MK040 Sermons
Intentional Rhythms (Audio)
Let me ask you a question. What would you think, or what would you even say, if you were bold enough to say, if I told you that about a relationship in my life that was really meaningful but I never was able to find time to spend with that person. Or whenever I was with him I was distracted or preoccupied and I wasn't able to give them my time and attention. You might tell me, "John, I don't think that relationship is as close or as serious as you think it is." Maybe you're a little deluded or not seeing things the way they really are. On Mother's Day it's a day in which we want to honor our moms and one of the things that we hear and are reminded and maybe some of you shared this with your mom in the verbally already today or in the form of a card or note is the fact that moms are always there and they're always present. They often seem like the glue in a family. I talked to someone recently who their mom was no longer alive and they said it's like the glue disappeared and our family was very fragmented because of her not being there. And why is that about a mom? Often that's because of the fact that they've spent the time and effort to get to know the individuals in the family and stay engaged with them and know what's going on in their lives and know the challenges and struggles and the important days and the significant events. They've done all the important things and the needful things for a relationship to matter. The converse is true that and maybe you've experienced this where you've had a relationship with someone you were really close to and you didn't see one another as much and you didn't spend as much time together and you didn't interact with one another in the ways that you had and slowly over time that relationship just drifted apart and maybe sadly it even came to an end. This morning I want to talk with you about the relationship that I believe is most important for people who claim to be Christ followers or claim to know Jesus and what it takes for that relationship to grow and deepen. If you haven't been with us over the past few weeks we've been in a series of messages entitled moving day. If you haven't heard in four weeks from today we will not be meeting here. We'll be meeting in our new facility up in Reinholds and we're excited and looking forward to that day happening and in preparation for that day we've realized all the things that are going to change. You know we're realizing all the things that we will not be doing that we have been doing. The things that have been a part of just being in church and going to church here will change. Some of you have finally migrated towards your new seats you know in the seating arrangement that we've made here. Some of you are still trying to figure out where your new seating spot is going to be. You'll have to find a new parking spot up there because there'll be different places to park so all these things will be new that we'll have to navigate our way around in a new space. But the things we wanted to make very clear are the things that were important for us here at CCC, our purpose, what we're deeply committed to, our values, the things that drive us, the things that are the anchors for our church and for our ministry and the way we function. And so that's what we've been talking about the last four weeks. Now before we get started let me just see how good your memory is. We've been talking about our core purpose, what we're all about and it starts with the word love. Can anybody help me with that? It's what? Love God fully. Okay it's going to come up here. Love God fully. And the second part when we love God fully what else do we do? We love others deeply. We love others that was on the screen. That's why you're so good at it. It's like how did they figure that one out and they didn't know the first one. But that's what we've been talking about. That's what we're about here at CCC. At the core of who we are we want to be a place that is going to invite men and women and children and students into knowing and experiencing the love that God has for them in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And what we believe is when that comes into our lives when we know an experience that his amazing selfless sacrifice on our behalf and his unconditional love then something transformational happens in our lives and we have this capacity to pour this love out into the lives of others. And this love is not because we feel guilty or we feel like we should. This is something we can't really even put words to. It's just something that God does in our hearts and lives. And we are willing to sacrifice selflessly for every person that we cross paths with. And so we've described it a little bit more in detail in this. The love God fully and Jesus said with my heart soul mind and strength. And love others deeply. And we describe this as the way God loves me. Selfless sacrificial love. And then each week we've talked about one of the values that's an anchor. The first week we talked about the story of the woman at the well. A woman who was separated from Jesus by multiple boundaries that Jesus stepped right over and moved right to her as he graciously accepted her. And then we talked at the second week about how we are born in this family of origin with rules and ways that families love and relate to one another. But God when he transforms our hearts and lives he invites us to be a part of the family of God. His family. And there's a new way that we live and a new way that we relate. And we talked about that value as being healthy relationships. And then last week we talked about serving. Not serving because we have to. Not serving because we feel guilty if we don't. But serving out of heart that says God has done so much amazing things for me. His mercy in my life is new every day. And because of such an amazing heart I want to find a way to give my life back to him and humbly surrender and serve God. And we challenged you. I challenged you last week to ask why do I serve? Why do I serve? Does it come out of a full heart filled with gratitude to God to say how can I use my gifts and abilities to make a difference in someone else's life. Well this week the value that we're going to talk about is a value entitled intentional rhythms. Intentional rhythms. And out of all of them so far this one might require the most explanation but as I sat with it I realized that this maybe should be the first value because I think a lot of things flow out of this. And the way I would describe this value is this it's a slow down pace of life that allows me to enjoy being with God and with others. With God and with others. And this morning I want to look at a daily rhythm and a weekly rhythm and talk about that with you. And these are concepts that I've been looking at and thinking about and integrating into my life and we've been talking about as a staff and you've heard me talk about them here over and over again for a number of years. But some of the specifics today I've taken from a resource by a pastor in New York City named Pete Scazarin his book emotionally healthy spirituality. When we talk about rhythms the first thing that we want to do is one acknowledge that God has created everything in his world with a sense of rhythm. Everything. And I'm not just talking about your ability to tap your foot or keep time that's what we're talking about. But because some of us are good at that and some of us aren't. But we can all look around our world that we live in and see a sense of rhythm. It really began in the book of Genesis. If you have your Bibles turned with me to Genesis 1, first book in your Bibles, first chapter of Genesis 1. If you don't have a Bible or a guy's have some and they're passing them out to you and love to have you follow along with us this morning. Genesis 1 and in Genesis 1 if you read down in verse 5 it says this it says evening and there was morning the first day. And then you read down a few verses later and you see evening and morning the second day. And a few more verses evening and morning the third day. Now you might wonder why did they say evening instead of morning and evening. Why did they start with the evening? Because in the Jewish mind and the Hebrew mind when the sun went down when you were able to have a meal with your family and rest that is when life begins. That is when life begins. And so evening and morning are the first day. Evening and morning are the second day. Evening and morning are the third day. And God established this rhythm and you read through it over and over and over and over again. And there's this rhythm and flow to it. And not only did God establish that but if we look around our world what do we see? We see that the sun comes up and the sun goes down. We see that the seasons change. What season are we in now? The season of what? Spring. And what season are we looking forward to? Summer. Some of you know I'm not looking forward to summer. Well we're looking forward to summer. And that's just part of the rhythm that we experience that is part of our lives. When you put your fingers into your neck or hold them on your hand what do you feel? Your pulse or your heartbeat right? Hopefully you feel a pulse and a heartbeat. Some of you I'm not sure out there this morning you know but you know when you think about your day what do you do every day? You wake up, you eat, you drink and then you sleep. That's part of the rhythm of life and you can't go without those things for very long. You can do it for a short time but you can't go without those things for very long or you will not be able to function effectively. So God has created the world with a sense of rhythm. The place we live has rhythms. Our bodies have rhythms. And so the question is what is a daily rhythm of being with God look like? What is a daily rhythm of being with God look like? With rhythm is all around us. Everywhere around us you see them everywhere. But what does that look like? A rhythm of being with God. Notice I did not say when do you have your devotions. I did not say what does your quiet time look like. I didn't say how you doing on your Bible reading because sometimes those although good activities and practices in our lives can simply produce in us a sense of false guilt or a sense of pride in our accomplishment and really don't lead us to a place of being with the God of the heavens. Ladies how would you feel if you, your husband came home and he gave you a kiss and then you heard him talking to his buddy on his phone and said I did what I had to do tonight so the evening should go well. You might find something close by to throw at him or kick him or something like that. Or guys how would you feel if you overheard your wife talking to a girlfriend and said fed him a good meal so he shouldn't have any problems today. But I hear statements that people who are Christ followers make all the time that seem to reflect those kinds of perspectives. I just haven't spent any time with God and so the day is just going to go horrible. It's just going to be awful. It's kind of like we've you, God sitting up there on his throne and waiting and no I didn't see them today. All right you guess what? H.E. double toothpicks coming down on them today. I mean that's, but this is kind of how we view God isn't it? And we live with this sense that I just never spend enough time with God. I never do enough, never do enough and I find myself scratching my head and thinking I'm just not sure that's the way God wants us to relate to him. Because I think if God is a God who loves us and God is a God who longs for a relationship and he longs for us a relationship with us so much he was willing to sacrifice his one and only son that he's a father waiting for his kids to be with him. And somehow I think we've made it simply a checklist or a list of rules and obligations and we've lost a sense of God longing to be with us. If you're there and your Bible's in Genesis 1 if you turn over to Genesis 2 it kind of retells a little bit of Genesis 1 in a little bit different way and it talks about God creating man and then look in verse 15 it says the Lord God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work in and to take care of it. I don't know if you realize that work existed before sin so you know you can say your job is evil and your job is horrible and you'll be glad when you don't have to work but likely work was here before sin work will be here after sin which means they're probably going to be working in heaven. Now you'll get to enjoy it some of you find that hard-fetch far-fetch that you would enjoy work but that's the way God's designed us. Notice what he goes on to say in verse 16 he says and the Lord God commanded your free to you from any tree in the garden but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge and good a good and evil for when you eat you'll certainly die. So God said I want you to work and then he said I want to put some boundaries on what that looks like but there's things here for you to enjoy. A little bit later in verse in chapter 3 after Adam and Eve sinned and ate of that tree the Bible describes God walking through the garden in the cool of the evening and them hiding from him and it really pictures that this was an activity that they did daily that they did their work and then they were with God and they slowed down to be with him and it seems like God has this pattern in our lives that he wants us to fulfill of action then passivity of striving then letting go of doing all we can and then be carried away by God to be with him. And too often I think our time with God when we think about what that is it's just one more thing to do that day like brushing my teeth and there's not a sense that the creator of the universe is waiting for you and I to slow down our lives to just be with him. David paused at the Bible says for seven times throughout the day to praise God. The story of Daniel is a story of a man who would pause three times throughout his day to just turn his face towards his homeland the city of Jerusalem and pray to his God. The vow Jews often pause two or three times throughout the day and I wonder what it would look like for us not just to feel like I did my obligation in the morning but to find a way to pause throughout the day on an occasional basis to reconnect with God. Now you might be sitting there thinking well John you don't know what my day is like. Maybe you can do that because we pay you to go do that so you can go do that but that's not happening for me you know. But the guys on staff will tell you we can get in that morning and we can have a series of meetings and have a problem that shows up and multiple emails we have to reply that doesn't matter if I spent time with God very quickly my day is what do I have to get done and how am I going to make sure that happens and God's not really in the picture. Somehow I think we've relegated this time with God as something to make us feel good about our day ease our conscience before God but really not be about being with God. And so this morning what I want to do is I want us to actually do this. I want us to actually slow down and I want us to actually spend a few minutes just quietly with God. And there's a couple of elements that are going to come up on the screen that I want to think about I want you to think about when you spend time with God the first is this the first is just to stop. Just to stop. You realize what happens when you stop doing things you give up control. And for some of us the only time we do that is when we sleep and then our brains are running and we're working all kinds of things out and that's why we can't sleep at night you know because we're still trying to work it out even though our bodies aren't trying to work it out. But really this is an issue of trust is what this is. This is am I willing to say God I'm going to take my hands off of this my activity off of this and I'm going to turn this over and let you be the one in charge of this. There's a second component to this and that's just stillness. Be still in the know that I am God is Psalm 4610 the word still there is it literally means to stop churning. Stop churning. You know the thing in the washer the agitator at least the older ones you know it churns stirs everything up. And God says what's it going to take for you to stop churning. It's going to take because when that happens what do you discover you meet God again you meet him again. Psalm 37 says be still before God and wait patiently for him and you may be saying John that that might be a good idea to stop and to sit there but you don't understand what goes on up here you know and and and it's still going and it doesn't stop it doesn't stop it doesn't stop and I mean offer your suggestion that I've read it's not something I use but others have said maybe it's just a short prayer that you just repeat over and over and over again. The sinner's prayer from Luke 17 which just says Lord Jesus son of God have mercy on me a sinner reminding yourself of who he is and who I am. The third element is silence. Silence to just stop talking. Do you know how long an audience can sit in silence before they start to feel uncomfortable? I won't make you do it yet. 15 seconds 15 seconds before you start to want to forget something did somebody forget to move somebody lost somebody not paying attention what's going on here. That's how long we can sit quietly. It's amazing when you sit in stillness and you stop and you're quiet where God directs your heart. Most Sunday mornings I get here and I'm usually you know coming in around 7.30 and I part my car up there and they told me when they're getting things ready in here John you don't need to come in yet you can just wait and so I just sit out there quietly. So this morning I was about to get out of the car and no I just need to sit quietly and as I sat I might feel I feel pretty good good healthy breakfast and good night of rest and I'm feeling pretty good. I start to think about what's kind of going on in my life and what emotions I'm feeling. I started to realize that I was feeling a bit anxious. A lot of stuff happened in here at CCC right now and I thought I don't want to come in here and be with you and be anxious. I want that to be the way I communicate and I just said you know God I just need you to take that from me. I just need to give that up to you and I need to let whatever happens this morning this afternoon this time that I get to be here to be something that I just turn over to you. One of the practices we've adopted as a worship team finishes their rehearsal in the morning as anybody that's involved in the service will kind of form a huddle back there and we just kind of go over the details and we just stand after we do that. We just kind of stand for about 30 seconds and just kind of take a deep breath because sometimes the mornings could be a little frazzling you know. We just take a deep breath and just they're quiet and then someone prays and I know every once in a while Johnny will turn to someone and ask them to pray and now they're all listening to me talking about this they're going to feel self-conscious but he'll turn to someone and they'll forget the 30 seconds you know and they'll start praying I'm like no no no no stop stop we haven't been quiet yet and I'm like no I don't really do that I don't interrupt them but inside inside I'm like we need to just be quiet we need just be quiet and just to be quiet in God's presence because it's in the quietness of God's presence where God shows up. There's a story in the Old Testament about a prophet by the name of Elijah and he was a great man of God and God used him miraculously to defeat prophets who had turned the people of Israel away from God the prophets of Baal and but the ruler of the land Jezebel she was after his head because he had wiped out all of her prophets people of Israel had and so he takes off running he goes far far away down the southern part of the land of Israel and lays down falls asleep God provides him food he wakes up he falls asleep again God provides him a little more food and then he says God where are you in all of this? He says I feel so lonely I feel like I should just die. God where are you where are you and he looks for God in the in the fire and the verse is going to come up on the screen he looks for God in the fire and he looks for God in the in the earthquake and he looks for God in the wind ways God has shown up before it and God was nowhere to be found and says after the fire there was a gentle whisper the O King James says a still small voice there's actually in the Hebrew there's no word for that because how do you come up with a word for silence there's no Hebrew word for silence but in the silence is sometimes where God will show up he will show up and the last component is scripture scripture and that's the power of God's truth to impact our minds we're not just talking about sitting quietly and you know and and meditating on nothingness that's not what we're talking about here we're talking about you being quiet and meeting with God and hearing truth from his word to you to you and so what we're going to do is I'm going to give you about 30 seconds just to sit quietly and then what I'm going to do is I'm going to have you read a passage of scripture I'm going to ask you to turn to it now it's going to come up on the screen you want to turn your Bibles to Psalm 130 Psalm 130 and what we're going to do is I'm going to give you about 30 seconds to just sit quietly say John what do I do when I sit quietly just think about where you are right now how you're feeling what's going on in your heart your life I'll tell you when that comes to an end and then I'm going to have you read through these passage ask you to read through it three times you don't have a Bible with you you can follow along it'll scroll on the screens and you can read through it then and as you read through it I want you to just ask yourself say God what's the word or what's the phrase that you have for me today okay so everybody got it this is what everybody said and what we're going to do so we're going to sit quietly for 30 seconds and then read through the scripture and we'll just be completely quiet during this time okay let's begin our 30 seconds of silence is there a rhythm in our lives where we pause not just at the beginning out of obligation but maybe around lunchtime where we find a little break where maybe it's 20 or 30 seconds or maybe it's three minutes and then as our day comes to a close and the sun goes down and things are wrapped up that we just pause to be with God that's what he wants for us and he's longing he's waiting for us to meet with him if we view those times with God as just a mini taste of time with him God not only wants us to spend time with him throughout the day but I believe God wants us to do that on a weekly basis if you're there in your Bibles turn back to the book of Exodus if you would and Exodus chapter 20 and in Exodus chapter 20 is when God gave the people of Israel the Ten Commandments and in Exodus chapter 20 the people of Israel had been slaves for 400 years and they were coming out of Egypt and God said let me tell you first of all how I want you to relate to me as your God you are my chosen people Israel and then the second from five to ten I want you to tell you how to relate to each other and at the end of the commandments in which he tells us how to relate to God verse eight is when he says this he says remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy six days you shall labor and do all of your work but the seventh is the Sabbath to the Lord on it you shall not do any work neither you knew your son daughter male female servant animals or any foreigner who's even staying with you and here's his reason for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth to see and all that's in them but he rested on the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy and the reason he tells us to do this is follow the example of the Creator follow the example of the God who made us the God who created this world with rhythm rhythm the God who created us with the sense of rhythm he said I want you to live life the way that I live life and after God did the morning into the evening and morning and evening and morning even morning for six days you remember what he did at the end it says he said he rested and he looked at all of his creation he said what it is what good good and so God wants our lives to be pattern after that God wants our lives to follow that example the word Sabbath simply means to cease to stop that's what Sabbath is all about and he says at the end of that verse he says God blessed that day and he made it holy and the word holy simply means separate or distinct unlike any other day he said you will have six days to do all the things that you need to do but will you take one day and make that day different than any other day in the way that he gets practiced you see Sabbath is a day when we enjoy good food good relationships beauty of God's creation Sabbath calls us to build doing nothing into our schedule talk to someone a while ago and they told me that they like working I was like well that's good I like my work too they like no I like working even as a hobby I was like I don't God says you need to have one day where you build into your schedule doing nothing you've heard me talk about Sabbath you've heard me talk about this way that Sabbath should be a day filled with one twos and not half twos one twos and not half twos and so if there are people that you feel like you have to spend time with you can tell them that my pastor gave me permission to say no not today maybe another time just don't give them my email or phone number they'll track me down anyways you know if there's obligations or expectations there's six days for us to get all of that stuff done God says I have one day that I want you to enjoy because that's what I did that's what I did I worked hard I created all this amazing thing that we can enjoy and then one day just to enjoy what I have done and so just like I gave you four things before I want to give you four things that are part of Sabbath the first is just simply stopping stopping and remember how we talked about when you pause in your day it's an issue of trust for you to celebrate Sabbath it is a big issue of trust huge issue of trust to say well I turn over everything in my life to God and just take a step back on one day there's a story told of wagon trains that were traveling in the pioneer days from St. Louis to Oregon and when they were making this trip after they got out of St. Louis the first week out they were looking at the timeline and they had to get past a certain place before the storms for the winter would come in and they said we've got to push through we've got to push through and this huge conflict broke out on the wagon train because half the group said no we have to take a day for the animals to rest to do repairs just for us to rest and the other one said no we have to push through and so they divided themselves into two groups and guess which group made it to Oregon first the group that took a day to rest because that is how God has designed us to function and when we violent that function in a culture that says we are 24/7 and you have access to everything all the time any time you want to and you just go go go we violated the core who God has made us to be the second thing is rest rest um rest means take naps long naps with no alarm clock that's what Sabbath should be about that's a part of it um but there's rest from other things and I want to read you a list of some things I want to challenge you to consider resting from resting from doing paperwork resting from physical exhaustion resting from hurriedness resting from multitasking resting from competitiveness resting from worry maybe I should say that again resting from worry maybe a third time resting from worry about resting from decision making resting from errands and here's the tough one resting from technology technology doesn't cause us to feel rested cause us to feel frazzled it's what it does to us and I know we live in a culture that's so heavily reliant on that if you try to email me or call me from about Sunday afternoon till about Monday about six about six o'clock you probably won't get a reply from me because that's my Sabbath window and during that time I enjoy time with my family we hang out together my wife and I often will go for a long walk with our dog that drives us crazy but we do it anyways for the good of the dog I guess I don't know but we wear out after about 40 minutes you know casual no pace no time to get anywhere we just walk through our town Monday morning for me at the house is quite an empty and so for me it's a time of silence told some of this I usually sit by myself quietly in silence for about four hours and some of you thinking I would lose my mind I don't I'm still here I try not to read a whole lot read a little bit just try to sit quietly sometimes I just sit in the yard quiet unhurried unrushed in the afternoon my wife and I will usually go out to lunch and spend some time just being together with one another so I don't know what that time window looks like for you but I want to challenge you to say what is a 24 hour window of time in our day in our week where we put life on pause a third component is delight delight we talked about this we talked about that the end when God created he said it was good and he enjoyed it and the Sabbath is all about enjoying the things that God has blessed us with that's where we slow life down we enjoy creation we enjoy relationships we enjoy things of beauty we enjoy making you know if making a meal is something you enjoy then you make a great meal if you don't like to make a great meal then they're even leftovers that day you know or somebody's made it in advance spend time playing with one another just enjoying the people that God has blessed you with and the last one is contemplate contemplate and this is just a reflection of what is significant about this time and what is to come in Genesis chapter one when God created the heavens and the earth the Bible says that that the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the earth and then God created the sun to separate the day from the night and that began rhythms in Revelation 22 this all changes it all changes look at the verse on the screen they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads there will be no more night they will not need a light the light of a lamp or the light of the sun for the Lord God will give them light you know what Sabbath is Sabbath is giving us a taste of what eternity will be like it's like being in the kitchen and then someone's made something they're like here taste this and you're like you're tasting like huh when can I have more when's it going to be ready I can't wait you know and that's what Sabbath is all about we turn things over to God we say you're in charge I'm not and we get a taste of what is to come and that's what God is inviting us into say John I don't know how on the world to do this I'm not sure even where to start well you have to be intentional about this it's not just going to happen this year my daughter is finishing up her first year as a teacher and you know anything about teachers your first year is your most demanding year lots of preparation you're starting from scratch with everything and so when she started her first week she came to me and she said dad I don't know how I'm going to get this all done I said what do you mean Alicia and she said I just I'm you know I get home I eat dinner I work non-stop get everything ready and it's time to start all over again and and I just I don't have time to stop I don't have time to I said no I said you can't do that I said what do you mean I said you got to find a way to make your 24 hour Sabbath and as we began to talk about that we began to discuss when the best time and when the best rhythm in her life and in her week was for her to say 24 hours during this time I'm going to set all of those things aside and just enjoy the good things that God has given to me and so we came up with a 24 hour time period and I think if you asked her most weeks she's been able to do that and she's been able to get all of her work done and be able to enjoy the life that she has and I tell you that story to illustrate for you that you won't be able to make this happen unless you sit down and think about it are intentional and come up with the plan I don't know if you know this but most Orthodox Jews that celebrate Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday most of them take a few hours before the sun goes down to get all the bills paid and all the errands taken care of and all the meal prepped and everything there and then they're ready to enjoy Sabbath and so I don't know what that looks like for you in my life it's divided up it's not all connected like that but this is a gift you I hope you view Sabbath as a gift that God has to offer to you of a taste of what he has to come and that you'll cultivate that rhythm in your life in such a way that will it will give you energy and it will give you life and it will give you passion to pour out who he is to you in the lives of the people that he surrounds you with for the rest of your week let's bow our heads in prayer as we close this morning God I thank you that you model for us what this rhythm of life looks like and we've talked about these rhythms and reading throughout the Old Testament it's just packed full of this pace of life that even in the ancient Near Eastern culture where this was part of how they live life God says be intentional about it and Lord in our culture and in our pace it doesn't reflect us at all and God it sometimes makes me wonder if that is why it's hard for others who don't know Jesus and who don't have a relationship with him don't really see anything different about our lives they just see us hurried they just see us frazzled they just see us racing from one thing to another and we don't really have much to offer in this life so God I wonder how it would impact our lives if we found a way to develop a daily rhythm to pause to be with you and a weekly rhythm to enjoy all the good things that you have blessed us with in our lives in such a way that we get a taste of what eternity will be like God that's what you have to offer and pray that that would be our heart in pursuing that in your name we pray