Rachel Sanders - July 2, 2023
Summer Sundays - Week 1
Summer Sundays 7-2-23 Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect - they cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul. -John Mark Comer "Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart." -Jon Ortberg Am I becoming who I want to become? Matthew 11:25-28 25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. 27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” "In this truth lies the secret of the easy yoke: the secret involves living as Jesus lived in the entirety of his life - adopting his overall lifestyle... Our mistake is to think that following Jesus consists in loving our enemies, going the "second mile", turning the other cheek, suffering patiently and hopefully - while living the rest of our lives just as everyone else around us does... It's a strategy bound to fail.” -Dallas Willard "A yoke is a work instrument. Thus when Jesus offers a yoke he offers what we might think tired workers need least. They need a mattress or a vacation, not a yoke. But Jesus realizes that the most restful gift he can give the tired is a new way to carry life, a fresh way to bear responsibilities... Realism sees that life is a succession of burdens; we cannot get away from them; thus instead of offering escape, Jesus offers equipment. Jesus means that obedience to his Sermon on the Mount (his yoke) will develop in us a balance and a "way"of carrying life that will give more rest than the way we have been living.” -Fredrick Dale Bruner “A good christian is often someone defined by what they don’t do and how nice they are. But someone who is good at being a Christian is not someone pretending to be Jesus (by stuffing down their emotions) nor are they performing for Jesus’s approval. Rather, they are training to become like HIm. Like Peter, they make mistakes, but they fall forward. A person who is training to be like Jesus steps out of boats, turns over tables, hangs out with sexual minorities, blesses their enemies, and eventually learns to say the right thing at the right time. This was the story of Jesus’s disciples who through training learned to eventually cast out demons, feed the hungry, heal the sick and have the same heart as Jesus for the whole world.” -Jon Tyson