Introduction: How do you spell Love?
• Love is spelled TIME

What is God’s Love Language?
1. Gifts
2. Quality Time Together
3. Physical Touch
4. Words of Affirmation
5. Acts of Service

I believe that it is quality time.
Btw. This is also true for your kids.
– I have always struggled with a consistent Quiet time.
– Getting in the word a lot but not praying and meditating in the word.
– I was really struggling with this a couple of weeks ago.
o Excerpt from the Rock the Road and the Rabbi
o Mule Deer Hunting Analogy
o Saturation produces Maturation

Ways to structure your quiet time.
1. Get up and get dressed.
2. Start by asking Holy Spirit to remind you of the Cross
3. Reading and meditating on scripture.
a. Writing it out
b. Writing it in your own words.
c. Ask yourself. What would it look like if I obeyed this scripture?
d. What would it look like if everyone obeyed?
4. Asking for an Advanced Word.
5. Never making a major life decision without prayer and fasting.
6. Having accountability
a. Pray for someone to disciple you.

Resources that have helped me.
1. The Wild at Heart App
a. Daily Prayer
b. Podcast
2. Daily Audio Bible App
Doing these things in the daily’s will allow you to go from surviving the Holiday season to Thriving. Joy is opposed- Ephesians 6:12
Guide to thriving this holiday season
1. Begin your day with the Prince of Peace
2. Let your requests be made known to God. Phillipians 4:23
3. Let go of your expectations. Have realistic expectations.
4. Take pressure off.
5. Live in the Moment (put down the phone)
Prayer
Faith is required
The imagination is the bridge between the heart and the mind.
Turning to Mark 6:1 Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
Context:
– Mark 4:1-34 Teaching a very large crowd in Parables

– Mark 4:35-40 Jesus calms a storm

o Mark 4:40 Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?
– Mark 5:1-20 Jesus heals a man with a Demon
– Mark 5:21- 43 Jesus heals a woman and Jairus’s Daughter
o Mark 5:34 your faith has made you well.
– Jesus Rejected at Nazareth Read: Mark 6:1-6.
o He Could not do no might work there because of their lack of faith.
o Matthew 13:58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.
– Luke 4:16-30
o Does Jesus offend you?
I would argue that if we were in their shoes, we would have responded the same. We have the luxury of hindsight.
Think of they God that they worship. Adonai, Yahweh
-The burning bush
– The Plagues in Egypt
– The splitting of the Red Sea
– The Pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
He is almighty, He is fearsome.
Isaiah 53:2 tells us that “…he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”
Pivot
I want to contrast the faith of Zechariah and Mary
-Luke 1:5-38
As we get ready to close let’s return to that scroll of Isiah that Jesus was reading from. To hear some more about what it says about him.
Isaiah 9:2-6
Isaiah 50:4-7
Isaiah 52:14
Isaiah 53: 3-10
Jesus endured all of that so that he could spend time with you. So that His Spirit could dwell in you.
And yet we don’t have time? Our Idols are nothing compared to Him. Nothing
– If you are a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ here this morning, I hope that you were encouraged this morning.

– If you are a born-again believer that has gotten lackadaisical/apathetic in your Zeal for the Lord and for spending time with Him I hope you will repent and make amends.
– If you are not a believer but someone who has been wrestling with God I pray that you will keep wrestling with Him until he brings you to submission. Just as Jacob wrestled with God and was brought to submission.
– Isaiah 45: 23 and Romans 14:11 says “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
– Pray to God and ask Him to Show Himself real to you.
o Who knows, God may reveal himself you in a dream. He may drop a fish out of the sky. He might send a 988lb Brown Bear through your back door. IDK but I do believe he will answer that prayer.
– Pray, “I believe; help my unbelief! Matthew 9:24