If you have a Bible
with you, we're going to be in Mark's
gospel, chapter one. So as you find your way
to some notes, a pen, open an app on your phone,
you can jot stuff down. Title of this message
is man-made wilderness-- man-made wilderness. I know some of you might object
to the notion of such a thing on the basis of that
being an oxymoron. You're like, nope, I refuse. If it's made by man,
it's not a wilderness. Well, that's fine,
but that's the title. So you can't do
anything about that. The series we're in currently
is called Morning, Noon, and Night. And if you missed
the kick-off message, I would encourage you to
jump on our YouTube channel. That's
youtube.com/freshlifechurch or on our podcast or app because
we preach these series most often as one message broken
up over a number of weeks as opposed to like a part
two, three, and four. And so really, last week
set the pace for everything in this collection of talks. So we'd love to
have you hear that. It was called "Helter Skelter." So great. And it was what
we want to avoid-- lives of ah, pulled in 1
million different directions because that's not
good for your soul. And this series is all about
the rhythms of a healthy soul. We want to come to
a place where we get into a rhythm
with something that's good for us on the inside
because if where you're at is a place where you're
not healthy, where there's dysfunction, but you
look to the future and you go, oh, It'll
be better down the road, let me tell you something. If you don't change
your direction, you're going to arrive
exactly where you're going. So where you're at
today, play that out. Just fast forward the tape
10 years, 15 years, 20 years. You'll be even more unhealthy. You'll be even
more dysfunctional. And so what we want to do is
currently assess where we're at and play that out and make
the necessary changes, course adjustments. I mean, two, three degrees out,
flying from LA to New York, you are way off course,
just two degrees. So let's fine-tune
it and say, look-- are we at a place
where our souls are in a healthy, sustainable,
scalable rhythm? And if not, let's do
something about that. Let's tweak the formula
because bad days make for bad months make for
bad years make for bad decades. And so let's make the
changes we need to now. Let's not live helter skelter. A good rhythm for your soul--
morning and noon and night, let's have good days
and build them together. String them together
like a string of pearls. And one day, we'll look back
and be proud of the life that we've been living. Stephen Covey once
said, you could spend your whole life climbing
a ladder and get to the end your life and realize
your ladder was propped up against the wrong wall. And the greatest
tragedy would be to win in life at
the wrong thing. And so let's figure
this out, shall we? And I'm admittedly,
in this series, just-- I'm preaching to myself. I always am. I'm preaching myself more
than I'm preaching to anybody. So this isn't me up here,
like, hey you people. This is us. This is us. And let's make sense
of it while we still have breath in our lungs. Mark one-- at that time, Jesus
came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by
John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up
out of the water, He. Saw heaven being torn open-- casual. He's coming up out of the water. Heaven just got torn up. I know you had a good
baptism experience. His was better. Heaven's torn open? Well, just wait. It gets weirder-- and the spirit
descending on him like a dove. Someone just say awesome
quick before my head explodes. And a voice came from heaven. You are my son whom I love. With you, I am well-pleased. At once, the spirit sent
him out into the desert. Underline that. At once, the spirit sent
him out into the desert. And he was in the desert for
40 days being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals. And then angels attended him. Of course, they did. I know you guys are
just reading this like it's no big deal, like
that's something that you've been through 1,000 times. Yeah, of course. The Holy Spirit
descended on him, and then the spirit drove
him into the desert. And that was when the
angels were there. No, no, no, was that before
the animals were with him? No, animals were with them. And then the angels came to him. But I've always had a
hard time with this, trying to make sense of it all. Why did the spirit lead
Jesus into the desert? Because didn't Jesus
tell us to pray? Lead me not into temptation, but
deliver me from the evil one. So what's this all about? The spirit sent him
into the desert. And when he gets there, he's
like, why do we gotta go? The baptism was great. It was awesome. Don't just-- you
got somewhere to be. OK, OK, all right. I'll go. And then he gets into the
desert, and the devil's there? And he's like, he looks to go. The Spirit's gone. Door's been shut. He's like, ah, now I'm in a
cage match with the devil? He was tricked into a
cage match with the devil that lasted over a month. And now he's here in
hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. What is this? Like, some sort of "Indiana
Jones and the Holy Grail?" You must pass
these three trials, or you're not worthy to sit
from this chalice, right? Only the penitent shall pass. OK. If you can survive 40 days
in the desert, and then you can handle the
devil telling you this, and then-- because we
don't read Mark's gospel because he's a concise gospel. Someone called Mark
the and then gospel because one of the
most common phrases that you're going
to read when you read Mark's gospel is and then. He's like, and then
Jesus did this. Oh, oh, oh, and then
Jesus did that, right? This whole thing, he never gets
to turning bread out of rocks and jumping off the temple
and angels catching you and, you know, bow
down and worship me and I'll give you the
kingdoms of the world. He never [INAUDIBLE]
any of that because he's like, well, and then
guess what happened? Right? And he just jumps around
from thing to thing. It's not even his information. He interviewed Peter. And Peter's information is
what we have in Mark's gospel. But if we were to read
the other accounts, we would see the devil bringing
these three challenges to him. And I've always read
it and I've even heard it taught that this
wilderness testing was like some sort of strenuous,
grueling, Spartan challenge. And if Jesus could make
it through the 40 days, if he could succeed where
the first Adam failed-- that's how we've
always heard it. And Jesus is the second Adam. Jesus is the one who would
step into a desolate wilderness where Adam was in a
perfect circumstance-- a flourishing garden,
leaves everywhere, trees full of fruit. Everybody was happy--
naked and unashamed. But even in that idyllic
situation, Adam fumbled. Adam fell. So Jesus was going to
come into the anti-Eden, this desert, this bad land. He was in the elephant
graveyard, right? He wasn't even supposed
to be there, right? And yet even here, as the
devil brought the fruit to him, Jesus was unwilling to
eat that forbidden fruit. Actually, it was
forbidden carbs. Now I would have had
a hard time with that. I'm just going to
be honest with you. Fruit I could take
or I could leave, but you give me some hot bread-- you get some balsamic
and some olive oil. You get some
Rosemary on the top. It comes out. I love me some bread like
at the macaroni grill. Like, I kind of
secretly like it when they forget to bring their bread
out at an Italian restaurant. I'm like, I shouldn't
say anything. Oh God, I want bread so bad. And they're like, did
you want some bread? Yes, please. Just let me rub it on my face. Is that OK? Is that weird? Too much information
early in the service? So Jesus, like, turned
down the carbs, all that. And how I've always
kind of seen it is that if he didn't handle
the hardship of the desert, then he wasn't even worthy to go
onto the challenge of the devil coming at him. And so I picture Jesus
kind of like curled up in a ball-- you know,
kind of like, ho, ho, it's only my imagination. It's only my imagination,
like Kevin McCallister in the basement. And he's there in
the wilderness. And he sort of hates it all. And it's so horrible. And it's getting him weaker
and weaker and weaker. And at the 40 day
mark, he's so weak. And the devil shows up. And he's barely hanging on. But he manages somehow
to rally himself like Rocky Balboa and
his eyes all puffed up. And he's all hurt. And he's emaciated and sick. But still somehow, he prevailed. And he came out of the-- and
it was like, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. And that all presupposes
one fallacy-- that Jesus did not
like the wilderness, that he somehow found it
distasteful to be there. And if that's the case, then
the rest of the gospel accounts don't make much sense. Like, what are you going to do
with Mark chapter 1, verse 35, which says this? Look at it on the screen. Jesus, throughout
his life, would rise up early in the morning
when it was still dark out and depart by himself and
go out to desolate places. Same idea in the original
language-- wilderness places. And there, he would pray. You have a little bit of
time before the day begins. What are you going to do? I want to be in the wilderness. Mornings, he would
hang out there. Oh, we're also told-- this is
Matthew's gospel, 14 verse 23. After he dismissed
the crowds, he went up-- this is after
a hard day's work. He would go up to the
mountains by himself to pray. When evening came, he
was in a wilderness place by himself, spirit not
leading him that we read about. This isn't being pushed to
some horrible challenge. This is him of his volition,
after a crazy day work, realizing, I'm depleted. I'm pretty spent. You know what I need that's
going to reinvigorate me? The wilderness. And it wasn't just
mornings and nights either because Luke's gospel
tells us, Luke 5 verse 16-- Jesus would often
withdraw to lonely places where he could pray. So the idea is not that this
is somehow some awful thing, but Jesus endured it. This wasn't Jesus being
forced to a place of weakness. This was Jesus being led
to a place of strength. What I'm trying
to get you to see is that the spirit didn't
lead Jesus into the wilderness because or so he
could be tempted. The spirit led Jesus
into the wilderness because he was
going to be tempted. This temptation is coming. This hard thing is coming. You have this whole huge
ministry about to begin. There's going to be all of
this 3 and 1/2 year hardship. You need to start it
off with a full tank. And so the wilderness is
going to be where you're going to get your tank
full, where you're going to be strong,
and you'll be able to handle all
that's to come. What I'm trying
to get you to see, and we're going to
put it on the screen, is that Jesus overcoming
the temptation wasn't made more difficult by
his time in the wilderness. It was possible because of
his time in the wilderness. It was only possible
to withstand all that was about to come
because he was willing to first endure this time of being
alone with the father and to do so in
a desolate place. You have to understand, this
isn't torture for Jesus, 40 days there. This is tactics for
Jesus, 40 days there-- tactics. This to Jesus isn't somehow
some sort of strenuous thing. This was a strategy
that he employed. And I think what
that means for you and for me is to assess our
lives and to ask the question, with all this in front of
us, how can we be like Jesus and make sure that we
as men would follow in the footsteps
of the Son of Man, and we would make our
way to the wilderness? This man made his way
to the wilderness-- man-made wilderness. And we need to do the same
if we're to be at our best when the enemy comes to us-- that when the enemy meets us
that we've done what Jesus did. You can't change
the battle, but you can't change the battlefield. And Jesus is
saying, if the devil is coming, if the
Lucifer himself is going to show up-- now, sidebar. Most of us have never, ever had
any experience with the devil. And they were like, the
devil made me do it. The devil has been
messing with me. The devil probably
does not know my name and probably does not
know your name, OK? He's not omnipresent. He's not in more than
one place at one time. He has lots of
demons, and I probably have a JV demon
who's got an inhaler. And he causes enough
problem for me, all right? But the devil
personally showed up. We know that-- the
Bible even indicates that demons are assigned
to different jurisdictions, different areas. There's principalities
of area, like a Vegas or a New Orleans
or a New York City. [INAUDIBLE] demon,
a prince of Persia. There are demons assigned
to locales and spaces. But you know what? Angels are assigned too. And just like the angels
showed up for Jesus, God will send his angels
to watch out for you, and he'll do the same for me. The notion of a guardian angel
is by no means unbiblical, OK? And we should, as
parents, be praying God would send his angels
to watch over our children and do so and protect them, OK? So Jesus here is getting strong
by being in the wilderness. Why? Because there, he found quiet. And we need that as well. We talked last week. If you missed the
message about how really, the heart beat behind
this healthy soul thing is to come to a place where
we know how to calm and quiet our souls-- David said that. I have learned to calm
and to quiet my soul. If you don't quiet
your soul, you won't have a quiet soul because
we live in a very loud world. We live in a world
that's anything but calm, anything but quiet. We live in a world
that is so loud. Jim Collins said we live
in a cacophonous age-- cacophonous age-- full
of swarming insects of noise and
interruption, buzzing about emails, text messages,
cable news, advertisements, cell phones, meetings, wireless
web connections, social media posts. We run the risk, he
says, of waking up at the end of the year
having accomplished little of significance,
each year slipping by in a flurry of
activity pointing nowhere. Please stop and say, ouch. Ouch. A flurry of activity-- well, we're busy. We are so busy. We are-- a flurry of
activity pointing nowhere. But leaders can. And then Jim Collins
[INAUDIBLE] indeed must be disciplined
people who create the quiet space for
disciplined thought and summon the strength
for disciplined action. Jesus, the master leader-- point me to a better
leader than Jesus. Point me to a better
people person than Jesus. He is-- why is he in the
wilderness for 40 days? He's listening to
the spirit, who's calling him into a season of
creating space for disciplined thought, for remembering who
he is, to summon himself. So the devil shows up. I love this. I love this thought. The devil shows up finally. He's like, hey, you
should-- and boom. And Jesus has an answer
for every attack. And his attack is blistering. He was like, hey, have
you seen those stones? Wouldn't they be good bread? You're probably hungry. He's like, fool, man shall
not live by bread alone, but everywhere that proceeds
from the mouth of [INAUDIBLE].. We learned that on day six. Day six in the
wilderness, father and I were talking about that. He's like, oh, good point. OK, OK, take him
to a high place. Throw yourself down
and the angels. The angels? Yeah, the angels are there. But guess what? I'm not putting the
Lord my God to the test. So he could get me,
but he's got me here. In fact, he called
me to be here. What you got next? Devil's like, oh, this fool
has been preparing himself. Bow down and worship me. All the kingdoms of the
world are yours, right? You don't have to
go to the cross. What are you talking
about, Willis, right? He's saying man shall not
worship anybody but the Lord my God. What you got? The devil bounced. The Bible says,
resist the devil, and he will flee from you. A lot of us think there's
some truth to that Oscar Wilde statement. The only way to get rid of
temptation is to give into it. No, you resist temptation,
the devil will flee from you. And so that's what happens here. But Jesus had the
strength because he had created the space
for the kind of thought and self-reflection and
self-awareness and being-- he was centered. This was a man's
center and anchored. In the wilderness,
he was not depleted. He was energized. His soul was in a
good rhythm so he was ready for what would come next. And we need the
same if we're not to forfeit all of our peace. Now before we go
any further, let's just acknowledge the times
that we're living in. Let's acknowledge if we've
made a mess of ourselves, it's not for no reason, right? We didn't know what was
happening as the world changed all around us. 2007 is when it really
all started to happen. 2007 is when the
iPhone was invented. Steve Jobs held it up
for the first time. This is the iPhone. And now we're all going to
have infinity in our pocket. In all of recorded
history, no one's ever had infinity in their pocket. If you give a 13-year-old
a car with no instruction, if you give a
13-year-old access-- what are they going to do? Make a mess. I made a mess. Well, of course. You're handed a car
without instruction. You weren't ready for it. We have infinity in our purses. We have infinity,
all of Wikipedia, every bit of knowledge
there's ever been, the ability to have ceaseless
communication and input coming at you all the time. I'm not just talking
about the negative stuff. We talked last week about the
Netflix stuff and the Instagram stuff a little bit. But now let's just talk
about the positive stuff-- the Ted Talks, the YouTube
lectures, the college courses, audio that you can just order
and just be listening to, the next wicked awesome
[INAUDIBLE] Brown talk or the audible from Seth Godin. Oh my gosh, Seth Godin. Or Tim Ferriss' podcast? That guy? Are you kidding me? So productive. I've got a Bluetooth
speaker in my shower. It's waterproof. That used to be like
the one sacred time. Now you have a shower. We have Bluetooth speakers
in our shower now, guys? You could live a
life that you have so optimized and tweaked and
hacked that you are efficient. You've cut the fat away
that you are constantly, ceaselessly receiving
good things, good inputs. And let's say you're
not on Instagram and you're not on
Netflix too much. You've limited those things. But now it's just good stuff. There's just sermon podcasts. It's the [INAUDIBLE] thing. This is Hillsong
United's new record. It's Fresh Live
Worship, Dawn is Com-- you could be having input
coming in all the time and have no quiet. It's possible in a way
it never was before in the history of
the world to banish quiet from your existence
from the moment you wake up until the moment you fall asleep
with your phone in your hand. I know someone who can't
sleep with our ESPN on, real low volume. Can't sleep without
sports in the background. Just need a little
noise to help me sleep. It's never, in the history of
humanity, been possible like it to have such incredible, complex
inputs coming in all the time. And Twitter, Twitter-- 2007 was
when Twitter went mainstream, by the way. Invented in 2006-- that's when
I signed up for my account. But in 2007 at
South by Southwest, it went like a wildfire
around the world. 2007 was also when
Facebook opened up from just being a college
website to being anybody that has an email address
can now all of a sudden have this digital community. All of a sudden, infinity
is in our pocket. We can communicate with
everybody all the time. And we never have to stop
taking in if we don't want to. 2007, the world changed. It's also when Fresh
Life was started. But three of the four
things that I mentioned are capable of
bringing you to a place where there's no
longer any free moments to think, no longer any
quiet spots to ponder. One author-- he
said it used to be if your flight
across the country was longer than your
book was, you would just look out the window and stare. But now we have a seven
inch screen in our phone, in our headrest. We're not going to get
rest because there's something in the headrest. And there's Wi-Fi too,
which we complain about. It's so slow. Oh, that Wi-Fi on the
flight was brutal, savage. Don't know how I lived. You know, it used to be you
put a tie on and just sit there and looked out the window. And now we're all in
sweatpants, and many of you are not wearing deodorant. And we're like, blah, the
internet, blah, right? Like, what has happened? And what have we given up? Because Jesus said,
it's possible to gain the worldwide web
but lose your soul. One translation says, you can
lose touch with your very self. That's what happens. We lose touch with who
ourselves, who are we, without a moment to think. I also unearthed that-- this is in Cal Newport's book
which I referenced last week as well, Digital Minimalism. He talks about how your brain,
when receiving information like a Ted Talk or like a podcast
or like a book on Audible, it cannot disengage the
social side of who you are. There's a social side of you. And so what happens is you're
hearing Seth Godin talk, but part of you, the
social side of you, thinks it's a friend
speaking to you. So you're taking in
the content, but you feel like you're having
a moment with Seth. That's why I [INAUDIBLE] people
who read my books and like, I feel like I know you. Just-- there's such a moment. It's because they felt like
they were socially with me when they were listening
to me read my book to them. But let me tell you something. I was in a little
studio in Nashville. I was not in your car with you. We're not having a social
moment in that experience. It's not social. So the tragic side
of that is you can feel fatigue and overload
of the social side of you. So when you live
that way, you're less likely to want to
engage in actual face to face relationships
because you feel like-- part of you is like, I
feel like I'm already-- I need some alone time. I already had so much
time with people. But you haven't. And the tragedy is
that, guess what? Malcolm Gladwell is not
coming to the hospital when your kid is in
the emergency room. And Tim Ferriss does not
know your garage code and is not going to be there
for you when, God forbid, the worst happens and the text
messages are firing around. Here's what happened. Here's the hospital. Here's what the doctors
are saying right now. And the surgery is supposed
to be over in three hours. We'll know more soon. And you know what? Nancy Lee Dimas is phenomenal,
and so as Beth Moore, and so as Christine Kane. But they're not going
to be there for you like your small group will. And if you're so taxed
socially from what you're taking in your
self-development life hack way, you'll be too
exhausted to develop the rhythms of relationship
that are going to be there to sustain you in a
necessary and life-giving way should, God forbid, your
life go off the rails. And so what are we giving
up when we give up quiet? What are we giving
up when we give up being just solitary
for a moment? Not like the card game, right? Solitary-- solitude, right? These are things that have
been lost in our nonstop cycle where we're expected
to know everything. Someone says, did you
know what happened? Like, I don't know
what happened. Were you watching news? No, God no. Heaven, no. I'm not watching
the news, right? I've carefully
selected times when I will let news into my life. You know what? I'd love to tell you
about the news of how me and Jennie are doing because
we had a great date this week. I could tell you about how
Olivia and I are doing, my oldest daughter,
because she's going to be out of the house
in just a couple of years. And guess what? We had a wonderful
time this week. I had a great daddy-daughter
date with Daisy. We had so much fun. I caught up with her. So I don't want 24/7
news coming into my head. I don't want non-stop
audible coming to my head. I'm a listen to some books. I'm a do something. But I'm going to
find time in my life. I'm going to make
my own wilderness. I'm going to make-- I'm going to make
my own wilderness. And you can too. It doesn't matter if you live
in the middle of Yellowstone National Park, and
you're listening to this. Like, it's so easy. I go outside. You know, you can go
into an actual wilderness but not be in one. And you can be in an Uber
in the heart of Manhattan but be in your
own little bubble. This is my time. My phone is going away. I'm putting this thing on
airplane mode, which does work, by the way. And I'm going to put my
soul into airplane mode. And I'm just going to breathe. And you're like,
this is so common. It's in every book right now. It's called mindfulness. Yeah, but that's just being-- that's quiet time without
Jesus is what that is, right? So this is what the world's
saying we need, but we're just realizing that God who made us
told us this before the world ever figured it out. To be alone, to be still-- these are things that
we all need to do. Make our way to the
wilderness because without it, we'll be anxious. Without it, we are anxious. You know, Barnes and
Noble reported a 25% year over year increase in demand
for books on anxiety-- 25% increase. According to the American
Psychological Association, teenagers in North
America today are living with levels
of anxiety that were normative in psychiatric
patients in the 1950s. That's teenagers today. We're left with a
smoldering sense of anxiety. We're bored. We're listless. Why? We're feeling bored not
because there's nothing to do but because there's
too much to do. And we're not ever bored. We're bored because
we don't ever allow ourselves to get bored. When the moment is still,
we turn some music on. The moment is still. We have to have something
going on at all times. So he's got to text this
friend, text this thing. Check the notifications
on the Amazon. [INAUDIBLE] Why? Why? Why are we in the
movie theater-- why am I in the movie theater
watching a 38 foot tall screen, but I need to know what's
on my little phone? I'm looking at a little
screen because I see this person over here did it. There's an announcement. He didn't listen. Well, I can just quickly-- as long as I'm not
the only one, I can-- why do I care about this device? I paid to sit in
front of this screen. Why am I watching
Netflix but also on this and have my laptop over here? I'm bored. I'm listless. I feel burnt out. I'm not at my best
when I'm allowing non-stop noise into my life. And then when I go back to
work, I'm not as productive. We talked last week. It's the University
of California data. 23 minutes and 15
seconds is how long it takes for you to re-engage
on a deep level with a project after you've been distracted. Have you ever felt,
like, annoyed with a book because it was too slow? It's a book. I've loved reading
my entire life. I used to do contests
at the local library in the summer, how many books
you could finish in the summer. I won like three years. Not bragging, but you know. And I've loved my
whole life to read. But I noticed that when I get
to that place of overwhelm and overload, I
actually pick up a book, but I find my eyes are
just wanting to scan or wanting to jump around. And I'm like annoyed, and
I'm having a hard time engaging with the book. Now it's possible to deep
read on the internet. And it's possible
to skim a book. But that's not what the two
mediums lend themselves to. The internet medium
lends itself to shallow. So when you're getting that
dopamine hit of distraction, you're getting that same thing
from the slot machine arm or from a hit of drugs that the
internet has brought into you. You tend to bounce around. You tend to think, oh, I got
to go to this other page. I'm not going to
finish this whole talk. I'll jump over to
this other thing. Where a book is meant for
that slow, and it takes work to settle into that. So we have to choose to
do what Jesus did-- follow the Spirit into the wilderness. Can I give you three tips? Then we're done. We are almost over. You're almost at lunch. All right, but just
quick three things. When you create wilderness
for yourself, do so in motion. And then we're going
to talk about how you got to do so in nature. And then you've got
to do so in silence. So these are three
intentional things. Let's start with in motion. How did Jesus get
from his baptism at the River to this desert
area in between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea? Answer-- he walked. And that was a part
of the process-- the part of the process
of him slowing-- the part of the process
of him doing what is employed all
throughout the Bible as an analogy for a
relationship with God. It's walking. That's the thing. It's walking. When you walk, your arms swing. When you walk, you tend to start
breathing a little bit deeper. When you walk, something
happens to you. It's really good for you. Eugene Peterson, who went
to heaven this past year, who was such a man of
God, and he gave us a translation of
the Bible called The Message and
just a dear saint-- had the chance to
sit down with him. Was one of the last
visitors he took before his health took a turn. They combed through his
library and found extracts of some of his sermons
that he had preached throughout his ministry that
were never before published, and they are going to be
releasing this year in a book called A Month of Sundays. And they sent me
an advance copy, and I love this one
thing he said so much. He said, the virtual elimination
of walking by the automobile has more than
physical consequences, for it also diminishes
spiritual perceptions. We get places faster,
but we experience less. So just finding time in your
life that you're choosing-- OK, this is a
moment for solitude. This is a moment for
me to walk somewhere. This is a moment for me
to pay attention to birds. Like, I love to do this
even when I'm traveling. And whenever I fly
through Atlanta, I ignore the plane train. Atlanta is the busiest,
largest airport in our country, and I think it's the most
takeoffs and landings in the entire world. And so it's massive. And so there's this
huge train that can get you from all
the different terminals. And if you don't take it, it's
a 25 minute walk in some cases. And I love it. It is me time. If I have the luxury, meaning
I don't have a quick turnover, I will always walk that. And it's like, it's
a beautiful thing to watch people hurrying,
hurrying, hurrying, and just be like, I'm leisure. I'm just walking here. So even in a
situation like that, I can find some time for
there to be that quiet. Do so in motion. Thoreau said-- look at this. Whenever my legs begin to move,
my thoughts begin to flow. And you'll find that like
so many great leaders throughout history-- you
know, Dwight D. Eisenhower would take walks alone. That's how he planned
out the D-Day invasion. Steve Jobs was prolific
for his walking. He wouldn't have
business meetings. He had a business walking. He'd have people meet
him, and they'd just go walk around Palo Alto. They would just take
a walk together. And that was where the ideas,
the juices, began to flow. This is such a great
time for ideation. But let me give
you some pro tip. Leave your phone behind. I won't use it. It'll be there. You'll use it. You'll know it's there. You'll need to touch it. You'll think about it. You'll pet it longingly
through your denim, right? You know what I do? Because [INAUDIBLE] go,
what if I have a great idea? You could use a
pencil and a paper. It's crazy. It's the craziest thing you've
ever said, Lusko, right? What does that even mean? I throw a little
pencil and paper. I've outlined chapters to books. I have written whole sermons. I have had Jesus speak the
tenderest things to me. Sometimes, he just whispers,
it's going to be OK. It's going to be OK. It's going to be OK. I take these walks. This is how I worked
my way through grief. This is how I worked my way
through every hard season. Every hard season we faced at
Fresh Life-- the one this week, I took a walk. And God was first to
me, and I'm still. And sometimes I just say-- I'm not into long prayers. Sometimes, it's just, Jesus. And that's it. And that's enough. And there's the
space to breathe. And sometimes, it's all I can
do to make it without crying. And other times, I feel like
a dance inside my heart. But something is set
on fire, some steel. And I always, always, always
get back different than I came. Find your time like Jesus
did, and do it walking. Secondly, in nature, this
area, I've been there. It is cool. No, it's actually not cool. It's hot. But it's really beautiful. That's what I meant by cool. And it's like, the Dead Sea
is the lowest point on earth. And so you have these extreme,
you know, fluctuations. And it can get cold at
night because it's desert. But you're in a
day scorching high. And there's craggy rocks,
and it's just beautiful. It's deadly, but it's beautiful. And so to think of Jesus there,
I could see him settling in. I love it. A little thing about me-- it cannot get hot enough for me. God has a sense of humor. When we get like our
300-plus days of the year, and we have not had one yet, I'm
like the happiest person alive. If you complain about
heat, I'll smack you. I'm like, yeah, bathe in it. Like, I'll turn off AC. I want to feel hot. I like nothing more when hot
leather sticks to my thighs in the car. I won't turn the AC on. I love it. I love it. I love it. Give me Palm Springs. Give me Phoenix. I love to feel that hot. I love it. So I picture Jesus
spending time with God. I'm like, I get it. I get it. I understand why you
would go to the wilderness to have this temptation. It was beautiful. But he wasn't just in nature. He was also with who? Animals. This is a practical
and simple thing. Foster intentional time
with animals in your life. You're listening to the podcast. If that means having to
go to the zoo, whatever. There's something about animals. Our first assignment was to
hang out with and give names to animals. God knows we need
time with animals. Didn't Winston
Churchill say this? He said, there is
something about the outside of a horse that is good
for the inside of a man. Now we, of course,
know now enough about that statement's truth
to use animals in therapy. There's something
calming about it. I was thinking this
week about "Free Willy." I don't think I've ever
cried harder as a kid. And yeah, here's this kid in a
foster home after foster home, trouble and shoplifting
and bad friends and could really go a bad way. And it wasn't just the people. It was also that animal. Looking into that
whale's sad, creepy eye? Are you kidding me? He's like, your fin's bent over. Mine is too, right? They helped each--
he helped Willy out, but Willy helped him out. I'm telling you, there's
something about animals. So in nature and in motion
and then lastly in silence-- in silence. And this is really key that
we're minimizing inputs. And I'm all for
reading the Bible. Duh, right? I'm all for worship music. Duh, right? And yet, it's
important, I think, to have times when there's
no input coming in. This is going to freak
you out at first. If you haven't done
it, it's weird. Why? Because a lot of us are
like, we're with Anne Lamont. She said, my mind is
like a bad neighborhood. I don't want to go in
there alone, right? Some of us, we're
disturbed to find out what's going to be in
there if we ever get quiet. I don't want to be
alone in my thoughts. I definitely don't want that. I want to actually
see what's in there. But to allow there to be silence
in your day is so good for you, so good for your heart, so
good for your relationships. And then you'll
realize you'll need-- you'll come from the
silence fact to the people. And not the digital
people-- they're there. They're going to be there. But we're going to come to
real people, flesh and blood people who are going to be
in our lives and care for us and pray for us. Do you have Christian people
in your life, Jesus followers, who you can just say,
I'm really just sucking at everything right now? I need you to pray for me. I feel like I'm at burnout. I'm not healthy. You need people in
your life, and you need silence in your life. And we all need to be
comparing notes together on what we're hearing
in the silence, what we're hearing in the scriptures,
and doing this life together. In motion, in
silence, in nature-- I like to combine the three. I always bring my dog with
me on this walk that I take, my Jesus walk. And it's profound to see the
dog and just to see him to me, him always looking up
at me, his creepy eyes. And he's cute. He's amazing. He's a little poodle
named Tabasco, you know? We just we just go out
together and hang out with God, and it's a wonderful-- I'm just putting my
cards on the table. This is why I'm still here. This is why 12 years
in, I'm still here. Most pastors don't make it more
than two years in a church. Jennie and I are here. We're here because
of the rhythms that we put in
place in our soul. And we want these
for you as well. That's it. I don't want anything from you. I just hope that blesses you. And let's end here. Let's end with this thought. Paul could have supplied the
illustration for this message. I could have preached
this whole sermon just like I did on Paul
because before Paul ever preached anywhere, guess what? He spent some time
in the wilderness. You hear about him now, but
it started in the wilderness. He did not go speak to
people face to face. There was first a
time of testing. Elijah-- yeah, we know all about
Elijah's ministry-- mightiest of the Old Testament
miracle working prophets. Not bad on a business card. And yet, what did God send-- he
sent him to the Brook Cherif, where he had time in the
wilderness fed by birds. Birds-- you heard that right. Birds brought him
food every day. [INAUDIBLE] go hang out there. How am I going to eat? There's no food out there. I'll take care of it. A bird every day,
a couple of times, showed up with the delivery. It was like Uber
Eats but old school. I mean, it's like, what is this? And so we could've talked
about-- that wilderness time was responsible for the
beautiful strength of character that was exhibited later on. Could have preached
this whole sermon and used David as
an illustration. Man, love his psalms. You know how he wrote them? He spent a decade in a cave
while his father-in-law [INAUDIBLE]. Best thing that ever happened
to him-- the wilderness years. Wilderness was
responsible for him being the sweet psalmist of
Israel, the poet warrior king. It was those days
in the wilderness. It was-- that's why
he later on was like, I've got to go back
to the wilderness, got to intentionally
foster the wilderness. When he didn't get
that, it's when he was unhealthy and unwell
and made bad decisions, when he wasn't putting
himself back out there in that wilderness. We go crazy and we get
pent up if we don't get what we actually need. We'll look for it
in unhealthy places. I could have preached
this whole sermon using Moses as the backdrop-- 40 years in the
middle of nowhere until one day, he was present
enough to see a bush on fire. When he was busy in
Egypt, he might not ever have noticed the bush on fire. But he was when he
was in the wilderness that he was present and
engaged enough, walking around with sheep in nature
alone being silent, that he heard God
saying, Moses, Moses. I could have used
John the Baptist. John the Baptist shows
up preaching everywhere. Everybody's coming
out to hear him. Kings want to hear him. Poor people want to hear. Roman soldiers want to hear him. Pharisees are mad at
him, but they secretly want to hear him too. And when they show up,
he's like, who told you you could come, you snakes? Dude was punk rock. Outfit choices? Prada? Gucci? None of these fashion shows
had nothing on this cat, right? Hairy camel skin--
that's so current. It's so-- what a savage. Camel skin-- oh. Camel skin-- you see
what J the B is wearing? Camel skin, right? Big leather belt. And he was a crunchy
granola dude. He was eating locusts and honey. It's like, wow. and He didn't care about
what you thought of him or anybody thought of him. He shows up, everybody
is going out. Disciples said,
Jesus, everybody's getting baptized by this guy. How did he get
groomed for greatness? Because he just showed up
one day out of nowhere. Well, Luke's gospel tells us-- chapter 1 verse 80. Mark's like, what? You made it to verse 80? I never wrote an 80 verse
chapter in my life, right? He said, John chose to live
in the lonely wilderness until the day came when he
was to be displayed publicly to Israel. Problem with our
generation is we're all trying to be publicly
revealed to the world without first going
to the wilderness. But God did it then,
and he does it now. When he wants to make a man,
when he wants to make a woman, he makes that man
in the wilderness. Man-made wilderness--
that's how it started out. God didn't form even Adam
in the chaos of the city. He chose to do it in the
solitude, in the beauty, in the perfection of a garden. And he's still doing it today. Sermon in a sentence? You can't have a quiet
soul without quiet time. So let's fight for quiet time
in our lives in Jesus' name.
