The Need For Solitude

Good morning. Let's pray.

God, I thank you for the opportunity for us to be together. Something not to take for granted.

Seen as divinely appointed to be in this place at this time.

We recognize that that's how you work in our lives.

Allow the Holy Spirit to be our teacher today.

Like in an individual way each one of us move in us as a church body move in

us according to your perfect will.

And let us be thankful and praise you for it. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

So sermons on Sunday mornings around here, they usually fall into the category

of a series type style or a standalone type style. Today, technically,

it's a little bit of both.

Well, how can that be? Well, it's a standalone sermon this morning.

And looking at the calendar, we've got four weeks of standalone sermons coming

up by all the pastors, which means it is a series on standalone sermons.

Makes sense, right? All right, so today the sermon title is The Need for Solitude.

Solitude, a compound word.

Soul attitude. The need to allow the attitude of your soul to be cared for.

That's where we're headed at today.

I'm going to start by giving some facts.

I don't even think you can argue with these facts. As a matter of fact,

I'm going to ask that you just nod your head, yes, like you agree with these facts.

And if by chance you do not, just sit there nicely and we'll get done in just

a few of them. Five facts, ready? Number one is a year consists of 12 months.

Good, we're off to a good start. 12 months, the 12 months usually consist of

365 days except for the occasional 366 days of a leap year.

If you're wondering, the next leap year is the year 2028. Each day has 24 hours.

Good. All right. Each hour has 60 minutes, and each minute has 60 seconds.

That is five nods, I think, almost unanimously that everyone is confirming of

things that you already know.

And it seems, especially here in the Western Hemisphere, where the United States

is located and where we live, including most of the people probably in this room,

that we slam and jam and pack and press as much busyness into each year,

month, day, hour, minute, and second as we possibly can.

Most Americans, probably not all of us in here, but most Americans,

we live this frantic daily routine.

Are you familiar with it? Maybe we are in the right place.

It starts with an alarm clock.

But that alarm clock, it does more than just wake us up.

It's sort of like the start of the Daytona 500. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

And then for the next 18 hours or so, we go, hustle, hurry, hurry,

go, hustle, hurry, go, go, all day long, all late into the night,

and we barely tap the brakes.

I am a firm believer that I am standing in front of a room of people living

as caffeinated superheroes seven days a week.

Do you think America really does run on Duncan? It might.

We are zipping in and out of traffic. We go from place to place, thing to thing.

We are answering emails and texting and answering text messages because of those

inconvenience red lights that we have to stop at.

All while, yes, the Joy FM or your Bible app is connected to your Bluetooth

and it's playing in the vehicle, but it is super difficult to pay attention

because of the negotiating skills that are needed with the toddlers in the back of the car.

Please keep your shoes on. Finish your Pop-Tart. Please don't waste that $8

organic breakfast bar. And on and on and on it goes.

Finally, we show up at work. We hustle to clock in.

We quickly delete the spam mail before we have to go to endless meetings.

Sometime during the day, we quickly scarf down a salad while scrolling through

Instagram or looking at the 32 open tabs on our computer.

The next thing you know, it's time to be the Uber driver for the day,

getting your kids to not their one, not their two, but their three extracurricular activities.

While it is now dark, we pull into the house and we heat up that gourmet meal through the microwave.

We clean it all up. We pet the dog. We sit down, look at the TV for a little

bit, scroll through Instagram a little bit, brush the teeth, hit the bed.

I'm feeling very accomplished about all the things that we did for the day.

And within the next 30 seconds, our brain starts spinning about what we're going to have to do tomorrow.

How can I even get in squeezing in that pickleball time? Yeah.

And then finally, we fall asleep. And it's not long after that, it is beep, beep, beep.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. Here we go again.

Now, I don't know. Your busy schedule may not have been that type of an exact

description, but I bet it's something close like it.

There's a busyness that we have found in the Davison family now,

in this season of life that we call grandparents.

It's an amazing thing. Like seven grandkids come over to our house, sometimes all at once.

And when they come, they're all five years and older, and they are just,

have you ever seen the scene in the movies like on the trading floor of the

stock market right before the closing bell goes?

And the trade hustlers, they're just going everywhere, everywhere,

everywhere, flying around everywhere.

Like my grandkids put them to shame. It is not even close. They just go,

go, go, zoom, zoom, zoom.

And the noise that they can create, like when they play the piano,

like all seven at one time playing the piano, it is like eardrum damage coming to us.

Their lung capacity, the vocal cords that these cute, beautiful little kids

that we call our grandkids.

A rocket launch is like a whisper compared to the rumble that these kids can make.

And get this, God willing, in August, there's another one going to be joining the troops.

Like that is happening. Once they leave, Sherry and I, we just kind of deep

breath, collapse on the sofa, and we say, grandkids are such a great blessing,

and they are busy and busy is not a bad thing.

It's not that busyness is bad. Work's not bad. Extracurricular, not necessarily bad.

But busyness requires a balance.

Balance busyness with solitude. That is a key for living the Christian life well.

I'm going to have you open your Bible to the Gospel of Mark.

Mark chapter 1 is just one place of many places where we actually see Jesus being busy.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

And he balances it with solitude.

I will say, before you get there to Mark, well, get there, get to Mark.

There is a balancing that is really, really important for us to see with busyness.

That's what we're going to primarily look at. But I don't want us to miss,

there's another opportunity to see Jesus in his solitude on another lesson that comes right before it.

So this is like bonus material section right here, okay? So keep there in Mark,

but flip over to Matthew chapter 4. Because Matthew chapter 4,

Matthew 4 · chapter mention Matthew 4 · chapter mention

he gives more details than Mark does on this whole different section on solitude.

And it is such a good point, too good of a point to pass.

So I want us to just spend a little bit of time looking at it.

It starts in Matthew chapter 4, starting at verse 1. It's a very popular section in Scripture.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

If you've grown up in church, you've said, oh yes, I've heard this before.

But I want us to notice the very first verse.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Hold that verse.

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And then verse 2.

After he had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.

Yep. Then the tempter approached him and said, If you are the Son of God,

tell these stones to become bread.

But he answered, It is written, Man must not live by bread alone,

but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city.

He had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and he said to him,

If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.

For it is written, He will give his angels orders concerning you,

and they will support you with their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against the stone.

Jesus told him, it is also written, do not test the Lord your God.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms

of the world and their splendor.

And he said to him, I will give you all of these, all these things,

if you will fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus told him, go away, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve only him.

Then the devil left him and immediately angels came and began to serve him.

Now, besides recognizing here and seeing that Jesus knows how to fight off temptations

by quoting scripture, like that's a very big deal, something that we should

take to heart, something that we should apply to our lives. That part is there, that's for sure.

But the part that I really want us to see is that we don't want to miss this.

Before all those temptations came, the Spirit led him to the wilderness.

Jesus was alone with God for a month and a half almost, 40 days of fasting and praying.

He was ready for the attack.

Jesus was led to the wilderness. Wilderness, that's an interesting word in the

Greek. We have several meanings for it here in the English.

It can mean wilderness, like a wooded place uninhabited, a desert,

a desolate place, a lonely place, a place of quiet solitude.

That's what's happening here in Matthew's text.

The Spirit leading Jesus into a place of solitude became a place for gaining

spiritual strength for Jesus.

Like 40 days of one-on-one connected with God the Father.

That's how Jesus was able to face the temptations. That's how he had the victory.

When you look at this, Jesus walked away with the victory. And why?

Solitude with God prepared him, and it prepares us for the attacks that we have

and leads us to victories while here on this earth.

Like, that is too good of a point just to skip over while we're talking about solitude here.

But now we're going to look at solitude as it relates to busyness.

It seems then that right after Jesus has these 40 days of solitude with God,

right after he's victorious over these temptations, Mark continues with the

very next story with Jesus.

We're going to pick it up at Mark chapter 1, verse 14. So go back over to Mark.

Mark 1:14

Chapter one, starting at verse 14, it says, after John was arrested,

John is John the Baptist. He is the guy that baptized Jesus just before Jesus

was led into the wilderness. That's the timing that we have here.

After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, preaching the good news of the God.

The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come. Repent and believe in the good news.

So all I want you to see is Jesus here, he has his day and he is preaching.

He's out and about doing what God has called him to do. He's fulfilling his ministry.

That's what he's doing, preaching the good news. Then verse 16.

As he was passing along, so he was preaching, then as he was passing along the

Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, Simon's brother.

They were casting a net into the sea since they were fishermen.

Follow me, Jesus told them, and I will make you fish for people.

Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Going on a little further, he saw James, the son of Zebedee,

and his brother John. They were in their boat, mending their nets.

Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boats

with the hired men and followed him.

So earlier in the day, Jesus is preaching in Galilee, repent and believe the good news.

Now he is walking along here. We got the Sea of Galilee edge,

and he's going to add to his preaching day. Now he is adding discipleship to his day.

He's gathering disciples. The discipleship program is going. Keep going, verse 21.

Then they went into Capernaum, and right away, no time for dilly-dally,

and right away, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.

They were astonished at his teachings, because unlike the scribes,

he was teaching them as one of having authority.

So, okay, we've got Jesus preaching in Galilee one day, getting his disciples,

recruiting those disciples to follow him along the Sea of Galilee.

Now he's walked, oh, I don't know, one to three miles, maybe to Capernaum,

and he's teaching in the synagogue. Verse 23.

Just then, a man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue.

He cried out, what do you have to do with us, Jesus Nazarene?

Have you come to destroy us? I know you are, the Holy One of God.

But Jesus rebuked him and said, be quiet and come out of him.

And the unclean spirit convulsed him, shouted with a loud voice, and came out of him.

Starting to get a little busier here. Jesus is preaching one day.

He's getting his disciples added to him. now add demon removal to the list of things done on the day.

That's starting to get a little busier. Now go down to, so he's got preaching

and walking and teaching some more and casting out demon spirits. Go down now to verse 29.

As soon as they had left the synagogue, they went into Simon and Andrew's house with James and John.

Simon's mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.

So he went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left,

and she began to serve them.

So add healing now to this list of busyness.

You tracking with me on how things are going? He's preaching one day.

He's gathering his discipleship one-on-one, going on with these four disciples.

He's now walked over to a new town.

He's taught in a synagogue He's thrown out an unclean spirit And now he's gone

into Simon's house And Andrew's house where his mother-in-law there Simon's

mother-in-law And he heals her,

Well that sounds like a pretty good full day Let's just call it a day Verse 32.

When evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all those

who were sick and those who were demon-possessed.

The whole town was assembled at the door, and he healed many who were sick with

various diseases and drove out many demons.

But he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him.

Whew, the day keeps going. It's already been full.

And just when you think you're about done, just when you think it's ready here,

the sun has set, it's dark out time.

The whole town shows up, not a person, not a few. The town is knocking on the door.

Knock, knock, knock. We're sick. Jesus, come heal them.

Knock, knock, knock. We're demon possessed. Jesus, hurry up over here.

We've got another band of demons that have to get cast out.

That is the busyness. What a run of busyness that Jesus is doing.

Like there's a lot of things that we can talk about here, but you can't deny

it is a run of busyness for Jesus.

Started with preaching, then disciple stuff, then traveling,

then teaching, then casting out unclean spirits, then healing the lady, the mother-in-law.

And just when nightfall comes, just when you think you can kick up your feet,

put it on the sofa, there's a knock on the door.

More work, more busyness.

Now, you'd think, man, after a big, long, full day like that,

if ever there's a, you know, the next morning, maybe that's a good time to maybe

sleep in, turn the alarm clock off, get a little extra, such a busy day that we just had.

Verse 35, very early in the morning, while it was what?

Well, it's still dark. So that's early. He got up, went out,

made his way to a deserted place, a place of solitude.

And he was praying there.

We read all through all this to make the point that Jesus understood the importance

of having solitude in his life.

It is balancing busy with solitude.

The busier he became, the bigger his reputation grew, the bigger the demands

were coming, they were increasing more and more.

He also had his times of places of solitude.

And here's why. Look at verse 36.

Simon and his companions went searching for him.

They found him and said, everyone is looking for you. I bet they were.

And if we keep reading the rest of the way through, we're going to find it's

another full day of preaching and traveling and discipleship and teaching and

healing and casting out evil spirits happening all over again.

Jesus picks right back up with all the busyness of all the demands on his life.

But notice it was balanced by solitude, not until after he had the one-on-one

time with Jesus and God the Father time.

There was no shortage of work for Jesus. Like, he had really good job security.

And yet, he does not neglect the importance and the need for solitude.

Jesus does the exact opposite.

He did a lot of work, a lot of busy, a lot of things going on.

But he had solitude there.

I think it's really important for us not to confuse solitude for isolation.

There's a big difference between the two of them.

Like, isolation is this forced disconnect.

Usually the life circumstances and fear. Isolation cuts off people of support,

like community group people, accountability partners, which only is going to

bring more disconnect, more negativity.

Solitude though, that's a restorative place. It's a safe place.

It's a time that is set aside to like intentionally connect with God.

And then he brings nourishment to our soul, solitude.

It's where his word and the Holy Spirit, it feeds us and builds us up.

I am aware that other religions have a similar approach to solitude and getting

alone, except their focus is entirely on you and connecting with one's inner

self or the focus is on a lesser power than God.

And both miss the mark.

But Christian solitude, the kind of solitude that's being referred to today,

is wrapped around being alone with God in his presence,

connecting deeper with God while he's having our full attention away from all the busyness.

There's one more example. There's another time that Mark, he talks about Jesus

when he is with his disciples, and they are busy doing their work.

So busy that the disciples, they hit the wall.

They are wiped out, dead tired. They have nothing left in the tank.

It can be like volunteers, sometimes volunteers at camp experience this,

just exhausted from the ministry work. Okay.

Jesus saw it and he tried to take his disciples with him and get away from everyone and everything.

But the people were too clever for that. They're like, oh, we see where he's going.

And the people just chased them down. Like this is the story of where Jesus

feeds the 5,000 people with the five loaves and the two fish.

And guess who did all the serving, the disciples, right? And so that's the story.

It's another very popular story.

And all of that happens, Mark says, after all this extra work,

all the unplanned extra work, dead tired already going on, Mark writes in Mark 6, verse 46,

Mark 6:46

after he said goodbye, that's Jesus, after Jesus said goodbye to them,

he went away to the mountain to pray.

Jesus got away all by himself, no distractions, time to be alone with God the Father.

Connection time, recharging time, refocus time, reevaluating time, rededicating time.

So getting to his place of solitude, it was delayed, but he didn't just let gloss over it.

He didn't just press on and skipping it. He didn't neglect it.

And here's the point. We are created needing solitude, our own solitude.

It is a Christian discipline. It is not too far of a stretch to say that without

solitude, without being a person of solitude,

it is impossible to live a spiritual life of high quality.

If solitude is ignored or abandoned, it is going to keep us from growing spiritually.

It is going to keep us from looking like Jesus. And certainly,

looking like Jesus is like the aim of Christianity.

That the way we live, the way we live each year and month and day and hour and

second, minute, all of our lives.

And so I think that we just have very simple, two straightforward points for us to consider.

One, if Jesus modeled having times of solitude, we should copycat Jesus and have times of solitude.

Time to sit with God, time to pray, time to listen, time to be unhurried.

Jesus needed time.

Say that out loud with me. Jesus needed time.

Again, Jesus needed time.

And if Jesus needed time and he's Jesus, what do you think we need?

And more time.

Is that a good point? I think it's very straightforward. And the second point is this.

Busyness, though while it's okay, while it's even good, busyness is potentially poisonous.

And it gets even worse. Busyness potentially can become a killer.

Busyness poisons generosity. It poisons gratitude. It poisons appreciation.

I got no time to say thank you to anybody because I'm too busy.

And left unattended, this poison will ultimately, potentially kill everything

that we claim near and dear to us.

Relationship with God, marriages, family, the church body.

We must have an antidote to offset all the busyness and we do it's called solitude,

if you are serious about your faith with jesus if you are a person who desires to go deeper with god.

Consider taking the time that you already spend with him and making it more time.

Remember, Jesus once did 40 days.

Perhaps you find yourself in a frustrated season with your spiritual walk.

Like you just kind of ho-hum.

Maybe even a touch on the dry side.

It's not that you're neglecting your spiritual responsibilities,

but you're not thriving either.

You're sort of just, you know, going through the motions, showing up where you're

supposed to show, do a little reading program, not expecting too much,

and not getting very much.

Perhaps you should consider the amount of time that you are spending in solitude

alone with God or consider changing up the way you spend time in solitude with God.

Perhaps you have never ever established the habit of a meeting place with God.

Like, whoa, that's kind of a new idea.

Okay, perhaps you're a person and you don't know God yet.

And yet you just, there's this drawing of him and there's this being connected with him.

Consider starting a consistent habit of solitude find that quiet place it might

be the very might be the very thing that brings you into relationship with him.

It is safe to say, Jesus was a very busy man.

Yet he considered times of solitude to be of such great importance that he would

get up early in the morning while it was still dark.

Or he would stay up late, late into the evening while everything settled down,

so that he could have this solitude alone time with God.

And if we are going to be like Jesus, living busy lives, which it seems we have

no problem doing, then we had better be like Jesus and living lives of solitude.

Find alone time with God as well. Let's pray.

God, you are so good.

I thank you for the model of Jesus. There's so much to learn from him,

the things that he says and teaches and we can learn and believe and obey.

There's also the things that he did and the examples that he shows us.

Like how his busy days included the balance in times of solitude.

I don't know. I think if he had an iPhone, he'd have it scheduled in.

Like this is when I'm going to do solitude time.

And my prayer for myself and this church body here,

is that we would recognize,

the advantages of spending time alone with you.

The time spent alone with you praying, fasting, thinking, listening,

is a key to withstanding the temptations of the devil and being victorious.

Let that be a desire that grows within us.

And we're busy.

You sitting on your throne looking down at us scrambling around everywhere the

way we do hard to sit still,

feeling the pressure of being busy and letting everybody else know it on social media,

and I pray that you would impress on our hearts the importance,

that if Jesus needed time with you, we need all the more time with you. And that this,

would help us. Help us live the lives that you desire for us to live.

Help us to be more efficient in the lives that we live. Help us to be able to

better share the gospel more often.

And ultimately, all of this good that it gives to us, let it be glorifying to you.

So I don't know if summer is more hectic or less hectic than people here in

the room and how the schedules go.

But the bottom line is, we're busy, Father.

You are busy.

Help us to balance busy,

with sweet times of solitude with you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Good news verse to dismiss on. Matthew 6, 6.

But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door,

and pray to the Father who is in secret.

And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. That's good news.