Sermon Tone Analysis

I will send you a better one - what does better look like in our context?

Shel Silverstein - modern parable “The missing Piece” the story is about a circle that is missing its pie shaped piece, and it goes on a search for it and it tries big pieces, small pieces, broken pieces but non of them let it roll righting then one day - there it is, the perfect piece, it picks it up, and suddenly it can go faster, and faster - it is free.

But after a while it realises now it can’t sing, or smell the flowers, or talk to its friends.

It was going too fast.

And in the end it decides to leave the perfect piece behind.

Making room for the Holy Spirit - feel under qualified

Paul Hudson - recently challenged - heart response when he became Regional Leader.

FIC - mutual challenging

Journey - think of it - not finished.

Sharing in vulnerability - what trying to work through.

Margin - living with concept of overload.

I had been to Evernote presentation -

Other hand wanting to hone and refine my hearing what God is saying - I read a couple of books by Shaun Bolz - Translating God and God Secrets.

3rd hand _ we are grappling with vision as a leadership and I am thinking how are we going to do this Vision well?

How are we going to take all that we believe God is laying on our hearts with this group of people and not run everybody ragged by NOT overloading them.

What I want to discuss this morning is about a fusing of these differing ideas.

What does it mean to live within our margins, (overloaded, exhausting world) with the confines of the hours we can be productive in a day, in a week, with our finite resources of time and energy, of hearing and sensing the Fathers heart, hearing the spirit (person not force) so I know what direction He would have me directing my/our energies and pouring my life into that and the vision we have been entrusted with here in Huddersfield and the surrounding areas.

God is interested in taking spiritual and the physical, we exist in both, we need to learn to operate with the two connected.

As many of you will be aware late last year started having problems with my heart.

I had already realised I was working on overload.

For the last few Christmas’s we have put on some great evangelistic programs and I feel I have missed my part because I am literally blowing in and out of the house into the car - sometimes waving at our neighbours and saying hello.

And last autumn a small number of us had gathered down here on Sunday nights doing the “Talking Jesus’ course - and I had been challenged not so much about what I do for my paid role in church, but who I am outside the confines of that in my personal witness.

I had made a pledge with myself to not do the craziness of December - one church event to the next, but to make space to do maybe some mulled wine and mince pie events for neighbours, see if we can invite them into our (hopefully) less busy December and the permissions we get that time of year.

But then late November amidst all my planning - the heart problems started.

I would walk the 14 steps from my sofa to the kitchen and we had a stool set up so I was able to sit down, because believe me - I needed to sit sit down.

My resting heartbeat was 39bpm but for no apparent reason suddenly would jump up to 165bpm (highest I saw was 184)

And suddenly from going at whatever pace I could muster I was forced to have to slow down.

I was forced to have to slow down my pace - and in those moments when I could not go my normal speed I started having to put Margin into my plans.

It turned out the problem was some medication I was on and so I was taken off it and as it came out of my system I began to gain back some of my ‘normal’ self - but in that I also realised my ‘normal’ self was not a healthy self.

I had found Margin, and it was slowly running away from my grasp again.

In those moments where I had been forced to stop - I had been more present around the home.

I had been cooking more in the kitchen.

I had been able to read more and be more contemplative rather than dashing from one thing to the next.

I had been unable to multi-task as much, and the results on my personal life and my spirituality were positive.

I was hearing from God more consistently because I had time to stop and listen.

And as I became well again, I realised there was a part of me that was dreading being back ‘up to speed’ because I realised that the ‘back up to speed’ had not been a healthy one.

I like to get things done, see things started and more importantly - finished.

And if it can be in a short concise time - more is the better.

Family will tell you even when I’ve been in for an operation on my neck - I can have a day or so ‘down’ but more than that I start to go stir crazy.

And during this time we were rolling out the vision - which I am really pumped up about - but yet I started realising / thinking how am I / are we going to start and sustain this?

So I am trying to work out how do I do what HE wants and be able to build in time so I am asking and reflecting and being obedient.

How do I continue to do my job, be a father, help my disabled Mum move home, plan for camp, sort out the logistics of our holiday etc - yet still leave in time to hear and act on the things the HS is saying.

HS is to be our companion at all times.

With us at all times, in all the places we find ourselves.

Its not about a visitation - but a habitation - but how am I prospering that?

I was setting the alarm clock to write sermons, and to do my paperwork, to come to Pastors meeting and even to read my Bible and rush through my devotional - but I am not convinced until I had this enforced ‘time out’ that I was setting enough time into my day at the beginning to pause and hear the whisper of what the spirit was saying into my day.

Don’t get me wrong - it is a good thing to do all of those things.

I’m not even saying its wrong to be busy, I enjoy being busy.

What I am saying is there is something fundamentally wrong with ‘overload’ that removes the capacity, the hunger and our availability for the spirit.

Maybe with you its not meetings or your job, it may be mentally, too many commitments, expectations, financial debt, anxiety.

It may be you are just about coping, surviving and hanging on - and whenever we talk about vision to accomplish what God is calling us to - you are internally saying “you are kidding me.

If they ask me to add one more thing to the list i have going on in my head I’ll….”

The daily fight to keep your head above water already feels too much.

And yet here is this guy at the front saying he wants me to give more… time to the Holy Spirit and what he is saying to us?

Its just not going to happen.

I want to explore overload.

Theres probably many here who are more qualified than me - however I have the microphone!

I want to explore how this affects our relationship with the HS.Then I want to explore the concept of Margin - how it restores relationship and gives us the appetite and availability.

Our relationship with Jesus is not just about us - but how the HS can lead us into being people who transform those around us.

Overload.

We live in world that keeps us busy, distracted - days go by, weeks, months.

Who can believe we are in July??

A constant narrative to how are you? is “I’m really busy”.

I’m good but I can’t wait for the holidays.

It's like our default is ‘non-stop’ .

Not enough time, too busy.

In Margin - Richard Swenson says “Something’s wrong.

People are tired and frazzled.

People are anxious and depressed.

People don’t have the time to heal anymore.”

He calls this “The disease of marginless living is insidious, widespread, and virulent.”

He continues “We need freedom to think and permission to heal.

Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity.

No one has the time to listen, let alone love.

Our children lay wounded on the ground, run over by our high-speed good intentions.”

We live in 21st c with advancements of science and medicine.

I love technology and marvel at the advancements, which if they told us of in Tomorrows World we would not have believed in our time!

I remember talking to Helens Grandma and walking through the advancements she has seen in her lifetime, form seeing her first car, aeroplane, electricity etc

We have cars that not only talk but listen and answer our questions.

Robots that clean you house.

Phones with many more processing power in your pocket than put man on the moon.

So its not as though progress has not brought about advantages.

Progress has been good if we look at our modern western world - but it has given us more and more, faster and faster.

Look at YouTube videos circa 1950’s foretelling what our life would be like in the 21st century.

They are genuinely funny.

Computers and robots doing all our work so we can live in the lap of luxury with loads of free time for leisure activities.

As an side you can also have a rather comical look at views of women transposed from the 1950’s to present day “what will the little lady do with all her spare time, watch out blokes, hold onto your wallets and all your hard earned money!”

And the promised free-time, health, wealth - has not become the utopia.

Even with our advancements in technology and health, our western world wealth - there is still something not right in our society.

As I expanded last time I preached, God ordained work, for us to have gainful activity as I unpacked from - but let me read from that passage again

3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

God has given our bodies limits - for our protection.

I recognise I love progress.

I find slow progress difficult.

I am an ‘up and off’ person - wanting to take as many with me as possible - but there is our goal - come on guys.

I walk at a fast pace.

I do a to do list and one of my top items is “do a to do list” so as soon as I’ve written it I can tick one items off!

But progress does come with a price.

Wealth and technology and communication has not given us what we need in society.

I remember emails coming online and they were brilliant.