Embracing The Kingdom V

EMBRACING THE KINGDOM V

Slowing Down

Psalm 23:1-6

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures He leads me beside the still waters.

3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are

with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil;

My cup runs over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house

of the LORD Forever.

There is a way God wants us to live that is radically different from the way most of us live.

I. HURRY SICKNESS

1. Hurry makes us sick

2. Hurry burns us out

3. Hurry kills relationships

4. Hurry and Love are incompatible

5. Hurry hinders spiritually

II. SYMPTOMS OF HURRY SICKNESS

1. Irritability – You get mad, frustrated or just annoyed way too easily. Little

normal things irk you. You have an ongoing low-grade negativity.

2. Hypersensitivity – All it takes is a minor comment to hurt your feelings. Minor

things quickly escalate to major emotional events. Depending on your

personality this may manifest in either (anger, nitpickiness, anxiety, depression,

or tiredness).

3. Restlessness – When you actually try to slow down and rest you cannot relax.

You cannot focus your mind. You go to bed and toss and turn with anxiety. You

watch TV but check phone, email, etc.

4. Workaholism (or just nonstop activity) – Either you do not know when to stop

or you cannot stop. Could be career or excessive house cleaning and errand

running. At the end of the day, very little to nothing left to give your family and

kids or God.

5. Emotional Numbness – You do not have the capacity to feel another’s pain or

your own pain. Empathy is a rare feeling.

6. Out-of-Order Priorities – Disconnected from your identity. Life is reactive not

proactive. You are trapped in the tyranny of the urgent.

7. Lack of care for your body – You do not have time for the basics: eight hours of

sleep, exercise, home cooked food, minimal stimulants etc. You do not sleep

well, wake up tired, live on carbs, caffeine, and sugar.

8. Escapist Behaviors - When too tired to do life giving stuff we turn to

distractions – overeating, overdrinking, binge-watching Netflix, browsing social

media, surfing the web, looking at porn, overdosing on candy crush etc.

9. Decreasing Spiritual Disciplines – Overtired and no energy for spiritual

disciplines.

10. Isolation – You feel disconnected from God, others, and your own soul. When

you try to get with God you are so distracted you cannot connect.

III. HOW DID WE GET HERE?

1. Artificial Time

2. Light Bulb in 1879 by Thomas Edison

3. Digital Age

4. Algorithms of Distraction

5. The Effect

A. We are more hurried than ever before

B. We are less healthy emotionally

C. We are stressed out far too often

D. We are more physically unhealthy than ever

E. Suicide rates have drastically increased

IV. SOLUTION

1. The Jesus Way

Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

30  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

YOKE

A yoke was a common idiom in the first century for a rabbi’s way of reading the

Torah. But it was also more: it was his set of teachings on how to be human. His

way to shoulder the weight of life—

V. LIVING THE JESUS WAY

1. Solitude

Jesus began His Ministry with 40 days alone

Matthew 4:1-3

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the

devil. 2  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was

hungry. 3  Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of

God, command that these stones become bread.

Wilderness - eremos, and it has a wide array of meanings. It can be translated

desert, deserted place, desolate place, solitary place, lonely place, quiet place, or

wilderness.

2. Silence

Psalm 46:10

10 “Be still and know that I am God.”

a. External Silence

No noise.

b. Internal Noise

True silence is when both are shut down

3. Sabbath (day)

Mark 2:27

27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the

Sabbath. 28  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath

The word Sabbath comes to us from the Hebrew Shabbat. The word literally

means “to stop.” The Sabbath is simply a day to stop: stop working, stop

wanting, stop worrying, just stop.

4. Sabbath (a way of Life)

Sabbath is more than just a day; it’s a way of being in the world. It s a spirit of

restfulness that comes from abiding, from living in the Father’s loving presence

all week long.

Sabbath is the primary discipline, or practice, by which we cultivate the spirit of

restfulness in our lives as a whole.

5. Tips for Slowing Down

1. Drive the speed limit

2. Get into the slow lane

3. Come to a full stop at stop signs

4. Don’t text and drive

There is a reason most of us text and drive even when we know it is illegal

and a life-and-death issue. We are so addicted to the dopamine hit that is

our phones that we literally can’t just sit in our cars and listen to music or the

news or pray or talk with our passengers. We have to reach for our phones

and risk our necks (and those of others) to get our fix. -John Comer

5. Show up ten minutes early for an appointment, without a phone

6. Get in the longest checkout line at the grocery store

7. Turn your smartphone into a dumbphone.

 Take email off your phone.

 Take all social media off your phone, transfer it to a desktop, and

schedule set times to check it each day or less.

 Delete all notifications, including those for texts.

 Set your phone so I have to unlock it, click on the text message box to

even see if I have any text messages.

 Limit or get rid of news alerts.

 Delete every single app you don’t need or that doesn’t make your life

easier. Set your phone to grayscale mode. This does something

neurobiologically that I’m not smart enough to explain, something to do

with decreasing dopamine addiction. Google it.

8. Get a flip phone, or ditch your cell phone all together.

9. Put your phone to bed before you and make it sleep in.

Put it in Airplane mode and in a drawer somewhere away from your room.

9:30 or some determined time

10. Keep your phone off until after your morning time with God.

75 percent of people sleep next to their phones, and 90 percent of us check

our phones immediately upon waking.

Meena Hart Duerson, “We’re Addicted to Our Phones: 84% Worldwide Say

They Couldn’t Go a Single Day Without Their Mobile Device in Their Hand,”

New York Daily News, August 16, 2012, www.nydailynews.com/life-

style/addicted-phones-84-worldwide-couldn-single-day-mobile-device-hand-

article-1.1137811; and Mary Gorges, “90 Percent of Young People Wake Up

with Their Smartphones,” Ragan, December 21, 2012, www.ragan.com/90-

percent-of-young-people-wake-up-with-their-smartphones.

11. Set times for emails

Pretty much every self-help writer, time-management guru, workplace-

efficiency expert, opinion blogger, etc. all say the same thing. Do not have email

on your phone. Do not glance at it when you get a free moment in the elevator

or in a boring meeting. Do not answer random emails throughout the day.

Instead: set a time to do email and stick to it.

Most experts recommend you do not check email more than twice a day, say

nine o’clock and four o’clock—at the beginning and near the end of your

workday. Each time, take your inbox to zero if you can. If there is a task, do not

leave it hanging in your email chain; get it onto a to-do list for later.

Certain apps can limit your time…

12. Set a time and a limit for social media (or just get off)

Same as email…

13. Kill your TV

TV and movies consume the lion’s share of our so-called free time. For the

average American, that is over five hours a day, or thirty-five hours a week.

(Note: it is lower for millennials, but that is only because we spend so much

time on social media. We are more addicted to entertainment, not less.)

It is the one addiction for which binging is still socially acceptable. People now

have “Netflix days,” where they blow an entire day (or weekend) on multiple

seasons of the latest streaming phenomenon.

Set a limit on your entertainment intake. You decide on your number. Two hours

a week? Four? Ten? Just set it well below the standard thirty-five.

14. Single Task

Only God is omnipresent, we inhabit a body. A body that can do only

one…thing…at…a…time. Multitasking is just sleight of hand for switching back

and forth between a lot of different tasks so I can do them all poorly instead of

doing one well.

Multitasking is the drive to be more than we are, to control more than we do,

to extend our power and our effectiveness. Such practice yields a divided self,

with full attention given to nothing. -John Comer

Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now

(Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), 67.

Learn to be present in the moment to God, other people, and your own soul.

15. Walk slower

One of the best ways to slow down your overall pace of life is to literally slow

down your body. Force yourself to move through the world at a relaxed pace.

16. Take a regular day alone for silence and solitude

17. Start Journaling

If you do not want to write keep a voice journal

18. Meditate

19. If you can, take long vacations

20. Cook your own food and eat in

21. Live Love and Laugh

EMBRACING THE KINGDOM IV

EMBRACING THE KINGDOM IV

The Jesus Way

I. THE PROBLEM

1. Hurry Sickness

2. Deterioration of Attention Spans and Emotional Wellbeing

3. Increased Stress and Suicide Rates

4. Massively Decreased Spirituality and Maturity

5. Incessant Activity

LIVING THE JESUS WAY

II. THE JESUS WAY

1. His Call

Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

30  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

YOKE

A yoke was a common idiom in the first century for a rabbi’s way of reading the

Torah. But it was also more: it was his set of teachings on how to be human. His

way to shoulder the weight of life—

2. Solitude

Jesus began His Ministry with 40 days alone

Matthew 4:1-3

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the

devil.

2  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry

3  Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God,

command that these stones become bread.

Wilderness - eremos, and it has a wide array of meanings. It can be translated

desert, deserted place, desolate place, solitary place, lonely place, quiet place, or

wilderness.

Mark 1:35

35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and

departed to a solitary place (eremos); and there He prayed

Mark 1:36-38

36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him.

37  When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”

38  But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there

also, because for this purpose I have come forth.

Mark 6:31-32

31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a

while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time

to eat.

32  So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves

Mark 6:33-35

33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on

foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him.

34  And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with

compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He

began to teach them many things.

35  When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a

deserted place, and already the hour is late

Luke 5:15-16

15 But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes

came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.

16  And he withdrew himself into the wilderness (eremos), and prayed

Solitude not Isolation

Solitude is engagement; isolation is escape. Solitude is safety; isolation is danger.

Solitude is how you open yourself up to God; isolation is painting a target on

your back for the tempter.

Henri Nowen

Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life…. We do not take

the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and

listen to him.

When we Don’t Practice Solitude, this is What Happens

 We feel distant from God and end up living off somebody else’s spirituality.

 We feel distant from ourselves. We lose sight of our identities and callings.

We get sucked into the tyranny of the urgent, not the important. We feel an

undercurrent of anxiety that rarely, if ever, goes away.

 Exhaustion. We wake up, and our first thoughts are, already? I can’t wait to

go to bed…We lag through our days, our low-grade energy on loan from our

stimulants of choice. Even when we catch up on our sleep, we feel a deeper

kind of tired.

 Escape of choice. We run out of energy to do what’s actually life giving for

our souls, say, prayer. And instead, we turn to the cheap fix—another glass

of wine, a new show streaming online, our social media feeds, porn.

 Yield more to Temptation. Just furthering our sense of distance from God and

our souls.

 Emotional Unhealth sets in. We start living from the surface of our lives, not

the core. We’re reactionary. The smallest thing is a trigger—it does not take

much. We lose our tempers.

ALTERNATIVE

 Get Away: Park bench, in front of a lake, quiet spot before everyone wakes

up…Coffee in back yard

 Take your time. Get away from all noise

 Slow down, breathe and settle into the moment

 Start to feel

 Let God’s Voice in

3. Silence

Isaiah 30:15

15 For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you

shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” But you

would not

Psalm 46:10

10 “Be still and know that I am God.”

a. External Silence

No noise.

The African theologian Saint Augustine said entering silence is “entering into

joy.”

Quiet is balm for emotional healing.

Saint John Climacus, the sixth-century Syrian monk who spent most of his life

praying on Mount Sinai, so beautifully said, “The friend of silence draws near

to God.”

b. Internal Noise

 Thoughts playing over and over

 Rehearsing of disappointments

 Lust for someone

 Fantasies (revenge etc.)

True silence is when both are shut down.

4. Sabbath (day)

Mark 2:27

27 Sabbath is the primary discipline, or practice, by which we cultivate the spirit of

restfulness in our lives as a whole.

Gen 2:2-3

2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested

on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

3  Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from

all His work which God had created and made

The word Sabbath comes to us from the Hebrew Shabbat. The word literally

means “to stop.” The Sabbath is simply a day to stop: stop working, stop

wanting, stop worrying, just stop.

The last time a society tried to abandon the seven-day week was during the

revolution in France. They switched to a ten-day workweek to up productivity.

The rise of the proletariat! And? Disaster—the economy crashed, the suicide rate

skyrocketed, and productivity? It went down. It’s been proven by study after

study: there is zero correlation between hurry and productivity. In fact, once

you work a certain number of hours in a week, your productivity plummets.

Wanna know what the number is? Fifty hours. Ironic: that’s about a six-day

workweek. One study found that there was zero difference in productivity

between workers who logged seventy hours and those who logged fifty-five.

Bob Sullivan, “Memo to Work Martyrs: Long Hours Make You Less Productive,”

CNBC, January 26, 2015, www.cnbc.com/2015/01/26/working-more-than-50-

hours-makes-you-less-productive.html .

a. Sabbath is about Joy

Sabbat can also be translated “delight.”

If you are new to the Sabbath, a question to give shape to your practice is

this: What could I do for twenty-four hours that would fill my soul with a

deep, throbbing joy? That would make me spontaneously combust with

wonder, awe, gratitude, and praise?

b. Sabbath is Life-Giving

Recently I read a survey done by a doctor who cited the happiest people on

earth. Near the top of the list was a group of Christians called Seventh-day

Adventists, who are religious, literally, about the Sabbath. This doctor noted

that they lived ten years longer than the average American.

Interesting: I/we Sabbath every seven days it adds up to ten years over a

Lifetime

c. Sabbath a Command

Exodus 20:8-10

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9  Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

10  but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do

no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor

your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your

gates.

Rest and Worship

Sabbath is not the same as a day off.

On a day off you do not work for your employer (in theory). But you still

work. You run errands, catch up around your house or apartment, pay the

bills, make an IKEA run (there goes four hours…). And you play! You see a

movie, kick the soccer ball with friends, go shopping, cycle through the city.

And that is great stuff, all of it. But those activities do not make a Sabbath.

5. Sabbath (a way of Life)

Sabbath is more than just a day; it is a way of being in the world. It is a spirit of

restfulness that comes from abiding, from living in the Father’s loving presence

all week long.

Sabbath is the primary discipline, or practice, by which we cultivate the spirit of

restfulness in our lives as a whole.

Restfulness Restlessness

Margin Busyness

Slowness Hurry

Quiet Noise

Deep Relationship Isolation

Time Alone Crowds

Delight Distraction

Enjoyment Envy

Clarity Confusion

Gratitude Greed

Contentment Discontentment

Trust Worry

Love Anger, angst

Joy Melancholy, sadness

Peace Anxiety

Working from Love Working for Love

Work as contribution Work as accumulation and

accomplishment

Because the Sabbath is not just a twenty-four-hour time slot in your weekly

schedule; it is a spirit of restfulness that goes with you throughout your week. A

way of living with “ease, gratitude, appreciation, peace and prayer.” A way of

working from rest, not for rest, with nothing to prove.

EMBRACING THE KINGDOM III

 EMBRACING THE KINGDOM III

The Pace of Jesus

Psalm 23:1-6

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures He leads me beside the still waters.

3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are

with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil;

My cup runs over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house

of the LORD Forever.

There’s a way God wants us to live that’s radically different from the way most of us live…

I. HURRY SICKNESS

1. Houston, We Have a Problem

 39 percent of Americans reported being more anxious than they were a year

ago.

 Our attention span is dropping with each passing year. In 2000, before the

digital revolution, it was twelve seconds, now it’s eight seconds—Ex a

goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds.

York, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb0vxXZuqek.

2. Hurry makes us sick

Psychologists and mental health professionals have literally labeled “hurry

sickness.” a disease.

Def. A behavior pattern characterized by continual rushing and anxiousness.

Def. A malaise in which a person feels chronically short of time, and so tends to

perform every task faster and to get flustered when encountering any kind of

delay.

3. Hurry burns us out

In her BuzzFeed article “How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation,” Anne

Petersen commented that “burnout isn’t a place to visit and come back from; it’s

our permanent residence.” What used to be the isolated experience of a New

York day trader or emergency room physician is now the reality for most people.

4. Hurry kills relationships.

Love takes time; hurry doesn’t have it. It kills joy, gratitude, appreciation; people

in a rush don’t have time to enter the goodness of the moment. It kills wisdom;

wisdom is born in the quiet, the slow. Hurry kills all that we hold dear:

spirituality, health, marriage, family, thoughtful work, creativity, generosity…

name your value. Hurry is a sociopathic predator loose in our society.

5. Hurry and Love are Incompatible

Good Samaritan

Luke 10:30-37

30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to

Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him,

and departed, leaving him half dead.

31  Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him,

he passed by on the other side.

32  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came, and looked, and passed

by on the other side.

33  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he

saw him, he had compassion.

34  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he

set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the

innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend,

when I come again, I will repay you.’

36  So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the

thieves?”

37  And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and

do likewise.

6. Hurry hinders spiritually

We always say “walking” with God, not “running” with God.

The famous psychologist Carl Jung said Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the

devil.

Corrie ten “if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy”

There’s truth in that. Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect—they

cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul.

Finnish Proverb - “God did not create hurry.”

II. SYMPTOMS OF HURRY SICKNESS

1. Irritability – You get mad, frustrated or just annoyed way too easily. Little

normal things irk you. An ongoing low-grade negativity.

2. Hypersensitivity – All it takes is a minor comment to hurt your feelings. Minor

things quickly escalate to major emotional events. Depending on your

personality this may manifest in either (anger, nitpickiness, anxiety, depression,

or tiredness)

3. Restlessness – When you actually try to slow down and rest you can’t relax.

Can’t focus your mind. Go to bed and toss and turn with anxiety. You watch TV

but check phone, email, etc. Etc.

4. Workaholism (or just nonstop activity) – Either you don’t know when to stop or

you can’t stop. Could be career or excessive house cleaning and errand

running. End of day very little to nothing left to give your family and kids.

5. Emotional Numbness – You don’t have the capacity to feel another’s pain or

your own pain. Empathy is a rare feeling.

6. Out-of-Order Priorities – Disconnected from your identity. Life is reactive not

proactive. Trapped in the tyranny of the urgent.

7. Lack of Care for your Body – You don’t have time for the basics: eight hours of

sleep, exercise, home cooked food, minimal stimulants etc. Don’t sleep well.

Wake up tired. Live on carbs, Caffeine, and sugar.

8. Escapist Behaviors - When too tired to do life giving stuff we turn to

distractions – overeating, overdrinking, binge-watching Netflix, browsing social

media, surfing the web, looking at porn.

9. Decreasing Spiritual Disciplines – Overtired and no energy for spiritual

disciplines

10. Isolation – You feel disconnected from God, others, and your own soul. When

you try to get with God you are so distracted you cannot connect.

III. HOW DID WE GET HERE?

1. Artificial Time

First clock tower erected in Cologne, Germany in 1370.

Before that, time was natural. It was linked to the rotation of the earth on its axis

and the four seasons. You went to bed with the moon and got up with the sun.

Days were long and busy in summer, short and slow in winter. There was a

rhythm to the day and even the year.

2. Light Bulb in 1879 by Thomas Edison

3. Digital Age

2007 The year Steve Jobs released the iPhone; Facebook opened up to anybody

with an email address, Twitter became its own platform, first year of the cloud,

along with the App Store. Intel also switched from silicon to metal chips

A recent study found that the average iPhone user touches his or her phone

2,617 times a day. Each user is on his or her phone for two and a half hours over

seventy-six sessions. 1

Another study on millennials put the number at twice that 2

Philip Zimbardo’s recent research on the “Demise of Guys” (i.e., the crisis of

masculinity in Western culture) has concluded the average guy spends ten

thousand hours playing video games by age twenty-one.

4. Algorithms of Distraction

Everything is being intentionally designed for distraction and addiction. Because

that’s where the money is. – Tristian Harris

Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook now calls himself a “conscientious

objector” to social media. In an interview with Axios, he begrudgingly admitted:

God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains. The thought process

that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, was

all about: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention

as possible?” And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine

hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a

post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and

that’s going to get you…more likes and comments. It’s a social-validation

feedback loop…exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up

with because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.

5. The Effect

A. We are more hurried than ever before

B. We are less healthy emotionally

C. We are stressed out far too often

D. We are more physically unhealthy than ever

E. Suicide rates have drastically increased

10-year study shows elevated suicide risk from excess social media

time for teen girls

Through annual surveys from 2009 to 2019, researchers tracked the media use patterns and

mental health of 500 teens as part of the Flourishing Families Project. They found that while

social media use had little effect on boys' suicidality risk, for girls there was a tipping point.

Girls who used social media for at least two to three hours per day at the beginning of the

study--when they were about 13 years old--and then greatly increased their use over time

were at a higher clinical risk for suicide as emerging adults.

"Something about that specific social media use pattern is particularly harmful for young

girls," said BYU professor Sarah Coyne, the lead author of the study. She noted that girls'

social tendencies likely make them more susceptible to the negative effects of social media.

"Research shows that girls and women in general are very relationally attuned and sensitive

to interpersonal stressors, and social media is all about relationships," Coyne explained. "At

13, girls are just starting to be ready to handle the darker underbelly of social media, such

as FOMO (fear of missing out), constant comparisons and cyberbullying. A 13-year-old is

probably not developmentally ready for three hours of social media a day."

Coyne suggests that parents limit young teens' social media time to about 20 minutes a day,

maintain access to their accounts and talk with teens frequently about what they're seeing

on social media. Over time, teens can gradually scale up their social media use and

autonomy.

Jamie Zelazny, PhD, RN, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of

Medicine, noted that suicide is the second-leading cause of death among individuals aged

10 to 24 years. Further, suicide rates have tripled among youth aged 10 to 14 years, as well

as among girls, and suicide rates are significantly higher among African American children

younger than 13 years.

“A study published in 2015 found that the threshold for where kids start to have more

mental health problems is the 2-hour mark,” Zelazny said during the presentation. “Teens

who reported using social media sites more than 2 hours a day were much more likely to

report poor mental health outcomes like distress and suicidal ideation. A study done the

following year found that problematic internet use resulted in poor mental health outcomes

longitudinally, and these were mediated by poor sleep.”

Other study results suggested that social media use among teens is linked to low self-

esteem, poor body image and risk-taking behaviors. Moreover, social comparison

and cyberbullying have been associated with depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation

among adolescents.

…Results showed 67% of participants reported feeling worse about their own lives because

of social media. Further, 73% felt pressured to post content that boosted their appearance

to others, 60% felt pressured to tailor content for popularity and likes and 80% reported

being affected by social media drama. However, 73% reported feeling supported on social

media through challenges or tough times, 53% felt more connected to their friends’ feelings

and 93% felt more connected to their friends’ lives.

IV. SOLUTION

1. The Jesus Way

Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

30  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

hoikopiōntes, “those tired from hard toil

pephortismenoi, “those loaded down

YOKE

A yoke was a common idiom in the first century for a rabbi’s way of reading the

Torah. But it was also more: it was his set of teachings on how to be human. His

way to shoulder the weight of life—

SLOW

Jesus walked slowly

1 Julia Naftulin, “Here’s How Many Times We Touch Our Phones Every Day,” Business Insider,

July 13, 2016, www.businessinsider.com/dscout-research-people-touch-cell-phones-2617-

times-a-day-2016-7.

2 . Kari Paul, “Millennials Waste Five Hours a Day Doing This One Thing,” New York Post, May 18,

2017, https://nypost.com/2017/05/18/millennials-

THE WORTHINESS OF JESUS : Chris Searcy

THE WORTHINESS OF JESUS

The Bridegroom King

There is no aspect of God’s grace that more powerfully transforms our emotions or satisfies our

heart than when the Spirit reveals Jesus to us.

8 I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus… Philippians. 3:8

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP - 4 VALUES

A. Influence – the leader behaves in a such a way that people want to emulate them. They

reflect behaviors and attitudes that others aspire to and want to model - “That’s the kind of

person I want to be.”

B. Motivation – The leader says, “I have a vision, a tremendous vison. We’re going to achieve

it, you can be apart, and this is how.” It makes others say “yes.”

C. Partnership – the leader recognizes people have something to contribute, they desire

partnership and collaboration. They see success tied to the contribution and gifting of others

beyond themselves. (the Body of Christ)

D. Consideration – knowing the individual – what do people bring to the table? Who are they?

More than what they can do. Personal and knowing what’s going on in people lives. Be

sensitive, support and help them work through personal issues beyond their direct functional

contribution

I. HE IS A LOVER

One of the most significant truths in the Scripture is that the Lord has deep desire for His

people. This is truth is expressed poetically in the Song of Solomon as the King declared how

“His Bride ravished His heart

9 “You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one

glance of your eyes.”

Song of Solomon 4:9 ESV

10 “I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is toward me.” Song of Solomon 7:10

Ravished heart: Webster defines “ravished” as being filled with emotions of joy or delight

because of one who is unusually attractive

His desire is toward me: Our identity is in belonging to the King. We are the girl he gets in the

end, and His desire is for us. Our actions do not “motivate” the Lord to desire us.

Gods love for us is unconditional.

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8 ESV

He loves us perfectly.

9“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you.” John. 15:9

II. HE IS A FIERCE AND JUST KING.

Jesus will be openly seen as the most beautiful, fierce and just ruler that the heavens and earth

has ever seen when He destroys the Antichrist’s armies in the Armageddon campaign.

Psalms 45:3-6 King James Version

3. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.

4. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and

thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.

5. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.

6. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.

Jesus’ second coming will be in context to a military conflict around Jerusalem.

19 The kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered to make war against Him [Jesus]…

20 The Beast [Antichrist] was captured… 21 The rest were killed with the sword… (Rev. 19:19-21)

Because of truth, humility, and righteousness: When Jesus wages war against the Antichrist,

His actions will be motivated by and will produce truth, meekness, and righteousness.

III. HE IS!

Hebrews 1:1-3

1God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the

prophets, 2Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of

all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3Who being the brightness of his glory, and the

express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by

himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4Being made so

much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than

they.

Jesus is heir of all

2 Whom He has appointed heir of all things… (Heb. 1:2)

The Romans proclaimed Caesar as the heir, rightful owner, of the nations. The leaders of Israel

saw themselves as the “heirs” over the land of Israel. Both groups persecuted Jewish believers.

It was a radical idea that a Jewish man who died as a criminal was the true heir of the world!

The Father decreed that Jesus be given all the nations as His inheritance. This includes their

governments, property, money, resources, and possessions on earth.

8 I [the Father] will give You the nations for Your inheritance… (Ps. 2:8)

John had a vision of the Father giving the title deed of the earth to Jesus (Rev. 5:1-8). This will

result in Jesus receiving total authority over all society in the Millennium. He will own all the

cities, property, money, banks, natural resources, oil and water rights, intellectual property, etc.

of the earth. All on the earth will joyfully agree with Jesus taking over the nations (Rev. 5:13).

Jesus is the creator of worlds

Jesus created all things under the Father’s authority.

2 Whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom He made the worlds… (Heb. 1:2)

The common Greek word for “the physical world” is kosmos, but the word used here is ionus,

which means “the ages.” Jesus created the physical and spiritual worlds and the time frames in

which God’s storyline and eternal purposes unfold through the various ages. In other words,

Jesus is the architect, with His Father, of the storyline that unfolds through the ages on earth.

Jesus created the visible, natural, material world and the invisible, supernatural, spiritual world.

16 By Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. (Col. 1:16)

Jesus is the sustainer of the universe

Jesus sustains the worlds in the same way that He created them, by words that release His

power (Gen. 1:3; Heb. 11:3).

To uphold all things means to “sustain” or “support” them continuously.

3 And upholding all things by the word of His power… (Heb. 1:3)

Creation cannot sustain itself; it needs a continual impartation of power and energy to keep it

in order. The universe operates according to laws of nature that are sustained by Jesus’ word.

When scientists discover the laws of nature, they are knowingly or unknowingly studying the

sustaining power of Jesus’ word.

Jesus is the redeemer of the universe

Jesus cleansed the created order from sin. He had to become human and then to offer Himself

as the offering for sin.

3 …He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty… (Heb. 1:3)

Sin created a great crisis in creation by releasing death and demons that harm creation. The

Father had to find a man untainted by sin to solve the crisis created by sin.

Jesus, the innocent One, became guilty so that guilty ones could become innocent.

Jesus is the ruler of the universe

3 When He…purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Heb. 1:3)

13 Behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of

Days… 14 To Him was given dominion…that all peoples…should serve Him. (Dan. 7:13-14)

He wants you with him.

24 Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they

may behold My glory which You have given Me… (Jn. 17:24)