The BEST Example Ever..... of finding Serenity in the Storm

Are you ready for a great example of what this looks like?

I’m talking about a great example. Check out Matthew 14 and we are going to walk with Jesus Christ through an incredibly busy, busy day. 

And let’s see, let us allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us individually….

 "At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, 2 and he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

Ok Herod is speaking about all the amazing things that Jesus Christ is doing and he says it’s John the Baptist working through Christ… Herod doesnt know Jesus the Messiah so he resorts to what he believes, he’s wrong, but he doesnt know. So Matthew now explains why Herod believes this.

Matthew walks us through what took place… he gives us the back story.

3 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet.

6 On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much 7 that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” 9 The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted 10 and had John beheaded in the prison. 11 His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. Ok so Matthew told us the story of the death of John the baptist to give us Herods reasoning of why he thought John was helping Jesus. OK? So now vs.12 takes us back to current time this was written. V.12 says, John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

So John the baptist was murdered and the next day some disciples go and tell Jesus what has happened.

Look at how Jesus responds to the death of His cousin, John the baptist.

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. 

What does He do? He breaks away, first thing in the morning to be alone with the Father in solitude.

What does that speak to you and me?

v. 13 continues… Hearing of this, the crowds followed him (Jesus) on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

At the end of His time away in solitude immediately His busy day begins. He spends hours, through the morning into the afternoon looking after the needs of the people. 

That’s draining folks. Hours of ministry will wipe you out. 

Hours of your work day will wipe you out.

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

So wow! What just happened? After hours of tending to and miraculously healing the sick Jesus pulls off 1 of 2 amazing miracles of feeding thousands with just a tiny amount of food.

This is a very busy, very strenuous day right?

So what happens next?

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,

It’s into the evening now and Jesus sends His buddies off, why? So He could be alone.

In rest, quietness and trust you will be liberated and strengthened. (ref. "Are You Living in the 'Storm of the Norm"?)

Let’s keep reading...

24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

OK that was a lot that just happened… Jesus walks on water, (another miracle) tells Peter to join Him, rescues Peter due to Peters lack of faith, gets into boat and calms the storm that its waves had been crashing against the boat terrifying the disciples. And they are standing there in awe and wonder.

Because it’s here with Jesus, alone with Jesus in rest, quietness and trust that the storm of the norm can be calmed…. And we are delivered, liberated.

Guess what? His day is not finished.

Let’s keep reading...

34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

They land on shore and again immediately people begin to bring their sick to Him…. Begging the scripture tells us to heal their sick.

How much longer into this already full day do you think Jesus ministered to those people?

Was He literally up, awake, working and ministering for 24hrs straight???

Hear me folks… please see the point… That was an incredibly busy busy day right? 

Actually it makes our days seem not so bad… especially when this day began with the news of the murder of your cousin. 

How productive are your days upon the news of someone close to you losing their lives? 

We recoil don’t we? We don’t want to do anything. However that’s not the point.

What’s the point? Please allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you personally.

Our days are so busy, our schedules are over-run with activity. Sometimes we find time just to veg-out but they are still so busy. 

And here is the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m talking about the Lord, the King of Kings, Creator of the universe walking in flesh, and in His flesh how many times did He break away to find solitude with Father God? How often did He (hear me) prioritize breaking away for a while to find rest, quietness and trust?

So what do we find here in scripture? The very busy lifestyle of Jesus Christ. 

We see that, plain as day… what we don’t find anywhere recorded in scripture is Jesus talking about His busy schedule and being worn out from it… what we do see is HOW He managed to live, deal with that crazy, crazy lifestyle…. Prioritizing solitude. Finding, making time in rest, quietness, and trust to be liberated, to be strengthened to continue on….

What is God’s Word saying to you and your schedule?

Are you living in the "Storm of the Norm"?

Our lives are busy. We are a “busy” society. We live in a society that applauds the busy lifestyle. Because if you’re life isn’t full of activity then your are not living, you are missing out, and quite frankly, you’re boring. You lead a boring life if it isn’t full of activity. It actually doesnt matter what the activities are, you just need to be busy. Therefore it has become the norm. We’ve been conditioned that it is the norm. This is just how it is. It’s a busy life. So get used to it buddy, put your ‘big boy’ pants on and get with the program.

So that’s how we live. This is the life we live. A busy life.

(let's see if you can read down to the dotted line at an increased speed for effect)

Get up in the morning, when does your alarm go off… 5am, 6am? Get yourself prepared for the day.

Do you exercise early in the morning, well get going. If you do or maybe not, then start getting ready for the day ahead. Shower, get dressed, brush your teeth (I hope) - do you have enough time to eat breakfast or do you grab something out of the pantry to eat along the morning commute, or do you stop somewhere to grab some coffee and something to eat along the commute? 

Oh wait… are you a parent? Do you need to wake the kids in the morning, get them up and prepared for their day. There’s quite a bit involved in that morning routine huh? 

Ofcourse all your children jump out of bed are so excited to get ready for their school day so there’s no stress involved with that, right?

Now you’re at work. Phone calls, emails, customers, your boss, meetings. Oh the meetings are so fun and productive. Now you’re a little behind, try to catch up, more phone calls, customers, what another meeting… really….. You drudge through the day...

You don’t seem to catch up but you know you’ll be back tomorrow. But you need to head home. Maybe stop to pick up a child or 2 from daycare or after school care. 

Cmon kids weve gotta get home, start dinner or call for pizza. Take care of the needs within the home. Maybe some cleaning, some laundry, maybe do some homework w/ the kids, help them study for a test. 

Oh we’ve gotta get lil Johnny to baseball practice. Drive him there, drop him off, stay there for practice or leave & come back 45min. later to pick him up and drive home.

  Pizza here, or get the dinner ready, lets eat. After dinner is clean up. Does everybody get in on the clean up or are you doing it alone? Now what. You try to get a few minutes of peace from your rushed day. You go sit on the couch or maybe lay in bed, just for a few minutes to veg out… but if you have children the minutes may be a little less. 

Like this video........

You look at he clock, Oh my, its bedtime. Get the kids ready for bed. And they are totally down with that. They love going to bed to night. No stress there. So everything that’s involved with getting everybody to bed. 

Now you get to get ready to go to bed. You finally lay down at what??? 9pm, 10pm? Later? Possibly watch the late news or some show you DVR’d….

You make sure the alarm is set before you doze off so you can do it all again tomorrow.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s the norm. 

We didn’t discuss the weekends full of activity, kids games or practices or dance recitals nor any after school extra-curricular activities 

“Studies show that 79% of America's middle and high school students regularly participate in activities both after school and on weekends and 57% have some kind of non-school activity nearly every day.”

Last weekend, Get this, Cathleen and I triple booked our weekend…. It was partly foolishness on our part for not seeing it coming, it was partially due to the busy, busy lifestyles we live.

Allison is involved in club VB, their biggest tournament was last weekend in dallas, so Cathleen knew that months ago that it was last weekend (thur-sun in Dallas) we also promoted and led our growth group, “Cleansing Stream” - the highlight of that group study culminates with a weekend retreat… that retreat was last weekend in Ft. Worth. So while Cathleen & the girls were in Dallas Thursday, I traveled to Ft. Worth Fri, along with the rest of our group. She drove over to FW fri night to the hotel we were staying in & Jess drove back to Dallas that night to be with Allison and do the tourn w/ her Sat, while Cathleen and I were involved in the big CS retreat all day Sat.

After the CS event Sat. Night we met Jess n Alli for dinner in Dallas where Cathleen went back to their Dallas hotel for Sun games of tourn and I drove home Sat. Night to be here Sun morn for our guest speaker last sun Bess Blanco. Originally we planned on spending a portion of Sat. Together w/ Bess and her husband Juan, ofcourse not realizing we were gonna be in Dallas/FW on Sat. It’s crazy...

Listen folks, it’s tough right? It’s over-whelming, it fills our lives with stress, anxiety and we feel the heaviness, the weight of our schedules. That hear me now, can bring us to tears sometimes, can push us to the brink of throwing up our hands and screaming I DON’T CARE ANYMORE!

And it can, if it hasnt already, bring tension in the family and our lives personally.

So Here’s a question. Can you make any changes to your schedule that would make your life not as busy as it currently is? Most people (a very high %) would say NO they don’t see how they could.

There’s a very small % who’d say they’ve made some minor and fewer that would say major changes to slow the pace of life down.

So that being the case, I’m not gonna tell you that you should change your schedule. 

My schedule, my families schedule is very similar to that and yours. 

I would encourage you to do an evaluation of your schedule just for the sake of your family health, your own health and for that matter sanity. 

What I am going to talk about is that God’s Word tells us that’s how our lives would be and actually says that we’d choose to live this way. Plus it tells us how to find peace, how to find serenity within the storm. The storm of the norm. Because that’s where we are… we are living in the storm of the norm. 

So let's just look at God’s Word. Two passages in particular that have had a big influence in my life personally and we’re just going to read those and allow God through His Holy Spirit to reveal to each of us individually what  His Word is saying to us.

Along the way I’ll point out some facts, and some similarities to our lives and you can certainly jot down some notes - but more so… let’s all be aware of what God is saying to you personally.

Will you do that with me?

1^st passage - Isaiah 30 -  Beginning in vs. 15…

Are you ready? Listen to the Lord….

15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, - this word salvation, the hebrew meaning is to be delivered, to be liberated, to give victory. OK, so what is the Lord saying to us regarding our busy lifestyles?

In repentance and rest you’ll be liberated, you’ll find what? victory! Victory from the burdens, the weight of the busy lifestyle… how do we become liberated and find victory? ……

V.15 continues..    in quietness and trust is your strength, Stop. How do we find strength?…..

So repentance, rest, quietness, and trust (that’s a big word trust) we are liberated with victory and strength.

OK so what does the Lord say about our lifestyles and schedules? v 15 continues...
    but you would have none of it. Wow! So basically God knows how we’re livin’ 

He even gives us details  v.16 

You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
    Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
    Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

17 

A thousand will flee
    at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
    you will all flee away,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
    like a banner on a hill.”

What is God’s Word telling us here? You don’t ever slow down… you just go go go. There’s no stop and we just keep adding and adding to our schedules and lives more and more and more and now here we are…. Feeling alone, over-whelmed, exhausted.

So the book of Isaiah was written aprox 2700 yrs ago yet God knew the busyness of our lives even then, well he knew it before then but it shows us how relevant scripture is to our lives today.

So God continues to speak to us v. 18 

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
    Blessed are all who wait for him!

Wait a minute, in God’s great compassion towards us He says that those who wait upon Him are what? … blessed, happy. 

v.19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Do you want this blessed life? He hears us when we call on Him, He will answer. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. That’s Holy Spirit revelation folks. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” 22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”

That’s some harsh language to get His point across…. Those idols overlaid w/ gold and silver for us have a few meanings but w/in the context we’re talking about today it’s all about our busy lifestyles… that we worship. How? We give everything we’ve got to keeping our busy lifestyles afloat. It takes all that we have, all our energy and theyve become idols. It’s crazy folks but we’ve gotta call like it is in order to find freedom, to be delivered, liberated - to find victory in the Lord.

We must make time, find time… actually prioritizing our time to be with the Lord. Everyday. Not just Sunday. Everyday. 

How? Remember, we’ve already read it… in repentance, (I’m sorry Lord, I need You) rest, quietness, and trust. (we stop, everyday to sit before the Lord. It’s a good time to have scripture in front of you, but maybe you don’t everyday. The key is to stop in quietness and trust the Lord will allow you to complete the day. There you will be what? Liberated and strengthened.)

Look at this folks, please get this today… otherwise…. When we don’t do that, our schedules, our busy lives become our god, our idol. That’s what we bow down to day in and day out....... That's living in the Storm of the Norm.

But God wants to show compassion, He wants you to be liberated. 

Will you STOP?

"We are living in the "Storm of the Norm" video: https://www.sermonconnect.com/mediapreview.php?id=201304211004192E57B3

Four Myths Concerning Our Busy, Busy, Busy Lives

Do you ever feel over-run, over-whelmed, exhausted and just plain wiped out?
Guess what? So does everybody else....
Apparently it's the norm. Apparently this is the life we live. The society we live in mandates it.
Since everyone around us lives this way, if we don't, we scorned and mocked so we put on our "big boy" pants and we adhere... to the norm.
It's what I call, "The Storm of the Norm"

Did you know scripture actually points out that we (you and I) would choose to live this way? Unbelievable right? Stories and wisdom thousands of years old point out not only would we live like this but we'd choose to. How about that?

So I'd like to start this little series of writings with some myths.
Some myths we've all fallen into and all have believed.....

Myth #1: Busy equals important.- we think when you’re really busy it means you’re really living.- actually, being overly busy cuts us off from the time we need to spend cultivating the important relationships in our life: with our spouse, our kids, our friends, our God.

Myth #2: Someone wins the rat race.- this is a lie because the rat race is all about "what you do" and God is more interested in "who we are."- God will not ask at the judgment, "How busy were you?" Rather, He will ask, "Are you like Jesus?"

Myth #3: Hurrying will buy us more time.
- all this technology we now have was supposed to create tons of free time, but in fact it has increased the pace at which we have to work.- hurrying will buy more heart attacks, ulcers, stress, and headaches; but not more time.- our society is hurrying faster than it ever has, yet, ironically, we seem to have less time than ever before.- perhaps if we deliberately slowed down, taking that step back from our frenzied activity would give us the perspective to be able to see which things in our lives are worth doing.

Myth #4: "Down time" is wasted.- we are made to feel guilty if we aren’t constantly "doing something."- but God instituted the Sabbath into the system and the Scripture is filled with the idea of "God’s rest."

Read Luke 10:38-42
The ultimate tragedy of the busy life is the same as the tragedy that Martha faced - offered the opportunity to sit at Jesus’ feet, she (and we) are too busy to spare Jesus any time.
Is that your lifestyle?