AIRPLANE MODE
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“START FRESH”
“START FRESH”
Welcome
hope everyone had a great Christmas
Talk about today and New Year = New Year resolutions
read new year resolutions
Order every drink on the Starbucks Menu.
Stop drinking morning coffee AFTER you brush your teeth.
Celebrate Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas, in July…not!
Don’t only get your news from Twitter… try Facebook.
Limit yourself to two minutes to pick a Netflix movie. If it’s good, you’ll feel like you’ve uncovered a gem. If it’s bad, you’ll be asleep in no time.
aim to learn how to eat ice cream without getting brain freeze – a true skill worth developing!
Attempt to become fluent in emoji to communicate complex emotions more effectively.
Aim to become a morning person by hitting snooze only five times instead of ten.
Promise to resist the urge to start a new TV series until you finish at least one you’ve already started.
all these have to deal with doing something
we want to do and be more
talk about my plan this coming year church, and personal life
our lives quickly begin to look = car image
talk about working out MORE, working MORE, making MORE money……
being MORE, its all surrounded by doing something more = and thats not a bad thing at the surface level
but then you realize it takes you away from family time, time with your spouce, kids, = ultimatly from your time with God
looking back at the year = found message about rest…i think as we get ready to walk into a new year ready to change things about ourselves ready to do more lets look back on biblical rest shall we…
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
what if i told you Jesus’ desire for us was to start fresh?? let me say that again = start fresh, not a fresh start, ill explain
lets read and to do so lets go back to beginning
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And so goes day two, day three, day four, day five. God created; He saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. Boom.
lets move ahead
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
we just read gen 1 the creation story
gen 1 is written in poetry form = when we read it we can see the flow
theres rhythm and repetition, when things are repeated we begin to think that it is important, in the bible when a word or phrase is repeated it means its important its significant
we know that though = phone call from wife 1 no big deal, 12 uh oh…
And there's repetition in Genesis 1 that God created. He saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, there was evening, there was morning. Do you notice anything different about that?
I didnt until I really looked at it…
talk about morning and evening = get up get stuff done and then rest…
But that's not what God says. He says that there's evening, then there's morning, because what God is doing is He's introducing an alternative rhythm for our lives, a rhythm that doesn't start with work, a rhythm that starts with rest.
eveing morning cool morning evening cool, tomatoe tomato what are you getting at why does it matter…
well if your an Israelite, you cared. Genesis 1 was written down by Moses. Moses who was born in Egypt in Pharaoh's household who killed a man, fled, God called him to go back to Egypt to deliver his people, the Israelite people, the Jewish people who'd become enslaved to the Egyptians, who were enslaved to Pharaoh, to bring them out of Egypt and to take them to the promised land, the land that He had promised them.
And so the first people who heard Genesis 1, the first people who would've been able to read Genesis 1, were the Israelite people. And they were either enslaved in Egypt or they were wandering around in the wilderness just after leaving slavery.
And what did their life look like when they were slaves? They literally built the empire that enslaved them. They helped make the roads that the Egyptian armies traveled on. They helped build the monuments that declared Pharaoh's greatness. But most of all, they didn't do anything that grand.
Most of all, what they did was they made bricks. You worked sun up to sun down. And if you're a slave, what's the only question in your life that matters? It's when your Egyptian overseer asks you, "How many bricks did you make today?"
And in Genesis 1, God has a message to His people, the Israelite people. And here's His message,
"I'm not Pharaoh, I'm different. Your life is not the life of a slave. It's going to be different because I have a different rhythm for you to live because your value is not in what you do, your value is not in how many bricks you made, because your days will not start when the sun rises. Your days will start with rest because your value comes from what I say."
And Genesis 1, what God said to His people was, "I created you, I looked upon you, and before you'd ever done anything, before you'd ever made one brick, I said not that you were good, but that you were very good and that you were created in my image."
So what God says is, "I have a different rhythm for you to live as my people. It doesn't start with work, it starts with rest." Why? Because to rest is to trust that what God has done is enough. To rest is to trust that what God has done is enough.
but you see in our life today we have still made it about how much bricks we are stacking
when we meet someone new we always make it about the things we do Hey JS, it’s great to meet you. Hey, what do you do for a living? Where do you work? What do you do there? How many bricks can you make? What do you want to be when you grow up? How many goals / test score / year- end review / I want to be Jeff Bezos. He’s stacked a lot of bricks.
Here’s the problem—it’s a soul-crushing way to live. We do it to ourselves. We are our own Pharoah. Value is based upon what we cross off our to do list. Promotion / to do list / meals—Pinterest social media / side hustle / fitness - body image
we make it about our actions and our to-do list lets look at this scripture
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
do you see whats happening here God declared that he is well pleased with his son and that he loves him = chapter 4 is truly where jesus’ ministry begins so before Jesus even did anything God was already declaring his love and pleasure with his son
and if you are a child of God this morning, if you have given your life to God youve been adopted into Gods family he loves you not because of what you have accomplished or finished on your to do list but because of Done list…again Gods DONE LIST
What has God done, he created you, he saved, he healed you, he adopted you, he comforted you, he called you, he gifted you, he goes before you, he is with you—
God’s to done list means we can lay down our to do list
Clear—not anti-work message— evening and morning— go together—we rest and then we work—created to work, called to work alongside God—
working for approval, work from the approval—Start fresh = not a fresh start
so what is rest?
Sleep, worship song, a good meal with people you love, reading God’s Word, belly-laugh with a friend, a walk outside, prayer, vacation with people you care for
this New Year dont focus on all you must get done and work yourself to death rather focus on God and what he has already accomplished in and through you and aim to Rest more in him……
How do we include rest in our rhythm of life?
1. Daily Rhythm—evening and morning—eating dinner with your family talking about things of substance, reading Bible, prayer, walking the dog.
2. Weekly rhythm—7th day God rested, Sabbath, church
3. Seasonal rhythm—New Year’s party, anniversary celebration, vacation with family, a couple of days in the outdoors
Feel like the car—overstuffed—overloaded—rear end dragging. —(Car Pic again)
God says there’s a better way. It’s not just a fresh start. It’s to start fresh. To start with rest.
HOLY SPIRIT TAKE OVER……