Two weeks ago, I spent a week at Metkin Abbey, right outside of Charleston in South Carolina, in a week of silence and solitude. I wanted to do it like the monks do it, so I locked my cell phone in my car, and I didn't miss it one bit. I didn't miss my TV. I didn't miss electronics. I didn't miss any of those things. Or at least I didn't think I missed them. But I was in a state of low-level agitation for the first couple of days. And when I got home, I realized that what I missed was not the cell phone per se, it was the stimulus, it was the pop, it was the distraction of whatever came off of that cell phone, whatever came on my TV, whatever music I was listening to. I was distracted for the first two days of Silence and Solitude because I didn't have any distractions. I was distracted by not having distractions. Now, isn't that a life lesson? And that's what I want to talk about today, what I came home with, with respect to counterfeit stimulus. Welcome to 721 Live, the video arm of 721 Ministries. I'm Sam Hunter. I'm glad that you're with us today. Thank you for joining us. I want to start with this question. What does your attention span look like these days? Let me think about it and be honest. What does your attention span look like these days? If you open up an email and there's an attachment and it's four pages, what's your first thought? Or if someone were to send you a personal email and say, listen, I really think you'd enjoy this, I've attached the first chapter, it's 15 pages, it's worth it, what do you think? Or if you open up anything and you scroll down and it's a long text, long email, whatever it is, what is your first thought? I don't have time for that. And you just swipe it right off because our attention spans have dropped to zero. And that is what our cell phones have done. Our attention spans have gone to nothing. And it is pathetic and it's a shame. And we have to recapture this. This is not life to the full. The idea of counterfeit stimulus really, really downloaded into my brain when I got back and realized I have to do something about that. So today, what I want to do is walk through some of the two main epiphanies that I got while I was there for that week of silence and solitude. And as we talk about counterfeit stimulus, what I want you to think about is what are you missing because of that? because of the things in your life that are distracting you. We'll talk about those, and we'll try to come up with a list for those, but the real purpose here is for you to realize what you're missing, both from a natural standpoint, a human standpoint, as well as a spiritual standpoint. What are you missing because you are always distracted and stimulated by something? You're always after the pop. You're always after the buzz, that feel good that that text comes in. Another question that I would ask is if you get a text and you've actually been self-aware enough to put the phone over, turn it upside down and put it on silent, but you hear that little brr from the text, how long can you wait until you look at that text? I want you to think about that. Now let's take a moment and review what we talked about last week. The four things that we really covered last week was being still and quiet when isolated and insulated, like I was at the Abbey. Being still and quiet when isolated and insulated. I'll come back to that in a moment. Being still while moving with a calm, relaxed pace. A pace, you're moving through the day. Being merry in a Martha world. I'll explain that in a moment. And being still in a storm. Okay, let's start with two, three, and four, we'll come back to one. Being still while moving with a calm, relaxed pace. We go through life, we're not talking about sitting in a closet, and bless the monks for doing what they do, they feel called to do that, to be in that really deep, silent, solitude relationship with their Heavenly Father. But we're all moving at a pace, and can you be still, and clearly we're not talking about physical movement. We're talking about our hearts and our minds. Can you be still going through the day with a normal pace? Mary in a Martha world. Martha was preparing a dinner for, what, 15 men? There were things that had to get done. You have things in life every day, most days, that have to get done. You've got deadlines. You've got projects. You've got reports. You've got meals to prepare. You've got children to take care of. Can you be still in the midst of that? type of deadlines, activities, things that have to get done. And then finally, can you be still in a storm when things turn upside down? Can you be still in a storm? So let's look at all four of these again together. And being still and quiet when isolated and insulated. That's what I did at the Abbey. Now, I put a challenge out to you last week, and I'm putting it out to the men. Can you sit still for one hour of silence and solitude? Can you sit still? Can you put a chair on your back deck or in your backyard or someplace with no distractions? Don't take a book. Don't take your Bible. Surely don't take your cell phone. Take nothing but yourself, sit down in a chair, and let your mind float. Clear your mind for one hour. A couple of men tried it. They couldn't do it. We are so... We don't want to be silent. We abhor silence. We cannot handle silence. So one of the men said, well, I read the Bible for the first 30 minutes. Does that count? Well, certainly reading the Bible is a great thing. That's not the exercise. Another man said, can I pray during that hour? Well, we certainly don't want to tell someone not to pray. And perhaps you would start the hour with some prayer. But the real idea is that you have no stimulus. You're trying to let your mind float to clear out. And what I discovered at Mepkin Abbey during those days of silence and solitude, once I slowed down, which I'll talk about in a moment, once I slowed down, My mind slowed down with my body, but then it kept trying to pop out. It kept trying to break the jail cell, break out of the jail, and start thinking about all kinds of things. And I had to constantly pull it back. What percentage are you in the moment? And what percentage is your mind just popping all around? So I asked the question about these four when we talk about being still and quiet, when isolated and insulated, being still and quiet while moving at a calm, relaxed pace. when you've got deadlines in a storm, and the first question I ask is, which of these might be the hardest? I want you to think about that. Which of these might be the hardest? Now, here is what most people would say. Well, it's hard to be still in a storm. And that would be my natural inclination. But then as I think about it, It might be harder to be still in a Martha world when I have deadlines, when I have things that have to get done, when I've got, when you've got things that are calling you, that you've got to get done, you're responsible for them, meals, children's things, reports, deadlines, whatever it is, that might be harder. But as you look at these four, here would be my next observation. If you cannot do one hour of silence and solitude, you'll never do the other three. You'll never be able to achieve being still in your heart and your mind moving through the day with a calm, relaxed pace if you cannot sit still for an hour. You'll never be able to achieve that stillness in your heart and mind when you've got deadlines and projects and things that have to get done. And you'll certainly not be able to be still in your heart and in your mind in the storms of life. So I challenge you. One hour. Just one hour. Find a quiet place. Sit in silence and solitude. Take a yellow pad out if you want to or a post-it note that you can write down a thought so that you can move it out of your mind immediately. Other than that, just sit still and find out how hard it is to do. Psalm 19, one through six. The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech. Night after night, they reveal knowledge. Their voice goes out into all the earth. Their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens, God has pitched a tent for the sun. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other. Nothing is deprived of its warmth. How often do you take this and appropriate this into your life? How often do you step out and say, look at the skies, look at the heavens, look at the sunrise or the sunset, listen to the birds? At the meeting that we have in Greenville today, As I got there before the rest of the men did and I was going up to open up the door and and the birds Were going nuts. I mean, I I have birds all over around my house in my neighborhood lots of trees This morning by the office. They were just going crazy And so when I sat down and the men all piled in I said I asked about the attention span I said, let me ask you this who heard those birds when they came in this morning. I and not one of the 50 men raised their hand because they were distracted. Birds, and birds chirping and singing, and I'm not trying to be Kumbaya here, but really, they are an incredible stimulus, but we don't hear them because of all of our counterfeit stimulus. So how often do you go, look at the heavens, they declare the glory of God. I doubt you do it very often. And this, we want this to change, because this is not life to the full. So I asked the next question, I asked it last week, and I ask it again to you. What percentage are you typically fully present in the moment? What percentage are you really in the moment? You're not thinking about the future, you're not thinking about the past, you don't have a to-do list going on in your head. Your, your mind's not popping around at several different things. You're fully in the moment. What percentage? And most of the men were somewhere around 1% to 3%. Now, let's just ask the question, is that OK? I mean, is that OK that we're going to run through life which is not a dress rehearsal, this is it, until we hit eternity. We're gonna run through life and we're gonna look back and say, I was fully present in the moment about 1% of the time. I missed the whole thing. That's not what we want. That's not what Jesus wants. When Jesus said, I've come to give you life and life to the full, I don't think he meant I've come to give you life, the full life, a life full of distractions, a life full of artificial and counterfeit stimulus. I don't think he meant that. He meant life to the full. OK. I added an epiphany from that. Last week, I gave you two epiphanies. Last week I said my first epiphany was to slow down and walk like the monks. We'll talk about that in a moment. My other epiphany was do I really love God? Am I compelled by my love for Him? Do I feel His love for me? And I'm still walking through and struggling through and meditating through this idea of do I feel His love for me? I mean, I'm all over the facts. I know He loves me perfectly. I know that. But I want to have some feeling along with that. Facts are more important than feelings, but feelings are very useful servants. And I want to feel it. But the second, number two, that I've introduced this week, counterfeit stimulus. Counterfeit stimulus. So today, I want to take a couple of moments and think about walk like the monks. Explain that once again. Again. We did this last week and you should go back and check it out on any number of platforms that we're on. We're on many different platforms. We're certainly on YouTube. We're certainly on Vimeo. And by the way, while you're watching this, why don't you hit that little subscribe button and then you won't have to go looking for them. But walking like the monk and counterfeit stimulus is what I really want to talk about today. And what do I mean by walking like the monks? Slow down. Walk like the monks. See the lavish, not the lack. Look at the background on your screen. Look at that. That is Mepkanavi. And it is breathtakingly beautiful. But I was so distracted by the fact that I didn't have any distractions that I missed the natural beauty. Until I woke up Wednesday morning and I heard the Lord say Sam walk like the monks walk Slow down So I did I physically put my hands behind my back I leaned over just a little bit and I walked about to a little crawl. That's the way the monks walk They walk so slowly that you almost run up on the back of them if you're trying to follow them And the physical enactment of doing that with my own arms changed everything. So now, I do a lot of walking. If you see me walking, I may be striding out a 15-minute pace to get the exercise in for a 15-minute-a-mile pace. But if you see me with my hands behind my back, I've slowed down. I'm contemplating. And one of my friends, Matt, asked me, well, what does slowing down have to do with your mental speed? And I said, well, if you're anything like me, your mind is ping-ponging around all the time. There's a lot of different things going on. A bunch of them are things we introduce that are counterfeit stimulus. But nevertheless, they're there. When you slow down and you walk like the monks, Your brain has to slow down, or else it will explode. If your brain doesn't slow down, and you're walking slowly, I think you'll evaporate. So slowing down like the monks, Friday morning, after last week's lesson, I'm in Charleston, and I'm walking back from my Bible study on that early Friday morning, and I'm walking through those beautiful neighborhoods of Charleston, south of Broad, incredible homes, incredible gardens, incredible fountains, There's a construction project about every fifth house. There are leaf blowers, the pariah of this world. There are leaf blowers blowing all around me, and I was missing all of the lavish. And here's what I did. I slowed down. I put my hands behind my back, and I started walking slowly. And in just a minute, I no longer heard the leaf blowers. and I no longer saw the construction. I was able to come back and be in the moment, and see the incredible trees, and the incredible gardens, and the fountains, and the houses, and the porches, and all of those things that make Charleston so special. Suddenly, because I slowed down and walked like the monks, I was able to block out the other, the counterfeit stimulus, and get back into the natural stimulus. I was even able to move into the spiritual stimulus because the more quiet I was and the slower I walked, the more I was able to have a conversation with my Heavenly Father. John Eldridge, in a book that I'm going to show you the cover of it before we finish today, Get Your Life Back, he said, we are not designed to live at the speed of our smartphones. We are not designed to live at the speed of our smartphones. We've got to slow down. Your smartphone is going to make your brain, well, it's already destroyed your attention span. And we want to get that back. Because it's not just the things that are distracting us, it's what we are missing. It's what we are missing. Remember what we talked about last week. Silent and listen have the same letters. Silent and listen have the same letters. Now, that is on several placards down around Mepkin Abbey, and you can certainly get it in their gift store. But I want you to think about this. If I'm having a conversation with you, and you're the one doing the talking, what's going on in my mind? You think about yourself. You're having a conversation with someone. They're talking. What's going on in your mind? what i'm going to say in response what i'm going to add to it or if you think that story was something i got an even better story or i don't agree with that whatever it is you're not being silent in your heart and in your mind and therefore you're not listening and therefore you're missing the depth of that conversation that the possibility of a deeper relationship so silent and listen have the same letters And this struck me, sight with insight is what I want. Not just sight, seeing with the eyes of your heart. That comes from Ephesians 1, 18. Paul prays that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened. And then Tony Evans had this wonderful observation. If all you can see is what you see, then you are not seeing all there is to see. If all you can see is what you see, you're not seeing all there is to see. So slowing down gives us sight with insight. It helps us to see the natural beauty That we're missing it helps us to see the spiritual beauty Walking now if you go to your to just Google to walk and Then put the Bible beside it some type of reference so that Google knows you're trying to find something in the Bible It'll immediately take you to Genesis 5 but you will also get a whole assortment of articles about what the biblical language means to walk and It has a lot of significance to it. It's not just how you walk down the street. The way a man walks, and Enoch walked with God. But what it means in the biblical language is he walked with dedication and devotion, fellowship and obedience. The way a man walks. And this isn't always true, but can't you tell, I'm sure you know people, that you can tell who they are just by the way they walk. I'm sure there are people in your life like that. But I think you can tell a lot about someone at times by the way they walk. And again, if you see me and the monks walk, you know that I have slowed down and I'm contemplating. If I'm striding, there's a pretty good chance my brain's popping all over the place. There's a passage in Isaiah that just fascinates me. It's Isaiah 40, and it may be familiar, it probably is, but I want you to watch the progression of this. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. Hope being confident expectation. But those who have confident expectation in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. I just find the progression to be fascinating. I do. Soaring, running, walking It might be easier to soar Because you're soaring with the Holy Spirit power It might be easier to run than it is to walk I'd rather run five miles any day than walk five miles. I'd rather run five miles and walk ten miles running walking takes patience walking takes slowing down to look around I'm gonna talk about walking slow, but just soaring and running, walking, and not be faint. I have a couple of samisms for you. It is easier to work for God than to walk with God. Isn't that true? It's easier to work with God than to walk with God. It is easier to be busy with God than to be still with God. Can I get an amen on that? It's easier to be busy with God. It's easier to work for God Over the years, I've seen, it's always that one man at whatever church it is who's doing a lot of work on Sunday morning. He's counting how many people are there. He's in charge of collecting the offering. He's moving around, making sure chairs are set up, and in all likelihood, he never sits down to be still with the Lord. And why? He would tell you because somebody's gotta do that work. I would tell you it's because he cannot. He cannot sit down and be still Can you? That's all about walking like the monks. Let's finish up with counterfeit stimulus. Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 4610, be still and know that I am God. Is that a true statement? That to know God as God, you have to be still. I think it is because if you're moving fast and quick and busy and distracted, how are you gonna get to know him? How are you gonna know anyone? Be still and know that I am God Counterfeit stimulus. What are your counterfeit stimuli? What are yours? I want you to think about that the things that you introduce into your life. You have the choice to do it and Well, let's put a list up here. Cell phones, that goes without saying. How about your car radio? One thing you can do is turn your car radio off when you get home, if you have it on, so that it doesn't come on automatically when you crank the car up tomorrow morning. I try to turn mine off more than I have it on. Matter of fact, since I've returned from Mepkin Abbey, I've only had it on for about three minutes. I'm trying to have some silence because I want to keep coming back to the whole point of all of this exercise. What am I missing? What am I missing when I've got this artificial stimuli? There's nothing evil about cell phones or car radios, but they're getting in the way. Music. I have, I have had in my bathroom my an old iPod it's got all my old music on it and the first thing I do when I get up in the morning I go into the bathroom to shave and brush my teeth and all those things is I turn on that music and this is like Earth, Wind & Fire and Eagles music this is mostly 70s I mean I'll admit there's been some music since the 70s but not much but Earth-wind and fire all those can all those types of van I start I put that in and hit it as soon as I walk into the bathroom in the morning now when I got back from Epkin Abbey The first thing I did was take it out of my bathroom and I took it over and I put it in my kitchen I've only turned it on once in the last 10 days. I Just moved it because I don't need that artificial stimulus right there first thing in the morning. It precludes any conversation I'm gonna have with the Lord it gets my mind jumbled up so music and Not music. Music is not bad. TV. I have a question for you. Do you have a TV in your bedroom? Do you have a TV in your bathroom? Do you have a TV in your kitchen? Get them all out. Take them out. It's just artificial stimulus. It's getting in the way of other things. Take them out. Don't leave them and just say, I won't turn them on, because you will turn them on. Just like I had to take my iPod out, you have to take them out. And my last question about TV is, do you have your TV on as background noise all the time? Because if you do, you have entered into hell. I'm not telling you you're going to hell. I'm telling you that's hell on this earth, to have a TV going as background distraction. Take it out. Stop it. Electronics, we all introduce those in our lives. How about reading the newspaper first thing in the morning before you ever have a chance to read the scriptures or spend time with the Lord? That's counterfeit. News and sports feeds. Here's a big one. Notifications. I'm around people, and I hear their cell phone popping, and I'm thinking, and I ask them, are you getting that many texts? No, those are notifications. Turn off the notifications. You'll get the message. Turn off the notifications. Moving fast and busyness. These are the counterfeit things we put into our lives that preclude us, they block us from the natural stimulus that we should be able to enjoy, God's creation, and the spiritual. I attended a men's discipleship program down in Florida a few years ago. And the men, they were really bright, and they were putting all kind of neat things up on the whiteboard and discussing it, and I realized soon into it that I was the only one in the room who actually did men's ministry every day, every day. I mean, that's what, I'm involved in it every day. So I raised my hand at one point, I knew most of the men, and I said, man, this is excellent. And I'm taking notes, and I appreciate it, but let me be sure you understand, none of this is gonna matter until you attack busyness in these men's lives. This is all good stuff, but until they see the distractions in their lives. And now I've started to realize that a good bit of that is just artificial counterfeit stimulus. So these are some of the things we introduce into our own lives that distract us. What natural stimuli are you missing every day because of the counterfeit stimuli? Just the natural stimuli, like Sam walking around practically in the Garden of Eden, and just as Satan did with Adam and Eve, they're surrounded by this lush, incredibly beautiful garden. He got them to focus on the one thing they couldn't have, the one thing in this incredible garden they couldn't have, the lack, not the lavish. So you certainly can start with the natural stimuli that you're missing is the lavish, not the lack. You're seeing the lack, and you're missing the lavish. But let's just put a few up here. Sunrises. Sunsets. Wind in the trees. If you see the moss in the background of this screen, when the wind blew at Mepkin Abbey, it looked like an old man's beard just flowing in the wind. And until I slowed down, I didn't see it. The green around us. The birds. Children playing. I know this sounds a little kumbaya, but this is life that we're missing. People laughing. The sky. The clouds in the sky. Dogs. They're funny animals. Cats. I love cats. Horses. Cows. These are just a few of the natural things that we're missing. I mean, I love cows. You rarely see cows running. They ease their way just about any way they go. Dogs are funny dogs. I don't want to be in such a hurry. I don't want to be so distracted with my earbuds in that I don't see dogs. I don't hear the birds. I don't see the incredible sky. This is just a sampling of the natural things, the things that should stimulate us. They should be enough. I want to throw this in and as I was thinking about this When was the last time you ate a date like a medjool date? I think it's spelled m-e-d-j-o-o-l a medjool date Well when you're in Israel, that's the primary dessert or at least it's the first one you get your hands on they are so incredibly sweet and I get them you can get them in any grocery store and I eat them and they're really good for you and You may not like the consistency, but it's just a little thicker than honey, but it is so sweet. And I always think when I'm eating it, if this is all I had, if I didn't have Butterfingers, which I don't eat anymore, Milky Ways, which I don't eat anymore, but all the other counterfeit sweetness, the date would be the, it would be a great dessert. And by the way, when you read in the scriptures about a land flowing with milk and honey, the honey came from the dates, not typically from bees, from the dates. So natural things we're missing because of all the counterfeit things we put into our lives. What about spiritual? What spiritual stimuli are you missing every day because of the counterfeit stimulus? I want you to think about this for a moment. Because this is really the crux of the matter. We all know we're distracted. We all know that we've got too much going on. But what we don't really focus in on is what is it crowding out spiritually now? Hearing God speak to you. Feeling the ever-presence of Jesus. Having a conversation with your Heavenly Father. When the car radio is going, I'm not having a conversation with Him. I'm not giving Him a chance to speak to me. I'm not giving the Holy Spirit a chance to download things into my heart, in my head. I'm missing the opportunity. Sensing the Holy Spirit guiding you. The Scriptures opening up. Meaningful prayer. This is really the crux of the matter. This is what you're really missing. Yes, you're missing the natural beauty, but you're missing this. If I turn the car radio off, I have a chance for my mind to float and for the Lord to speak to me. One of the things I've learned about, at least it seems about our Heavenly Fathers, He's not in the business of shouting us down, of shouting over the things that we, the counterfeit stimulus that we put in our own lives. We're missing this meaningful relationship, the depths of this. And that's really where I want to finish this up. Relationships. We're missing relationships. Do you know that the neurological process in your brain that enables you to think and feel deeply, And I'm sure I'm not saying this medically correct or scientifically accurate, but the neurological processes in your brain that allow you to think deeply and feel deeply move at a slower pace than the other processes. So in essence, to think deeply and feel deeply, you have to slow down. And that's intuitive. It seems obvious. But relationships, you're missing those when you're too distracted. How often are you on the phone with someone and you're flipping on your cell phone to another screen? How often when you're talking with someone are you thinking about something else? You're not fully present. Relationships. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know Him. In John 14, in Jesus' last night, he said to Philip, Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Don't you know me? I've been with you for three years, Philip. How could you not know me? And Philip, if he were us, would have to say, because I was distracted the whole time. I had my ear pods in when you were teaching. I was thinking about anything but walking with you. I thought I had the rest of my life to walk with you. I didn't absorb it. I missed it. I missed the three years with you, Jesus. No, I don't know you. Because I didn't, I was never still enough to know you. We don't want to do that. We don't want that. We don't want to live that way. I want to know Him as deeply as I can. I want to be connected as deeply as I can. And I cannot do that if I disconnect myself with artificial stimuli. These are the two books that I want to recommend to you. The first one I've been talking about, John Eldridge, Get Your Life Back. I took it with me to the Abbey. It is fantastic. I'm not afraid of overselling it. Not one bit am I afraid of overselling it. Please get this, and you will be able to start making progress getting your life back. And then the other is The Practice of the Presence of God. This is a really old book. It's about Brother Lawrence, who was a monk, I think, in the 1600s. He didn't write it, he was interviewed. You'll have to slow down to read this. But this is a real short little read. This is such an easy read. I highly encourage you to get both of these, but definitely start with Get Your Life Back. I encourage you, I urge you to get that. And then to finish up, what can we do? What can you change? Turn off notifications. If you have a smart watch, what I don't, think about this for a moment. Not only are we carrying around smart phones, now we have to have it on our wrist. I'm talking with people who've come to see me to talk about issues in their own life and they're constantly looking at their phone because they're getting texts. Turn that thing off. No cell phones for the first 30 minutes. You won't look at your cell phone for the first 30 minutes when you wake up. Try that. These are things we can do. Turning off the notifications, not looking at it. No cell phone after 8 or 9 p.m. No TV in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in the bedroom. These are things that we can do. Now, to finish up, it's what you're missing is what's most important. And you don't know what you're missing until you slow down. Now that I've slowed down, I intend to stay at this pace. Intend to walk like a monk when I'm feeling my feeling the stress or the strain or the busyness of this world coming in But once you stood and it's up to you I cannot help you any more than to plant the seed and then for you to work with the Holy Spirit on help letting him tell you what do I need to turn off what I need to change I Want to know him better and I don't want these things distracting me I don't want to be distracted by all the distractions that I have put into my own life. I Because there's so much more. And you know it deep inside. So come. Turn off the distraction. Turn off the counterfeit stimuli. And follow Jesus. And find it.