August 30, 2026 | Jon Brown

So we're gonna use this mic if that's the case.

So the Lord be with you.

Thanks.

I'm John.

I'm one of the pastors here.

I'd love to hear if there's any college students in the just a little shout-out from any kind.

Okay.

Are there any freshmen here?

All right, yes.

Welcome back.

If you have big questions about God or little questions about where the best sandwich is in town, I'd love to hang out.

John, J-O-N, Pillarchurch.com.

Uh for now I've asked a few friends to help me.

This is Rowan and Ava.

Rowan is a sophomore at Hope.

He lives in Durfee Hall.

He and I met last year.

He was in a Thursday night Bible study.

And I was trying to remember what I was doing on Thursday night in college.

Pretty sure it was in Bible study.

Big smile, wide-eyed, huge heart follower of Jesus.

And then this is Ava.

Ava and I, uh I love your name, by the way.

I have a daughter named Ava.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Ava is a sophomore.

She's from Colorado Springs.

Uh sometime last year, she was like, I'm super lonely.

And she reached out to one of you, and you've become like family.

That's the kind of people we want to be.

So open your hearts.

There's people who need family.

So uh Rowan's gonna read for us from a guy named Alan Hirsch.

Uh, someone sent me a little Substack uh on Wednesday uh from this guy, Alan Hirsch, he's like a missional church guy.

It has nothing to do with the sermon, but it's so good I couldn't keep it to myself.

So listen to this.

Every generation of the church forms a reductionist image of the Jesus it can live with.

Somewhere along the way, almost without noticing, we trade the wild, untamed Jesus of the gospels for a manageable version who ratifies the lives we always intended to live.

Nothing to do with the sermon.

But I couldn't pass that up.

And then Ava's gonna read for us from the prophecy of Isaiah, and I'll tell you why a little later.

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest you shall be saved.

In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.

Can we thank them both, please?

Way to go, guys.

You're awesome.

Well done.

When I asked them if they'd read for me, they said, Well, we're gonna have to check with Lauren and Pillar Kids downstairs because normally we volunteer.

That's pretty awesome.

So here's the thing.

Here's the deal about this sermon.

I had it all ready to go.

And I promise you, it was awesome.

I mean, I was converted.

That's how awesome.

It was so, and then I was driving down the road on Wednesday night, and the Lord said, I have a better idea.

And I was like, Yeah, but it it's the sermon's already ready to go.

And the Lord said, Yeah, I have a better idea.

And I said, But I told the worship team, and we've got the big idea, and it's like this meal hasn't been served yet, but it's like cooking in the oven, like, and the Lord said, Yeah, I have a better idea.

So we're gonna roll with the better idea.

This could be long, could be short.

Are you up for it?

It's from Ava's verse.

I was driving down the road.

I was going to get ice cream at Family Fair.

It was like 10 o'clock at night.

Have you ever gone to Family Fair at 10 o'clock at night to buy ice cream?

You know exactly what was going on in my heart.

My heart was sped up and my mind was racing, and all of a sudden, in quietness and rest is your salvation.

In returning and rest is your salvation.

In quietness and trust is your strength.

But I've already got the sermon.

In returning and rest is your salvation.

In quietness and trust is your strength.

I'd really love it if someone would email me later today telling me why that's the verse we need to hear today.

Freshman.

I think you were the one who yelled.

Asking the big questions of the moment.

Will I have any friends?

Will I make the team?

Will I make the grade?

Will I make them proud?

Isaiah has a word for you.

Upperclassmen, you're back.

Welcome back.

Asking the big questions.

What am I gonna do with my life?

Who am I gonna do my life with?

Is my life worth a life?

And that's I I'm not this isn't just about college students, by the way.

Maybe you've been diagnosed.

A couple of my friends have been.

Maybe you're in that moment in marriage when you're not sure about marriage.

Or maybe it's just getting the king getting the kids to school.

And returning and rest is your salvation.

And quietness and trust is your strength.

Sounds like a great tattoo to me.

So here's what I thought we could do.

The Lord didn't tell me to scrap the other sermon, he just said, I want you to look at it through this lens.

And in returning and rest is your salvation.

And quietness and trust is your strength.

So listen with me to a story I think Isaiah had in mind from the Bible, the Old Testament, from the very beginning.

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

When no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no vegetation had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground, though a stream rose from the center of the earth to water the whole face of the ground, the Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and he placed the man that he had formed there, and the Lord God caused to grow every tree that's good for food and pleasant to the side, and desired to make one wise, the tree of life also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flows from the garden to water the whole face of the ground, and there it divides into four branches.

The name of the first is Pishon, it flows around the land of Havilah.

There's gold in that land, the gold of that land is good.

Delium and Onyxstone are there.

The name of the second is Gihon.

It flows around the whole land of Cush.

The name of the third is the Tigris, it flows east of Assyria, and the name of the fourth is the Euphrates.

The Lord God placed the man in the garden to till it and to keep it.

And the Lord God said, You may freely eat of the fruit of any of the trees that are in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it you will die.

And the Lord God said, It's not good that one should be alone.

I'll make a helper as his partner.

So the Lord God caused to grow every animal of the field and bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call every living creature.

And whatever the man called them, that was its name.

The man named all cattle and birds of the air and every living thing, but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.

So the Lord God caused deep sleep to come upon the man, and he slept.

And the Lord God took from the man a rib and closed up its place with flesh, and out of the rib the Lord God had taken he formed the woman, and he brought her to the man, and the man said, This at last, this bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh, this one shall be called woman, for out of man she came.

For this reason, a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two become one flesh.

And they were both naked, and they were not ashamed.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

It's Genesis 2, if you were wondering.

I want us to swim in the waters of Genesis with Isaiah's goggles.

I just made up that metaphor because I'm making up the sermon as we go.

In returning and rest is your salvation.

And quietness and trust is your strength.

Return from what?

Return from where?

To whom?

Isaiah, it was turbulent, it was chaotic, it was, Isaiah 30, it was, it was, it was it was tumultuous, the global frustrations and economic disparities and social upheaval and relational fracture.

It was broken, it was broken, and people were scurrying around.

We're gonna fix it, we're gonna fix it, we're gonna do what we need, at least get a meal on our table later tonight in a place under our.

We'll just take care of it ourselves, and and God, Isaiah speaks for God's heart in returning and rest is your salvation.

In quietness and trust is your strength.

It was chaotic, it was turbulent, it was tumultuous.

Anybody sound familiar to anybody?

There's this crazy moment in Genesis 2.

It says, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Like, I don't know if your imagination is any good, but imagine that.

In that day, the Lord stoops down and forms the man, digs his hands into the earthy realities of life, and starts forming a human like out of clay and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life.

Do you see this moment right here?

In returning and rest is your salvation.

From what?

The chaos, the turbulence, the turmoil, the anxiety, the frustration that in returning and rest is your we So it's crazy.

There's this.

It says the look, the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed as to his mouth with the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Just like, if you want to parse out the word, he became, he was like becoming.

There's this certain sense in which humankind is made.

How do I put this?

This is why I write manuscripts to sermons.

Incomplete.

Like not good, but like like like made with longing, made with desire, made for something else, someone else that we're not complete in ourselves.

All this scurrying around and hurrying about and striving and ambition, like fine, it's fine.

Just don't think once you get there, you're gonna get there.

You're made for this.

Longing, aching, desiring this moment in returning to this.

And then it's crazy, like the the the way God speaks of the first human, you'd think like, and there he is.

You know, like perfect.

So then why would God say it's not good?

I'll make a helper.

The man was made in need of help.

Self-fulfillment isn't fulfilling! It's not where it's at.

This is where it's at.

So Friday was the feast day of Saint Augustine.

So this is just in honor of Saint Augustine.

Late have I loved thee.

O beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved thee.

For behold, thou wert within me and I outside, and I sought thee outside, and in my unloveliness fell upon those lovely things that thou hast made.

Thou were with me, and I was not with thee.

I tasted thee, and now hunger and thirst for thee, thou didst touch me, and I have burned for thy peace.

For this.

I read this book.

Uh it's titled The Midnight Library.

Anyone know the Midnight Library?

New York Times bestseller, which is total hit and miss for me.

Like, I'm not always sure.

Uh read this one and got far enough in, I was like, I gotta keep going now.

I've invested too much.

Uh so it's this woman, she I don't know how old she is, probably late 20s, early 30s, Nora Seed.

She's really disappointed in her life.

It's just not the life she wanted.

Uh so, and then the book is really about this moment like between life and not life.

And and she's in this library, the Midnight Library, and the library is full of books, an infinite number of books, and each book is a different version of her life.

If only she had made a little different decision.

If she hadn't quit the band, well, let's read that book.

If she hadn't gotten married, well, let's read that book.

If she had gone with her friend Izzy to Australia, well, let's read that book.

And there's just an infinite number of versions of her life, and uh it comes to this moment, and I'll just read some of it.

Uh she had been a rock star, an Olympian, a music teacher, a primary school teacher, a professor, a CEO, a PA, a chef, a glaciologist, a climatologist, an acrobat, a tree planter, an audit manager, a hairdresser, a professional dog walker, an office clerk, a software developer, a receptionist, a hotel cleaner, a politician, a lawyer, a shoplifter.

She'd had colleagues who'd lied about her and colleagues who loved her, and mainly colleagues who were entirely indifferent to her.

There was a life where she had chronic fatigue, a life where she had cancer, a life where she'd suffer a herniated disc and broken her ribs in a car accident.

The trouble was that eventually Nora began to lose any sense of who she was.

Like a whispered word passed around from ear to ear.

Even her name began to sound like just a noise, signifying nothing.

It's not working, she said.

It's not fun anymore.

I need somewhere to stay.

But the ground is never stable.

What if the fun isn't in the jumping?

What if it's in the landing?

Running around, jumping around, making a life, striving, winning, building.

What if the fun isn't in the jumping around?

What if it's in the landing?

What if he formed the man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life in returning and rest is your salvation?

And quietness and trust is your strength.

It's also interesting to me.

Genesis 2.

In the day that the Lord God made.

Isn't that amazing?

All of the subjects of every verb except one in Genesis 2.

This is a we'll do a little quiz since you're coming back to school.

A little quiz.

Guess who's the subject of every verb except one in the entirety of chapter 2?

Fail.

God.

God.

God is the subject of every verb.

The Lord God formed, the Lord God made, the Lord God said, the Lord God brought, the Lord God caused God.

We ask questions about Genesis, like, well, was it in this many days, or did it go like that?

And we would that we assume the story's about us, which is fine.

The story's about God.

This whole thing's about God.

God who can and does and will God makes.

That's just like Tuesday.

God! Here's another one.

This was a sunrise on Whidby Island.

You see Mount Baker in the left corner up there?

The scene is so expansive.

Mount Baker looks like a pebble.

God! The Lord God made the heavens and the earth.

It's incredible.

It's amazing.

God, God can.

In returning and rest is your salvation.

In quietness and trust is your strength.

I've read this book titled The Passions of the Soul by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Rowan Williams.

There is God and there is creation, including ourselves.

But why is there creation?

God is self-sufficient, perfect, needing nothing in order just to be God.

The only reason for creation is this internal pushing of the boundaries of God's love by God's love.

The only reason for creation is this internal pushing of the boundaries of God's love by God's love.

We are because God is.

We are because God loves God.

So as you're navigating the contours of this crazy, turbulent, messed up, mixed up, broken world, we haven't even mentioned Nepal and China.

Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East.

And we want to fix it.

We want to do stuff and do stuff.

This isn't some urge for complacency and inactivity, but rather orientation.

God.

In returning and rest is your salvation.

In quietness and trust is your strength.

So I'm driving south on Washington.

Wednesday night, sermon's cooking.

How's the sermon going, by the way?

It's a different one.

That was cooking.

I'm driving, and you know, my mind is because you know it's like the kid Ava's going back to school, and we're dropping tabby off, and Ava.

Us 10, and you know, all and I'm like, I've only got one body, but I've got to be in eight places, and your mind is doing this, and then all of a sudden, you ever had one of those moments?

And returning in rest is your salvation and quietness.

And I drive past the hospital, it's dark, it's the 10 o'clock ice cream run, and it and and I in the hospital, it's like a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing.

You know, lights are on and only a few rooms, and I see the a silhouette I assume is a nurse standing over a hospital bed, and I start thinking about the people I know and love who've been diagnosed.

And I hear it in returning and rest as your salvation and quietness and trust is your strength.

And I get to family fair and I get into the frozen food section, and I'm grabbing my ice cream, and I see a couple, apparently they're doing the same thing I was doing.

They're getting the ice cream too, and only they're actually hashing out the argument that brought them to the frozen food section in the first place, and I hear it again in returning and rest is your salvation and quietness and trust is your strength.

And then I'm driving back and I get to that shell station on 16th and River, you know, the one where the image bears are holding the signs, asking for help, needing attention, and then I'm thinking about all the people in our community who give so much time and energy to alleviate those situations, and I'm thinking, and returning and rest is your salvation, and quietness and trust is your strength.

And I get up to the city hall where the where the protesters stand on Saturdays announcing their passion.

Returning and rest is your salvation, and quietness and trust is your strength.

And then I get home and there's a mini fridge in my front yard open, the doors are open, we're trying to dry it all out, you know, for the move the next day, but the sprinklers are on, and I'm thinking, why?

Why in returning and rest is your salvation and quietness and trust is your strength.

So we bring Tabby over to Hope on Thursday.

Um walk into Dykster Hall.

There's a sign on the window up above, like poster board, someone written on marker, fully known, fully loved.

I thought that's bold for orientation weekend.

Uh but it's a great aspiration right here, you know.

Fully known, fully loved.

And we're doing the orientation things, you know.

Or I know you all think she's just across, leave me alone, okay?

It's still my girl.

All right?

And we're doing the orientation things and all the stuff.

And then on Saturday, yesterday, there's a worship service, and that's when they they herd the cattle.

Like the parent cattle go down this set of lines, and the the student cattle go down this, and we're like, bye.

So I'm standing in the back of Dimnit Chapel and feeling all these things.

Are anybody feeling any of it with me?

And they start singing that song that JG so willingly, I asked him to do this like 45 minutes ago.

They start singing that song that, and and and it just hit me.

Like, there it is.

I want to manage, I want to control it, I want to fix it.

I I've been spending 18 years trying to get that girl moving in this direction.

What if what if in returning and rest is your salvation and quietness and trust is your strength?

What if God?

God, the Lord God made the heavens and the earth.