18.5K
Downloads
388
Episodes
Never miss a Sunday again! Watch our past messages on the go here!
Episodes
Tuesday Apr 25, 2023
Tuesday Apr 25, 2023
Signs
Various passages April 23, 2023
I. Introduction:
A. Last week we began our red bus tour of the book of John. We took one
complete trip around the book with a map/chart in hand and a narrator/me
pointing out key areas to us!
1. Today we want to get off at our first point of interest that we want to
explore a bit more closely.
2. That is the area of signs.
B. Turn to John 20:30-31
1. We learned last week that John’s purpose in writing this book was very
clear – read v30-31
a) First, that we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God
b) Second, in believing we might have life through Jesus
2. But he also shows us in these verses the vehicle/means he uses to get us to
believe.
a) Look back again and read 30-31a - signs/these
b) It was signs that Jesus had performed.
C. So what is a sign?
1. If I am driving on an expressway and I see a sign that says Chicago this
way and Detroit that way, that sign points me in a specific direction.
a) The sign is not Chicago or Detroit, but the sign points me to Chicago
and Detroit
2. Turn to John 2 so we can see how John defines a sign. This is the section
where at the wedding Jesus does the miracle of turning the water into
wine. Read v2:11 –
2
a) John is clearly equating Jesus’ miracles with being a sign.
b) Just l as we saw in John 20:30-31 this sign did what it was supposed to
do, it manifested Jesus’ glory and resulted in his disciples believing in
him. Read 2:23
• The miracle is the supernatural act itself. John, in this book, is using those
miracles as
II. Signs to prove who Jesus is
A. We learn in John 20:30-31 that John is using these miracles to point us to,
certify, convince, prove, validate, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
B. In John 3:2 Nicodemus confirms that the signs are doing exactly what they are
supposed to do –
1. Read John 3:1-2
2. Nicodemus said these signs confirm that God is with him.
C. Even Peter stated in his sermon on Pentecost that Jesus’ miracles were
designed to show and prove who he was. Read Acts 2:22
1. Attesting means to show that something is true, to prove it.
2. Peter says God was using the miracles to prove to them/us who Jesus was.
D. It is interesting to note the even when the apostles and their close associates
performed miracles it was to validate them as God’s messengers and the
message they were bringing.
1. Read 2 Corinthians 12:12 – it was a proof as to who the true apostles of
Jesus Christ were. So just like the miracles validate Jesus as the Messiah,
the miracles validated the apostles as messengers sent by God.
2. God also used the miracles as proof that their messages was from God read
Hebrews 2:1-4.
a) Jesus spoke a very important message, eternally significant message
from God. Those who heard Jesus speak it, the apostles took his
message to others
b) God was working right alongside the apostles as they delivered that
message testifying, that is validate confirming, endorsing and bearing
witness about their message by miracles.
3
• So John used Jesus’ miracles to validate/prove who Jesus was and that his
message was “from” God. These miracles were signs to
III. Prove Jesus was the Christ the Son of God!
A. Jesus’ miracles were signs, proofs that he was who he said he was! We see
this repeatedly in the book of John.
1. In John 4, after Jesus supernaturally told the Samaritan woman at the well
all about her life without having met her beforehand. Listen to what she
told her friends. Read 4:29
2. In John 5, we saw on Easter after Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath who
had been lame for 38 years that Jews accused Jesus of making himself
equal with God by claiming God as his Father!
a) Jesus said it is true he is equal to God and stated that he does nothing
but what God does, he does everything God does and does it in the
same way.
b) Then he goes on to give others who give testimony to who he is. He
starts with John the Baptist
(1) Then he says this in 5:36 – read
(2) The works/miracles that he does testify about who he is.
3. After Jesus fed over 5000 people with just a few fish and loaves listen to
what the people said - read John 6:14
a) Shortly after this, Jesus goes into a long discourse using this miracle to
talk about himself as the true bread of God that has come down from
heaven to give life and many departed from him because his words
were hard to accept. Read 6:67-69
4. Listen to the crowd’s response when he was teaching at the Feast of
Booths. Read John 7:31
5. Chapter 10 where Jesus claims his oneness with the Father – essentially a
claim to be God!
(1) Read 10:30-33
(2) In response to this, Jesus claims to be the Son of God and it is his
works miracles as proof that he is God the Son and is one with the
Father. Read 10:36-39
4
(3) We see the same idea that his miracles are a witness or proof that
he is God.
6. Listen to chapter 11 with the raising of Lazarus from the dead
a) Mary had sent word to Jesus that her brother Lazarus was dead. Listen
to what Jesus said to his disciples after hearing this. Read 11:14-15;
b) Listen to the response of the people after Jesus did raise Lazarus from
the dead! Read 11:41-45,
B. While Jesus’ miracles were designed to be proof of who he was so that they
would believe at the same time, it drove those who opposed him into deeper
unbelief and resistance against him.
1. Note the response of the Jewish leaders – read 11:47-48; 53,57; 12:10-11,
12: 37-38
C. The key reason why these miracles prove that Jesus is the Christ is because
the miracles that Jesus did were samplings of the miracles that will take place
in the Messiah’s future kingdom….
1. Turn to Matthew 11:2. Read v2-6
a) Are you the expected one? The Messiah? The Christ?
b) Jesus answered not by saying go tell him that I am but rather by an
even stronger argument than words, tell him about the miracles I have
done.
(1) Heard of show and tell? This is the show portion of that.
c) This is why Jesus answered that way. Turn and read Isaiah 35:3-4
(1) V4 is that time in the future when Jesus will come and judge the
nations and then set up his earthly kingdom!
d) Now listen to v5-6
(1) Jesus was saying tell him that I am doing, the very miracles that
Isaiah said the Messiah would do.
2. Turn to Matthew 12:22-23, the crowds of common folk associated the
miracles Jesus did with the Messiah who is also called the “Son of David”
D. Jesus’ miracles, the supernatural acts that God did through him, were meant to
be signs to prove to them that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God so that they
could believe in him and have eternal life!
5
1. If you read through the gospel of John with this in mind you will see it
popping out repeatedly in the book and will deepen your conviction
regarding who Jesus is and how a person receives his life!
• You cannot talk about miracles today without raising in people’s minds the
question
IV. Do miracles still happen today?
A. My answer is yes but you need to walk with discernment because not all
miracles come from God
1. When you study miracles, you will see that people who did not know
Jesus, false prophets, the antichrist, the false prophet of the antichrist, and
even demons did miracles.
2. Read Matthew 24:24.
3. Revelation tells us that miracles are what the false prophet will use as signs
to deceive people into following the antichrist. Read Revelation 19:20
4. Therefore, we need discernment when it comes to miracles in our day.
B. God still does miracles today. Read Galatians 3:5
C. When we read the rest of the New Testament after getting through the
historical books of the gospels and Acts, we learn that the emphasis of the
miracles is on miracles of the heart!
1. The miracle of salvation, the miracle of a transformed life, and the miracle
of the Spirit of Christ living his life through us moment by moment - day
by day producing in us a life that has no explanation except God.
D. Actually, if you properly understand the Christian life you know that it is not
a difficult life to live, rather it is impossible. The whole Christian life is a
miracle. Every moment of the Christian life is designed to be supernatural
and life changing but not necessarily “externally spectacular.”
E. However, God does not just do internal miracles. Let me tell you about two
different woman here at MVC, who had verified cancer by medical testing.
1. Sandy – one came and asked the elders to anoint her with oil and pray that
God would heal her. The next time she went back to doctors, they
validated through medical testing that her cancer was gone.
6
2. Rose – another woman had the same story but it was during a worship
portion of our service as she was worshipping God that she had a strange
sensation come over her. Next time to the doctor, the cancer was gone.
F. I cannot think of a better way to close than to thank God for the great miracles
he does for us out of his lovingkindness! Read Psalm 136:3-4
Tuesday Apr 18, 2023
Tuesday Apr 11, 2023
Tuesday Apr 11, 2023
Tuesday Apr 04, 2023
Monday Mar 27, 2023
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
Tuesday Mar 21, 2023
Discipline of Solitude and Silence
March 19, 2023
I. Introduction:
A. I will never forget the first time that I experienced solitude and
silence at the same time. It was before I knew Jesus Christ.
1. I was about 18 years old. It was not an intentional time to be
alone and in quiet but a time that came because of a broken
radio.
a. There were many times before this that I was alone but I
always had some kind of noise around me, the radio, TV,
some kind of music.
b. However, one day I had to drive up to Michigan, which was
about a three and a half hour trip. When I got into the car,
my radio did not work. I remember that about the time I
crossed the Michigan border on interstate 94, for the first
time I recognized that while my car was quiet at the same
time there was much noise going on in my head, and for the
first time in my life I came face to face with my own
thoughts.
c. It was frightening to me because my thoughts were shocking
to me. It became a very disturbing and uncomfortable trip!
2. To be honest with you, until that day I was totally out of touch
with my heart and I did not know the truth about what was
going on deep within my heart because it was always buried
under busyness and noise! And it was not pretty!
B. I love the passage in Psalm 51:6 that God desires truth in the
innermost being.
1. This is a psalm where David is confessing his sin. Read psalm
51:5-8
2. We will never find joy and gladness only with external
conformity but must have a clean heart filled with and
controlled by truth!
3. Many have the truths of this book in their heads but there is a
big disconnect between what is in their heads and what is in
their hearts.
C. I remember many years ago that I was deeply troubled about some
lies that were spreading around about me that could destroy my
reputation as a pastor.
1. A group of leaders got together to pray for me and I remember
Pastor Bill Mills prayer as it was clearly from the Lord for
me. He said this “God, I am not so concerned about the lies
going around about Pat, I am more concerned about the lies in
his heart that he is believing”
2. Wow – did he hit it. The guy with a degree from Moody Bible
Institute, Dallas Seminary and preaching every week where
truth was filling my mind and coming out of my mouth but in
my heart there was a bundle of lies about myself and God that
were not consistent with God or his word.
3. I love what Psalm 15:1-2. Read
D. Frankly, this is my concern. I think that there are many good
biblical Christians here today whose lives are so busy, so full of
demands and responsibilities, so full of noise that they have never
come face to face with their own hearts before God.
• I want to speak to you today about two practices that can help us get
in touch with our hearts and ultimately with the Lord at a deeper level
than we have ever known before. The practices are called
II. Solitude and silence
A. Solitude simply means being alone and silence means quiet.
B. They can each be done individually by themselves but are best
done and most powerful when done together
1. Often they can become watershed moments where there is a
turning point in the course of our whole lives!
2. That happened to me a number of years ago when I was leaving
for work and I slipped on some black ice – did a 180 degree and
came straight down on my back. That hurt!
a. I was home laid up in my bed for a week and I prayed, “God,
if I have to go through all this pain please use it somehow.”
b. I decided that week to read while in bed – “Hudson Taylor’s
Spiritual Secret” and God met me powerfully and changed
my life from that time on!
1. He showed me for the first time not just in my head but
to see it with the eyes of my heart that Jesus lives in me
and is my life. And that the Christian life is not about me
living for Jesus but rather Jesus living in and through and
for me!
2. Trust me it is life changing when the truth of Christ
living in you moves from your head to your heart and
you realize that the resurrected and powerful God, the
spirit of Jesus is living inside of you to be with you every
step of your life!
C. We see some examples of life changing times like this in the
Scripture:
1. Hagar alone at a spring in the wilderness when God met her and
gave her direction for her future and spoke to her about the
future of her unborn son Ishmael (Genesis 16:6-16)
2. Jacob alone wrestling all night with God where God gave him a
new name and blessed him. (Genesis 32:24ff)
3. Moses at the burning bush where God gave Moses the mission
of bringing God’s people out of Egypt and promised to be with
him in that mission. (Exodus 3:1ff)
4. Elijah in the cave when he heard the voice of God speaking to
him in the sound of the gentle blowing (1 Kings 19:11-13)
5. Jonah watching Nineveh from afar and God confronting him
about his sin (Jonah 4)
6. Paul spent 3 years alone in Arabia after he was saved where
God personally taught him about the gospel and the implications
of Jesus Christ.
D. Definitions
• in solitude – seeking aloneness, in a place free of distractions
for the sake of reflection and communion with God along
with personal refreshment
• in silence – creating an atmosphere of quiet in a place free of
noise and the constant barrage of stimulation in order to
listen to God and reflect on spiritual matters and your life
E. Some of their values:
1. To break in our hearts and life the stronghold of busyness and
the need to achieve;
2. To gain a better perspective as to how the world and man’s
opinions has gripped your heart
3. To get in touch with the deepest needs and thoughts of one’s
own heart
4. To be alone with God to get in touch with God and hear the
prompting of the Spirit.
E. Here is a quote that inspires me that this practice is well worth the
time and effort:
• “Slowing down to hear God as you make decisions, will keep
you from spending years of your life painfully repairing the
damage of mistakes.” Jimmy Evans
III. Interview with Ava Perry
A. Ava, you have been trying to practice solitude and silence
recently.
1. Could you each tell us what your time of solitude and silence
looks like and how it contrasts with your normal life?
2. When you first enter this time how did your heart respond and
how long was it before your heart settled down?
3. What was the biggest benefit you received from this
experience?
4. What would you tell others who have never done this before?
III. Application
B. This can be as simple as taking your lunch break to taking a whole
afternoon away at a place like Lake Kathrine to be alone with God
to talk to him in prayer and meditate on his word and just reflect
about your heart and life!
C. John 10:10 says this
1. Jesus came to give us an abundant life, a life that was
overflowing and fulfilling.
2. Solitude and silence is a great practice by which we can shake
off the effects of all that the world and other people put on us
and take hold of the eternal abundant life from Jesus, which is
life indeed.
Tuesday Mar 14, 2023
Tuesday Mar 14, 2023
The Shepherd
Ephesians 4:11 March 12, 2023
I. Introduction:
A. Many of you do not know that Gary and I go way back and have
followed each other around for years.
1. I first met Gary here at MVC years ago as we both just attended
here, Gary was a newly married man working at the steel mills
and I was a single who started attending here after the military
2. While going to Moody I became the custodian here at
MVC. When I left for seminary, Gary took my place as
custodian as he was going to Moody.
3. As Gary worked here, they recognized in Gary pastoral gifts and
invited him onto the staff of MVC.
4. About the time, I graduated from seminary Gary was feeling led
to take on a senior pastorate out in Montana and moved out
there. I was invited to come back and take Gary’s position as a
pastor at MVC
5. When Pastor Bill retired from being the senior pastor at MVC,
he recommended me as his replacement and my first move was
to bring Gary Olson on the staff to take over my position, which
was his original position as the shepherding pastor.
6. Now Gary is retiring and I will be following him in that!
B. Gary has had an office next door to mine for literally decades here
at MVC. Because I know him so well and have seen him in action
I have had a nickname for him that I have called him for years – it
is “parexcelant”
Parexcelant is a use in Greek grammar of the definite article
“the”. It stands for a special class where they stand alone, a
one of a kind of thing or person!
1. Well, Gary is the pastor par excellent – as a pastor he stands
alone in a class of his own, a one of a kind of pastor!
2. Pastor Gary stands at the door every Sunday looking for new
people or someone who looks like they are in need and asks,
“How is life in your world today?”
3. Actually he does that all week with staff members, people who
come into the church and people within the congregation who
are hurting in some way or have been gone for a while whom
Gary contacts and pours out the love of Jesus upon them in
various different ways.
• Now that we know what par excellent means
II. What does pastor mean?
A. Actually, the English word pastor only shows up one time in
Scripture and that is in Ephesians 4:11. Turn and read 11
1. This is a group of special leaders that God has given to the
church, pastor-teacher
2. According to this passage, this will be hard for you to accept
Gary but I think the rest of us see it.
a. Listen – read v8, 11 – he gave
b. Gary you have been a gift to MVC and me from Jesus Christ
in the way you have pastored us!
B. This same Greek word is used in other portions of Scripture and
gives us a different window to understand the work of a pastor.
1. Turn to John 10:11 – this is the exact same Greek word as
Ephesians 4:11 – read
2. Could be read like this, “I am the good pastor/shepherd, the
good pastor/shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
3. Jesus is not only a pastor/shepherd parexcelant – he is the
parexcelant shepherd/pastor in a class of his own, a one of a
kind of shepherd/pastor! Read
C. The word pastor and shepherd are the same word in the Greek!
Shepherd is a figure of speech that is an image taken from the
world of caring for sheep to communicate a similar truth in the
world of God’s people, God’s flock!
1. When we look at the work of a shepherd as revealed in
Scripture we understand the work of a pastor!
2. I could take you to many many verses but let me summarize
some of what the Scripture says about a shepherd.
a. They seek out and bring back the sheep who have wandered
away
b. They tend to the needs of the flock, especially the hurting
and weak
c. They feed the flock so they will stay healthy
d. They lead the flock, especially with God’s word and God’s
heart
e. They protect and deliver the flock from danger.
3. I could tell you story after story of the way that Gary has done
each of these at MVC for the people of MVC.
D. So now that we know what a pastor is the big question is how do
we move on without pastor/shepherd/care-taker who has gently
cared for and led the people at MVC?
1. You can have the best preaching, best worship, the best vision –
mission and strategy and the best programs, but if you do not
feel like someone cares for you, you will eventually be gone.
2. As the old saying goes – people do not care how much you
know, until they know how much you care.”
• So …. I want to suggest three ways
III. How does MVC replace someone like Gary Olson
A. While we cannot replace the person of Gary, we can replace the
work Gary did as a shepherd by caring for one another.
B. First, by the elders along with the staff, because staff have many of
the same responsibilities and duties as elders,– living out the
following passages:
1. Passages - read 1 Peter 5:1-4
2. It is one of those times, you do not replace what one person
does with another person but you need to get a number of
people to do it.
3. Elders and staff – that is a responsibility that God has given us
in his Word.
C. One anothers –
1. That phrase that the New Testament uses to teach us the
responsibilities that we have towards one another in the body of
Christ. When you study it, you find that the bulk of it has to do
with shepherding and caring for one another.
a. Things like: being devoted to, subject to, teaching,
encouraging, admonishing, greeting, being hospitable
(loving strangers not entertaining our friends), accepting,
stimulating to good deeds, bearing with, serving, loving and
confessing your sins to.
b. These are all ways we are to relate to one another and if we
took on these responsibilities seriously, we would be well
shepherded as a body.
2. One of the best ways that can be done is by joining small groups
where we get to know others and have opportunities to care for
one another like that.
3. But not only small groups – if we are only friends loving friends
then we will fall short of what the Scripture is calling us
to! Each one of us needs to take on the responsibility of seeing
someone we do not know or who looks like they are hurting and
say, “How is life in your world today?”
D. Finally, every one of us needs to learn to rely upon the Chief
Shepherd to guard and shepherd our own souls!
1. Read 1 Peter 2:25
2. The spirit of Jesus works deep within us watching over our
souls, which are prone to wander and guarding us in deep war
within where our flesh desires war within our souls.
E. When a church’s leaders pastor/shepherd/care for their people like
that, and the people pastor/shepherd/care for one another like that,
and all of us learn to let Jesus pastor/shepherd/care for us in the
deepest core of our being then even people like Pastor Gary say I
want to be pastored/shepherded/cared for by a church like that!
Thursday Mar 09, 2023
Thursday Mar 09, 2023
Devotional Life/Quiet Time
Various passages March 5, 2023
I. Introduction:
A. What I am going to talk about today is a practice that Jesus did that
I think is the one practice of Jesus that most of us already do!
1. So my goal today is not to teach something that is new to you
but hopefully be able to add some new dimension or tweak it
just a little bit so you can excel still the more at it
2. Simply raising water temperature a single degree means the
difference between just having hot water and creating energy.
At 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees, it boils and you
can generate enough force to power a train, a ship or a large
machine.
3. Thus I have made one of my life values this “to excel still the
more” to take something I already have and make it even better
B. So today I want to talk about our devotional lives, many call it our
quiet time, where we set apart time on a daily or regular basis to
spend time with God.
1. My hope is to maybe help you find that one-degree
improvement or a new and different aspect of it that can move it
from being something good to something that boils and
produces the energy of the Holy Spirit in your life.
C. For years, I had time set aside to do my quiet time with God where,
if I was honest, it fell way short of what I believe God desires of us
and what we learned last week is the purpose of these practices!
1. Remember last week we learned that the purpose of these
spiritual disciplines is an intentional wholehearted seeking after
God where we connect with him resulting in a transformation
that makes us more godly!
2. That is not what happened with me.
a. Instead, I spent time studying God’s word, getting to know
the text better and more accurately but never coming a bit
closer to God or meeting God through his word.
b. Instead of talking to God through prayer, I said my list of
prayers for others, the church and myself.
c. Instead of worshipping God, I was singing or listening to
Christian songs without my heart engaging and my mindelevating
God, telling him how true those words are about
him!
3. So it is possible to have a quiet time where I get the text right,
say my prayers and sing or listen to Christian music and never
connect with God in a way that I am transformed in the core of
my being by his glory and his Spirit!
D. We learned last week that Sabbath is a day or a few hours a week
where we stop everything, we are doing to connect with God and
ourselves in a way that we can reorient our entire life around
God.
1. That is a major gift that God has given to us to address the
stronghold that busyness and hurry has on our lives.
2. In the same way, a quiet time is a daily time where we stop to
connect with God to reorient our upcoming day around him and
to be recharged by his Holy Spirit.
• So to start we need to know that this was a practice that Jesus did that
would be to our benefit to imitate.
II. Jesus’ quiet time
A. Turn to Mark 1
1. Context –
a. Jesus had just finished a very full day of ministry – he taught
in the synagogue in the morning, after church, so to say, he
cast a demon out of a man. As a result of this, immediately
news about Jesus was spreading everywhere around there
b. Then he went to Simon’s house for lunch, he healed Simon’s
mother in law of a severe fever.
c. When evening came, they described it as the whole city had
gathered at his door bringing those who were sick and
demon possessed. Jesus healed many of the sick and cast
out many of the demons.
2. Now we come to the passage I want to read – Read v35-38
a. Now the way I would have responded is look at the golden
opportunity God had given us with everyone looking for
me. Revival has broken out; we need to take advantage of
this while God is moving. Or they would have found me
still asleep in my bed from being so tired from a long day of
ministry the day before
b. But Jesus – reread v35.
B. Turn to Luke 5:15-16
1. Context – this is another time where Jesus had healed a leper
and news was spreading about him.
2. Read v15-16
3. As demands and opportunities grew, Jesus’ response was often
to slip away into the wilderness to pray.
C. We even see in Israel a similar pattern
1. Read Exodus 33:7
2. Slip away from the busyness and hurry of everyday life to be
alone with God!
D. Four foundational principles to a devotional life
1. Often or regularly
2. Busyness, hurry, opportunities and things to do should not stop
us from doing this!
3. A place that is secluded (free of distractions) from others and
the busyness and hurry of life.
4. Do it to seek God.
• So with the time I have left I want to share with you
III. How I do and recommend others quiet times!
A. The goal: to enter the presence of God without any agenda except
to build my relationship with him and enjoy him. I want to listen to him,
seek after his agenda for my life, share my heart with him and worship
him
B. The method is one that Martin Luther, the great reformer,
used. We learn of his method in a letter that he wrote to his barber
when his barber asked him how he prayed. His prayer life was built
around praying through the Scripture. I call his method WAR
C. So the first thing Martin would do is capture the heart of the
text. Before you pray through a passage, you need to know what it
is saying.
So here is the process I recommend you do before you war through
the passage.
1. Capture the heart/big idea of this passage
a. Open with prayer – Psalm 119:18
b. Read and reread the passage.
c. Watch for key turns points in passages with conjunctions
d. Ask these two key questions
• what is he talking about – subject
• what is he saying about what he is talking about –
complement
e. Summarize the heart/big idea of the passage in your own
words.
2. Anything your heart is drawn to in this passage.
3. What is God speaking to you about your life from this
passage?
4. What are you going to do about what God is speaking to you
about?
D. Next WAR/pray through the passage
1. Worship, praise, and thank God from things in the text about
him and what he has done.
2. Admit/confess sin in your life that is inconsistent with the text.
3. Request/petition/ask God to do things for you in light of the
text.
IV. Communion
A. Communion is all about remembering Jesus and his death for us.
1. In preparation for communion today, I want you to turn to
Romans 5:6-9.
2. Listen as I read this.
B. What I want you to do to prepare for communion today is to WAR
through this passage. So in light of this passage
1. Worship, praise and thank God
2. Admit/confess sin in your life (ways of thinking, attitudes, and
actions, inconsistent with God’s love for you)
3. Request/petition/ask God to do (in your life in light of his
amazing love for you)
Tuesday Feb 28, 2023
Tuesday Feb 28, 2023
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!