MK040 Sermons
Slowing Down to Be with Jesus (Audio)
and able to be here for our time of worship. We're beginning a new series this morning, as you heard mentioned, entitled, "Slowing Down to Be with Jesus," and I'm glad that you've chosen part of your day to do that. And as we begin this new series, I want to ask you this question. When was the last time you thought that you needed to hit this button in your life? Pause. When was the last time you thought I just need to put things on pause? I need to slow things down. I need to stop things. I need to take a break because things are just way beyond my controller capacity. Sometimes life does that. Sometimes we don't even have control over when that happens. It happened to me earlier this week. It started on Tuesday with a bit of a scratchy throat, and then that got a little bit worse by by Wednesday. I made it through my appointments on Thursday about middle of the afternoon. I contacted Jen in the office. I said, "Jen, I'm done. I'm going home." And I went home, laid down for a few hours, still dinner, managed to get some dinner and didn't move off the couch the rest of the night. I was done. I had to put things on pause because I was worn out. Sometimes life does that. You just keep going and going and going and going, and then your body forces you because you run out of gas. Sometimes your immune system is susceptible, and you're worn down. Sometimes family and friends say, "You just need to take a break. You're pushing too hard." Dr. Katharine Hall put it this way. She said this, "The single greatest threat to our lives, not terrorists, polluting our water or putting poison in the water or pollution in the air. The greatest threat to our lives and our well-being is our lifestyle." Ask people how they're doing these days. In the first word, you will hear them say, "Is what? Busy." We probe a little bit deeper, and soon you may see their frustration as they say they're exhausted. We do more, go more, buy more. Our gas things are full. Our bank accounts are full. Our closets are full, and we are running on empty. Surveys say we don't get enough sleep. We eat too many meals on the run. We take too many pills, and worst of all, we don't spend enough time with our children and the people that we love. Now, how many of you would say at some level there's some truth to that that you see in your life or in the world around you? I won't make you confess too much this morning. I think a lot of us do. A lot of us do. And it seems to have affected us in many ways. And one of the ways I think it's affected us is this whole idea of us being connected to God. When I talk to people these days, it really doesn't matter where they're at on their faith journey. Most people want some kind of connection to God. Whether they've been walking with God for a long time, or they've been far from God, they all seem to say, "I want to be connected to God." But most people don't feel connected to God. Most people do not. And sometimes Sunday is just at one hour breather in the midst of a fast paced life that includes rushing out the door to sports activities and family gatherings and trying to get everything done for the weekend just so you can do what started all over again on Monday. And so in this series, we want to talk about slowing down to be with Jesus. And we're not just going to talk about managing your schedule because there's lots of things that you can look at to figure out how to manage your schedule. But what does it take for us to build one of the things that we value here at CCC, which is intentional rhythms? You know, everything in our world, we talk about this all the time, everything in our culture, everything in our bodies, our Paul's, everything has a rhythm. Everything has a rhythm. But because of technology and because of the pace of life, we've decided we don't need to live without that sense of rhythm. But God says otherwise. And so we want to talk about what does it take for us to slow down, to enjoy life, to enjoy one another, to enjoy the good gifts that God bless us with, and lastly, and enjoy being with God. And so over the next few weeks, that's what we're going to talk about. And my hope is that there's a transition that begins to start first in your heart and in your mind, and then eventually it translates into your actions. Because our actions always follow our beliefs. Because I believe what God wants to do is us to realign the order of the things in our lives, not just add one more thing to life, to realign the order of things in our lives, not just add one more thing to our lives. If you're checking out church, if you're coming back to God, if someone brought you here this morning, maybe you haven't been around for a period of time and church is not something that's been a part of your life. And I hope this morning you get a sense of what God is offering to you. And if you have been here at CCC or you have been walking with God for a period of time, I've talked to many, many people who say, "Yeah, I'm doing what God wants me to do." And there's no overt sin in my life. But God and I were kind of disconnected. We're not on the same page. That fire that was there is now maybe barely a spark. And God seems more a ritual and an activity and not so much a relationship that I look forward to. And my prayer for you is that this message will stir up a fire, the fire of your faith as you walk with Jesus. So this morning, we're going to look at an invitation that Jesus extends to you. And then next week, we're going to look at how to connect with God. And then after that, how to deepen our relationship. And lastly, some intentional ways that we can pause to be with God. If you have your Bibles, if you would turn with me to Matthew 11, Matthew 11, if you have a phone or wireless device, you can connect to our network and follow along on you version. Our guys have some Bibles, they're passing them out. If you don't have a Bible of your own, we encourage you to take this with you and mark this someplace and review it sometime this week. And the Matthew chapter 11, Matthew chapter 11, we're going to begin in verse 28. Matthew 11 verse 28, Jesus says this, "He says, 'Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn for me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Jesus begins with an invitation, an invitation to come. It's a little bit different than what he said throughout the Gospels. If you read any of Jesus' writings early on in the Gospels, he often says, "Follow me." He tapped this guy on the shore and said, "Come follow me." He tapped this one and he said, "Come follow me." But follow is different than an invitation to come. Because someone says, "Come follow me." That means they're going somewhere and they're inviting you to go where they're going. But when someone says, "Come to me, they're just inviting you." Oh, ready to go. The stool disappeared. They're just inviting you to come. Just come and just kind of be here with me. You know, a parent says that to their child, right? "Come to me." So the parent says that to a child. Why? Because they want them just to be with them. Good friends say that. You say, "Come, come on." Well, say, "Just come out and hang out with me." Or someone that you love or care deeply. You're just like, "We don't need to do anything." Well, just be with me. Be with me. And that's what Jesus is inviting us to do. It's an invitation simply to come. As I thought about this invitation, I thought, "How many relationships in my life do I have where I'm just invited just to come and be with that individual?" I get asked for, you know, input and, you know, advice on things. I don't get asked to fix things. I'm not very good at that. But I get asked for other things. And I'm glad to help and serve people when I can. But how often does someone say, "Hey, John, just come on over and just kind of hang out and be with me." Now, maybe it's my title that kind of gets in the way. It has advantages and disadvantages, you know. But it's something I really, really enjoy. But I don't do that very often. And Jesus says to us, He says, "I want you to come and be with me." Now, recognize that Jesus is not talking to people that are far from God, people that don't want anything to do with God. If you read a little bit earlier in chapter 11, Jesus has sent out in chapter 10 and then chapter 11, He sent out His disciples to go out and spread the message of the kingdom, the message of the gospel. He says, "There's crowds that are following Him." And He says to these crowds, He says, "Come to me." And I think what He's doing is He's inviting them to something different. He's inviting them to something more than just to follow. When you follow someone, it's like, "Where's the party? What's happening? Where's the movement? I want to get on board with what's happening? What's going on?" But to come and be with me is a different invitation. It's not necessarily to be a part of something big and expansive and celebrative, but it's just to be there present with Jesus. It seems a little mystical. It seems a little unusual. How do I do that? Well, Jesus goes on to say, "Who's invited?" What He says in the next phrase, He says, "All who are weary and burdened. All who are weary and burdened." You know, we know why we're weary and burdened. We all know that because of our pace of life, because we can't disconnect. We all know that, but why would people be weary and burdened in the first century? Why would that be true of them? When the first century, they were weary and burdened likely because of the religious leaders in that community. The religious leaders had over 600 laws that people were obligated to follow. And the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they were the gotcha police of the religious community. You know, every family has one child among the family that their role is to gotcha on everybody else, right? You know, they just kind of follow everybody around. They point out when everybody does something wrong. Everybody in the family knows who it is. You know, we were talking about this, just traveling with my family the other day. And I was talking about growing up my my siblings. We didn't cover one another's back. We just, "Oh, you got me, I'm getting you." You know, you're next. And it was always looking to catch that other person doing something wrong. And the Pharisees in the first century kind of the gotcha police. And they were always there watching around every corner at every block, snooping in your house, listening however they could to find when you violated a law because they wanted to elevate themselves is better than you. And if they pointed out your faults, then they were certainly better than you. And this created an overwhelming weight for the people in the first century. 600 rules, 600. I heard a couple years ago at Summit University they kind of did away with the student handbook, you know, and all the rules that were there when I was a student. And someone had to remember all of them and enforce all of them. And they tried to make it more about principles that you live by, which I think is a great transition. I think I would have gotten in less trouble with that with that framework than when I was there as a student. But Jesus says, "Come to me, everybody who's feeling a heavy, heavy burden." And you might not be feeling a heavy burden this morning because of religious rules. But there's likely other things in your life that are creating a heavy burden. Maybe it is just the pace of life. Maybe it's the expectations of your parents. Maybe it's the responsibilities you feel here at church. Maybe it's things that your parents are expecting of you so you could try to somehow get scholarships for college or work multiple jobs so you minimize your debt load. Maybe it's internal weight from losses that you've not grieved or pain from wounds that you've not faced. It's weight of struggles in your marriage, the weight of your kids in their struggles, the way that your kids feel when they watch you struggle, the weight about your future, about your career, about your job and the uncertainty that goes with it. And you're just feeling the weightiness now even as I read through that list. Jesus says it doesn't matter what's going on. The reality is likely every person in this room has some level of weight that you walk through those doors with this morning. I know a few of them. You've told me about them. You've asked us as a staff and elders to pray for you. Sometimes I can see it in your faces. Johnny sees it in your eyes when he leaves in worship. You're carrying a heavy weight. Heavy weight. And Jesus this morning extends an invitation to you. And he says, will you come? Will you come? Because I know you've got something on your shoulders that is too heavy for you to carry. Says, will you come? And he says, if you come, then look what he offers. He offers rest. Rest. And this is not a new offer. This is an offer that the Israelite people had heard before in the book of Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah, said this in Jeremiah 6 verse 16. He says, stand at the crossways and look, ask for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is in walking it and you will find rest for your souls. What is rest for the soul? It's not a good night's sleep. It's not a weak vacation. Not even a sabbatical. It's something far greater. I think it's rest from the demands. I think it's rest from the expectations. I just think it's rest from try to create my sense of self-worth. I think it's rest from guilt. I think it's rest from all of that. When was the last time someone invited you to come and be with them? And they didn't have an agenda for you. They didn't have something they wanted to talk to you about. To point out, to correct, to fix, to clarify, to remind, to challenge, to encourage, the list goes on and on. Well intention. But Jesus says, what does it feel like to know that you are completely and unconditionally accepted and loved? Nothing required, nothing expected, nothing demanded from you. That's what he offers. That's what he offers. He then goes on to describe how this process happens in the next verse. He says this, he says, take my yoke. Take my yoke. And we live in a farming community, but not many of us are farmers. But a yoke is something that they would put on oxen and it would allow the oxen to work together. But in order for the oxen to be in the yoke, the oxen had to sacrifice something. He had to sacrifice his freedom. He is not free to go wherever he wants to go. And for a long time, I thought of this yoke as something that Jesus was offering to me. And I was like, I'm not sure if I want that. Because that seems harder than where I'm at right now. He tells me to take it. Take it. And as I thought about this idea of a yoke, something came to my mind. And what came to my mind is something that happens at long distance races at most the larger marathons around the country. And that's individuals called pacers. Pacers. You see on the grid on the screen behind, you see those individuals holding those numbers. Those are times that these individuals, if you run with this pacer, that you will finish the marathon in that time. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. You're like, how do they know that? How do they know that? I mean, they actually run the whole race. If you look in the next picture, the next picture, they actually run the whole race holding that thing in their hand. You can see them everywhere, everywhere. Say, how do they do that? How do they do that? Well, these individuals that are pacers, they have run 50, 75, most of them, a hundred marathons. They do this every weekend, every couple weekends they do it. And they run them at times, much, much slower than the times you are trying to run them. So often I was trying to run around a four-hour marathon. I would run with individuals who completed this same race in three hours. They say, what's the difference? What's the difference? Well, yesterday we were in DC for my daughter's birthday and we were visiting some of the Smithsonian and walking down some of the the National Mall. And that's where the Marine Corps marathon is that I've done a couple of times. And my wife was saying to me, do you remember running on this? Because I remember we were here and we would go back and forth and we'd try to find you. Let you know that we were cheering you on. I was like, I don't remember any of that, hun. I don't remember any of that. I was just trying to survive. That's all that was happening. I was trying to make sure I had enough water. I was trying to make sure I had something to need. I was like, when is windowing? Can I eat something again? You know, when can I fuel up? When can I hydrate? Oh my goodness, I got this blister on my toe. Where's the first aid station? That's basically what was going through my mind. The whole time I was running that race, I lost track of everything that was happening around me. But when you run with the pacer, they're like, oh yeah, on your left is this thing over here. And this is what happened to this place. And on your right is this thing that happened over here. And this thing, you're like, how in the world can they do that? Because they've run this race several dozen times already. They've been down that course before. And they know while we're coming up on a little bit of rise here. So let's kind of slow down a little bit. Oh, we're coming down here. Let's kind of back it off a little bit. Don't go too fast down there. They know every bump in the road. They know every turn. They know everything that's there. Because they've done it before. And now they're doing it at a much slower pace in such a way that they can tell you about the whole experience the whole time. It's a remarkable, remarkable thing. As I thought about this whole idea of the yoke, I thought, that seems to be a little bit more of what Jesus is talking about. I don't think what Jesus is saying, here you go, John, take this big heavy load. And and now your life is going to be better. I think Jesus is inviting me. It's an invitation. He's inviting me to come along with him in a path called following him that he has already navigated. He's already done the will of the Father. He has already faced rejection. He has already had a navigate forgiveness being wrongly accused. He's navigated all of those things. He knows what it means to want something, want God's will, but not want to face the struggle that you're going to have to navigate to experience it. And he says, why don't you just come along with me? And I'll help you run this race called life. You don't have to run it by yourself. And by the way, I've already run this race. And I kind of know what's coming around the next bend. I know what's on the next curve. I know what's over the next rise. And why don't you just come and spend some time with me? Why don't you just do that? He says, take my yoke and learn from me. He invites us to learn from Jesus. I thought, what can Jesus teach me? Jesus can teach me everything about a relationship with God. And Jesus can teach me about relationship with people. That covers a lot of life, covers a lot of life. It doesn't cover everything, but it covers a lot. Jesus was a child. Jesus was an adult. And he can teach me things about both of those. Why is Jesus someone to learn from me? He goes on to say in that verse, he says, for I am gentle and humble in heart. First thing he says is I am gentle. You remember who was empowered during that time? What nation was empowered during that time? Romans, right? The Romans were brutal. They were vicious. They were violent. They were conquerors. That's what Rome was known for. And so when they look to their political authorities, they did not know someone that was gentle. They knew someone that was forceful and dominant. And when the individuals of those day, when they look to the religious community, they would look to the Pharisees and the Pharisees were not known for their humility. The Pharisees were known for their pride and arrogance and get out of the way. I'm in first. No, my name is going to be on the top. Jesus is here. I'm getting this seat right next to him. That's what the Pharisees were known for. There was no humility there. It was only pride and arrogance. Jesus says, if you come and just hang out with me, there's some things you're going to learn. You're going to learn about how to face struggles in this life with a gentle and humble heart. Paul says later, he says, "God lifts up the God. God will lift up the humble and the proud will be brought down." He goes on to say there, you will find rest for your souls. John Orteberg in his book, Soul Care, talks about this idea of soul fatigue, about a fatigue of the soul. And look at this list of items of soul fatigue that he talks about. Things bother you more than they should. There's another one. It's hard to make up your mind on a simple decision. Impulse is to eat during spend or cravings are harder to resist than they otherwise would be. You're likely to favor something short-term at the cost of something long-term. Your judgment suffers. You don't have courage. You're withdrawn, distant, unengaged, hostile, sarcastic, critical negative, a procrastinator. He says, "When your soul is weary, these are things that are true of you." Can't go back to that slide, man. Let's stay there for a minute. I don't know about you this morning, but when I put this together and I looked at that slide, I had to admit there are some things that are true about me. I did not want to admit were true about me. But if I think about comments that I've heard my family make recently, I've heard some friends make recently. I think my soul is weary. I think I'm experiencing some of this. And so I wondered what does it mean to find rest for your soul? What does that mean? How does that happen? And the only place I know to look is to go and look at the example of Jesus. And I've been looking at the example of Jesus. What is his life look like? Because Jesus had demands, Jesus had pressure, Jesus had people trying to pull him in every direction, Jesus had people putting expectations on him that he said, "We're not going to happen." And when I think about Jesus, I think about this. I think about the fact that he spent time in prayer, that he spent time with a circle of close friends. He spent time in worship. He spent time in the scriptures. He spent time enjoying God's creation. He spent time with children. He spent time with non-religious types. I thought, "Wow, if I look at that list, say how much of that is true of me." What was the last time he took a long walk and left your phone at home? And you weren't in a hurry. You know, this is the Jewish idea of Shalom, an internal peace that's reflected by an external peace. And when you think about that soul at rest, what comes to mind? It pictures someone who is totally at ease with who they are. Totally at ease with where God has made them, where God has them. And there's someone that you enjoy and look forward to be with. And I found myself saying, "When was the last time I invited someone to just come and be with me without an agenda, without something I wanted to talk to about, without a project we weren't working with?" I said, "Let's just be together." Jesus closes by saying this and he repeats it twice so we don't forget it. He says, "My burden, my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Seems like quite the contradiction, doesn't it? How could a yoke be easy? Because the oxen puts on a yoke to do what? Work. This is the only place in the Bible where it says something is easy. Only place. Only place. It seems like such a contradiction that if I accept Jesus' invitation to come and be with him, that somehow he's going to navigate this path called my life. And then the process of navigating this path called my life, he's going to walk with me to a place where I will discover that his yoke is easy. And my burden that I could barely care carry is somehow lighter, somehow lighter. One of the things that people often say, not always, is they'll often say after talking to a counselor, "Oh, I'm glad I just had someone to what? Listen to me." Right? We just need someone to listen to us. And Jesus says, "I want to invite you to come and just be with me and just listen. Just listen." And so what do you do with an invitation? What do you do with an invitation? Well, in our house there's a calendar on the counter and the invitations kind of get put in a stack on there. We have a conversation, "Are we doing this? Are we doing this?" "I don't know. Are we doing this?" "Well, oh yeah, we're going to do that one. What are we going to do with those invitations?" Some of them get put in the book right away. "Yep, we're going to do that one. Don't want to miss out on that one." Others were like, "Eh, not so sure. We'll stick that one back there a little bit." Now you're wondering, "Who's invitation do we do that?" So my wife would never do that. I'm the one that does that. She would never do that. But we do that, don't we? Some of them were like, "Yeah, that's..." And others were like, "Eh, not so sure." Others were like, "No chance in that one to happen. I don't even know why they sent it to us. We're pushing that one off." RSVP, no. And so that's what we do with an invitation, right? One of the first things you can do with Jesus' invitation is you can reject it. You can say, "You know, John, that sounds nice. I'm okay where I'm at. I don't need any more of God. I don't need any more of God. I'm good where I'm at." Maybe you can ignore it. This is a good Lancaster County approach, you know. Don't face it. Don't deal with it. Just kind of hide it and maybe it'll go away, you know. But it doesn't, doesn't. But ignoring it is the same as what? Rejecting it, right? If we're honest. If we're honest. But it's real easy to walk out these doors and say, "Well, that was kind of interesting. I don't really know where John was going this morning with that whole idea. But, you know, I'm good with God. I got the weeks coming and I got to get going. I got stuff to do and we didn't even have time to get done what we have to get done. And the last one is for you to accept it. For you to say, in your heart and in your spirit before God, you know, I do want something more in my walk with God. I do want something more in my faith. I do want something more in my marriage. I do want something more in my relationship with my kids. I do want something more in my relationship with my mom and dad. I want something more. I don't know what that more is and I don't necessarily know how I'm gonna get there. But this is an invitation that Jesus is extending for me to simply be with him. And I'm gonna take that invitation and start there. So what do you do with the invitation? Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and what? And learn from me." So I think a good place to go is just to go to Jesus. If you don't have any place you're reading in your Bible right now, I encourage you to to start in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John and just read a section and carve out a little window of time where you read that over a couple times during the day and say, "God, what does this say about Jesus? What do I learn about Jesus? Because if I'm gonna be with Jesus and I want to learn from Jesus, I've got to learn who Jesus is and what He was like." And then what does this mean for me? And I'll be the first to tell you, a lot of times it's not real clear. Jesus is casting demons out of people into pigs. I'm not really sure what that has to do with me. I don't know any pigs, you know, where any pigs are, but I don't know that I'm gonna need to do that next week. But so I'm just saying that to say to you, sometimes it's not really clear. Sometimes you sit with and say, "I don't understand this, Jesus. I don't know what in the world you're talking about. God, I know I'm supposed to be with you and I'm reading this and I'm trying to learn from you, but I don't get it. And I want you to know you're in good company because that's part of being a Christ follower and a broken limited world. But the next day you're gonna sit and you're gonna look at this passage, you're gonna read something and and Jesus is gonna say, "This is what I'm all about and this is what I want you to experience with me today." And I know what happened in your life yesterday. But you're my beloved son and daughter and I just want you to be with me today. And so if you want to accept that invitation, I want to challenge you. If you don't have any place you're reading consistently to go to the Gospels, just read a section and then say, "What does this say about Jesus and what does it say for me today?" I want to invite you to bow your heads. Just take a moment and talk to God about this invitation. [Silence] [Silence] For some of you, in spite of the mystery of it, sounds very inviting. Because you're looking for something more. You come to this church because you're looking for something more. You know Jesus and you love Jesus but there's just longing for something more. Not more things to do, not more rules and regulations but just wondering is there more to this relationship with Jesus than what I'm experiencing right now. For some, you're hearing this in a way you've never heard before because you've seen faith is just a bunch of rules. Sometimes you do it, sometimes you don't. Depends how you feel that day. But it makes sense to you what Jesus is inviting you to do. God, I pray for each of our hearts and lives and story this morning. You know every single one of them, God. You know the burdens that we carry, struggles we live with. You invite us to come and be with you. God, I know for me at times that invitation doesn't seem like it's deserved but you graciously, faithfully, offer that. God, I just pray that this morning that as we consider this invitation from souls that are weary, we might come to you and find rest. In your name I pray, amen. You know in the book of Acts says that when the disciples were around individuals, it was said of them that people knew that they had been with Jesus and I think somehow if we accept this invitation to come and be with Him, something's going to change in us. Something's going to change because other people are going to know there's something different about the way this person lives. There's something different about their priorities, their choices, their values, things that they love. And so as the team leads us in a few songs to close, my prayer for you is that you would make these songs your prayer as you consider Jesus's invitation to you this morning. (gentle music) (gentle music)