July 19, 1997 Sermon

July 19, 1997

Ray Jones

Jesus talked a lot about the grapevine, but he was not talking about the California Raisins or the latest gossip. Jesus said, "I am the true vine and you are the branches. Those who live in me, and I in them, bear much fruit, because apart from me, you can do nothing." We grow in that vine day by day.
This is a curious thing. We want to look at things, particularly ourselves, objectively. The truth is, the only perspective we need to seek is God’s. Let’s pray together:
Creator of life, and keeper of the vine, Father, we come to you for understanding. Generation after generation, we struggle with insecurity, ineptitude and obstinacy. We humbly seek connection and desire to know how exactly we are attached to you. How strong is the attachment? How secure? You answer our question with one name -- Jesus. With this answer planted in our hearts, we are absolutely convinced that nothing, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable, absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus, our Master, has embraced us. What a claim! What a connection! We want to see Jesus. Amen.
Together, let’s join in worshipping the vine-grower, the vine, and the Spirit that connects us all.
Welcome to the weekend, church. How are you doing? Are you enjoying your weekend? How many of you took the day off today? We are a busy generation, aren’t we. We really are. I have been reading in a book and a couple of magazines that we are a tired generation. In fact, a recent article in Inc. Magazine said that despite all of the time saving devices we have, despite the fax machines, despite the Internet, despite e-mail, despite our cell phones, despite all that, 52% of our generation are saying that they are burning out or have already burned out. We are a tired generation.
So what I want us to do is take a stress test. I am going to give you a set of questions. Answer these to yourself and test your stress quotient. Just answer yes or no, and you don’t ask any questions. It’s really simple. Are you ready? Are you always in a hurry -- yes or no? Does your "to do" list have more than you can accomplish in one single day? Does doing nothing drive you up a wall? Is it difficult for you to say "no"? (Some of you are starting to point to people.) Do you feel guilty when you relax? Is it difficult for you to turn your mind off at night? Do you have to get sick in order for you to slow down? (Some of you are starting to nod, yes.) Do you procrastinate in taking a day off? Finally, do you ever take business reading material to bed or to the bathroom with you? Just a real simple test! Now here’s the catch. If you answered "yes" to five or more of those, you probably struggle with workaholism.

Matthew
11:28
28:Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Into this panic-driven world, into this culture of endless to-do lists, of over-booked calendars and planners, Jesus comes and says this to you and me: "Come to me. All of you who are worn out and who are worn down and weighed down by scrambling to meet the demands of others, and I will bring quietness to your spirit. Serve me, follow me, because I’m caring and understanding. I will stop all the clamoring in your souls, for what I ask of you is really not a burden at all."

Stacking And Slashing
The question that we are going to look at is how do we find release from our heavy loads and our busy schedules. The answer is -- not very easily, because we live in a culture that values constant motion, and we hold up business as this special sign of significance. We say things like, "Oh, you know, I heard you are speaking at that conference out in Colorado." "I heard you’re serving on this committee, and you work with the PTA, and you’re on the board of directors for that, so you must be really important." We hold up busyness as a sign of our significance, and we live in this culture that thrives on stacking. It is the "in" thing right now, to layer all of our responsibilities.
You can be a mother, you can be the cook in your household, you can run the carpool for your neighborhood, you can be the home medical technician, you are the home accountant. Do you see how this is happening? You are stacking your responsibilities -- you are stacking your layers. In fact, "slash" has become our middle name. Do you remember Cordell Stewart? His nickname is "Slash." This guy is deadly in the NFL. He plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. This guy absolutely drives defensive lines nuts. When he comes into the game, they never know whether he is going to be the quarterback, the wide receiver or the running back. They never know what he is going to do, and they have given him the nickname of "Slash."
Well, the same is true for us. We find it hard to do just one thing. People are always constantly calling for our attention and interruptions are constantly stealing our time. Unexpected problems are putting monkey wrenches into our fine-tuned plans and suddenly we are not in Christ any longer -- we are in chaos.

I. Rest: Coming Apart

Matthew 11:28-30
28:Come to me, all 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."

We are not in Christ -- we are in utter chaos. So our response is, we go looking for programs in which to be involved -- or we will try yoga -- or we will try some meditation. Maybe some out-of-body experiences will help us out here? Maybe if we can just attend a seminar -- something like "ten ways to beat busyness" or "proven techniques for stress-free living." Jesus comes in the midst of all this and he says "Stop. Just stop. Because peace and rest don’t come through programs. They come through me." So he looks to us and says this: "Come apart. Come apart with me and let’s just rest a while. Come apart with me. Come get away with me and let’s just rest a while."
There was an old preacher whose name was Vance Havner. I love what he said about this verse. He said "When Jesus said to the Disciples that day to come apart and rest, he meant to come apart and rest, or they would come apart."

Exodus 20:8
8:Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy

.You know what? That’s really true. I think that’s why in Exodus, Chapter 20 in the Ten Commandments, God makes a big point to tell us to observe the Sabbath.
In fact, if you make a list of God’s Top Ten List, this is number four. This comes way before things like lying, stealing, murder, or adultery. If you compare this commandment to all the others in the Bible, it’s the longest one. Do you know what that says to me? It says this issue is really important in the mind of God -- that we take some time to rest.
So why do we need a Sabbath? What is that all about?

II. The Components of Rest

Relaxation

The word ‘sabbath’ literally means ‘a day of rest.' It does not mean a particular day. It does not mean Sunday. It does not mean Friday; and, it does not mean Saturday. At its heart is this concept of a period of rest. It’s meant to be a time where we can renew our minds and our bodies and our spirits, but it’s also a reminder of who we are and what we are all about.

Mark 6:31
31:And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

So we need a Sabbath because we need a time of relaxation from our routine. We just need time alone to be still and quiet. Just to cease whatever we are doing. You see, this is hard because we fear being in quietness. Silence always has this ability to drive us to noise.
When we see people walking -- exercising, what do they have? They have on a Walkman or one of those portable CD players. When I was in college, I could not sit in my room and study in silence. I had to have some tunes on, or I had to have the TV on. I had to have something filling up that vacuum of silence. Jesus is saying here that we need some time to rest, we need some time to relax, we need some time to detach ourselves to pull away from all the noise and just spend some time with Him.
I had to do this today, before I came down here. I had to go into an office, shut the door, turn off all the lights, so no one would come and talk to me. They wouldn’t even know I was in there. I needed to be quiet. Today the Souljourn ministry has been painting up at the Troy Clubhouse. I have been organizing that. This evening after the service is over the Souljourn band and several other people are going to leave on mission trip to Myrtle Beach. (Yes, it’s a mission trip. Really, it is. Trust me!) In trying to get all these details (the U-Haul thing was starting to fall apart) and keep my mind focused on coming in here tonight to teach, I said, ‘I just need quiet, I need to separate myself.’ I need some time to relax and just listen to the voice of God.

Psalm 46:10
10:Be still, and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth!

It’s as the psalmist said in Psalm 46:10. "Be still and know that I am God." Just be still, you do not have to talk to him, you do not have to do anything, just be still and know that I am God. There is an old Indian proverb and it says this: "A bow that is always bent will break." You and I are the same way. If we never take time to pause and relax, you and I will break. We need a Sabbath because we need some time to relax.

Reflection
But we also need a Sabbath because we need a time of reflection. How many of you know what the term "closing the loop" means? Are you familiar with that in business? It conveys the concept of a completed cycle. If you are working in your business or on a project, it means that it has come full cycle. It is finished. You’ve gotten all the feedback. You have heard from different people. Everybody has been notified, or all pieces of that project or that task have been completed.

Genesis 2:2
2:And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

In Genesis, chapter 2, God is closing the loop by taking some time to reflect on what he has done. So the Sabbath actually becomes a time of reflection. It’s a time for us to ask ourselves some questions like how well am I doing? It gives us a time to do a personal evaluation. It gives us some time to ask: Is my job really making a difference? Am I having an impact on lives? Why am I doing this? What is my motivation behind what I’m doing? Because inside all of us there is this desperate need to feel as if our work means something -- that what we are doing has significance and that we will be appreciated.
But do you know what? Even though we crave that assurance, we never take time to find it. We never take time to just pause and reflect, because we get so busy in pursuing a bunch of materialistic things. We’re trying to get into the latest style of clothing, trying to keep up on all the latest CDs, trying to get some meaningful relationships, trying just to have a relationship with someone just so we can have a relationship -- so we won’t have to be alone - so we won’t have to be by ourselves - so that there is someone with whom to talk. It does not matter if we get along or not - whether we like them or love them or not - or whether they are in love with us. We have to have a meaningful relationship.
We do the same thing with ministry. We fill up all of our time being involved in ministry and doing things in the name of Jesus, but we never take some time just to be with Him. If you fill up all of your time, even with good things like ministry, but you do not take the time to spend with Him, you miss the point altogether; and as a result, you become frantic. You become frazzled and ultimately you lose sight of what this is all about. That’s when you need to take some time just to stop and to pause and to reflect on what is happening in your life.

Re-calibration
Finally, you and I need a Sabbath because we need a time of re-calibration. Do you know what re-calibration means? If you have a tool -- I got this for my birthday, it’s a stud finder -- and if I ever become lost in the mall I can find myself! Hear it? This is intended to find studs that are hidden even deep in the walls, but sometimes this can get out of focus; such as if it is dropped from a ladder. What happens is, you’ve got to take that tool, or maybe it’s the scope on your rifle, and you take that and you pair it up with the master -- the instrument or the tool or the scope that is preset -- you make your adjustments and your settings and your alignments from that master tool or part.
The same happens with the Sabbath. At the heart of the Sabbath is renewal. You and I are spiritual beings, and the only way that we can ever be restored is through our spirit. Daily, you and I are bombarded with all kinds of messages and information. We become very susceptible to distortions of the truth. What we really need is just some time, regular time, to sit and check out our thoughts and our values by what we find in scripture. We need to take some time to just pair ourselves up with the Master, with Jesus Christ, and allow him to make the appropriate adjustments to those things in our lives that need to be fine-tuned. We need some time to sort out the truths and the values and the commitments in life by which we are living.
In the days of the Old Testament, the people of Israel had special feasts and festivals that were designed to be those days apart where they could do that -- where they could evaluate themselves and re-calibrate themselves and renew their spirits. In the New Testament Jesus comes into us, and he comes to us here today, and instead of saying you have to wait for this holiday, or you have to wait for this particular day, He says: With me, this is something that you can do continually. You don’t have to wait for a certain day. You don’t have to wait for a certain time. We can have a Sabbath. We can have a rest with Jesus anytime. So for us, the Sabbath becomes a time to separate out what literally is essential and central to us in life. It gives us a chance to renew our mission.
Not too long ago Mike stood up here and challenged each of us to develop a personal mission statement. When we take a Sabbath, what we have the opportunity to do is to sit and reflect and literally ask ourselves this question: What is my mission today?
In World War II, General Patton insisted had strongly demanded that each of the men who was under his supervision, would know very clearly and could articulate clearly what his individual mission was. He knew that the best weapon in battle was to clearly know what you were about to do. Those of us who sit here today are pushed and pulled in a thousand different directions. Without a clear sense of mission, we tend to get lost or we tend to become vulnerable to making mistakes of judgment. We struggle with what it means to say yes and no; and as a result, we say "yes" to some good things in life, and we miss out on the best things in life.
This is something with which I struggle. I will be real honest with you. Mike has been a real mentor to me in this. This past week I got an invitation to speak at a conference in Seattle, Washington, next spring. It would be a great opportunity. There will be over one thousand people at this conference. It could be a real good thing for me financially, but you know what? My primary place is not out in Seattle, Washington. My primary place is here at Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, Ohio. Even though that could be a really neat opportunity for me, it conflicts with the ministry of things that are happening here with Souljourn at that time, and I cannot give that up. I cannot let that go. The easy thing to do would be to say "yes," but if I would say "yes," I might miss out on God’s best for my life.
The only way we can understand that is when we have spent some time resting and reflecting and re-calibrating our lives with the Master. Look at the example that Jesus set for us. He was probably the busiest man who ever lived on the face of this earth. People were constantly interrupting his sleep; or grabbing at his clothing, crowds were literally pestering him or interrupting his teaching. But, look at what he was able to accomplish in just one day: He encouraged the disciples; he fed the five thousand; he helped a friend through a difficult time in a storm; he healed the sick; and he taught the multitudes. How did he do it? He took some time. He took a Sabbath. Not just because he needed sleep, but because he knew that solitude could renew his focus, and he could see his mission clearly.

Action Points
How about you here today? Are you tired? Are you worn out? Do you need a Sabbath? I want to challenge you to do two things to help develop a Sabbath in your life. First of all, I want to challenge you to develop a regular time to get away. For some of you, that means that you need to create a special place in your life. For some of you, that may be sitting out in an open field. For others of you, you may be like Mike and you may have this particular chair in your house -- that’s where you can think and where you can focus. For others of you, it may be a particular room.
For me, it’s my back porch, or it’s sitting down watching the airplanes at the airport. I do some great thinking there. It gets me focused. But wherever it is, I want to challenge you to create that place to allow you to reflect, to relax, and renew your mission.
Finally, I want to challenge you to take advantages of the little Sabbaths that happen each day. Take advantage of that time before anybody else gets up -- while you are sitting in traffic -- while you are sitting in construction. You and I are geared for the big and blatant and the bold appearances of God. Sometimes we miss Him because He comes in the simple, and we are looking for Him in the spectacular.
There are a lot of us who want an experience like Paul on the Damascus road. We want the light to just come down and smack us across the face, and God will say "OK, I am here now." We want an experience like Elijah had on the mountain. In I Kings, chapter 19, Elijah stood up on the mountain, and as he looked out he was looking for God in the earthquake. He was looking for God in the great wind. God did not come in either. He came in the still small quiet voice.