Take a Breather

All right, we are in the middle of a series called Just Breathe, and to catch everybody up, it's based on a book called Fresh Air by Chris Hodges I read back in 2012, amazing book, always go back to, and any time I'm feeling like I'm in a dry season, I go to this book, and it's just an amazing breath that comes back into my lungs when I feel like I'm just, where is God, and many of us have been there, we've been in dry places, where is God, what's going on with God, I don't feel God right now, I'm stressed, I'm tired, I'm burnt out, and for many of you, you probably came out of the season, you're ready to start this new year, you've already launched, you've already come up with your New Year's resolutions and all that kind of stuff, so you're kind of set and you're ready to go, but for some of you, you might say, oh man, it's another year, I'm not feeling him, I'm not feeling him, things, you know, God, where are you, you know, and a lot of us, a lot of us get to that place, but this, this, what I want to help you, my hope is that I help you experience God once again, that you get a breath of fresh air in your lungs, breathe it in, right, breathe in, just breathe in, you got these breathing exercises, classes where we're taught in, you know, in classes and gyms and sports programs and things like that, but there's truth in that breathing in breath makes us feel better, and God wants to bring spiritual breath into our life, breathe his breath into us once again, the Holy Spirit breath that is available to us. Deuteronomy 30, 19 is, is our scripture, it's kind of our theme scripture here, this day I call heaven and earth witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, so there's a choice here that God makes, you can either leave it, stay in death, sit in death, dwell in death, or you can experience life, and he says, I've laid it before you, I've given you a decision, I've put everything out for you, because I love you, because I love you, and I want to bless you, and he says, you can choose death, blessings, curses, or you can choose life, he says, so choose life, I love how it, how it says that, you know, now choose life, now choose life, here, here it is, just choose it, and that's my hope for this series, is to help you choose life, to show you what, what is available to us in scripture, and first week we talked about falling in love with Jesus again, that some of us just need to get back to Jesus, that it's not about works, it's not about how much I attend church, it's not how much I pray, it's not how much I fast, we're in a time of prayer and fasting where we connect to God, and give God the first of our year, but it's, but that's not, it's more than that, the reason we have a relation, the reason we fast, the reason we pray, the reason we want to know more about who he is by going to his word, the reason we come to church, the reason we serve, is because we are in love with Jesus, that's first and foremost, and if that's not right, everything else will feel like just work, you'll be, Working out your whole life, not really connecting. Not really connecting to God. And this is a miserable Christian life. That's what you'll be saying.

What is this it? Because we aren't in love with God. And in week two, we talked about having a Christ-like attitude. That was last week. We talked about attitude.

If we don't have a good attitude, the world doesn't have a good attitude. We're taught not to have a good attitude, right? But if we have a good attitude, if we have a good attitude, it changes things. We walk in a Christ-like attitude. When we see Christ, the way we live, the way we act, the way we treat others, having an attitude is a choice.

I wake up every day and I say, I am going to have a good attitude. I'm going to make this a great day by my attitude. When I walk into the office, I'm going to make a decision that I'm not going to have a bad attitude. Today, I want to talk about something that I think is very important that will give us breath back into our lungs. And that's getting over busyness.

Busyness. We're busy. We're busy. The world's busy. Christmas stopped.

We were busy in Christmas. But if you're like me, you look at your schedule. Why haven't I slowed down? I thought this was the time of year where things kind of slow down. They're kind of still.

They're not. There's a lot on the schedule. There's a lot of things going on. And you know your family life. Say if you have young kids and you work all day and you're late getting home, the last thing you're thinking about is cooking in the kitchen and fixing something for your kids, right?

Preparing something for your kids. So you go get a pizza and then you're stuck in traffic even more. And then you get home and it's cold pizza for the kids. And then you have algebra homework that you... And when was the last time you did algebra?

Yeah, that was back in the 1970s. And you're trying to figure that out again. You know, like my kid's got algebra homework. He doesn't know how to do this. And you get just past that in time for bed.

And then it's all over again the next day. And you feel like, wow, this life has so much going on. You know you're busy when... Let me just give you some you know you're busy's when. You know you're busy when your calendar needs a calendar, right?

You got two or three calendars, right? You know you're busy when you can't finish the book you're reading about being busy. You're too busy if you tell your kids it's time to eat and they hop in the car. You're too busy if your car has more clothes in it than your closet. All right?

Oh, somebody's clapping. Yeah, that hit home. Or you're too busy to complain about being busy, okay? So you don't even have time to complain about being busy. If you're like most Americans, you're busy.

You got a lot of things going on. Here's just an example. This is not everything, but here's just a few things. Some statistics. They may be a little dated, but they actually might be higher now.

But here's some statistics. We eat out 14,411 times a year. 1,811 trips to McDonald's happen every year. Per family. I mean, excuse me, a lifetime.

Okay. Oh, I forgot that. A lifetime. The year's the next. Oh, y'all were like, holy cow, did we do that?

A lifetime. A lifetime. We eat out 14,411 times a lifetime. Thanks for correcting me. My wife was good at, like, what?

I could hear her voice. She's got me. What's funny is I remember my dad preaching when I was growing up. My dad's a pastor, and my mom was always, like, correcting him on the front row. No, that's correct.

You know, it's like she always had him going. Okay. We spend 15.3 years at work. We spend 20 years on smartphones.

That's counting everything we do, social media and all that. We spend 15 years watching TV. You binge watchers know that. You're probably like, that's not enough. You know, I do a lot more than that.

We spend 6.8 years on social media. There you go is your social media. And this was a couple years ago. I think it's a lot worse now.

We spend years standing, five years standing in line. We spend 6.5 months looking for lost items. That's, that's me. That's me.

If you are burning the candle at both ends, I've heard it said, if you're burning the candle at both ends, you aren't as bright as you think you are. Oh, yeah. I've got, I've got so much to do. We even like the wear busyness, you know. We like the, I'm busy, man.

I'm busy. I must be important because I'm busy. But the handwriting is on the wall. If you're too busy and you, you, you kind of connect with any of those things, the handwriting is on the wall. The handwriting is on the wall.

How many of you have heard that statement? The handwriting is on the wall. I see the writing on the wall. You're trying to exit somewhere. The writing's on the wall.

That's from the Bible, if you didn't know. It goes back to the Old Testament of a period where a king called Belshazzar was having a feast in the book of Daniel. Daniel, he's a proud man. He, he rules the kingdom. He worships the gods of gold and the gods of silver and the gods of bronze.

And he invites all of the nobles. He invites all the royalty to his palace to have this feast. And they're drunk and they're drunk and they're drinking and they're, they're doing all kinds of things. They got their concubines and they're, they're just living it up because they are their own gods. They bless that system.

And, and, and then all of a sudden we see in the story, this hand appear. I mean, this is like a ghost story, guys. I mean, a hand appears in the room while they're, and they probably think they're just, you know, maybe I'm too drunk. But, but, but, but the hand appears in the room and begins to write something on the wall. They were so afraid.

It says that Belshazzar's knees actually knocked together. Yes, that's in the Bible. His knees knocked together. He was so afraid of what was happening. And he began to write this statement.

Manet, Manet, Manet, Tekel, Parson. Had no idea what that meant. Had no idea what that meant. And he needed to know, man, when a ghost hand appears in your room and writes something on the wall, you want to know what's going on. So he calls in all these people of wisdom in his kingdom and he brings them in and they start, well, I just can't, I don't know this interpretation, I've never seen this type of wording before, I've never had this before, I can't tell you.

And he promised them gold, he promised them all kinds of honors, but nobody could do it. Nobody could do it. And there was this one man, Daniel, the queen spoke of. She said, there's this guy, Daniel, and under your grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, he was able to do things like this. He had a special power.

In fact, she said, he has the power of the gods, because they didn't know the one true God, they knew the gods, and he had this power that they didn't have anybody else be able to tap into. So they brought, he brought him in. And Daniel begins to interpret what it says. And this is for us today as well. In Daniel 5, 26, he says, this is what these words mean.

God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. God numbers our days. God knows how long you're going to be here on this earth. If you're living a lifetime, a long time, 80, 90 years old, or if you're only allotted a small amount of time in this world, it doesn't matter. God has ordained your days.

And it's a short amount of time, even 100 years. 100 years is a short amount of time. He has given us a set amount of time for us to be in this earth. And then it says in 27, and you have been weighed on a scale and found wanting. You're out of balance.

You've given this lifetime, and you're out of balance. You've got too much going. It's all about you, and it's all about your money. It's all about your gold. It's all about your power.

It's all about those things. Everything you've put into that means nothing. And your life is getting ready to come to an end. Your reign is getting ready to come to an end. And it did.

He was one of the last rulers of Babylon, and Babylon was taken down. See, the Bible is very clear about hurrying and busy and being frantic. We live in a frantic lifestyle. We do, and we do it to ourselves. We put so much on the schedule.

We're running. We're going places. But the Bible talks about it, and we become tired. The reason, perhaps, you're tired today is because you've got too much going on. You're busy.

You haven't had time to stop and breathe. Do you see the handwriting on the wall? Is there something there in your life? Oh, my goodness, that I see the handwriting on the wall, and I need to recognize that handwriting before it gets too bad. If you don't see it, does your spouse see it?

If you don't see it, do your kids see it? That's the question. It's clear that we need focus on busyness and the hurry of life and how to manage that well. Because if we don't, we... You grow tired and here's what happens.

You have a higher risk of making sinful decisions. When you're not clear in the head, when things are busy and you're going and going and going, you aren't clear. You can't make right and wrong. You can't discern right and wrong when everything's going on around you when you're busy. You're focused on everything else except for the things that truly matter.

The choices that truly matter. We stumble and fall. It's like a trap. That's what the Bible says. It's like a trap.

Our enemy sets a trap. And Satan goes after you when you're busy. He doesn't go after you when you're clear headed. He doesn't go after you when you're in your best place, you know, where you're really connecting to God. He goes after you when you are in a frantic, crazy mess.

When you can't even stop to focus a minute on God. You got so much going on, you can't stop for one minute to just give him a little bit of time, a little bit of your time. And the devil's like, I got you. Here's what it says. Here's what it says in Scripture and Luke.

He says, and this is talking about the end times as well. Be careful or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation. That's a slow evaporation of life. That you're going through life and you don't even realize it. But you're evaporating.

You're tired. You're evaporating. You don't even know it. And one day you're like, how did I get here? How did things happen?

And drunkenness and anxieties of life. The anxieties that you hold on to. It's like you're mentally and spiritually drunk. You may not be physically drunk, but you're just there. The anxieties of life.

And the day will close on you unexpectedly. Like it just shows up and you didn't even know it happened. Because it just gradually went that direction like a trap. And that's the trap of the enemy. And it's not just physically.

You're not just physically tired. Your heart's really out of order. Your heart's not right. You're not able to connect with God. You're not able to get your heart right.

And when your heart is heavy, it's easy to slip. When your heart is weighed down, it's easy to slip into sin. It's easy to make sinful choices that you otherwise would never make. And then your emotions are unstable. Your emotions are unstable when you're busy and you've got things going on.

You get angry easy, you know. You lose your temper. And you're probably like, you know, why did I get mad at that person? Why did I allow this to happen? Because you're busy.

Think about it for a minute. When you're in traffic. You're in a hurry to get to work because you've got a lot to do today. You've got so much on your schedule. And then you've got to get home in time and this and that.

And that person pulls in front of you. And what are you doing? You're yelling out the window at them and saying things that you probably wouldn't normally say. If I had a baseball bat, I would, you know, knock the windows out of that car. Because, you know, some of you are holier than I am.

So I get that. Or in a fast food place, for instance. You know, you've got that one person that gets in line and they want to make it. They want to talk about every food item on the menu. Well, you know, especially in a drive-through.

You know. You're at Chick-fil-A, and you're like, you know exactly what you want. I want the number two spicy chicken sandwich. I know what I want. But that person's in front of you, they don't know what they want, and they're asking every question.

I'm like, how many times have you been to Chick-fil-A? You should know this. Should I get the grilled chicken or the grilled chicken with bacon? It takes forever. I'm in a hurry, guys.

I'm in a hurry. What are you doing? Like, get out of the way. Your emotions are unstable. You don't act the same.

You say things you usually don't say. You do things you usually don't do. Job said it like this. He said, my days go faster than a runner. They fly away without me seeing any joy.

When is the last time you experienced joy in your heart? Joy in your life, because you're such in a hurry. You're getting angry at everything. Your emotions are all over the place, and you don't have any joy in your heart. You're also less productive.

When you're busy, you're less productive. Do you know that? Because our mentality is the more we put on our schedule, the more we get done and the more productive we are. That's our mentality, right? But the truth is, the more you put on your schedule, the less you're able to get done because you've got to sharpen your saw.

Y'all know the term sharpening the saw or sharpening, you know, say, going back. We've got chainsaws now, just to be honest. You know, we can cut down trees pretty quick. But if you have an axe, sharpening your axe, you know, or sharpening your saw, you're going to tear down that tree a lot quicker if you stop for a moment, take some time and sharpen it. If you're working with a dull saw or a dull axe or you're trying to get through the tree and you're trying to, it's just going to take a long time.

But I'm in a hurry. I don't have time to sharpen my saw. I don't have time to sharpen my axe. And it takes a lot longer and a lot more work if we do that. We're less productive.

Proverbs says it like this in verse 21, careful planning puts you ahead in the long run. Hurry and scurry puts you further behind. Wow, the Bible knows what it's talking about here. Man, you can do less with more and more with less is what it's saying. Proverbs 19 says a person in a hurry makes mistakes.

If you're in a hurry, you're going to make all kinds of mistakes. It's like typing out that text real quick and it, you know, corrects itself and it's not what you wanted to say, you know, because you're in a hurry. You're not taking time to figure that out. You make mistakes. You don't make good choices.

And then you end up feeling empty inside. You end up empty inside. At the end of the day, after you've gone through everything, after you've done everything, you're empty. Why do I feel so empty inside? Why?

Because you were meant for more than being busy. Everybody has significance and you've lost significance. It's because you've been working on everything else besides what really matters. You have purpose, and purpose is actually life-giving, and we can work all day in purpose and receive life, but if we're just doing things to do things, being busy to stay busy, adding things to our schedule that don't really make any real difference in eternity, you're missing out, you feel empty. That's why that hole's inside of you like, man, I'm missing something, and so many people are doing that, they're going through life, and David felt like that.

David said this, we merely, we are merely moving shadows and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. That's why he says, be still and know that I am God. We need to be still. Be still. When's the last time you did that?

When's the last time you were actually still with God? When is the last time, just think about it for a minute. When was the last time you actually took the time to actually try to hear God, which leads me to my next point, you can't hear God. You're at the beginning of the year, you're trying to pray, you're trying to fast, you're trying to connect with God, but you're so busy, you're thinking about, even in your quiet time, you're thinking about what you've got to do next. You can't be still because we have a busy schedule.

And rightfully so, I mean, we've got a lot to do, right? And it makes us, it takes us off focus. And when was the last time you stopped to be still? We're going so fast, we need to take a breather. We need to take a breather.

Like a coach says, you know, after you're training and you're running and you're tired, he says, take a breather because you've got a little more to do, right? Take a breather. God's asking us to take a breather. God wants us to take a breather. How do we do that?

Okay, let me give you three things today, okay? Three things in application. First of all, stop the constant push for more. Stop wanting more and more and more and more when you don't really need it. The push for more.

I've got to have more. I've got to have the bigger car. I've got to have the bigger house. I've got to have the show. And you're buying things and you're buying things to impress people that don't like you anyway.

And you're just going, you know, you're just trying to impress these people and they don't even talk to you. They don't care. They're probably going to hate you worse because you got the bigger car, you know, because they're comparing too. So, I mean, you're just kind of moved. Why are we doing this to ourselves?

And you end up in financial hardship. The average American spends about 140% of their income. And you're working and working and working to pay off those things you don't need. You're working and you're not able to focus on the things that matter like your spouse or your children. And you're not taking time with them because you want to have the bigger things.

You want to have the bigger things. The success. Success is not measured on the amount you have in your bank account. Success matters on the way your family turns out in the end when you give, when you impart. Success comes from and relationships will deteriorate.

Relationships are the most important things in your life. Your children and and busyness is is our God. Busyness is better and we want more and we want more. That's why Ecclesiastes says it like this. It is better to to have only a little with peace.

I'd rather have peace of mind than be busy all the time. I'd rather have peace of mind than to have everything. The richest people in the world are miserable. Not all of them, most of them. I don't want to stereotype, but there are a lot of rich people that are very, very miserable because they have no peace in their hearts.

They have too much. They have too much to look out for. They have too many bank accounts, too many things going on. And it's better as God shares with us through Scripture to have peace of mind than to be busy. I remember my grandparents are probably some of the most peaceful people in the world.

They didn't have much. I mean, they went through the Great Depression and all that so they understood it. Right? They had they had their house. They had, you know, it wasn't a very big house.

My grandfather had this little Chevette, you know, that he would drive around in all the time. It wasn't a big truck. It wasn't a big truck. It wasn't a big truck. It wasn't a big truck.

It wasn't a big truck. It wasn't a big truck. It wasn't a big truck. It wasn't a big truck. It wasn't a big truck.

It wasn't a big truck. It wasn't a big truck or anything fancy. But he was just happy. He would go to the to the store in his community and and and talk with guys. You know how those those country towns, they have the little little general stores.

And my my by the way, my grandfather was a Chicago boy. So he was a city boy and married a country girl. So so, you know, he he loved the country life. He liked it laid back. He understood what it was like to be busy, you know, and do all that, you know.

But but, you know, he I just remember them. They loved Jesus, though. The most important thing was their church and their community, their family. They loved us. They loved their grandkids, their kids.

They didn't have much, but that was the most important thing, and there was joy in their heart. They had peace, and they had joy, and they loved the Lord. But more. I've got to have more. I've got to have more.

I've got to have more. I can fit one more thing in my schedule. I know I can. I can make it happen. I can do one more sport for my kids.

They aren't really doing five. I'm going to do six. That's how we are, and they're going to be famous one day, so I have to do six of those, right? Because they're a gift. That's what we all think.

We think all of our kids are going to be all-stars. And one more event. One more event. And as a pastor, I've been by a lot of people who are passing and have done a lot of funerals. And I can say this.

I've never had one person say at the end of their life that I wish I would have worked more. I wish I would have acquired more. They say I wish I had spent more time with my family. I wish I had spent more time with God and serving God, serving my church and serving others. I wish I had done more of that because things don't fill our hearts.

Proverbs 14.30 says, A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Proverbs 20 says, It is a trap for a man to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider his vows. Here's a life lesson. It's always easier to get in something than to get out of something.

It's easier to get in debt than to get out of debt, right? It's easier to get in a relationship than to get out of a relationship. It's easier to get into trouble than to get out of trouble. And it's easier to gain weight. I'm just going to stop there.

Let's just move on. Okay. It's always easier to fill our schedules with more stuff. So we have to decide what not to do. What is the priority of this life?

What are the priorities of this life? And number two, this is an easy one, but a hard one. We all know it, but we don't do it. And that's to keep the Sabbath day holy. The most broken of the big ten.

You know, of all the commandments in the Bible, there's the big ten. It goes right there with adultery and murder. It says keep the Sabbath day precious, right? It says make it holy, holy. It's so important.

It's a holy day, a holiday. We use the word holiday. That's where holy day comes in. And it's a whole day. It's a whole day that we just need to dedicate to recharge, to refocus, to worship God, to just reconnect with Him.

It's a day of rest. Exodus 20 says it like this. You have six days in which you to do your work. That's a pretty good amount. But the seventh day is the day to rest and dedicate to me.

So here's just an idea for you. Here, you can spend five days. Here's what you can do. Spend five days working. One day working for yourself.

So work for your employer five days. Work for yourself one day. And just take a day off. Just take the day off. Cease.

That's what Sabbath means. It means cease. You cease working. You cease doing things. And I promise you that it will breathe a breath of air back into your life.

Proverbs 10, 27 says, reverence for God adds hours to each day. It is amazing how taking time with the Lord, starting your day off, starting your week off, and starting even your month and year off. Just putting God first. It's amazing how much more He adds to your day. And the people of God, we're marked by that.

That's what marks us, is taking a Sabbath. That's the excellence. That's what we're making here. is honoring God. We're different than the world.

See, God rested on the seventh day, not because He needed rest. He's God. Doesn't the Bible say He never sleeps? You know, He's always working. He's always working.

We sing that. But it says in the Bible that He rested on the seventh day when all creation happened, not because He needed it, because He was modeling it for us, because it marks us. It's His people. His people are people that rest. And are recharged and refocused.

And the third item here, lastly, is we got to stay close to Jesus. And He'll stay close to you. We need to lean into Jesus. We got to get closer to Jesus again. He's not just our Savior.

He's not just our Lord. He's our Shepherd. He shepherds us. We're His sheep. He is our Shepherd.

And I love the psalmist when he says in chapter 23, verse 1, he says, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Don't you just love that? The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want. He lies. He makes me lie down. Whoa, lie down. I don't have time to lie down.

Well, here's what the Lord does. Here's what your God does. This is what Jesus does when you lean into Him. He helps you lie down and rest. You lie down in nice, green, luscious pastures like a spring day and just relaxing and rest.

And He leads me beside still waters. Just the flow of water. Imagine that for a minute. Oh, the flow of water. I've got water on my bedside, you know, like this.

My phone plays water. Water sounds while I sleep at night. It's so peaceful. It's so relaxing. It sounds like an outside flow of just peace.

And what does it do? It restores my soul. It restores my soul. Because when your heart is messed up, your soul needs to be restored. When you're off balance, your soul needs restoration.

Perhaps you're here today and you are weary. You are weary and heavy laden. That's what Jesus is here for. He says this in Matthew 11, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. Are you weary?

Are you burdened today? And He says, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. When you understand yoke, the yoke of an oxen, they wear a yoke. There's heavy yokes.

There's light yokes. And He uses that imagery to say, my yoke that you're carrying can be very, very light. So take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and I am humble in heart. Amen. You will find rest for your soul.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Isn't that just that those words breathe breath back into your life? God wants to breathe breath back into our lives. You may be physically exhausted. Maybe you're you're just tired.

Your muscles are tired. You're tired of going. Maybe there's something deeper. Maybe it's an emotional fatigue that you're feeling and that's much deeper. It's your soul and just just just heaviness and mental state and things like that.

And then there's something much much deeper for many of you that you're probably going through and that's spiritual dryness. The deepest place we can be. You feel far from God. And listen, you may need a vacation and that's great. Take a vacation for the physical and the emotional, but it won't fix the spiritual.

Vacation won't fix the spiritual. Only God can fix the spiritual. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. Principle number three. Slow down.

Slow down. Let's slow down people. Listen to the Lord. Receive him today. Let him, let him restore your soul.

Let's pray together. If you bow your heads. Father, we thank you that you have provided a way of peace for us through your simple commandments of rest. I pray over those who are weary and heavy, Lord. Maybe you spoke to somebody today to change something that they're afraid to change, to reorganize their lives in a way that they're not ready to reorganize.

Help them see. Give them peace. Give them comfort. Give them the motivation to say, you know, I'm not, it's not working that way. I'm just going, you know, I'm going to give God a chance today.

Would you give God a chance today, church? Would you give God a chance? Just pray in your hearts, Lord. Let, you know, just, just let him touch your heart. And there are those of you today that perhaps don't know the Lord.

Maybe take the opportunity and make him Lord of your life. If you would just say this with me, Lord, I believe that you are the Son of God. That you died on the cross for my sins. Come into my heart. Come into life.

Reward my soul, Lord. Make me new today. I give my life to you. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Let's celebrate Jesus today.