Face2Face | Stretch Out Your Hand | Pastor Jamie Kemp

Welcome to IS Jakarta.

I'm Pastor Jamie, and I'm excited that you're joining us for this week's message.

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Thanks for listening.

Well, good morning.

I'm Pastor Jamie.

It's great to see you guys here at IES.

Thanks for joining us.

Hey, uh, before I share, uh share, I wanna um I want to give an announcement.

Um, man, we are really full every Sunday at 11:30, if you haven't noticed.

So I want to say that we're working on it.

I know there's people sitting on the bleachers and watching the TV.

And uh right now we have our zero to five in the chapel over there, and next uh hopefully in the next week or two the the kids' ministry renovation will be finished.

So I just want to ask you for your patience.

And let me put it this way don't give up on us.

All right, uh uh we're we're working on it, we're trying to make uh uh arrangements to make sure everybody feels comfortable and that there's enough seats for everybody here.

So I so I get it, we're growing and we're looking for seats.

Hey, some of you might want to be missionaries to the Saturday night service or the Sunday night service, all right?

We can be send you guys out as missionaries to those services as well.

But I do want to thank you for being here and your faithfulness in serving and being a part of IS.

Well, I want to say something this morning, and I don't want to be controversial, but it might be, alright?

But I gotta say it.

The last three Marvel movies, not so good.

All right, there I said it, alright.

Now I don't mean to be controversial, and I don't want anybody to leave the church over this, but come on, man, the Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, the new Captain America, keep it, right?

Not not I didn't like thank goodness for the Spider-Man, alright?

He kind of is redeeming the MCU universe, alright?

So, but but here's the problem.

I went and saw those movies with my teenage daughter, alright?

And she uh she loved them, alright?

So so here we are walking out of the movie theater, and each time I'm thinking, waste of money, waste of time, you know, and I turned to her, kind of looking for agreement, like, yeah, what'd you think?

And she was like, loved it.

And I'm like, what?

You know, I was like, I'm like, you know, I'm thinking, like, uh, uh, are you kidding me?

Did we watch the same movie?

You know, were we in the same theater?

So finally we go and see a movie that I enjoyed, The Odyssey.

I know it was long, but but I liked it, alright?

So now we're leaving the theater, and I turn to her and I and I ask the same question, but I'm like, hey, what'd you think?

All right, and she says, in the most teenage uh Gen Z slang, she says to me, it was meh.

You know, so uh, you know, which if you know that just means like it was what, you know, it was boring, it was just okay.

You know, for a Gen Xer, it means whatever, you know, like that's how I would translate it.

So, but here's what I was thinking.

How can we sit through the same movie, watch the same film, and have two totally different experiences, right?

You know, one of them I loved, one of them she thought was meh, you know, the ones that she loved, I thought they were just a waste of my time, all right?

But but as this is exactly what's happening in Mark chapter three.

As we continue this series on face-to-face, these encounters with Jesus, we see this exact same thing happening um here in Mark chapter three.

Jesus walks into the room and everybody sees this man with a disability, and everybody can see him.

Uh, but Jesus and the Pharisees, Jesus and the religious leaders, they end up seeing two totally different situations.

The Pharisees, the religious leaders, they see a theological problem, and Jesus sees a man who's in need.

Here's the story in Mark chapter 3.

Mark 3 · chapter mention

It says this another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.

Some of them were looking for a reason to ex to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.

Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, Stand up in front of everyone.

Then Jesus asked them, which is lawful on the Sabbath?

To do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?

But they remained silent.

Of course they did.

He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts and said to the man, Stretch out your hand.

He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

Whoa.

Same situation, two totally different reactions, right?

Now Jesus was no stranger to controversy, right?

In Mark chapter 2, we learn that when he forgives and heals the paralyzed man, the religious leaders think, man, who who only God can forgive sins.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

Jesus calls Levi the tax collector and eats with sinners, and the religious leaders ask, why does Jesus eat with these disreputable people?

Later, Jesus is being asked by why his disciples don't fast or why they are, why they're eating grain on the Sabbath, and they ask, why don't they fast?

Why are they breaking the law of the Sabbath?

And Jesus responds, hey, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

And with each attack, the volume increases against Jesus.

So here at the beginning of Mark chapter 3, the religious leaders have finally had enough and they begin to plot to kill Jesus.

Mark 3 · chapter mention

Do you see the irony here?

Jesus asks the question, hey, is it better to give life or to kill on the Sabbath?

And they walk, after seeing a miracle, they begin to plot Jesus' death.

They lay a trap in order to incriminate him.

They place a man with a deformed hand before him in hopes that he would heal him.

And by doing so, he would publicly and undeniably break their Sabbath law.

Here's what I want to say today.

Don't miss the miracle.

Don't miss the miracle.

I've been thinking about this sermon all month long, knowing I was going to talk about this encounter with Jesus.

Jesus heals the man with the withered hand.

It almost rhymes, right?

Uh heals the man with the withered hand.

And instead of being amazed, the Pharisees begin to plot to kill him.

And they totally miss the miracle.

So what caused them to miss the miracle?

Well, we see their true intentions in verse 2 that I read earlier.

It said this some of them were looking for a reason.

They were looking for a reason to ex to accuse Jesus.

So they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.

Turn to the person next to you and say, Sabbath.

Alright, because the Sabbath was supposed to be a gift, alright?

The Sabbath is supposed to be a day of rest, a day to stop working, a day to remember God.

The Sabbath goes all the way back to creation, where God, when he creates the heavens and the earth, we see that in six days he creates everything.

And then in Genesis, we see that on the seventh day he rests.

So this idea of Sabbath, this idea of rest, it predates the law.

But then we see in Exodus 20 that uh that the Sabbath is included in the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 28, remember to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

And notice how much space is given to this command.

It's one of the longest commandments in all of the Ten Commandments.

Six days to work, one day to stop.

So here's why the Sabbath was important.

The Sabbath was more than just taking a day off, it was about trust.

The Sabbath is more than taking a day off, it's about trust.

Every seven days, the people of God would say, God is God and I am not.

They stopped producing, they stopped working, they stopped trying to control everything, and they trusted God to take care of them.

And later in Deuteronomy, the Sabbath is now connected with Israel's deliverance from slavery from Egypt.

You can see why the writer of Hebrews begins to connect this idea of Sabbath with the atonement that we live in the Sabbath rest of Christ now, that we've been delivered from sin.

The Sabbath was supposed to be a gift, but it had turned into a burden.

The Sabbath was supposed to be a gift, but it turned into a burden.

Over time, the religious leaders add layer upon layer upon layer of rules and rituals and religion that of things that could be done and things that couldn't be done on the Sabbath.

And eventually, what God created to give life and to give energy and to restore was suddenly turned into something that suffocated and destroyed and stole people's life and joy.

So Jesus steps on the scene and he says, You've got this thing all backwards.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Now here's where I gotta stop.

Because it's gonna get real.

Alright.

I'm probably the biggest hypocrite when it comes to talking about Sabbath.

So I'm just gonna lay that out right here at the beginning.

Alright?

This is one of my biggest areas of weakness and struggle.

Now, this isn't like a humble brag, alright?

You know, like I uh uh if you ever watch the TV show The The Office, there's this one episode where Michael Scott he's being interviewed and he's asked, how he's asked, uh, what are your what are your greatest weaknesses?

And he says, My weaknesses are I care too much, you know, like I I work too hard, you know.

So so you know, the the humble, I'm not that's not my point here when I say this.

That's not what I'm trying to do here.

I I'm a type A personality, I'm a goal-oriented, I'm I'm a workaholic.

I I don't struggle with work, I struggle with not working, you know, and I tend to attract others who have that same compulsion, that same work ethic.

Pastor Josh and I were joking this this past week that that laziness is not one of the fruit of the spirit, right?

So it's funny to me because I would I would never think of breaking any of the other Ten Commandments.

You know, I'm not gonna murder or commit adultery, or I'm of course I'm gonna honor my parents, but break the Sabbath, no problem.

You know, I do that all the time.

I have no problem.

Why is that?

Part of it of the danger for me is this that I love what I do.

You know what I mean?

Some of you, man, you you enjoy your career, you enjoy, it gives life.

You it's something you like to do.

You love, I love my job, I love the ministry, I love working with all of you.

So, what does this idea of Sabbath, how does it connect with our everyday life here in Jakarta?

What is what has Sabbath got to do with me and got to do with you?

How do we Sabbath?

Well, let me give you a working definition of Sabbath.

Sabbath means to cease from producing.

Sabbath, Sabbath means to cease from producing.

Sabbath means that I that I stop production, that I don't have to produce, I don't have to achieve, I don't have to accomplish, I don't have to answer every email, I don't have to check WhatsApp, I don't have to make more money, I don't have to build my career career, I don't have to prepare my next sermon, that's for me to hear.

Um, I don't have to make a better church, that's for the staff to hear.

Um, I stop.

Why?

Because God is God and I am not.

Now, when I first moved to Indonesia, I was in my early 30s and I and I joined the baseball team at Uanye uh in Joke Jakarta.

And uh, it was a great way for me to spend my day off playing baseball with all these young students.

I hadn't played in a long time.

So man, I've every uh on my day off, I'd enjoy going out and playing baseball with them until my career ended.

Um uh but but I can remember the one day when my career ended, um, you know, I'm playing baseball, having a great time with them, and uh, and a ball, uh, a ball has hit the center field, all right?

And so I'm playing shortstop at the time, so I run out and I'm the cutoff man.

So I realize none of you know what I'm talking about, all right, but when I'm talking baseball, I get that, all right?

Just stay with me, all right?

So the ball's hit out in the center field, I run up, I catch the ball, and as I turn, as the cutoff man, I turn to go to throw the ball to third base, and I fell down as if I'd been shot.

You know, like I I might dislocated my shoulder and tore my labrum.

All right, and so that was the day my baseball career ended and my golf career began.

Because uh on that day, you know, after shortly after that, I had to have shoulder sur reconstructive shoulder surgery, a year of rehab, and then I thought, well, I better take up a different sport, and that's when I started golfing.

So for four years on my Sabbath, for four years, I played golf every Monday morning with uh with a group of guys.

There could be as uh we had a standing tea time, either there would be sometimes there'd be three of us, sometimes there'd be as many as 12 of us, and we'd we'd golf every Monday morning, and that was kind of a great way for me to refresh and kind of to restore my body to be outside.

It was just an easy way for me to relax.

But here's the thing with golf, for some of you guys know this already, is I was thinking about this.

How could I play golf every week for four years and not get any better?

You know, like it's just amazing to me.

Like, even man, if I don't, if I lay up, if I'm 30 meters from the the green, forget it, it's gonna take me two or three shots.

You know, I'm chunking up the grass when I when I do that.

All right, I don't know why, but okay, so COVID hits and and I stop golfing, and that's when I began to take up running, all right?

So every Monday, um I have a uh every Monday is my long run day, all right?

So I Sabbath, I rest, I do my long run.

So tomorrow I'll be running 13 kilometers.

That is a humble brag right there.

All right, so you know, some people are like, wow, okay, now I am bragging.

All right, so as I prepare for uh for the Jakarta Running Festival, alright?

Um, but but now that might not seem like rest to you if you're like 13 kilometers, that sounds like a torture, not uh not rest.

For me, man, there's something about sport, about activity.

It it refreshes my body and my mind.

So for me, that's a great expression of Sabbath because it it's refreshing, it brings life to me.

So I want to take a moment to really kind of be your pastor and talk to us because I I'm involved in uh you know three three soap groups, three Bible studies and two life groups.

So I know y'all are busy.

I know life is busy and chaotic.

So how do we how can we step in to honor the Lord with rest?

How can we honor God uh with Sabbath?

What does it look like?

So I want to help you have a more godly life in this area of rest.

Three practical ways to work on rest.

Number one, divert daily.

Divert daily.

Take some time every day to step away from the from the pace of life, from the the the and reconnect with God.

For me, this includes every morning I wake up and spend time with God, reading the scriptures, praying, worship.

Uh I intentionally step away from the immediacy of the day.

I think of it this way, the principle of the firsts, this idea that I want to give the got God the first, just like I give God the first of my finances with my tithe, man.

I want to give God the first of my day and my hours of my day.

So not not not not that uh I don't want to give God the leftovers, not that I I want God to be the first part of my day, not the leftover part of my day.

So before the phone, before WhatsApp, before email, before Instagram, before news, not before coffee.

I need the coffee.

All right, I can't I can't jump into prayer without the coffee, all right?

The Lord knows.

All right, so before coffee, before everybody else starts to need something from me, I give God the first.

So number one, divert daily.

Let's be people to number two, weekly withdraw.

Withdraw weekly, withdraw weekly.

This is that idea of Sabbath rest that I've heard an old preacher, uh, there was a preacher that used to say, you know, the devil doesn't take a day off, so neither should we.

All right, and I thought, wow, I don't know if the devil's a good role model for us.

You know, uh probably not the way we want a person we want to follow.

I was thinking actually, maybe that's why he's the devil, because he never takes a day off.

You know, he's just always stressed out about stuff, all right?

So the Sabbath should be a full day, right?

Not just an hour, well, an hour and 15 minutes in church, all right, uh, each week.

Not that that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about one full day that includes worship, that includes rest, good food, uh, relationships, reflection, unplugging from work and all the digital distractions.

I'm not asking you to take Sunday off.

If Sunday's a work day for you, I'm asking to find a day every week where you can cease from producing, to cease from production, invest in family, have a long lunch, play with your kids, having meaningful conversations, take a leisurely walk without counting your steps, all right?

No podcast, no productivity, just walk, enjoy a meal, eat something good.

There's an old rabbinic tradition that says the best meal of the week should happen on the Sabbath day.

So don't rush, but instead be spiritually renewed.

Read scripture, pray, worship, journal, sit quietly, put the phone away, and this is huge.

The phone, the, the, the, if the phone is constantly demanding your attention, are you really resting?

I'm trying to practice this thing that I'm calling a digital disconnect.

All right, every every Monday I'm trying to practice digital disconnect and I'm failing miserably at it.

Alright, you know, we have some of you guys know Kamush, he's our CFO here, and he's always trying to get in touch with me.

Um, and I'm trying to ignore it, but I'm like, okay, I gotta reply.

All right.

Some someday I think he's just gonna start showing up at my house and be like, hey, I gotta, I need this and answer to this thing.

All right.

So so that's how, so how can we work on rest?

We can we can uh uh divert daily, withdraw weekly.

Number three, abandon annually.

Abandon annually.

My dad was great at this.

We took a family vacation every August, whether I wanted to or not.

All right.

Uh you know, as a kid, you know, it was like we're going on family vacation.

And then as you're a teenager, you're like, what?

A week with just my family?

You know, like, you know, a week away from my friends, you know, that's social suicide.

You know, like I can't be away that long.

But but I had no choice.

It was something my dad did with us as a family.

So early on, here's a parenting tip for you, my parents out there.

Early on, Tosh and I decided that we didn't want our kids to accumulate possessions, we wanted them to accumulate experiences.

That we knew that toys would break and fads would come and go, but we wanted to make sure that they had a childhood rich in experiences, not with things and toys.

So because the older my kids get, the more I realize that time is measured in minutes, but a life is measured in moments, right?

That I want to build moments with my kids, that that they'll remember long after they leave my house, that that long after the toys break and the things that they don't play with anymore, that they cherish these different memories that we've made as a family.

So take an extended period where you step away.

Not going on vacation and and checking email or or WhatsApp all the time because it because are you really truly disconnecting?

This is I'm talking about an extended time.

For some it might just be two days, for some of you it might be a week or longer.

But it's a time to disconnect and rejuvenate and allow yourself to dream, to laugh, to eat, to rest, to seek God again.

Now be careful because a lot of us will plan a family vacation around our kids, right?

And I can remember my children were little, and when we went to Disney World, and when we finished that vacation, my wife and I felt like we needed a vacation from our vacation.

All right.

I think some of you have been there.

You know, you finish a week away and you're like, man, I need another week just for me to recover and to recuperate, all right?

So be careful in that.

So if you're a leader in here, man, your work doesn't need you to be available 365 days a year.

Your work needs you to be healthy enough to lead for decades to come.

So you can put this on the screen, this idea of I'm calling it the principle of the firsts.

The principles of the first that I want to give God the first of my year.

So starting in January, this January, we're gonna do 21 days of prayer and fasting.

I'm gonna invite you to participate with me, that I'm gonna give God the first of my year.

And we'll have more details on how to connect and be a part of that as we get closer to the new year.

But I want to give God the first of my finances.

That's why uh I believe in the Lord's tithe, and that I believe that God can do more with my my 90% than I can do with my 100%.

You know, I want to give God the first of my week, that's why we come to church and we rest and we worship together the first of my day that I start with scripture and prayer and time with God.

I don't give God my first because he needs my time.

I give him my first because I need him, and that's the point.

So I want to be honest with you.

I'm still working on this.

And like I said, I've I've told people this is like the the the the either the best or the worst sermon I'll ever preach here at IES because I'm preaching to myself.

This is I'm a work in progress on this because I love what I do, I love preaching, I love leading, I love being with you all.

Well, most of the time.

Um I I love building teams and problem solving, and I have to remind myself that God did not ask me to save his church, Jesus already did that.

So let me put it this way: you don't rest because you're tired, you rest so that you don't grow tired.

You rest not because you're tired, you rest so that you don't grow tired.

If you wait until you're tired to rest, you've waited too long.

So Jesus asks, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil?

And the religious leaders cared more about protecting their traditions than helping a man in Need.

It says Jesus was grieved in his heart, grieved by their hard heart.

So Jesus says to the man with the withered hand, He says, Stretch out your hand.

And the man does.

And the hand is restored.

It's healed.

It's made whole.

Maybe the man didn't walk into that synagogue today with the expectation that Jesus was going to change his life, but Jesus saw him and Jesus invited him, Hey, stretch out your hand.

The very thing that was broken was healed that day.

I think this is how a lot of us live our lives, kind of with closed fists, that we feel like we have to have a tight grip on everything.

We need to manage everything.

I need to control the situations around me.

I need to accumulate.

I need to keep these things going that we say, man, I've got a guy, I've got this, I've got this.

And I feel like the Lord invites you and I to live more like this.

With hands open, saying, God, I trust you.

My work is yours.

My family is yours.

My future is yours.

My ministry is yours.

My finances yours.

My time is yours.

I don't have to control everything.

I don't have to.

Sometimes we need to stretch out our hand.

The hand we need to stretch out towards Jesus isn't the hand that's physically broken.

It's the hand that we've been using to control everything.

And I get that.

And some of us are trying so hard to take care of our family or to provide financially for it.

And man, we feel like we just got to kind of keep everything under our control.

And Jesus, I believe, is saying to you and I, hey, stretch out your hand today and let me restore rest to you.

IS.

And 1 Kings 19, Elijah has an experience.

The prophet Elijah, the man of God, has an experience, an incredible experience on Mount Carmel against the prophets of Baal.

And after this incredible miracle, he crashes.

He runs, he becomes exhausted.

He he goes under a tree and basically says, I'm out, Lord.

I'm done.

I've had enough.

He's exhausted.

And what does God say?

Does God uh uh lecture Elijah?

Does he does he give him five principles on how to be more productive?

Or does he say, hey, get up, Elijah, you have more work to do.

No, that's not what happens.

I want you to see what happens.

God decides that he's gonna send this man of God an angel.

And I imagine up in heaven, God is looking for volunteers.

He sees Gabriel, the angel Gabriel, and he says, Hey, hey, if you need a message, then I'm your man.

And God says, that's not what Elijah needs.

Then he looks around, he sees the archangel Michael, and it says, Hey, if you need, if you need someone, a defender, then I'm your guy.

I imagine God saying, No, no, actually, I'm gonna need, I'm gonna need someone to cook for him.

So in my mind, the angel kind of looks like Chef Juna or uh or Gordon Ramsay, but without the temper, right?

And Elijah wakes up and hears this angel doing his thing, cooking the bread over here, you know, uh uh make flipping the omelette over here, making the pancake.

I don't know what it is, but it says the angel feeds him.

Then Elijah falls asleep again.

And he's awoken again, and it says he fed him again.

In our family, we do a family pizza movie night every Friday night.

All right, uh, none of you are invited.

Um, so what happens is this you know, my Saturday and Sundays are pretty busy.

Um, so uh so every Friday night I try to stay home with the family, and Tasha cooks uh Chicago style deep dish pizza.

All right, that's our hometown.

Yeah, like I said, none of you are invited.

So uh it's my pizza.

All right.

So so but but it's a great night.

It's a great night for us as a family.

Tasha makes the pizza, we watch a movie together as a family.

It's our it's our time to kind of be together as a family and enjoy a good meal.

And I love this idea that at IS, one of our family values is we're serious about our food, right?

And this is a beautiful picture of how God cares for us.

He sends an angel with five million years of cooking experience.

And when he wakes Elijah, he doesn't say, the angel doesn't say, hey, you need to repent for your faithlessness.

He doesn't say, hey, we need to talk about stuff.

But when the angel awakens him, he doesn't rebuke him, he doesn't talk to him because God recognizes that this man of God, he needs to rest, he needs to be refreshed, he needs to eat.

I mean, I've been thinking about this all week.

And what do we do with a God when I'm exhausted?

When I want to quit, when I've been trying so hard to keep everything together, what is what do I do with a God that responds to my brokenness by making me breakfast?

What do we do with a God like that that says, hey, you're broken, you're tired, you're weary?

Let me cook up something for you.

Take rest.

Refresh in me.

I mean, look at how God cares for this man of God.

You're tired, you're worn out, you're not sure if you can go on.

So let me send someone to touch your life to cook for you until it's time to talk.

Some of you are exhausted today.

God would say to you, hey, rest and relax.

Let me take care of you.

Here's what I want you to know: rest is not the reward for finishing everything.

Rest is part of how God designed us how to live.

Give me an amen on that.

Even it's a quiet amen.

All right, you can just be like, Amen.

Just give me a head nod if that's all you got.

Rest is design.

Rest isn't the reward for finishing everything, rest is a part of how God designed us to live.

Would you guys stand with me this morning?

Jesus said, Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Not not come to me when you got everything together, uh, uh when uh but not when you get everything all fixed, but when you're weary and you're broken with all your faults and failures and shortcomings, the invitation of Jesus is come.

Come to me.

That's your invitation.

Some of you here, man, you're just tired.

I get it.

Man, you're working hard, you're trying to get keep everything together over here in the work and in the office, and some of you are over here trying to get the business going, and some of you guys are trying to keep your family together, and you're and you're carrying more than you were designed to carry, than you were meant to carry.

You're trying to keep it together seven days a week, and your body is tired, your mind is tired.

Uh, some of you, your marriages are tired because you're just you're you're not resting, you're not learning how to trust the Lord in this area of your life.

Your faith is tired.

Jesus looks at you today and he says to this the same thing to you as he said to the man in the synagogue.

Stretch out your hand.

Those of you who are weary, you're tired, man.

You've been working, you've been working this thing.

Today, the Lord would say, I want you to find rest.

Stretch out your hand.

Would you pray with me today?

Father in heaven, you see these lives.

Man, we're busy.

We're broke, you see these hands that are working hard, God, but today we come before you and say, Lord, we need rest.

We need to refresh in your presence.

Lord, we lift our hands, we stretch out our hands to you today.

Hallelujah.

I hope you enjoyed today's sermon.

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And until next time, may God bless you and keep you.