How We Grow:“Retreat & Refresh: Finding Shalom In Christ “

 How We Grow: Implementing Spiritual Disciplines 

“Retreat & Refresh: Finding Shalom In Christ “

Introduction:

Good morning church family. Today we start a new series. It is entitled “How We Grow: Implementing Spiritual Disciplines”. I know what you are thinking. Great, the preacher is going to talk about discipline for the next 5 weeks. Well, you are not wrong but I don’t want you to get lost on the negative connotation of the word “discipline”. That word is often mischaracterized. No one likes to be disciplined. No body. Discipline hurts. Discipline can be painful. Growing up, I got spanked when I got out of line. Remember those days? Still, discipline doesn’t have to be negative. It can be positive and powerful. Discipline done the right way can be inspirational and insightful. Discipline can help us navigate obstacles. It can help us overcome hardship. Discipline can serve as God’s protective measures, preventing us from tripping over the stumbling blocks of life. 

Discipline, especially the spiritual kind helps us create healthy and helpful boundaries. One of my favorite books is entitled Boundaries. It is by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. I have shared many times behind this pulpit that I have been in regular counseling for several years. In one of my very first counseling appointments, my Christian counselor recognized a great deficiency in my life. He saw an area of my life that was undisciplined and because this part of my life was undisciplined, my life was becoming unruly. My spiritual walk with God was suffering. 

So, what did my counselor discover? After my second session with him, he looked me right in the eyes and told me, “Stuart, your biggest problem is that you do not know how to create boundaries. You have spread yourself to thin. You are trying to do to much and in doing so, you are doing nothing very well.”

He told me, “Stuart, you need to set up boundaries to protect yourself. Boundaries that will protect your family. Boundaries that will help reinvigorate your walk with God.” 

After that advice, my Christian counselor gave me this book, “Boundaries”. This book was so helpful to me, taught me so many lessons, and pointed me back to Jesus. That’s right friends, Jesus had boundaries. Clearly defined lines and roles. Jesus stuck to His boundaries and it made His life more effective. He was able to help more people and it allowed more people to participate in His ministry. You see friends, Satan has us believe a lie. Satan tells us that if you set up boundaries that you are being selfish. Boundaries lock people out. It means that you will have to say “no” and for a people pleaser like yours truly, that means that I will let people down. It means that people will get mad. Satan had be believe that if I set boundaries up in my life that people would hate me and leave the church. 

That was a lie. I know that now. 

Do me a favor this morning. Under Today’s Thought, fill in these blanks. Looking for God’s blessings? Create Biblical boundaries. 

Notice that I say Biblical boundaries. Biblical boundaries are not selfish boundaries, rather they are selfless boundaries. When you learn from Scripture the value of creating spiritual boundaries, you will enhance your life, better engage in ministry, and create a pathway of success instead of burnout. 

Create Biblical boundaries. 

Think of it this way. We are in the middle of basketball season. Soon we will be knocking on the door of March Madness. I love basketball and there are many evenings when me and my boys find ourselves sitting down watching a good college game or even an NBA game. Basketball, the greatness of the game, is marked by boundaries. Did you know that a basketball court is 94 feet long by 50 feet wide. The distance to the goal from the free throw line is 15 feet. The distance from the goal to the three point line is 23 feet 9 inches. The height of the goal is 10 feet. The half court line is 47 feet from either side of the in bounds line. These are all boundaries that have been settled in baseball for decades. Of course we have the referees to make sure that both teams play within the boundaries and stay within the rules. 

Now, take the boundaries away. Remove the out of bounds lines. Erase the free throw, the 3 point line, and the half court line. Poof, they disappear in the middle of a game. Now, the referees vanish. Do you know what would happen if you remove the boundaries and referees in basketball? It would degrade into utter and complete pandemonium. Players would get hurt. Fights would start. Coaches would argue. 

You see friends, boundaries are good and God has given us boundaries. Boundaries in marriage. Boundaries in our relationships. Boundaries at work, at school, and even here at church. If you were to remove the boundaries, pandemonium. People get hurt, fights start, arguments everywhere. Look around, that is one of our greatest problems…no boundaries. We live in a boundary-less society. We have removed the boundary of marriage being defined as a man and a women. We have removed the boundary of gender being binary, male and female. We have removed the boundary that life is sacred from the moment of conception. We have removed the boundary that God, His Word, and His church should be cherished. Is it any wonder that our society is falling apart. By the way, I have proof of that that I will share with you in just a moment. 

The other day I was reading though a book entitled “Your Best Life In Jesus’ Easy Yoke” and came across this quote. I wanted to share it with you this morning. It was about the boundaries that Jesus created for Himself. After all, He is our ultimate model of creating boundaries. 

“Jesus had personal needs that he put a priority on — sometimes even over the needs of other people — and he did so without feeling guilty. Primarily his personal soul care had to do with separating himself from people to be alone with God, whom he called “Abba” (Papa). Jesus lived in a rhythm of life that not only kept him free from burnout, but far beyond that, it kept him full of God, full of grace and truth, and therefore ready and able to be compassionate and generous in his response to people, their needs, interruptions, and crisis situations.”

Today’s Thought:

Looking For God’s Blessings? Create Biblical Boundaries!

Today’s Quote:

“Jesus had personal needs that he put a priority on — sometimes even over the needs of other people — and he did so without feeling guilty. Primarily his personal soul care had to do with separating himself from people to be alone with God, whom he called “Abba” (Papa). Jesus lived in a rhythm of life that not only kept him free from burnout, but far beyond that, it kept him full of God, full of grace and truth, and therefore ready and able to be compassionate and generous in his response to people, their needs, interruptions, and crisis situations.”

-Rev. Bill Gaultiere From “Your Best Life In Jesus’ Easy Yoke”

This morning, we are going to be reading from three different passages of Scripture. You can turn in your Bible’s now if you want. Mark these verses in your Bible. We will be reading Psalm 23:2–3; Mark 6:31–32; and Philippians 4:7. 

Statement of Belief:

We believe the Bible to be inspired, God breathed, infallible, and authoritative. We believe the Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training believer’s in righteousness. God’s Word gives life. It provides peace in trouble and protection in tribulation. It is alive, active, and cuts to the core of the human soul. Since there is no other book like it, let us stand to show our reverence and respect.  

Today’s Scripture:

Remember, after I read our Scripture this morning, I will say “this is the Word of the Lord” and you will respond, “praise the Lord, praise His Holy name”.

Psalm 23:2–3 ESV; Mark 6:31–32 ESV; Philippians 4:7 ESV

Psalm 23:2-3 ESV

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. [3] He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Mark 6:31-32 ESV

And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. [32] And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

And…

Philippians 4:7 ESV

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

“this is the Word of the Lord” 

“praise the Lord, praise His Holy name”.

How Can We Restore Our “Shalom” In Christ?

I. Find Your “Shalom” By Resting (Psalm 23:2-3 ESV)

This morning I want to try to answer a simple question for us. How can we restore our shalom in Christ? Fill in this blank for me this morning, find your shalom by resting. 

You might be thinking, “preacher you use the word ‘restore our shalom in Christ’, did we lose our ‘shalom’ in Christ? I’ll answer that question in just a second. I will come back to it. First of all, what does the word “shalom” mean? After all, we may have some folks in here today that have never heard that word. So let’s talk about that for just a second. 

Shalom, a word that originates from the Hebrew language, goes beyond a simple greeting. The word mean simply “peace”. It was used by ancient Hebrews as both a “hello” and a “good-bye”. “Shalom” was a proper way to say “hello” in the ancient Hebrew society. Still, shalom means more than that. It was far more than a greeting. It is also a state of being. To be at shalom means that you are in a state of completeness, wholeness and a state of well being. When we wish someone Shalom, we are not merely extending a casual greeting; we are invoking a blessing, a prayer for their all-encompassing welfare.

I did ask the question, “how can we restore our ‘shalom’ in Christ”. This begs the question, “have we somehow lost our ‘shalom’ in Christ”? The answer is both “yes” and “no”. Scripture is clear, for those of us who are in Christ, we never lose the peace that He provides to us. However, for people who are a part from Christ, they do not possess His peace. They do not have Christ’s shalom in their lives. I will add one more element to what I am saying. I know plenty of Christians who are not experiencing Christ’s peace, His shalom. That is not God’s fault. He is faithful. God is good. If a Christian does not have shalom, it is because they have broken fellowship with God like the prodigal son broken fellowship with His father. 

I ran across a really interesting story this week. How many of you are familiar with Sesame Street? Any of you know Elmo? Of course you do. Elmo has been around for some 40 years. He was a fixture of many of our childhood. Elmo may live on Sesame Street but his social media of choice is “X”. On Monday, this past Monday, Elmo asked a simple question on “X”, formerly known as Twitter.

“Elmo is just checking in. How is everybody doing?

A simple tweet set off a fire storm of responses. You might think that was a cute question that did not deserve much attention. It certainly did not deserve the response it received. 

Over 50,000 people responded to Elmo and the comments were telling.  

"Elmo I've got to level with you baby we are fighting for our lives”.

"Elmo each day the abyss we stare into grows a unique horror. One that was previously unfathomable in nature. Our inevitable doom which once accelerated in years, or months, now accelerates in hours, even minutes. However I did have a good grapefruit earlier, thank you for asking."

"Elmo was just checking in. He didn't ask for all this."

“Thanks for checking in, Elmo. Mondays are hard. Hope you're doing great. Be sure to check on Oscar. He always seems to be in a mood.”

Those are just the messages that I could share. As I read through the messages I was struck with the hopelessness, the pain, the depression, the emptiness, and the general pain that people were in. 

I will say this now, and I want you to hear me, yes, we are absolutely missing something in our society and His name is Jesus. We have so utterly vacated God out of every corner of our lives and now…today…we are paying the price. People are addicted to work, chasing a dollar, convinced that happiness exists in another sexual encounter. People worship idols made in their own image, running after materialism and eaten up with consumerism. People are deeply unhappy, unhealthy, and searching for something else that will satisfy them. 

Jesus is the name. He is our satisfaction. If you are wanting to restore the shalom, the peace that is missing from your life, start with resting in Christ. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. [3] He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Jesus wants to restore your soul. He wants to give you His peace. The problem is that most Christian want to make Jesus a part of their lives instead of making Jesus their lives. They want to insert Jesus into their to do list instead of letting Jesus guide their day, their actions, their decisions. We are addicted to our phones, addicted to social media, addicted to work, just plain addicted to stop and rest. 

Friends, when is the last time you really took a sabbath, a break? When is the last time you followed God’s example of just resting? I know that you are big and important and that you cannot take a break or put the phone away because the world would stop spinning but why not just give it a try. Put your phone down, turn off the tv, rest. Spend time in worship, spend time in prayer. Sleep. Breath. 

Matthew 11:28 NLT

Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

II. Find Your “Shalom” By Retreating (Mark 6:31-32 ESV)

So, how can we restore our shalom in Jesus Christ? First rest in Christ. Second, retreat. Let’s reread Mark 6:31-32 this morning.

Mark 6:31-32 ESV

And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. [32] And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

So, let me set up the scene for you this morning. What is happening in this section of Scripture and what can we learn from it? Mark gives us some insight into the ministry of Jesus. Jesus has been traveling from town to town. Teaching all along the way. He has been sought after by thousands of people who are looking to see if He will perform a miracle. People are looking to be fed, healed, and made well. This is either at or very near the height of Jesus’ ministry at least in the amount of people following Him. Jesus and His disciples have just returned from their mission of healing in various villages. No doubt Jesus and the team were filled with excitement. After all incredible insane things happened, God moved. 

However, the demands of ministry had caught up with them. You know, sometimes we forget the humanity of Jesus. When we think of Christ, we tend to lean into His divine nature more than His human nature. We forget that Jesus was blood and bones. He was organs and air. He was made of the same stuff that you and I are made of. Like you and me, Jesus grew tired. He would get fatigued. 

A few years ago I came home late on a Sunday night. It was a usual Sunday. Busy. I had taught my Life Group class. I raced to the sanctuary to pray with our worship team, then I preached. We had a new members luncheon right after the service so I raced to that event to speak again. At 2 p.m. we hosted a funeral service. At 4 we had our deacons meeting. Then I met with one of our teams related to our programming ministries. I came to a house full of boys because we also hosted a small group. By the time that I sank into my chair, I was…as they say…give out. I’ll never forget Jett crawling up into my lap, looking into my eyes, and saying “Daddy, you look bad”. I said, “well buddy, I may look bad but I feel ok, Im just a little tired”. Jett responded, “Tired? Why are you tired? You only worked for 30 minutes today.”

I can tell you from experience, I love ministry. I love the church. I love church people. I would never do anything outside of what I am doing today. While I have experienced fatigue, I have never experienced burn out. Still, ministry can be excessively exhausting. As you all know, people can be difficult. For the record, pastors can be difficult in their own right. Sometimes we have to put up with one another and that can be very tiring. 

Now imagine being Jesus. Human. Jesus has spent the last several days healing, teaching, walking, talking, no breaks. No breathing room. People demanding help and people demonstrating little to no thanks. Imagine how He must have felt. 

Have you ever felt spent, give out, tired, weak, fatigued? Of course you have. I live with an excessively busy woman who is pulled in so many different directions. Angela is expected to be a mom, a wife, a leader at her work. She is a travel agent to some, a counselor to others. She spins a lot of plates at home. Laundry. Cooking. Meal planning. Getting kids to where they need to go. It is all exhausting. Men feel stressed too. Busy at work. Coaching teams. Financial planning. Keeping food on the table. Husband. Father. 

Where do we go when we feel like Jesus? What do we do when we are at the end of our rope?

“And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.”

Jesus broke away. He retreated. He didn’t quit but He did leave. What did Jesus do? He prayed. How do I know this to be true? I know this to be true because this was not the only time that Jesus retreated. He practiced this spiritual discipline in Matthew 14, of course in Mark 6, and in John 6. In Luke 6:12, just before He ministered to the masses, we discover that Jesus, “went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.” Ever single time, Jesus removed Himself from the craziness of life, He removed Himself from the madness of this world, to pray. 

Mark 6 states that Jesus went to a “desolate” place. Your translation may say “secluded”. The Greek word being used there is er'-ay-mos. It means a desert, wilderness, the lonely regions, a region unfit for crops or pasture, deserted by others, a place deprived of help, of aid, or of the protection of others. See the picture? Jesus removed Himself from the world for a short time to recharge, recover, and reconnect. Brother or sister, when is the last time you retreated?

Feeling exhausted?

Spent?

Overwhelmed?

Over emotional?

Are you getting angry quickly, possessing a short fuse?

Are your relationships suffering?

Could it be that you need to step back, step down, step aside? Could it be that you need to retreat for a time…like Jesus?

How? How do I retreat? Calendar it. Put it on your calendar and reserve that time for you and God. Don’t be so arrogant to think that if you take a break for a short time that somehow the world will spin off its axis. Your family will be fine. Your business will still blossom. Go the Jesus way…retreat. Renew. Reconnect with God. As the Psalmist writes…

Psalm 46:10 NLT

"Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world."

III. Find Your “Shalom” By Repairing Your Heart and Mind (Philippians 4:7 ESV)

Lastly, find your shalom by repairing your heart and mind. We see this illustrated in Philippians 4. 

Philippians 4:7 ESV

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

How can we discover peace through guarding our hearts. You know, sometimes the best thing to do in reading Scripture is to break down the verse into words, look those words up and discover their meanings. So, let’s go to Greek class briefly this morning. 

Let’s look at the words “will guard”. The Greek for that short phrase is froo-reh’-o. It means to guard or protect with military guard, to prevent hostile invasion, or to keep the inhabitants of a besieged city from flight. Paul is saying that our hearts and minds are under attack by a hostile force, that being the forces of Satanic darkness. We have to guard our hearts and minds to block out al the lies that are trying to make their way to our spirits and souls. Remember, we are at war and what’s at stake is our heart and minds. 

Next, let’s look at the word “heart”. The Greek word is kar-dee'-ah. It is where we get our word cardio. Heart is defined as the center of our spiritual and physical life. It is also defined as the fountain and seat of thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes and endeavors. The heart is also the center for our understanding and intelligence, will and character. From this definition it is pretty clear how important, how powerful our heart is in our life. Funny enough, I was watching the original Jurassic Park movie the other day. Remember that film? Remember the scene where the main characters had entered the control room? That room controlled the power in the park. It controlled the fences. It controlled the doors. Everything that was automated happened to be controlled in that space. That is what our hearts are. Our hearts are the control room. Our hearts drive our thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes and our character. Our hearts impact the how we see the world. Naturally, Satan wants to control our hearts. Which is why we must guard our hearts. 

Last word…mind. The Greek word is no'-ay-mah. The word means mental perception or thought. We are taught not to rely on our own understanding or perceptions; instead, we are called to place our trust in the Lord. Every day, throughout the day, I struggle with the temptation to see my life solely through my experiences. I often find myself attributing emotions like fear, anxiety, and hopelessness to what I observe, hear, and feel. Yet, our good God gently advises against this; He assures us that there is something greater in store. He urges us to let His peace stand guard over our hearts and minds.

So, how can we guard our hearts and minds? I’ll keep it really simple for you this morning. 1. Pray. Pray often. Pray out loud. Write your prayers down. Pray for yourself and pray for others. 2. Read your Bible. Satan hates God’s Word. He cannot stand being in the presence of God’s Word. Pray, read Scripture. Talk about Scripture with people. Memorize it. Sing it. Read daily. Read in the morning and read before you go to bed. Allow God’s Word to soak into your spirit. 3. Again, basic stuff, come to church. Every time the doors are open, be here. Be a part of a small group. Attend life groups. Surround yourself by Godly people and you’ll be surprised how different, how fresh, and how renewed your life will be. 

Simple. Pray. Read. Attend. I love what Paul says in Romans 8. 

Romans 8:6 NLT

So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

Know this brothers and sisters, if you are looking for peace, for shalom, take some time to rest, retreat like Jesus, and guard your hearts and minds. If you can deploy some of these activities, these disciplines, even if it just one thing, you will see a drastic difference in your life and your walk with Jesus Christ. Remember, the promise of peace starts with the prince of peace. 

Amen? 

Amen!

The Promise of Peace Starts With The Prince of Peace!