Did you know...
- The average US adult encounters more than 4,000 advertisements every day

- Adults in the US average over 7 hours of screen time every day

- Americans podcast listeners consume over 800 million hours per week

- Globally, we watch over 365 billion hours of content on Youtube every year
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- From 2021-2023, 44% of Protestant Christians attended worship weekly or nearly every week; 43%seldom or never attended worship

- Some polls indicate the fastest growing segment is the once-a-month worshipers

- What qualifies as consistent attendance?
--30+ years ago - 4x per month or more
--10-20 years ago - 2-3x per month
--Today - 1-2x per month

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. (Ecclesiastes 5:1)

see Matthew 6
When you give...
When you pray...
When you fast...
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DRAW NEAR TO LISTEN
- Come prepared (Sunday morning begins Saturday night)

- Listening = Obedience (see 1 Samuel 15:22)

- De-centering the Ego (it’s not about me)

- Silent reverence is better than rambling religious jargon

Darryl Tippens, Pilgrim Heart
“It may well be that the deepest form of prayer begins when we run out of things to say.”

1 Samuel 3
“Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.”
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FULFILL YOUR VOWS

- Neder (vow) denotes a voluntary, but binding, vow made to the LORD. It is an act of consecration, promising a gift, service, or abstention beyond what the law requires. Although optional to initiate, once uttered a neder is irrevocable without divine release.

- Don’t let your mouth write a check that your life can’t cash.

- Better not to make a vow than break a vow (see Matthew 21:28-32)

- Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No’

A.W. Tozer
“Christians don't tell lies they just go to church and sing them.”
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FEAR GOD

- an attitude of awe-filled reverence that may include trembling before God’s majesty but always presses toward loving obedience. It can describe dread of judgment (Genesis 20:11) or the glad worship that springs from recognizing the LORD’s holiness (Psalm 2:11). The word therefore gathers together emotion, intellect, and will: the heart is struck by God’s glory, the mind acknowledges His authority, and the life aligns with His ways.

- He is God, you are not. He is eternal, you are finite. He is in heaven, you are on earth.

- Awe & Intimacy / Closeness & Transcendence (Our Father in heaven…)

- Don’t play games with God (see Hebrews 10:31)

…the Lord is in his holy temple;
let the whole earth be silent in his presence. (Habakkuk 2:20)

Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for him… (Psalm 37:7)

Be silent in the presence of the Lord God,
for the day of the Lord is near. (Zephaniah 1:7)

Let all humanity be silent before the Lord, for from his holy dwelling he has roused himself. (Zechariah 2:13)