The Jesus Life

Thank you. My name is Mark. I'm one of the pastors here and I want to welcome all of you, those of you in this room, Next Door and Venue tuning in on Facebook Live. We are so glad that you've joined us and we are especially glad that we're able to celebrate two people in our church that will celebrate their hundredth birthday already have this year. That is incredible. It is amazing and I don't know how much energy you had to marshal this morning to get here at a church but Florence has been here for all three services. We got to acknowledge that. That's just incredible. Thank you so much for being with us Florence.

I had the opportunity earlier this morning to ask Florence what her secret was to living to a hundred years old. Would you like to know what it is? She said it's bacon. It's not that. Sorry to disappoint you. No, without just skipping a beat she said the Lord God Almighty. Those are words to live by to a hundred and beyond for all eternity. Those are words to live by so thank you for your wisdom and your presence with us here this morning as well as to the rest of you.

We are kicking off a brand new message series today called Rhythm. It is about the spiritual practices of Jesus because Jesus lived in this steady rhythm. For example, he was surrounded by massive crowds but he also took time to be alone. He feasted but he also fasted. Every single thing that he set out to accomplish in life he did but he was never in a hurry. His life had this rhythm to it.

Now meanwhile we live in such a perpetual state of busyness and hurry all the time don't we? Someone asks you how are you doing? How have you been? What do we say? Busy. I've been busy. Just busy. Parents are busy. Kids are busy. Students are busy. Grandparents are busy. People crawling down Highway 1 at three miles an hour they're busy. So I think we can all learn something from the spiritual practices and life of Jesus and we chose this series at this time in particular because this Wednesday Lent begins and Lent is a way that Christians really going back to the beginning it wasn't always called Lent but these practices have been adopted by Christians as a way of preparing ourselves for Easter.

So over the next 40 days people will maybe praying in a particular way or practicing a solitude or fasting or something like that but again it's not just about giving something up we often think about that at the time of Lent giving things up but it's really about making space to add things that connect us with God and others but so often are crowded out by our busy lives.

Now some of you may have been practicing Lent for decades you're aware of the blessings and benefits others of us maybe are like that's kind of weird I my family didn't do that my church didn't do that why would I want to do that? Well think of it this way how many of you have noticed that your garage has a way of magically filling itself up with stuff ever see and if you don't have a garage maybe a room in your house a closet a drawer you'll never find yourself stepping back and thinking wow what am I gonna do with all that space it's just not gonna happen.

Since confession is good for the soul church how many of you have a car and you have a garage but you cannot park the car in the garage any of us in that club I'm in that club right now even though our garage is the same size that it's always been car that we've had for 18 years it hasn't gotten any bigger it just doesn't live in the garage anymore it has been evicted by all of the stuff that's there and my friends that's our lives busy cluttered out of space and this is no small thing because when this happens it impacts every single one of our relationships including our relationship with God.

Pastor and author John Ortberg put it this way he says in one of his books and I'm indebted to him for some of my thoughts today but he says for many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith it is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it we just skim our lives instead of actually living them that's wise and you know what the same is true for your marriage your relationships with your kids your friends your neighbors the great danger is that we will skim these relationships rather than living deeply in them and that's a tragedy.

And perhaps you're like me every so often I'll reflect I'll take inventory of my relationships and there are times when I do this I'm weighed down by the realization that that you know as a follower of Jesus as a husband father friend far too often I settle for mediocrity in other words the trivial things are in the garage and the things that are most important are relegated to the driveway or curb you know what I'm saying?

Well here's the good news if you relate to any of this Matthew 11 records in chapter 11 a day when Jesus cried out to a group of people with mediocre lives and he said this to them he said come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest 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 for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Now to be clear Jesus is not saying come to me if you need a vacation although that's a good blessing or come to me if you think that your life might need a little bit of a tune-up he's saying come to me if you're aware that your whole life needs to be transformed by me so this is a powerful invitation and so let's take a few moments to look at it a little bit more closely.

For starters the group that Jesus is addressing here his audience these are not people who you would say had their lives all nicely put together okay they weren't movers and shakers they weren't necessarily important in fact it just two verses earlier Jesus refers to them as children because they're needy they're not sophisticated but if you look back a few verses even earlier than that in Matthew 11 you'll see that Jesus rebukes the towns where he did most of his miracles and he does this because the people living in those towns had hard hearts when Jesus invited them to follow him they say essentially no things we don't really need you.

And as is so often the case those leading the resistance were the spiritual elites the religious rulers the scribes the Pharisees the priests who are so comfortable with what you might call their spiritual correctness that they had no need for Jesus at least in their estimation but the people that Jesus is addressing here in Matthew 11:28–30 these people are weary they are burdened they are weighed down by among other things religious expectations that they cannot live up to and certainly they would have their own personal expectations and standards that they cannot live up to either rather they are burdened by the ongoing trials and toil of life problems fears wounds weary and full of worries and perhaps today maybe you just find yourself in that same place.

And if that's the case maybe as a way of uncovering that a little bit I put in your notes under the heading 10 signs that you are weary and burdened a little opportunity for some self-assessment here and I got these from a book that I've been reading called the ruthless elimination of a hurry by a pastor named John Mark Comer and again I've drawn from some of his thoughts here today but it's a really good book.

But I want you to see if some of these apply to these 10 signs that you are weary and burdened and if you want to be really brave I put next to those different signs a little place for you to put a little checkmark if you're you know really brave maybe you want to do that later when there's not someone sitting next to you looking down at your notes seeing how messed up you are so however you want to do that I hope you will take this to heart and actually think about this.

For example do you find yourself experiencing irritability you might have to ask your spouse your kids your co-workers for in order to get an honest answer right or how about hypersensitivity and perhaps the words how dare you or you have no idea if those have left your lips sometime recently and you're offended that I'm bringing that up you might want to check that little section just saying or maybe you struggle with restlessness you're kind of like a shark you can never stop swimming right which can account for a workaholism non-stop activity always have to have something to do almost as if you have to stay ahead of thoughts and emotions that you're not able to simply sit with.

Or maybe your weariness and burdens have left you in a state of emotional numbness you just don't care anymore and if we get to that place it can cascade into some of these other signs out of order priorities lack of care for your body escapist behaviors and along the way you've probably experienced if you've gone through the cycle there is a slippage of spiritual practices it's like I can't stay I can't even focus when I pray I just get distracted or I open my Bible it's so hard to just read and try to understand it's so much easier to just look into a screen that doesn't require really anything of me but my eyeballs.

And as these things accumulate in our lives eventually we end up feeling isolation from God and from others which is not a great place to be so aren't you glad you came to church today got to go the go down the bummer list right but if you if you actually resonate with some of these things or many of these things I want to assure you you are not alone a lot of us experience this maybe be experiencing it right now.

I can tell you there's times in my life I can specifically think of I would have checked all ten of these things well the good news is this because if that's you Jesus is calling out to you today come to me if you're weary and burdened I will give you rest I will give you what you need and notice what he says he says take my yoke upon you and learn from me now what does that mean it means his yoke is his authority it's his teaching it's his very way of life and so Jesus is calling us to surrender to him to submit to his lordship in our lives.

But we don't have to be afraid of that because after all this is Jesus who reminds but I'm I'm gentle I'm humble and hard I'm not I'm not like those who burden you like the religious authorities or religion itself my yoke is easy my burden is light this is really the heart of what I have to say to you this is this points to something that I think so often we miss in our Christian culture follow me because so often we focus on what Jesus has to say we want we want to dive into you know issues that inform our theology in our doctrine and that is all good and necessary but sometimes we do that at the expense of how he actually teaches us to live.

So you might say there is the truth of Jesus but there is also the way of Jesus how he lived his life that he offers to teach us here in this invitation. In fact you may be aware that before Christians were called Christians before they even had their scriptures especially the New Testament available to them they were called followers of the way because after all that's what followers do they imitate the life of their master which seems so simple and yet we can walk away around with Jesus in our head but somewhat scarce in our lives.

And that brings us really to the big idea not just for this morning but this entire series in fact I hope this is something that will lodge itself in our hearts our souls and our imaginations and it is this if I want to experience the life of Christ and I'm assuming you do his love his joy his peace his rhythm of life if I want these things I need to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus the lifestyle.

Now to get a picture of this I want you to think of the difference between a fan and a follower okay for instance how many of you would say you are a fan of the Golden State Warriors okay I'll look around the room if I ask this question a year ago three times as many hands would have shot up right and I will I will admit that I'm somewhat of a fair weather fan I wasn't following them during the you know the we believe Warriors and the Don Nelson Warriors and stuff like that I jumped on the bandwagon like a lot of you about four or five years ago when what it was Steph and clay and Iggy and Draymond and then Kevin Duran it's like this is amazing what is not to be excited about I mean it's incredible I would I would watch just about every single game because the payoff was there right.

Now not so much huh I mean a year ago I could have gone down the list of their roster I could have told you about everyone on the team this year I'm like who's that guy keep shifting between here and in San Francisco and I guess you could say I know enough about this year's team that I was able to recognize one of their rookie players in Macy's on Friday afternoon in part because he was really really tall but I go he I've seen him he plays for the Golden State Warriors I didn't know his name though and so I ducked behind some clothes and I looked it up on my phone looking I I find him on their roster and I go oh yeah there he is that's Alan to male a bitch or something like that.

And so now armed with confidence in this new Intel I walk up to him and I say hi oh aren't you Alan some my one but a bitch from on the Warriors and he's like oh yes and he's 610 so I'm like looking up at Goliath when I'm meeting him he was very nice and what I what I should have said in that moment was it's nice to meet you have a great day done that's what I should have done.

However it was as if the spirit of a character that Chris Farley used to play kind of overtook me and so what I actually said was um I really like watching you remember that time you played Phoenix you scored ten points that was awesome and it got worse you you place so happy sure he was really looking for that one but I was not done I wasn't done to show how much of a superfan I am I actually said to him so how do you pronounce your name anyway he looks at me goes some a little bitch oh yeah some a little bitch that's right I knew that and then I was thinking that name it sounds like my neighbors relatives who are all from Croatian I've learned a little bit about Croatian culture and stuff like that so I go so are you from Croatia and he looks down from 610 he goes no Serbia and if you know anything about how much the Serbians and the Croatians love each other you know that was just a choice moment about the time it was time to kind of pull the ripcord and just kind of bail out before he like punched me or something.

But it exposed just the shallowness of you know my awareness of the team or in particular him like my mediocre relationship was just laid bare right there and listen this is what Ortberg is getting it it's talking about when he talks about skimming life skimming relationships skimming faith it's like well jeez I'm a fan of yours I knew some of your stats and stories I show up at some of your gatherings I would even follow you on Instagram if I could I really would but then when our lives get turned upside down or we just find ourselves in a perpetual state of feeling weary and burdened we wonder what in the world is wrong with our faith is it possible that we've confused being a fan with a follower?

Because again if I want to experience the life of Jesus it goes beyond just things I might agree to in my head it means adopting emulating the lifestyle of Jesus and so in the time that we have left I just want to point out two things that we can apply to make this more of a reality in our lives of course it's God's work but he invites us to follow him and so just two things we can apply every single one of us and the first one is this living like Jesus means making space for my relationship with God hurry non-stop busyness left unchecked will strangle your time with God it will strangle your relationship.

In fact and I want you to see how Jesus deals with this in his own life fascinating in Luke 5 it says that the news about him that's Jesus spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses but watch this Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

So the situation is Jesus in his ministry he's become so popular he's become viral as we would say crowds would have flocked him 24/7 how does he respond he withdraws often he is known for peeling off by himself so that he can pray so that he can spend time alone with his father that's the rhythm of his life that we're talking about from the intensity of the crowds to the privacy of prayer Jesus had compassion he had patience he had margin for the crowds in part because he was relentless about getting away by himself to pray.

Now just think about that for a moment because if Jesus Christ God incarnate if that's how he lived seeking solitude prayer silence if that's how he lives what makes us think that we don't need those things to that we can live some other way?

And not only does Jesus living like Jesus look like making space for a relationship with God it also means making space for my relationships with other people. I love this next little passage I want to take you to it's in Mark 6 because in it you see not only is Jesus aware of how the demands of ministry and crowds and people have a toll on him but he's also looking out for his disciples here where it says starting at verse 31 he says 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 so they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

Now you owe it to yourself to read the rest of this passage because it's kind of it's hysterical because they head off across the lake to the solitary place meanwhile the crowds figure out where they're gonna go and they start running along the shoreline they're like racing all the way around by the time the boat arrives at this you know presumably solitary shore the crowds have beat them Jesus turns to disciples like sorry guys no vacation least we had the boat ride.

But what I love about this is that even if you go just goes to show even the best laid plans can be sabotaged not by the evil desires of other people these people you know they they had wonderful desires but it goes to show how sometimes we just can't keep up with every single agenda every single need because as they compound in our lives they conspire to crowd out our relationship with God and for those most close to us and it will happen every time.

This is why by the way that on his last evening with his disciples before he would be crucified just maybe our two before he was arrested he would say these words to them and these have to carry a lot of weight right because he's a kind of famous last words in John 15 he says this to his disciples as the father has loved me so have I loved you now remain in my love if you obey my commands you will remain in my love just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete in other words just copy me guys the way I loved God the way I loved you I want you to do the same and then he just kind of distills it all down my command is this love each other as I have loved you.

Now many of us are familiar with this passage you agree with it you want it in your lives how do we make space for it how do we make space for this kind of love to grow and to flourish when I want to encourage you to flip your notes over to the back panel because this is where this this idea of spiritual practices kind of connects this rhythm of life we're gonna be looking at some of the life habits of Jesus ways that he lived that these things are often called spiritual practices and they're things like meditation and memorization fasting and feasting solitude slowing and much more Jesus did all of these things and more.

And you may have noticed by the way how society is catching up with the wisdom of these things they are becoming more and more part of people's things that they want to be about and I hope that you will be I hope that you will you will see this between now and Easter as a time where by shifting up your life just a little bit it makes room for things that otherwise get crowded out and again this is not about adopting a bunch of rules it's about you know removing some of the clutter so that there are there's space for the things that matter most and wouldn't we all want to experience that?

And I need to say you know our culture has a number of notions about what it looks like to invest in our spiritual lives you know for some it's I go to yoga class a couple times a week others might be I go for walks on the beach or or in the forest for many of us it's gathering here church on a weekly basis which is a wonderful thing that we're called to do but in the final analysis in both the Old Testament and the New Testament true spirituality comes down to really two things loving God with our whole being and loving others as ourselves that is true biblical and Christian spirituality the love of God and the love of others.

And it goes I need to mention this only can happen through God's power through it's his project not our willpower but at the same time in this invitation in Matthew 11 Jesus is inviting us to cooperate with this process in our lives he's giving us an opportunity to walk with him and learn from him and along those lines I want to give you kind of a key principle that that's important to bear in mind in the midst of this subject today which is this there is a huge difference between trying and training.

We might say well hey that sounds good I might try to do that or I might try to do this well you might try to run a marathon tomorrow too but the only people that actually finish marathons are the people who what train they trained for it they grow into it and these spiritual practices are a way of training ourselves to live in the ways that Jesus lived it's like if you're in a boat a sailboat if you want to go from one place to another the only thing you can really do is raise the sail right you can't create the wind but as you do you position yourself for the power of that wind to propel you along and that's essentially what we're talking about with these practices.

And for the sake of clarity I want to make three quick notes about spiritual practices the first one is this a spiritual practices are not necessarily unpleasant okay it's not about going oh Lord I'm gonna suffer for you because that's gonna prove something not at all I mean even fasting I have friends in this church who fast regularly year-round for both the physical and spiritual benefits and they will tell you that it's like no big deal like they don't go on to like the torture rack every time they they fast it's just something they've incorporated into their life it's a part of the natural rhythm of their week.

Now candidly I'm a bit of a lightweight in that regard and so last year for Lent I decided to declare a fast with Twitter I know that's very deeply spiritual of me to do but I did it's the only social media I do and I don't even really tweet I just have it so I can get news and information from sources that I want to get it from but it can be a real time sink though you might know that you know and so I thought well I'm gonna fast from this I'm not gonna do that because I'm sure there are things I could put into that space that would be more valuable and it turns out a it was completely unpainful and B I did fill that space with with a much more valuable things I also it was somewhat enlightening at the same time because no sooner did I just stop you know going to my little Twitter thing then I could tell the algorithm started to freak out at the Twitter server somewhere and I get these emails somebody's so-and-so tweeted this you ought to check out that and like please come back we miss you we want you to be a part of the board going forward and it was like kind of weird and freaky and funny all at the same time.

But my point is this and I assure you I have fasting doesn't necessarily involve food but even if it does it does not necessarily need to be unpleasant it could actually be very very joyful that's why people who do it continue to do it.

Another thing this this is huge spiritual practices are not about earning God's favor it's not like if I I do something Lord I meditate I pray I spend time alone you're gonna love me more you can answer my prayers more favorably any of that stuff this is not about earning any of God's favor he already loves you more than you can even begin to imagine again this is about centering ourselves making space so that we can actually experience his love to be transformed by his love to be filled with it in such a way that it flows out of us into the lives of those around us in other words you might put it this way spiritual practices are about making space for grace that's all it is because there are good and beautiful things that God does I believe want to pour into our lives but if there's no room in our hearts he's not just gonna foist these things upon us.

So in closing I would encourage all of us this morning to answer this question how will I respond to Jesus's invitation this invitation that he says come to me not just again to the life of Jesus but to the lifestyle to learn from him as he leads us earlier in this message I mentioned how I fumbled through my conversation with Alan Smilovich that's how you actually say it I think that's as close as I get but again it was because after all I'm kind of a fair weather fan being a follower is much different.

Being a follower reminds me of a time when my son Luke was three and a half four years old and Luke was obsessed with Superman Luke wanted to be Superman so bad he lived in that costume I'm not kidding you for at least an entire summer maybe longer I don't had to peel the thing off him but when he was wearing that suit he was just caught up with this idea of being Superman and that man you know he was fearless I mean he could face anything because after all he was Superman and as Superman man he was strong man he just any challenge he was up for it.

Now yeah we look at that go well that's that's sweet that's cute your son gotta you know do what kids do get caught up in their emotion and and their imagination and that's that's all very quaint but then again wasn't it Jesus after all who said if you want to enter my kingdom you have to become like a what a child see child a children teaches something about what it means to be a follower because followers are not content to merely know about their heroes followers actually want to be their house to be like them in every way they can.

And so again how will you respond to Jesus invitation to teach you to teach me how we might be the same in regards to him our ultimate hero because he is still calling out today saying are you tired worn out burned out on religion come to me get away with me and you'll recover your life I'll show you how to take a real rest walk with me and work with me watch how I do it learn the unforced rhythms of grace I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

Now doesn't that sound good amen say amen if that sounds good amen well then let's go to him in prayer.

Heavenly Father we thank you so much for the opportunity to gather together today and Lord I'm mindful of the fact that this life that we talk about the invitation to follow our Lord Jesus none of that would be possible for were not for what he did on the cross nor would it be possible were not for his resurrection that is the foundation of our faith and Lord my prayer for all of us here in this church people listening online wherever is that over the course of this this season ahead of us the season of Lent the season of preparation that Lord you would you would draw us in that we would just be positively drawn to the opportunity to make space in our lives so that when when Easter does arrive and Good Friday arrives it's not just like a blip on the calendar of our busy lives but that we're able to enter into it with such a richness such a fullness because we have been anticipating it we've been preparing for it we've been making room for it in our lives and it would just blow our socks off with wonder and joy and awe when that day arrives.

And so Lord as we journey towards it during this season would you draw us by your spirit would you empower us to lean in to the opportunity that we have in the weeks to come and may you bless us and enrich us and grow us as we follow our Lord and Savior our hero Jesus Christ all God's people said amen amen.