Solitude & Community "Spiritual Symmetry" [1 of 3] Tim Mackie (The Bible Project) 7/20/2014

cheers hey guys how are you today good welcome to the door of hopes good to have you guys here um we're in week two we were in that series on uh the identity of god for so long like like four almost five months it's sort of like we've always been in this series and we will always be in this series but no we made it we made it through and uh we began a new series last week this week two and we're actually gonna do it for the rest of the summer through the rest of this month and then through august called spiritual symmetry and it's actually really intentional that we are doing it this summer and after the last series the last series was fairly dense in terms of theology and biblical theology about the identity of god and the trinity father-son spirit and we had a kind of sensed a need or a desire to match it with something that's very very practical very down to earth and that you know it's one of these it's one of these things where as as christians especially in the west it's very easy for us to think oh if i'm learning about christianity or i'm learning about the bible or theology oh then that means i'm growing as a christian and actually like becoming more mature and that's that is one part but that's a very dangerous assumption to make just because your thinking is developing doesn't at all mean that you're actually developing as a whole human being right in all of your character and relationships and so on and so what uh we are going towards this in this series called spiritual symmetry is about the practice of the the biblical and historic habits and practices that have marked the lives of of god's people in a journey of growth and transformation and and maturity and so you may be familiar with with this tradition you know they're called spiritual disciplines or spiritual practices or habits but that's uh that's what this series is all about and it has a very uh a couple sources of of inspiration one of them josh mentioned last week and it's a passage i'll put up here on the screen here a passage from paul's first letter to timothy and the way it talks about being a follower of jesus is language that many of us wouldn't often use he writes this to timothy he says have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales train yourself in godliness for while physical training is of some value godliness is valuable in every way because it holds promise for both the present life and the life to come this saying is sure it's worthy of full acceptance this is why we labor and strive because we have set our hope on the living god who's the savior of all people especially those who believe there's a whole bunch of things unpack here i just want to put on the table again what josh put on the table last week in other words what paul's writing to timothy is that growing and transforming as a christian isn't just going to happen to you it won't just happen you actually have to put some thought and intention and actual effort he uses the word exercise you know like of what people do in gyms to train their bodies and he talks about that it's actually not going to be simple it's going to require a serious sense of commitment it's like labor and it's striving and so one of the practical real practical reasons of doing a series like this in is generated from a question that you would ask you know that you would ask from this it's a question like why is it that in any period of church history and even at the present why is it a door of hope that there are many people who say they're christians but if you actually look at how they live you look at the choices that they make and the way they treat people in their relationships and their work ethic and their daily habits and so on you actually look at that and you're like oh like that really doesn't reflect jesus very much at all and it doesn't seem like this person is changing yet they are very insistent that they're a christian like what's going on why does that happen and that happens for a lot of different reasons one of them is that apparently becoming a christian is a lot more involved than just a mental activity like i look to jesus and i get to get out of jail free card and then it's like over or whatever and then it's just kind of like grin and bear it for the rest of your life or something like that there's something a whole lot more involved and the reason why many people who say they're christians don't end up growing or changing is because apparently they just simply don't intend to there was actually never a plan or an intention to follow jesus in the first place and or maybe there was an intention but it got lost pretty quickly and you see there's no intention to follow jesus over over the long haul and notice and notice the the motivation and josh talked about this last week too what's the whole purpose why would we even seek to train and to labor and to strive and look at the last sentence right there it's because we've set our hope on the living god who is the savior it's precisely a response to this great salvation offered to me in jesus that i look towards jesus i give my faith towards him and then i get to work i get to work not to make the baby jesus smile upon me but precisely because the baby jesus has smiled upon me and a whole lot more right he hasn't just smiled at me he's actually he's actually gone to to die my death on my on my behalf and to be raised on my behalf too and so this is very practical reason many of us don't grow because we actually if we think about it we don't intend to we don't have an intention of overhauling our lives over the next few decades so that i actually begin to experience the empowerment and presence and life of jesus more in my day-to-day life and another another inspiration this is one another inspiration is as a book on what this whole series is about i think that josh read it a number of years ago and that i read in preparation to kind of get my mind going it's by a guy named dallas willard if you guys heard of dallas willard before he was uh he was actually a professor of philosophy at uni university of southern california and like in his late 70s and 80s he just started writing about his reflections on on the practice of following jesus in day to day life and he was one of these great figures where you know no one knew about him through like his most productive years of his life and it's precisely in his retirement years right the latter end of his life that he ended up having a huge impact on the church and in the kingdom and he has written what i think is one of the most accessible compelling thoughtful uh books on this whole area of spiritual practices and spiritual disciplines and so of course shameless plug we're selling them at the book cart and i i can't recommend it more highly because i've been so personally challenged actually when josh first pitched the idea of the series to me i was really nervous about it because so here i'll be relentlessly honest yet again for another week so you know teaching a series like this like josh and i are going to do on the classic spiritual practices because we're teaching them it might create the illusion that we actually like have arrived right in these areas of our lives and so like let's just dispel that notion really quick like i need to grow in many of these things that we're going to explore over the next month and a half as well and i'm just speaking personally this book has been a huge kick in the seat of my pants to really not get me to just think but to actually begin a plan for how i'm how i'm going to attack this and so um willard gives a great illustration right the very beginning about this whole thing of how many people like say they're christians but they don't actually intend to follow jesus and he uses this example of looking at someone who's an expert or has become like a star performer in their field so just think with me you know an example like say you're going some of you it's sunday night in portland there's always a good show or two going on uh on sunday nights in portland there's some concert some of you are going to a concert tonight and you're going because you know about this person's music or you know there's going to be someone there that you want to be around that's a whole other topic of conversation right so but there's a show or there's a concert and and you're going there there's a musician there's a group or there's one you know this guitar player and and he or she this virtuoso and like you love their music and you've been listening to it and you're going to watch them in person and it's this inspiring some of you been to shows like this it's just mesmerizing and they're they're full of intrigue and they're incredible and they have all the skill and you are so moved by the experience that you walk away going i i have to start playing the guitar like how can i not start playing the guitar at least like i need to attempt and try and so tomorrow one of you might like go to the guitar store or whatever and you like it you're kind of like training wheels guitar and this is what i'm gonna use and the next two weeks you're like all into your chord charts or whatever and you learn you know sweet child of mind riff and this kind of thing or whatever so you do that whole thing and then you're so inspired you're like you know i have i'm gonna you know i'm gonna maybe you have a rental house or you have a little courtyard in your apartment i'm going to do a house show to like share with my friends all the stuff that i'm learning and so two weeks from now you hold a house show and how is this going to go for you right this is what this willard's example i'm i'm fudging it a bit but so how's this how show going to go for you it's going to be a total flop it's going to be a complete flop if you have kind friends they're going to humor you and be like oh you know that's good try you know there's noble we're glad you're finally doing something with your time or something like that but but you know so it might be noble or whatever but it but it's a flop and willard says what's going on there it's a simple kind of thing it seems silly but he he thinks that that's no different than how many of us think about what it means to be a christian we're inspired by jesus we're moved by him we think that there's something compelling that he has to offer that he's a model or an example and so then we look to what we call his moral teachings or his ethical teachings and we think yes that's what it means to follow jesus i'm gonna like i've got the supervisor at work who barks at me all the time and i'm gonna start forgiving them and like praying for them and instead of like barking back at them i'm gonna like be really nice to them or something like that and you know whatever be generous to them and so and so willard's whole point is like yeah good good luck with that right good luck with that you you might be moved and inspired to do that like for a week or two but what we're talking about is an issue of your deep character like you you you didn't come to be someone who like snaps back at mean people quickly overnight you all are we're decades in the making the current state of our character and our values and our commitments and how we think about relationships that's decades in the making and the moment or the season or process through which i give my allegiance and and place my faith in jesus as as the one who saves me and who's making me new that is that's a that can happen in short or over you know a condensed period of time but there is some season where there's a a transition of change but don't think that the reshaping of your character is going to happen overnight you it wasn't made overnight and what you're committing yourself to is this long-haul process and so what what willard equates these moments of of loving those who hate you were being crazy generous or forgiving people when there's no rational reason for doing so he he likens these two moments on the stage these are these are moments that are relatively few in our day-to-day life and there are moments where there's the crucial decision and what matters is what has gone into the making of your character over the hours and the days and the years that lead you up into these moments it's what you should have been doing and why you should have put off the house show for two years okay because what you needed to do was train your your muscle memory and to develop new muscles in your fingers and forearms to be able to do that on the guitar you need to learn your chord charts or whatever you need to develop calluses and you need to have a plan for doing so you don't just become a guitar virtual so because somebody bonked you on the head or something or because you had very noble intentions and were inspired at a concert it happens because you're inspired and then you actually set in motion a plan and it seems to me like that's exactly what paul is talking about here you don't just happen to train yourself you train yourself because you have a vision and a goal and then a source of power to to actually like do a plan and what is that plan what is it loving your enemy is not a plan loving your enemy is something that will happen naturally as a result of your life going into a whole new set of training and habits different from the training it had before you were a christian that's that's the whole point here that seems to be paul's point uh that's dallas willard's point and that's what we're exploring in this series so what we're going to do is is explore half a dozen six practices or habits that are pervasive throughout the scriptures through the lives of jesus and historically throughout the history of the church and the sixth we'll just kind of throw them up today we'll the rest of today we're going to be talking about solitude and community serving and being served fasting and feasting resting and working praying and acting giving and receiving and we've called the the series spiritual symmetry because these are all practices but you notice some of them are inten in tension with each other so like am i supposed to have like celebratory feasts and have food with my friends or am i supposed to not eat any food at all well it depends on the season of life that you're in it takes wisdom to know whether to fast or to feast and the fact is that hardly any of us fast anyway and so what's going on with why don't why don't we do that and it's all it's both about balance and recognizing we need to train ourselves into new ways of living learning is one way of growing as a follower of jesus but it is not the only way we're mind and body it's all entwined and we need to grow as holistic human beings so that josh gave you know a whole message sales pitch that's my like 10 minute sales pitch at the beginning of the series here how you guys doing so uh solitude and community is what we're gonna explore at the rest of our time and just to put it out there as as i kind of thought and talked with people about it i'm exploring more the theme the practice of solitude today because i'm pretty sure that's the one that more of us are are lacking in our lives won't you grab a bible and uh turn with me to the gospel of luke the third book in the new testament the gospel of luke chapter four and we're going to look at uh all of the gospels are telling the story of uh the the life and specifically the last few years of the life of jesus his entry onto the public stage his ministry and mission is his death and his resurrection and each of the four gospels highlights different themes about the life and the story of jesus and and a really interesting one specific to the gospel of luke is a constant highlighting of jesus's practice of solitude of solitude and it begins right here in in chapter four chapter four is uh comes right after a story that we looked at a few times in the previous series of jesus baptism which is kind of his entrance on to the public scene and it's the whole thing with the voice of the father from heaven and the holy spirit as the dove and he's declared to be the son of god for everyone around and so what's what's the first thing that jesus does as he's kind of moves into this new season of his life there's this very public moment and he's about to go into this mission of announcing and bringing the kingdom of god into being what's the first thing he does chapter four jesus full of the holy spirit he left the jordan and he was led by the spirit into where into the wilderness which you know you might think desert and sand dunes or whatever the wilderness in the bible is primarily defined by the fact that nobody lives there it's the place where nobody lives or can sustain normal life so he goes into utter isolation in the wilderness and for 40 days he was tempted or tested some of your translations have by the devil he ate nothing during those days and at the end of them he was hungry yes right like of course of course he is that's the long time of not of not eating now there's a number of things going on here we're going to explore fasting in uh in a couple weeks together but let's just pay attention to this the first thing jesus does he doesn't like go out to jerusalem and announce his you know his vocation and who he is instead he withdraws from everybody and he goes to be by himself for what seemed like a really long time like this is really intense we would think if your friend did this you would be really concerned about them you know they could be like it was weird and you would call their family and maybe some professionals and so if they went off to the desert for 40 days this is really intense and it's what jesus does he cuts himself off from from everybody and in this place of isolation and solitude he has this very intense confrontation with the personal presence of evil and and what what the personal presence of evil as the devil comes to him is it gets him to begin to doubt and plants these questions that doubt his vocation and identity and who he is and what he what he came to do but the whole purpose the whole point is that he enters into this intentionally led led by the holy spirit turn the page to chapter five he comes back from the desert and he begins announcing the kingdom he's he's bringing the gods healing into the lives of people he's beginning to teach and in this case in chapter five he heals a man whose skin is riddled with disease and because of it the news spreads look down at verse 15 of chapter five it says the news about him spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and they came to be healed all this momentum people are traveling from long distances and what is jesus's response he often withdrew to lonely places and he prayed now again this is another practice we're going to explore in a few weeks too the practice of prayer but notice how all of these are combined here solitude fasting and prayer they're kind of this matrix that's connected with each other so but just again the same pattern here we have a very public moment in jesus life and his response is to get out of there is to withdraw now we know it's not just because he doesn't like people we know he really loves people and somehow these times of solitude we're talk how often do you go into solitary places a silly question it says often so often often this was this was a regular practice that's what luke's telling us here this was something that marked jesus and that people noticed about him he's out there he's doing all these incredible things but then like just when you would think the momentum is going and there's all these people he like pulls out and he just disappears for a while and then he come back he comes back and when jesus comes back and as you read through the gospel of luke whenever he comes back something momentous and significant always happens right afterwards in this case it's forgiving another man in a really big controversy he has with the religious leaders flip uh the page again in chapter six chapter six uh chapter six begins with jesus in another controversy with the religious leaders and the pharisees and they are so ticked at him they begin to realize they need to like put together a plan to do away with this guy look at verse 11 of chapter 6. the pharisees and teachers of the law they were furious the fears with jesus and they began to discuss with one another what they might do to jesus so he is now realizing he's there's the target on his head or on his back so what do you do when you receive your first death threat right in the mail you know what's your response and jesus response is on one of those days after that controversy he went out to a mountainside to pray he spent the whole night praying to god and then what's the next thing that he does what he does is he comes back from that apparently with some kind of discernment about the next thing that he should do and what he does is he appoints the 12 disciples and they become this extension of his ministry out into israel so jesus he withdrew regularly and we see that these are key places where there's something really important happening here for jesus in these moments they seem to sustain him and empower him and here this is a time where jesus he's even processing through what to do in light of these circumstances and it he leads him to make this new decision of appointing the 12. turn forward again a few pages to chapter 9 with me chapter nine uh has the the well-known story of jesus feeding a whole crowd a few thousand people from a really small amount of food and verse 18 what does jesus do after this huge public event everybody's like holy cow jesus this guy is incredible and verse 18 right after that we're told once when jesus was praying in private again he's in private after these public moments but his disciples are with him and so he asked them a question but even just think about that so he has this regular practice of just being totally by himself but apparently he's also developed this this practice of being by himself with other people of being alone together so whether they're going as a group to an isolated place and then they're praying like separate from each other or maybe together probably both are happening and then what happens he asked them who do the crowds say that i am and this this moment in the story is one of these key moments where peter begins to really say out loud what everybody's thinking namely the holy cow like you're the messiah you're the son of god it's this really important conversation that happens right after another night another night in prayer no that how you guys doing do you see the point right to see the pattern here luke is trying to tell us that this is a crucially important part of jesus's own practice now you might be thinking well yeah well he's jesus so he does stuff like that you know jesus prays a lot i'm not learning anything right now you know so and of course like what does that tell me about me that whatever i'm lame because i don't pray a lot but i'm not jesus and so but not so stop it stop it so once again because what you're doing is you're equating oh what it means to follow jesus is to follow his ethical teachings but jesus envisioned that people could become the kind of people who could emulate the new humanity that he made possible but not just by following those but by actually following the pattern of his whole way of life that's why he's inviting his disciples to come do this with him and he actually he actually said as much he actually expected and taught that his disciples or people who say that they're christians would actually adopt this practice themselves look at matthew chapter six and he just says it straight up to his disciples he says when you all pray don't be like the hypocrites they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others truly i tell you they have received their reward in full but when you pray go into your room close the door and pray to your father who is unseen so jesus has in mind that his his followers are also adopting i mean there's you could put it in different ways but they're adopting his his spiritual practices the kinds of habits that he engaged in that empowered and sustained the kind of spirit empowered life that he that he was living now he was doing it on our behalf yes in a way that you and i uh will always be a flawed and kind of failed imitation of but that doesn't mean we're not supposed to train ourselves to actually begin to do it somehow i get we have it in our minds that like oh jesus is incredible he did what i could never do for myself therefore i'm never even going to try and that's just completely wrongheaded because paul says train yourself into this new way of life because of the hope that you have set on the living god who is your savior he saved you into this whole new way of living that's how that's how jesus seems to envision things and so jesus totally expects that his followers are going to engage in this kind of regular practice of solitude now what what is jesus doing when he's by himself and what is it that his followers like pray so you go and close your eyes and you just talk all night long in your head out loud like how is that supposed to work so we'll talk about that in a few minutes but but the the point is there are you guys with me here he goes with me so for one reason or another um if so if if i if i don't sense the presence of jesus in my life if i don't have a sense of any kind of vital connection to him and that's informing how i make my day-to-day choices and how i treat people and what's wrong like what's what's going on here i have conversations like this with lots of you and i've had seasons like that and myself and about the first question let's just save an initial cup of coffee one of the first questions that i'm going to ask you is like oh have you like where are you at in this practice of intentionally withdrawing from other people to to sit how and do something that cultivates a relational connection with you in jesus and if your answer that is oh like i've never done anything like that or i don't do anything like that then you know i'll at least just say okay well try i mean try jesus apparently thought this was so central i mean luke just tells us over and over and over again and he said it was so central that he actually like told us that this is a crucially important part of the shaping of our character you will actually find it nearly impossible to follow jesus apparently jesus thinks if you don't have some practice of getting getting by yourself and having the only input and focus of that moment be something to do with with jesus we'll talk about what that something is but you guys with me here i'm just trying to make it as clear as possible and so again some of us think well why should it have to be about a ritual or a practice isn't christianity about the erasing of rituals and so on apparently not i mean just apparently not so if by ritual you mean some kind of like lifeless practice that you do that ceases to have any meaning for you whatsoever then then abs that's clearly not what's going on here but the whole point is humans we're we're habitual creatures we are shaped by our habits you have a whole bunch of habits and you just don't know it because they're just normal to you and and if following jesus is going to become second nature a new nature it's also going to be by the adoption of new habits new habits in our lives so let me i for some of us i know this is a hard sell you know or it's like you will agree with me mentally just like i have agreed with this practice many times but you don't actually do it because sleep is just too precious to you you know or whatever so like what what's the value of this if you read the story of jesus what does it seem like happening in jesus if you read the book of acts and paul's letters paul talks about this practice in his life if you read the stories of these people like what is it that they seem to have found by this practice and there's two there's two things at least that i can discern uh in in the gospels and in paul's letters that i'll just kind of riff on for a minute and i will say as i mentioned earlier like don't just because i'm teaching on this don't assume that i've arrived i i will say probably in the last five years of my life i've had the probably one of the biggest personal transformations in my own journey of following jesus in precisely this this area it's been it's been a game changer in my own life which is why i was excited to talk about it so so there's there's something about getting by yourself that's about focus and this is very intuitive like this won't be i don't think very difficult for us to understand so think of a situation that you've been in before probably um let's say you're driving how many of you have been driving before and you are maybe you're going somewhere you haven't been before you're you're going you're somewhere like you're kind of not really familiar and you're listening to music maybe you're listening to music loud i like to listen to my music very loud when i'm alone in the car and some of you like that too so and you do that and then all of a sudden when like the key intersection comes up or like the turn and like do am i supposed to am i supposed to go right hard right or think of like 20th in division the five corners the five intersections what a ridicul who planned that you know it's a ridiculous intersection which riot am i taking there's three to take so so whatever and naturally instinctively what do you have to do to your music when you come up to that key turn what do you do you lean forward how many of you have done this before two of you apparently okay well i thought that would have a lot more traction so i have a second one just in case so let's say uh you're really in an engaged conversation this is truly more of us you're in a super engaged conversation while you're driving and you miss your key turn anybody right you've done this before and so what's hap what's happening right there and this is very simple but it's it's really important to pause and and reflect on what it means to be a human being right so what's happening is you you have this acoustic stimulation right you have this conversation and your brain is interpreting literally your brain is interpreting this energy coming in through the vibrations on your eardrum and that's how remember that's how sound works and so on and so your brain's active and it's giving resources to interpreting that but then all of a sudden you need to focus on this visual stimulation and interpreting the five corners at 20th and division and which one am i supposed to take and so on and and how is it so you have this new visual information and stimulation and then you have acoustic stimulation your eyes and your ears now how are they connected to each other we're not learning anything right now but just remember like they're connected to each other through your brain and this i was reminded of uh recently there's something funky that what on with my neck and i learned a whole bunch about the nervous system so you we have these you know these five senses you know slight touch taste smell and hearing and so on and they're all flowing into giving information to our brain through this thing we call the nervous system and the nervous system is a limited capacity highway did you know this it's an information highway and it's it's like where i-5 meets i-84 down here right given the population of the city it's a ridiculously constricted and limited sized road and that's what our nervous system is we have a finite number of resources that we that our brain can give to paying attention to anything at any any given moment this is why i'm just full of them today this is why if you go when it's on one of these 80 degree days this week if you go into your freezer and you get ice cube and you go into a quiet room and you just hold the ice cube have you ever held an ice cube in your hand it's terribly painful it's terribly painful right and you just like quiet room and you just stare at the ice cube melting in your hand and it's it's nearly unbearable after about 30 seconds but no joke seriously if you go if you have three friends with you all of you grab an ice cube and then you go out and walk around the block together like talking vigorously it will actually hurt less it will hurt less you won't feel it nearly as much what's going on there the ice cube didn't get warmer didn't get warmer what your the highway is jam-packed right it's like parking lot on your nervous system and so your brain actually can't interpret as much pain as it would as if you were solely focused on the ice cube you guys with me yeah it's a silly illustration well no it's not silly illustration it's reality it here's what it is it's it's accepting the fact that you and i have a limited amount of things that we can focus on in our lives and in any given moment it's just it's just true and some of us live as if that's not true and you're you're frying your personality you're just going to be a burnt out 75 year old by the time you never having focused on anything if you're going to say yes to becoming a guitar virtuoso you end up having to say no to all kinds of different things because you have a plan of how you're going to get there and listen that doesn't include this and this because i need to give my time to this and it's absolutely no different this is this is about creating moments in our lives on a regular basis where you have absolutely no stimulation whatsoever coming your direction so that you can discern the presence and the person and the reality of jesus in your life somehow it's just creating a space of quiet and if apparently if i can't do that it's going to be nearly impossible for me to grow as a follower of jesus according to according to jesus right it's just part of what you do as following him and paradoxically here's the thing is so you're focusing you're saying no to a whole bunch but at the same time this practice of solitude gives an enormous amount of freedom because here's what happens when you're by yourself you're you're just sitting there unadorned you don't have to impress out anybody a huge amount of of what we say or do when we're around other people is that we're saying certain things we're acting a certain way we're dressing a certain way precisely be to manage the perceptions of other people and this is just how we live our days i'm constantly kind of managing what you think about me and i'll say this because they'll think i'm competent and i'll say this because then people think i'm a funny nice person to be around and this is how we act we're constantly under these social pressures to be and do certain things so that people will see and think certain things about us and and solitude frees you from that it's creating a space in your life where you actually don't have to be or do anything you're just with jesus and your your soul goal in that moment is to be freed from the noise of whatever in your life and to to focus to focus on jesus these have been enormously helpful at least for me motivators in understanding what i'm doing and why i'm i'm gonna get less sleep tonight because i'm going to wake up and and do this and paradoxically it's it's a way to become more human is by saying no to any other kind of human interaction at regular intervals of our lives and that might seem weird to you because you're like well i love to be around people well exactly probably exactly why you need to do this right because there's probably a whole bunch of stuff happening inside of you and me because why is it that you feel like you have to be around people all the time is being alone scary for you and what's going on with that and why is it that you feel scared to be alone by your by yourself especially if you believe that you're in the presence of jesus what's going on there's something really significant there if you're scared to be alone with jesus and there might be some of you who are on the opposite end you're kind of introverts and you like to be alone a whole bunch and so this is about being alone but with a whole new and different different kind of purpose so if this is its purpose to free myself from noise and interference and to create a space where i don't have to be anything for anybody i'm just with jesus what am i doing what was jesus doing with this with this time and this is where the gospels just give us tiny little hints one of the hints is that in a number of these prayer moments specifically the the practice of solitude if you read the gospel of matthew you'll notice that in those moments sometimes he'll come out and he'll have a conversation with his disciples and he'll just speak lines from the book of psalms and actually if you just read through any of the gospels you'll notice how much jesus constantly quotes from and has the book of psalms like clearly in the back of his mind clearly he had the whole thing memorized absolutely and this was standard practice in jewish education and so on as to memorize huge amounts of the scriptures but the book of psalms was the prayer book of judaism in jesus day and it actually has been the prayer book of the church historically from jesus for for centuries since it's actually only in in recent centuries that the book of psalms has had a much lower role to play in in christian worship gatherings and so on and so what was jesus doing and i think what jesus was doing was what all jews did when they prayed and it was a form of prayerful meditation on on the scriptures themselves it wasn't reading the bible and it wasn't simply just praying although i think probably at times it involved both but it's a form of scripture inspired prayer how do i know this because the jewish handbook of prayer that we call the book of psalms begins with a user manual the first poem in the book of psalms is a user manual about what to do with the book of psalms and how to use this thing and if you look in the first paragraph this is surely depicts the kind of thing that jesus was doing regularly look at how look at how it begins it says how blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers so we're the first thing we're told is about this person called the blessed person and this person somehow has this resolve and commitment to make really principled difficult moral and ethical decisions here's all of these things i'm not going to do you're like wow that's intense what could sustain that what would drive or motivate that kind of choice and that's exactly what follows here's what they don't do because here's what they are doing whose delight is in the law of the lord referring to the scriptures and who meditates on his law day and night it's this regular patterned practice of doing this whatever that means with the scriptures day and night and what's the result this is really powerful metaphor this person is like a tree planted by streams of water it's like someone who is receiving this source of life from outside themselves and it yields fruit it actually it matures into in you know in the poetry interpret fruit whatever you want these actions these are things that this person is regularly producing in their lives because of this source that they're connected to and whose leaf doesn't wither they're able to withstand really difficult seasons because of this practice now what is this uh meditating there's a meditate all clear it's just very clear what that means in english right meditate that's not a clear word in english at all because it's a word um that has been picked up to describe the kinds of practices or spiritual practices in many different kinds of religious traditions so what does it mean in the biblical tradition in the jewish and christian tradition and of course i have to teach you the hebrew word because that's what i do so this is a really good one it's the word haga now this is is used a handful of times uh in in hebrew in biblical hebrew and actually the majority of times that you learn about you see this word used it's not referring to people it's referring to animals who are doing this so um in isaiah a lion hagaz and it's particularly a lion who has just shredded a lamb to pieces and is is like sitting there over the meat and the fur and stuff and and like beginning to eat it and that lion is is said to be haggating over its prey there's a number actually the most of the passages in the bible that use this word are describing doves and what doves do and what actually what english word would you use to describe the lion doing that over the slaughtered little lambie what's that fear no no what to describe what he's do the lion hagas over its prey what would you say like growl is talking about the sound it's making it it's it's it's moaning growling wrong this kind of thing so what did i'm saying sorry i didn't plan on doing that so um doves what what how would you just what does it mean for a dove to haga what english word do we use to according to prince to cry or to like coup right the moan in other words this is a word that means to mumble or to whisper or to speak silently or softly and so a lion hagaz over little slaughtered lambie doves hagah when they're up on the power lines making noise to themselves and humans hagah humans hagah when they have the scriptures in front of them in these quiet moments that they have patterned to regularly happen throughout the day and night of their lives so what does that mean does this mean just like read the bible read your bible and pray this is something in between reading your bible and then like praying and making your request known to god it's this form of relational interaction with god and the scriptures as the medium the scriptures as i read them aloud to myself slowly carefully prayerfully and they become this way that i have an interaction with with jesus that's what someone is referring to and this is the in a way of engaging the scriptures that's actually mentioned quite a number of times in the in the scriptures in the scriptures themselves and it seems to me this is surely one of the things i think even one of the main things that jesus was doing in these moments we were called to pray and to read the bible and to haga and that this is part of the regular practice so that it's not just like you sit by yourself how many of you have tried to pray and you just get utterly lost in your own thoughts you know and you're just like whoa what just happened to me you know like somehow you know you like this train of association so this to me has been one of the greatest gifts is learning and adopting this practice because you're actually focusing on something that's not your own thoughts you're focusing on the scriptures but you're you're engaging with them not to learn something so that's why the book of psalms uh i think has formed the prayer book for this practice for so many millennia now it's because once you pray through it a number of times it becomes familiar to you and then it becomes the way for you to use these prayers of the book of psalms but to become your own prayers in some way now there's a whole other step of practice here that i don't have time to get into but a resource that i want to put out there for you is you know if you've ever gone to the door of hope website and gone to the sermon page and so on um and you can you know watch it or listen to it or whatever for this week there's going to be up there a little handout it's just a little three-page handout that i've put together about this whole practice and what this would look like and historically uh in historic christianity it this developed into a practice called in latin lectio divina or spiritual reading divine reading of the scriptures and i won't we'll just do the briefest like i'll just tell you about it but then i'll just say go to the website get the handout and just do it and just see what happens to you and there you go i don't know what else to say other than that but this is about this experiential engagement with the scriptures so i would say go to the book of psalms go to a passage that you already are familiar with because the point is not learning the point is to to read this text slowly and aloud to yourself and then to engage in the second step that's called meditation or meditation which is you the point is not to get far the point is to focus in on some key words key uh ideas key themes in this particular passage and then when there's something that strikes you that resonates you this is important to stop the point is not progress and the point is is this is they begin to reflect on this and say what why is this significant right now what does what does this word tell me about jesus's character how does this word illuminate some area in my own life or area in my own flaws or character failures or something like that what what is how what does this word or concept mean for the things that are ahead of me that i know are coming later today what is the significance of this in light of what jesus did for me on the cross i have a whole bunch of questions like that uh on on the handout and then the next step is not to keep on reading your bible it's to stop and actually use the very words from the particular passage and to turn that into a prayer that uses the same words that you just read and reflected on and to turn that into your own prayer to god and then contemplation is basically then go live your life but go live your life shaped by uh the reflections and meditations that you've done from the day and for a while it you know at least for me it took time you know it kind of felt like go through the steps but you know after a while of doing it it just becomes a pretty sometimes even brief but meaningful practice of a daily uh prayerful engagement with with the scriptures and i'm i'm certain that this is exactly the kind of thing that jesus is doing and it's precisely the kind of thing that jesus called his followers to be doing it's this it's meditating it's haggai on on the scriptures not to learn something and not just to tell god what i need but to stop and focus and not feel the need to have to do or say anything but just reflect on the scriptures and how they lead me into this engagement with with the living god who is the savior of all people especially those who believe as paul as paul said now so let me just let me just conclude train yourself strive and labor here we are sunday gathering hurrah we're gonna go do this you know and then like let's have a conversation in a month you know and like you're tired because you like lost some sleep because you woke up earlier or whatever and then you're like is it really worth it and i don't know and then i went to a concert on sunday and it was too early to wake up and then whatever and then a month from now you're just like this never even happened you know what i'm saying and so this is true of no one in the room right all right that's true of all of us so again the question is how do you how do you how do you gain the motivation to see that i need this and it's not just a matter of like feeling guilty or like jesus did it so i need to do it power up it's it's about a change of my desires and affections it's about me coming to actually believe that i i can't live adequately if i don't have this practice in my life i need it and i want it so that i'm going to focus in on it and say no to other things that are going to get get in the way of that and what how do you get there i don't know how you get there let me let me share with you one way that has gotten me there over the last few years turn uh to luke 22 with me this last it's the last moment of jesus private prayer that's mentioned in the gospel of luke we looked at a whole bunch already but in luke 22 it's where it begins with judas going out to betray jesus and get the soldiers to hire them luke most of luke 22 is the last supper it's the last passover meal between jesus and his followers right as the meal concludes and and they leave look at verse 39 of luke 22 it says jesus went out as usual to the mount of olives and his disciples followed him on reaching the place he said to them pray that you will not fall into temptation jesus knows that a moment he knows in 12 within 12 hours he's going to be hanging on the roman cross and he says pray the moment of decision the ultimate moment of decision you guys of your allegiance to me is coming pray that you don't fall and then he withdrew as he always did about a stone's throw beyond them he knelt down and he prayed father if you're willing take this cup from me yet not my will but yours be done this is a moment of agonized solitude an angel from heaven appeared to him strengthening him being in anguish he prayed more earnestly his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground when he rose from prayer he went back to the disciples and he finds them doing what so jesus he's utterly alone now he has only the father's presence with him that he's he's aware of but he's he is an utter solitude even though he has his circle of disciples around him they're exhausted from sorrow and so here you have this last moment of jesus's prayer life he's this side of the cross and resurrection and it's a moment where his solitude he actually wasn't trying to be alone he went a stone's throw away but the whole point is that they would be with him in mutual support and he finds himself completely isolated only the presence of the father that he's wrestling with in an agonized prayer the last moments of jesus right where he had his will to do what he thought he should be doing were moments of solitary prayer but they were also moments of abandonment of those who were closest to him and this to me this is profound because that in a way solitude choosing to cut yourself off from any input and relationship as a part of your regular practice that's a form of self-denial so for some of us it's very difficult to do this and it's it's a form of death almost it's cutting yourself off so that you identify with jesus in his moment of his final moment of solitude and so jesus goes into this moment of solitude in agonizing prayer because he knows that the cross is ahead of him this moment where he's going to absorb into himself the the cumulative effects and his and the father's own judgment on human failure and sin and selfishness in his own death on the cross and it's this moment of agonizing solitude why did he go and do that why did he do that and the witness of all of the new testament scriptures is that he did that as an act of love for you and for me jesus went into the moment of complete abandonment and solitude precisely as an act of love and commitment to those who would look to him in faith so that in their moment of solitude and death they would have the promise of never being abandoned and so in these acts of solitude that we place ourselves into it's it's a pure response to the one who is completely abandoned and isolated for me and my behalf as an act of love and in my better moments which aren't that many my heart is melted into a desire to want to be in solitude with my savior that's how i get there i don't know how you need to get there but it seems to me that it's only going to happen when we see that we need this practice we need it in our lives to actually fully function as as human beings and as followers of jesus so let me close into word of prayer and just as every week we have our time of worship ahead of us to be quiet you know to be alone together so to speak and i just encourage you to ask the spirit to illuminate what it means for you in a renewed sense of dependence on jesus to to adopt this practice in a new way in your life let me close in a word of prayer you

Channel: Bible Nerds & Tim Mackie Fans

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Length: 55min 42sec (3342 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 14 2021