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.