The Necessity Of A Right Rhythm

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Let's pray.

Father, we we bless you in Jesus' name.

We come to you in Jesus' name as the sons and daughters of God.

We're not beggars trying to get your attention.

We're your children that live with your attention and your affection, aimed at us every day, every waking moment of our lives.

And so, Lord, we've not come to beg for what's what's ours by birthright.

And so, Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth today.

Deliver us from the tyranny of a schedule and invite us into the life of rhythm that the Bible calls us for, calls us to, and that it tells us that we're created for.

Lord, we love you.

Say something today that has our name on it in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seed if you have a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open it up to Mark chapter 6.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

And I want to talk to you about the necessity of a right rhythm.

The necessity of a right rhythm.

Today is a one-off sermon because we start into the Gospel of John next Sunday.

Uh, and we'll be in the Gospel of John until Jesus comes, so don't ask.

Uh how long are we going to be in John until Jesus comes?

Uh, and by the way, if he came next week, that'd be great with me.

Uh so I want to talk to you today, though, about the necessity of a right rhythm because I could say a lot by way of introduction, but let me just ask one question.

Can you feel how out of sync your life feels with the hurricane and your kids not being in school for two weeks, and how much you're just ready for some structure and some margin and some clarity?

Can you feel that?

Can you feel yourself not?

I wouldn't say this if your kids were in here, but can you feel yourself not resenting your kids, but ready for your kids to go somewhere else for seven hours a day?

Can you feel that?

Can you feel that your husband who's not been at work is about on your last nerve?

So y'all like, I've got an unspoken prayer request there, Pastor.

Uh here's why I ask that, okay?

How many of you, when I say, can you feel how out of sync and untimely this feels?

You know what I'm talking about.

Would you raise your hand?

Yeah, you're just like, it's not, we're supposed to be in school.

Here's why I make that point, because that's how your soul feels when you don't live according to the right rhythm.

Your soul feels that for, and your soul feels that out of step with its native environment.

And when I say right rhythm, the necessity of a right rhythm, let me make two distinctions.

Number one, I'm not talking about a schedule.

I'm not talking about a schedule.

A schedule is an external thing that we adhere to.

I gotta do this, and I got a 10 o'clock meeting, and da-da-da-da-da-da.

We all got that to some degree.

Uh that's external.

A rhythm is internal, it's internal.

Okay?

That's the first distinction I want to make.

And then, secondly, I'm not I'm not here today to be prescriptive, to give you all some rules to follow and keep, like a fad diet.

Instead, I want to invite you to think deeper about the intent as well as the outcome of your life rhythm.

Let me say that again.

I want us all to think deeper about the intent and the outcome of our life rhythm.

Because if you're not careful, the older you get, you will accomplish more and enjoy less.

And that's a bad place to be, okay?

So I want to read what's seemingly two stories from Mark chapter six.

Uh, I want to read two stories from that that actually they don't look like they go together, but they go together quite well.

So let me start just reading in Mark chapter six, verse 30.

Now, by the way, let me give you the context.

Mark chapter 6, if you think you've had a bad day or a bad week, read this chapter sometime.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

Because it starts off with Jesus being rejected in his hometown, made fun of.

He sends out the 12 uh uh uh disciples to do ministry in his name.

And then one of his best friends, the guy named John the Baptist, is already in prison.

He's murdered.

And then the context of all this, this happens.

Chapter 6, verse 30.

The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all they had done and taught.

And he said to them, Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile.

For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

And when he went ashore he saw a great crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.

And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, This is a desolate place, and the hour's now late.

Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.

But he answered them, You give them something to eat.

And they said to him, Shall we go and buy two hundred denai worth of bread and give it to them to eat?

And he said to them, How many loaves do you have?

Go and see.

When they had found out, they said, Five and two fish.

And then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.

So they sat down in groups, and by hundreds and fifties, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said, A blessing.

And he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them all, and they all ate and were satisfied.

And they took up the twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.

And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

Now we'll just stop right there.

We'll get to the other part in just a minute.

Now get that, because if you're not careful, you think this is a story about Jesus feeding five thousand people.

And I believe, by the way, the Bible teaches this actually happened.

Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, all right?

Some of you that have teenage boys that have been home for two weeks eating, you're thinking, I wish I could do that myself.

Because these kids are about to put me in the broke house up in here, okay?

I get that, okay?

But there's something deeper that is going on here.

When I talk about the necessity of a right rhythm, here's what I want to do.

I want to make four observations from the text, and then I want to give you five characteristics of a right rhythm.

And again, not to be prescriptive to say, do this, just to say, hey, a good rhythm involves these five things.

But before we get to the application, let me just give you some things from the Bible that we just read.

Number one, Jesus models connection over capacity.

He models connection over capacity.

You say, What do you mean?

Now keep in mind this all started off with Jesus said to them, Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.

Come away by yourselves.

One translation says, Come away by yourselves with me to a desolate place and rest a while.

Ladies, it would be like your husband saying, Hey, we're gonna get a cabin in the hill country and we're gonna escape.

I took off work Friday, we're gonna bug out Thursday afternoon.

I got your mom's gonna come and watch the kids.

We're gonna be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and we're just gonna eat out and sleep in, and we're gonna hike, and we're just gonna do whatever you want to do.

We'll go antiquing and I won't make jokes or anything.

Some of you are like, fat chance, you don't know my husband, and you get there, and all this rascal does is spend the whole time on his cell phone, make taking phone calls from work.

You're like, hmm, not that that would ever happen in my relationship.

No, but but this is what happens because it all starts with them saying, Hey, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.

For many were coming and going, they had no leisure even to eat.

Look at verse 32.

And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Good so far.

Verse 33.

Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

When they went ashore, he saw a great crowd.

He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

He began to teach them many things.

And then it grows late, and the disciples are like, hey man, make these people go away.

I thought we were going to Burton Creek to play golf and get massages and drink mimosas, and these people are sucking the life out of us.

They're not happy.

This is not like a happy time.

They're like, oh, look, more people.

Because it started off saying, hey, there was so much going on.

There's so many people coming and going.

We didn't even have leisure to eat.

And now there's more people.

They're going to get away, go to get in a boat, and go to a desolate place.

And the people run around the lake and beat them there.

And they're like, oh my gosh, can we just get away from these people for just a moment?

And in that environment, if you're living at the mercy of a schedule, you're the most angry, out of joint person in the boat right then.

But Jesus models connection over capacity.

He said, What do you mean?

The gauge by which you can evaluate yourself in this area is compassion.

It's compassion.

That's why in verse 34, the Bible says when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them.

He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

They had needs that had gone unmet for a long time.

And Jesus is the one that said, hey, we're going to get away by ourselves to a desolate place, and all of a sudden there's people there.

And Jesus has compassion, and his disciples do not.

Here's the thing, here's how you know you're connected to God.

You can be frustrated, you can be overwhelmed, and people be safe, people feel safe being around you.

That's how you know you live in a place of connection and not just capacity.

Capacity means, hey, I get a lot of stuff done.

I'm very efficient, but I'm not always available.

I'm very efficient, but I'm not always available.

But when Jesus models, when I say models connection over capacity, and this is manifested by the fact that he can be compassionate.

If, ladies, when you've had a bad day, if your kids just know to stay away from you, you're not modeling compassion.

If your kids look at each other and go, save yourself, don't do it anymore.

Mom's having a bad day.

No.

You need to go back and look at your connection.

You say, I don't know what you mean, because most of our schedules are aimed at capacity, not at not at connection.

And so we don't live with this deep sense of being able to accomplish more than what we naturally normally would be able to do.

One of the things you see all through the gospels is that Jesus was out of sync with the times and the people all around him.

People were doing all one thing, and Jesus was kind of doing the exact opposite.

And there's crowds pressing around Jesus, and one lady touches him in Mark's gospel, and he's like, hey, stop, who touched me?

And the disciples were like, Are you kidding me?

Everyone's touching you.

How do we got it?

And Jesus says, No, no, no.

Somebody touched me, I know, because I felt power come out from me, and I want to meet that person.

And they were like, Are you kidding us?

This is one of these moments.

Well, the disciples were just at the end of themselves.

They were not like, oh, and now Jesus is going to do a miracle and feed all these people with a happy meal.

No.

No.

See, in the midst of this, because Jesus lives according to this rhythm, not a schedule.

He didn't live at the mercy of his expectations.

He lived at the mercy of his understanding.

So he models connection over capacity.

Second thing we see is the right rhythm orients us towards what we value.

The right rhythm orients us towards what we value.

It says they went ashore.

There was a great crowd.

He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

And he began to teach them many things.

Look at verse 35.

And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late.

Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.

It's you at 9 o'clock when your phone rings and you look at it and see who it is, and you go, I don't have time for that.

Or if you still have a home phone, you're one of the 18 people in Fort Bean County that still have a home phone when it rings and your kids answer it and go, Oh, yeah, my mom, and you're going, No, mom's not available, mom's not available.

You're teaching your kids to lie for you, by the way.

And it's kind of confusing when you tell that kid later on, hey, don't lie, lie is a sin.

And they're like, uh, like when you lie and you tell people you're not available to talk on the phone when you are.

Instead, you can just pick up the phone and go, hey, girlfriend, I'd love to talk to you right now, but I'm not real full of the spirit, and I don't trust myself what I would say.

Call me back tomorrow.

Click.

That would be a more truthful response than no, mom's not home.

And your five-year-old goes, Well, I'm looking at her, but my mom says she's not home, so my mom's not home.

Mommy cannot talk to you right now.

Mommy practices situational ethics.

She learned it from daddy.

Thank you very much.

Yes.

See, the right rhythm orients us towards what we value.

And here's the here's the simple truth: Jesus values the need of the people over the comfort of his disciples.

Let me say that again.

Jesus values the needs of the people over the comfort of his disciples.

Now that sounds all whatever preachery is sitting here on Sunday morning this last week.

I got to experience that firsthand because as most of you know, our churches had teams of men and women out doing ministry, dripping out sheetrock and carpeting homes since the rain stopped.

And I guess word got out.

Well, the word got out because somebody's a neighbor of somebody.

And so I get a phone call from a person I do not know that just calls me and says, Hey, I live over here in the village of Oak Lake, and my neighbor said, You help somebody over here, and I need you to get a team over here right now.

I got water in my house, I got a hole in my roof, and I need you to come over here and fix it.

And I was out of Jesus for the day.

It was about 4:30 in the afternoon.

I heard that message, and I've been cutting out sheetrock all day and ripping stuff out and hauling out carpet.

And I was just like, oh, this is what hell smells like.

Wet carpet.

Thank you very much.

Um, and I was just like, Are you kidding me?

Who is this person?

I don't know who this person is.

And you ah, and in that moment, because I was thinking about meditating on this passage in Mark 6, and it was like, Jesus values the needs of the people over the comfort of his disciples.

And I thought this out loud to the Lord.

Lord, I want to tell my people that on Sunday.

I don't want to experience that today.

You're like, you're kidding, right?

No, I'm not kidding.

See, here's the thing: if you think you have to hide your true feelings from God, you don't understand God.

I laid in my driveway like someone shot me because I couldn't get up.

And my little mouthy fortune will come out there and say, Dad, are you okay?

No, I'm not okay.

I've been working all day.

I've been sitting around watching Netflix and Instagram on my phone, okay?

I've been helping people change the world.

You've been doing nothing.

Go back in the house.

I'm gonna tell mom you're in a bad mood.

And if I had the energy, I'd have got up off the driveway and whipped that kid, but I couldn't move.

I was just laying there like a beechwell.

My wife came out there with a garden hose and sprayed me off.

You're not bringing this in my house.

I'd like, can a brother just get a break here?

And guess what?

I got up off the driveway and I called the woman back, and next day we had a team of people at her house.

And they fixed the roof and they cut out the wet sheet rock and removed it, and she goes, I got some wet carpet.

Y'all need to get that too.

And I was like, who are you to tell me what?

Woo! I'm laying in my driveway, hat, sunglasses, combat boots on, and clear as a bell.

I value the need of my people over the comfort of my disciples.

See, God, I want to talk about that next Sunday.

I don't want to experience that today.

Yeah.

You see, the right rhythm orients us towards what we value.

You probably knew this existed, but I didn't until about two weeks ago.

My wife has an app on her phone called a Star Chart.

Any y'all know what that is?

Because this changes my life.

My wife was sitting on a couch.

We were just kind of talking, and she said, Can I show you something?

I said, Absolutely.

And she pulled out her phone and she went boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, and she held it up.

And you just sit in the house, and I'm like, that works.

And it shows you where the where the stars in the universe are.

And you can just move it all along.

And it just kind of brings up a little map and show you, oh, this is this constellation, this is this star, and this is this star.

And wherever you move it, I'm like, you don't have to go outside for it to work.

She goes, nope.

It just works sitting right here on the couch.

And I was just like, that is awesome.

And it's called a star chart.

And so every once in a while, I'll get my wife's phone and just be like, hmm, let's see what's over here.

Now, why do I tell you that?

Because the right rhythm does the same thing.

It helps you get your bearings as it relates to creation and the creator.

Otherwise, how do you how do you know your place in the universe and how you're supposed to occupy this space?

And so I just remember sitting there on the couch that night and just kind of thinking, yes, the right rhythm kind of orients you around what you really value.

If you're not careful, your schedule, your external responsibilities will dictate what you what you what's most urgent, but really not what you should value.

The third thing we see in the Bible this morning is the right rhythm will eventually lead you to the impossible.

The right rhythm will eventually lead you to the impossible.

Now, if you're new to church or if you've been in church a long time and you grew up in a church where everything fit together and everything was neat and tidy, uh, let me prepare to break that paradigm for you.

Uh, because this is not, hey, four power principles, how you can get ahead in life, because the right rhythm will eventually lead you to the impossible.

Look at verse 37.

Jesus answered them, You give them something to eat.

And they said to him, Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?

And he said to them, How many loaves do you have?

Go and see.

And when they had found out, they said, Five and two fish.

And then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.

And so they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing.

And he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people.

And he divided the two fish among them all.

Now, if you're one of the disciples, can you just fathom what they're thinking right now?

Because sometimes we read the Bible, we think those people are so heroic.

Those people were just like, You go, Jesus.

No, not at this point they weren't.

They were like looking at each other like, can you believe this?

I mean, we gave up a thriving fishing industry to follow this guy.

He is a liar.

He told us we were going to a desolate place to get some rest, and here there are more needy people.

What I mean when I say that the right rhythm will eventually lead you to the impossible.

Now, the Bible says this earlier.

He says, Hey, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread?

Unless you understand the currency back then, you don't get the magnitude of what he just said.

A denary was a day's wage for a day labor back then.

So basically he says, Do you want us to take, to bring it down to where we live, you want us to take 200 days of our salary?

Uh, in case you're wondering, there's 260 work days in the 2017 in this calendar year.

So basically, that is like nine months of your salary.

And basically, what the disciples are saying is, you want us to take 200 denarii?

You want us to take nine months of a common labor salary?

There's this many people.

Now the Bible says there was 5,000 men.

Uh, there was also women and children there.

And so this is how impossible this is.

They didn't carry around that much money.

They lived on faith.

I mean, Jesus had people that supported him, believed in him, and gave to his ministry, but they didn't carry around a wad of cash like that.

This is not like a bunch of rappers going to Vegas making it rain up in a script club, okay?

These are a bunch of people that lived on faith and modeled that.

And so he's like, it's just preposterous.

You want us to go get 200 denari worth of bread and feed all these people?

This is impossible.

This is not going to work.

And in response to that, Jesus, who lives with this rhythm in this beautiful rhythm, he says, Hey, have them all sit down on the grass in groups of 50 and 100s, and they're just like, Oh, are you kidding me?

And he says, How much bread do you have?

He said, We got five loaves and two fish.

And Jesus says, A blessing, and he breaks it, and he says, Pass it all out.

And the Bible says that there were 12 basketfuls left over.

How many disciples were there with Jesus at this point?

12.

Jesus is not sarcastic, he's just smarter than everybody he's around.

These are the people that are just like incredulous at this point.

They're like, are you kidding me?

And I'm just gonna tell you this, beloved.

Why am I making a big deal out of this?

The right rhythm will eventually lead you to the impossible because you need to know this about God.

There is a glory that God finds in the impossible that you will never find in the possible.

There's a glory, and God is motivated by glory.

He's not motivated by sentiment.

You don't need to pray to God on the basis of sentiment.

God, I'm sad, aren't you sad?

You need to you need to understand the thing that motivates God more than anything is glory.

The Bible says that we were created for glory.

We've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We've been restored to this place of glory.

We're to live for glory.

We're supposed to do whatever we do for God's glory.

That's why the Bible says whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God.

He says, let your light so shine before men that they see your good deeds and they glorify your Father who's in heaven.

You're supposed to live for God's glory.

We're supposed to do, we're supposed to do what we do in such a way that other people want to glorify God.

Why?

Because God is motivated by glory in a way that He's not motivated by anything else.

And there's a glory for God when things get to the end of what we can do.

There's a glory for God in the impossible that God doesn't find anywhere else.

Which is why five times in the Bible, God pleads with people and says, Please take me at my word and do this, because I'm going to blow your mind with what I'm about to do.

And then when you and I live in this right rhythm, you will come to situations and circumstances where it is impossible because all you have is five loaves and two fish and a smiling God kind of going, You ready?

You want to see this?

You want to sit down, fasten your seatbelt.

Why?

Because God glories in the impossible.

The last thing I want to say to you this morning from the text is simply this that a right rhythm increases our faith.

A right rhythm increases our faith.

I told you there's two stories, and they seem like they're not connected, but they are.

Let me just keep reading where I left off.

Verse 45 of Mark 6 immediately made the disciples get into the Boat and go before him to the other side to Betheda while he dismissed the crowd.

And after he'd taken leave of them, he went up on a mountain to pray.

Jesus is not in a hurry.

See, this little section right here is a great picture of the power of rhythm.

He'd taken leave of them, he went up on a mountain to pray, verse 47.

And when evening came, the boat was out of the sea, and he was alone on the land, and he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them.

And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.

He meant to pass them by, but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out.

They all saw him and were terrified.

But immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.

And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased, and they were utterly astounded.

They did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

Hear that last part.

They did not understand about the loaves.

Because their hearts were hardened.

They were not happy that Jesus says to them, Come away by yourselves with me to a desolate place and let's get some rest.

And they end up feeding 5,000 people.

And they they try to make the point and go, You want us to spend nine months of a salary to feed these strangers?

Come on, dude.

We're supposed to be getting manicures and pedicures and having bro love and playing golf and eating steak, and all we're doing is more of what we've been doing.

They're not like, oh.

And so Jesus does what he does for these 12 apostles, and there's 12 basketfuls left over.

And you would think they would all go home, kind of like, we are so sorry.

We are so sorry.

We're so short-sighted and so demanding and so not compassionate with needy people.

Please forgive us, but they don't.

And so this episode happens in the Bible.

I love what it says.

It says in verse 48, and he saw that they were making headway painfully.

That's some of you in life.

You make headway, but it's really painful.

It's really hard.

It takes a lot of exertion, a lot of difficulty, a lot of.

And notice it about the fourth watch of the night.

Now, when the Bible says the fourth watch of the night, sometimes you read things in the Bible, you're like, I have no idea what that means.

They divided time back then into two 12-hour periods, from six in the morning to six at night.

And then from six at night to six in the morning.

Hebrew men, they really placed the emphasis on the latter half.

The six in the morning to six at night, that's what they did at work to provide and this, that, and the other.

The day began for them really at 6 p.m.

to 6 a.m.

because they got to eat, have to have worship at the table and with their family and hang out and play with their kids and enjoy their life.

But when he says the third watch of the diet, that really starts at 6 at night from 6 in the morning.

You have four three-hour periods from 6 to 9 p.m., from 9 to 12 p.m.

Dragon with me.

From 12 to 3 a.m.

and then 3 a.m.

to 6 a.m.

So when the Bible comes along and he says, oh, this was about the fourth watch of the night.

This is between 3 and 6 in the morning.

Jesus was a night owl.

He gives them a head start.

He's back down the land.

Again, he's not in a hurry.

He's out of sync with everybody around him.

They're out there, they've been going at it for a long time, and Jesus comes walking on the water.

And I love this.

He says he intended just to pass them by.

Let me demonstrate to you what it's like when you live according to a rhythm, not according to the schedule.

And they freak out and they're like, oh my gosh, it's a ghost.

And he comes and gets in the boat with them, and all of a sudden the waves kind of cease and die down.

And the Bible says, for they did not understand about their loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

What did they not understand, beloved?

What did they not understand?

Better yet, what do you not understand about what's come to be known as the feeding of the 5,000?

See, the right rhythm increases our faith.

And the longer you live in this necessity of a right rhythm, you see, hey, I it's necessary for me to kind of get my life synced up.

Let me close this morning by giving you a list.

A good rhythm consists of five things.

Now, I want to finish where we started in Mark 6 and verse 31 and 32.

Jesus says, Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.

For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat.

Good rhythm consists of these five things.

Number one, activity.

Activity.

This is the time I spend doing the necessary things I have to do.

It's not sexy.

It's like mowing the yard.

It's not a journal entry.

I came home from work the other day.

It was late.

I was tired.

My grass was tall.

My neighbor was mowing her grass.

I walked over and said, Hey, aren't you a Christian?

She's like, What?

I said, Aren't you a Christian?

You go to church, you got religious stickers on the back of your van, like other y'all, Fort Bend County moms.

She goes, Yes, I'm a Christian.

I go to church.

I said, Why don't you be a real Christian and mow my yard while you got your lawnmower going?

She looked at me, shook her head, and put her earbuds back in and just kept mowing.

I went in the house, came back out.

She did not mow my yard.

So I had to mow it.

It wasn't a journal entry, it was just activity, just something I gotta do.

So a good rhythm consists of activity.

Secondly, it consists of ministry.

It's time I spend doing the things I'm called to do.

Now, by the way, I would put your job in this category, not the first category.

It's the time I spend doing the things I'm called to do.

Thirdly, it consists of leisure.

Time I use for my enjoyment.

The Bible says there was not even leisure.

There was no leisure even for them to eat.

Fourthly, a good rhythm involves formation.

This is time I take to be spiritually formed and conformed.

Formation.

A lot of times in church we talk about it like a quiet time or a Bible study or whatever.

I prefer formation because your rhythm ought to involve some time that you take, that you set aside to be spiritually formed and conformed.

It's one of the reasons, men, we have a men's breakfast once a month in the fall and spring semester.

Our first one's coming up on Tuesday.

We meet just to be formed by other men, to open our lives up to other men.

When we feel safe to the degree that we feel safe, we open up and we realize, hey, I'm on this journey with some brothers that are sharing the same struggles and they understand what it's like to be a provider and feel like it all depends on me.

But to be at a table with other men and go, hey, it doesn't depend on you.

God is faithful.

It depends on God.

You got to get synced up with that reality.

That's formation.

Last thing is rest.

This is the time I take to do nothing.

And by the way, for some of you in this room, that is the hardest thing for you to do.

Is just to do nothing.

And so much so that here's what I want you to do.

You can whip your phone out, take a picture.

We're done for this morning.

Let me just ask you to do this.

When you look at this list, ask yourself which one of these is the hardest for me to do?

Which one of these is the hardest for me to do?

And I kind of look and say, hey, a good rhythm consists of activity, ministry, leisure, formation, and rest.

Which one of those is like, you know what?

That's not a part of my life rhythm.

Because that's where you need to start this week.

Don't beat yourself up.

Don't walk out and go, man, I own a business.

I ain't got time for rest.

Man, if I ain't out there hustling, I ain't gonna get paid.

You do not want to spend your life, another day of your life, not much less the rest of your life, living like it all depends on you.

That will burn you to the ground, my man.

Ma'am, that will burn you to the ground.

And so just look up there.

Just, hey, which one of these?

Some of you, it's leisure.

I talked to somebody this week and they said, hey, uh, can we ask your opinion?

I said, sure.

I've always got an opinion.

And they said, uh, well, we had a vacation planned and they're supposed to be gone.

They're leaving this week.

They said, just with a hurricane, and now there's a hurricane coming to Florida, we feel guilty.

And I said, You should feel guilty.

You should cancel your vacation and give that money to the church.

How dare you enjoy yourself when tragedy and calamity is taking place?

I said, Where are you going?

Well, we're going up to the northeast to the northwest up there.

We're gonna drive, we're gonna go way up to Portland, and we're gonna go to Seattle, and we're gonna drive down to California.

And I said, uh, and he just kept, I said, What else are you gonna do?

What else are you gonna do?

And what are you gonna do?

And he finally goes, Why are you asking me all these questions?

Because I might want to go with you.

He goes, You mean it's you think it's okay for us to go?

I think it's worse than okay.

I think it's necessary.

You act like, oh my gosh, God didn't know this tragedy was gonna happen.

Let's all see what we can do.

Because, see, at your core, if you're not careful, you try to want to be God.

Because if you don't think God's being God, you got to insert yourself with a blank.

There's not a blank there.

Go on your vacation.

God's still sovereign and on the throne.

Well, my wife said we should go and enjoy ourselves.

I said, you should go and enjoy yourselves.

Matter of fact, you should make a plan for enjoyment.

Well, you know I've grown up in church.

I've never heard a pastor say that.

Well, I should be fired then.

I'm just telling you that a right rhythm, I said, I'll preach about this on Sunday, and you're gonna leave on Sunday, aren't you?

Yeah, we're flying out early.

Boy, you're going to hell now.

You went on vacation during a time of crisis and you're skipping church to do it.

He goes, I mean, for somebody who grew up in church, this is hard.

What's so hard?

Let me tell you what.

Let me make it easy.

You should be, for being born such a wicked sinner, you should be burning in hell right now.

But instead, God redeemed you and forgave you, and he's blessed you.

And now that you've got the capacity to go enjoy yourself, you feel guilty?

Let me tell you something.

You're gonna stop in Seattle?

Oh, we're going to Seattle.

Go to Pikes Market.

Go to Pikes Place Market.

And down off the market down there, there's a little tea shop called the Crumpet Shop.

They make homemade crumpets right there, and they cook them in a little water-boiled steam thing that's fascinating.

Enjoy that.

And if you're hungry, there's a great bar and grill called Radiator Whiskey that is incredible, man.

I highly recommend the smothered roast beef sandwich.

And he's like, How do you know all this stuff?

Because I was there last month.

And I didn't feel a bit guilty.

And he said, Man, this is helpful.

Thank you.

Okay.

Because my wife's just telling me I need to get over it.

Well, your wife's liberal.

That's why she does those things.

Well, she doesn't like it when I watch Fox News.

I can tell you that.

She's going to hell too.

So as you said in this building right now, going to church, like good Christians, one of our fellow members is flying to the Great Northwest to eat out and drink out and sleep in.

And some of you are jealous.

Some of you are like, what was the name of that place again?

Hey, here's why, and I'm done.

A good rhythm is not just one thing.

It's activity.

And it's ministry.

And it's leisure.

And it's rest.

And it's formation.

It's all those things.

Like for me today, rest is watching the Cleveland Browns beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.

That is rest.

Can I get an amen?

Yes.

Yes.

And watching the Giants beat the Cowboys tonight.

Yes.

So I can call my friend Russ.

My wife's like, why are you calling him?

Because he's up.

He's weeping right now, tears of remorse into a pillow of regret.

Yes.

Hey.

A well-balanced life, a good rhythm involves all those things.

Let's pray together.

Just take a moment and just kind of ask yourself, Lord, what have my name on it today?

What did I need to hear?

If you're our guest today, we'd like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it.

Christianity is not about finding reasons to feel guilty, it's about enjoying all that God has provided.

It's about a rhythm.

This internal reality that informs the way we do life.

And maybe you're here today and you don't have a relationship with this God.

You're like, yes, it's great.

This sounds good.

My heart's kind of beating fast, but I don't know this God that you're talking about.

We'd love to introduce you to Him today.

So if that's you, and you say, hey, you know what?

I I've never given my life to Christ.

I don't know what it means to be a Christian.

We'll be available down front as soon as our service is over.

You can come to any one of us.

We'd love to explain to you what it looks like to begin a relationship with Christ.

For now, let's just kind of be still.

Lindsay's gonna sing over us and just ask, ask God, God, what had my name on it?

God, what do I put in the to-go box and take home with me from the restaurant today?

I want to taste this meal now and I want to savor it some more later.

So what do I take with me to savor?

Let's think about that for a minute.

Father, we understand this morning that when we're overwhelmed, we're really being invited into a bigger and better rhythm.

You're saying to us, hey, let's let's do life this way.

Let's do it from the inside out, not the outside in.

Not trying tricks and techniques.

Instead, let's just live from a place of truth.

Because the truth sets us free.

And freedom is what we were created for.

Lord, we hear you today saying, if the Son has set you free, you're free indeed.

We understand, God, that you've come to restore the freedom that was forfeited in the very beginning.

You're not a God of bondage, you're a God of liberation.

That's why you set your people free.

You're not supposed to be slaves to anybody.

It's supposed to be free to worship me.

And so, Lord, we come today to worship you of our own free will.

A will that's been captured, that's been ravished by the gospel.

And so, Father, I pray for anyone in this room that's never had that experience that today would be that day for them.

They'd realize, man, I'm like those disciples.

I'm out there and I'm just struggling greatly against the wind.

And everybody's just passing me by, and it seems so much easier for them.

Lord, lead us into the truth.

Thank you for the truth we've heard this morning.

May it find a resting place in our souls and an expression in our lives.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being part of our service.

When you came in, you're given a worship folder on the far right side that has a little tear-off portion that asked you for some information.

Hopefully, you've taken the chance to fill that out.

And if you would, just tear it off and drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors on your way out in just a moment.

And also, if today's the day you worship through obedience or generosity, and when it comes to giving, that's where you'll do that as well, okay?

Uh things begin to kind of recalibrate and pick back up.

Your kids go back to school tomorrow for some of you.

They're in Lamar and Tuesday in Fort Bend County, and all the parents said, Yeah, we love you.

Y'all got to go now.

Let me tell you a couple of things.

With school kind of getting back into swing, things are kind of getting back into swing around here.

Let me make you aware of three things before you get out the door.

Number one, midweeks start this week.

Uh we have classes that go for 10 weeks in the fall and the spring.

Uh, and they start this Tuesday morning, ladies' Bible studies at 9.30.

And then our midweek classes start Wednesday night from 6.30 to 8.

Uh, there's the listing of different classes on the Connection Center in the lobby.

Also, you can go online.

You can register for a class if you say hi got kids.

We have activities for preschool children and students on Wednesday nights as well.

And also uh on our midweek classes, we have child care available.

But today is the deadline to register for child care.

We want to make it easy for you to kind of have formation as a part of your life rhythm.

That's why we do things like this, okay?

Second thing I'm gonna remind you of is that next week is our starting point class.

It meets at the 10 o'clock hour, this hour right now, right behind me in the fellowship hall.

Starting point is our basically uh our introduction class for our new members, people that are considering joining this church and becoming a member.

Uh we would love for you to attend that.

That's part of it because we say to you all the time, we what does membership involve?

We want to know your story.

We want to know who you are, what your spiritual background is, but we also want you to know our story, which is what starting point is.

We kind of tell you our story.

This is who we are as a church, this is what we've this is our core values, this is what we believe, and then here's some ways you can get involved and invested here at this church, okay?

So you can restaurate online to be a part of starting point.

It does not obligate you to join the church.

It gives you an opportunity to hear about who we are and how we came to be who we are as a people, okay?

Last thing I want to remind you of is that and I mentioned it in the sermon this Tuesday is our men's breakfast.

Uh, Tuesday morning, 6 o'clock from 6 to 7 out in the warehouse, which is our student ministry building back here at the back of our property.

Uh I'll be tea- I teach about 15 minutes, and then we we just have discussion questions around a table.

It's a safe environment for men to be shaped and formed and connected to other men.

If you've never been before, or if you come to everyone, you're welcome, okay?

I would love to see you there.

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

We'll be available down front.

We can pray with you.

If you have any questions of anything you heard, please come up.

We'd love to hear your heart, okay?

Hold your hands out.

You not make the glory in the possible.

Join him.

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.