Work and Rest finding a balance
Mark 6:30,34
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Today I want to try to address the many demands of life that keep us from addressing the necessary things of life. Things like peace and contentment, family, friends, laughter and rest. Most importantly of all, time with God.
We have microwave ovens to heat our coffee yet we can not wait the one minute it takes to heat it.
We have instant breakfast in a glass yet no time to sit and drink it we stand and run as we go out the door.
We have cable T.V. satellite T.V. and DVDs and remote controls yet we can not find anything to watch.
We have meals that are ready made in a pouch or package and we have drive-thru restaurants but we have no time to enjoy the meal with loved ones.
We have cell phones, pagers, pedometers and blackberries on our hips but no time to carry our children on that same hip.
We are chasing after the wind trying to keep up yet we never seem to get one step ahead and in fact we often find ourselves two or three steps behind. For some inexplicable reason every time we get a little money in the bank there is a crisis that demands it all and more.
The car, the dentist, the furnace, the roof or the cat or the dog can create a mini-financial crisis. There always seems to be no time or no money or both. We race through our days going from one crisis to the next and never seem to have time for rest or reflection.
We chase promotions or new job opportunities in the hope of feeling accomplishment or assurance to determine who or what we are or what we think we want to be.
When we do have time to go to church we show up and everyone treats us like we are the new visitors and offers us their hand and invites us to coffee when in fact we are long time church members.
What is it that is so important we can not make time for some peace and quiet with God for one hour a week? What are we doing to ourselves, our spouses, and our kids our communities and our churches?
Well yes there are genuine reasons for missing church and yes real emergencies and crisis do occur. But we should remember that we need to be where we draw our strength from in order to face those crises. We need not be so caught up in our problems that we forget where to find the solution.
The enemy wants to keep you tired, warn out, defeated, cranky and so busy you have no time for rational thought or reflective repose when it comes to your spiritual life.
When you must be away yes you can call on scripture such as:
Matthew 18:20 NIV Separated from Church
20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.
But if you neglect your spouse in order to chase after a job or task that you put ahead of them you could be faced with greater challenges. When reflecting on personal relationships remember:
1 Corinthians 7:5 NIV Marriage
5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
When it comes to your church attendance you need to remember this:
Hebrews 10:19,25 NIV
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Jesus does not want you so busy that you have nothing left to give our Heavenly Father. Even Jesus took time out to rest and made his disciples do the same. He knew the importance and value of rest.
Exodus 20:11 NIV
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Even our creator took a day off. He did not sneak off and put in a few extra hours at the office or sneak off to the computer to polish off a few important e mails. He rested and the value associated to that rest was called Holy.
While you may not intentionally be absent from church you can miss out on a shared experience with God.
Jesus invites us to this experience when he says:
Matthew 11:28 TNIV
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:29 TNIV
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Is that not the rest we all seek? We seek the deep, pure rest of our souls, a contentment and place of peace like no other. We can find it in the person of Jesus Christ.
So why do we insist on chasing after the things we think will satisfy us?
Well we have our own human hearts to contend with. We have envy and greed and covetousness and pride and all the dark human emotions that the advertising world has built their empire on. They flash a new car in front of us men and we get hooked. They flash a woman lounging by the beautiful backyard near the pool and we get hooked.
We could go back to the Garden of Eden and review how we were fooled. First it was Lucifer twisting Gods words,
Genesis 3 NIV
The Fall of Man
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden?
2 The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.
Here Eve adds a little to Gods warning when she says you must not touch it.
4 You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Here we learn the power of advertising and they have learned how to get at our human hearts. Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good. It was her eyes that deceived her.
There is something about what we see that speaks to our desires. Well we all know that is true, falling in love at first sight is an example. So advertisers and the world and the devil know how to affect the human heart, put something pleasing, something desirable in front of their eyes. A visual distraction.
1 John 2 NIV
Do Not Love the World
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Matthew 16 NIV
26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
What are you trading off? What valuable thing do you give up as you chase after the wind?
Ecclesiastes 2:11 TNIV
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Psalm 46 NIV
10 Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.
11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Gain, that seems to be it we want to gain something, we want more of something than someone else. We want more of a house, or more money, or more status at work or more authority we seem to always want more.
Why do we not want more of God?
Why do we not seek more fellowship with our fellow Christians?
We need to smell the flowers and taste life and know that it is good and that it satisfies only for a little while. Real, deep satisfaction can only come from finding our rest, our hope and our joy in our God.
So then, come to church, join us in song, and join us in fellowship. Renew your spiritual strength for tomorrow you will face the world and work of some kind. Know that that work is part of the curse of the fall of man and that work will demand more of you than God had originally intended.
Genesis 3 NIV
17 To Adam he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You must not eat of it,
Cursed is the ground because of you
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.
That is all the more reason to take his word as a command and make the Sabbath day a holy day of rest. Work is necessary and the profit from work is a good thing but do not get so caught up in making profit that it cost you the most profitable thing you could ever gain your spiritual relationship with God.
I like the opening verse we looked at.
Mark 6:32
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.
For me I like the idea of the boat even if I cant always get mine started. It becomes for me that place of rest, that solitary place alone, peace, quiet.
I can be with my thoughts, with my friends, and with the beauty of Gods creation all around me. I get a chance to recharge my inner self.
For me I find that Sunday morning service does the same thing. I have an opportunity to be still and listen to God through his word and through the friends and fellow Christians at church. So often its the little conversations in my life that have had the deepest impact. Those short quick words of wisdom or encouragement from friends while meeting at church just saying hello.
God has used those moments to change my life and my attitude about life. Be sure to say hello to someone here today you never know just what God might want to say through them to you.
So this summer if you are planning on taking a vacation, do it, you need to rest, you need to refresh but do not abandoned God while on vacation. Take Him with you and enjoy his fellowship as you enjoy your rest. Men do not look at the vacation as another challenge to be conquered. You do not have to make good time on the highway or get the lowest rate for a room or a meal this is a vacation put those things away and enjoy the company of your family and the rest you have earned.
Ladies you have my permission to remind your husbands every now and then that they are on vacation and just what that means. We here at church will miss you and keep you in prayer and when you return we will be happy to be with God as one large family.
Come to church, visit with Gods people and visit with God, hear from His word and from the lives of those in His church.
Let us pray.
