Healthy Rhythms
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Story of 16 year old buying the cheapest price to own a car...
(how many know that the cheapest option is not always the best option?)
When I was planning this sermon months ago,
I was thinking about
the current state of the church.
Specifically,
in the Western Christian world.
I find that the story of this young 16-year-old
is all too familiar
with what I see happening in the American church.
It is the idea of focusing on the minimum requirements
to be saved and get into heaven....
It’s the idea of asking,
What is the easiest way for me to get into heaven
without it disrupting the life I want to live?
or
How can I get into heaven
without it costing me too much here on earth?
What has transpired because of this type of questioning
is that we have turned everything into a salvation issue.
What I mean is,
we have turned matters of spiritual health
into matters of spiritual life or death.
Let me illustrate it this way...
A doctor could say you need to lose weight for your health.
And all of us in this room would probably not take that as,
If I don’t start losing weight in the next few months,
I am going to die.
Rather, what we would hear the doctor saying:
if I want to be as healthy as I can be,
I need to lose some weight.
If I want to have more energy,
less joint pain,
and the ability to live an overall healthier life
that will probably be prolonged,
I need to lose weight...
In the same way,
in the spiritual life,
there are things
and practices we can do
to live healthier spiritual lives.
It does not mean that if we do not do these things,
we are going to spiritually die.
It simply means
we may not
be as spiritually healthy as we could be.
Spiritual health translates into a better marriage,
a healthier family,
and an overall healthier life of faith.
And how man know God wants bless us in those area’s?
It is important to understand,
that there are life-giving principles
throughout the Bible.
God has given us these instructions
because He knows what is best for us.
Think about it this way:
The creator of something
always knows the most about his creation.
So if God created us,
of course He knows the inner workings of our lives.
He knows what brings life.
He knows what strengthens us.
And He knows what can lead us toward greater spiritual health...
But I want to make something very clear
before we go any further.
If you don’t do everything I’m going to talk about this morning,
that does not mean you are not saved.
This is not about condemnation.
It is not about creating false guilt.
And it is certainly not about bringing shame into your life.
I am going to be unpacking these things today,
because, as your pastor,
part of my responsibility is to help disciple you—
to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus
so that you can turn around and disciple others.
(disciples produce disciples)
And as our church continues to grow,
we are going to continue to see people
who are new to the faith come through these doors.
Which means we all need to continue growing spiritually,
so that we can become the spiritual leaders
who help grow disciples.
(35 baptisms)
A few months ago,
I really felt the Lord putting it on my heart
to unpack some healthy spiritual rhythms that are shown throughout Scripture.
These are rhythms that my family and I have practiced—
not because we have it all figured out,
but because we’ve seen the value of them in our own lives.
And more importantly,
we believe they are revealed to us in Scripture.
My hope this morning is simple:
That as we walk through these things together,
God would show each of us areas where we can grow.
Not so that we can think we are somehow more spiritual than everyone else,
but so that we can grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus,
become healthier in our walk with Him,
and more fully live out what He has called us to be...
Today’s sermon is titled Healthy Rhythms.
I am going to unpack 4 points this morning:
1. Be with Jesus
2. Be with Jesus People
3. Rest in Jesus
4. Give to Jesus
Be with Jesus
Spiritual health begins with spending time with Jesus. 2x
Jesus said,
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
To have lasting fruit in your life,
it begins with abiding with Jesus.
Abiding with Jesus
is simply remaining in fellowship with Him throughout the day.
It is abiding with Jesus through His Word,
staying in continual conversation with Him through prayer,
and inviting Him into our everyday lives through worship.
We have to be careful
not to compartmentalize our faith.
Faith is a lived action
that shows up over and over again.
And to have a robust faith that is lived
means we have to make it a part of our daily rhythms.
I encourage you,
if you don’t do this right now,
to have daily time in the Word.
Make it a priority in your life.
The Word is living,
and we have this beautiful honor and privilege
to open up the Living Word each day.
Maybe you don’t like to read.
Listen to the Word through a Bible app,
let it shape your life and speak to you each day.
The Word brings transformation—
So make it a part of your daily rhythm.
As you allow the Word to shape you,
it is amazing how it affects your prayer life.
The more I uncover how Jesus has revealed Himself,
the greater depth I have
in my ability to communicate with Him through prayer.
Let prayers of thanksgiving be on your lips throughout the day.
Don’t have prayer be a rare occurrence in your life,
but have daily,
intentional communication with Jesus.
When prayer becomes a conversation with God,
it is not about getting the language perfect.
Rather it is about inviting the God of heaven
into the daily moments of your life.
Invite God into your everyday life,
and allow your work to become an act of worship to Him.
Having daily times of singing songs of worship to God
is a profound way He shapes our hearts.
Worship is,
of course,
not limited to songs,
but worship through songs is a way of connecting with God.
Psalm 22:3 in the King James Version makes this statement that God
“inhabitest the praises of” His people,
The ESV would phrase it that God is
“enthroned on the praises of” His people.
I believe worship awakens our spiritual senses
to a reality that is already present:
God is already near us,
but i believer worship helps us become more aware of His presence.
What I have found is that when we begin to worship,
our awareness of this reality of God’s presence
becomes recognized by the worshiper.
God is always present,
but our awareness of this fact is not always there...
You may have experienced this.
You begin singing songs of worship,
and it’s like life begins to flow again,
as you are energized by the Holy Spirit...
Abiding with Jesus can come about through different ways,
but the important thing is that you invite Jesus into your daily rhythm
and make time with Him a priority....
(It looks different for everyone… abiding with Jesus needs to be a part of your daily rhythm...)
Healthy Rhythm...
Be with Jesus
Be with Jesus People
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
You don’t have to go to church to be saved.
But I firmly believe that if you want to grow into the fullness of what God has for your life,
you need to gather together with the people of God.
Going to church is not about you being saved,
it is about you growing into spiritual health.
I think it is easy to get hurt in a church
and stop going because you don’t want to get hurt again....
But I think it is important not to allow your experience
to speak louder than Scripture.
Scripture demonstrates the reality
that we need to be in fellowship with other believers.
One of the reasons for this
is that God uses His people
to sharpen us into who He created us to be.
17 Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.
Believers become dull
when they begin to remove themselves from the fellowship of other believers...
(If you are never challenged… you will never grow...)
[Ai platforms… ChatGPT make you made delete....)
There’s another reality we can miss about gathering together as a church family:
God has not just called us here to receive;
He’s called us here to give.
When we gather together,
we should not just be thinking,
What am I going to get out of this?
We should also be thinking,
What can I give to the people around me?
God may have you at this church
because there is someone here
who needs what God has placed inside of you to give,
for such a time as this.
God may have placed you alongside a particular believer
because there is something He has equipped you to give them.
And you may have no idea what kind of lasting impact that one conversation,
that one word of encouragement,
or that one act of obedience could have—
not only on that person,
but on future generations.
Being around Jesus people
is not just about receiving what others have to give you;
it is also about what God wants to give through you....
(insight in the Word, Testimony, word of encouragement)
Healthy Rhythm...
Be with Jesus
Be with Jesus people
Rest in Jesus
In the creation account in Genesis,
God creates the universe in six days,
and on the seventh day, He rested.
We move into Exodus,
and God hands down these Ten Commandments,
and the fourth commandment is,
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
We get into the New Testament,
and the religious leaders have created this rigid structure
to make sure the Sabbath is kept.
Jesus stepped into that structure 2,000 years ago
and healed on the Sabbath.
And I think because of what Jesus did,
we may have missed the point of why He did it,
and have drifted away from something God intended.
Many times in modern Christianity,
we have not taken a day of rest
because we have missed the point of what Jesus was doing.
Jesus was disrupting a religious system
that had become far removed from the heart of God
by healing on the Sabbath.
But it’s important to understand—
Jesus was not eliminating the importance of the Sabbath.
Rather,
He was confronting
what the religious leaders had distorted the Sabbath to become.
It’s important to remember something Jesus said
that we can sometimes forget
when it comes to the Sabbath.
Jesus said in Mark 2:27,
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
The idea is that the Sabbath was made for people to rest,
not to have another thing weighing them down.
The religious leaders missed the point of honoring the Sabbath
by making the Sabbath an idol,
which became a greater burden than a blessing.
God created a day of rest for man,
to be a blessing and not a curse.
And what often happens is,
something beneficial that God creates,
man has a way of twisting it
into something it was never meant to be.
Taking a day of rest
is meant to help us reorient ourselves,
to remember the priorities of the Kingdom,
to have quality family time,
to rest and be refreshed...
Taking a day of rest was designed by God
to give us a healthy rhythm
where we can stay physically refreshed
and spiritually refreshed....
(Monday’s a day off)
There is another aspect of rest that we need to understand
when it comes to finding rest in Jesus.
Remember,
Jesus spoke to people who were tired and weary,
and He said,
“Come to me, and I will give you rest.”
Finding true rest
will not come outside of finding rest in Jesus.
Trying to find rest outside of Jesus,
in the things this world offers,
may give you the illusion of rest,
but it will never give you lasting rest...
The author of Hebrews,
in chapters 3 and 4,
talks about entering into God’s rest.
And one of the main points the author makes
is that some people failed to enter that rest
because of their disobedience and unbelief.
And I think there is a principle here we need to understand:
You cannot experience the fullness of God’s rest
while knowingly holding on to the things
God is asking you to let go of.
If you’re hiding things in the closet,
or holding on to things in your life
that you know are not pleasing to God,
you will not experience the rest God is offering you.
It doesn’t matter how many Sabbaths you take,
you will never enter into the rest Jesus is offering
while you’re holding on to things
that need to be surrendered.
God is inviting you into a rest—
a rest with no strings attached,
a rest that refreshes the soul...
Healthy Rhythm...
Be with Jesus
Be with Jesus people
Rest in Jesus
Give to Jesus
Genesis 4
is the first recorded account in Scripture
of someone giving something back to God as an offering....
(Cain and Able… before the law...)
Cain gave some...
Able gave “the best portion”
(point is Cain gave his leftovers… Able gave his first and best)
[prosperity Gospel… healthy, wealthy, and blessed]
There is a tendency to give God what we have left over
instead of giving God our first and our best.
When it comes to giving our time to God,
we give Him whatever time we have left over.
And if we don’t have any time left over,
we simply skip our time with God
and move on to the next day.
If it is with our gifts and talents,
we give our first and our best to something else,
and if we have anything left over,
then we give our gifts and talents to God.
And when it comes to our finances,
we give our first and our best
to the things we value most.
And then,
if anything is left over,
we give that to God.
But if there is nothing left over,
then God gets nothing...
19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
I’m a firm believer that if you believe this verse,
you are able to give your first-fruits to God.
And if you don’t believe this verse,
it will be impossible to give your first-fruits to God.… (God supply all my needs)
[we do not talk much about giving here… more weightier matters]
{When Jesus talked about tithing… Luke 11:42 and Matthew 23:23...}
Ultimately, giving to Jesus
means giving Him our first and our best—
our time, our talents, and our finances—
because we honor God with these things.
We give to Jesus
because He is worthy of our best...
Healthy Rhythm...
Be with Jesus
Be with Jesus people
Rest in Jesus
Give to Jesus
(As a Father.… illustration… God the Father wants what is best…)
