As we began to observe last week, lugging luggage is exhausting. The baggage we pick up and carry everyday is delivered by the carousel of the mind. From God’s perspective you are carrying burdens you don’t need to bear. Jesus said it like this…
Matthew 11:28-30 MSG
28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
I. It is the unforced rhythm of grace that will help you balance all the forced rhythms that life brings you.
A. Let’s take a look at a forced rhythm for a moment…the
B. Whether you perceive it or not,
Isaiah 43:16-21 MSG
16-21 This is what God says, the God Who builds a road right through the ocean, Who carves a path through pounding waves, the God who summons horses and chariots and armies— they lie down and then can’t get up; they’re snuffed out like so many candles: “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’ —the coyotes and the buzzards—Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sunbaked earth, drinking water for the people I chose, the people I made especially for Myself, a people custom-made to praise Me.
C. Your faith is the other
D. David taps into this constant in the first two words of the Twenty Third Psalm…
The Lord
Word Nugget: “The Lord” translates as the Hebrew name for God… “Yahweh.” The name Yahweh is the one God chose for Himself and means “I Am” and “I Cause.”
F. Some observations:
1. God is the “One Who Is” and the “One Who Causes.”
2. Why is this important?
3. If God is the one Who
4. God needs no descriptive word because He never
5. He is also an
6. Though He
7. Though He causes, He was never
Psalm 90:1-2 MSG
1-2 God, it seems you’ve been our home forever; long before the mountains were born,
long before You brought earth itself to birth, from “once upon a time” to “kingdom come”—You are God.
II. God is Yahweh – an unchanging God, an uncaused God, and an ungoverned God…
A. We may challenge the forced rhythms of change and alter them slightly, but we
- You have to put your burdens of change in this suitcase…
Psalm 139:1-12 MSG
1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to You; even from a distance, You know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of Your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and You’re there, then up ahead and You’re there, too—Your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in! 7-12 Is there any place I can go to avoid Your Spirit? To be out of Your sight? If I climb to the sky, You’re there! If I go underground, You’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute—You’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, He even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to You; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to You.
B. There is only one
John 10:11-18 MSG
11-13 “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before Himself, sacrifices Himself if necessary. A hired man is not a real shepherd. The sheep mean nothing to him. He sees a wolf come and runs for it, leaving the sheep to be ravaged and scattered by the wolf. He’s only in it for the money. The sheep don’t matter to him. 14-18 “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own sheep and My own sheep know Me. In the same way, the Father knows Me and I know the Father. I put the sheep before Myself, sacrificing Myself if necessary. You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They’ll also recognize My voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd. This is why the Father loves Me: because I freely lay down My life. And so I am free to take it up again. No one takes it from Me. I lay it down of My own free will. I have the right to lay it down; I also have the right to take it up again. I received this authority personally from My Father.”