Presence Must Resist Distraction

And I'll tell you this.

I think a lot of us, if not all of us, we've lied to our children.

We've lied to them about a lot of things, probably.

But I want you to imagine when a child's two or three years old and and they they they awake in the middle of the night and they're screaming, and and you you you wake up and try to rub the sleep out of your eyes, and you go to them in their room and you hold them, and and they tell you that they are scared because of monsters.

And you tell them there's no such thing as monsters.

And I think we're not really telling the truth to our kids because monsters are real.

Monsters come in in different forms.

Let me let me tell you this: the devil is real, the enemy is real, the forces of darkness are real.

Demons are real.

They war against us.

Hell is real.

I felt burdened recently, just almost about that.

We don't teach the truth about eternal hell and separation from God.

And I don't, listen, that's just, I'm I'm I want everybody to be happy in the room.

I'm an encourager, I'm an exhorter.

That's just my, so I'm I'm kind of that, that's my natural bent.

I don't like to talk about all the bad stuff and the negative stuff.

I want you to leave encouraged, but hell is real.

And so we need to realize that sometimes we need to be honest, and there are such things as monsters.

And so we've got to be willing to teach truth.

And so what we want our kids to do is to think rationally, you know, about the monster in the closet, but rationality by itself has never calmed a single fear in children or adults.

It is entirely possible to know one thing is true, but to feel completely the opposite.

We know that God loves us, we know that he's working everything out for good, but we will shake in our shoes with anxiety nonetheless.

And so here's something I'm wrestling with, and I'm a truth guy, but I'm beginning to come to terms with the reality.

Reality is a process that must involve feeling as much as knowing.

Feelings are so important.

And so when one of my kids woke, the fear was real, even though the monster in the closet was not.

And so our children need a parent to hold them and calm them and do what?

Speak truth over them.

And so we all need truth spoken over us.

The truth is there are realities we can't see, the monsters of demons and the devil and the enemy and death and all these things.

And so, as we conclude this series, we've called it Beautiful Resistance.

And it comes from a book written by a guy named John Tyson.

He's a pastor in New York City, and the subtitle is The Joy of Conviction in a Culture of Compromise.

And so the culture pulls us away from the truth, away from Jesus, away from what is real, away from what we should know.

The culture pulls us into compromise.

And so today we're talking about the presence, the fact that presence must resist distraction.

Presence must resist distraction.

And so here's the monster of our modern culture.

It's distraction.

It's distraction.

And so the enemy wants to distract you.

And of course, number one, he wants to distract you, to distract you from the truth of the gospel.

Distraction keeps you from the presence of Jesus.

Not just from Jesus, but of anything else that's important or anyone else that's important.

We're bombarded with distractions.

From endless notifications, from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, text messages, phone calls, messenger, ESPN, Pinterest, calendar reminders.

Did I leave anything out?

I'm sure I did.

Yeah, we could go on.

There's stuff that hasn't even been invented yet.

Our minds, as a result of our soul, and as a result, our souls.

Our minds and our souls are pulled in a number of different directions.

And we fail to give full focus to what matters the most.

And so here's I came across an interesting article that Nathan shared with me from The Atlantic, a publication called The Atlantic.

And it's the title is Danger of Distracted Parenting.

And we live in this world where people in general are distracted, but it's really the heavy price that we can pay as parents.

And so one study was tracked by ATT as they rolled out smartphone service at different times and different places.

And what they discovered was that childhood visits to the emergency room in those areas had a dramatic increase.

Why?

Because parents were distracted.

That is scary and funny at the same time.

And so Erica Christachis says this we seem to have stumbled into the worst model of parenting imaginable, always present physically, thereby blocking the children's autonomy, yet only fitfully present emotionally.

And so we're going to look at this passage, and what we're looking at today is how Jesus, who probably would have been arguably the person that should be the most distracted.

He's the creator of the universe.

He's got people pulling at him from all different directions.

He is capable and he is able to meet needs.

Yet he seems to be fully present with people that he interacts with.

Jesus never seemed to be in a rush.

He wanted to give people his full and undivided attention.

So the question is, how do we become like Jesus?

How do we live undistracted lives?

I've read recently out of a book, and we're going to be doing a series coming up about household patterns and habits that we can have for families.

But the quote is this we become our habits.

We become our habits.

So we've got to prioritize the practice of presence with Jesus.

We must prioritize the practice of presence with people that Jesus has placed in our life.

And so the big idea today is that.

It's a lot of peas, right?

But it said we prioritize the practice of presence with Jesus and the people he's placed in our life.

We're called to live like Jesus and we're called to lead others to do the same.

That's what discipleship is.

So we practice the presence with our Heavenly Father, like Jesus prioritized with His Heavenly Father, and we practice presence with the people around us just like Jesus prioritized the practice of presence with the disciples.

So Matthew 14, starting in verse 22.

Immediately after this, what's the this?

He's just fed the 5,000.

Jesus has just gone through this miraculous feeding of thousands of people with his disciples.

So immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, the Sea of Galilee, while he sent the people home.

After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.

Night fell while he was there alone.

So Jesus desperately is desperately seeking presence with his heavenly father.

What do we would call that solitude?

We've talked about solitude recently.

Solitude is time alone with your heavenly father.

It's time by yourself.

We prioritize community.

We prioritize time with other people, but Jesus is prioritizing solitude.

He's prioritizing practicing presence with just Jesus by himself.

He might be exhausted.

He might be discouraged.

He's just been given the news about John the Baptist, his friend, his relative, who's been killed.

And so he wants time with the Father.

The people are following him.

He's responded with compassion.

He's healed people miraculously.

He's fed people.

He's delegated ministry to his disciples.

And although they aren't confident, Jesus gives them responsibility so they can learn.

And so I don't want to partly wants to head on to the next part.

I want you to think about that.

Jesus practices this priority.

I think he does that partly just for our benefit.

Because he's God.

Does he need this?

He's God in the flesh.

So Jesus is fully God and fully man.

So he is fully deity.

He is God, but at the same time, he is fully human.

So I think he's expressing his dependence in his humanity on his heavenly father.

I can't go.

I can't live.

I can't take another step.

I need my father.

I need him.

So verse 24.

It says, Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble, far away from land, for a strong wind had risen and they were fighting heavy waves.

About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water.

When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified.

Duh.

When somebody comes walking to you on water, I mean it says literally, they are in terror.

I mean, it is, it is, they are, they are terrified.

In their fear, they cry out, it's a ghost.

But Jesus spoke to them at once.

Don't be afraid, he said, Take courage.

I am here.

Now, Jesus steps into a terribly anxious situation, and he becomes a non-anxious presence.

Now I'm borrowing the wording of John Mark Comer as he talks about this need for a non-anxious presence in all of our lives.

Jesus has sent the disciples across the Sea of Galilee.

He spent time with his father.

There's a couple options for him to regroup with the disciples.

He's got to walk all the way around the Sea of Galilee, or he can take the shorter route and he can go straight to them.

You would think he might get in a boat, but he walks out to them.

One of these surprisingly quick storms hits the Sea of Galilee.

It's part of the geography and the reality of life there.

Storms can come and just take you by surprise at the Sea of Galilee, and as the storms are beating against their boat, the middle of the night, Jesus comes to them.

It says at 3 a.m.

It means they've been working and doing ministry all day long.

They get in the boat, and rather than a peaceful ride and maybe a nap in the middle of the night, they are awake till 3 a.m.

So they have to be physically and mentally exhausted.

And see, that probably means they're more susceptible to fear.

And Jesus comes to them, and what do they say?

They say it's a ghost.

The word is phantasma in the Greek, and it's where we get the word phantom.

Now here's what we need to know is that in Jewish culture, God's people, the Israeli people, are land-bearing people.

You never read about the great Navy of Israel.

You just don't.

You don't.

They're a land-bearing people.

Water is bad.

It's a bad thing.

And not only is it bad, there were specific beliefs that they held about the Sea of Galilee.

People would drown, and they believed that whoever drowned in the Sea of Galilee would come back up and haunt you as a ghost.

And so they're afraid of the water, period, and then in the middle of the night, a person comes to them walking on the water, and they are terrified.

Lots and lots of symbolism and metaphorical meaning in this story.

Storms represent the things that we go through in life, the difficulties all of us go through.

It seems like I have, we've had an abnormal number of storms in the lives of people in our church in the last week or two.

And as I talk right now, Craig and Tanya Calhoun are in the hospital with Tanya's mother, who had an aortic aneurysm this past week.

And they're waiting, hoping that she will wake up and that she will be mentally well.

And so all of us have storms, we have difficulties, not to mention just the consuming pace of life that we live in our culture.

We're constantly exhausted, and as a result, fear and anxiety feel and becomes more real.

And that's that that wrestling with truth and feeling.

Why that's important.

And so Jesus is about to speak to them, and I want you to listen to what Jesus says.

In the midst of the storms, in the midst of the difficulty, in the midst of these false fears, in the midst of the real reality that brings real fear.

What does Jesus say to them?

He says this, it's the most common command in Scripture.

Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

The ESV says it this way.

Immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.

Fear not.

One of the older translations says, Fear not, it would say.

And what you need to know here is that where he says, It is I, or I am here, is the exact wording translated out of the Hebrew that God uses to speak to Moses when he reveals his identity in the desert at the burning bush.

So literally, it's I am.

Take heart, I am.

Do not be afraid.

I am.

Or you could say, I am that I am.

It's the translation from the Hebrew Yahweh, the name of God, his identity, that speaks to the heart of who he is.

Exodus 3, 14 and 15.

And God said to Moses, I am who I am.

He said, say this to the people of Israel.

I am, I am, has sent me to you.

God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel.

The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.

This is my name forever, forever.

And thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

And not only is that wording in the Greek, the ego am I, not only is it significant as God's name, his identity, I am that I am, it's significantly placed in the story.

I mean, literally, exactly in the middle of the story.

Ninety words on one side of this story, 90 words on the other side of God's name.

God with us.

I am with you.

Do not fear.

That's how we fight anxiety.

That's how we fight the demon and the monster of distraction.

Verse 28.

Then Peter called him, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you walking on the water.

Yes, come, Jesus said.

So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.

And this isn't in your this isn't on the screen, but I wrote down, when we stay focused, distractions are minimized.

If we stay focused on what matters and what God has for us, what he's done.

Distractions are minimized.

Verse 30, but when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink.

Save me, Lord, he shouted.

Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him.

You have so little faith, Jesus said.

And really what Jesus is saying, he's saying, you little faith.

He's calling Peter a nickname.

He's saying, you, you, little faith.

Why did you doubt me?

When they climbed back in the boat, the wind stopped, and the disciples worshiped him.

You really are the Son of God, they have explained, they exclaimed.

And so these storms are a metaphor of the tough times of our life.

I think maybe a metaphor for what we're experiencing in this culture right now.

Edwin Freeman wrote a book.

He died recently.

The title of the book was The Failure of the Nerve, and he's writing about the 21st century, what's happening in the world.

And he he describes how the West, Western culture, which is the United States and Europe and modern culture, is built around the myth of progress.

We are progressing economically and technologically, but we are regressing emotionally and relationally.

And so here's what he describes.

He talks about this twenty-four-seven new cycle that is built around the singular purpose to hook you through your anxiety and your fear.

Why?

So they can make money.

It's the economy of fear and anxiety.

And the world events and the past few years, all of these things have happened.

Listen, it's a perfect storm the last two and a half years.

And it hooks you in, and you are buried.

You are held captive.

You are a prisoner to anxiety and fear.

And you are constantly distracted, and you are distracted from the very person and the community that God has for you to give you comfort and to give you purpose and to give you a sense of significance and peace and hope and joy.

We're paralyzed by anxiety and distraction.

My friend Brent, in a conversation we had, Brent Browning, he shared, he said, he said, I can tell you what I think is going to happen.

In the next 20 to 30 years, we will look at technology, especially technology in our palm and in our hands, and we will look at it the same way as we do smoking.

The hazards of smoking is today, looking back 30 years.

Maybe there already are, I don't know.

Where we'll be trying to get free from the constant distraction and anxiety cycle.

And so what do we need?

What do we need?

We need a rescue, don't we?

We need a savior.

We need somebody that will reach down in the midst of all of the fear and anxiety and pull us out.

Somebody that might sacrifice their self and the danger of being taken up and being taken captive.

Someone that would stand in the gap to pull us out.

We need a savior.

We need Jesus.

We need Jesus' presence, must resist distraction.

We need truth spoken over us.

We need to know the God of Israel.

We need to know the God of the Bible.

We need to know the Jesus that's at the center of it.

Isaiah says, but now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, fear not, for I have redeemed you, I've called you by name.

You are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flames shall not consume you.

We need a Savior that will come and redeem us out of brokenness and sin and distractions that result from that.

And Jesus does that.

That's the gospel news.

That's good news.

That's hallelujah.

Jesus is good.

He comes in the middle of your storm.

He comes in the depths of your life and he rescues you.

So what do we do?

We have to prioritize the practice of presence with Jesus and the people he's placed in your life.

How do we walk in this freedom and redemption?

How do we maintain it?

How do we fight against the monsters of distraction?

We form habits or practices that limit their influence.

So here's some practical application.

When the first, listen to this.

This is how monsters of distraction work.

When the first thing I do in the morning is roll over and grab my phone and be scanning my, and I scan my work emails, I wake to the monster or distraction of performance.

And so to fight that, what do I need?

I need God's word in my life.

When I begin the morning in social media, I wake to the monster or distraction of comparison and envy.

And I need God to speak truth over me rather than be buried in envy and comparison.

When I begin the morning in news headlines, the monsters of dis or distractions of fear, anxiety, anger, they nearly jump through the screen.

That's my issue.

You read what's happening on the other side of the world, and you're angry.

I need God's word to help me exegete what's happening.

And to translate everything that's happening through the lens of God's word, which tells me, yes, the world is a mess, but God is sovereign, he is good, and he is in control.

So when I lie in bed and I'm consumed with the day's events or tomorrow's to-do list, I wake to the monster or distraction of busyness.

I need God's word to allow Jesus to step into my reality and to become my non-anxious presence.

We must slow down and practice the presence of Jesus.

Peter Scazzaro writes, in his many books, he's written about emotional, healthy living.

He says Jesus was just like rarely, if ever, in a hurry.

He just was in a hurry.

And so we need to slow down and stop.

When was the last time you just sat with someone else and had a meal?

And you ate that meal and had conversation at a pace that was not hurried.

It's one of the things I remember growing up.

You know, I've shared a lot of stories about my dad, and I give my dad, I mean, he gets he gets a bad rap from me.

But I do remember as a kid that my mom and dad would invite family over.

We did not have elaborate birthday parties.

What we did is we gathered together and we just hung out with family at a non-hurried pace.

When was the last time that you practiced responsive listening?

Which is when you listen to somebody without thinking about what you're gonna say next.

And then you repeat it back to them.

That's an ouch for me.

Because I'm thinking, man, they need to hear what I'm about to say.

And I miss what they're saying because I'm thinking about what I'm saying about to say, and so the slow down practice of presence.

Jesus prioritized time with his father, and he prioritized time with his disciples.

The enemy wants to enslave you to fear and anxiety in a world full of storms.

Jesus says, do not fear.

I am.

I am.

So I want us to pray just a minute.

And I want us to close this time in response and worship, but I don't want to rush it.

So would you bow your heads with me?

Heavenly Father, my prayer is that you would help us slow down and listen to your voice and practice your presence in such a way that the enemy, the monsters, and the distractions would run.

That we would defeat the enemy's pursuit of enslaving us to the culture's distractions.

I think it was Corey Tinboom said, and I don't may not get the quote exactly right, but if the enemy can't keep you from being saved, if the enemy can't deny your salvation, the enemy will seek to keep you busy.

The world is in desperate need of a living example of Jesus.

And so, Father, would you help us slow down?

God, would you remove fear and anxiety?

Would you set us free?

Would you deliver us from the demonic control?

God, would you deliver us from the enemy's snare of anxiety and fear?

Jesus, would you make yourself known to those that have yet to put their trust in you as a Savior?

And if that's you this morning, you've never trusted Jesus, you've never understood what he's done for you.

Jesus Himself said simply to repent and believe the good news.

And the good news is that Jesus came and he lived and he died and he rose again.

He did so to set us free.

And so, Father, would you speak to those of us that have already believed that we might have freedom and walk in it, live in it, and that we would break free from the shackles and the habits that enslave us in God, that we would form in their place habits of presence, presence that we desperately need in our life.

That's Jesus, it's the presence of Jesus, it's to walk in his truth and walk in his word.

And Father, would you help us to form habits of community, habits with people, habits of that would fight against distraction that would truly form relationships and friendships?

I know this sounds corny, but Father, would you give us a longing for the good old days in the sense of life without distraction, life at a pace that is slower, life that is sustainable, life that represents Jesus, life that is not anxious.

I'm going to ask our team to lead us into this time of response.

Maybe it's a time that we consider the truth and we respond to the truth.

A song where we sit and reflect more than just stand and declare.

So, Father, would you work?

Would you speak?

May we listen?

May we obey.

So in Christ's name we pray.