Silence and Solitude

We have finished our Gospel series that revealed so much about Salvation. There may have people who thought that Salvation was works that we did, such as being baptized, or just serving in ministry. Some may have thought that just coming to worship services was enough to receive Salvation from God. As we know now Salvation comes through Christ Jesus alone. So after this Gospel series what's next for us learn and hear from God? Well God calls us to action to be committed to the kingdom work He set before us. It’s as if God is saying to us “Now you know go”, to all of us. Those of us who accepted the call we are being prepared to be used by God to reach the lost. We are in the final stages of our Discipleship labs and we are starting our small groups to grow together after our worship service. God will be placing people to lead our small groups, and different parts of ministry since we know the importance of the Gospel and discipleship. God will be using us in a major way. However in the midst of this there is a very important spiritual practice that most people in the faith neglect. This brings us to our sermon today titled Silence and Solitude. This practice is highly ignored from believers because we don’t know what it really is and how to incorporate it into our everyday lives. I believe this is one of the most important practice that we need to do as believers and we are going to look in to it today.

Foundational Verse today is Mark 1:32-39, in this passage we will see valuable things that Jesus did to model to us on How to find rest and renewal form the Father. Before we read this passage, lets back up and read verses 21-28 for context

Read 21-28:

Jesus came to the synagogue to preach and to teach about the kingdom of God to the lost children of Israel. Then He sees a man that is demon possessed and He heals Him. With this He started to be the talk of the town . People started to hear about how He taught and the miracles He performed. He started to become known and also needed more. God is going to use all of us and as we grow we will be needed for other areas for our ministry. God expects the church to serve the community in many different ways .

Read v 29-39:

New International Version (2011) Chapter 1

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. 35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Right after ministering to the people in the synagogue He went right to Peter’s house and healed his mother- in law. After that we see in entire town come to try to get healed by Jesus. He healed people in the house all evening going into the night. There are moments where we serve in our ministries, we do outreach, on top of having a family, and still working full time at our jobs. Nothing is wrong with those things, God gave us those things to steward for His kingdom, however, did God not create those things for us to operate them separated from Him. When we do this we are going to experience burnout. We start to experience tiredness, physically but more important spiritually. What does a church look like when everyone is spiritually burned out. It looks like believers going through the motions. It looks like just a Sunday morning church, with no spiritual rest and renewal. Once of the best strategies that the devil uses in the American Church is busyness and distraction, to ultimately bring burnout. The healing s that Jesus did was great, and it was to the glory of God that He did it, but even the Son as fully human needed rest and renewal.