Made for Rhythm - Made for More Series

Our rhythms are in important.

On this episode, Pastor Jon makes the last installment to our Made for More series. We are reminded from Ecclesiastes 3 that in every season there is a time for everything and reminds us that our rhythm matters for what we called to do. 

We pray this message encourages your faith, deepens your prayer life, and helps you gain a greater vision for life in Christ. Share this episode with someone who wants to grow deeper in God’s Word.

To learn more about Vision Church or discover how you can partner with our ministry, visit www.ourvisionchurch.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

We're gonna continue our series called Made for Mom. So if you're a kid today, I need you to. This is what's called we call we used to call this big church when I was growing up. Uh, but this is just our adult service. Just like you have worship and you have a message, we're gonna be doing the same. So hey, if you have your Bible, uh, if you have your Bible, or if you're a kid and you have one of these, or if you have a phone, I want you to turn to Ecclesiastes chapter three. That's where we're gonna be for the rest of our time together. Uh, while you're turning to Ecclesiastes chapter three, I do want to give away this pair of patch kids. So I want to see a kid raise their hand as high as possible, as high as possible. That's not high enough. You gotta raise your hand as high as possible. I see some adults trying to- Okay, it's not problem. All right, can you catch? I'm I do okay. Before we do this, I'm gonna throw it that way. I want to let people know. I was a nerd, not an athlete in a high school. So I have no guarantees of how that's gonna go. Okay, ready, set? See, that's that's that's how you know. That's how you know. Uh uh. I'll get you guys. I get you guys. I got more, I got more, I got more. I got more. Y'all pray for your pastor. Uh pray for your pastor. Um, Ecclesiastes chapter 3, uh, verses 9. This is gonna be a fun one. What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. Anybody ever walk around life and you just feel busy? You just got a lot going on. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceive that there is nothing better for them to do than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live. Also that everyone should eat. Somebody say eat and drink, somebody say drink and take pleasure in all his toll. That is God's gift to man. That is God's gift to man. Today, for the next few minutes, I want to talk to you for a message called Made for Rhythm. Made for rhythm. Can we pray together? Uh, our Father who is in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, Jesus, not into temptation. We will you deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Amen and amen and amen. Uh, today we're gonna be doing a message called Made for Rhythm. Uh, how many of y'all know that our lives are supposed to have a rhythm? God has declared that. We talked about a couple weeks ago. There's sowing and reaping, there's uh morning and night, there's winter and summer, there's there's all these different rhythms. And right now we're all about to go into what I like to call the summer rhythm. And uh, I want to talk to us about what it looks like to have a healthy rhythm because if your kids are anything like mine, they're excited for summer, but it's gonna take them about 32.6 seconds to walk around the house saying, I'm bored. You got all them tours about you at Christmas, but you already bored. What's going on with that? And so, hey, here's what I know about life kids aren't the only ones that get bored. How many of y'all know sometimes we get bored too? Like we're bit we're busy doing the same thing, we're running the same play, we're performing the same activity, and it doesn't feel like we're living the full life that God has for us. Sometimes I think the reason is is because we try to do the same thing over and over and over again, and we get stuck. Somebody say stuck. We get stuck doing things that God has not called us to instead of being stuck in the rhythm that God has called us to. And this summer there's gonna be a temptation for you to get out of rhythm. Here's what I know about summertime. How many of y'all are pool people? Pool people, pool people, pool people, man. Pool people are fun. My kids are pool people. Uh like I feel if you ever see me invest in a pool, it's not because I hit it big, it's because I got tired of the kids complaining about no pool. Uh and I wanna, here's what I know. Uh, the I I used to, the reason I don't like having a pool is because I used to live when I was in my uh young and brashful years, single years, and so my wife, my wife has given me the look, I should stop. Um when I was in my young and brashful years, I I lived with this guy who had a pool, uh, and I I loved it. I was like, this is great. And me loving the pool lasted three days until I figured out I had to take care of that thing. Like, I had to, they had this thing called you have to shock it and put chlorine in it. And Lord help us if a frog ever decides to jump in that pool and there's algae that grows out of nowhere, and I'm like, and here's the thing, you gotta spend all that time, all that money, all that energy, all that effort, and the thing is closed six months out of the year. Why do I not just go to the YMCA? Like, that's just but here's what I know it doesn't matter what you're trying to do, as eventually we feel stuck. The same can be true in our faith life when we're pursuing Jesus. If we're not careful, if we don't live in the rhythm that God has called us to, it doesn't matter how much we love God, we're gonna feel stuck in our relationship with them. And your relationship with God is made for more. Somebody say more. And for us to live in the more, we need to do the rhythms that God has called us to. And so I want to give you the today a summer rhythm. Uh, if you're a student, if you're a high school student, if you're a kid, if you're an elementary kid, this message is for you, but it's also for your moms and your dads, your aunties, your uncles, uh, all those. We're gonna talk about the rhythm that God is gonna give you for this summer. The first thing that I want to ask you today is uh I want the first rhythm that we want to go over is that you're not just made to enjoy life, you're made for worship. Somebody say worship. I need I need help. I need I need some help. Are there any kids that can help me? I need a helper to come up on stage. I'm gonna call on you. Don't you run up on this stage without your mama and daddy saying yes? I need I need help. Anyone got a hand raise? I see somebody in the very, very back wearing a bright green shirt. Can you run all the way? Can you can't run slow down, slow down. Insurance, insurance, insurance. Okay, okay, all right, all right. What is your name, young man?

unknown 6:03

Wyatt.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Okay, I'll say hi to Wyatt. Why? Come in here, why, why, why, why? Why? Come here, come here, come here. You're okay, why? All right, why? Dude, that's a cool lion. That's awesome. Uh, is that the lion? It reminds me of myself. You know, I'm kind of like a lion. I'm like brave, and that's my son disagreeing that I'm a lion. That's gonna, that's gonna, we're gonna talk about that in the car ride home. Um so why? Okay, can you help me today? Can you help me? Now, why? Uh, worship, when we worship God, here's what verse 11, but stand right there for a second. Can you mean a favor? Here's what verse 11 says. Um, he has made everything beautiful in his time. Also, he has put eternity. Somebody say eternity. Eternity in a man's heart. The reason we worship is not so we can sing some songs and do the Christian activity. There's something inside of us, there's a gap, there's a God-shaped hole inside of our heart. And when we worship, we connect to the one who is eternal, who is greater, who is mightier, who is stronger. So we worship because we love God. Can I tell you this why before I have you helped me with some stuff? Worship is telling God how much he means to us. So, do you have somebody you love a whole lot? Who do you love a whole lot, Dad? Oh, Brian, you're on the worship team and you got my notes. I sense some bribery here, is what I sense. Man, that's awesome. So, just like God is your heavenly father, you love your dad. That's awesome. Uh, here's here's here's how you worship God. Can you uh we worship God a couple ways? Oh, can you be fair? Close your eyes, bow your head. Do you know what that's called when you close your eyes and bow your head?

unknown 7:35

No.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Okay, that's called prayer. Somebody say prayer. Prayer is when we talk to God, but I need your help with some other stuff. There's some other stuff we do to worship God. Um do you know what this is? This is a money bag. Okay, wait, so one more time. Moneybag. Okay, so we worship God one way. We worship God also by giving offerings. Um, can you tell me what's in the money bag right now? Can you open it up for me? Like rip it open, rip it open, rip it open. What's in there? Candy. Ooh. Now, why? Would you like to give some of that candy to other people? Yeah. You don't sound so sure. Yeah, I do. See, that's called an offering. It's when I have something and I give it away to God or to other people. That's one of the ways we worship God. Hold on to your money bag for me. Can you hold on to it? Okay, uh, another way that we do a worship God is by uh by by singing songs to Him. Can you hold on to that guitar? Uh, can you play a couple chords for me? Doesn't he sound really good? Man, look at the next John Bon Jovi right here, y'all. I'm just telling you right now. Okay, uh, other ways that we worship God is we read our our Bibles. Okay, you got it. Okay, all right. So we read our Bibles, so we gotta we gotta pray and we give offerings and we do all that. And then um, oh hey, actually, you know what? I know you've been doing your chores, so I know you have more money back than okay, is that too much? It's not too much, you're good? Okay, stand here for the next 25 minutes while I preach. Can you do that? Ah, look at him, he's the best. All right, y'all give it up for why one more time, you everybody? Why are you cracking me up, dude? Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Smarty? Because you're such a smarty. And Sour Patch, because you're so sweet. You're awesome. Y'all give it up for one more time. Here's some ways that we worship God. We we worship God by coming together, by gathering. Man, when we come together in God's presence, there's how many on earth there's something different that happens when we're together than when we're by ourselves. And I know God can move in your car and God can move in your prayer closet, and I know God can move on your boat, and I know God can move when you're at the gym. And I pray and believe that He does. But there's something that happens when we get together, and I see your faith, and I go, Man, their faith encourages my faith. What I'm going through, I know what they're going through. There's something powerful about us coming together. One of the things we're gonna be doing this summer is actually making room. Somebody say, make room. We're gonna be making room for our students, our middle and high school students to come together. We're gonna be having these things called youth nights, y'all. They're gonna be so, so, so, so fun. Uh, we had a great meeting last week. I had 15 adults that are looking forward to pouring into your students. We're gonna be having youth nights, and it's an opportunity for if you're a middle or high school student, uh, to come together, to have fun, to learn about Jesus, to build friendships. Because how many of y'all know we are a multi-generational church and we want to invest into that next generation? So we want to gather. Uh, worship is also about prayers. How many of y'all remember the series we did at the start of the year called Teach Us to Pray? Where we we we admit it and we recognize, man, I can't, there's some stuff I just need the hand of God on. I need to be able to go to God on prayer. I need to go to God. How many of y'all know that there are needs in our church, but there's also needs in our community? There's needs in our schools and businesses. There's there's things that are happening. And here's what we want to do for the whole summer. We want to devote ourselves. We want to have a rhythm of worship where we worship God through prayer. And for us, what that's gonna look like is gonna be our prayer nights every Wednesday for the entire summer for the next two months. We're gonna be gathering right here in a room we're calling the upper room, y'all. And we're gonna put our faces before God because we recognize that it's not by our might, it's not by our power, it's only by his spirit that we are gonna see a move of God in us, a move of God in our families, a move of God in our communities, and a move of God in our world. And why did you take my Bible? No, he didn't take my Bible, it's right here. Uh, something else that we want to do is how many of y'all know as believers, we need to be in the word, y'all. And so this summer we're gonna be doing two things. Uh, as adults, ooh, that that happened. Uh, in our congregation, in the adult service, we're gonna be learning from a book called Galatians. Everybody say Galatians. Man, the kids are doing great. Y'all are awesome. You look so comfortable. Uh, we're gonna be studying the book of Galatians together as a body over the summer. It's all about teaching us how to follow God's way instead of following our own way. And while we're doing that, your kids are gonna be in a series called Better Than Gold. Uh, it's pirate themed. So, all the kids, can you say Arg? Can you say Arg, May? Good job. Uh, they're gonna be going through a pirate series, and better than gold is all about the Bible. It's reminding us that the word of God is better than gold. So make sure that they don't miss a Sunday. Uh, part of that rhythm is gonna be different for us this summer. What we're gonna be doing for the summer is we're actually gonna ask for all the kids to join us for worship before they're dismissed. We're doing that for a couple of reasons. One, it allows our team that are on kids to be more ready and to spend time preparing, and it also lets them experience what we like to call big church. Because how many of you know someday they're not gonna be so little and they're gonna need to know what big church looks like. And they're gonna need to be comfortable with what it looks like to worship and to hear a message and to pray together. Uh, and we uh create a great experience for them, but we also are gonna be doing that during the summer. And last but not least, we worship by singing songs to God. Psalm 100 says this make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing, know that the Lord He is God, it is He who made us, and we are whose are we? We are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Here's what I love about worship: worship is when we get together and we're not just singing songs, we're not just shouting into the atmosphere, it's not just Christian karaoke. Worship is a declaration. We are reminding ourselves, I remember who God is, I remember that he's been faithful before, I remember that he's been good before, I remember he's provided before, I remember he's healed before, I remember he's protected before, and we're telling God, God, I know who you are, I know you're faithful, I know you're good, I know you're true because we appreciate. But how many know worship also is telling the devil? Devil, you better believe my God is bigger than you. It's telling our problems, God is stronger than you, it's telling our addictions, God can give me more freedom than you. It's telling our past, God has forgiven me from you. God is moving us, and when we worship, we get to experience all those things. We are made for worship, but we're not just made for worship, we are also made for work. Somebody say work. Hey, teenagers, students, I got bad news for y'all. Just because you're off on summer vacation doesn't mean you're gonna stop cleaning your room. Amen. Half the kids were like, I used to like this guy, he was giving our candy, now I don't like him no more. Man, we're made for work, we're made to uh make something happen, we're made to produce some stuff. Ecclesiastes 3 and 12 says this. Sorry, Colossians 3 3 says this work willingly at whatever you do, as though you are working for who? The Lord, rather than for people. Man, what a verse, what a verse. I need another helper, I need another helper, I need another helper, I need a hover. Oh, you in the middle, you in the middle. Yes, you come on, come on, come on, come on. Run run right, don't run so fast. Oh, show, oh show violations. Okay, cool. Oh, wow, he's athletic. Is he? Who are your parents? Jenny, is that where are you Jenny? Where are you at Jenny? Where are you at Jenny? Jenny, okay, Jenny, he's gotta go into sports. Like, seriously, look at what he just did. What's your name? Austin. Y'all say hi to Austin. Austin, come over here. Austin, come over here. Austin, I know that you are a hard worker, but uh, here's what I know. During your summer, I I don't want you to go have fun, go on vacation, all those things. But you're gonna have to you're gonna have to work. So, Austin, um, here's what I need. Uh, we're all about safety here at Vision Church. Uh, so Austin, I need you to put on a safety vest. Put on a safety vest, put on a safety vest. Okay, um, because you're gonna have to work really, really hard. Okay, I I I we're just awesome. Um so Austin, and we're more about safety. So I need you to I need you to put on a hard hat. A hard hat. Okay, cool. Great, great, great, great. Uh Austin, so here's what I need for the next little bit. Uh, I'm gonna need you to uh uh so I need a hole dug right here. It's for baptisms in a few months. So can you just get started? I think in about, I don't know, like six to eight months he should be done, y'all. So hey, I need you to start digging. Start, start, start, start. There you go. Keep keep going. Okay. Uh now while Austin's doing that and he's working really, really hard. I also know that um we need a supervisor uh to manage him to make sure, because I'm not gonna supervise him, I'm not gonna supervise him. Uh okay. A young man with the blue shirt. Yes, you. Come on out, come on, run, run, run, run, run. Don't actually run though, please don't run. All right. Look at him with his nice polo while Austin's working. You look like management material. Come over here, come over here. All right, all right. What's what's your Austin? Keep working. I don't want you to see stopping. Keep going. Okay, uh, Lucas, so you of course you need to put on your own safety vest. Safety vest. Okay, great. Uh, good job, good job. And you need to put on your own hard hat. Okay, your own hard hat. Um, and we're gonna give you extra money because you're a supervisor. Uh, just for and then here's what I need. I need you to just like stand like this and just judge him for the next 10 minutes. Just your hard hat fell off. You're fired. Um I'm just messing. Uh, y'all give them a hand. Austin, you can you can stop. You can stop. Uh here's here's the beautiful thing about work. Um, when we work, when we do the hard things, hard things get done. Uh, and here's what I don't want you guys to do. I don't want you to take the summer and not do anything. Students, pick up a project, start a garden, decide you're gonna fix a car, do something that you know is gonna make a difference in your life and for the love of your parents. Clean your room. Amen. Amen. Okay, okay. Um, we got Jolly Rancher and Twizzlers. And what are you asking me for more candy, Mr. Supervisor Man? Just man, this kid thinks he actually, yeah, okay. You want to raise already? Okay, Austin, here's your Sour Patch kid. Here's some Skittles. You're you guys are both smarties, so here's some Smarties for you. And here's some Smarties for you. Y'all give them a hand before they get out. Oh, wait, I need all my stuff back. Taking all my equipment. This is uh this hey, this is a church plan. We we're just getting started. I can't afford to be giving out hard hats to random kids. Good lord. Hard hats are expensive, y'all. Here's what I want you to know about working. Uh uh you will work to the degree of who you believe your boss is. And if your boss is that manager, then you'll be like, I'll show up late because there are no if if your boss is that person, if your boss is just that company, but as a Christian, one of the best testimonies that we can give to the greatness and the goodness of our God is we walk around telling people, hey, you may be giving me my paycheck, but I know who gives me my calling. I I know I know who my boss is, and my paycheck may say this, but my my calling says Jesus. Uh, I I want you to know my uniform might have your company name on it, but my soul has the cross of Jesus Christ on it. Can I tell you, we don't work for people, we work for God. Uh and students, kids, and parents, and people that aren't parents but are aunties, uncles. Man, I want to encourage you to work as a testimony. Man, people should look at the way you work and go, man, the way they work, I don't know who they're following, who they're going after, but their God must be a real God that they're working for him. Man, I believe that God has made us for work. So God's made us for worship, God has made us for work, um, but God has also made us for rest. Somebody say rest. I need, I need, I need one more person. I've had it's been all boys. I need like one I need one girl. Wait, you're not a you're not a girl, Cam. You're awesome though. You're fun. Okay, I'm gonna need two. I'm gonna need I I've only been using boys. I'm gonna take two girls. Claire, would you like to come up? Come on up. And young lady over there, I cannot remember your name for the life of me. Y'all come out, come on, come on. All right, y'all run. See, all the boys were like, I'm running. The girls are like, I'm gonna make this look good. Hi, what is your name? Aria. All right, Aria. Face everybody, everybody say hi, Aria. And what is your name? Claire. Everybody say hi, Claire. Now, ladies, during the summertime, it is important for you to make sure that you worship God. So come to church, pray, all those things. It's also important that you do the things your parents are asking you to do. So make sure you do your job and clean your rooms and put away your shoes and all those things. Uh, but I also want you to take some time off and rest. So uh uh Arya, uh, you should take lots of naps this summer. Uh, your pastor is telling you you have to take at least how many, how many were thinking? Two a day, two a day, four a day, four naps a day, four naps a day. Uh, you have to take four naps a day. Is that okay? No. Okay, well, how how many adults in the room are like, sign me up for that? Okay, okay, but it's not it's not just naps. Uh naps. Uh Claire, do you like going to the beach? Okay, we're all about safety here at Vision Church. So I need you, I need you to put on. You can't take that home with you because that that's my daughter's and she's gonna fight me if you take it. But can you put that on? Because I want to make sure that when you go swimming in the pool, uh, that you're safe. A quick PSA as a as for parents. Y'all keep track of your kids when they're doing crazy stuff over the summer. Uh, like, cause they'll jump in a pool and not know how to swim, like my kid tried to do a couple of summers ago. So that's a side PSA. Can you are you trying to Okay, here's what you do. Uh, I need you to stick your arms in those two. No, the other arm. The other arm, the other arm. You're doing great. There you go. Yeah, keep going, keep going. Y'all y'all caught for her, okay? Yeah, she made it. Perfect. Awesome. Okay, and and and uh you girls, girls, uh you might not be into this, but one of the things I like to do when it's time for me to rest and relax is I like I I haven't gone in forever. Some of y'all keep asking to take me, but how y'all love going fishing? Fishing. Okay, you gonna go fishing? So you're gonna go fishing, you're gonna go fishing. Okay, well, you you only need one. You only need one. Uh one fishing. Okay, ready? Uh and there you go. Okay, cool. So now you gotta come to the edge so we can fish together. So we're fishing, we're fishing, we're fishing. All right, can you all keep fishing? Let me know if you catch any fish. Uh y'all keep fishing, fishing. Uh, here here's here's what what I love. Oh, oh, she caught something. She caught Ah man, y'all are great. Pretend fishermen. That is awesome. That is that is y'all give them a hand one more time. Okay, now I'm gonna give you candy because that's what I've been doing for all the kids. So, so so so so. Alright, here's a sour patch kit for you. Here's uh bag of ooh, nerds gummy clusters for you. I'll double you up on sour patch kids because I don't have any more gummy clusters. And here's more. I'm just nerding you up, girl. Okay, cool. All right, can I keep my uh fishing rod and my pillow and Claire? I uh if you can take that off. Okay, you got it? You got it? Okay, great. Awesome, awesome. Y'all give him a hand one more time. Bye, girls. Y'all are awesome. Uh we're made for rest. Uh see, when I'm reading the scriptures, God gives anybody remember the Ten Commandments? God gives these ten commandments, and the first three are all about God and his presence. But before God talks about us not hurting each other, not coveting from one another, not stealing from one another, you know what God says before he says any of that stuff? Commandment number four, keep the Sabbath. So before God says, don't hurt anybody, don't none of that. God goes, hey, love me, and then go take a nap. Go rest in my presence, go be renewed. Uh Jesus, God created the world and six, not in seven days, in six days. On the seventh day, what did God do? He rested. Here's what I want to tell you. If God can take a day off, you can take a day off. If God can take a if God, who doesn't need to take a nap, decided to take a nap, you can take a nap. Like, this is the weirdest church I've ever been to, but I like this preaching. Like, take a nap and praise God. And it's not just about taking a nap. Uh, it's not just about, oh, let me conk out. And can I even say this? In this day and age, here's what we do when it's our time to rest. We put on one of these and we scroll. And we covet and we get angry and we get offended and we walk away from using this thing more depleted than when we started. Can I encourage you to go outside, spend time with friends? Here's what I know about you. If you got a J-O-B, you spend a lot of time, money, and energy paying for that house that you never sit in and enjoy. And I want to encourage you today to you've worked really, really hard, and God commands, not requests, not recommends, not thinks it's be nice. God commands that you take a rest. And rest is not just napping, rest is also enjoying. Rest is, hey, let me uh like I love resting with my friend Clyde Ellis because Clyde likes to cook, and Clyde is a good cook. So I like to rest with him because rest is Lord, we thank you that you have made steak. We will rejoice in the steak and be glad in it. That's resting. It's enjoying the creation of God. It's it's making the choice to go fishing. It's it's you have everybody go for if you go on vacation and you have that one family member who you think is crazy and they wake up to go, watch the sunrise. That's me, I'm that crazy family member. And the reason that they're doing it is because they're enjoying the creation of God. Resting is not just let me knock out for two hours. Resting is taking the time to enjoy. You are made for rest. You are made for work, you are made for worship. And I want to tell you this too. When it comes to rest, if you work with your body, I want to encourage you this summer to rest with your mind. So if you're always like, I'm working, working, working, working, working, working, working. If you're working a construction job or you assemble things or you build things, uh I don't go home and build more things and be like, I don't know why I'm tired. Some of y'all are tired all the time and you need to stop no more projects. Give yourself two weeks off, okay? Vice versa. Some of y'all work, you you work with your mind, so you're always thinking you're in front of a computer. When you it's time for you to rest, don't get in front of another screen. Get outside, y'all. My wife is in school to be a clinical counselor. She is an incredible, incredible, incredible woman. Very, very smart, all A's, all the time. Uh, I don't know how she uh lowered herself to marry a dummy like me, but I praise God for it every day. I'm like, Lord, I am happy to be her worst decision. Praise God, hallelujah. But as long as I'm in, I'm a decision she made, I'm okay with it. Uh but when she's resting, you know what she does? She goes outside and she has a beautiful garden that she works on. She shovels dirt, she uh puts down fertilizer and she watches that thing grow. And can I tell you, I I don't understand it, but it's the way God's wired us. And she comes out of that garden more rested than when she went into the garden. Now she still needs a nap, praise God, afterwards. I want to encourage us today to worship, work, and rest. And here's my question for you uh what is missing from your rhythm? What's missing from your rhythm? We we've been in the series called Made It for More. We're about to transition as a church and do some things that are different uh over the summer that I want to talk to you about. But I want to make sure that uh there's nothing missing from your rhythm because your rhythm is how you are gonna get to the more. Somebody say more. Your rhythm is gonna be how you get to the more that God's called you to. Because you are not, you are not the result of your hopes and dreams. You are the result of your rhythm. The things that you make daily are the things that decide who you are. And as a church, I just want you to know we're gonna be embracing worship, we're gonna have the prayer night, we're gonna have the youth nights, we're gonna have all these things. We're all if you're racing work, there's some things that we are doing different. Uh here's what I'll even say for you. If your rhythm is that, man, during I I typically don't serve at Vision, but I have the summer off or I have some extra time. Man, you taking the time this summer to be part of the team will let people that need a break, man, take that break. Some of our team have been serving for like six, seven months straight. And if you say yes to being a part of some sorry, the kids the kids caught me saying six, seven months, and all of them went like this. And I have a sermon or two about that. Now I've been doing some research, so I'll talk to y'all as parents on that afterwards. But uh but I want to encourage you to be a part of uh building this house, but also building uh your house. And thirdly, you're gonna see us as a church rest. Somebody say rest. Uh there's gonna be some Sundays when you come in and you go, how come there's no water today? Or how come the drummers not here today, or how come the guitarists like some Sundays are gonna come and you're gonna go like man, there's less chairs than there used to be, or any of that. Can I tell you? It's because the person that typically does those things, we are asking them as a team to rest. Because the people that serve our church are not employees, they're part of our family. Uh they're our siblings, and what we do at my house, we take turns cleaning the table. And so some people are gonna take a second to rest at the table, and we would invite some of you to take a turn cleaning the table to be a part of that. But I want to ask what's missing from your rhythm. Um I need help from three kids. Three kids, three kids, three kids. Alright, alright, alright. You've been raising your hand every single time. Come on, come on, come on. Uh Ryland, get up here, dear. And then Cam, get up here. Gabriel, you the man. I'm gonna get you some extra candy because you've been awesome. Alright, y'all act right. Oh, these jumpers! Okay. What's your name? What's your name? Ryland. What's your name? Awesome. Uh y'all give it up for him one more time. Here's what I need you to do. I need you to hold this. I'm gonna get that back after service, right? I'm not gonna get that back after service, okay. Okay, come on. I need you, I need you. I need you to hold this. I need you to hang on to this pillow real tight. It doesn't matter. Come on, you're right, you're strong. Okay, here, how about this? Put one on one arm and the other one on the other arm. Perfect, awesome. That works. Uh here, here's y'all come, pull closer, come closer, come to the front, come to the front. Uh here's here's what I I um uh here's what I'm I I know we can make a mistake of. Uh how many of y'all love worship and love the presence of God? And you love, like, man, when I get to sing and I get to read my Bible and I get to pray, uh, but here's here's what I want to tell you. Here's if your worship never leads to your work, it is not really worship. Y'all ever meet a Christian that like they have perfect church attendance, like they're on the church deacon board, they they make it, but then they show up at work and they're the meanest person you ever seen. It's because their worship isn't working out in their life. Are you like doing a solo or something while I'm preaching? Is that what's happening right now? I just got something. Oh, wait, you're Mr. Rest. You go over here. All right, you work hard. All right. Let's try one more time. You look so handsome. Uh I wish I had hair. That's really all it is. Um, worship work, but here's here's what I know, here's what I know. If we work without our worship, then we lose our power source. If we're just showing up and doing activity, and I'm gonna do more, more, more, more, more, more. Calm the ladder, calm the ladder, calm the ladder, show up early, stay, stay up early, stay, show up early, stay. Uh, if I'm never connected to worship, then who am I doing it for at the end of the day? And if I work but never rest, then that is how I burn out. Some of you are in this room and you are tired, you are exhausted, you are cranky, everybody is messing with you, and even when they're not messing with you, you still be like, why are you breathing so hard? It's because you have been working without worshiping or without resting. And some of us are super excited about summertime. We're like, summertime is here. I'm gonna rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest. Here's what's crazy about that. If you, if you if all you do is rest, then you'll never work and you'll never worship, and if you don't do those things, you'll never have an impact. You'll get to the end of summer and you'll be like, I got a couple pictures of me at the beach, but my faith didn't move forward, my family's not any healthier. I feel like I've I'm more depressed and anxious than I was before I even started. Can I tell you, if you never put in the work, then your rest will poison your soul. You need to make sure that you have a rhythm of, hey, I'm gonna worship, I'm gonna worship because my life isn't built on me. I'm not my own power source. I'm relying on the one who made me, the one who created me, the one who fills me. Because he fills me up, I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna work for some people. Students, I'm gonna encourage my family. Workers, I'm gonna be the best employee they've ever seen. Bosses, I'm gonna go from increase to increase. And then when I've done those things when I've exhausted myself for the sake of God and for the gospel, I'm gonna take a good old nap, y'all. We're supposed to do this in a couple ways. Here's here's my encouragement. Here's my encouragement. You need to do this daily, so every day I should have a time. You might be more saved than I am. You're probably more saved than I am, you probably love God more than I am. If I don't get to God daily, you don't want to be around me. It is so much easier for me to get cranky, for me to be short-sighted, for me to be like, I need to go to God daily. For some of you, you need you've never had a devotional life, and typically this type of message that we talk about in January, but summer's coming, you got some extra time. Get you on a Bible plan, get you a devotional life. Some of you need to come to our we have a we have a Wednesday morning prayer time on Zoom, we have a Wednesday afternoon Bible study on Zoom, and we're gonna have the Wednesday night prayer night. Some of y'all are like, I don't even know how to pray, but I know I'm not gonna pray unless I come to that prayer night. You better come to that prayer night. Okay, that's a that's a you need to worship, you need to work, Rylan. You're homeschooled now, right? Man, we love our homeschoolers at this church. Like, they're um here's what here's what I Roland, what time do you usually wake up to start your school?

unknown 35:38

Nine o'clock.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Oh Lord Jesus, God, unto your servant, would you do the same thing? Can I encourage our students on something? Don't just sleep till noon. Man, do something. Move something, change something. Students, if you're like, I got nothing to do, get a job. If you don't have, if you're like, I don't want to want to get a job, volunteer for something, serve somebody, care about somebody. At the end of summer, look back and go, Man, there's people whose lives are different because I worshiped and God gave me a heart to work. And every day you should rest. Man, if you don't got time to take a nap, my wife and I got two kids. We ain't got time to say the word nap, let alone take one. All it takes is a 10-minute walk. All it takes is, hey, I'm gonna take this 15 minutes of lunch. All it takes, can I tell you? You may not need to do everything, but you need to do something. You need you also weekly, weekly, weekly, weekly, you need to keep your rhythm. You gotta worship weekly. Pastor, it's summer. I got plans at the lake, the pool. After the pool, I'm gonna go back to the lake. After the lake, I'm gonna go back to the pool. I'll see you in September, Pastor. Listen, I don't care if you see me in September, you better see God every week. Weekly, gather, weekly pray, weekly serve, weekly worship. Weekly, you ain't got a choice because dominion ain't free, y'all. Weekly, go to work, and weekly take a Sabbath, take a rest, take some time to go. I'm gonna I work my tail off six days a week. Some of you are saying, I can hear it in your voice. Pastor, dominion is expensive, groceries are expensive. I can't, I gotta, I gotta be here. Can I tell you? You only believe you have to work that much because you have not worshiped properly. If you worship properly, then what worship does is worship reminds you how big your God is, how faithful he's been, how able he is to provide. And if he's able to take care of me, I'm gonna answer his not his suggestion, but his commitment is to rest. Because if you don't rest, eventually you'll run out. And here's what here's what I figured out. I I was talking to a pastor friend of mine who uh loved his church and pastored it. You know what's crazy about your job? If you quit tomorrow, you know what they're gonna do on Tuesday? They're gonna show up anyway. Isn't that how dare they! I but I thought I was your favorite employee. I thought the company revolved around me. I thought I was the employee of the month. I thought that Chris, can I tell you your family needs you to rest, and more than your family, you need to rest. Here's what's crazy: you know who rested in the Bible more than anybody else? Jesus. And can we admit that Jesus had some stuff he had to do, what, Rylan? But Jesus chose to rest. And seasonally, we need to go into we have to have so this summer for us, the season of prayer, but we had to have seasons of prayer, fasting, generosity, seasonally. Sorry, dominion still ain't free, still gotta work, Rylan. I'm sorry you had the worst one. Like it's just and your vacation is holy time of God. John, I can't afford a vacation. Don't go anywhere. You pay rent every month. Take three days off and sit your tail at home. That's a lot better than taking no time at all. I can't afford the beach house. You afforded your house. Get a kiddie pool from the Dollar General, put it out back, put your feet in it, and close your eyes and put on one of those like sound machines so you can pretend it's the ocean, but take some rest. Y'all give my friends a hand one more time. Alright, boys. I'm gonna take all this stuff back. Y'all were great help. Alright, on your way out. I want you to grab some candy. He went for the whole bag, y'all. That is a man of faith and ambition. I love it. Here's two. Awesome. Here's two. Riley, you're good. What did you just say? Give it to both of them. Oh, y'all give Riley. Riley. I got plenty. I got now. Let the Lord bless you and keep you. Ooh, that looks good. Alright, Smarty. Okay. Are you trying to take the offering with you? Maybe. Okay, I'm gonna take the offering back back. You're the man, Cam. Cam, y'all can't even? Ready, one too? You're welcome. Y'all give him a hand one last time. Y'all can go back to your seats, dude. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to live in the rhythm of God so that you can receive the reward of God. There's a reward when you worship, it's the presence of God. There's a reward when you work, it's your impact and your paycheck. There's a reward when you rest, it's that your soul is renewed. I don't want you to leave any of that behind. As we head into summer and as our rhythms are disrupted, I want you to stay in it today. Vision, would you stand to your feet as we get close to wrapping up our service? Hey, kids, if you're a kid in the room, um, I have tons of extra candy. Uh so on your way out, I'll give every kid I can two pieces. If I run out, then I'll hit you up next Sunday, okay? Um, but how many of y'all enjoyed having the kids in the room with us today? And we love y'all, and we're so excited to see what God is doing. I want to pray for two groups of people today. Uh I specifically want to pray for you. If you're new to church or returning to Jesus, and you haven't said yes to Jesus yet, and you're trying to figure that out. I believe God wants to meet you today. And it's not about even the words I say are a prayer. It's about you making a choice to turn from your ways and turns towards Jesus today. I'm gonna give you an opportunity to that, I want to pray with you. And then I also want to pray for all of us that God would point to us. God, where am I off rhythm in this season? God, where am I not worshiping? Where am I not working? Where am I not resting? And that you'd speak to us some adjustments. With every head bowed and every eye closed, I just want to take a second to just pray for us. Father, I thank you for today. I thank you for the opportunity to be in your presence with your people under your word. God, in Ecclesiastes, as we read earlier, you see that you've put eternity in your heart, that you've created us for busyness, that you've created us to eat and drink and to enjoy. God, Father, may we recognize that you've created us for rhythm, a rhythm of worship, a rhythm of work, a rhythm of rest. Father, help us to lean in on you. God, today, if there are people under the sound of my voice that they're in a space where they're saying, I need to say yes to Jesus. I need to say yes for the first time, or I need to go all in like never before. God, I pray that today will be the day of salvation. I pray that they would come to somebody on our prayer team, that they would trust in Jesus, that way they would receive Him. And God, I pray for all of us who might be off for them. Maybe we're working too hard, maybe we're resting too much. Would you allow us to worship you and experience your presence and be made different? In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Let's sing together.