Then Our Souls Can Sing!
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Then Our Souls Can Sing!
Then Our Souls Can Sing!
Intro - Rest.
Not rest like sleep. Rest like a total lack of stress [compare to weight lifting]
…When we find that rest, it is then that our souls can sing.
…going to look at three pieces of scripture that speak to that rest, and to that idea, and that direct us toward what it is that we all really need for our souls to sing the glory of God.
We begin that with a look at the rest that we can all agree upon, but that even then we get wrong.
One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him:
how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:
[pray]
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[pray]
Mark 2:
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
If we are going to seriously discuss rest, it is important that we first contrast that idea with it’s opposite, just so we can get the right idea.
[treating Sunday as our only day of rest]
[work has become the goal of all Americans…euphemisms about hard work…work for the weekend…try to make money…]
[work has become the drive behind all we do…we have forgotten that we weren’t really created for these tasks, after all, there is no pastor, no teacher, no accountant, no jobs as we know them in the Garden.]
…So if that isn’t God’s plan for us, and our intended motivation
[pic of tiger woods]
[
[we get that idea from popular culture…]
[we hear them talk about their passion and see their results, and especially see their wealth, and we assume that it is only through persistent effort that we will get what we want! Worst yet, we conflate that work with the success, and all we see is the money or the prestige.]
…We are training ourselves and our children to be increasingly materialistic, and worse yet, we treat our faith like that too. Success in faith means a big church, or more ministries, or fancy presentations, or book sales. But that isn’t at all what God wants.
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
God wants us to honor and trust Him enough to appreciate the gifts He has given us. And not only appreciate them, but to use them and set them as the rest our hearts desperately need.
[all we create gets in the way of what God has created. THE RULES WE HAVE, WHEN NOT VIEWED THROUGH CHRIST’S LENS DISTRACT US FROM THE GIFTS OF GOD THAT WERE CREATED FOR US TO FIND REST IN!
[sunsets, sunrises, mountains, all that stuff…it is all intended to fill us with peace - the rest and trust in the God who loves us]
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
You see, God’s rest is peace…[elaborate]
[Memorial Day tie in]
…Peace must become our passion, because it is our passion that drives us to be who we are meant to be! Just like Tiger Woods, or the other greats of our time, they have a passion for something, and that passion leads them to greatness! So too must we have a passion for Christ so that we can become great in Him!
He continued this subject with his disciples. “Don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion.
There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.
Look at the ravens, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, carefree in the care of God. And you count far more.
“Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?
If fussing can’t even do that, why fuss at all?
Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?
“What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving.
People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works.
Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.
“Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on.
It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
He continued this subject with his disciples. “Don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion.
There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.
Look at the ravens, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, carefree in the care of God. And you count far more.
“Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?
If fussing can’t even do that, why fuss at all?
Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?
Luke 12:22-
Understand, church, that our passion must be Christ. Just as the lilies are passionate and driven towards the sun, so too we must grow towards God’s Son!
Luke 12:
Understand, church, that our passion must be Christ. Just as the lilies are passionate and driven towards the sun, so too we must grow towards God’s Son!
And not only do the lilies strive toward that sun, they rest IN it! And we must rest, or trust, in Jesus. In everything we do - every problem, every success and failure, every joy and heartache, every perception or reality, in ALL things we must rest in Christ! We must trust Him to unfold our lives before us, not with the firm grip of a dictator, but the all enveloping presence and warmth of the God of all things!
THAT must be our passion. Not our jobs, or our social groups, or politics, or anything else. Just finding the peace of the God who created everything, and in that peace finding the rest for our souls.
Then our souls can sing, church.
I want to close with a poem that echos that thought. It is written by E.E. Cummings. And it reminds us that if we are going to find rest and peace, we must make Christ our passion, and then carry that with us wherever we go.
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)