One Giant Leap - Week 1: Silence & Solitude

We're going to be starting a brand new series today, and I want to

take just a couple of minutes and just kind of lay the foundation here before

we get into the message. We're starting a brand new series called One Giant

Leap, and I want you to know that this will be the hardest thing

that we've ever preached. This is this, this series is going to be

the most difficult thing we've ever preached. It's going to be the simplest concept,

but it's going to be the most difficult thing that we've preached for you

to put into practice. Come on, somebody, but these series of small

steps will lead to a giant leap in your spiritual development if you will weep

by week implement these spiritual disciplines and these principles that we teach you. And

the reason this series is so hard is it because it is because it runs

so adverse, so counter to today's culture. You know, we have been

taught that success is measured in how busy and how much we get done.

That's what the world has taught us. We talk about the fact that today

people are lazy, that people don't but I want you to know that right

now, on the face of the earth, people are more busy than they've

ever been. When we think about the good old days when the West was

won and those pioneering days where all that hard work was done. Listen,

I just want you to take this in for just a moment. Do you

realize that back in those days, those people averaged eleven hours of sleep a

day. Let me say that again. They averaged eleven hours of sleep per

day because they went to bed when it got dark and they didn't get up

until the sun came up. And that is the way life worked. And

as we have industrialized and mechanized and now technologized, I don't know what you

call technologized, those hours shrink and shrink and shrink and shrink, and as

a result, it affects our lives in very adverse ways. When we look

back over the years of those great pillars of the faith that we can think

of the Spurgeons and the Moodies, Leicester, summer Ale Smith, Wigglesworth.

They spent time in prayer. They carved out hours of time and prayer not

just because of their devotion but simply because they could. Let me say that

again, but because they could because they lived their lives a different way than

we have learned to live our lives. I learned an interesting fact as I

was putting these thoughts together. A goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds.

An attention span of nine seconds. Now that's how many If you know

what a goldfish is, I mean that little go you know, the ones

that you win at the fair that don't make it home because they're brey up

right, nine seconds. The average millennial has an attention span of eight seconds.

Did you know that if you on a smartphone that on average you touch

your phone over twenty one hundred times per day. And I know you're sitting

there thinking right now, not me. Yeah, you you just don't realize

it, but you do. We are captivated with the noise, with the

pace of trying to succeed in a world in which there is no such thing

as success, because the world just demands more and more and more. It

used to be that if you were a millionaire, you were wealthy, and

now you need to be a billionaire, and pretty soon you'll need to be

a trillionaire because the world and the enemy demands more, more more. But

the words of Apostle Paul, I have learned to be content in whatever state

I find. I have learned to be content, whether I abound or whether

I'm abased, I've learned to be content. I have satisfaction in Christ and

in Christ alone. To really take the next step in our spiritual journey,

we need to learn that there is a necessity for us to unplug the noise

of the world cancels the voice of God in most of our lives. If

you are a C. S. Lewis fan, who's one of the great

Christian apologists. C. S. Lewis in his book The screw Tape Letters

the Chief Demon, Screwtape's goal was to create as much noise in the world

as possible, because noise will defeat the voice of God in the lives of

believers. His number one priority was to make you noisier and more busy,

because busyness will rob you of God's destiny in your life. Wow, let

me tell you something. If that is his goal, he is certainly achieving

it today. Amen. In Matthew chapter three, verse sixteen, we began

reading with Jesus baptism. This was Jesus I'm launch into ministry as we know

his life on the face of the planet. So in Matthew Chapter three,

verse sixteen. It says, when he had been baptized, Jesus came up

immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were open to him,

and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him.

And suddenly a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in

whom I'm well pleased. This was jesus ordination into ministry. This was the

go button. This was when the conditions were fulfilled, and he began to

make his impact on the face of planet Earth, ministering under the power of

the Holy Spirit as the Son of God. This was that moment. And

it seems like, if this is the moment, that we should look at

his very first action to see what our priority in ministry and life should be

amen Because, after all, when we get hired on a new job,

the first thing we do is go to work. When we start a new

project, the first thing we do is go to work. When we want

to grow in our faith, the first thing we do is we get an

app. Come on, somebody. I wonder how the early church ever made

it without apps? How could they possibly manage life without the daily devotional app

that's on the fifteens. Every fifteen minutes, that sends you a new passage

of scripture that you're supposed to meditate on, understand, and apply to your

life every fifteen minutes. Sometimes it takes me fifteen years to master a principle

of God. Jesus is here, and this voice comes from heaven says,

this is my son and whom I'm well pleased. He's now overshadowed by the

power of the Holy Spirit. Let's jump to to the beginning of Matthew chapter

four. This is the very next thing that happens in Jesus' life Matthew chapter

four, verse one, that says, then Jesus was led up by the

spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he fasted

for forty days and forty nights afterward, he was hungry. Now the tempter

came to him. Father, we thank you for your word. What a

privilege we have to be able to rest upon and meditate on your word.

It's the only change agent on the face of the planet. And today we've

come, Lord, many of us weary and tired, pulled in so many

directions. We don't even remember which ways up. But today I pray that

that change agent, the Word of God, would take residence in our lives

and bring a harvest the likes of which we've never experienced. Father, do

a new work in us today, and help us be more like you in

Jesus' name. Amen. I used to think that when we read of the

wilderness, that the wilderness was a place of weakness, that the wilderness was

that dangerous place, that the wilderness was wild and unforgiving. And hear the

spirit of the Lord led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

But Jesus wasn't led into the wilderness so that the devil had access to

him. Jesus was led into the wilderness so that he could prepare for the

attack of the devil. See, Jesus was brought into that place of isolation,

that place of seclusion, that place of silence, so that he could

pray and be alone with his father, so that he could sit and he

could listen, so that when the attack of the adversary came, so that

when the temptation came, he could understand the difference between the voice of the

enemy and the word of his father. See, it was in the wilderness

where he began to understand completely and get clarity on who he was and his

mission on earth. It was in the wilderness, isolated from the noise and

the busyness of life, that he was able to get the fortitude to stand

against the attack when it came. Jesus had forty days. Now, now

let me just go ahead and preface this by saying Jesus was the son of

God, not the only begotten son of God. I know we're child we're

the children of God, but he's the only begotten. That means he probably

forgot something we ain't got. And he took forty days to prepare for the

onslaught and the attack of the enemy. If Jesus prepared in solitude and silence

for forty days for an attack of the enemy, how can we stand against

the attack of the enemy when we don't find solitude in silence for forty seconds

in a day. And you think, oh, no, no, no,

no. See, when I'm in my car, that's my time with

the Lord. When I'm in my car, that's that's that's We're gonna talk

about it. In just a minute. I'm gonna get right in your business

in just a few minutes. Okay, Oh no, no, no,

So you don't understand when I'm in a shower. When I'm in a shower,

that's just my time with the Lord. I get clean and my soul

gets clean. It's like soul for the soul. And we we we make

these excuses and we we go back and we try to pull out these moments

in our lives. And we call that our alone time, our quiet time,

our wilderness time with God, that time of preparation. But the reality

is we we have a hard time discerning the difference between quiet and quiet.

We have a hard time listen the only time. Most of you and I'm

you today, I want you to understand this is my journey. Also,

when we preach something to you, it doesn't mean we've already figured it out.

See. That's the mistake that a lot of church people make, is

they think that what we preach to you we've already figured out. We have

it so man or many times we struggle with the same things. It's just

the fact that God has chosen us to be that mouth so that we speak

and we try to follow the words that we say. Many times I want

to scream and shake you and say do as I say, not as I

do. And today this busyness is a struggle. I want you to know

that that when we put these sermons series, when we lay these sermon series

out, when we do our preaching, it comes months or years ahead of

time. Many times, the sermon series that we're doing we put on the

calendar a year or two years ago, and we find ourselves in this sermon

series during the most busy time I've ever experienced in my entire life. And

I often just sit and when I pull those notes out, I begin to

laugh because I realized, Wow, thank you Lord for just allowing me to

feel like part of the body today. I'm on this journey with you.

I'm right here. I want to show of hands that most of us never

take a break. I want to show of hands if if this is you,

that you come home and you sit down and you're having a conversation and

the TVs on while you're surfing social media, and the truth is, most

of us are so fatigued and so tired already that none of those things are

actually making a difference in our lives. We find ourselves in a place that

we create this busy, noisy world to medicate getting ahead of myself. In

Mark chapter one, Jesus has been in the wilderness. He's been tempted of

the devil. He had a forty day quiet time. When I talk about

a quiet time and a devotion, that's like a quiet time and a devotional

time. Forty days. Jesus comes back. He gets started in ministry and

he works for one day. He does ministry for one day. At the

end of it, and then we pick up in March chapter one, verse

thirty five. Now in the morning, Now he's listen. Jesus has worked,

he's healed, he's cast out demons, he's preached, he's done it

all. It was a long, hard day. And you know what we

do as pastors today after a long hard Sunday, you know, we sleep

late. Come on somebody, you know maybe you know, go outside and

sit and listen to the birds sing. That's what we want to do.

Is never what we do, but it's what we want to do. But

listen to what Jesus does. After forty days of quiet time, of solitude

and silence, he works one day. Now in the morning, having risen

a long while before daylight. Jesus' response to a hard, busy day was

to get up early before daylight. He went out and departed to a solitary

place, and there he prayed. Jesus had a forty day quiet time,

ministered, worked, lived for a day, and the very next thing he

did was go back into solitude and silence, back into his quiet time.

As a matter of fact, in the Book of Luke, it talks about

Jesus retreating into his quiet place, into a place of solitude nine times.

Not miracles that were recorded, but just the fact that Jesus Us prioritized his

solitude and silence, and Simon and those who were with him searched for him.

Now, Jesus got up. Jesus did all the work the day before.

Simon and the boys didn't do a whole lot. They just watched Jesus.

Jesus got up, he goes away to a place of solitude. They

wake up and they start looking for him. They searched for him. When

they found him, they said to him, Hey, everybody's looking for you.

And in my heart, I think what Jesus was thinking in his mind

is, yeah, that's why I'm here, That's why I hid from you

because I can't be busy all the time if I'm going to do what the

Father has called me to do, because I need to spend some time alone

with him. Everyone's looking for you. But he said to them, let

us go into the next towns that I may preach there also because for his

purpose I have come forth. Now listen, Jesus is having his quiet time

now. The people that he just ministered to, they know his miracles,

they know who is they're looking for him. They come and they say,

listen, everybody's looking. Everybody's looking for you because there's still more needs over

there. Do you understand that's what's happening here? Shake your head. They

need you to come back Jesus. And Jesus looks at him in the Jesus

fashion, and he says, hey, I got an idea that let's don't

go back. I got an idea let's just go to the next town because

I got to preach to them too. So no, I'm not going back

because in our quiet time, in times of solitude and silence, we find

absolute clarity on God's plan for our life. So listen to me. Let

me answer this question for you that I get asked at least one hundred thousand

times a year, How do I know what God wants me to do?

Solitude and silence? Turn your phone off? Oh well, I'll just I'll

silence it because I have to play. I have to play my worship music

to get in the mood. I have to set the atmosphere and the environment

past her. So I'm just gonna play a little little music. No,

turn it off, because if it's on, it distracts you. Because it's

on, whether you touch it or reach for it, it is distracting you.

Oh well, then I'll just turn the television of no. Silence and

solitude. See, there's two kinds of silence. There's external silence. There's

the noise that's around us in the world. It's the sound of things.

It's cars going by horns. It's the sound of the TV or the kids

screaming, or or your wife. And you don't really know what she's saying.

It's just a sound that's always there. And she's saying things like sweep

or do the dishes or cut the ground. And you know we can't hear

that. My audiologists said, listen, there's gonna be things you never hear

and I was just I was devastated, and I said, what are those

things? I mean, you know, why won't I be able to hear

you saying, oh I will when your wife ask you to do something.

You're never gonna be able to hear that because you're a man. You just

won't be able to hear that. I said, Oh, okay, So

just fellas there you go. But it's that noise, that external noise that's

always there, and it's always invading our minds, and the reality is we

want it and we feel comfortable with it. And then there's the practice of

silence. There's the internal silence because even when there's no noise, for those

of us who don't use white noise generators, when we lay down to go

to sleep, I just want to say that and listen, don't leave the

church over this. I'm not telling you you're sinning and going to hell because

you use a white noise generator. But if you're at the place in your

life where you have to have noise to go to sleep, this series is

really for you, heymen, It's really for you. We lay in bed

and all of those thoughts begin to run through our mind, that internal mental

chatter that's always running, and it's always talking, and there's always noise,

and that noise it's always saying, hey, I'm not good enough, or

I should have or what if. It's those thoughts of lust, it's those

thoughts of debauchery. It's those thoughts of those sinful things. It's hey,

tomorrow, I could just take a fifty out of the register and it would

meet my budget for the year. And it's those internal that mental anguish and

that mental noise that's always running and it's never quiet in there. It's always

about what do I have to do next? Or what did I forget to

do? And it's torment. But society and the world has taught us that

it's normal. So we self medicate with external noise because it takes the focus

off of the internal noise, because the external noise feels better than the internal

noise, you know. Israel is a perfect example of solitude and silence.

They found themselves under the Taskmaster's hand in Egypt, in bondage from an outside

force. This outside force dictated everything that they did, everything that they could

have. And God sends Moses to deliver the people of Israel out from underneath

the Taskmaster's hand, and he pulls them into the wilderness, into the place

of solitude and silence. And for forty years, they didn't build houses,

they didn't go to jobs, they didn't grow food. Have you thought about

that? For forty years, these people didn't partake of the responsibilities that we

have every day, because God provided for their every need. When the sun

was too bright, he appeared as a cloud and he shaded them. When

it was dark and cold, he appeared as a pillar of fire, and

he lit the way, and he warned them. They woke up in the

morning and there was manna. They just gathered and ate, and for forty

years they had silence and solitude because God knew that even the hand of the

Taskmaster, those external forces were not as detrimental as the internal forces that worked

against them. Because they began to believe that they were slaves, they began

to have a slave mentality, They began to think that they were victims.

They began to think that they would never measure up, and that their God

wasn't their God, that he had forsaken them and abandoned them. And it

was the voices on the inside that were so more so much more detrimental than

the whip on the outside, because it's the noise on the inside. It's

our internal dysfunction. It's the brokenness on the inside of us that keeps us

out of God's destiny. Because God's promise is that when the enemy comes in

like a flood, he'll lift up a standard against him. God looks at

you, and he says, I've got everything on the outside, but I

need you to get on board with the inside, internal conflict that can only

be solved in solitude and silence. And for forty years they struggled with returning

back to less than Do you realize that most of those forty years they fought

no battles on the outside. He said, I just need you to understand

your brokenness and your hurt and your dysfunction. We surround ourselves with the noise

and the busyness of life to self medicate our wounds, our hurt, our

grief, and our brokenness. The busier we are, the less time we

have to think about those traumatic things that are on the inside of us.

And we think if we if we don't recognize them, if we don't if

we don't think about them, if we don't if we don't spend any time

with them, that that we're going to be okay, that we're gonna be

able to get through another day. We go through our jobs, and our

job is the most favorite time of our day because we don't have time to

think about what that person said, or what happened to me, or the

fact that I didn't measure up or And then we get in the car,

and that short walk between the door of the office and the door of the

car, those thoughts start flooding in. So we get in the car and

we turn on talk radio. Where we get in the car, we sink

our phones to our car and we just start calling somebody. It doesn't matter

who it is, as long as there's noise, as long as there's something

happening, just a distraction from the solitude of my life because it hurts,

it feels uncomfortable. I'm sad when it's just me. We walk into our

homes and the first thing we do is we turn on the television in one

room and the radio in another room, and we look up a YouTube video

of what we're gonna cook tonight. And then while we're cooking, we sing

a different song that's on the radio all because I know I'm broken and I

don't want to deal with it. I just want to survive. God has

so much more for you than survival. The reality is, if we never

dwell on the brokenness, if we never acknowledge the dysfunction and the hurt,

if this gaping wound on the inside of us, if we never spend any

time thinking about it, how can we bring it to the one who will

heal it? If we run at a fever pitch, how will we ever

be still long enough to sit in his pace? And is healing virtue?

I find it mind blowing if that woman with the issue of blood finds her

moment of wholeness not fighting through the crowd, not at a doctor's office,

but after she falls to her knees and reaches for the hem of his garment,

and in that moment gives up. Her goal wasn't the hem of his

garment. Her goal was the conversation. Her goal was another interaction. But

it was in that moment of solitude, even surrounded by people, that moment

of silence, where she said, this is my last chance. I can't

do any more. Here I am the distraction from our hurt holds us from

our healing. I hear people say this all the time, and you've said

some of you have said it. I'm talking to y'all. Oh right now,

I just need to be doing something. Most people in the response to

loss or or hurt, Oh well, I just need to be busy doing

something. Oh no, I'm gonna go to I'm gonna go to work tomorrow

because it'll take my mind off of Do you realize that your mind doesn't need

to be taken off of everything. Your mind needs to be on some things.

Because it's in the meditation. It's in the moment we recognize as our

hurt that the healer shows up, that the moment we recognize our chaos,

the God of peace arise. That it's in those moments of silence and solitude

where we take one small step for man, one small step for me,

because until I take the small steps for me, I'll never be able to

make an impact on mankind. You a contrary to what I just got through

telling you in another series, you are the most important person in this story

because you need to be whole and just ignoring the hard things, some miserable

place to find yourself and live in Matthew. Chapter eleven, Jesus says,

come to me, Come to Me. Jesus talks about the quiet place,

the location, a quiet place, a physical geographical reality, the quiet place

more than he talks about any other geographical location, including heaven. If there's

one place where we can look and find Jesus, it's in the quiet place.

If you don't know where to look to find him, look in the

quiet place. Well, where is that. Maybe it's in your closet,

maybe it's in your bedroom, Maybe it's on your back deck. Maybe it's

that little granite outcropping out in the woods behind your house. But it's a

place I go where there is silence so that I can practice silence. It's

a place that's set apart and not filled with people that will always distract me

and pull on me in require something more of me. It's that complicated it

pressure intension about what others need and what I need. It's that that messy

gray area where we are questioning the validity of ourselves and our selfishness versus the

selflessness and our ability to minister. But in your quiet place, God reorganizes,

points you in the right direction and gives you the clarity of mind needed

to make a maximum impact. Clay, You guys can come and get ready.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and

I will give you rest. You know, I think it was Tuesday.

I read that simple passage of scripture that I have read probably hundreds of times,

and that word rest leapt off the page, and I will give you

rest, Rest for your soul, rest for your body, rest for your

mind. Just rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for

your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Even

in the church, we intentionally program out any downtime. We worked so hard

to pack as much in as we can while we have you here, that

we have conversations like this. Well, you know the song ended and you

were still down there and you had to walk up the steps, and that

created you know that that six or seven seconds of downtime. So we need

to tighten that up. And even in the church, we're teaching you that

busy is better, but I want you to know it's not. You must

create solitude and silence in your life. So this is what you're gonna do

for the next seven days. For the next seven days, you're going to

create. Now, listen at least thirty minutes. For some of you overachievers,

shoot for an hour where your phones are off, the television is off,

your laptop is off, the radio is off, and you just sent

and you're thinking, there's no way I can pray for an hour. I

don't need you to. I don't need you to pray for an hour.

Yet you'll get there. As a matter of fact, when you learn the

discipline of solitude and silence, you will pray a lot more, and you'll

start asking God to stop pointing out the things in your life that you need

to work on. But just sit there, Just sit there, and don't

worry about what the kid. Oh, I forgot to go to the store.

Where are the kid's going to eat for lunch tomorrow? Hey? I

forgot to carry Lexi's lunch to her the other day. She lived. She

made it till three point thirty. She did not perish. Does that make

me a bad parent? Yeah? Probably, But she lives. She knows

she can do it now. I taught her a valuable lesson. She should

have just called it a fast right, that's what we do. I don't

have time for lunch. Oh I'm fasting. No you're not, you're too

busy. Thirty minutes minimum. Oh we're gonna you know, we'll play a

board game. No no, no, no, no, no no no,

no, that's different. We'll get to that in three weeks. Just

nothing. What if the baby cries, shut the door, they'll make it.

And thirty minutes a day. Next Sunday, you will have done this,

and you will have created three and a half hours of silence and solitude

out of all the hours, three and a half hours. Do you realize

that most people watch Netflix more than that every single night? Three and a

half hours of silence and solitude. And when you arrive back here next Sunday,

you will be in a whole different spiritual state of mind for three and

a half hours. When you don't understand my situation, Pastor, I'm a

single mom, and I don't I don't have I don't have the ability to

do that. Rise early as Jesus before the sun comes up. Hold on,

see, ye know, I work two jobs and I just barely can

I can just barely make rent. I guarantee that you have a subscription to

a streaming service, so that means you're watching something at some point thirty minutes,

thirty minutes, one sitcom. Just cut out, one sitcom, thirty

minutes. That's it. Oh well, I just get so sad by myself.

I just keep standing to be by myself, and I get so sad,

and I just break down and I saw and I cry, and I

think about all of my failures. Yes, yes you do. And in

the moment of that brokenness, in the moment where you think about how sad

you are and how bad your life is, and all the things you've missed

out on, and how you don't measure up, and your guilt and your

shame and what he did and what she did. And in the midst of

that thirty minutes, the Master will visit you and he will speak that life

changing syllable that will bring peace to your broken heart, liberty to the captivated

areas, stir destiny that you've so longed for. Turn off your phones,

turn off your TV, and just set with Jesus, Father. I pray

right now for your people. Jesus, I pray because it breaks my heart

that that in the midst of the opportunity we have right now, with more

people than have ever been alive on the face of the earth. We live

in the busiest, noisiest time and recorded history. My heart breaks for your

people because I so want them to experience you. So Lord, give them

the fortitude to try, and mercy if they fail. But more importantly,

sit with your people. Sit with your people and hutter the words of healing

in the midst of our silence and our solitude. Lord, we love you,

and we thank you. In your name, the name of the Strong

Son of God Jesus, we pray Amen, Amen and Amen.