SPEAKER_02: Well this morning it is a joy and privilege to have my uh not just my uncle and aunt with us and my grandmother and my parents uh but uh also my my minister uh my mentor for 25 years of ministry and uh so love this man.
SPEAKER_02: It's such an honor to have him in the pulpit today.
SPEAKER_02: Um my favorite preacher, to be honest, and for for 25 years, I don't know if Dale has ever told me how to be a better communicator.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if he uh he's walked me through some things where I needed wisdom, but he has done mainly one thing for 25 years of my ministry.
SPEAKER_02: He's pointed me to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's a mentor.
SPEAKER_02: Brother, love you.
SPEAKER_02: Such an honor to have you today.
SPEAKER_02: Would you welcome Dale Cunningham?
SPEAKER_01: What can I say that?
SPEAKER_01: If that's all that I've ever done for my brother, is point him to Christ, I succeeded.
SPEAKER_01: Paul said it this way, for me to live.
SPEAKER_01: It's Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And to die is gain.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I know in the context of that passage that to die is gain.
SPEAKER_01: In the context, he's talking about the battle within him wanting to stay on earth, but to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But I think when you study the teachings of Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, when he said to die is gain, he's speaking of what we should be doing from the moment of salvation all the days of our life, and that is to die daily.
SPEAKER_01: He said it this way: I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me.
SPEAKER_01: And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you for the rich blessing of being here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: It's been a special three days.
SPEAKER_01: And again, we're reminded that it's not because of who and what we are, but because of who and what Christ is.
SPEAKER_01: And so we turn to you now and desire that you would be honored and glorified in this place, that we would not walk out of here today and say, what a service, what a song, what a sermon.
SPEAKER_01: We'd say, Oh, what a savior.
SPEAKER_01: So superintend what I'm about to do because I cannot do it without you.
SPEAKER_01: So I surrender.
SPEAKER_01: May I say only what I'm supposed to say by you and keep me from going my way.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll thank you for how you're working in hearts right now to draw us to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And it's in Jesus' name we ask it.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Just quickly, Denise, would you stand, please?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I want you to meet my sweet wife.
SPEAKER_01: This is my wife, Denise, soon to be 45 years.
SPEAKER_01: And we are DD Ministries.
SPEAKER_01: I pastored for 40 years, senior pastor, and then the Lord called us into the ministry of encouraging pastors and their wives and doing marriage and family conferences, Christ life conferences and retreats.
SPEAKER_01: And it is a delight and an honor to be with my nephew, but my brother in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I will tell you, you know, I'm just gonna, as I've been all weekend, I'm real transparent.
SPEAKER_01: I don't like introductions.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: But you heard a heartfelt introduction between the two of us today.
SPEAKER_01: I love this guy.
SPEAKER_01: I I would give my life for him.
SPEAKER_01: I really would.
SPEAKER_01: And I thank the Lord for him.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm grateful that we get to serve together in the gospel ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And you're blessed to have Chris as your pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And uh grateful for these other men that I saw standing here as well today.
SPEAKER_01: So to God be the glory.
SPEAKER_01: Uh did I tell you to turn to Mark six?
SPEAKER_01: Turn to Mark Six with me, please.
SPEAKER_01: How that silence and quiet often makes us uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01: It's silence kind of allows our noisy soul to just reveal in us the anxieties and worries and unresolved emotions, and all that's kind of been just churning within us.
SPEAKER_01: And then we live in a society that we equate conversation with connection.
SPEAKER_01: It's just like we got to say something.
SPEAKER_01: Uh because a lack of sound in communication just kind of makes you feel uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, there's a store in our area, it's a national store, that now you walk in, and I'll be honest with you, I like it.
SPEAKER_01: It's there's no music being played.
SPEAKER_01: And you can think.
SPEAKER_01: If we're someone who we are, there's things going on in our world, and and we don't want to be vulnerable, then we talk a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Because we want silence.
SPEAKER_01: And then there is this need of stimulation that we we've got to have some noise.
SPEAKER_01: We've we've got to have uh this the silence kind of makes us feel heavy, so so let's let's turn up the noise.
SPEAKER_01: Spurgeon said it this way on why we are uncomfortable and we hate silence.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Quietude, some men cannot abide because it reveals their inner poverty.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read that again.
SPEAKER_01: Quietude.
SPEAKER_01: Some men cannot abide because it reveals their inner poverty.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you take away the crutches that we use to hold up our fix it, know it, be everywhere personas, and the broken leg of our intimacy with God begins to buckle.
SPEAKER_01: Spurgeon goes on to say: Priceless as the gift of utterance may be, the practice of silence in some aspects far excels it.
SPEAKER_01: I am persuaded that most of us think too much of speech, which after all is but the shell of thought.
SPEAKER_01: Quiet contemplation, still worship, unuttered rapture, rob your heart of the deep sea joys, miss the far down life by forever babbling among the broken shells and foaming surges of the soul, of the shore.
SPEAKER_01: What does the Bible say about stillness, quiet, rest?
SPEAKER_01: Mark chapter six describes for us where life and ministry was extremely busy for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Walk with me through the chapter for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna land in a section of it here in a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Mark chapter six, begin with verse one.
SPEAKER_01: And he went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.
SPEAKER_01: And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.
SPEAKER_01: Or the word here means they kept on being astonished, saying, and I want you to note five things here.
SPEAKER_01: They question him, where did this man get these things?
SPEAKER_01: What is the wisdom given to him?
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, how are such mighty works done by his hands?
SPEAKER_01: They're questioning him personally and his ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3, is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
SPEAKER_01: And then fifthly, and are not his sisters here with us?
SPEAKER_01: Watch this.
SPEAKER_01: And they took offense at him.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, and among his relatives and in his own household.
SPEAKER_01: And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them, and he marveled because of their unbelief, and he went about the village's teaching.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what I want you to get from this is just simply context here.
SPEAKER_01: He's rejected in his own hometown, by his neighbors, by his relatives, by his close friends.
SPEAKER_01: They question him personally, uh, and then of his ministry.
SPEAKER_01: People are offended, and they are unbelieving people.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, you could wrap it up in one word, denial.
SPEAKER_01: But then notice I'll not read the passage, but 7 to 13, here we find Jesus doing, in ministry terms, discipleship or leadership reproduction.
SPEAKER_01: He's doing ministry, sending the disciples out to do the work that he has called them to do.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, and he called the 12 and began to send them out two by two and give them authority over the unclean spirits.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then come down to verse 14, and here's the account of the death of John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: So so far we, and as let me move on over to verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in the tomb.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus, being he is very God, he already knew this was happening.
SPEAKER_01: But I just want you to think in the context of all that's going on in Jesus' world, we have denial, discipleship, we have death, and then I want you to notice in verse 30, the apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.
SPEAKER_01: What do you have in verse 30 to keep my little D's going here?
SPEAKER_01: Debriefing.
SPEAKER_01: He's had a full day.
SPEAKER_01: Denial, discipleship, death, and now going to sit down with his apostles and say, all right, tell me all about it.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, he already knew.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to note the key of something this morning that the Lord has really been working in my heart for several weeks now.
SPEAKER_01: Notice verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start verse 30 rather.
SPEAKER_01: The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.
SPEAKER_01: I would say that was a lengthy conversation.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile.
SPEAKER_01: For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like life today.
SPEAKER_01: Noise, chaos.
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, just crazy busy.
SPEAKER_01: Crazy busy.
SPEAKER_01: Busy, busy.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you said?
SPEAKER_01: Because notice what he says, for many were coming and going, and they had no leisure.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, they didn't even have time to eat.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you ever said, I have been so busy today, I didn't even have time to eat lunch, and we wear it as a badge of honor.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I'd be busy.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples had been so busy doing ministry, and the crowd was so busy following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, they were not following him for spiritual healing.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted physical healing.
SPEAKER_01: And furthermore, they didn't even have time to eat.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus intervenes and he takes them to the disciples to a solitary place to do what?
SPEAKER_01: To be still and to rest.
SPEAKER_01: Notice back in verse 31 again.
SPEAKER_01: Come away by yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Notice, see the word desolate.
SPEAKER_01: It means solitary.
SPEAKER_01: It means lonely, uninhabited.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've ever been to Israel and been in this area where this occurred, it is a very solitary place.
SPEAKER_01: He would even go with them up on the cliffs of Arbal, which overlooks the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean there's nothing but rock, stone, cliffs up there, uninhabited.
SPEAKER_01: A quiet place.
SPEAKER_01: A solitary place.
SPEAKER_01: Notice, if you will, verse 45 later on the chapter, after verse 45, immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: And after he had taken leave of them, he went up to the mountain to pray.
SPEAKER_01: So we find two accounts here where Jesus in this small portion goes away.
SPEAKER_01: This was the rhythm of Jesus' ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Ministry, ministry, ministry, prayer, rest.
SPEAKER_01: Ministry, ministry, prayer, rest, get away.
SPEAKER_01: Ministry, ministry.
SPEAKER_01: That was his rhythm.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a question this morning.
SPEAKER_01: How good are you at being busy?
SPEAKER_01: Have you got a PhD in it?
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a second question.
SPEAKER_01: How good are you at resting and being quiet?
SPEAKER_01: And being still.
SPEAKER_01: You see, as we've been talking about marriage this weekend, what I want to share with you, my heart, this morning, out of this passage, is one of the things our marriages need.
SPEAKER_01: It's something we need to be teaching our children.
SPEAKER_01: It is something we as adults need to learn.
SPEAKER_01: And may I add at this moment, we long to see the world outside of this building come to know Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But why are they drawn to a Jesus that we portray is as busy as they are?
SPEAKER_01: That's as frustrated as they are.
SPEAKER_01: That's as anxious as they are.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's worrying and fretting and running all over the place, filling every day to kind of mask the noise in their soul just like they are.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to talk to you about some truths here this morning to help us be still into rest.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, because of our rest in Christ, we can and should live a life of rest.
SPEAKER_01: Because of our rest in Christ, we should live a life of rest.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to turn there with me, but in the book of Hebrews, we find great teaching about the rest that we have in Christ at salvation.
SPEAKER_01: You see, salvation, and if you remember Friday night, I share with you the definition of the gospel, is that Jesus Christ comes to be our substitute to rescue us from ourself and to then rescue us from himself because you don't want to face him at the great white throne judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And then he comes to, along with the Spirit and God the Father, to live in you a life out of you that you could never live.
SPEAKER_01: I say it so often, Jesus didn't live the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: You can't live the Christian life, he is the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you receive Christ, you die, you're crucified.
SPEAKER_01: When Christ died, I died.
SPEAKER_01: When he arose, I arose.
SPEAKER_01: So he lives his life through me.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, I have at that moment, having received Christ by the faith that even God gives me to be placed in his son as I receive him, may I say to you, we enter into what we call salvation rest.
SPEAKER_01: And in Christ, it is John 10, I give unto them eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Now watch this.
SPEAKER_01: John 3, 16, whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Is that what it says?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: It is Zoe.
SPEAKER_01: It is a person.
SPEAKER_01: I have come that they might have life.
SPEAKER_01: It's a person.
SPEAKER_01: And they might have it more abundant.
SPEAKER_01: What's the abundant life?
SPEAKER_01: Is it air-conditioned dog houses and gold-plated faucets?
SPEAKER_01: No, it's the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's the abundant life.
SPEAKER_01: And Colossians 2 tells me that I am complete in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If I have Christ, I have all.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, Ephesians 1:3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places by Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I have an announcement to make to you.
SPEAKER_01: God can't bless me this morning anymore than He already has.
SPEAKER_01: He gave me Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You will never, this is just me, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You'll never hear me say, Well, God bless you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have any special twang.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you.
SPEAKER_01: How can I bless you more than Christ?
SPEAKER_01: God the Father through his son.
SPEAKER_01: And I rest in what Jesus Christ did on the cross for me.
SPEAKER_01: And friends, let me tell you, this, let me tell you, why does Satan tempt you about your salvation?
SPEAKER_01: Why does he make you think that you're just not good enough?
SPEAKER_01: Or what?
SPEAKER_01: It's because if you are not grounded in the truth of your security in Christ, your whole life is going to be like this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: I give them myself.
SPEAKER_01: And they will not perish.
SPEAKER_01: And neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
SPEAKER_01: Today I stand here not because of who and what I am, but because of who and what Jesus Christ is.
SPEAKER_01: And I know today that whatever happens in this world, whatever I pick up on Fox News, this is breaking news, friends, because I've come to know what I have in Christ and He is in me, friends, we are secure in Him.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Be still, my soul.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is on my side.
SPEAKER_01: Bear patiently the cross, the grief, the pain.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus came to live in me and to still in me the ravenous sin nature and sin principle in my life and to set me free from sin, death, and hell, and I rest in him today.
SPEAKER_01: Be still and know that I am God.
SPEAKER_01: And I find my mind, my conscience, and maybe shall I say the Spirit say to me when I quote that, and you're not.
SPEAKER_01: Be still and know that I am God and you're not.
SPEAKER_01: See, God didn't create you to be the center of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: That's Jesus' prerogative.
SPEAKER_01: He's the apex of history.
SPEAKER_01: He's life.
SPEAKER_01: And so, because of our rest in Christ, we can and should live a life of rest.
SPEAKER_01: Number two.
SPEAKER_01: To kind of bridge some things together about busyness and quiet here, God, this is a little lengthy, but you'll get it.
SPEAKER_01: God created work and he gives honor to work.
SPEAKER_01: But he also created rest and he created us for rest.
SPEAKER_01: God created work and he gives honor to work, but he also created rest and he created us for rest.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to be going through this great book sometime here in the days ahead.
SPEAKER_01: And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all of his work that he had done.
SPEAKER_01: So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
SPEAKER_01: Why did God rest?
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean that he rested?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it wasn't because he was tired.
SPEAKER_01: Because Job 42, 2, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 147 5, great is our Lord and mighty in power, his understanding is infinite.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 40, 28, have you not known?
SPEAKER_01: Have you not heard?
SPEAKER_01: The Lord, God is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: He does not faint nor grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's why we should never be fretting, anxious, because of who God is.
SPEAKER_01: But God is omnipotent, he never tires, he never needs to rest.
SPEAKER_01: So what does the word that it means that he rested?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the Hebrew word is the word that you're probably familiar with, Shabbat, from which we get our word Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01: The word Shabbat means to do exactly what will happen if you are in Jerusalem on Friday evening on Shabbat.
SPEAKER_01: Everything stops.
SPEAKER_01: You better not need gasoline.
SPEAKER_01: You better not need something to eat.
SPEAKER_01: It stops.
SPEAKER_01: I've been there twice, and our tour guide makes sure that we are well taken care of in that period of time because everything stops.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's exactly what this phrase here means is that God stopped his work.
SPEAKER_01: God rested.
SPEAKER_01: And this rest is the capstone of his work of creation.
SPEAKER_01: And it's an example to us who are made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever thought about what was the first day of life on earth for Adam and Eve?
SPEAKER_01: It was a day of what?
SPEAKER_01: Rest.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Adam and Eve didn't work and then rest as if rest were some kind of reward.
SPEAKER_01: They rested and then, having enjoyed simply being with God, they then went to work.
SPEAKER_01: Let me put it to you this way: we don't work to rest, we rest to work.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason, as Spurgeon said, that we're so depleted in our margin when it comes to working and serving and frustrated is because we have not spent time alone resting in the presence of God, quieting our soul before Him, and stopping, ceasing.
SPEAKER_01: We think that we must be going seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and God did not create us to be that way.
SPEAKER_01: It is time for the church, the body of Christ, to move toward this in a countercultural lifestyle.
SPEAKER_01: They're crazy busy, and we're just like them.
SPEAKER_01: Because we have equated busyness with faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: And if I'm not busy, then I'm not faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And we feel guilty when we cease and we take a day and rest so that we can come to know our God in a greater way.
SPEAKER_01: That guilt does not, listen, when Christ died on the cross for you, he not only paid the price for your sins, Isaiah 53, but he also took care of the guilt.
SPEAKER_01: Now God can allow guilt to prod you to himself, but I'm telling you, there's not a one of us in here today that needs to ever feel the guilt of our sin ever.
SPEAKER_01: It's been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So when you are prodded in a direction of guilt that's contrary to Scripture, it didn't come from Jesus, it came from Satan or your flesh.
SPEAKER_01: I promise you.
SPEAKER_01: I just felt like Isaiah for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Woe is me, Frank.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: So Adam and Eve teach us a real lesson along with our God.
SPEAKER_01: Can I just tell you something?
SPEAKER_01: When we fail to rest, we don't only fuel our own burnout.
SPEAKER_01: We are setting unsustainable examples and we rob God of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: You want to why you don't want to rest?
SPEAKER_01: It's because you forget the rest you have in Christ, which leads you to faith rest, whereby you operate day in and day out, not based upon what you can accomplish, but what God can do through you, because you think you are the Messiah and that the world couldn't operate or the church couldn't operate if they didn't have you.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, I'm just going to tell you right now, we're not the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: We're not the center of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And we're robbing God of his glory when we feel like that we have got to be the one to step in and take care of everything and do it all the time because we want to be faithful and we're running for the Bima, and we want to hear him say, Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: I do too.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm telling you what, I don't want to be running there, war slap out, thinking that I was the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: I have robbed God of His glory.
SPEAKER_01: We can become so consumed with bringing God glory in our work that we can completely neglect the ways God is glorified in our rest.
SPEAKER_01: I love Isaiah 30, for thus saith says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest you shall be saved.
SPEAKER_01: In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.
SPEAKER_01: What a verse.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, guys, you've been traveling, you've been ministering, I've been ministering.
SPEAKER_01: Because may I remind you of something?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus on his human side, he too got tired.
SPEAKER_01: He never sinned, but he endured all of the things that you and I have at all, he's touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why he sat down at the well of Sikar.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, if the Jesus in you is the Jesus that we're reading about who said, Let's go to a solitary place and this rest, can I say it in these terms?
SPEAKER_01: The Jesus in you still wants to go to a solitary place and rest.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't want you running all over the place like a chicken with his head cut off.
SPEAKER_01: There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of God O Jesus blessed redeemer if you know sing it with me, sent from the heart of God Hold us who wait be what do you say?
SPEAKER_01: Hold us who wait before near to the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: You see, God created work and gives honor to work, but he also created rest and he created us for rest.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to, first of all, rest in him, salvation.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to rest in him for every moment of your life.
SPEAKER_01: And as the second point, he wants you to also cease this busyness that leaves him out because you're thinking that your choices are being faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Because that leads me to number three.
SPEAKER_01: Work that honors God and counts for eternity is done through Christ as He does his work through us.
SPEAKER_01: Work that honors God and counts for eternity is done through Christ as he does his work through us.
SPEAKER_01: I want to show you something magnificent.
SPEAKER_01: Go with me, please, to John chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Jesus said to him, come, come to a solitary place and rest a while.
SPEAKER_01: You've been running around, you haven't had time to eat.
SPEAKER_01: Come and be with me.
SPEAKER_01: Notice chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: I want to show you something marvelous about the person of Jesus Christ on his human side in the incarnation.
SPEAKER_01: Notice chapter 5, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: So this will rock your boat right here.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.
SPEAKER_01: For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
SPEAKER_01: That word accord there means Jesus is saying, I do nothing of my own initiative.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm going to go ahead and just put this in right here.
SPEAKER_01: Already this morning, on Sunday, how much have you done today by your initiative and you didn't even connect with Jesus about it?
SPEAKER_01: I only ask it that way because the reality is that you and I live so much of our Christian life on our terms with our goals that we don't even tip our hat to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is my life.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm dead.
SPEAKER_01: I've never known a dead person to do something.
SPEAKER_01: I'm crucified.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, friends, I want you to notice what he says in verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus saying this.
SPEAKER_01: I can do nothing on my own or my own initiative.
SPEAKER_01: As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the Trinity have had communication for all eternity past.
SPEAKER_01: And they're in harmony together.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus on his human side, though, in honor of his heavenly father, he said, I have not come to do my will, but the will of him that sent me.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Therefore, I'm in communion with my heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why he would go off to pray and cease what he was doing, because he wanted to know, and this I can't grasp this, but here it is.
SPEAKER_01: He wanted to know the heart of his God, of his heavenly father, and did nothing of his own initiative.
SPEAKER_01: What right do I have to initiate anything if I haven't gone to my heavenly father first?
SPEAKER_01: And you and I will not do that until we learn to sabbat, to rest, to stop, even to the point whereby we say, This day is our day of rest.
SPEAKER_01: My sweet wife back there.
SPEAKER_01: She is an example to me in so many ways.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful for her.
SPEAKER_01: Her Friday mornings, as best as possible, unless we're on the road or something.
SPEAKER_01: And then tries to get in in other times.
SPEAKER_01: She calls her Friday mornings her Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01: And what she does is she goes and locks herself away up in a room in our house, gets her Bible, her journal, I bring her coffee to her, and she stays there for the morning.
SPEAKER_01: For one reason to be with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I realize I'm standing before a bunch of young moms in here, and you're wondering, how in the world can I get five minutes?
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you were in the marriage conference Friday night, I think I mentioned it.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we as husbands come in.
SPEAKER_01: We step up to the plate and we say, hun, it is, I know how crucial it is for you to be able to get along with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll take the kids when I come home for an hour, you go meet with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We can do anything we ought to do by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: We do what we want to do.
SPEAKER_01: And I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.
SPEAKER_01: And we're good at making excuses and making it sound like it's holy.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I've got to be there, I've got to do this, gotta run here.
SPEAKER_01: You are nobody's Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: You see, here's an issue because we're always stepping up to the plate, not only to do everything for everybody, including our kids, and I'll make the application with our kids, that our kids grow grow up bubble wrapped.
SPEAKER_01: They never learn how to make mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: They never learn what how hard life can be and and what it means for them to be able to go apart and get into the word.
SPEAKER_01: I want to announce to you this morning, I owe so much to my dad and my mom, who sent me away to the Wilds Camp and Conference Center back since 1971.
SPEAKER_01: And there I learned what it was to have my own God and I time.
SPEAKER_01: And every morning of my life, by God's grace, I want to be in the word.
SPEAKER_01: I want to write in my journal.
SPEAKER_01: I want to meet with my Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I cannot operate without him.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just being transparent with you.
SPEAKER_01: Neither can you.
SPEAKER_01: John 15, 5.
SPEAKER_01: For without me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Do you really believe that?
SPEAKER_00: You see, here's why you're frustrated in your Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: It's because you're constantly trying to make possible what Jesus said is impossible.
SPEAKER_01: Without me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And so, therefore, work that honors God and counts for eternity is done with Christ working his work out through you.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a wonderful thought that work, the Christian life, are you ready for this?
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life is not what stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm almost done.
SPEAKER_01: Hang on.
SPEAKER_01: That means I got 20 more minutes.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life is not what you do for God.
SPEAKER_01: It is what God does through Christ through you.
SPEAKER_01: See, that statement just removes the human side of it out of there, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Because boy, howdy, when it comes to salvation, I want to feel like I've done a little something to earn his favor.
SPEAKER_01: And now that I'm a Christian, oh, I want to make sure that I'm doing some things, lest he knock a home run with me and make my life miserable.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the God of love that we serve.
SPEAKER_01: Or that I can gain approbation with God.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Work done by the Spirit has the power to reveal Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, when you allow Christ to serve through you, then Jesus becomes attractive and you don't.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what drives many of us in serving and being so busy, is because we're not satisfied being complete in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to have somebody to acknowledge us and make us feel accepted.
SPEAKER_01: I have good news for you.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 1:6 says that we are accepted in the beloved.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father, through His Son, loves you as much as He loves His own dear Son, John 15 9.
SPEAKER_01: And that love will never be diminished and it can never be added to.
SPEAKER_01: It is the same all the time, no matter who or what we are, because of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Glory! So if you're running seven days a week and you're doing things God never intended for you to do, I think you better do some checkup this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that Colossians 3 tells us that we're to do all things heartily unto the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Our heartedly work will only be accepted when it's Jesus doing it through us.
SPEAKER_01: And that's in parenting, that's it, that's that that's that's in the factory, that's teaching in the school.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, when you go to work, you don't want people to meet you.
SPEAKER_01: You want them to meet the Jesus in you.
SPEAKER_01: And your work is your gospel platform.
SPEAKER_01: God didn't give you a job, first of all, to earn money, he gave it to you as a platform for the gospel so Christ could live his life out of you.
SPEAKER_01: Teach your children that.
SPEAKER_01: Teach your children that their identity is in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So let me give you one final statement.
SPEAKER_01: Being with Jesus must come before doing for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Being with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So, hey, marriage couples, don't raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you had prayer on your way into church this morning?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you prayed at home before you got here?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you said before you came in, Jesus, where do you want to sit today?
SPEAKER_01: My wife and I had this happen to us the other day, a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: Walked into a big old church, sat down, and a lady came up to us, she goes, You're in my seat.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
SPEAKER_01: That's the crucified life, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Friends, I'm burdened about something.
SPEAKER_01: Because I was caught up in it myself and thought I was having a heart attack.
SPEAKER_01: And I thank God for intervention in my life to a man who told me that everything doesn't rise and fall on leadership, it rises and falls on God.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm so thankful that over the years, even learning from my wife what it is to be still and To know that he is God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, Hey, fellas, come and go with me to a solitary, a desolate place.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you, number one, this morning, are you secure and rested in your salvation?
SPEAKER_01: For as many as received him, to them he gives the right to become the sons of God, even to those who call on his name.
SPEAKER_01: Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
SPEAKER_01: For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
SPEAKER_01: And you're seated here this morning, you've walked in here, and you have never received the person of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Right where you're seated this morning, you can call on him.
SPEAKER_01: And those who call on him, he will not cast out.
SPEAKER_01: Second of all, I want all of us to do a little checkup this morning as believers.
SPEAKER_01: Are you running from busy or running to in busy?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you operating in the Christ life?
SPEAKER_01: For me to live, let's get that next project done.
SPEAKER_01: For me to live is Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Would you bow your heads with me, please?
SPEAKER_01: Father, I thank you for the blessed privilege of showing us Christ this morning again.
SPEAKER_01: That's all the message we have.
SPEAKER_01: We have no other message.
SPEAKER_01: It's not motivational, not high drive, it's a person who, as we worshiped a while ago in communion, went to the cross to be our substitute and then to rise from the tomb to conquer sin, death, and hell, and to validate that he is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that at this very moment we would be willing to, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to open our hearts to you and that you will show us the importance of marking on our calendar days of rest.
SPEAKER_01: Teaching our children how to have little mini Shabbats in the evening, just to be still.
SPEAKER_01: And in those times of quietness, to pray and to read your word and let you speak to us, because Lord, you never speak to us on the run in the deep places.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us thy way, O Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We'll walk in your truth, unite our heart to fear your name.