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The Long Road: Make Room for Rest · The God Who Sees You Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were terrified and asked each other, who is this?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even the wind and the waves obey him.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, friend, and welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're continuing our series on the long road, and I've loved sharing these concepts with you.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like God has taught me so much in this area about just taking the longer road and seeing what He's going to show me along the way.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that you've been enjoying this series too.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're starting out today just talking about what it means to rest and how we can rest throughout our lives.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: So our big idea for today is taking the long road leaves room for rest and prevents burnout.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't tell you how many times I've had to learn this lesson with God as I've reached burnout myself.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen how He's been very tender in those moments and he's kind of taken me back to areas of my life where I needed to establish rhythms of rest and how important that is to our faith.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to go through a few passages today.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think Jesus really exemplifies how we can live in this rhythm of rest.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I was thinking about how when I get ready for a race, like a half marathon or something, you kind of have to take your time in the first part of the race.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So the first few miles, you're really going slow.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to hit your goal pace or anything.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're actually going a lot slower than goal pace because you want to save a little bit for the end of the race.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times runners will call this a negative split.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you're running the first half a little slower, but then you want a negative split and go faster in the second half.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of want us to think about the Christian life in this way.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: If we start out slowly, we can let the Lord let us finish powerfully, right?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: In the end.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to think about how the long road with Jesus is more like a marathon, not a sprint.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to conserve our energy along the way.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be in this for the long haul.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be in our faith for the long haul.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know that you and I have seen so many Christian leaders kind of fall off at the end of their life.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just talking to a friend the other day about how Solomon did this.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: He had this moment at the end of his life where he actually worshipped other gods.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: How heartbreaking that was, right?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: To see this man of wisdom that God gave so many gifts to and so much authority, right, in his kingdom.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: But then what happened was Solomon decided at the end of his life, I care more about these women that are around me and the gods that they're worshiping.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to worship those gods, even though he knew the one true God.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want to encourage you that we don't have to be like Solomon.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: We can finish our race well.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I really believe that that means we have to start well.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Taking the long road means going slow, pausing to rest, and walking with Jesus.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I think about how we need to live in this rhythm of resting, I think about the way Jesus was asleep on a boat in the middle of a storm.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you know the story I'm talking about.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: But there was just this incredible storm going on around him.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: He was with the disciples in a boat and he was sleeping.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So look at this with me in Mark 4, 35 through 41.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, Let us go over to the other side.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: There were also other boats with him.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: The disciples woke him and said to him, Teacher, don't you care if we drown?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like something I would say to Jesus.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you care, right?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: That everything is going wrong right now.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you care that I'm drowning?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: He got up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, Quiet, be still.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: He said to his disciples, Why are you so afraid?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you still have no faith?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: They were terrified and asked each other, Who is this?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even the wind and the waves obey him.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: There is a stillness that Jesus possessed deep in his heart because he knew the will of his father.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: He knew that the father would not let them drown that day.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: But actually, this was his moment to demonstrate authority over even the wind and the waves, his authority over creation.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this was just this moment where Jesus knew his father's heart.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he knew that his father was not going to drop them, not gonna let them drown.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we can also have that kind of stillness inside of us.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: We can have that kind of quiet and that kind of peace inside of us.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Another beautiful thing about Jesus' ministry is that he regularly took time to get away and to be with the Father.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this was a part of his everyday life and a huge part of his ministry.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: In Luke 5, 15 through 16, it says this yet the news about him spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder what this would look like in your life if you made this a pattern.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you regularly withdrew to lonely places to pray.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us hear that and immediately think we think, I don't have time for that.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to get away and be alone.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's no quiet in my life, there's no stillness.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: I am constantly around noise and distraction.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Believe me, I know, friend, I feel that way too.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think that even if we give God five minutes, what can he do with that?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of stillness can he place in our hearts, even if we give him five minutes of our time?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: We know the heart of our Father, and we know that if we get away with him, he will give us rest.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's so beautiful that Jesus made this a regular rhythm of his days and his ministry.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And this allowed him to really come through and finish well.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Even in the moments where he was pressed in the garden or just moments where he was facing the crucifixion coming up, he got away with his father even in those moments.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't let the anxiety consume him, but he walked forward in faith.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a big part of us walking forward in faith is getting away with him and finding those moments of stillness and rest.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: If we start out slow, we can finish and end well.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: We can finish and end with power.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us, friends.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Lord God, thank you for this moment to just look at your life and your ministry and how you rested in the boat and how you regularly got away to be with the Father.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, let us model that.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let us have that deep peace inside of us as we get away with you, as we learn from you and pray to you and seek you.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Even in the most busy, chaotic, crazy days and moments of our lives, I pray that we could still find just those few minutes to sit with you.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because we know that only you can bring the stillness into our heart.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Only you can calm the storm.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: God, you are so good and so faithful, and we know that we can come to you with anything.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: All right, friends.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to go a little deeper in the longer road study, I have a link for you below this video.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to check that out, and I will see you next time.