of people have done this experiment, and it's life-changing. That's amazing.

It's life-changing. Yeah. But it's what Jesus said, over and over.

Right? Paul said it in Galatians chapter 5, 5, 16, walk by the Spirit, and you won't carry out the desires of the flesh. You don't have to try to stop sinning, or try to break that habit, or this habit, or that addiction. Just walk by the Spirit, and you won't do that.

Instead, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, all that will start to grow. Yeah. Only one thing is necessary, Martha. Listen. It's the one thing. So we have to learn to stay connected.

So that's the experiment. You know, John, in that regard, some people that might read the scripture says, you know, pray unceasingly. And you go, seriously, how do you even do that? How do you, you know, you got to go to do your banking, you got to work. How do you pray unceasingly, like you're constantly in a state of prayer? It has that feel to it, like, man, it sounds impossible to do every hour, every 60 minutes. But, yeah, people, really, John?

I mean, really? And that's what I like to say is, that's not what we're doing. We're not trying to beat the Muslims in, instead of five times of prayer a day, we're going to do 12. Right. That's not it.

That's not it. It is learning to do life with this God who wants to do life with us, who truly loves us more than we can possibly imagine. And God is so good. I mean, this is the thing is we've got to realize how much he loves us. In fact, one little experiment I've asked people to do sometimes is to realize that all love we experience is borrowed love. You know, this hit me one time when my children were little. And, you know, when your children are little, they're so cute, they're so wonderful, but they're cuter when they're sleeping.

Not always, those little cute eyes. And, you know, they're just there and there's a little angelic face sleeping. And one night, I was just watching my daughter sleep and just praying over her. And I just had this overwhelming sense of love for her, you know, just overwhelming. And in that moment, I heard the whisper of God say, I love you more. And it shocked me. Right.

I mean, what an audible. It was just a thought. It came out of left field.

Came out of left field. I know the feeling. But then as I started to ponder it, you know, the Bible tells us God is love. There is no love apart from him, which means that all the love I've ever felt or given is just borrowed love. And he loves me more and he loves you more. Whoever whoever you are, whatever you've done, it doesn't matter. He loves you more than you love your children, your spouse, more than you've experienced love from your grandparents, your parents. It's all borrowed love.

Yeah, it's so good. And the point of that is unless we realize who God is and that because of what he's done for us in Christ, he did that. So we will walk with. He didn't do that just to get us into heaven one day. And believe me, I wrote about heaven.

I know about that. Right. That's not why he wants us to do life with him. In this loving relationship, that's what Jesus was trying to get across in John 15.

As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Right. Yeah. And no greater love than to lay down his life and abide, he said, in that love.

And you will abide in my love when you obey me, when you obey my commands, when you do what I what I say, when you listen, listen and respond. So that's the 60 60 experiment. Yeah. So what I say is it's not stopping every 60 minutes to pray. It's not that if you do that, it's good.

It's just totally missing it. What it actually is, is it's trying to reorient ourselves from a habit of ignoring God most of the day to realizing that God is with us all through the day and loves us and actually wants to guide and help us. Yeah. And I think what what helps people is realizing it's not changing your life. It's reorienting your life.

So in other words, you don't have to change necessarily anything you're doing, but do it with the Lord. Think about it this way. You're already going through life talking to yourself anyway. OK, what am I going to do now?

Oh, why did that person do that? Oh, wait, no, no, no, no. You've got this constant conversation in your head between you and yourself. Just let God in. He already knows there's nothing we can hide from him. So just let him in, understand that he is kind and merciful. He's not condemning. There's no condemnation for us in Christ Jesus. That's grace. So that what it Romans eight one. So grace is so that we can fulfill the intent of the law.

That's what it says. How? By those who set their minds on the things of the spirit, not the things of the flesh. So it's the 60 60 ideas, where do we set our minds moment by moment throughout the day? That 60 minute interruption interrupts our old habit of forgetting about God and not listening and not necessarily being willing. And it reorients us to be able to go, Lord, how did I do last 60 minutes listening and hearing and abiding, staying connected to you?

And, you know, out of boy yourself for the times you did. Don't be harsh on yourself because you'll you'll miss it more than you get it right. But you're learning such great insights from Pastor John Burke about staying connected with God and being intentional about every 60 minutes for 60 days connecting with God. I hope you've been inspired to take up the challenge on this best of 2022 focus on the family program. The grace aspect that John talked about is so important. It allows us to experience freedom in Christ.

And this is why focus on the family exists. We want to encourage you in your relationship with the Lord and give you the resources you need to step out in faith. And if you're having some trouble in that area, whether you've been hurt by past relationships or you would like to develop more courage in your faith, we have caring Christian counselors who can give you some direction and get you on a better path toward healing and engagement. Yeah, and we also have Pastor Burke's terrific book Soul Revolution that's available here at Focus on the Family. And, you know, the great thing about getting it from focus is that money goes right back into ministry.

We're not paying shareholders as we close out the year. I'd like to ask you to consider joining us in ministry. We hear from people every day, couples heading for divorce, parents who are stressed out and encountering a crisis with their parenting and others who just need a compassionate ear.

They are looking for answers to some of life's toughest situations. And you can give these families hope when you support Focus on the Family. Your prayers and financial gifts provide scripture based resources and programs to save and strengthen families just like yours. And when you donate today, a gift of any amount, we'll send you a copy of Pastor Burke's book Soul Revolution as our way of saying thank you for being in ministry with us. So on behalf of all the families that you're going to help through Focus on the Family, let me say thank you. To set up a consultation with one of our counselors or to donate and get your copy of Soul Revolution, call 800, the letter A in the word family, 800-232-6459.

Or go online. We'll have all the details in the show notes. On behalf of Jim Daly and the entire team, thanks for listening today to Focus on the Family. I'm John Fuller inviting you back as we continue the conversation with Pastor John Burke and once again, help you and your family thrive in Christ. This club could be your best adventure yet. Learn more and start your free trial at adventuresinodyssey.com slash radio.