Claiming Dependence | Escape

Well, good morning everyone.

It's great to be here this morning.

This has been a fantastic series.

It's been so counter-cultural, which is not surprising, because all of Jesus' teaching is counter to the prevailing culture because his teaching is always in line with kingdom culture.

And we've been talking about different words to describe our current culture here in America during this series.

Matt used an interesting one last week.

It was autonomy, and how when we seek to be autonomous, it leads to us being anonymous.

Well, back in the uh on the first week of the series, he used the word independent, which is probably the most common word we would use to describe current culture in America, right?

Independent.

Because we celebrate the self-made person, right?

The entrepreneur who built things from the ground up.

We encourage our kids.

They can be whoever they want to be, they can do whatever they want to do, which is great until it becomes you can be your own God and control your own destiny.

I mean, how's that going for people?

But I would even go so far as to say that sometimes we even worship independence in our culture.

I mean, we have a holiday to celebrate it, right?

Where we take off work, we grill steaks, we blow stuff up, we call it Independence Day.

God bless America.

Now, celebrating independence as a nation isn't a bad thing.

But when a good thing becomes the main thing, sometimes it can become a bad thing.

Well, speaking of holidays, anybody know what today is?

It's Father's Day in Australia.

G'day to all the fathers in Australia.

But what?

But what is tomorrow?

Labor Day.

Who's happy about that?

Who's excited about that?

Just in case you forgot.

Maybe you're in denial because you don't want summer to end.

But what does Labor Day celebrate?

Not pumpkin spice lattes, not the end of summer.

What does Labor Day celebrate?

Work, effort, commitment, sacrifice, the good stuff this nation was built on, right?

Until a good thing becomes the main thing.

And burnout becomes a badge of honor.

And stress becomes an indication that we actually matter.

And we start treating exhaustion like a spiritual gift.

Interestingly, Jesus was probably the hardest working, busiest person to ever walk the planet.

And yet he never lived life independently.

He was always desperately dependent upon the Father, setting an example for us that we should be the same way.

And so this series, claiming dependence.

During this series, Matt's talked about how self-sufficiency is a myth.

How our challenges can sometimes be a blessing that causes us to deepen our dependence on God.

He's talked about how dependence is a daily commitment with daily practices and has been challenging us to practice those practices each week.

And then last week he talked about how church and being committed to weekly connecting with other believers, and you're here, so well done.

How this causes us to be more supported when it comes to deepening our dependence on Jesus.

Well, today I get to close out the series, and I want to talk about something interesting, and it's escape.

I want to talk about escapism, not as a psychological term or condition, but as a spiritual tool to deepen our dependence on God.

You see, Jesus, when he walked the earth, prioritized escaping often, withdrawing from the crowd, retreating to spend time with the Father.

And he didn't escape from the mission, he escaped for the mission, teaching us that escape isn't avoidance, escape is dependence, and dependence produces power.

And here's the first of a few scriptures I'm going to use to support this, and it's in Luke's Gospel, chapter 5, verses 15 to 16.

Luke writes, But despite Jesus' instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases.

But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.

Jesus often withdrew, escaped to the wilderness for prayer.

I'll often escape to my fire pit, to my couch, to my bedroom when I'm burned out, but Jesus wasn't burned out.

And I'll often escape to my fire pit, my couch, my bedroom to recover, but for Jesus it wasn't about recovery.

And sometimes when I'm at my fire pit or on my couch or in my bedroom, I'll ignore my phone and I'll ignore the doorbell.

But Jesus wasn't hiding.

Jesus was prioritizing a rhythm of retreat to spend time with the Father.

He was tuning in.

And he was tuning up, reminding us that we need to regularly tune in and tune up to refocus our eyes on the conductor of our lives and the author of our stories.

Just like the writer of Hebrews said in chapter 12, verse 2 fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Because friends, when we take our eyes off the conductor, our spiritual lives can descend into a cacophony of noise.

Now many of you know that Mandy and I have sons, two boys.

They're now 19 and 17.

They're athletes, their main focus is American football.

I need to delineate that because looking at me and listening to me, you wouldn't automatically think, I bet he has sons that play football.

Whatever.

But you know what?

During their growing up years, there were times when I kind of hoped they might have shown a little bit more interest in music because of my background.

But hey, they can be whatever they want to be, they can do whatever they want to do, right?

But thanks to the St.

Rain Valley School District, going into middle school, it was compulsory for them to choose an instrument.

Well, Jacob chose drums because he was already drumming, and Joey chose the saxophone.

Well, this was interesting.

And Joey being the oldest got the full force of Mandy and my good parenting intentions.

And so we signed Joey up for the two-day band camp, the voluntary two-day band camp leading in for sixth graders leading into sixth grade.

Well, Joey involuntarily attended, and the reason for that camp was to teach the kids how to care for their instruments, how to clean them, how to put them together, but most importantly, it taught them how to what?

Make a sound.

Well, at the end of the two-day camp, they invited parents to come in to hear the end result.

And it was well, best you take a listen and a look.

Oh yeah, I got a video.

So then it was the demon standing behind me, and he leans over after they make that sound and he says, I think they've got it.

I said, then I'm gonna Our lives can end up sounding that way.

Our spiritual lives, when we take our eyes off the conductor, can end up sounding like a cacophony of noise.

And we have to spend time rehearsing and practicing like those kids would have to do that year, rehearsing and practicing rhythms of retreat to refocus our eyes on the great conductor.

You know, I remember the end of sixth grade band and orchestra concert.

Not because those kids had become amazing musicians.

Let's not embellish the story too much.

I heard a great saying recently, it said, when sixth graders play Beethoven, don't judge Beethoven.

But I remember I remember the end of sixth grade band and orchestra camp because they sounded like an orchestra.

They'd learned to listen.

Commanding their attention and leading and guiding them to achieve and produce something they could have never achieved, if achieved on their own.

So where have you got your eyes fixed right now?

I'm talking about spiritual eyes, spiritual eyes that come into crystal clear focus when we prioritize escape, withdrawal from the crowd, and retreat to seek God, just like he's seeking us.

What if spiritual escape isn't an interruption to life, but a preparation for life?

It was for Jesus, who taught us that escape isn't avoidance, escape is dependence.

Escape is dependence.

So Jesus explained in John chapter 5, verse 19.

John 5:19

I tell you the truth.

He does only what he sees the Father doing.

Jesus is saying, I can do nothing by myself.

So why do we spend most of our lives trying to prove otherwise?

You know, I think independence has become our generation's golden calf.

What do I even mean by that?

We've got to go way back to the Old Testament, the book of Exodus, chapter 32, to understand this.

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

It's when God's people shifted their focus from God to worshiping a calf made out of gold that they had fashioned, formed, they had created.

They started worshiping something like an object, shifting their focus from God.

And I think they did it because it was something that they could control, something they could see, something they could predict, something they could touch, they could feel.

Now, before we start thinking, well, that's crazy stupid.

How about this?

I was on a train in an airport this week and I looked around me, and I'm like, oh my goodness.

I put my phone in my pocket and I thought, what if an alien dropped into this situation from outer space?

I looked at that.

I mean, that's a common scene, friends.

You look around in public.

What are these little objects these earthlings worship?

Now I'm not preaching extraterrestrial existence this morning.

I'm not going there.

But I am saying we've got our own version of golden calves.

Those devices.

Our calendars, our plans, our resumes, our positions, our homes, our bank accounts, our stuff, all the things we think we control, we often bow down to.

And remember, we talked about this in this series that self-sufficiency and control is a myth.

The only thing we can cut we can kind of control is where we place our focus and our responses.

We need to retreat, we need to withdraw from the crowd.

We need to escape because it isn't avoidance.

Escape is dependence, and it begins with something real simple.

Talking.

Talking to Jesus.

Praying.

And friends, we can pray anywhere at any time.

We don't need special words, we don't need special people, we don't need a special place.

We can pray on a walk, on a run, while driving the car, before a difficult meeting, in a difficult situation.

We can pray in a hospital waiting room beside a hospital bed.

We can pray while we're soothing a baby back to sleep.

We can pray desperate prayers while we're soothing a baby back to sleep in the middle of a 14-hour international flight.

I remember that personally.

We can pray while we're mowing the lawn, washing the dishes.

Prayer isn't a destination, prayer is a conversation.

Now, yeah, Jesus said in Matthew 6, 6 that, yeah, we should find a room, close the door, and talk to the Father.

I'm sure he was talking about minimizing distraction.

That's where people get the whole concept of a prayer closet from.

But then Paul says over in Ephesians 6, verse 18, we should pray at all times, at on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Ephesians 6:18

So which is it?

Well, let's look at a famous prayer warrior in the 19th century.

I think Matt has told this story before, but it's worth repeating.

Susanna Wesley, 19th century, famous prayer warrior, had 19 children.

She needed a prayer, right?

Often felt like a single mum because her husband wasn't a stellar example of a husband and a father.

She ended up raising one of the greatest evangelists of that century and one of the greatest hymn writers of that century.

19 kids.

Well, story has it that Susanna Wesley would often fold her apron up over her head.

And when she did that, her kids knew, unless the house was burning down, Mum wasn't to be interrupted because mom was talking to Jesus.

She didn't have a prayer closet.

She didn't have a prayer retreat or a monastery.

She had dependence through conversation.

You see, Jesus didn't escape to find peace.

Jesus escaped because he knew where peace was found in the presence of the Father.

And we need to prioritize spiritual escape because we need Jesus, no exceptions.

Pete Grieg, who founded the organization 24-7 Prayer, declared this.

He said, the point of prayer isn't the power it releases, the point of prayer is the person it reveals.

Jesus who prioritized escape.

Retreat to spend time with the Father because he delighted in his relationship with the Father, and all good things flowed from that, and we should do the same.

But I would suggest to you that we are the most distracted generation to ever walk the face of the earth.

Mainly because of those little golden calves we have in our pockets and in our hands and on the seat beside us right now.

Don't look at it, don't look at it, don't eyes to the front, look at me, don't look at that.

Because Matt shared some really concerning stats about screen usage during this series, didn't he?

Convicted me.

And he was talking about it in the first week, and it reminded me of a situation I experienced recently with Mandy.

We were on a weekend getaway and we were checking out of the hotel at the end of the weekend, and there was a discrepancy with the bill.

Well, the the very helpful hotel representative was fixing this issue on our bill, and he was standing at the counter and he was typing away on his little keyboard and he was looking at his little screen.

And while he was doing that, Mandy elbows me and points to his name tag.

You'll never get what his guess what his name was.

That's what his name was.

I am not kidding, not no joke.

And he was so helpful, and I thought, poor guy, God bless him.

I mean, he's probably walking around that hotel, and people need a hand or a help, and they're going, hey Siri, and everybody's phones go bananas, just like mine is right now.

Yeah.

I mean, what imagine if your name was Alexa?

I mean, when did these big tech tech companies start ruining perfectly good names?

Alexa is a really nice name.

Siri is an interesting name, but I mean, when did they get and when did we start getting so comfortable, more comfortable talking to Siri and Alexa than we do talking to Jesus?

When did we become more tuned in to the latest banner news headline on our device, the latest snap or text or opinion from the influencer on our preferred social media app?

Since when did we come more tuned into that than we are to the God's word and the truth in the Bible?

We need to prioritize spiritual escape, to withdraw from the busyness of life, to retreat to spend time with the Father and in His Word so that we can receive truth that is living and active and will sustain us in everyday life.

Because escape isn't avoidance, it's dependence.

And here's the important part dependence produces power.

Dependence produces power.

Jesus gets real personal in John chapter 15, verse 5, when he says, Apart from me, you can do nothing.

John 15:5

He says, Apart from me, you can do what?

You can do what?

That's right.

He doesn't say less, he says nothing.

And I often wonder whether we'd even be eternally saved if Jesus hadn't prioritized spiritual escape.

Because on the night he was betrayed, the night before he went to the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane, he withdrew.

He escaped from the disciples and he spent time alone with the Father.

He wrestled with the Father with his face on the ground, begging there to be another way other than the cross.

And I believe it was only through the power produced from dependence on the Father that Jesus was able to pray, yet not my will but yours be done.

And he went through with the cross.

Are you getting the message about how important this is?

Dependence produces power.

And then check out the book of Acts, Acts of the Apostles, chapter three, Peter and John come across a guy who hasn't been able to walk, be he hasn't been able to walk since birth.

So there's all kinds of not PC ways of describing that, but he is physically challenged.

He hasn't been able to walk since birth, he's become a beggar, and Peter and John say to him, Hey, we can't give you any money, we ain't got any money, but we can give you something better than that in the name of Jesus.

Be healed, get up and walk.

The guy gets up and walks.

Where does that power come from?

Well, they get thrown in prison, hauled before the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the day, and they didn't know what to do with them.

Listen to this in Acts chapter 4, verse 13.

Acts 4:13

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

They didn't know what to do with Peter and John.

They weren't educated, they weren't polished, they weren't politically powerful, but they had what you can't learn in school.

They had been with Jesus, and dependence produces power.

Our spiritual health and well-being, our sustenance, our strength, and the power in our lives is directly related to our proximity to the shepherd, to Jesus, which is totally counter-control.

We don't escape from life, we escape to the one, to claim dependence on the one who will give us strength to keep going.

And so we need to claim dependence.

We need to be dependent in our weakness.

Jesus says it another way in Matthew 11, verse 28, when He when he asks us, Are you tired, weary, worn out?

Matthew 11:28

Whatever translation you're reading, Jesus says, Come to me, come away with me, escape to me, and you will recover your life.

Find rest.

You will find strength for the journey.

You know, often people will come to me and they'll meet with me and they'll say, Tim, I'm in a really tough season.

And that might be you this morning.

I'm glad you're here.

I'm glad you came.

It was probably a real effort to come.

They'll say, I'm in a dry season.

I don't understand what's happening in my life.

I feel distant from God.

He doesn't feel near to me.

And I'll always get prescriptive in those moments because there's only one answer.

Take some time.

A half day, a couple of hours, half day, full day, preferably two days.

Retreat on your own.

Just you and the Lord and invite him to show up.

Read his word.

Pray.

Invite him to show up.

Prioritize that time.

And I've had friends who have done that.

I haven't seen a time that God hasn't shown up.

Matt talked about it one of the weeks when he talked about how Paul showed how Jesus showed up for Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9.

2 Corinthians 12:9

Jesus says to Paul, My grace is sufficient.

Maybe you need to hear this message this morning.

He says to Paul, My power is made perfect in weakness.

My power is made perfect in your weakness because dependence produces power.

Our challenges aren't obstacles to God.

They're often his strategy to invite us to find rest in his sufficiency.

We need to claim dependence in temptation, to be dependent in temptation.

Now, when you start thinking about the thing you know you shouldn't do, I don't know what that is for you, but maybe you're struggling with that right now, here today.

I don't know what it is.

Maybe it's desperate for that next drink.

You think you're gonna have that drink this afternoon, you know you shouldn't have.

Maybe you're trying to justify going to that website and taking a look this afternoon, you know you shouldn't.

Maybe you're getting ready to place a bet on the first round of the NFL season with money you don't have and you know that's a problem for you.

Maybe you're getting ready to tell somebody else a story about somebody else that's gonna make you feel better, but it's gonna put somebody else down.

Here's what I know.

When you start thinking about that thing you know you shouldn't do, if you shift your focus to Jesus, talk to him, read his word, memorize some scripture to help you in those situations.

When you retreat to him, I don't have a study to quote this morning.

I speak from personal experience.

When you shift your focus from the thing you know you shouldn't do to Jesus, the odds of you going through with that thing you know you shouldn't do go down dramatically.

Because here's what Paul says in the first letter to Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13.

When we're tempted, the Father will always provide a way through, always.

But we won't see that way unless we're focusing on him.

Friends, it's not complicated.

Jesus was tempted more than any other human has ever been tempted when he was here on earth.

Matthew 4, look it up later for extra credit.

He was tempted time and time again by Satan, and the only way he resisted was from a place and posture of complete dependence on Father God.

We also need to claim dependence in risk.

We need to be dependent in risk.

You see, we have these one lives to live, and God invites us not to live safe lives, but to take risks for the sake of the gospel, the good news.

I don't know what that means for you.

It may mean or may not mean going to the other side of the world, it meant that for me.

It may actually mean just going to the other side of the street and serving a neighbor, loving somebody, helping somebody in a way that causes them to ask why.

Christian leader and author, famously, Dr.

John Haggai famously said, attempt something so great for God that it's doomed to failure unless God is in it.

Friends, are our plans too small to require dependence on God?

It's one of the reasons we don't pray desperate prayers, the fact that we've built manageable lives.

Because Jesus never lived a manageable life.

He lived a dependent one.

He has escaped often.

Not to avoid life, but because escape is dependence, and dependence produces power.

This wasn't something he just taught about, this was something he lived out.

Before he chose his disciples, Jesus escaped to spend time with the Father.

Before big decisions, Jesus would escape to spend time with the Father.

After big successes, Jesus would escape to spend time with the Father.

And in Gethsemane, like we talked about, Jesus escaped to wrestle with the Father.

The pattern never changed.

So maybe the step of faith for you this week is not to work harder, but to escape.

Maybe the pattern for you this week is to escape not from your responsibilities, but from this illusion of self-sufficiency.

To step out of the noise, to open your Bible, to kneel before the Father.

To listen to him, to seek him, to do as Jesus did.

Jesus didn't escape from the world, he escaped to the Father, and whenever he did, he returned with exactly what he needed for the mission.

And yeah, tomorrow's Labor Day.

But how about we not just take a break from work?

How about we actually take a break from life for a moment and start a rhythm of spiritual escape and retreat and withdrawal from the busyness of life to spend time with God?

Dallas Willard said, if you don't come away for a while, you'll come apart after a while.

The message paraphrase of Psalm 46, verse 10 says, Step out of the traffic.

Psalms 46:10

The writer of Psalm 46 is telling us to take a break from trying to be God and to be still and know that He is God.

The Hebrew root words for be still don't translate to be quiet.

They actually translate to let go.

Let go, release the stuff that you're carrying around that you were never meant to carry in the first place.

Jesus said, His way is easy, his burden is light.

Recover your life.

Escape, retreat, withdraw, and let him direct your next steps.

And so this morning I want to finish a little bit differently.

I want to do a little prayer reflection over one of my favorite verses there in Psalm 46, verse 10, when we remember that he's God and we're not God.

Psalms 46:10

But I want to acknowledge the fact that there are some in the room this morning that are still working out who God is.

And I'm glad you're here.

It's a great place to work that out.

Matt talked about the difference between believing and following during this series.

And maybe you're ready to respond to that greatest invitation from Jesus to follow him.

Don't wait.

Come talk to us at InfoOut in the lobby.

We'll talk about what next steps look like.

We get to celebrate with others that have made that choice this morning.

We're baptizing five people across the next two services.

So we get to celebrate with folks that have chosen to follow and claim eternal dependence on Jesus and to die to their old lives and rise up to new life in Him.

And we're going to worship.

But we're going to be still first.

And so let's assume our preferred prayer posture this morning, whether that means just bowing our heads and closing our eyes, or closing our eyes and looking up to the heavens, or leaning forward, or leaning back, or maybe you want to kneel this morning.

I might need help getting up in a minute because these knees aren't what they used to be.

But it helps me remember how small I am in perspective to how big God is.

But let's take a moment to be still and let the words of the psalmist, ultimately the words of God, wash over you and refresh you this morning.

You are Yahweh.

Thank you for who we are not.

The fact that you will always be enough.

In your name.

Amen.