We all know that private worship is supposed to fuel our public ministry, but some days our times with God are dry, boring, distracted or distant. Stephen Miller joins us to discuss the power and importance of personal worship and give us some tips for keeping our walk with Jesus fresh and vibrant!
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Liberating King – Amazon
Worship Leaders We Are Not Rock Stars – Amazon
Quotables:
Jesus sets the precedent for being extremely busy with ministry, yet making time for the Father! – Tweet That!
Private worship is the foundation of our public ministry. – Tweet That!
Many worship leaders aren’t exactly sure how to worship God OFF the stage. – Tweet That!
They are called Spiritual Disciplines for a reason. Disciplines are hard! – Tweet That!
Look for under-utilized blocks of time that you can use to be with the Father. – Tweet That!
One reason for feeling distant from God could be unrepentant sin. – Tweet That!
Don’t be afraid to try different things to keep your quiet times fresh. – Tweet That!
Sometimes we feel dry because we are too lazy to chase down the wonder. – Tweet That!
Transcript
Alex Enfiedjian 00:12 Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the worship team podcast. This is Alex Enfiedjian. Your host, thanks so much for tuning in today. I hope this episode encourages you, in your worship leadership and in your walk with the Lord. And, and this episode is actually a really important one because we’re not talking particularly about worship leading, we’re talking about worshiping and the importance and power of personal worship. That’s that’s the theme today the importance and power of personal worship. And I get a chance to talk with Stephen Miller, who is the worship pastor out at prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, Steven took time out of his busy schedule to share with us about his new book, liberating King, and really just about worship and how personal worship of God changes everything. It’s the foundation. It’s the grid through which we should view life. And so I’m excited to share this episode, because I know personally like, it seems like worship leaders would just be good at spending time worshiping God. And I mean, in some senses, we are but in in a lot of senses. It’s hard. It’s a hard spiritual discipline to be silent at the feet of Jesus, and not let our minds wander, and not let our our hearts be distracted, or our minds be thinking about what’s next. Or, I mean, I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just read the words on the page, and they don’t really even sink in. So I want to grow in my personal worship of Jesus, because it is the foundation of everything else that I’ll do. And so I hope that you’re the same as me, you want to grow and be more comfortable being before the Lord and worship. And so that’s what this episode is all about. I’m excited to share it with you. So let’s just jump right into our interview with Stephen Miller.
Alex Enfiedjian 02:12 Everybody, I am here with Stephen Miller, who just met but I’m excited to get to know him better. And I’m excited for him to share with you guys this morning. Or this morning. What am I talking about? share with you guys. So, Steven, if our listeners don’t know who you are, can you just share a little bit about who you are, where you are and what you do?
Stephen Miller 02:34 Yeah, I’m a worship pastor live in Dallas, Texas with my wife and our five kiddos. I’m at a church called prestonwood. I’ve been here since January one and loving it just loving this church and traveling to lead worship all over the world and writing books and all kinds of things like that. And God’s just really been good to us. So
Alex Enfiedjian 02:54 that’s rad. Yeah, if you guys don’t know, Steven wrote the book worship leaders, we are not rock stars, which I highly recommend. And he recently wrote a book called liberating King, how worship frees us from what is it the tyrannical power of sin or something like that? And breaking free from the tyranny of sin? Yeah, there you go. So and I’m excited actually, to talk to you, Steven, because today on the podcast, we’re talking about personal worship. And you know, the thing about your book is it talks about how worship changes everything, you know, worship breaks us free from sin from worry from despair from, it helps us suffer well, so. And I know and you and I were talking before we hit record, just like the difficulty that many worship leaders have sitting down in a room with a chair and a Bible and spending time alone with God. But that really is where, you know, change happens in our lives. And it’s the source of everything. So I’m just curious if you’d share, why did you write this book? Like, what was it that you said, we need? We need a book like this right now?
Stephen Miller 03:57 Well, you know, if you like me, all day long, every day, you’re being bombarded with lies. And you know, I’m driving down the road, I’m listening to the radio and the songs and the commercials are all filling my mind with if I do this, I’ll be happy if I have this I’ll be happy whatever all the while billboards are doing the same thing I get to the grocery store. You know, walking down the aisles, magazine covers are telling me, you know, what kind of body I need to have, what kind of house I need to have, where I need to go on vacation, how often I need to be having sex and what kind of sex I need to be having all kinds of things like that. And, and there’s just these messages constantly coming at me lies really constantly coming at me. Jesus said, The truth will set you free. And so conversely, then a lie will keep me in bondage. Right? And so I don’t want to be in bondage. I don’t wanna be enslaved to my own fear of the unknown. I don’t want to be enslaved, by approval of man needing to be approved. I don’t want to be enslaved by Worrying about the future or, you know, not being able to walk through suffering without, you know, feeling anxiety over that I don’t want to be enslaved to my own comfort. And there’s all these things that if I don’t actively daily, reorient my life around the truth, then I’m not living a life of freedom that Jesus sent me free, for I am living a life of bondage. And that’s the power of worship whenever we stand in the presence of Jesus Christ, the liberating King, we are encountering the person of truth, Jesus Christ, I’m the way the truth and the life right I am the truth. Jesus says that, we’re, we’re being filled with the Spirit of Truth, right? That’s, Jesus said, it’s good for me to go away. Because if I go away, I’m going to send you the Spirit and He is the spirit of truth. And in First Corinthians is that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So Ephesians five, Paul commands is, don’t be drunk on wine. Don’t live, like you are of the world, but instead be filled with the Spirit. encourage one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So there’s this element of when we worship Jesus, we’re being filled with the Spirit of Truth, the spirit of liberty, right? And then Jesus praise the High Priestess prayer, God Sanctify them, by your truth, your Word is truth. So whenever we are worshiping, we’re also meditating on and rehearsing the truth, so long as what we’re praying and singing and reading is the truth of God’s Word. Right. And so worship is a gift for our freedom. It’s a gift from God to set us free to liberate us, from the power of, of lies to set us in bondage by reorienting us around the truth.
Alex Enfiedjian 06:42 That’s really good. So I mean, and that was kind of a question I was gonna ask later, which is like, what is the fundamental thing that happens when we see and worship God for who he is? And you just, you answer that question right there. It reorients our, our life, our vision, our priorities, and everything else kind of falls away by the wayside. So that’s really cool man. In the book, in the first chapter, I think you talked about this moment of personal worship, where were you were kind of I think you were leading worship somewhere at an event and you were really struggling at that point of your life with I don’t know if it was sin or doubt, and you’re just you felt like shackled and chained and you broke away from, you know, the buisiness of the schedule there. And you climbed up on a mountain by yourself, got alone with God, and you just worshipped him, you poured out your heart to Him, and you had this kind of breakthrough moment. Can you kind of just describe that time of personal worship and what was happening there?
Stephen Miller 07:42 Yeah, you know, um, I think from, from about 2010, to, you know, 2015 were some of the hardest years of my life, my family’s life, my wife’s life, we’re just dealing with a lot of different types of social anxiety, relational, anxiety, stress, unbelief, pride, for me, lack of empathy with my wife over some things, we, you know, we’re just going through a lot of things that were incredibly stressful and unearthed in me a lot of my own idols, of approval of man, you know, needing to be in control needing to be right. You know, needing to be well thought of needing to have respect and power and, you know, things like that. I mean, there’s just a lot of types of things, and so much of what worship leaders when our rock stars actually came out of that as well. Just kind of seeing in my own heart, and in my own life, the struggles that I needed to speak the truth over myself. And so, yeah, I mean, it was sort of one of those really, really dark seasons for me. That summer, I was just experiencing a season where I, I was recognizing more than ever before the necessity of time with him in private time. Jesus said this example you know, he says, beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be seen by men, but instead, go and get alone with the Father go into your closet and pray were the only one that can see you is the Father. And, and he himself practice that, you know, it’s not like he wasn’t a busy guy. He was constantly doing ministry constantly working for the Lord constantly preaching constantly healing people constantly feeding people constantly doing all kinds of things. And yet as the crowds of Preston, what did he do, he would get away and go up onto a mountaintop, right? And so this is one of those weeks is a really, really, really busy week. And, and I had a couple hours to spare and I just was like, you know, I’m gonna take the Lord’s lead, and I want to go up on this mountaintop. You know, retrospect, maybe not the best idea there are mountain lions and bears and stuff like that, that it could have gotten me. But I was by myself just getting along with the Lord. And he just met me there and reminded me that he is everything and more than enough, and he is more than powerful to, to be stronger than the storms of my life. They’re in the boat with me. He’s in control. So I don’t have to be here. No, he thinks well of me. So other people don’t have to my worth is found as a redeemed adopted child of God, His love proof for me at the cross, I don’t need it from from people. And I’ll never be able to love people well, if I’m constantly wanting something from them. And so it was just a real profound moment for me. And, and, and kind of what kicked off this book.
Alex Enfiedjian 10:51 That’s really, really cool. And and I don’t think I mean, maybe he would have found some other way to get through all of those messages to you. But I feel like because you broke away because you went up the hill because you spent time he you had the mental clarity and the space he had given God the space to speak to you. And I think that’s so important in making time to to be alone at the feet of Jesus and with the Father. And, Steven, I want to ask you a question too, because I know you’re a busy guy. I mean, you’re writing books, you’re, you’re recording albums, you’re leading worship, you’ve got a family of five for kids. five kids. Yeah, five kids. So how, like, how do you break away? How do you make time? I feel like after I had kids, personal worship got a lot harder to make a priority. Yeah,
Stephen Miller 11:43 yeah, it is. I mean, I think it’s called a discipline for a reason, you know, that the spiritual disciplines and they’re called like, the spiritual recreations, you know, and sometimes those disciplines can be very refreshing and fun, you know, even though it is something that you have to discipline yourself to do. So for me, you know, the discipline. For me, I love music, and music is just such an incredible gift from God. And so, one of the disciplines that I have is when I get in the car, and I mean, I live in the DFW area. So I drive for two and a half hours a day, I can, you know, I can choose to fill my time listening to the new Radiohead album, or whatever, which is a great stabbing Good, good music, you know? Or I can sit in silence and say, God, here I am, I’m listening. We speak to me, by your spirit, by your word, would you call into my recollection of Scripture that I need been meditating on? I’ll put on I use the ESV app, from my Bible, listen to my Bible reading plan for the day, I’ll put on worship music, and I’ll, you know, sing my guts out, you know, from the top of my lungs, and no one can hear no one’s listening. You know, I mean, people next to me at a stoplight or whatever, my think, who’s that crazy guy out there. But I mean, I don’t care, I have to keep my eyes open. So no one dies. But you know, I it really is an incredible time where my car kind of becomes, in a sense, like the Holy of Holies. Every, every time that I mean, Jesus is sure to meet me there. He’s, he’s promised when I draw near to him, he’ll draw near to me. And really, I mean, when I get to work, I co office with two other guys, you know, so I can’t do it there. When I go home, kids are jumping all over me. So I can’t do it there. I my baby wakes up before I do, you know, I can’t even get up early enough to do it at my home. So it’s like, sort of that that sacrifice of saying, you know, I like I’m not gonna do anything in these moments in my car, but CQ Lord.
Alex Enfiedjian 13:55 That’s really good. I think I think a lot of worship leaders, you know, are in the same boat as you and I and what you’re saying is get creative with your time, like, look for blocks of time that are unutilized, where you can spend that time with God, it might be a lunch hour, it might be like you said in your car. And the nice thing about the Bluetooth headsets nowadays is you could actually just be praying to God out loud. And instead of people thinking that you’re crazy, they think you’re on the phone. So I suggest people try that. And there’s something else too that I was reminded about recently, which is like, you know, we think about Oh, worship, God only wants us to sit in a chair and read our Bible with him. But you know, even doing this podcast with you, Steven is like we’re recording right now. This is worship like this. It may not be sitting at Jesus’s feet, but but we’re inviting him into this process and we’re doing something that we’re trying to honor him with and that that pleases him too. So So even though you know, this isn’t maybe personal worship, we can all of our lives or worship, but I think we’re honing in on that fact of it’s important for worship leaders to get away break away and make time to To be with Jesus, I got another question for you too, because in your book you talk about, you’re the king of multitasking you, you’re on Twitter, you’re watching a game, you’re talking to your wife and your leg wrestling with your kids all at the same time or something like that, right? And I feel like you know, ever since the internet broke onto the scene, many, many, many people have have become addicted or distracted with the constant downloading of information, you know, mentally like needing to check your Twitter or check your email. And I know a lot of worship leaders who struggle with just being alone and being silent before the Lord or, or having their mind not wander or run off. And I think besides the internet, they’re also you know, driven people, like, I don’t know, I feel like I’m a driven person. And so I’m always like, planning my day outside, instead of sitting and reading, I’m, like, already thinking ahead, like, Okay, I’m, like, distracting myself. So, so what are some ways in your personal worship, that you silence that noise? What is what has been helpful for you in your pursuit to just like, clear your mind and, and not be distracted? Yeah, I
Stephen Miller 16:09 mean, I think just be present. You know, and this is a practice that we need to revive, you know, the, the Ministry of presence, you know what I mean? And that can be in, in in quiet time with the Lord, that can be just being with my family, being with my kids being with the people I’m ministering to at my church, if they’re telling me, you know, I mean, it can be so easy, someone’s baring their soul before you, they’re struggling with some things. And you’re just thinking about, like a million other things. So, like, practicing, being present. So a couple of things that I do, I have all the notifications on my phone turned off. So I mean, I don’t, I don’t get that constant buzz, telling me, I’ve got an email, or I’ve got a tweet, or I’ve got an Instagram like, or whatever, I don’t have any of that going on. Because I know myself, you know, I also spend a good chunk of the year where Alka, I mean, I’ll just take a month off, or a couple of weeks off, or whatever, from any kind of social media, because it is so addicting. And it really is like a drug and a lot of ways. And so just kind of saying, you know, what, I’m not gonna choose to be ruled by that stuff right now. And then, and then just like, really sticking to it, you know, and so whenever I’m sitting down to read God’s word, I actually use my phone generally, to do that, or I use my computer to do that, I’ll go on esb.org. And I’ll read and there’s just such great helpful commentary. And it makes sense for me to do that, because I can do that anywhere. I mean, I can, you know, have to carry a, you know, 10 pound Bible in my backpack all the time, I’ve already got enough 10 pound objects in there, that, you know, I can just sit down. And, you know, if I’ve got five minutes at the doctor’s office, where I’ve got some time, I can pull up my ESV, I can, you know, I can read it from my phone. You know, so I don’t know, I mean, I think you can try to minimize distraction as much as you can. But I don’t really ever really going to be in a world anymore, that they’re not there. So that’s where we come back to that discipline thing. And, you know, you want to do as much as you can, if you’re on a diet, you don’t want a bunch of Twinkies in the house, you know, whatever. But like, so you see, you want to set parameters in place to where you’re not being in situations where you’re constantly distracted, and you just figure it out, figure out what those are for you. Some of that might even be sin for you. And you need to get covenant eyes on your phone, you know, you need to have your restrictions and give your wife the password and you don’t know it, you know, there. There could be things like that too. You’re distracted by your own sinful heart distracted by your own, whatever. You know, but I think ultimately boils down to find those times that you can silence the world sit in silence and just say here I am, and I’m listening to you. For some people that looks like scheduling it on your calendar because it’s not going to happen if you don’t put it on your calendar. But for me, my calendar is so nuts that it works more for me to say you know what, I’ve got this free time right now. I’ve got these 10 minutes I’ve got this 15 minutes I’ve got you know and so it happens throughout the day in smaller bursts that keep me meditated on the scripture all throughout the day, rather than Alright, I checked it off the list I did my hour with God this morning or whatever, you know, yeah. is often that will that will wear off by lunchtime.
Alex Enfiedjian 19:38 Yeah. And and the distractions thing like you said, it’s really based on per person because like, you know, some, some people might be distracted by Facebook and some people might be distracted like you said by sin. And so I mean for the Facebook person who just can’t get a handle on it, they might need to just delete their Facebook account. And then and then for the the sin, the sin for, you know, the person who is not feeling connected to God, and that’s the next question, you know, he said, sometimes we don’t feel connected to God in our quiet times because we have unrepentant sin in our lives. And that is so true. And that is like a biblical principle. And like you said, those people need to deal with that sin. And I’m not ashamed to say like, I have restrictions on my phone, and like, she’s the only one with the password on for that. I can’t go to any websites. And not even that I look at pornography or anything, but there’s so many central images online everywhere. So it’s like, I just don’t even want to be tempted, you know? And so yeah, it might be that might be a reason why, when people sit down to spend time with God, they don’t feel him is because there’s sin in their life that they they’re not dealing with. And and I want to go back to that and ask you is, are there any other things you tell somebody who, who maybe is just they’re not feeling connected to God in their quiet times? How would you encourage somebody like that?
Stephen Miller 21:00 Well, let’s say you’re in good company, you know, I mean, earnestly, I seek you in a dry and weary land where there’s no water, you know, that could be a very much like literal, when David wrote that, you know, he was probably actually in a desert area with no hotter you know. But the spiritual side of that, too, is that sometimes you just go through dry seasons, you know, you do, and I think that there is such an act of, of worship, to say, I’m not feeling it. But I know that God’s promises word will not return void. I know God has promised that he’s with me, whenever I, you know, when I draw near to him, he is drawn into me. So even if I don’t feel it, my emotions, my emotions are so fickle. Depending on what I ate for dinner last night, when my bank account looks like that I get in a fight with my spouse, you know, how are my kids feeling? How much sleep did I get? I mean, there’s so many so many variables. So I would say start with repentance, you know,
Unknown Speaker 22:04 without failure,
Stephen Miller 22:05 there’s going to be some sort of Sam that you did in the last 24 hours, that maybe you realize that maybe you don’t say, Lord, shine the spotlight of your holiness into the dark places of my soul that I you know, I can’t see that I don’t even realize that I’ve sinned against you forgive me for that, I confess that to you, Lord, have mercy on me Oh God, according to your steadfast love, you know, blot at much discretion. And Jesus is faithful to do that first john one nine, to confess your sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive you if your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So got some playing hard to get, you know, that’s not his size plan. That’s not his way. He didn’t do like that and sign rules. So repenting of your sin, oftentimes, I mean, that is, that is a barrier. I mean, sin does create a barrier, it does separate us from God, maybe not, ultimately, and eternally anymore. Now, that word of Christ, but it numbs our senses, synonyms, our senses, and it makes us stupid. So I would say begin there, and then maybe try and, and freshen it up a little bit, you know, if you’re doing, you know, try, try a new sermon podcasts, try a new worship song of a different type of, you know, genre or band that you’ve never heard of before. Try a different book of the Bible. You know, if you’re in a rut, and all you ever do is read the Psalms and proverbs everyday man, I mean, this 31 Proverbs, this one for every day of the month, whatever. So I get it. And people just want to stick to the Psalms of the Proverbs. And I know a lot of people who do that, but you know, there’s so much meat in, in the rest of the Bible. Jesus isn’t all of it, you know. So, you know, go read Revelation about what Jesus is gonna return and put sin and death under his feet, nothing, make all things new. And, you know, there’ll be no more sorrow, no more tears. No, you know, if that does not, when you read about Jesus at the, you know, and on the angels on the saints around the throne, just crying out in worship, and You read about all that and see what he’s like, I mean, how can you not be moved? So, you know, find things that stir your imagination and awaken your affections. And, and don’t be lazy about that sometimes, we feel dry, because we’re lazy, because we’re being lazy, you know, we’re not willing to go and find the wonder. So you got to chase down the wonder, you know?
Alex Enfiedjian 24:28 Yeah, that’s really good. I love how intentional you are about like drawing from different wells and, and reading this or listening to that or doing music or sermon or maybe journaling, like you’re you’re keeping it fresh, and that’s really cool. And Steven, it’s obvious that you have let the Word of God sink into your heart, because it comes out of your mouth so easily. And I know in the book, you talk about meditation, and you talk about really letting the Word of God sink down deep, not just reading it, but let it sink down deep and and change your heart and I’d love to hear how you do that and share with our listeners how they can grow in meditating on the Word of God.
Stephen Miller 25:09 Yeah, I mean, I think a good Bible Commentary is always helpful, you know, and oftentimes, even multiple Bible commentaries, obviously, the Word of God is king, but I don’t, I don’t trust myself to interpret it properly every time. And I don’t really even interest one person or one group or one denomination to interpret it properly. So I think a way that I do that is I start generally always with the ESV. And then I’ll read something, you know, paraphrase, like Eugene Peterson’s the message, great paraphrase, not necessarily translation. But a lot of times, it’ll, it’ll awakened my imagination about what something might mean. And then I’ll read a lot of times the ESV Study Bible Commentary, I’ve got an nasb keyword Study Bible, that I read some commentary on that and it does go into the Hebrew and the Greek meanings of different words, and just the more you can dive down deep into the meaning. Some of the things you need to guard yourself on that those become a fantasy, and becoming so consumed with like, knowing the right stuff, and filling your head with a bunch of good information that you aren’t, aren’t coming at it. And in a posture of awe and adoration, you’re coming out in a posture of education. And God, you know, a Christian education is good. But the intention of it is to cause worship to happen in your heart, it’s never meant to just fill your head with stuff it’s meant to, to fill your heart with affection. So I would say I mean, in every situation, study, study, study, drill down deep find the meaning of what things were written for who they were written to, what were the circumstances around that letter being written, or this book being written or whatever, what were what were the people who are reading, who were the intended readers, what were they going through? Well, you know, if the book of Ephesians, you know, was written to the people of emphasis, you know, for a reason for a very specific period in history, and whenever, you know, some of that, and you know, kind of who the Ephesians ended up being, to where in Revelation, they’re saying, like, Look, you know, you’ve lost your first love, you know, kind of thing. You know, there, there is a sense of, it kind of awakens your senses to what some of this is, it becomes more than just words on a page, and then always let it lead you to worship, you know, if you if you read the scriptures, and you’re not worshiping, and namely, I mean, praying some, you know, praying, singing, praising God, for what his word is, even, you’re reading wrong, you’re reading it wrong, you know, like, it should cause your heart to, to experience the presence of God and worship in response to that. Yeah,
Alex Enfiedjian 28:05 yeah, I think a lot of a lot of us get in the habit of just reading and like mindlessly looking at words and letting our minds wander and like, okay, I read, but I found like, for me, one of the most helpful things that I ever did to actually lock in what I read was to write down, like what I was reading, like, okay, verse one, I would like write my own version of verse one. And like, what I understand it to mean in the context of the rest of it, and then I write Jeremiah 29, on top and then I’d go, you know, verse one, and then I write my version of the verse and then I’d go to verse two and write my verse and like, that way, I understood it, and I remembered, oh, I’m reading Jeremiah 29. And this is what it says, and it like, locked it into my mind. So that that was helpful for me, and maybe that’ll be helpful for some of our listeners. But for some people writing is really helpful. What does it mean? nomic mimic device?
Alex Enfiedjian 28:58 memorization, pneumonic device, something I don’t know, whatever. I’m not that smart. So
Unknown Speaker 29:04 hey,
Alex Enfiedjian 29:06 I’d love for you just to share maybe a couple more thoughts about the importance and the power of worship. Just any other thoughts from your book that you want to share with our listeners about why they should be really seeking out the Lord? Yeah, I mean,
Stephen Miller 29:31 I mean, God doesn’t tell us to seek Him for no reason. You know, I mean, he is, he is our good. He is our ultimate good. He is our satisfaction. He is our joy. He is our sustenance. He is our strength. He is our protector. He is our defender. He is, you know, our lover even I mean, I don’t mean that in a weird way, but like he is our lover like he loves our soul. He’s our friend, he is our Cornerstone, he’s our foundation. He is everything to us. I mean, literally everything to us. And when we don’t go to him, one of the, you know, one of the Old Testament prophets and Jeremiah, Jeremiah, obviously, he wrote a word from the Lord, he says, You have abandoned me, you have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water. And you are going after broken cisterns that can’t hold water. And that’s literally what we are doing. Maybe not literally, but figuratively what we’re doing, when we forsake spending time with him, we are choosing to do what Romans one says, exchange the glory of God, for that of a lesser thing, we’re, we’re exchanging the Glory of The Creator, for something created, we’re exchanging the glory of God, the one who makes all things for that of idols, who, who can’t save, who can’t even speak, who can’t see who can’t do anything in our powerless to, to give us the Liberty our hearts longed for. And that’s the funny thing, we’ll do these things, thinking it’s going to make us happy will do these things, thinking it’s going to give us joy, it’s going to give us satisfaction. And in reality, it’s just going to rob us of those things. And all along the fountain of living water wants to give us life wants to give us freedom wants to give us joy wants to give us peace, wants to comfort us, that’s who he is. And that’s what he does. So to choose an idol to choose, whatever that thing might be for you is to choose a lack of joy is to is to choose to be robbed of joy today, or to be to choose to be robbed of satisfaction today, if peace and comfort and power and strength and all the things that God offers us in His presence. We are choosing to go without those things when we choose to ignore time with the Lord.
Alex Enfiedjian 32:02 That’s powerful. Well, I’m about halfway through your book right now. And I’ve really enjoyed it. And I wanted to just ask you one last question and that is this what is the chapter in the book, liberating king that means the most to Stephen Miller. Like what worshiping the liberating King free Stephen Miller from what
Stephen Miller 32:24 I think the approval from being a provable vampire, that was my that’s my main one. I mean, I think that so many stories in the book mean so much to me from, you know, I just put a lot, a lot of tears into writing that book. You know, every chapter, I mean, every chapter man is it’s, it’s, I read everyone, and I forget that I wrote it, because it just speaks to me still, like, I mean, because it came from, from stories from people’s lives from my own life, you know, and seeing the intersection of God at every point that we need him the most. He meets us where we need him most. And so I mean, it’s 120 pages, pretty big text. It’s a quick read, you know, so it’s hard for me to say, read one chapter or whatever. So that’s my hope with the book is that people will be able to sit down with it, read it be encouraged, you know, that I know, everybody’s busy. You know, so?
Alex Enfiedjian 33:37 Well, I’ll definitely link the book in the show notes. But where I mean, obviously, where can people get the book? And then and then how can our listeners stay connected with you online?
Stephen Miller 33:47 Yeah, I mean, the books available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, you know, LifeWay Christian stores, mardale wherever, you know, you buy books, it’s there. Or you can go to liberating King calm, liberating King calm and you know, you can the links to every store that you could think of is are there. But also you can download my free liberating King album that was sort of we did the album as a companion for the book. And so it’s you know, just some music hopefully that you can worship too and it’ll encourage you as well. And that’s free there at liberating King calm as well.
Alex Enfiedjian 34:23 Well, and they can find all your social stuff from your website as well. Stephen Miller calm and Stephen dash Miller calm.
Stephen Miller 34:30 Stephen dashmesh.com. Yeah, and I mean, Twitter’s just at Stephen Miller, Instagrams at Stephen Miller. Facebook, Stephen Miller music and it’s Steven with a Ph. It’s not about whether the STP he and Miller and Snapchat, Stephen D. Miller, or something like that.
Unknown Speaker 34:53 Snapchat, you know,
Alex Enfiedjian 34:54 that’s great. Hey, man, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and I hope that our lives listeners will take to heart what you said about the importance and the power of personal worship and and guys go check out Stephens book and his books Actually, I’ll link both of them in the show notes. But thanks, Steven. And God bless you man. Thanks a lot Alex.
Alex Enfiedjian 35:21 Alright guys, that’s it for today’s episode. I hope it was helpful to you please go check out Stephen Miller’s book you can get it at Stephen dash Miller calm and I’m gonna link everything in the show notes for you guys. So God bless you grow in your personal worship, and let that be the foundation for your ministry, your life, your relationships and everything else. Let’s Let’s not be people who just worship God from the stage but who have a powerful private prayer life in our prayer closet when no one’s looking, or in our car, or whoever it is, but let’s be true worshipers of Jesus, not just Sunday worshipers of Jesus. God bless you guys. Have a great week and I will see you back here next month for another great episode.