The Unhurried Life / How to Attain the Unhurried Life

How to Attain the Unhurried Life

Passage February 26, 2023 1189, 1330, 1735, 2210

I. Introduction:

A. As many of you know, I am a very slow walker because of a

physical limitation that I have. My wife Kimberly, on the other

hand, is a much faster walker than I am.

1. When we walk together almost every time, we start enjoying

being together and talking but as time goes on Kim gets further

and further ahead of me because her natural walking pace is

about double mine.

a. Often she does not even recognize the distance between us

so I holler out to Kim, “If you want to walk with me Baby,

you need to slow down.”

2. You need to know that God is a slow walker! No one has ever

referred to our relationship with God as running or speed

walking with God but walking with God. If we want to walk

with God then we need to walk at his pace.

B. But we live in a culture and have been squeezed into its mold

where we are driven by busyness and hurry. We have thousands of

voices and ideas coming at us every day so, our interior life, our

soul, it not only runs out of control but also it is very noisy on the

inside.

1. As we learned a few weeks ago - in that condition, it is very

very hard for us to hear and discern the still small voice of God,

a God who walks slowly and speaks softly.

C. Sabbath is one way that God has given to us by which we can learn

to slow down to walk with God at his pace by stopping from all our

work, resting, delighting and worshipping him. But it is not the

only way.

1. One of the premises of this series is that we not only learn and

experience God by learning and following his teachings; but

also by learning and following his lifestyle, his walk. Doing

the things Jesus did, practicing the things Jesus practiced,

making habits in our life of the things of which Jesus made

habits. Many people call these spiritual disciplines.

2. In our small groups we are learning about and practicing one of

them, Sabbath.

3. In this series, we want to give that some larger context and learn

a few other key practices that will help us live an unhurried life!

• So today, I simply want to answer two questions: what is a spiritual

discipline/spiritual practice and why do we do them. First…

II. What is a spiritual discipline

A. Turn to 1 Timothy 4:7. Read.

1. The word discipline in the Greek is an “active present verb.” –

a. The “active voice” of this verb indicates that this is an action

that we actually do ourselves

b. The “present tense” indicates that the action we do is to

happen continuously or repeatedly so as to become a habit.

2. The word discipline simply means to train, which means to

make oneself prepared for something by repeated exercise or

practice.

B. There is a big difference between trying to do something and

training to do something.

1. How many of you, who have never trained for a marathon,

believe that you can get up tomorrow morning and run a

marathon?

a. I could “try” tomorrow, but I clearly will either fail or die

trying because I am in no way prepared to run a marathon

because I have not been training for it.

b. However, if we were to take the next year with a plan and

making space in our lives to train for a marathon, our

chances would be much greater.

2. Dallas Willard said, “Training has to do with arranging my life

around those activities that will enable me to do what I cannot

now do by direct effort.”

3. My very first Greek class my professor, John Best said this.

“That which you wish to do with ease you must first do with

diligence.”

C. So this is my definition of a “spiritual” discipline –

1. PBP - arranging my life around practices that allow me to

connect with God in order to experience God’s transforming

grace by his Spirit. Repeat

• So that answers our first question – what is a spiritual discipline. The

second question is

III. Why do we do them?

A. Look at what he says right here in 1 Timothy 4:7b-8. Read

1. Discipline yourself for “godliness” or another way to say it is

repeatedly practice disciplines that will make you godly.

2. Many of us will invest all kinds of time and energy into

disciplining ourselves for our physical lives, but little to none in

our spiritual lives.

a. Bodily discipline is only of a little profit but disciplining

ourselves for godliness is profitable for all things since it

holds a promise for both this life and the one to come.

B. Daniel pictures for us the goal of every discipline. Listen to Daniel

9:3

1. So disciplines are ultimately a way to seek after God with all of

our hearts!

2. Listen to what God promises to those who do so

a. Read Jeremiah 29:13

b. He promises we will find him when we seek after him in that

way!

3. As we saw a few weeks ago that when we find him and behold

the glory of God we are transformed by his Spirit more and

more into his image from one degree of glory to the next!

C. When we connect with God through these practices and disciplines

that help us pull away from hurry and busyness – things like - a

quiet time on a regular basis, or a Sabbath day once a week, or a

time of solitude or silence, etc. it is ultimately so we can reorient

our entire lives around him and live the rest of our lives in light of

that.

1. The Bible is very clear that God’s desire for our lives is not to

have special times carved out in our schedules for him but rather

wants to be at the center of our entire lives, all the time, in all

we do.

D. We think of the Christian life like a pie rather than a hub.

1. We cut a pie up into eight different pieces, which do not touch

or impact the other pieces. – so we give Jesus a slice of time in

the morning for a quiet time but it does not impact the rest of

the day, or we give him a day a week in Sabbath, but it does not

impact the rest of the week. Image

2. But a hub, like the hub at the center of a bike tire, is at the

center of everything, impacts everything else and holds it all

together. If that hub is removed for just a moment, the entire

wheel falls apart. Image

E. Mark Buchanan wrote a wonderful book on the Sabbath called The

Rest of God – Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath. I want

to read just a few things he says about this as it has been very

helpful to give me perspective

1. Most of us live afraid that we're almost out of time. We are not

short of days; we just need to number them a right.

2. Sabbath keeping is more than time management. It is a fresh

orientation to time, where we think with holy imagination about

how the arc of our moments and hours and days intersect with

eternity.

3. The Swahili word for white man is mazungu. It literally means

one who spins around.

a. That's how east Africans see westerners - turning ourselves

dizzy; a great amount of motion without direction; we are

people going round and round aimlessly –

b. Sabbath time invites us to stop turning round and round. It

invites us to remember who we really are. It is the necessary

groundwork for reflecting well our lives

F. This last fall, as Kim and I met with a man named Doug Slaybaugh

to talk about our future one thing he talked about were things that

refresh and renew us. We were talking about Sabbath when he

asked to me “When do you plan to start that?”

1. This is what I said, “I do not have time to do Sabbath right now,

my plan is to start when I retire.”

a. My thoughts were I will just drag on with this deep tiredness

and out of control heart until I have more time and energy to

do something about it

b. As the words were coming out of my mouth I felt the

foolishness of what I was saying as the Holy Spirit

whispered into my heart “the very reason I created Sabbath

was to be a gift of rest and refreshment in the midst of your

work”

G. The very first week back, on Friday I have begun to do

Sabbath. Put my phone away, do no church or sermon work and

not even work projects around the house. Rather a time to refresh,

renew, delight, workout, and reconnect with the Lord.

1. This has been the effect on me after four months. My schedule

and demands have not changed, actually in many ways they

have grown.

2. But, I can honestly say that in the midst of my demands and

busyness I do not feel as tired, I do not feel like my heart is

spinning out of control, I do not feel overwhelmed but instead I

have a deeply composed and joyful singing heart.

H. Let me ask you – are you too busy and have too many things to do

that you cannot take advantage of the gift that God gave to his

people – the gift of Sabbath a time to stop and rest, refocus and

reconnect, and delight!

1. A gift that not only impacts one day of your week but a gift the

transforms the way you live your live 24/7, 365!

2. No, it is not a command, it is not a law for us – it is just a gift

that God created for his people. As Jesus said, “the Sabbath was

created for man and not man for the Sabbath”

3. It’s a matter of wisdom! It is a matter of composure! It is a

matter of joy! It is a first step toward reorienting your entire life

around Jesus as the hub or your life rather than just as the one

who gets a slice of your life!