Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / Winter Retreat 2025 // Saturday Night // Kara Ashley

Transcript

Winter Retreat 2025 // Saturday Night // Kara Ashley · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm so excited to be with you guys tonight in a different capacity than I was anticipating coming into the weekend, but I am grateful either way.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um so when we all kind of decided this, we're at Chick-fil-A eating dinner on Thursday night.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um we're kind of talking about the weekend and logistics of things after Derek has suddenly not been able to join us.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I was like, yeah, I could preach.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Stillness is important to me, I think.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we'll see.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think it'll be good.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was like, but I then I was like, I have to think about what scripture I'm gonna use.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then we kind of keep talking.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: The boys are taking some quiz, some one of Ben's quizzes together out of 72.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Woo, Ben.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, so they're kind of talking about that.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of distracted, and I looked down at my phone and I see this wallpaper that I sent a few weeks ago.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's Matthew 11, 28 through 30, what Hannah just read.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I looked over to Bryant and I was like, Well, this is perfect.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I didn't plan this.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, he was like, When did you put that there?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, several weeks ago when I was anxious.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't I didn't have a plan for that.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so that kind of just started to unfold.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then I realized that I had just read that scripture in my like devotional in my own quiet time several days before.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I so I had just read that whole chapter.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so things just kind of started to align.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we head on our next adventure.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, asked Bryant later about the 11-point turn that he made in a 20-foot U-Haul at a dead end row.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Gotta be a fun story later.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great music stand.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we're kind of driving back, and I'm thinking about what um I want to say in the things that I don't know are on my heart while uh Ben is also listening to an alien podcast.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Ask him about that later, too.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so during this drive, I think about my freshman year of college.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um I grew up in a clergy family, so both my parents are Methodist pastors.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you heard a little bit of that backstory at Beecher Treaty if you were there.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um But as I as I was kind of reflecting on that first year of college, and in that season, I really was trying to just soak it all in.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um I came to Wesley like one of the first days I was in Talassi after I moved into my apartment.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I was always that girl who was like, I'll go to Wesley, but I don't know if I'm actually gonna stay there.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I want to do something that my parents like aren't telling me to do.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And of course they're telling me to go to Wesley because it's you know the United Methodist campus ministry at FSU.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So of course I'm gonna go there, but I'll go there like for welcome week, but I'll probably like go find my own church.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I ended up staying, obviously.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but in that year, I was just trying to soak in as much as I could.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um my roommate and I started reading our scripture daily together in the mornings.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was going to church and I was attending Bible studies, and I was doing everything that I could to just soak in all of this knowledge because I felt like I didn't actually know scripture.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I felt like I knew the Bible stories, but I didn't know, I didn't know what they meant, and I didn't know what they meant in my own life.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I I'm kind of going through the rhythms of freshman year.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's a hard year.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Props to all of you doing that right now.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's not an easy task.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I get to winter retreat, and I'm kind of having these like super high moments with God, like Elijah was um, like what Brian was talking about last night.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember sitting probably right where Thomas is right now, and I sobbed, like uncontrollably sobbed on Sunday morning.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I like could not keep it together, and I was like, I don't know why I'm crying.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um really, it was because I that was the Holy Spirit moving me to apply for staff that night, and the application was due the next day.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's you, this is your sign to do that.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um applications were due Sunday night.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I just remember having this super high moment and then going home and being so unbelievably drained.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't like, I felt like I couldn't consume anything else.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was consuming so much scripture and so many conversations about church and so many conversations about my future that I was just so overwhelmed and so consumed.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I was missing a vital piece that Jesus was offering me.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to go back in scripture a little bit to verses 16 through 19.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Should be on the screen.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: To what will I compare this generation?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a child sitting in the marketplaces calling out to others.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: We played the flute for you and you didn't dance.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: We sang a funeral song and you didn't mourn.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say he has a demon.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yet I, yet the human one came, meaning Jesus, eating and drinking, and they say, Look, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of collectors and sinners or tax collectors and sinners, but wisdom is proved to be right by her works.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: So when I read that, um, I was gonna say, as I was preparing yesterday, um, as I read that yesterday, I couldn't help but think of how Jesus is saying you're missing the point.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: I did all of these things for you, and you're not even seeing what I'm actually trying to tell you.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so in that season, my freshman year, I was going so fast that I didn't have a chance to even see that God was moving in my life.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what was the next thing I did?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I consumed more content to try and fix the problem.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I've discovered this book called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, and it changed my life.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I like make it a point, and I talked about this in my workshop, so sorry if this is a little redundant, but I make it a point to read this book once a year because it really like resets my soul and resets my focus on who Jesus is in my life.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so in his book, he quotes this Hurry is not just a disordered schedule, hurry is a disordered heart.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so as I read that, I was like, dang, I'm I'm going so crazy with my schedule that it's making my soul so weary and so drained.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't even sure where Jesus was in the moment.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't even sure that I was following Jesus at that time.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was just trying to be this picture perfect Christian.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was trying to be somebody that I wasn't and trying to be somebody that I like, I was trying to like be the person that I wanted to look up to, but doing it in all the wrong ways.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to go back to 28 and thirt through 30 what Hannah read.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Put on my yoke and learn from me.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gentle and humble.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: You will find rest for yourselves.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I think this idea of yoke is kind of confusing because this this kind of analogy is written for the people of the time that Matthew was writing, and so I have a photo to show you what a yoke is.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is the like wooden structure around these two cows is a yoke, and it's designed to carry, to have two cattle carry a load behind them.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so in order to do this successfully, you have to, they have to walk in step together.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I also found this picture, the next one, Hannah, of Jesus carrying the yoke with this man.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And at first I was like, why does he look like sad?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, wait a second, isn't this supposed to be like a good thing?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then it kind of dawned on me that walking with Jesus is not necessarily easy.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you look like that, like sometimes it's like a mourning period.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's almost like, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this at all.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so kind of releasing that.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is inviting us to walk in step with him.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, if we're trying to go one way and he's trying to go the other, it's never gonna work.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So he's asking you to take the next step because he already took the first one on the cross.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's asking you to come with him.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's cool that it says, come to me.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's already sitting there with open arms.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's sitting there ready for you to run home.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: But come to me, he says.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to accept this invitation that he's giving us.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to reflect tonight on where you are in that journey.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're like me, my freshman, you're going unbelievably crazy, doing all of these things and missing the point of who Jesus is in your life.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're not there at all.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're just here because your friend told you to come and be fun.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope you had fun, but I also hope that you find Jesus too.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been a lifelong Christian and you've just overlooked the areas that God's moving in your life.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you think that you're equally yoked with the Lord, but you're not.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're just riding the steps of Christianity, but you aren't fully in it.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to reflect on where you're at tonight.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I invite you to share that with somebody.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Find someone that can hold you accountable in your walk.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe somebody that you look up to, somebody you're like, you're doing this, how I want to do this.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to encourage me to do things that you're doing.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it's somebody who is at a similar level to you, and you're like, I want to walk with this, walk this path with you hand in hand together.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so whoever that is in your life, I encourage you to do that.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know where to start, I encourage you to also talk to people.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Go talk to Bryant, come talk to me, go talk to somebody that you trust and be honest and completely open of I don't know what to do, I don't know what the next step is, but I know that I want to be yoked with Jesus because I know that that's where my peace and my stillness comes from.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so as I kind of settled into this whole concept, my freshman year, and I was able to like really slow down and understand the importance of stillness and silence, my scripture time, my scripture reading in the mornings completely transformed into this thing that I needed to have, not for who I was becoming and who other people saw me as, but because but who I was coming and how my soul was forming with the Lord.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: It became more of a time that I needed out of a desire to be next to Jesus instead of to know about Jesus.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I knew a lot about Jesus.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: I knew a lot about the things he said, I knew a lot about how his ministry affected the world, but I didn't know how it was affecting my life because I wasn't letting it sit in me.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, where are you tonight?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: After all this talk about rest, are you gonna go home and run a race?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna go home and have a busy schedule?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you gonna go home and sit and rest in the Lord's presence?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, to wrap up tonight, I want to read the message version of 28 through 30.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: The message version is just a paraphrase of scripture in more common language so it's easier to understand.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So listen to this.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Come to me.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Get away with me, and you'll recover your life.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'll show you how to take a real rest.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Walk with me and work with me.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Watch how I do it.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to that again.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Keep company with me, and you'll learn how to live freely and lightly.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to accept this invitation?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord has his arms wide open.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you so much for the people in this space, for their willingness to come on this retreat for whatever reason brought them here.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: God, would you give them the courage to sit and reflect on the ways in which you're moving in their life?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Would you allow them to open their eyes to see if they're in step with you, if they're in yoke with you?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Would you allow them to sit still in your presence?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: God, and for people in this room who don't know where to start, or they and they don't know how to take the next step, would you give them a nudge to go talk to somebody?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Would you give them the words to say to you, God?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because we can't do this alone.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're thankful for this community and this space that we call home.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And for those who don't yet call it home, God, I hope that they find that here.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Would you change our hurrying minds and our hurrying hearts to be centered and in lock with yours?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Would you make us people in places that you want to dwell?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Would you add a time of reflection into this evening and into this worship as we close tonight?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: In your name.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.