Turn your Bible to Luke chapter 6. I hope I do a better job on this next part than I just did on that part. All right, Luke chapter 6, we’re going to continue our discussion in Luke today. We’ve gone through the first five chapters here and it took us about 10 weeks. And we’re going to camp out now in Luke chapter 6 for several weeks. I just want to tell you that Luke chapter 6 is rich. It is full. And I want you to read it with me. Read it over and over again. And every time you read, I want you to open it up and say to yourself, “I want to read this as if it were the first time I’ve ever read Luke 6. And for some of you, it will be the first time you’ve ever read Luke 6, and that’s great. But for those of us who’ve been Christ followers for a long time, I want us not to lose our fascination with the living, breathing, articulate Word of God. Let’s read it like it’s fresh, and new, and alive because it is.
And so in Luke chapter 6, we have lots of stories. The Sermon on the Mount is in Luke chapter 6. The Beatitudes, of course, were in that. I’m going to skip over the Beatitudes for a reason. I’m going to let Glenn Packiam talk about the Beatitudes, the four Beatitudes, there in Luke chapter 6 later in the series because he just wrote a book called “Lucky” that comes out in about a month. And it’s based on those four Beatitudes in Luke. And he has fascinating insight into that passage of Scriptures. So he’s going to get a chance to talk about that part of Luke chapter 6 later on, all right?
All right, Luke chapter 6, the title of today’s talk is Sabbath and Solitude. Sabbath and Solitude. Let me ask you a question before we dive in to Luke chapter 6 verse 1 there. How many of you—when was the last time you had a day off? I mean, let me describe this day, okay. This day is the day that you have nothing if anything planned, a day where you unplug your cell phone, a day where the house phone is unplugged, a day when you spend most of your time with those you love maybe by yourself, a day where there’s a lot of quiet, the noise is down, maybe a day you go out for a long walk and you don’t have any time that you have to be back at the house. You can just spend some time out, a day where you maybe take a nap, maybe two naps, a day where nothing is really planned, so just being alone and still and maybe with a few people that you love, family, friends, but most of it is unplugged, unwound *detoxed. How often do you have a day like that, once a century?
You know, I was walking in this morning. There was a young mom. And she was sitting right there, there was a young mom at nine o’clock and she walked in. She has four children under the age of 5. And I thought, when was the last time she had a Sabbath, because those days don’t exist for moms with small kids, right? Pam and I just came out of that stage where we had smaller kids at the house and it’s hard, very difficult to have a day like that where you can really unwind where you can just focus on yourself and focus on your own soul, your own mind, your own heart, and not be so consumed with frenetic chaotic activity.
And yet in Scripture, we often see Jesus modeling a lifestyle that included a lot of time alone and quiet. And we’re going to see some of those Scriptures in just a minute. And I know that probably everyone in this room struggles with balancing work and family and church things, all of us struggle with that. In fact, if I were to poll all of you in this room, most of you would say, “I’m having a hard time balancing work and family, and haven’t enough time left over for my marriage, and haven’t enough time left over after that for doing anything with the church or doing anything in the community. I’m just struggling, Brady. I don’t know how to find the balance.” And I just know this. It’s always going to be a struggle for us, because we live in such a busy culture where the demands of our schedule are constant.
I have people tell me all the time and I don’t really want to confess this because I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag. But people come up to me all the time and they say, “Hey, Pastor Brady, we know you’re really, really busy. We know you’re just overwhelmed with things, a pastor at church like New Life. You must just have so much responsibility. You just must be the busiest person in Colorado Springs.” And I’m not. So I just want to confess to you I’m not busy, because I’ve designed my life to say yes to the things that I can say yes to. But I don’t say yes to everything. If I did, I physically could not do it. I just couldn’t do it.
And so Pam and I have made some really hard choices. And the hard choices are saying no to things that are really good. In fact, most of the things I say no to are things that are really good things, I mean dinner with people, having time with people. I do that. I do go out for dinner. We do have lunch with people. We do have people to our house. And we go over to people’s house. But I have to say no to a lot of that because it would just literally—
In fact, I had this pastor one time in Florida as a friend of mine. He doesn’t live in Florida now. But he was telling me about the time he planted this church. And he *pastored it for about five years. And then he said he completely melted down and burned out. I said, “How did it happen?” He said—and this is the fascinating comment. I’ve never heard anybody say it like this—He said, “Brady, I literally drowned under the weight of my people’s love.” I went “Wow.” It’s not—I mean, he was just saying yes to all the good things, every wedding, every funeral service, every hospital visit, every dinner appointment, every lunch appointment. And literally, he found himself drowning not under bad things, under the weight of people’s love. And that’s the same as it is with you, right? It’s not that we’re saying, you know, yes or no to bad things. It’s good things that tend to rob us of this quality Sabbath time of solitude that God so richly wants us to give.
All right, let me ask you a question. Do you believe in heaven—that heaven is going to be a chaotic, stressful place? The new heaven and the new earth that we’re all pointing towards, where our—that all creation is longing for. What’s it going to be like, you think? I think it’s going to be a place of perpetual rest. And I think it’s going to be fascinating. I think it’s going to be an amazing time of worship. I think there’s going to be—But I think the overwhelming thing, the thing that we’re going to sense there, is peace and rest, the ability to inhale and exhale and abide in this sweet place of rest and worship. That’s what we’re longing for. That’s what all creation is longing for, right now including our own souls.
All right, so let’s pick up here in Luke chapter 6—And right away Jesus has already offended the Pharisees again. I mean, He and the Pharisees have been clashing. And the common clash is over the Sabbath. I wonder why the Pharisees were so offended at Jesus doing something different on the Sabbath. I wonder why the Sabbath was so important for the Jewish people that it would cause them to be so mad and enraged every time Jesus would seemingly violate one of their rules or restrictions. Well, part of the problem was is that the Pharisees and the religious leaders of their day really held on to three things very tightly in their culture as a way of kind of distinguishing themselves from the Gentile nations that surrounded them. So Jesus, when He confronted this, He was confronting something that was very near and dear to their heart.
Let me give you a real time example of what would happen here. Let’s say somebody took an American flag to city hall on the front steps and burned it in front of you. That would be offensive. It would enrage us. That would be a total disrespect of our country and our flag. This is the way that Pharisees felt when Jesus did things differently on the Sabbath. This is the emotion that they felt, the same emotion you and I would feel if someone burned the American flag and disrespected our country. This is the level that they felt about the Sabbath.
There was really three things that they held onto very, very tightly in order to maintain their cultural differences between the Gentiles. One was obviously the Sabbath. They also held on very tightly to the idea of circumcision. They would not let go of that tradition. And dietary restrictions. So these three things, the Sabbath, circumcision, and dietary restrictions were things that they held onto and fiercely defended as a way of saying, “We are God’s chosen children and the Gentiles are not.” Now notice that Jesus, Peter, Paul, John, all of the leaders of the early church, these are the three things they had to confront over and over and over again because those three things made it very difficult for the outsiders to become insiders.
All right, let me ask a question now. What are the things that we do—Is there anything we’re doing at New Life right now that are simply traditions, the way we’ve always done it here at New Life that might be making it hard for people to become a part of the family? Because this is what the Pharisees were doing. They were holding onto their traditions so tightly that it was making it almost impossible for people, the outsiders, to become insiders. All right. I’ll tell you what I think we’re doing at New Life. All right. When people come to New Life, we have to learn an entirely new language to be a part of New Life, like MILL, Desperation, DLA, DSM, CIA. We have all of these things that, you know—Do you know where the tag chapel is? Do you know where the tent is? Do you know where WPC is? Do you know what WPC is? That’s the World Prayer Center. That’s the slang name that I’ve found. Have you been at the WPC yet? I said, “I don’t know. I don’t think I need to go there? What is that?” It’s the World Prayer Center, ~W~P~C, WPC. Oh! It’s a language that we’ve created, a sub-cultural language here among our church people. And so a new person comes in and goes, “So I’ve got to go to the MILL at the tent, and then we’re going to have something at the WPC afterwards.”
All right. Let me bring that up for—Let’s dive in to Luke here. Luke chapter 6 verse 1 — “One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields. And His disciples begin to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat the kernels.” So the disciples were organic before organic was cool. So for all the granola crowds sitting out here, this is a proof to you that Jesus is okay with the granola crowd, okay. So they’re eating raw grains right out of the field, all right? Verse 2 — “Some of the Pharisees asked, ‘Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?’” And Jesus answered them, “Have you never read—” and notice Jesus uses a story for a very specific purpose and I’m about to explain it to you. Notice the example in the story that Jesus uses. “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the House of God and, taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat and he also gave some to his companions.” So Jesus is saying remember what David did. Why do you think Jesus is comparing Himself to King David? Isn’t that interesting? Of all of the examples Jesus could have used, He used this example. I wonder why.
You see when David did this; David was a young man when this happened. David was out with his companions one day and David was hungry. But at that point in David’s life, David had already been anointed as King of Israel. Samuel had already come to him, appointed him, “Does sayeth the Lord, you are the anointed, appointed, next king of Israel. However, you will not become king until Saul dies. Therefore, I’m going to anoint you now, put oil on your head. You are king in waiting, the king that will soon have this throne but not yet.” So Jesus was saying to the Pharisees who knew this story very, very well. “I am the king in waiting. I have come. God has sent me, His son, to the earth to pay for the sins of mankind. I now am the appointed, anointed king in waiting, but not yet.”
So He was comparing Himself to the same point that David was in His life. And He was announcing, “I am the Messiah. I have come. I have a throne. I am going to sit on that throne. I am the king in waiting.” And then notice what He says. He does not waste words here. Notice what He says. He says verse 5 — “Then Jesus said to them, ‘The son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.’” Here’s what Jesus was saying. “I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I can change the rules. I made the rules. I can change them if it benefits those around me. Don’t get fixated on the rules. Be fixated on the heart, the mind, the soul of God.” He says, “I am God. I can change the rules if I want.” And I like that about God.
All right. Now verse 6 on yet another Sabbath—notice all the fuss that has happened on the Sabbath. “On another Sabbath, He went into the synagogue and was teaching. And a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. And the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus.” Now, stop here for a minute. Have you noticed what they’re fixated upon? The Pharisees are looking for a reason to accuse, not looking for a reason to encourage, not looking for a reason to bless, not looking for a +reason to be his friend or ask good questions. He was looking for a reason to accuse.
All right, keep reading here. Listen to what He says because Jesus knows this.
They are looking for a reason to accuse. So they watched Him closely to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. How dare Him! Verse 8 — “But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, ‘Get up and stand in front of everyone.’ So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?’ He looked around at them all and He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so and his hand was completely restored.” But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Now here they are with this man, this man with the shriveled hand. This is not just a miracle of a guy who had a bad hand. This guy was probably a beggar, a poor man who lived his life on the streets asking people for money because in that time, in that age, if you didn’t—if you have a broken leg, if you were a cripple, if your arms didn’t work, your hands didn’t work, you literally could not work. Almost all of labor during this time was manual labor. And so for a man to have a shriveled hand, it was almost like you were going to be poor. It was an indictment on his life that he was always going to be a beggar. He was always going to be poor. So God was not just healing his hand to show off his miracle power. God was healing his hand for practical reasons so as this man could work. This man could support his family. This man wouldn’t have to be a beggar any longer.
And so instead of celebrating, these Pharisees said, “He shouldn’t be doing that on the Sabbath!” They should have celebrated. We have a man who was broken who was now whole. He was dead. Now he’s alive. He was a beggar. Now he can work. We should celebrate that. Instead they were saying, “Oh no. You violated our rules on the Sabbath. You could have healed him later.” Think how awful that is and how that creeps in to all of our souls. Because we didn’t do it like we were supposed to, we forget about all miracles that are happening all around us all the time.
You see, I believe that Jesus was saying something here about the Sabbath, though. He was trying to wrestle these Pharisees away from their rules and help them to find the wonder of the Sabbath, the wonder and the strength. So I want to share with you this morning what I believe about the Sabbath and about solitude. I think—I believe, number one, that the Sabbath creates space for us for wholeness. The Sabbath creates a space in our week, a space in our schedule so that our bodies can recover, space for wholeness so that God can invade our lives and repair that which is broken.
Notice how often—as we read through the Book of Luke—how often God healed people physically on the Sabbath. I wonder why He chose that particular day to do a lot of His healings because He’s saying to us that the Sabbath is not just a rule to follow, a day to follow. This Sabbath is about all of our bodies being restored, all of our bodies being healed. And rest has a way of healing our bodies. When you go to the doctor with a flu, a good doctor, no doctor in his right mind would say, “Okay. Here’s the way you get rid of that flu. I want you to double your schedule. I want you to work hard. I want you to get busy doing stuff because that’s the key for your body to be healed.” Now, what do doctors always tell you? Go home, drink a lot of fluids, and rest because rest has a way of redeeming our physical bodies.
You know that most of our diseases would go away, cancer, leukemia—A lot of the diseases that plague our culture would literally disappear and go away if we could find a rhythm of life that got rid of unnecessary stress. It’s stress, unnecessary stress that kills us. Stress that we put upon ourselves, worry that we put upon ourselves, frenetic activity that we say yes to when we could have said no to, it causes us stress and this tension. And our bodies literally begin to break down because it cannot take the stress of what you’re putting on it. And so a disease forms and sickness forms.
I know people who never take a day off. They go hard. They go hard. They go hard. And then they find themselves in the hospital for about two weeks with some kind of pneumonia because they never knew how to slow down. Listen, your body will slow you down whether you want to slow down or not. Our bodies know how to govern themselves. Our bodies will make us slow down. The Sabbath creates space in our life, in our schedule for God to come and redeem our physical bodies.
I haven’t been sick in a long time. And I really feel like it’s because I pray a lot. I’m trying to eat good. I don’t eat great, as you can tell, but I try to. One thing, though, that I’ve discovered is the power of a day off, the blessing that comes from not just obeying the rules. And there is a blessing, by the way, of obeying the Sabbath rule, so I’m not discounting that. What I’m saying is there’s a physical thing that happens in our bodies when we take a day off. So I’m going to give you 12 things that I do when I take a day off. I try to—Now, Pam can tell you, and I’ll confess I don’t do these very well sometimes. She knows this and she’ll tell you. I’m not hiding. I’m not trying to come across as somebody who’s perfect on my day off. But these are the 12 things I try to do, right Pam? At least I try. Thank you. I attempt them, all right. So I want you to start attempting these things with you.
Number one. How to take a day off. Number one, tweet less or not at all. Number two, don’t look at the Facebook inbox, just disconnect. I’m terrible at this. This is one of the—I put these at number two because I’m terrible at these. I’m always wanting to zone in. And you know what happens when I look at those things? They’re asking me questions about church. Well, I love church. I am church. I love church. But church is work, too, for me. It’s the job I do. So I have to disconnect at some point, to disconnect myself.
Number three, go on a date with your spouse. I’m telling you. This is where I’m trying to be better. We always try to have lunch together on Fridays or do something together so that we can engage. And Pam and I do not talk about you or work most often. We talk about our kids. We talk about our things that are going on in our lives. We talk about how crazy we are about each other. That’s what we talk about. Go on a date. Get into a rhythm of wooing your spouse of flirting with your spouse. Can I hear an amen? That should have rendered a huge amen. Get into a rhythm of making that a habit with you like you were when you’re 16. Be crazy about it.
Number four, go outside and take a walk. This is one of the things that recharges the most. It’s the sun. The sun, by the way, has an amazing properties. The sun is rich in vitamins. The right amount of sunlight on your skin is beautiful for your skin. It’s great for vitamins. It recharges your body. God gave us that. Hey, we have 300 days of sunshine here. Hey, and by the way if it’s 2 degrees outside, just sit at the window and let the sun hit you through the window. It’s just that good. That’s about 150 of those days you’ve got to do that. But other than that, it’s good.
All right. Number five, unless it’s family or one of your close friends or the White House, do not answer your phone. By the way, voicemail is one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century. I think it was the 20th century when it was invented. All right. By the way, let me just clue you in on something. If you dial someone and it rings once and goes to their voicemail, they have ignored you on purpose. Bam! They hit the button. Do you know that? You didn’t know that, did you? If it rings one time and it goes straight to the voicemail, they saw who was calling and they hit ignore and it went straight to voicemail. If it rings five or six times before it goes to voicemail, they didn’t see who was calling. But if you get constant- if you call all your friends and it goes straight to voicemail, they’re all ignoring you. Sorry to bring that up.
Number six, don’t—don’t drink cheap coffee. All right. I tried that for a long time, you know, that whole stewardship thing. But I was like, “Man, this is my day off. This is awful. This is the kind of coffee I drink at work. I want to have good coffee at my house.”
All right. Number seven, talk about anything but work stuff. All right, guys, please listen to me, guys. When was the last time when you went a whole day without talking about your job? Can I tell you that over time, your wife is going to look at you and she’s smiling with her head. She’s sick of hearing about it. Give her one day of not bringing it up. Hey ladies, go one day without talking about your work stuff. Just go a whole day and don’t even talk about anything about work stuff.
Number eight, wear really comfortable clothes. When I’m out on public on my day of, I want to make—when you see me, I’m trying to send a big message. I’m on a day off. You see how I’m dressed? Nobody in their right mind would go out dressed like this except on their day off. And there’s something about putting on these sloppy clothes that just help you go, “Hah!” Take off my church uniform. Put on some clothes that I like.
Number eight. No, number nine, do something that makes you smile or laugh. There’s something about releasing laughter in your life. Laughter is like good medicine. Good medicine, it is something that releases endorphins in your brain. It’s something that relaxes you. So Pam and I try to talk. We joke a lot in our house. We pick at each other at our house, not in a mean way, but in a funny way. If there’s anything funny that happens at our house, we get two to three days’ mileage out of anything that we do that’s funny because we like to laugh. Laughter does something to restore your soul.
Number 10, spend time reading the Bible. And I’m not talking about reading the one-year Bible thing, which I’m fine with. I’m talking about just being fascinated with the Scriptures, letting the breath of the Scriptures come into your life. Breathing in the Scriptures, even if it’s one or two Scriptures just read it and meditate upon it, look at it, let it come in to your soul.
Number 11, hit yourself on the kneecap with a hammer each time you read an email from work. It will only take two emails for you to have to sit down. You’ll have to sit down after two emails. You’ll have to be quiet. Listen, don’t be pulling out your BlackBerry sneaking around like it’s a drug either. The CrackBerry needs to be put up on your day off. Because, listen, I’m being serious about this. Every time you reconnect with the source of your stress, you’ve just ruined the time that’s supposed to be for you. Your body cannot disengage if you keep feeding it with the stressful information of your week. So unless it is super, super, super, super important, just ignore it. I pro- Listen, it takes faith to believe that God can do more in seven days than y- in six days than you can in seven. It takes faith to believe that God can do more in six days on His own than I can if I engage every day of my week. Take a day and trust God. Take a day and just trust God with your emails. Take a day and trust God with business decisions. Take a day and trust God with all that stuff that comes in and out of our world.
And number 12, this is super important I believe. At some point during the day, spend some time completely alone even if it’s only for a few minutes. There’s something powerful about solitude.
Well, let’s pick up the story here of Jesus. So we’ve read the first 11 verses here. Now let’s pick it up here in verse 12 because I want to talk about solitude because I believe the solitude creates the space for a fulfillment. Solitude creates space for real fulfillment. And you know that’s what we’re all trying to find, really, if you want to be honest. We’re trying to find love and we’re trying to find fulfillment. We’re trying to find love. How many songs are written about love? Almost all of them. We’re trying to find love. We’re trying to find something that really fulfills us. Can I tell you that you cannot find the fulfillment that you’re looking for until you are aware of God’s presence in your life, that in you’re in the palm of his hand. There’s something about solitude that creates the space for God to fill the void in our lives that everything else is trying to fill.
Notice this in—Let’s pick up the story here in Luke chapter 6 verse 12 — “One of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray. And He spent the night praying to God.” Now, it doesn’t say that He was alone, but we can assume here—It’s good theology, it’s good interpretation here to assume He was by Himself. And notice here in verse 12 that He walks away from the crowd. He spent the night praying to God and look what happens the next morning. When morning came, He called his disciples to Him, which were maybe a few hundred at that point. He called His disciples to Him and chose 12 of them whom He also designated apostles. He has this giant, huge decision to make in the morning. Instead of making a quick decision, Jesus withdraws to a lonely place, a place of solitude. He prays to God. He comes back the next morning and He makes the decision.
Now, a lot of theologians would disagree on this. So I’m going to leave it up to you to interpret. Some theologians believe that Jesus was so fully human that He really didn’t know the 12 disciples until He went and prayed, and God showed it to Him. Other theologians would say, no, Jesus knew everything and He was simply modeling a pattern for us to follow. Either way, I’m good with it. The point is that Jesus did withdraw before a big decision. He went out at night by Himself. He prayed to God. Then He came back and made the decision.
How many of you can remember a regretful decision that you probably would have made different if you’d only slept on it? In fact, I had a really a wise friend. He’s a mentor of mine, somebody that I trust. And he said, “Brady, don’t ever make a serious decision after 4p.m.” Now, that’s, you know, he’s not being legalistic with that. The point is, he says if it’s late in the day and your body is tired, the best thing you can do is go to bed, sleep on it, pray about it. Don’t make a tired decision because tired decisions are ones that we regret.
And look at how often Jesus did this. Luke 5, we just read this a couple of weeks ago in Luke chapter 5, but I want to go back to it. And I want you to see what I see here in this Scripture. In Luke chapter 5 verse 15, it says, “Yet the news about Him, the news about Jesus, spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear Him.” Crowd of people were with Jesus. And notice they weren’t just crowds of people there to hear a sermon. Listen to what it says. “There were crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.” Giant crowds of people, a lot of needy people, people that were sick. These were good things to do. Jesus could have healed all of them, right? He probably did heal many of them. But notice that there’s a buzz created. He has forward momentum. Everything’s going Jesus’ way. Lots of people love Him. And there was a huge amount of ministry to be done. This is not the time to take a break, right? Right?
The business is booming right now, Pastor Brady. I’d love to take a day off, but it might mean I might miss some business. Pastor Brady, I’m just trying to get this business launched. I’m just trying to grow the company. And this is a busy season I’m in. Everything is going my way. Forward momentum. This is not a time to take a day off, Pastor Brady. That’s foolish to even talk about, right? Pastor Brady, there’s a lot of people that need ministry. I mean, there is an endless list of people that I’m supposed to be helping right now.
Really? Look at what Jesus did. At the moment of the greatest possible momentum, lots of people that need to be healed, listen to what He did. He says, verse 16—“But Jesus often”— often—underline the word often, please see that in Scripture—“but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
You know why it’s hard for us to have solitude? It’s because we fear silence. One of the greatest fears of our culture is being alone or left out. That’s one of the greatest fears that we struggle with; being alone, being separated from community, being left out all together. But you cannot have solitude unless you first embrace silence. And I’m talking about the ear buds out of your ear. I’m talking about turning off the clutter or the noise. I’m talking about getting in your car—listen, getting your car ride to and from work are beautiful times where you can have some solitude. Oftentimes, nothing is playing in my vehicle on the way home or to work because that’s the time I know is quiet, just me and God. Finding that place of solitude, you cannot have solitude without the silence. Yet we fear the silence, which drives us out of solitude.
Interesting thing about our culture is that we need constant noise. We need constant crowds. We need constant activity around us in order for us to feel—to even feel a sense of fulfillment. But then it’s empty at the end. Crowds, and noise, and commotion cannot fill the void. And living alone can’t bring solitude, either. You can live out in the desert for 20 or 25 years with no one around you, and never discover solitude. Solitude is simply embracing not that God is speaking to you, but that God is near you. The fundamental question we must ask is not if we’re hearing God’s voice. That’s an important question to ask. But it’s not the fundamental question to ask. The question we need to ask is, is God near us? Is God near?
So on Saturday mornings we have a routine tradition at my house. I take Abram and Callie to breakfast. One—I take one on one Saturday, and then the next, we rotate. Every other Saturday, I’m taking one of them to breakfast. And my time with Abram, he gets up super early on Saturday. I mean, I didn’t know 6a.m. happened on Saturday. But Abram bounces up, especially on breakfast day with dad. He bounces up and he’s talking from the moment he gets up. “Dad, let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.” He walks into our bedroom dressed a lot of times, ready to go. And I’m going, “All right.” So he talks. And when we get into the truck, he’s talking, he’s talking, he’s talking. He’s asking me questions. He’s got 900 ideas coming out of his mind all the time. And he’s talking, he’s talking. He’s asking me questions. We get to the breakfast place and he’s talking, he’s talking, he’s talking. He’s talking to the waitresses, talking to the people around him, talking to me. Getting out of the truck, he’s talking all the way home. “Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad.” We get back home and every time we—and most of the Saturdays when we walk back in, Pam goes, “Hey, how was breakfast with Dad?” He goes, “Great! Dad said eight words.” But it’s beautiful because he’s got so much on his mind and he just wants to tell Dad.
And then breakfast with Callie is like this. We get in the truck. “How are you doing, Callie?” “Great.” We get to the restaurant. She orders the same thing every time at Cracker Barrel, the same thing every time. So that conversation has already run its course. “So, what are you going to order?’ I know what she’s going to order. And she’ll just look at the table and she’s not folding her arms. She’s just kind of sitting there with her hands in her pocket. “What do you got coming up this week, Callie?” “I don’t know.” So we get back out in the truck, all the way home. When we walk in the house, Pam goes, “Hey! Callie, how was breakfast with Dad?” “Great! It was awesome.”
See, this is the way—when I noticed that about my kids, this is how it is with God for some of us. Sometimes that time of solitude with God is talk and conversation, and me telling God things, and God speaking and downloading things to me, and I’m talking. It’s a constant conversation. But then there’s other times when I’m alone and quiet with God when there’s just silence, life-giving silence.
See, what I discovered about Callie when she was a tiny little girl is her love language is not words of affirmation. Her love language is quality time. For her, she doesn’t need long, in-depth conversations with me to know that she’s loved, and adored, and she feels secure. All she wants to know is, do I have some time alone with my dad in the front of the pickup truck where Dad’s driving. I’m sitting next to him, aware of my dad’s presence, is all that she needs. I used to feel like—well, maybe I—do I not know how to talk little girls? I mean, what is it about me? Am I scaring her? No.
God must have wondered that about us that sometimes. Am I scaring them? How come they won’t come and hang out with Me? Why don’t they just sit still and just be with Me? Am I—Are they afraid of Me, to approach Me? Why can’t they just be content knowing that I’m right there with them, in the driver’s seat with them? That’s solitude.
And David in Psalm 131—I want to read this. There’s this—there’s these, from like Psalm 120 to Psalm 134, 15 Psalms and they’re called the Song of Ascents. And what it was, they were written by David. And he wrote this as he was walking toward the temple. So if you’ve ever been to Jerusalem, the temple is way up on Mount Moriah. The temple is there. But down below is the Kidron Valley where he lived. The City of David was below the temple. So if you’ve ever been there, it is a long walk down into a valley and that’s where David built his palace, built his house. But up here was a temple on Mount Moriah.
And so as he would walk up that road that pathway in the carriage where he was riding in, as he was approaching the place of worship, as he was approaching the presence of God which is, at that time, could only be found in the Holy of Holies. You could only really worship in the temple where the glory of God would come. As David was walking up those roads anticipating the presence of God, he wrote these 15 psalms called the Song of Ascents. It’s 15 different psalms, Psalm 120 to Psalm 134.
And so in this one that we’re going to read, this is David with his eyes on the presence of God, focused on God, he’s approaching God. Notice what comes out of his heart as he is approaching the place of worship, the place of God. Psalm 131 — “My heart is not proud, O Lord. My eyes are not haughty. I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.” Here it is. Here’s the beautiful thing. He’s approaching God. He’s approaching a place of worship. He says, “I have stilled and quieted my soul. I have stilled and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” So I’m just a—I’m coming to God like a child and my heart is stilled. My soul is quieted because I’m coming now to God where there is no confusion, no chaos, no frenetic activity that’s going to distract from the place of worship. I’m going to come to God. I’m going to be there like a child, a weaned child.
And a lot of you moms notice you can just hold the baby, and the baby can’t talk. The baby can’t have conversations. The baby is super needy. It requires all the attention. But notice how content the baby is being held by its mother. In fact, only mom can really bring the comfort to that baby. Moms, above all else, know how to bring comfort to their own child just by holding them close. And because that baby was once in your womb, that is baby is super sensitive to the body of its mother. So you bring that baby close to you, and the baby immediately realizes this is my mom holding me. It’s my mom drawing me close. There’s nothing to worry about.
This is the image that David is trying to paint for us as Christ’s followers. Just come, come. Come into my—Let me hold you. Let me surround you. Let your soul, your mind, your thoughts be stilled, be quieted for a moment. Embrace the silence. And don’t worry about if God is speaking to you or not. Just be sensitive of His presence. Listen to the language of the 23rd Psalm. “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me—” And then it says, “He makes me—He makes me lie down. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters. Even when I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because His rod and His staff are there. They comfort me. They protect me. He prepares the table before me in the presence of my enemies. He anoints my head with oil.” He leads us. He’s directing us to a place of quiet, a place of still; so that we can know He’s there. That’s when your soul becomes full. This fulfillment that you’re longing only happens when you’re still and quiet.
I’m not talking about Eastern mysticism. I’m not talking about meditation. I’m not talking about any of that. That’s all carbon copy. That’s all false copies of the very thing God gave us. I’m talking about being still and quiet and know He is God and you’re on the palm of His hand, that you’re the shepherd of His pasture where He’s the shepherd of our soul. That’s what I’m talking about. I am son. He is dad.
Let me tell you something. Frenetic, constant spiritual activity is not a mark of a son or a daughter who’s been adopted. It’s the mark of a spiritual slave who thinks that their activity is what’s causing God to love them and care for them. But a son and a daughter rest in the fact that God is my Dad. I have been adopted by Him. It is forever and always. I can relax. Dad has things for me to do. Dad has activities for me to pursue. For sure, for sure, for sure, but there’s lots of times where I can just hang with Dad, be with Dad. That’s the mark of a son. That’s the mark of a daughter who’s caught it, who got it.
I can spot spiritual slaves like that because they’re so consumed with what they do, how they do it, and how much they do. That’s all they talk about. And I just want to help you today if you’re caught up in that endless perpetual cycle of performing for God, trying to prove something to somebody. Listen, God doesn’t invite you to prove anything. God invites you into a family. Stop trying to prove something. Start accepting something. Start believing something. Amen.
All right. We’re going to pray together. And Pastor John is going to come on the stage in just a minute. He’s going to lead us into song, and—I don’t know. I don’t know how this song came about. I know Pastor John and I—When I first came here three and a half years ago, he and I talked a lot about Sabbath and rest, and God was really speaking this to me and he’s speaking it to all of us, about Sabbath and rest and really restoring our soul. Anyway, this song kind of came out of him. And I thought it was a great way for us just to end this time. This is going to seem a little disjointed. I’m realizing at the first service, nobody knew what to do. And it was kind of by design because we didn’t know what to do.
So we’re going to stand for just a minute and we’re going to pray together. And he’s just going to lead us in the song. And if you want to—if you need to leave, if you’ve got a busy day, and you need to rush out of here to go to your busy, then take off. I understand your schedule is pretty busy right now, on a Sunday. So if you’ve got to rush out of here to get back into your life, then rock on. But for those of you who just need to just embrace this rest, we’re just going to sing this song together and let God restore our soul today a little bit, all right? So let’s stand. Let’s do that. And if you need to leave, honestly, I’m not making fun of you. If you need to leave, I understand and you can leave. If somebody is waiting on you somewhere, then take off. I understand. But can we just get into a rhythm here at New Life because everything’s not so rushed all the time? Can we just embrace that sometimes we just need to just chill and take a deep breath? Can we just get into a rhythm as a church family, not everything has to be so rushed and intentional, that we can sometimes just relax and be family and accept rest that God wants to give us? Is that okay with you?
Don’t make me speak this again. I’ll preach this all over again. All right. Let’s pray together. Would you just ask yourself these questions? Am I—Is my life ordered in a way that I have time and I’ve made space for Sabbath, I’ve made space for solitude? Is my life at a place where I can embrace the silence and just know that God is near? Is that enough for you? Is it enough to know that you’re in the palm of His hand that maybe God is not speaking, but He is very near, not only is He near us, He’s for us, He’s near us, He is for us? Can you embrace that today? And just ask, Lord, restore our soul. Restore my soul. Fill me with the spirit of God and restore my soul.
Father, we pray to do as sons and daughters. We thank You that You’re our Father, that we’re the sheep of Your pasture, that You’re the shepherd of our souls, that we are in the palm of Your hand. And we thank You that You’re near us, that You’re for us, that You are with us. I pray, O God, that we would embrace solitude and embrace the wholeness that comes from stopping and honoring the Sabbath in Jesus’ name.
