Solitude and Community

welcome to clear creek community church online we exist to lead unchurched people to become fully devoted followers of jesus christ we are a people not a place and are sent to make a difference in our world clear crete gathers for worship online and across multiple campuses in the bay area of houston for more information visit us at clearcreek.org [Music] welcome to clear creek community church online we hope that today will be one more step in you exploring faith in jesus growing in community and joining us as we try to make a difference in our world today we continue our series that we've called the way it's about learning to walk with god together you know i think many of us really want to grow in our faith but oftentimes the question is how how do we do that so today you're going to hear from ryan leighton the campus pastor at our egret bay campus but before we jump in today you should know more than providing online content we want to connect with you in community we hope today would be a preview of who we are as a church family so that you can connect with us at one of our five campuses in the houston bay area now you can find our locations and our worship service times at clearcreek.org that's also a place where you can find details on how we serve in the community and how we grow in small group or find upcoming events and resources if clear creek is your church home and you want to give to support the ministry of this local church you can do that online as well but wherever you are today listen we're just glad you're here engaging with us and so let's jump in as we continue our series the way [Music] from the darkness i called your name into darkness your mercy came you called me out lifted me up how great is your love you bore my weakness you took my shame buried my burdens in fields of grace [Music] [Music] from the heights of heaven you stepped down to earth innocent perfection gave your life for us we are amazed we stand in awe for we have been changed by the power of the cross how great how great how great is your love how gray how gray how great is your love how great how great how great is your love for us [Music] your presence where i belong you called me out lifted me up how great is your [Music] gave your life for us we are amazed and we stand in all for we have been changed by the power of the crown [Applause] how is how great [Music] there has never been there will never be [Music] a god like you love so true there has never been there will never be a god like you love so true will never be a god like you will love so true there has never [Applause] [Music] will been be a god like you love so true how great is your love how great how great how great is your love how great how great how great is your love for us [Music] how great is [Applause] [Music] so one of the weirdest things that we do in our culture is really how we treat celebrities so today you can be a celebrity for all kinds of reasons you can be movies or tv or a musician or just famous for being famous and so you can be a celebrity for any number of reasons now and we have this idea of of what a celebrity looks like because we see them out doing things in public right we have this this picture of who a celebrity is and so uh we know someone like like a guy like uh like tom hanks right so tom hanks he's in all these different movies that we know him publicly forest gump best movie that there is you know apollo 13 castaway you probably seen like all these movies i know i have right so we know him as a movie star it's a very public persona but where we get really weird as a culture is that we're shocked when we realize that a guy like tom hanks also has a personal life like he's not just this public figure but he has a personal life and he does very normal things in this personal life that we don't see and we don't really know about but we still can't wrap our minds around that like it's still this like weird thing and so we've got people whose job it is to go hide in bushes and take pictures of celebrities doing these very normal things and we just eat this stuff up like we can't get enough of these pictures out there right so like tom hanks here he is sitting here on the uh the red carpet looks real nice right very public but we really want to see is is tom hanks eating at a fast food restaurant with his family like in-n-out burger man he's mid burger right there like it's just like you're watching national geographic it's just amazing right or here he is sitting on the subway that's about how everyone looks in the subway in new york just happy to be there super excited or or here he is at a ball game with his family like it's just so amazing i can't believe it like he's got a personal life and here's this whole series of him walking here he is walking with a water bottle here he is walking with a shopping bag here he is shopping or walking with a dog and a fun hat right here he is walking dressed up in a perfect dad outfit i mean that head to toe that's the most dad outfit that you can wear okay so this is ridiculous right like it's ridiculous that we even have these photos like who who's taking these right we just can't believe that someone has a public life but also a personal life we can't wrap our minds around that even though we know that it's true of us like we live our life publicly around other people we've got friends but also we have this personal life we do things that people don't see all the time right and what we say often is that uh what what really shows your character is what you do when no one else is watching it's true of us in so many areas of our life especially when it comes to our faith and so today we're wrapping up a series called the way where we've been learning what does it look like to walk with god together in community with other people and for the last three weeks we've been emphasizing that you can't do this alone that it's not something that you just do you and jesus but it requires a whole community of people because it's together we walk with god we we read scripture together we pray together and so your relationship with god would actually be incomplete if it's only you and jesus and it doesn't include other people as well well today we're going to talk about the other side of that very same coin that your relationship with god involves other people but also involves being alone we follow god in community and we follow god personally you can't have one without the other and the person who models this for us most clearly is jesus himself so in the gospel accounts which are the books of the bible that tell about the life and the teaching of jesus we see in him this constant rhythm of of work of ministering to the crowds but also retreat right of working out publicly but then also resting personally of community and solitude and we see in the very beginning of his ministry in the book of mark if you actually if you have a bible go ahead and open up we're going to look at mark chapter one and the way that mark describes the beginning of jesus ministry that he's going around and it's this whirlwind of activity i mean there's so much stuff that's happening he starts to preach right off the bat people start following him he gathers up his disciples at that point and then we read this part where he begins a day by preaching in the synagogue to a whole bunch of other people when he does people are like dang this guy can preach and then someone comes in with a demon and he casts out the demon and people are like dang this guy can preach and cast out demons and he leaves from that place all within the same day and he goes into peter's mother-in-law's house and he he uh he raises her up she's sick and so he heals her and all these other people start falling i mean word gets out he goes viral people start coming from all over to come see this guy jesus and this is what we read happens in verse 32 of mark 1. it says that evening so all within the same day that evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick and oppressed by demons and the whole city was gathered together at the door and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons oh that's it i was thinking there was more than that that's it so listen this is what you call a really good roll out of a ministry like if you want to launch a new ministry like you have to come up with some hype i mean like heal some people cast out some demons and people are eating this up i mean they're coming from all over and they're knocking on the door all night long just to get access to jesus and so in an instant he is a he's an influencer overnight right he's got people tweeting and retweeting and following and re-following and whatever all the people are doing right jesus is like super popular and he's up late with all these people and now all he has to do the next day is just to keep it going right keep that momentum going and soon he's going to be all over the place but this is what we read in verse 35. it goes on it says in rising very early in the morning while it was still dark he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed and simon and those who were with him searched for him and they found him and said to him everyone is looking for you and he said to them let us go on to the next towns that i may preach there also for that is why i came out so jesus spends the whole day even on into the night he's ministering to people he's around a whole lot of people it's loud there's a lot of these crowds people are hyped up and what does he do the next day he gets up early while it's still dark and he goes off by himself to pray he retreats from all the noise and all the crowds and there's a lesson in that for us that as busy as jesus was as much ministry work that he had to do as much as he was around a whole bunch of people whether it was his disciples or these crowds who were all coming jesus set aside time to be alone with god the father he models for us what it looks like to be a part of a community walking with god together and also having a personal relationship with god marked by intentional time of solitude with him is that what your relationship with god looks like solitude and community i mean many people struggle with this maybe you've been coming to church for a little while maybe it's been a month maybe it's been years and you're thinking you know i like this church thing right like it's good it's encouraging the music is good i've gotten to know some other people around or you know in the preaching it helps me to to want to read my bible more it helps me want to know god more maybe even trying to come to church a little bit more regularly maybe you come as often as you can because it gives you this encouraging spiritual boost for the week now what if i were to tell you that if your relationship with god only consists of a weekly one-hour spiritual boost if you only open your bible if you only pray if you only feel close to god when you're in a worship service with other people and what if i were to tell you that you're missing out on a life-giving vibrant relationship with god like if you would say that you have a relationship with god but it only consists of a one hour time with him and doesn't impact the other 167 hours of your week how would you describe your relationship with god like i'm not trying to beat up on you on that because i think that's a common struggle like i think it's a common struggle within the church world that there's many people who have a vicarious spirituality that they feel close to god only when they are in a worship service and there's a worship leader or a pastor or a crowd of people that they can key off of but they're lost if it's just them and so we have to develop the personal side to having a relationship with god like jesus we have to have rhythms of being in crowds and being alone public and personal community and solitude that's how relationships work and we know that like it's not just a thing with our relationship with god but it's with anyone i mean this is how we grow in any relationship if it's whether it's a your spouse or your kids or a friend or a co-worker that if you want to really know someone where they know you and you know them you have to spend time with them time when you're around other people just doing normal life but also time when it's just the two of you like if you're married you can probably attest to those those moments where you feel the closest to your spouse when you're not just doing life and shuttling kids around and going to and from work right all those things the public part of it but it's also just the two of you where you can turn and look each other in the eye and all the distractions of life are finally asleep right if you want to have a vibrant life-giving relationship with god when that consists of an enter an intentional rhythm of both solitude and community you have to be intentional about that and so i want to give you four reasons why you need solitude with god in your life in addition to community why church is really great but by itself it's it's not enough so the first reason is this is that solitude provides rest for your soul solitude provides rest for your soul so we live in a busy overstimulated like hyper connected world we're always on the go there's not much downtime at all right our worlds were are filled with so much noise and so we very rarely just quiet our souls we rarely remove distractions from us and focus our attention on something that is worthy of our attention instead as soon as we have a quiet moment we we pull out our phone and we fill that quiet moment with more noise more is that noise that fills our heads and our hearts and right now we live in this cultural moment where there is a huge amount of noise all around us like we're still dealing with coven 19. we're still talking about masks and we're still talking about vaccines we're still getting in political arguments there's still uncertainty about jobs and the economy we're still worried about our kids there's still talk about a chicken shortage who's eating all this chicken right there's so much noise going around us and people are stressed they're tired they're frustrated and they're angry and it all comes out in these over-the-top reactions we have people yelling at school board meetings and people getting thrown off of flights and you know road rage all these things that are going on like we're not dealing with this well as a society we're experiencing signs of of cultural burnout we need rest god says we need rest that's how he designed our our minds and our bodies and our souls we might think that we can just power through that we don't really need a whole lot of rest but burnout is a real thing and many of us maybe you're feeling the signs of burnout but that's why jesus offers this invitation to all who would come this is what he says in matthew 11 28 and 29 come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls you need solitude you might think you have these moments of solitude maybe at the end of the night you sit on the couch and you turn on netflix and you watch a movie or a show or a whole season and one night but solitude is not escaping right like that's not what solitude is it's not just mentally checking out and it's also not isolation like when you experience solitude the way that that jesus experienced solitude you're not alone you're with god and when you intentionally set aside time to quiet your mind to remove distractions and spend time with your creator then you will experience true rest for your soul that's what god wants for you and that's what solitude provides the second thing that solitude does for us is that solitude reminds you who you are see when it's just you and god you don't have to manage your image you don't have to worry about what other people think about you god knows everything about you he knows your worries your fears your insecurities all the facades and walls that we put up to try to mask who we really are to protect ourselves from what other people how they might perceive us all that just gets stripped away that doesn't work with god because he knows your past he knows your sin and your brokenness he knows the worries that are going on inside of you the things that are weighing on your soul and so in those moments of solitude you can be yourself in fact that might be the only place where you feel like you can be yourself as when it's you and god when you spend time with god you are reminded who you are and who are you do you know the answer to that maybe you need reminding if you're a follower of jesus this is what god says about you this is who he says you are this is second corinthians 5 17 therefore if anyone is in christ he is a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come this is who god says you are that if you're in christ meaning if you are a follower of jesus who recognizes your sin and your brokenness and you trust in the person and the work of jesus on the cross now you are a new creation that your old life your old life of sin died with him on the cross and now you are resurrected that you are washed clean from your sin and all of your past and now you are a new creation you have a new identity the oldest passed away behold the new has come that's what it means to be a follower of jesus and that's who god says you are if you have placed your faith in him and it's in those times of solitude with god that he reminds you of that on an ongoing basis that in the midst of a world that tells you you have to look a certain way or act a certain way to to be accepted or to be loved god says this is who you are and i love you that i sent jesus for on the cross for you fully loved fully accepted and so your past doesn't hold you down your past doesn't define you the world doesn't define you you don't even define you god gets to define you he says who you are that you are his child and you are loved and don't you need a constant reminder of that don't you need to be reminded who you are solitude does that salty reminds you who you are but also solitude tests your faith in god we often like to think of ourselves as self-sufficient hard-working people right but if have you ever been in those times of your life where it feels like something needs to happen and you are powerless to make it happen like you really need something to come through and you just can't do it have you ever been there you probably have you've probably had those moments where things are starting to fall apart maybe it's with your marriage or with your kids or your health or the health of someone you love or it's maybe something with your job that things are starting to unravel and fall apart and you don't know what to do about it and it's in those moments that you realize your your limitation your weakness that you can't work your way out of a situation and you need god and only god to do something you see when you when you set aside time to stop your working to stop trying to just fix things and just to sit before god it tests your faith do you really believe god is who he says he is do you really believe that god is powerful that he's good that he's loving do you really believe that god can come through for you see when you take those times to stop working what you're doing is you're trusting god that he never stops that he's always working have you ever noticed that jesus never seemed to be in a hurry like if you read some of these gospel accounts he's often moving pretty slowly really especially if you think about like our fast-paced world i mean we even saw this in this mark chapter 1 passage that we read earlier that when when jesus sneaks away to spend time alone with god praying they're searching all over for him trying to find him and when they do they say you know where have you been like we've been looking for you the hype is gone i mean people are coming around we got to get going we got to maybe make a system here to handle all these people who are coming through here like we got to get going and jesus his response he calmly just says hey let's just go to the next town it's like what like you had the momentum you had the hype like all the people are following you like crazy and he's just unfazed by it not because he doesn't care but because he trusts in the purpose of god that god is going to to use him for his purposes in the world that god is in control of this and he doesn't have to run around frantic trying to to seize this moment but he knows that god is powerful and that he is good and that he is loving so you might often feel like you have to fix everything that everything is is up to you to get yourself out of whatever situation you find yourself in but in those moments above all god wants you to to rest in his power and goodness and even if it involves action on your part what he really desires is that your action is is a demonstration of your faith in him that you know that he is working even when you are not able to and when you have this regular and intentional time of solitude with him it tests your faith in god that he is working on your behalf the fourth thing that solitude does for us is that solitude strengthens the community ever thought about that that your time alone that your personal relationship with god affects the communal relationship with god in first corinthians chapter 12 the apostle paul he describes the church like a body like if you ever thought of your body you have all these different body parts and they all look different and they all do different things but they all work together to to make your body work and so paul says the church is is a lot like that like people have different gifts and different functions but they all work for the building up and the encouragement of the body but then he takes this parallel between the church and a body one step further in verse 16 of first corinthians 12 he says this if one member suffers all suffer together if one member is honored all rejoice together now you are the body of christ and individually members of it so what he says is not only is each member of this body responsible for serving and and contributing to the overall function and health of the body what he says is that the the life of each individual member affects it has an impact on the overall life of the body everyone else that there's a connection between those who are suffering and honor and being honored and the the rest of the community and how they are impacted by that if one person is hurting or grieving or suffering the whole community feels that right just like if you stub your toe like your whole body reacts to that pain like it's terrible and likewise when one person is honored and they're celebrating and they're rejoicing the whole community feels that that we identify with them we celebrate and rejoice with them so what's going on in the life of each individual member affects the whole faith community and so it's not hard to to make the jump that the the spiritual health of the individual members of the church community affects the overall health of the church community like if you're struggling in your faith like we're we're all struggling with you rather if you are encouraged and you're growing and you're learning we're all growing with you i'm always fascinated by the musical talent of our volunteer and our staff musicians because when they play they make it look so effortless right and they lead us so well and they sing and they play in such a way that makes me feel like i'm actually good at singing like i sort of like i think i'm i think i'm hitting these notes and i'm not i don't think i am but they make me feel like i am right and i know that as good as they sound and as effortless that they make it look that they put a lot of work in to be this good to get that way that they rehearse and they practice together because it takes a lot of coordination and skill to be able to play together but long before they show up and they play together they put a lot of work in at home like on their own and they know that if they've showed up and they haven't put in all their own practice if they don't know all the chords and how they're going to do all this then the whole band is going to feel that everyone is impacted by it and so they make sure they set aside time to to know their music and it's the same way with our personal relationship with god of how we walk with god individually affects the community and not in a way that's like you have to feel guilty like oh you're letting us all down if you didn't read the bible this week right but we walk with god in community and in solitude and so we want to encourage and challenge each other to to walk both together and alone so what does this look like how do we practice how do we have times of solitude in a busy and a noisy world well we often live our lives with certain rhythms and routines and if we want to make sort of changes or grow in certain areas of our life a lot of times we try to change those rhythms and routines and so this might just be one of those things so i want to give you some practical tips to have regular intentional time alone with god whether you call it a quiet time or a solitude or a time with god or a qt with jc whatever you want to call it i don't really care but it's intentional time with god so the first thing you can do is this set aside a time in space choose a time of the day or a time of the week in a place that you can maintain maybe you're a morning person i know i'm a morning person there's not a lot of morning people around some people are just nighttime people so you can do it at night right and if you are a nighttime person don't feel like oh i got to be like jesus and wake up at 4am like you're not going to make it through the first day so do something that you can maintain maybe it's you have a extended lunch break sometime you can sit by yourself and do this over a lunch break whatever you do choose a time set a time that you can be consistent with and it may not be daily at first and that's okay but find a rhythm that you can maintain and then and then fight for that like prioritize that like if you live with other people who are distracting ask them to to leave you alone during that time that's okay right if you have a spouse ask them to help you keep that time and that space a priority that's one way that you can encourage each other as you grow spiritually so set a time and a space to do this and once you do that what does it look like it doesn't have to be done in any certain order but these are things i feel like are helpful to incorporate in this time with god the first one just includes silencing distractions right silence distractions so we we live on our phones we constantly just have it out you're having a meal with someone it's just sitting there on the table right whenever you're spending time with god just silent your phone put it away turn it off right being being quiet silencing your heart the things that are going on in your mind are important to beginning this time with god you might even confess to god all the different things that you have going on in your mind and just ask them to to take those things from you and don't be discouraged if this is difficult like we've we've conditioned our brains to to be uh on the go all the time like we can't pay attention for more than 10 seconds right so your mind is going to drift you should expect that and that's okay right you're going to think about your to-do list and you're going to think about that conversation yesterday and what you should have said right but you got to notice when that's happening stop refocus and continue on and when you silence your thoughts and you've readied your heart to hear from god then you can meditate on scripture meditate on scripture now that might sound a little bit weird to you right i mean like do christians meditate isn't that like some new age hippie thing but you see throughout the bible you see that god's people have always meditated but it looks a whole lot different than how other people might use the word meditation today you're not you're not emptying your mind but you're actually filling your mind in a secular meditation you're listening for for nothing but in christian meditation you are listening for god's voice through scripture and so you might find a passage any passage in the bible psalms are a good place to start where you can read slowly maybe line by line and just think about what god is saying what does it mean ask god to show you what he's saying to you how is it convicting you and challenging you let it be like a conversation with god where he is speaking to you you're hearing from him by reading his word and then you're talking back to him in prayer which is the final thing to include is to pray pray about what what comes to mind as you meditate on scripture how is god challenging or convicting you how is he encouraging you or strengthening your faith respond to that by praying to him pray prayers of worship of thanksgiving you might even find it helpful to to write down prayers in a journal take time to to pray for others as well we serve one another when we pray for them our faith is encouraged when we see god respond to our prayers when we see him working around us in those moments where we are praying just us and him and we see him at work in the world around us it strengthens our faith that's the reason why we've been talking about the prayer grid this week is because prayer is a powerful thing it's a powerful thing that we see god working in powerful ways and so if you haven't yet signed up for the prayer grid i encourage you to do so go to clearcreek.org prayer and it's a whole system that's set up to help remind you of different times that you want to set aside and pray and really you can do all of these things whenever you sign up for that prayer grade it'll help you set aside a time with god there's seven days of the week there's three different times of the day where you can be alone you can silence those distractions you can meditate on scripture and you can pray so listen the way of jesus of walking with god happens together and happens alone we need community and we need solitude our faith must be a public faith that's lived out with others but also a a personal faith that's worked out with with god alone different sides to the same coin and both sides serve the other and so i want to include conclude this message and really this whole series with one final quote from dietrich bonhoeffer he says this only in fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to live rightly in the fellowship it's two sides to the same coin and so may we be people who experience a vibrant life-giving relationship with god where we wholeheartedly press into both solitude and community would you bow with me our father we are grateful for what jesus has done for us on the cross that you have called us your sons and your daughters by faith in him that's not by our works and so i just pray for for those here who desire to have a relationship with you and they've they've never crossed that line of faith yet they've never come to the point where they realize that they can't do life that they have sinned that cannot be cleansed from them and so god would you move in their heart even right now to call them to respond to you in faith to cry out and say i need jesus to cover my sin to wash me clean of my past of my present struggles and even the things that i might even do in the future that the cross of jesus is enough and so god would you call them to yourself when you call them to be a part of a community a group of people who are walking together to refine each other and challenge each other to encourage each other to feel those moments of suffering and also rejoicing together to go through life together we're grateful god that you are a god of community and you are a god of solitude and so would you call us to be people who can balance both of those things and to grow deeper in each one transform us from the inside out for the building of your church in the glory of your name we pray this in christ's name amen again thanks for engaging with us online today you know as a church we exist to lead unchurched people to become fully devoted followers of jesus christ so wherever you are we want to encourage you to continue to take those next steps in your faith journey if you were encouraged today or challenged in some way would you share this link with a friend or someone that you think might need it and then we look forward to worshiping with you in person at one of our five campuses soon clear creek we love you god bless [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Clear Creek Resources

Views: 929

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: The Way, Solitude, community, Solitude and community, Clear Creek Community Church, Clear Creek Resources, Clear Creek, CCCC, Online Worship Experience, Church online, Jesus

Id: ahBlmazyZAU

Length: 40min 20sec (2420 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021