SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys appreciate our youth pastors Caleb and Ashley Wallace?
SPEAKER_00: They are amazing.
SPEAKER_00: We love them.
SPEAKER_00: So, so incredibly proud of them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
SPEAKER_00: I'm another time goes up, as Ashley said.
SPEAKER_00: And I think, church, we are$13,500 away from raising a million dollars towards our building project in the last year.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: It's awesome to see God's faithfulness in his people's lives and through his people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you guys know God has more.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't arrived yet, and he has more.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're excited about all the activity that is happening on campus, and we're making room for more.
SPEAKER_00: We're believing that God has more and we're making room so that more people can come to know him and grow in the wisdom and the knowledge of him.
SPEAKER_00: It's exciting to see what God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: Before we jump into the word this morning, who needs a dad joke or two?
SPEAKER_00: I just I love Miss Mar Van Natter back here in the risers.
SPEAKER_00: She is one of my biggest dad joke advocates.
SPEAKER_00: And and in case you're wondering, she pretty much out trumps everyone else because her and Doug have basically been a part of the church from its inception.
SPEAKER_00: Some 30 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: I think they were some charter members.
SPEAKER_00: So if she loves my dad jokes, I don't care what you think.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna do a dad joke or two this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first one.
SPEAKER_00: Why, why was six scared of seven?
SPEAKER_00: Did I say six, seven?
SPEAKER_00: We're all the did I just do that?
SPEAKER_00: Where why was six scared of seven?
SPEAKER_00: Because of seven, eight, nine.
SPEAKER_00: Get it, get it, seven, eight, nine.
SPEAKER_00: All right, here's another.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear about the antennas?
SPEAKER_00: The antennas that got married.
SPEAKER_00: The antennas got married.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the reception.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, the ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.
SPEAKER_00: Totally butchered that one.
SPEAKER_00: Butchered it, butchered it.
SPEAKER_00: One more, everybody say thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear?
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear about the farmer who counted 196 cows in the field?
SPEAKER_00: There is a farmer, he counted 196 cows in the field, but but when he rounded them up, there was 200.
SPEAKER_00: Did you get that one?
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all are still processing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: He rounded, he rounded them up and rounded to 200.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's over.
SPEAKER_00: So we're in a series right now entitled Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: And we're looking at how God wants to form us for the future that He has for us.
SPEAKER_00: All month last month we we looked at the dreams that God gives.
SPEAKER_00: And many of you were inspired to dream bigger dreams.
SPEAKER_00: But I have found in my life that God just doesn't give us bigger dreams, He forms us into the people that can carry those dreams.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're looking at together this month.
SPEAKER_00: And last couple of weeks, we've explored how that if we're not real careful, we can build a faith, as Pastor Caleb was talking about this morning, on our works.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we looked at how we could build a faith on our wounds.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible is clear from beginning to end that it's not about our works or our wounds, it's about our walk with Jesus and that He invites us to allow Him to change us from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are glad this morning you're not the person you used to be?
SPEAKER_00: I'm so thankful today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not who I used to be.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not where I want to be.
SPEAKER_00: If you're thankful for that today, can you just put your hands together and say, thank you, Jesus, that I'm not who I used to be by your glory.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes, church, we can know in our heads that it's not about our works or our wounds, it's about our walk.
SPEAKER_00: But though we know it in our heads, we can practically live something else in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the farthest distance that you can travel is from your head to your hands.
SPEAKER_00: Is living something out that you know up here, but it's a hard time to get it to work out here.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if sometimes there's a disconnect in our walk with Jesus because we have a pace problem.
SPEAKER_00: What I what I mean is this is it possible that the pace of our lives is one of the biggest enemies of our spiritual depth and emotional health?
SPEAKER_00: Could the rhythm, the pace, the cadence that we live at undermined what we know in our heads?
SPEAKER_00: Could that be a problem?
SPEAKER_00: I I think it is, and we're gonna look at that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys know today that we live in a rat race?
SPEAKER_00: We live at a breakneck pace, but Jesus offers us a different pace to live at.
SPEAKER_00: A pace that doesn't take life from us, but gives life to us.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna look at his pace for our lives this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand with me together as we read God's word?
SPEAKER_00: Two passages of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 11 and John chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.
SPEAKER_00: Can anybody relate to that today?
SPEAKER_00: Come to me, all you are weary and burdened, and I will give you what?
SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find for your souls.
SPEAKER_00: For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
SPEAKER_00: What an invitation Jesus extends to his people.
SPEAKER_00: And then in John 15, verses four and five, Jesus says, Remain in me, remain in me.
SPEAKER_00: As I also remain in you, no branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do it without him.
SPEAKER_00: Remain in me.
SPEAKER_00: Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
SPEAKER_00: I am the vine, you are the branches.
SPEAKER_00: If you remain in me and I and you, you will bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize that the fruit of your life isn't connected to your work, is connected to your relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Apart from me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Church, this is God's word, and the title of my message this morning is simply this: a new rhythm for a new you.
SPEAKER_00: A new rhythm for a new future.
SPEAKER_00: Say that after me this morning, a new rhythm for a new future.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to your neighbor and say, a new rhythm for a new future.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to the other neighbor and say, God has a new rhythm for your future.
SPEAKER_00: Turn around to the person behind you and say, God has a new rhythm for your future.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you this morning for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
SPEAKER_00: It shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray, Lord, this morning, we wouldn't just be hearers of your word, but that we would be doers of it.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' mighty name.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody said, You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Caleb, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: So a couple years after Pastor Meg and I became the pastors here at Christian Life Church, this was probably around the year 2013.
SPEAKER_00: We were a couple years in and had been working feverishly with many of you to re really relaunch our church.
SPEAKER_00: And we were we were pretty tired and we'd been working nonstop for a solid couple of years, and we made a decision that we we needed a break.
SPEAKER_00: We needed to go take a good vacation.
SPEAKER_00: We needed some time away to rest and relax and and recharge.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever been there before?
SPEAKER_00: Know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: And so we decided we were going to take our family away to rest and recharge.
SPEAKER_00: And the destination that we decided to go to was Disney World.
SPEAKER_00: Your laughter understands what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys know that is not a restful and relaxing vacation?
SPEAKER_00: That is not the place you go to recoup.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the place that you go to recharge.
SPEAKER_00: That's the place that you go to and come back worse from.
SPEAKER_00: So we packed up our family and and and we drove down to Disney World and man, we did everything that you don't do to rest.
SPEAKER_00: We got up early in the morning because we wanted to beat traffic.
SPEAKER_00: And we wanted to be there when you could check in to the hotel and go directly to the park.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you I mean, all day, every day.
SPEAKER_00: We're exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: The kids, kids are probably seven and nine, six and eight, something like that.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're up every morning and we're going every day, and we're standing in lines, and it's in June, and we're baking on the asphalt.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone know what I'm talking about this morning?
SPEAKER_00: And it's one day after it wasn't just two or three days, we were there for seven days.
SPEAKER_00: Still tweaking about it a little bit today.
SPEAKER_00: And we get up early, we get up, we go, we go, and so we're standing in line, and the kids, you know how it is with kids and standing in line all day.
SPEAKER_00: They want to, they want to hang and rock on the ropes and the chains of the line, and and they don't understand personal space.
SPEAKER_00: So they're bumping up against the people that are in line with us, and I'm constantly nonstop all day, every day.
SPEAKER_00: Quit touching that, quit going there, quit hitting that person, quit doing this.
SPEAKER_00: It's that all day.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody, anybody know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: And so we've come to the final day of this wonderfully restful vacation, and we have a dinner planned at a pretty neat spot.
SPEAKER_00: It's got a seafood buffet.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's got crab legs on the seafood buffet, crab claws, all kinds of wonderful food, and we cannot wait.
SPEAKER_00: And and so before we go, we're gonna take a little time and and relax in the pool.
SPEAKER_00: And so we do that, and and and I tell Meg, because I'm just such a wonderful husband, hey, why don't you go ahead and go up to the room and get ready before all of us?
SPEAKER_00: I'll watch the kids.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just so selfless.
SPEAKER_00: And so some time goes by, and I figure, okay, Meg's probably pretty close to getting ready, so I'm gonna get the kids.
SPEAKER_00: So I tell, hey guys, it's it's time to get out of the pool.
SPEAKER_00: Well, they found a couple of friends and they're playing in the pool, and and I ask them to move.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, I'm gonna give them a little more time.
SPEAKER_00: Then then then I go up to the hey guys, we need to get out of the pool.
SPEAKER_00: We got dinner reservations, we need to go.
SPEAKER_00: We come on, come on.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't move again.
SPEAKER_00: I've given them twice.
SPEAKER_00: Third time.
SPEAKER_00: Any parents in the room know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Third time, I don't ask, I just jerk them out of the pool.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so I take them and and I and I and I and I put them in there in the bathroom in the shower, and they're getting, they're they're getting ready, and and it's I mean, I mean, just absolute the yeah, yeah, and back and forth between them is driving me crazy.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of a wonderfully restful week, I'm I'm exasperated.
SPEAKER_00: I came to get rest and relaxation and recoup and rejuvenation, and after seven days, I'm worse than when I came.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: So I I go into the into the bathroom, I jerk the shower curtain back and I say, shut up, shut up, shut up.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody know where I've been?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just being honest with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And Meg, being the wonderfully patient parent, comes over, she just kind of grabs me on the arm and says, Jeremy, just go take a walk.
SPEAKER_00: I've got them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I should have done.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm exasperated.
SPEAKER_00: And against my better judgment, I will around and point at her and say, and you can shut up too.
SPEAKER_00: It was not good.
SPEAKER_00: But we have a dinner reservation, and so we get ready and we go to this dinner reservation, and um it was the best worst meal of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Meg kept her composure from the best of my memory, and we pack up the next morning and we drive home.
SPEAKER_00: And the only redeeming part of this is that I made great time getting home.
SPEAKER_00: And and we're coming out of Montgomery.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're coming out of Montgomery on 65 North, you know, you it goes downhill pretty hard when you're crossing the Alabama River, and and I'm making great time on the way home and making great time down the highway.
SPEAKER_00: And wouldn't there be a police officer there?
SPEAKER_00: I pull over and he pulls up to me and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And and I'm thinking, I'm gonna get a ticket on top of all of this.
SPEAKER_00: He comes back and he says, Sir, I'm only gonna give you a warning today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_00: There is a God in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He said, based on the look of your wife's face, she's gonna take care of you more than I could, so I'm gonna let you go.
SPEAKER_00: Am I lying?
SPEAKER_00: It's exactly what he said.
SPEAKER_00: He said, based on the look on your wife's face, she's gonna handle you way better than I could.
SPEAKER_00: That was the only redeeming part of the story.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys recognize this isn't just a vacation problem, this is a life problem.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you go on vacation or go to get a break, and you do exactly what we did?
SPEAKER_00: You pack as much activity as you possibly can into the few days that you're going away, and you come back more exasperated than when you left.
SPEAKER_00: And you you pack so much activity in those few days that you actually spend more money than you budgeted because you want to maximize every moment.
SPEAKER_00: And so now when you come back, not only are you worn out and tired, you're stressed, because now you gotta work to pay for what you did that you didn't have the money to do to begin with.
SPEAKER_00: This is the story of most of us.
SPEAKER_00: Some recent stats on the average person in the United States reveals that two-thirds of American workers report significant levels of burnout.
SPEAKER_00: Millions of Americans leave vacation days on the table every year.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you leave vacation days on the table every year?
SPEAKER_00: Let me see your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all have a problem.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just your problem, it's our problem.
SPEAKER_00: We have a problem with our pace.
SPEAKER_00: And the message underneath everything in our culture is do more, respond faster, don't fall behind.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the yoke our culture puts on us, and it's killing us.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the Jesus way, church.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the Jesus rhythm that He invites us into.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the life that God designed for us to live.
SPEAKER_00: And when we live this way, we're rejecting the invitation of Jesus to come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and find rest for your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Look in look at this in John 10 10.
SPEAKER_00: The thief comes only to kill, steal, and destroy.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says, I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a truth that you need to understand.
SPEAKER_00: If the enemy can't keep you from salvation, he'll keep you so busy that he will steal the significance of your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean?
SPEAKER_00: What I mean is this is that he may not keep you from heaven, but he'll keep you from bringing heaven to earth.
SPEAKER_00: And this is his strategy.
SPEAKER_00: This is his design and his desire to steal the very thing from you that Jesus came to give you, and it's life and it more abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, the Bible prophesies this in Daniel chapter seven.
SPEAKER_00: In Daniel chapter seven, God gives Daniel this vision of the last days, of end times, and and listen to.
SPEAKER_00: The tactic that the scripture gives us that the enemy will have in the last days.
SPEAKER_00: It says he will speak against the Most High.
SPEAKER_00: This was the Antichrist, and he will oppress.
SPEAKER_00: The word oppress literally translates in the Hebrew to wear out.
SPEAKER_00: That the enemy's strategy to kill, steal, and destroy God's people is to wear you out.
SPEAKER_00: To get you to embrace a pace, a cadence, a rhythm of life that steals from you the very thing that Jesus came to give to you.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys would say I live my life in a hurry?
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you something?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask you to kind of just respond with me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: My dad does this with me every now and then.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to get your back off the seat and lean in here to me for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody just lean in, lean in, lean in.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you something that's transformational in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Lean to me.
SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to hear God's voice in a hurry.
SPEAKER_00: It's really, really hard to hear God's voice when you're rushing from one thing to the next thing to the next thing to the next thing.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly the way the enemy silences God's voice in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You wonder why?
SPEAKER_00: You can lean back now.
SPEAKER_00: You did so good.
SPEAKER_00: You wonder why sometimes the voice of the Lord may be dull in your ears.
SPEAKER_00: Wonder why sometimes you have a hard time discerning the will of God for your life?
SPEAKER_00: It very well may be the pace of your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's deafening your ears to the sound of his voice.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a biblical illustration of this.
SPEAKER_00: You know the story of Elijah in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: He fights the 450 prophets of Baal on top of Mount Caramel, defeats them.
SPEAKER_00: It's an incredible moment.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of the Lord comes upon him so powerfully that the Bible says as they're coming down the mountain, he outruns the horses and the chariots.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to know what that 40 time was.
SPEAKER_00: Then King Ahab's wife, Jezebel, sends a word to Elijah on the backside of this incredible spiritual victory.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get your life.
SPEAKER_00: And he he begins to fall into depression and fear, and and God leads him out into the desert and 40-day journey.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, Elijah finds himself in a cave, and God shows up.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says there's an earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake.
SPEAKER_00: There was a fire, and God wasn't in the fire.
SPEAKER_00: There was a wind, but God wasn't in the wind.
SPEAKER_00: What was God in?
SPEAKER_00: The whisper.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to hear a whisper in a hurry.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus invites us to embrace a rhythm and a pace of life that is counter-cultural.
SPEAKER_00: But the beauty of this invitation is it may be counter-cultural, but it gives life rather than takes life.
SPEAKER_00: I want to live at the pace of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Who else wants to join me in that?
SPEAKER_00: So let's let's look at what Jesus says here in Matthew chapter 11, 28.
SPEAKER_00: He invites us to embrace his rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read these verses again.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
SPEAKER_00: My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus uses the imagery, the metaphor of a yoke to contrast the different rhythms that we can live life at.
SPEAKER_00: I have a picture of a yoke, and this yoke is both a physical representation and a spiritual representation of the rhythm that we live at.
SPEAKER_00: Physically, when you are plowing a field, you would take a yoke and you would put it on an oxen or some animal like that, and they would plow the field.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's interesting about this symbolically is that when a farmer does this, he typically pairs an older, mature ox with a young ox.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he do that?
SPEAKER_00: Because the old ox knows the pace they need to walk at, the pace they need to plow at, so they have enough energy for the whole day.
SPEAKER_00: The young ox has no idea how long the day is going to take.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know how much energy he has to exert moment by moment by moment throughout the day.
SPEAKER_00: So the old ox sets the pace for the young ox so they have enough energy for the journey.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritually speaking, in Jesus' day, the religious leaders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, the rabbis of the day, all had an interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: And their interpretation and its application was called their yoke.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is speaking both physically and spiritually to those around him and saying, there's a pace you need to live at.
SPEAKER_00: And if you come to me and partner with me and walk with me, I can set a pace that you can sustain all of your days.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, there's nobody that knows us like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Before a day of ours came into being, he ordained and destined every one of them.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I want to be yoked with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: I want him to set the pace that we live at.
SPEAKER_00: Our problem most of the time is that we want to be further than where we are, not understanding what it's going to take to get where we are.
SPEAKER_00: We wear ourselves out to get there, and then we have nothing for the place that we're now at.
SPEAKER_00: Yet if we'll just walk with Jesus and trust that he's guiding and directing our steps.
SPEAKER_00: And spiritually speaking, Jesus was also talking about the yoke.
SPEAKER_00: Rabbis were notorious for putting load upon load upon load of how they needed to work out their faith.
SPEAKER_00: There were 632 laws in the Old Testament, and rabbis would have an application for every one of those laws.
SPEAKER_00: And they were loading them on top of the people of Jesus' day.
SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of the whole idea behind one of them asking Jesus, what is the two greatest commandments?
SPEAKER_00: What are the two greatest laws?
SPEAKER_00: They were really asking, Jesus, what is the yoke of your leadership?
SPEAKER_00: And he said it's simply this love God and love people.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have this contrasting rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: And I think I have this on the screen for you to show you the difference between the world's rhythm and God's rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: The world's rhythm produces weariness and burden.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we constantly, over and over and over again, we don't ever stop working and we continually add more to what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: We have this horrible tendency in our lives to constantly add more at the same time not subtracting anything.
SPEAKER_00: And we wonder why we're weary and we're burdened.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're carrying heavy loads that are constantly being dumped on top of us.
SPEAKER_00: Yet Jesus offers us something entirely different.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My yoke is easy and my burden is light.
SPEAKER_00: The word easy literally means it fits well and it's light because it's not overloaded.
SPEAKER_00: I know what you can handle, so just walk with me.
SPEAKER_00: You know why we reject the rhythm of Jesus and embrace the rhythm of the world?
SPEAKER_00: We don't really trust him.
SPEAKER_00: We don't really trust that he's gonna get us to where he wants to take us.
SPEAKER_00: So we take more and we do more, and we listen to what others are doing more of.
SPEAKER_00: We we work more, our kids are involved in more activities.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta make sure they're involved in everything.
SPEAKER_00: Church, let me tell you something right now.
SPEAKER_00: Let Jesus set your rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: Reject what the world says, that you gotta have your kid involved in everything in order for them to achieve.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that promotion comes from above.
SPEAKER_00: Don't wear, stop wearing yourself out with the rhythm of the world and embrace Jesus' rhythm for your life.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to give you, I want to, I want to give you four biblical rules for life.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say four biblical rules for life.
SPEAKER_00: These are rhythms that throughout church history, the church has continued to return to to help us as the people of God embrace his rhythm for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I want that rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: So let me give you four simple things that'll posture you to walk with Jesus rather than walk with the world.
SPEAKER_00: Here's number one.
SPEAKER_00: We have to embrace rest.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say rest.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis chapter one, I want you to show you how important this is to your life.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis chapter one, when God is creating the heavens and the earth, it says, God said, Let there be light and there was light.
SPEAKER_00: God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And God called the light day and the darkness he called night.
SPEAKER_00: And then listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: And there was evening and there was morning the first day.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say first day.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the point that I want to make.
SPEAKER_00: When you think about a day, how do you think about the progression of a day?
SPEAKER_00: Most of the time we think about the progression of a day as from morning to evening.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says the progression of a day is from evening to morning.
SPEAKER_00: That's counterintuitive, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we have a wrong perspective.
SPEAKER_00: See, the worldly perspective, the worldly rhythm is work so that you can rest.
SPEAKER_00: But in God's economy, rest precedes work.
SPEAKER_00: It's a totally, totally different way of viewing life.
SPEAKER_00: That we need to understand that we work from rest, not for rest.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what God's trying to help us understand is that we need to build rhythms of rest in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And you read the Bible from beginning to end.
SPEAKER_00: God, if you finish the Genesis account of creation and God rested on the Sabbath day.
SPEAKER_00: Why did God rest?
SPEAKER_00: Was God tired?
SPEAKER_00: No, God doesn't get tired.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't rest because he was tired.
SPEAKER_00: He rested to impart a principle of life for us to embrace that you need rest.
SPEAKER_00: Once a week, you need to stop everything.
SPEAKER_00: Stop your labor.
SPEAKER_00: Stop your striving.
SPEAKER_00: Stop your working.
SPEAKER_00: Just stop.
SPEAKER_00: And be with him.
SPEAKER_00: When I do that, what I'm practically communicating to God is this.
SPEAKER_00: I trust you more than my effort.
SPEAKER_00: I trust that you're working all things together for my good.
SPEAKER_00: I trust that you can produce more than I can produce.
SPEAKER_00: You can provide more than I can provide.
SPEAKER_00: That you are able to do what I am not able to do.
SPEAKER_00: See, we really don't rest because we don't really trust.
SPEAKER_00: So number one, we need to learn how to rest.
SPEAKER_00: And rest is about ceasing from labor.
SPEAKER_00: And it's always also associated with worship to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm going to honor you that you are the source and you are the sustenance.
SPEAKER_00: You are the provision.
SPEAKER_00: You are my all in all.
SPEAKER_00: You are the center of my life, as we were singing about today.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we can sing about him being the center, but if we don't practically rest, we're saying he's not.
SPEAKER_00: Here's number two rule of life is prayer and scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer and scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you what this does to you.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans chapter 2, Paul says, do not conform to the pattern, to the pattern, to the rhythm, to the pace of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Don't conform to how the world operates, but be transformed by the what?
SPEAKER_00: Renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: And what is he saying?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying the way that you reject the rhythm, the pattern, the cadence, the pace of the world and what it's telling you to walk in, the way you reject that is by renewing your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do I renew my mind with the will and the ways of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: That's through prayer and scripture.
SPEAKER_00: The renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
SPEAKER_00: Let me go back to what I said just a moment ago.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the reason we struggle discerning the will of God is because we live at such a hurried pace.
SPEAKER_00: And when we pause to worship, to rest, and we pause to pray and to renew our mind with our word, what we are posturing ourselves to do is to hear his voice.
SPEAKER_00: I want his pace.
SPEAKER_00: I want his rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: Because I want to hear his voice.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, we need to rest.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, we need prayer and scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Number three is work.
SPEAKER_00: You know that work is not a product of the fall.
SPEAKER_00: Work was a part of God's design for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: At the very beginning of creation account, God tells Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply, rule the earth, govern it, tend to its resources.
SPEAKER_00: This is the work that God had in mind for man from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is most of the time we separate our work from our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And what God wants us to do is to live a life where our faith permeates every area of our life.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31, Paul says, So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, everybody say whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, it doesn't matter what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're eating, whether you're drinking, whether you're working, whether you're playing, whether you're in recreation, what, what, what, whatever is whatever all-encompassing?
SPEAKER_00: I think that's all-encompassing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, do it all for what?
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Make him the center of it so that every morning that I get up, if I want to walk with the rhythm of Jesus, then I need to invite him in to everything that I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: I need to invite him into my work.
SPEAKER_00: I need to invite him into my relationships.
SPEAKER_00: I need to invite him into my meetings.
SPEAKER_00: I need to invite him into my projects.
SPEAKER_00: That God, this isn't a compartment of my life.
SPEAKER_00: You are the totality of my life.
SPEAKER_00: So what we need to learn if we want to embrace his rhythm for our lives is invite him in to every area of our life.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, number four, the fourth rule of life is relationships.
SPEAKER_00: We were never intended to do life alone.
SPEAKER_00: You've probably said it, I've said it, not really understanding what I was saying.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard people say it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I come to church for one reason, and that's to worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You know that's half true.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know that, Pastor?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25, that we shouldn't give up the habit of meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, so that we can encourage one another more as we see the day of God approaching.
SPEAKER_00: That we need each other to live out this life of faith.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys know you can't live this life by yourself?
SPEAKER_00: I'll even show you one other illustration to help you get this in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: The cross of Jesus has two planes.
SPEAKER_00: It has a vertical plane and it has a horizontal plane.
SPEAKER_00: And the vertical plane is I want to connect with God, and the horizontal plane is to connect with others.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus even did that on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And next week we're going to lean into this rhythm just a little bit more, but I want you to know that the goal of healthy emotions and spirituality is to love others well from a deep inner life with God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here doing this just to connect with God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to connect with God and connect with others so that together we can achieve his purpose for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: These are rhythms that you can embrace in your life that have the power to invite Jesus into everything that you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, you slow down so that you can hear.
SPEAKER_00: This is in twenty eleven.
SPEAKER_00: Nearing the end of his journey.
SPEAKER_00: And towards the end of the interview.
SPEAKER_00: One of the last questions asked was if you had it to do over again.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great question for an old man to answer.
SPEAKER_00: If you had it to do over again, what would you do different?
SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Billy Graham did so many things.
SPEAKER_00: Spot on dead right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what in the world would his response be to that question?
SPEAKER_00: Here was his response.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I would study more.
SPEAKER_00: I would pray more.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: I would travel less.
SPEAKER_00: This is the man that has led hundreds of millions of people to faith in Jesus by traveling and doing crusades.
SPEAKER_00: I would take less speaking engagements.
SPEAKER_00: I took too many of them in too many places around the world.
SPEAKER_00: If I had it to do over again, listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: I would spend more time in meditation and prayer and just telling the Lord how much I love him.
SPEAKER_00: What a word from a man of God that traveled the world over so many times I can't even count.
SPEAKER_00: That was on a mission to appoint people to Jesus that was living a life that that was a model for us.
SPEAKER_00: That everything that I do is about helping others know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He said, This is what I would do.
SPEAKER_00: I would travel less.
SPEAKER_00: I would take less speaking speaking engagements.
SPEAKER_00: I would just embrace God's rhythm for my life.
SPEAKER_00: Does that convict anybody else this morning?
SPEAKER_00: I know that I live at too fast a pace.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's a rhythm that Jesus wants to invite us into that isn't burdensome and it doesn't wear us out.
SPEAKER_00: Because he walks at an easy and a light pace.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how I want my life to be.
SPEAKER_00: So that we could live from a place of rest and not work, so that we can hear your voice more clearly, that we can discern your will.
SPEAKER_00: In ways that we've never maybe discerned it before.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord Jesus, we we whisper to you today, teach us your pace.
SPEAKER_00: Help us build a new rhythm for our lives with you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you're here this morning and you would say, Pastor, as you've been speaking, the Holy Spirit's been stirring in my heart, and I know I'm not living at God's pace.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's some things that are out of order in my life, and honestly, if I got right down to it, it's a reflection that I trust my effort more than I trust God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And I hear the call of Jesus this morning, and I'm ready not just to embrace this message, but to embrace the Savior and His pace for my life.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you this morning, with every head bowed and every eye closed, we just raise your hand right where you stand because I want to pray for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I see those hands going up all across the congregation this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And I know what it's like.
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know, I know how you feel today that you've got to produce, that we live in a culture that says you got to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to say there's a different way.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a way of that doesn't involve work, it's just a way that acknowledges my work isn't the source of my sustenance and my life.
SPEAKER_00: My source is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you raised your hand today and said, Pastor, the Holy Spirit's stirring in me, and I know God is inviting me to take a step of faith and embrace his pace.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to get out of your seat and come to one of our prayer team members because we want to pray with you today.
SPEAKER_00: We we want to agree with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: There's power.
SPEAKER_00: People are already moving.
SPEAKER_00: That's right, church.
SPEAKER_00: Just go ahead and move out of your seat this morning because God wants to meet you in your point of need today.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to free you from a workspace mentality that is holding you captive.
SPEAKER_01: I save you.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, church, let's just worship right here at this moment.
SPEAKER_00: Do your work for it.