Lift Up Your Eyes: Moments of Pause [Selah]

A Song of Ascents. 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Recap:

Last week = using the SABBATH that God has given us to worship, learn, grow, and serve without the burden of work

Nowhere does the character of God and the life of Jesus suggest that we have been built to live this life at a pace that doesn’t include a day of rest!

But what do you do when you are days away from your Sabbath day, and you feel depleted or in need of refreshing??

This week:

We transition from a DAY OF REST [cease from work, to gather, worship, learn and serve] to moments of PAUSE.

We are calling this SELAH MOMENTS [getting a second wind]

Selah is not clearly translated among scholars, but what they all seem to agree on is that this word [found 70+ times in scripture] is a musical marker - of sorts- that indicates a pause.

Illustration:

I was in concert band and I learned the symbol for rest [input the symbol for rest]

This was a brief pause in a line of music where the musician took pause to breath

What Sabbath is to your week, Selah is to your everyday life.

But what does this look like?

Glad you asked!

- We see Jesus taking moments in the middle of ministry to get away and refresh His soul.

- This was different than the Sabbath…in these cases, Jesus didn’t go to the synagogue, rather He went to the mountains; to desolate places; sometimes early in the morning.

Do we have a daily routine of Lifting up our eyes to where our help comes, or are we just living off our Sabbath? [it’s a both/and]

I know what you’re saying...”seriously, more rest!?”

Let’s Look At Jesus:

There are moments in Jesus ministry when He calls His disciples to desolate places to rest.

There are moments in Jesus’s life where He is found waking up early in the morning and getting alone with His Father to pray.

Let’s observe 3 OPPORTUNITIES Jesus takes to PAUSE

Jesus is getting away to be revitalized through prayer

Jesus just finished ministering to a man with leprosy, and after He heals him, more people come to Jesus to hear him and be healed....but Jesus needs to get away and be revitalized by God! [Luke 5:13-16]

“But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” (Luke 5:15–16, ESV)

Application:

Sometimes the high demands of others make us feel trapped.

We feel like we can not leave, get away, and put the needs of others on hold, so that we can be strengthened in our soul in order to be effective in our aid.

We allow the demands of parenthood, work, community, school, relationships, etc. to pull us further away from the Well that feeds our soul.

Our fear is that if we don’t respond immediately, we may be disregarded as useful....or we may miss an opportunity to succeed…or we may be labeled as someone who doesn’t care about people.

Learn From Jesus:

Jesus trusted God in His ministry to the hurting/sick

Even though Jesus was fully God…He was living out His ministry as a human. [He would get tired, hungry, need sleep, feel pain, ect.]

We can not allow the high demands of life to pull us away from moments of connection we need with the Father!

We will all have to learn to say “no” and learn to trust that God can make up the difference in the work we are walking away from.

As the crowds rush towards Jesus, sometimes He would allow Himself to take a moment of pause....so that He could be refreshed

Jesus is getting away to prepare for what’s to come

Before Jesus picks His 12 dream team disciples, He spends an entire night with God in prayer. [Luke 6:12]

“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:” (Luke 6:12–13, ESV)

- When Jesus was done with His time with God....he was confident in making His decision!

Jesus used these moments of pause [Selah] to help prepare for the work ahead.

We can all agree that this was a very important decision to make!

These would be the guys entrusted with carry the Gospel to the next generation!

Application:

How often do we start the day with a moment of pause and preparation?

Everyday we will have decisions to make [some big / some bigger]

Jesus spends time with God before He names His ambassadors, He pauses....talks to God all night…and then moves forward!

Jesus spends time with God before He goes to the Cross

How confident can we attack the day ahead and fulfill God’s will for our lives, if we are not taking a pause before we begin?

Learn from Jesus:

Jesus tells His disciples:

“What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” (Matthew 10:27, ESV)

Jesus tries to embolden His disciples and keep them from fearing the religious leaders

But like the disciples, if we never get in those private [dark] places with Jesus or get where we can hear His whisper, it will be hard for us to proclaim His Kingdom in the day ahead of us!

Allow yourself moments of pause so that you can rightly hear what God is whispering to you today! [you may need to take a walk and get alone!]

How do you start a day that you have no control over?? You start by taking a moment of pause with Jesus! [Selah]

Lastly, Jesus gets away to reflect, mourn, and be restored

These moments of pause, give God an opportunity to repair our SOULS…restore us.

Jesus finds out that His cousin [John the Baptist] has been murdered by Herod >> “And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.” (Matthew 14:12, ESV)

Jesus hear this and gets in a boat by himself to be alone....but the crowd follows Him along the shore.

Think about this:

Jesus is wanting to get alone with God, with His thoughts, with His emotions

Jesus sees the multitude and has compassion on them so He feeds them supernaturally.

The whole reason these people are in a desolate place without food, is because they were following Jesus who was just trying to get to a desolate place without people! haha!

But He is so loving, He serves them, but all the while He is still on a journey to be alone [a moment of pause]

“And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,” (Matthew 14:20–23, ESV)

Application:

Jesus placed a high value on that time of rest and restoration.

Even though His journey to a desolate mountain was interrupted, He never lost sight of that moment He needed to be with His Father.

Don’t stop "lifting your eyes...”

Stay focused on that “mountain moment of pause”

There is a time when we need to be alone with God

What the Sabbath is to the beginning of our week, Selah [moments of pause/breath] are to our everyday.

Conclusion:

3 Examples of why we need to take SELAH MOMENTS :

Sometimes we need to be revitalized! We need to be RE-ignited with passion, zeal, and motivation

We need to be prepared for what God is calling us towards! We don’t know what tomorrow holds…we need moments to listen to God, and get direction for the day ahead

We need space to be restored! There will be time when life will knock you down in the middle of your week....you need to get to the mountain, and allow God to repair and restore you.

Jesus makes a habit of escaping the crowds, getting alone, and being with God

This helps Him prepare for the work ahead

This helps Him recover from the demands of life

This Restores His soul, as He experiences the pains of LIFE.

Gospel:

Jesus comes to die for our sins and set us free!

Jesus wants a relationship with us, so that we can come to Him and be restored!

Surrender you life to Him today.

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