The Benefit of an Unhurried Life / The Unhurried Life

The Benefit of an Unhurried Life

2 Corinthians 3:12-18 February 12, 2023

I. Introduction:

A. Have you ever been in a hurry? Have you ever been busy? Hurry

and busyness go hand in hand. The busier we are the more our

heart spins out of control.

1. We know the internal feeling that goes with that as our insides

feel they are on steroids and it is hard to slow it down even

when our external activities stop.

2. This hurry and busyness becomes our “go to” excuse for not

meeting with the Lord or when we do meet with him, it is the

reason for a distracted time with him.

3. At times like that we are playing right into the hand of Satan.

Listen to 2 Corinthians 11:3

B. Today begins a series that is going hand and hand with the Sabbath

small groups we are doing as a church. We are calling it the

unhurried life as we attempt as a church and people to get back to

the simple and pure devotion to Jesus Christ!

1. Sabbath is all about stopping and resting from all the hurry and

busyness in our lives to refocus our hearts upon God and

reorient our lives around God!

2. The goal of this series is to break the addiction to hurry and

busyness and reconnect in a significant way with Jesus Christ –

our source from whom comes real life, abundant life, life

indeed!

3. Sabbath is only one practice for connecting with God that as we

will talk about a few others during this series!

C. Hurry and busyness have been hard wired into the world system we

live in. Listen to what a few others have said about it!

1. Alan Fadling, in his book An Unhurried Life, said “hurry is not

a disordered schedule but a disordered heart.” and “to walk with

God you must go at a walking pace…when I am most hurried, I

run past much of what God wants to show me, give me and lead

me into”

2. John Mark Comer, in his book The Ruthless Elimination of

Hurry, said, “hurry and love are incompatible … love is

painfully time consuming”

3. Corrie ten Boom said, “If the Devil can't make you sin, he'll

make you busy because both sin and business have the exact

same effect -- they cut you off from your connection to God, to

other people, and even to your own soul.”

4. John Ortberg said, “For many of us the great danger is not that

we will renounce our faith, but it is that we will become so

distracted, rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a

mediocre version of it.”

5. Let me add another danger that I have been guilty of. It is this

– equating busyness with significance.

a. I have to be busy and let others know how busy I am so that

both they and myself will think that I am important and

making an impact on the world!

b. I have especially wrestled with that as I face retirement.

c. For me I have seen the need for significance through

busyness as a sickness of my soul that God needs to deliver

me from!

• There are many benefits that come from slowing down our activities

and hearts but one of the greatest benefits is transformation at the core

of our being, a change that comes from the Spirit of God and last

forever! Turn to

II. 2 Corinthians 3

A. Let’s set up the context quickly

1. In 2 Corinthians 3, after talking about God having made us

adequate as servants of the new covenant, then he draws a

contrast between the glory of the old covenant and the glory of

the new covenant.

a. He teaches them that the glory of the new covenant “far

surpasses” the glory of the old covenant, the Law of Moses.

2. Then he moves to the story of God showing Moses his glory up

on the mountain but when Moses came down his face shone

because he was speaking with God.

a. So in a sense Moses beholding the glory of the Lord caused

him to get a tan on his face made by the radiance of the glory

of God.

b. But Moses put a veil over his face so the people would not

see the fading of glory of God on his face.

c. Then when he went back into the presence of God, his face

again would be tanned by the radiance of the glory!

3. Then in verses 14 -17 he says Israel still has a veil, which

prevents them from seeing and understanding, the glory of God

as revealed in his word.

4. Read v16-17

B. Now “we” come to the passage that relates to us today v18. Read

1. “Unveiled face” because we know Jesus that veil has been

removed from over our hearts so we come with an unveiled face

to behold the glory of God.

2. “Beholding as in a mirror” the glory of the Lord

a. People debate over the meaning of this

1. The context just before talks about looking into God’s

word would cause us to lean towards seeing God’s glory

in his Word as we read it.

2. But the tense of the Greek word would lean towards

reflecting something like a mirror reflects an

image. Much like Moses reflected God’s glory to those

around him.

b. Pat Peglow’s unique interpretation of this verse – as we

behold the glory of God, see him in his Word, our life is

tanned by the radiance of that glory and we reflect his glory

to others around us.

3. Then note what he says in v18c-d, read

a. With us rather than God’s glory fading away after we meet

with him, we are transformed by his glory!

b. Instead of fading it even increases all the more from one

degree of glory to the next.

c. All of this is from the Spirit of God

C. This is a very inspiring passage about the benefits of us meeting

with the Lord, and there are various different ways we can meet

with him and get a glimpse of his glory.

1. In other words, there are many different ways we can put

ourselves in a place where the Spirit of God can transform us.

2. Again, Sabbath is one of those but we will share in this series a

few others as well.

• So stopping to meet with God does amazing things within us that

impacts others around us as they see the glory of God reflected in our

lives! So in closing I want to tell you

III. My story

A. When I first came in touch with the impact that hurry and busyness

had upon my life it was many years ago but a lesson that has stayed

with me.

1. It was on a 10-day missions trip to Montana where two vans full

of people from MVC went out to help the Hunters in their

ministry to Indians.

a. So I was pulled out of normal life for two weeks while my

insides were running, noisy and shaking from the impact of

all the hurry and busyness in my life. Illustrate with my

body

2. I was a young pastor with a young family and was probably at

the height of busyness in my life with pastoral, parental and

marriage responsibilities.

3. On the first day there, Jim Hunter took Vince Galante and me

up into the mountains that were full of these trees and there was

a breeze blowing through them.

a. Jim said, “Do you hear that?” I said, “Hear what?” He said,

“The whistle from the breeze.” I could not hear it. I really

did try hard to hear it but nothing!

4. After ten days of being out in the middle of nowhere, where life

slowed down to a crawl Jim took us up to the same place again

before we left.

a. This time with a slowed down and quiet heart I heard the

whistle of the breeze immediately and clearly

5. The only difference this time was the condition of my

heart. Slowed and quieted it allowed me to hear the still small

whistle of the breeze in the mountains. Illustrate with my body

6. 1. I had to step outside of the hurried and busy life I was

living and slow down to see just how out of sorts and unhealthy

my heart was.

B. A slowed down heart will allow us to hear the still small voice of

the Spirit of God when we meet with Jesus.

1. A hurried and busy heart will never be in a place to hear the still

small voice of God on a regular basis.

2. Instead, he will need to hit us with a sledgehammer for us to

slow down to hear him.

C. Join us as we not only study this during this series but I trust as we

practice it we will experience deep connection with Jesus and

transformation for our own hearts!

D. Josh …