Quiet My Life

Let me just tell you a little bit about Pastor Herman Hamilton. I could not even begin to cover his list of accomplishments. We would be here much too long, but just some of the highlights. He was born in San Francisco but grew up in Cushotta, Louisiana. So I talk about worlds apart, right? Most importantly, he's married to his wife Rhonda. Of 36 years they've been married. She's a medical doctor. They have two children, Jonathan and Lauren. I learned last night that Lauren here is gonna start as a freshman at Stanford here in the fall. So yeah, took after a mom, right, Herman? He got his Masters of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary. For 17 years he served as the senior pastor at Roxbury Presbyterian Church in Boston. Was involved in a lot of other things that were a blessing to the community, but in addition to that he served as an adjunct professor at Harvard Divinity School and Gordon Conwell Seminary and a lecturer at Yale and a guest preacher at Princeton and Boston universities. You know, just a couple places you might have heard of before.

Then in 2011 he came to serve for two years at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Mountain View and thereafter he led the birthing of a brand new church called New Beginnings Community Church that was in April of 2014. Since then he has served as senior and founding pastor. It is a vibrant, growing, diverse church and we are just so privileged to have him here for the next three weeks. You are going to love him. Twin Lakes, let's give a very warm welcome to Pastor Herman Hamilton.

Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. I want to thank Mark for that generous introduction. I'm reminded of a story where one of the church mothers, Mother Rebecca, she was in her early 90s and she arrived at church and sat on a pew and one of the younger women sitting on the pew next to leaned over and whispered, "Mother, is it true?" And Mother Rebecca said, "What's true? Is what true?" And the young woman said, "I hear that you're dating Deacon John who's 20 years her junior. She's 93." And she looks at the young lady and she says, "No, chow, but thank God for the rumor." I'm so much less than that, than the impression painted by the bio that Mark was so generously reading, but thank God for the rumor. Amen.

I want to give honor to God and His Son Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit that brings us together and I just want to say it's a delight to be with you all this morning, both here in person and those who are joining us online. You may not know it, but my wife and I, we've worshipped with you on several occasions over the years and I've often said if we lived in this area, this would be our church because you guys are amazing. Just amazing.

And I must say that your pastor and I have been friends over the years, but the last two years we have become extraordinarily close colleagues and he is one of my dearest and most beloved friends. And I just want to say to you, you guys have the best pastor on the planet. That's the... Come on, celebrate that. You should celebrate that. Type that in the chat. Best pastor on the planet. Praise God.

And I am so delighted that he is away on his sabbatical. You may or may not know that the professional recommendation is that every seven to ten years we pastors ought to take time away from the church over the course of our ministry. I think he's been here almost 29 years and over a course of months do what needs to be done to renew our minds, renew our hearts, renew our souls and it will not only be a blessing for your pastor, but it'll be a tremendous blessing for you because he will return fresh, energized, if it's possible for him to have more energy when he comes back than he had before he left, innovative, imaginative and all of that at the next level.

So I want to make sure, I want to encourage you, send him an email and say, "Pastor, I just want to thank you for caring so much for us that you're taking the time you need to renew your heart and renew your mind and to care for yourself." Amen. Come on, celebrate that. Give God a hand. Praise. He sent me a note earlier to say to you that sabbatical has already started to be a huge blessing in his life. So thank you for supporting him in that endeavor.

And then the last thing I simply want to say is that Layla, you may not recognize, but one of the African-American ladies who are singing in your choir is the daughter of one of the directors of our music department, Vince Grind, up in the Bay Area, so a northern base. So there's so much cross-fertilization that's going on between us. So I'm just joyful to be with you today.

Now I want to just lift and ask for us to take just a moment of silence, a prayerful silence to remember the 13 people who were murdered, who were shot rather in Buffalo, New York, and the 10 who ultimately died by this racially motivated, horrible incident. Let's just take a few moments, just a few seconds of prayerful silence.

Lord God, we lift up those who are grieving unimaginably this morning. We pray for your strength and your peace and your comfort and even as we remember the families grieving in Buffalo, we know there's people grieving right here under the sound of my voice who's watching by way of online. So we pray for your comfort and your strength for all who grieve today. And then God, we pray that you would help us to keep growing towards your son Jesus because the more we become like him, the closer we get to being the solution to some of this horrendous hate that we see in the world today. Now bless this teaching. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen.

I just want to say and we're gonna jump right into this that it is so easy with so much hatred and violence that are taking place to be deceived into believing that evil is winning but I want to remind you today that evil is not winning, that those of us who believe in Jesus Christ, we know that the victory is in him and every Sunday at New Beginnings, the church where I pastor, tons of people come together to worship and to build community together across race and ethnicity and even today as I'm here celebrating my wonderful friendship, close beloved friendship with your pastor and preaching, teaching as an African-American here and largely white congregation, all of these things remind us that Jesus Christ and the love that we find in him still is and always will be the most powerful force on the planet and God is winning despite it all.

Now this passage has kind of stuck out in my heart and it is even more appropriate than I had planned for it to be given the backdrop of this loss and this unexpected terrible incident, loss of life on yesterday and as you've heard we're gonna be talking about for the next three weeks my best life. Now I encourage you to talk back to me just a little bit so I know it's gonna be a little different for you but we're gonna try it anyway. Everybody shout my best life. No, no, no, y'all can do better. Shout my best life. There you go, there you go and if you're watching online just type that in the chat, my best life.

And I love this particular passage and here's what the Psalmist says, he says, "Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered and how fleeting my life is." I want to suggest to you that this is key to living your best life and I want to also suggest that this would be a remarkable moment for you to internalize this as kind of a daily or a prayer that you pray a couple of times a week especially this part. Remind me that my days are numbered and that life is fleeting. I don't want you to pray this in a morbid sense but I want to encourage you to pray this as you're asking God to make you mindful of how precious every day and every hour truly is because at the heart of this mindfulness it's really this question of how well am I managing my numbered days.

Turn to the person next to you and just ask them a basic question. Just ask them this question. If you don't know them just introduce yourself. By the way, I am. You can just introduce yourself and then ask this question. How well, go ahead ask them, how well are you managing your numbered days? If you're watching online just type in how well am I managing my numbered days? My numbered days. This is at the heart of what it means to live one's best life and I always add the word, whereas I talk about my best life, I add the words now. Everybody shout now. Now. My best life now. I add that word because so often we put off and say you know what I'm gonna live my best life when I get that dream house or when I get that promotion or when I move in my ideal community or when I get married. Some might be saying I'll live my best life when I get this divorce over. I don't know but but we can live our best lives in the power and reality that we find in Jesus Christ now. Shout now. Now. We can do it now.

So in order for you to get this let me define what I mean when I say best life. What I mean is it's not has nothing to do with the externals. How much money you have, how much power and influence you have, what you live. No, no, no, no. My definition of a best life is this. A life of deep joy. Shout joy. Joy that comes from the inside that is characterized by love. You know Jesus said you should love the Lord like God with all of your heart, all your mind, soul and strength. In other words He's calling us to pay attention to our vertical love connection, the health of our relationship with God and then He says you should love your neighbor as yourself and that is to suggest that we have to pay attention and make sure that our horizontal love connection, our relationships with one another are healthy and when the relationship with God and with others are healthy and when our lives are connected to a God-centered purpose that we live out every day we then live lives of deep joy and great peace.

That peace comes in every word, shalom, an integrated life that's integrated with God's purpose that lives out on our daily journey. That is the beginning of living my best life now. And I want to argue that the one who is best positioned to teach us how to do this, how to make sure that we manage our numbered days well is in fact Jesus because most of what we know about Jesus in the Gospels really captured Jesus in simply three and a half years of his life. Three and a half years from the time he enters the ministry to the time of death and crucifixion and ultimate resurrection, three and a half years. He has a lot to say about managing one's numbered days and living a life of great impact.

Listen to Jesus's invitation to all of us. He says this, "Come to me all of you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens," and this is not to suggest that in Jesus your final life that's free of weariness and heavy burdens, but it is a suggest that in Jesus you'll find a life that will not be defined by weariness and heavy burdens. He says, "I will give you shall rest, rest." Then he says, "Take my yoke upon you and let me teach you." This word yoke is often thought of in the context of that piece of wood that links two options together as they pull a heavy load and that is certainly appropriate, but Jesus is teaching in the rabbinical tradition and in his day every rabbi had a collection of teachings that was called a yoke and so it becomes even more powerful when we hear Jesus says, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

So I want to suggest to you that I pray that all of you here are followers of Jesus, disciples of Jesus, but if you're here watching online and you're not quite there let me at least invite you to be an apprentice at least for the next three weeks because the rabbi would use his yoke to teach to his apprentices. And when we think of what is the secret to live in my best life well it has everything to do with the rhythm and the pace and the focus of our lives and it has a lot to do with the techniques that we bring to bear.

You know a couple years ago I played tennis with a very good friend of mine, Pastor Jason Reynolds, pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church back in San Jose, California and he's about 20 years my junior and we went out to the tennis court, did I say he's 20 years my junior I think mention that, but we went out to the tennis court and I wish you could have saw me the first 20 minutes. Even though he was 20 years my junior I mean I was spectacular in the first 20 minutes. You should have saw me my backhand was working, my front hand, my slices, I mean I was you would have thought I was the long-lost brother of Serena and Venus William, I had to be. But once that 20 minutes was over I was huffing and puffing and missing balls and he walked off victoriously.

Well what was the difference between his game and my game? Well his game was predicated upon a certain rhythm. My game was shaped by my reacting, reacting. His game was predicated upon a certain pace that he said. My game I was racing from here to there and over there. His game had clear focus. He knew exactly where he's gonna hit the ball. My game I was scattered. I'm gonna hit it there, I'm gonna hit it there, I'm gonna go cut it out of the net. His game I tell you had pristine refined techniques. I was relying not on technique but on tenacity. And my friends is that not the way many of us live our lives? We have no sense of godly pace of rhythm to our lives, a kind of movement between rest and and reflection and prayer. We have the absence of focus, we are scattered, no sense of technique. You know I was often coming up just a few steps too short trying to hit the ball over there and over there and doesn't it feel that way for many of us? My goodness, you know you were gonna get home before the kids went to bed but you just keep coming just a little bit too short. This was the week you were gonna start your exercise routine but just a little too short.

I know that there are many who wake up like I have historically. You know when you wake up on Monday morning or Tuesday morning you wake up exhausted because you're living lives driven by tenacity and reaction and peace and rhythm. Well listen to Jesus's invitation to us today. He says walk with me and work with me and watch how I do it. Watch how I do life. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Can you say that say unforced rhythms of grace? Say it with me. We won't ever be perfect in this but but we'll grow and become better as we follow his lead shaping peace and rhythm to our lives.

And so it is John Mark Coma who says that if we're serious about being apprentice of Jesus and you know John wrote the book The Rootless Elimination of Hurry. He says there's really three goals that we should think about that we organize our lives around. One is to be with Jesus. We're gonna watch him model this in a few moments of how he was with the father. It was the core of everything else. Two is to become like Jesus at NBCC. Our goal is to live like Jesus, live in love like Jesus. Love. And thirdly is to do what Jesus would do if he was in your context, if he was you in your job, in your house, in your set of relationships to do what Jesus would do.

I like John Mark as he writes this about apprenticeship. He says this, "The whole point of apprenticeship is to model all of your life after Jesus and in doing so listen to recover your soul, to have the war part of you put back into shape, to experience healing in the deepest part of your being." This is what it looks like to live your best life now. A life of deep joy characterized by love and peace. Jesus is the teacher and the very first thing that we learn from Jesus if he was here right now he was in your context. Jesus would say to you, "You've got to slow down. You've got to pace your life." Can you just simply shout, "Paste your life."

I don't know whether you're a Warrior fan but I was watching the Warriors on Friday night and the one lesson that I kept screaming at the team was, "Slow down!" And when they did they ultimately won the game. Jesus was always busy but never in a hurry. You remember he was on his way to Jairus's house to heal Jairus's daughter when a woman came up in the crowd and touched the hem of his garments. He had been hemorrhaging for 12 years and he turned and he cared for her and she was healed. You remember that he presided over teaching to 5,000 plus people and when it was time for him to leave the stage he recognized because he's paying attention to the moment, to the details as he passed along the way that these people needed to be fed, they needed to have something to eat and facilitate. He wanted to agree this miracle was always busy. Never in a hurry. It was his pace. It was his rhythm and at the very center of this pace and rhythm it's really a secret and I'm going to describe this secret and this whole message is about this secret but if you would allow me just for a few moments, I usually don't do this but I'm going to use this kind of bad word to describe this secret so you'll forgive me in the aftermath but okay get ready here we go here's the bad word right here here it goes silence.

That's right you can go ahead and breathe now say thank God hallelujah. Shall silence. Yeah yeah yeah my suggestion is that silence often feels like a bad word in this culture does it not? We lock out silence in a variety of different ways every opportunity we have. Don't you know that when you go running or bike riding or go to the gym what is it? We have music and noise plugged into our ears. When we soon as we show up at home what do we do? We turn on the TV. Soon as we jump into the car we turn on the radio or whatever the player in that car is we just continue to keep ourselves surrounded by noise as though we are afraid of silence. One writer says this the noise of the modern world makes us deaf to the voice of God. Lost in the noise if not the noise of sound we're lost in the noise of social media that flows through our phones and we find ourselves are lost in the rhythm as we as we move between alerts and notifications.

So Jesus would say that the secret to pace and rhythm and focus for your life and my life is really found in this notion of learning how to quiet my life. Come on say it with me quiet my life. Type that in the chat quiet my life. Now this is a technique guys we often refer to this as silence and solitude and the suggestion of this message is that this is something that we should practice on a daily basis even if we begin and bite sides pieces of 15 minutes a day we'll come back to this at the very end but we need a time of silence to be with God.

Now let Jesus teach us as he models this. It's a fascinating passage in Matthew 4. It is at the very beginning of Jesus's ministry. Here's what Matthew says. He says that Jesus was led by the Spirit watch this into the wilderness for what purpose to be tempted by the devil. I find this a bit fascinating a little confusing at first glance because if you keep reading in the Gospel of Matthew by the time you get to chapter 6 he will remind us that when Jesus was teaching the rabbinical principles that we call the All Father Prayer there's that line in it where he will say pray this way lead us not into what temptation and yet here we find that Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. What in the world is going on here?

Well the best way to describe this is that this is just before Jesus launches his public ministry this is his final exam and if he passes this exam what he learns in this exam will have to be replicated again and again and again in order for him to manage well his numbered days and the first thing that we see in this in this in this notion of the wilderness is how he was tempted by the devil. This is going to be a confrontation that will recur again and again and again in a variety of ways but the second thing we notice in this remarkable passage is found in this word wilderness. Everybody say wilderness. This word wilderness this word wilderness notice the next verse it says then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted and there we find the word eremos. Eremos. This notion of wilderness the Greek word is eremos it can be translated wilderness desert solitary place or quiet there it is place. So on one hand that this remarkable confrontation that Jesus has will be replicated throughout his ministry as he seeks to manage his days well and yet the secret to his ability to to emerge victorious is found in this notion of quiet place. Somebody say hmm how does that work? How does that work?

Well well when the gospel writers introduced this the wilderness confrontation the temptation story we often talk about they always preceded with another story it's the story of Jesus coming down and going into the water to be baptized and he comes up out of the water on the other side of baptism the spirit that sins upon him in in the form and like a dove the text says and then the text tells us this remarkable thing here it says and a voice from heaven said Jesus heard this we're not sure anybody else heard but he heard this this is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy. Oh we're gonna return to this in a couple of weeks but just say this come on come say it with me say who brings me great joy. This is my dearly loved son.

Alright when we go back to the text that I just read just a few moments ago well we catch it right because in that moment when Jesus is in the wilderness the text reminds us that after he had been there for 40 days it says the tempter emerges and when the tempter emerges here's the first attack that he levies he says this if you are the Son of God then and the suggestion is that that at this very moment the tempter is attacking Jesus's sense of identity and purpose some theologian says that we don't know at what point Jesus becomes aware of being fully human and fully God but but it's emerging perhaps at this moment and yet there's enough gap there for there to be some insecurity and so on three different occasions in three different ways the tempter shows up and he essentially says to Jesus now you know you're not the Son of God and I know you're not the Son of God and everybody who's been around you for the last 30 years know you're not the Son of God but if you want to pretend like you're the Son of God well prove it somebody shout identity shout purpose and yet he was able to withstand not only through his use of the word but here's my contention revibrating in the silence over the course of those 40 days before the confrontation was the words of the father reinforcing his purpose this is my beloved son who brings me great delight and in the quietness Jesus would hear that again and again.

You see you and I need quiet time so that the father the votes from above can reinforce a purpose because if you don't let him do it somebody else is gonna tell you what your purpose is you know sometimes we're pursuing parents purpose or teachers purpose I remember when I was in college I went to college I was a I went there to be a political science major because I had it in my brain that I was gonna emerge into politics and become the first African-American president of the United States that was gonna be my goal I was ready y'all come on now and after the first half a semester I had a history course and talked by the department head he pulled me to the side he says look you really gifted you ought to be a history major I said well no I want to go to law school and he says well you can do that from any discipline be a history major so I became a history major few weeks a semester and a half later took a couple of philosophy courses also talked by the department he pulled me to the side he says wow you really gifted you ought to become a philosophy major when I'm a history major as well you can be a history and philosophy major so I became a history and philosophy major and then a few semester to have later I switched it and I became a philosophy and history major you see pursuing a sense of purpose all over the place like some of us scattered but then it was my senior year oh I had met the love of my life you saw a Rhonda and we'd fallen hit over heels in love and and and I put her on a bus and she'd come back to the San Francisco's we were in Grammar State University in Louisiana and and the Lord had began to impress upon me that I needed to get away with him quiet place I didn't know quite what it was but he arranged for me to have a house there during the Christmas break everybody's gone and in this house there was no TV there was no music I just I'm not my sister was I I worked on a day and I needed to see God doing that week and and and it was in that quiet place that he began to begin to surface in me that perhaps he's calling me not to be president but the priests the gospel and and and and and because my grand uncle was a preacher y'all I knew the inside story in case you don't know it it's not easy to be a pastor y'all come on now and so and so I said I don't want to I don't want to get shaky and tough time so you got you got a confirm it you got to make it clear but don't you dare send any angels in my in my house so after about a week of prayer I jump in the car hit it towards Christmas hit it to see my dad pull over and was called a sundown town means if you were black in the south you supposed to be out when the Sun was going down the Sun was going down and so I came out of the gas station hit it to the car the young white male started walking behind me and I turned abruptly when he called my name he said I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I didn't mean to frighten you I'm not even from this area I'm with a ministry team passing through and and all I know is that when you walked out of the door I was standing beside and God spoke to me and told me to tell you that he's calling you to preach his gospel praise be to God shout hallelujah oh that is the power of quiet times I've had to have that reinforced again and again over the years.

So in the quiet time he establishes identity and our purpose and then as I hasten to the conclusion he does one more thing I love Mark 1 he gives us a full day in the life of Jesus Jesus starts off he's he's teaching and he goes from that to healing Peter's mother-in-law and he goes from that to a whole afternoon and late evening of working miracles of healing the night comes he's thoroughly exhausted but watch what mark 1 says here this is remarkable watch this before daybreak shout before daybreak before daybreak the next morning while everybody else is asleep in that quiet time this is so central to his pace his rhythm his awareness of priority he says Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place Ermoss quiet place to pray if I shall pray quick lesson on prayer prayers two parts one part in prayer we talk to God the other part in prayer we listen to God you see say it with me say talk say listen the problem is for too many of us we only see prayer as a talking to God and we talk so much in prayer some of us God can't get a word through edgewise Jesus was talking and listening then y'all this is where it gets really excited later all the Sun comes up Simon that's Peter shows up with with the others and they went out they found him and they said listen Jesus you know everyone is looking for you I mean there's a house I mean TMZ is there Fox News is there CNN the cameras are there I mean social media's there I mean you're about to you about to be like a rocket ship come on let's get back and then notice what Jesus because in that moment of quiet time not only had his purpose but his priorities had been clarified and and and and so his reaction his answer to them was ah no let's try that this is a good word everybody shout no no no no no when in your quiet daily quiet time you allow you listen to God he shapes your priorities and rather than you're running for here and here and here you learn how to say and what to say no to so that your yeses will have great impact as you manage your numbered days.

Here's what he says you see we must go on to other towns as well and I will preach to them too you see because at the end of the day Jesus is saying I'm not pursuing fame or money or popularity I'm pursuing the purpose for which the father has put me on the planet that is why I came and as I pursue my divine purpose come on now maybe some of those other things may come as a byproduct but I'm not pursuing the byproduct I'm pursuing my God giving purpose and that purpose shapes my priorities.

And so in summary in the silence daily practice of silence God confirms our identity and purpose God clarifies our priorities so we'll know what to say no to and know what to say yes to and ultimately listen to this God cultivates our ability to be fully shall fully wholeheartedly completely present in the moment to be completely present to God but watch this if you and I in our quiet time learn to be completely present not divided but present to God then we'll be able we'll be able to replicate that and be completely present to our spouse or the person that we're dating to be completely present to the children when they're in dialogue with us rather than scattered and distracted completely present.

Now we're at the end I'm about to give you a homework everybody shout homework good message always have homework come on now well let me just give you something to make you interested in next week or two everything I've talked about in terms of creating quiet place has to do with quieting the external noise that's fairly easy just turn off the radio turn off the TV go down to the local park we have the greatest challenge is not with quieting the external noise how great a challenge is how do we silence the internal noises the voices that we hear oh come back next week next week we go unpack that y'all but let me give you your homework come on I want you to practice in a bite-sized way some quiet time every day this week so first of all I want you to set aside 15 minutes of quiet that means schedule it you pull out your phone whatever you schedule it and what am I gonna do doing this quiet time we can smell a little bit talking to God a little bit listening and then I want you to take some time and start reading through the book of Mark the gospel of Mark this is for you just a few however far you can move within that time frame set a timer on your clock and then as you read take this question as you read watch this ask yourself this question what is Jesus teaching me what is Jesus teaching me as I read in silence and if you want to take it another step forward John Elwitt has created an app called the one minute pause say it with me one minute pause say it one minute pause and it's it and the suggestion is that you schedule a couple of times during the course of your day a one-minute break a one-minute moment of silence you hit that app and it's got some music and some prayers and some to help you with 60 seconds of sacred silence you try that.

Here's a commitment message response I'm gonna ask you to make would you just make this commitment I will practice silence while engaging with God I will practice silence while engaging with God if you're ready to make that commitment just put your hand on your heart praise be the God and then here's the reflection question you might want to take a picture of this this is great his reflection question you got to wrestle with this what's most challenging to me why is it so hard for me to practice silence Lord God I says that there are people here who are aching to go to the next level of their relationship with you there are people here who are aching to be more efficient more impactful who are aching to live their best life now meet us in our quiet moments along the way in Jesus' name we pray.