Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Good morning, everybody. It's great to be with you. I'm Evan. I'm one of your senior pastors. And today we're going to look in the Gospel of Mark as we're walking through the Book of Mark, this ancient wisdom that comes from the way of Jesus that I think maybe surprisingly speaks to our moment in our relationships 2025. Now, if I were to ask you, let's say, you know, you're working on a project in your house or you're doing an addition, who are you going to ask about that addition? Well, you're probably going to either hire a professional or if you know someone who is a builder or a contractor, you would talk to them because they have the expertise. What you probably don't do is say, you know what, I need to put a new bathtub in. I think I'll look in the book of Proverbs for wisdom on that. Right. Because we don't typically look for ancient solutions to modern problems, and yet today we're going to look at an ancient text that speaks to the relationships that we all have today.
[00:01:12] And for those of us who are married and have kids, or maybe you're dating and you're on the apps and you're trying to figure out this landscape of how to find somebody in 2025, you might think, you know, what, a celibate Jewish rabbi from the first century maybe isn't my first source of information about how to navigate, you know, how do I parent a child in middle school? And yet I think we're going to find that the way that Jesus engaged in his relationships is genius.
[00:01:45] Our friend Dr. A.J. swoboda recently wrote an article on the genius of Jesus relational practices, and he gave us 12 of these markers that were present in Jesus relationship that we can learn from. And I want to throw these up on the screen. There's a lot of them. Good boundaries, delight and enjoyment. This is what was present in Jesus relationships in the Gospels. Honest truth telling, emotional vulnerability, quality time, differentiation through self knowledge, mercy and kindness, respect and honor, generosity, friendly affection, bond, bodily presence, and clear communication.
[00:02:23] And I thought it was fascinating that the very first characteristic that Swobodo puts on this list of the genius of Jesus relational practices is not like the power to raise the dead and heal any of our diseases. Right. That's a good friendship quality. Like if you're the one that can perform miracles or walk on water or create money in the mouth of A fish to pay taxes, you're going to have a lot of friends, you know what I'm saying? Like, your relationships are going to go well because people are going to want to be around you.
[00:02:54] And yet what we find in this list is characteristics and traits and practices that were present in the life of Jesus that are not so far removed from us that we can't actually embrace these for ourselves. And we talk a lot about the way of Jesus, right?
[00:03:12] This phrase, this concept of the way that Jesus lived. And to walk in the way of Jesus is not simply to believe some things about Jesus, but it's actually to do what Jesus did, which oftentimes makes us a subversive community in a world that would like to tell us exactly how to live and what our days should look like.
[00:03:34] And so when we take on the ways and the practices of Jesus, it is so much more than just aligning with an ideology or agreeing with a set of beliefs, whether they be political or social. Instead, what we are doing is we are taking on the mindset and the practices of Jesus so that when we walk like he walked and talk like he talked in our context, we actually do what he did, which was to subvert the systems and the kingdoms of this world to bring about the goodness and the mercy and the kindness of God to a world who was in desperate need of it.
[00:04:12] And so what we want to do today is to look at the story again and in this really short passage in Mark chapter one to say, Jesus, what is it that you were doing? What was it in your rhythms and your practices that we can apply to our lives as well?
[00:04:31] So mark chapter one, starting in verse 35, this is in the middle of what we talked about last week, which, which was 24 hours of Jesus life and ministry where he is non stop.
[00:04:44] He preaches in a synagogue, he casts out an evil spirit out of someone who approaches him in that setting. He heals a man with leprosy. He calls more of his disciples to follow after him. He heals a paralyzed man who is lowered down through the roof to him. This is a very busy day for Jesus.
[00:05:03] And right in the middle of this account of the miracles and the work that Jesus is about, we, we get to mark chapter 1:35, and it says before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and he went out to an isolated place to pray.
[00:05:18] Later, Simon and the others went out to find him. And when they found him, they said, everyone is looking for you.
[00:05:26] Do you catch the tone of Simon's, everyone's looking for you. Have you felt this from a spouse or a child or a boss? Hey, where were you?
[00:05:38] Everybody's been looking for you. You disappeared. I couldn't reach you. I tried to call. You didn't answer. Where were you? Jesus?
[00:05:49] Strangely, in the busyness of Jesus, 24 hours of ministry and healing and restoring, he finds it important to not sleep, in which I would be doing. You know, anytime I cast out a demon in the synagogue, I always like to sleep in the next day. Anybody with me? You know, after today, I'm gonna preach today, both our services, I'll have a nice lunch, and then, you know, I will probably rest. And tomorrow I will not be looking to get up long before the sun to wander off in the wilderness. Right. That is not my natural bent. And yet Jesus, in the middle of the busyness of his ministry, gets up before the sun to find a quiet place to meet with God.
[00:06:37] This is, I think, one of the most important practices we can have as followers in the way of Jesus, is to carve out moments in quiet places to spend with God.
[00:06:52] And if you grew up in the church I did.
[00:06:55] We would often be encouraged, especially in youth group, to do our daily devotions. Have you heard. Heard this phrase, right? Daily devotions, quiet time in the morning. I am not down on quiet time or daily devotions. And yet growing up, it felt like this was something that we did in order to please God.
[00:07:18] And if we failed to every morning read a certain amount of scripture or say a certain amount of prayers, that God would be probably unhappy with us and that we would have to make up the days we missed.
[00:07:31] And what I see in this passage in the life of Jesus, this is not Jesus trying to make God pleased with him. It is Jesus responding to a God who is pleased with him and realizing that that is the place for Jesus where he is going to be renewed and strengthened to face what comes next.
[00:07:52] And so if you ever felt this pressure to perform religious rituals in order to get God to approve of you, I want to flip that on its head today and say, God is pleased with you. And if we will carve out time and space to simply come before him to speak, yes, but also to listen, we will find that that becomes a source of strength, renewal, and recharging in a world that wants to take all that from us.
[00:08:21] And so Jesus models.
[00:08:24] Often, it says in the Gospel of Matthew, often he would go to these lonely places.
[00:08:30] If you were with us over the past year or so, you know, Pastor Ben went on a pilgrimage in Scotland, and so he Walked this ancient pilgrim trail all by himself. It took him many days. And he got back and he shared kind of the process that he went through walking that trail and that lonely place and what God did in his heart through that time. And I'm listening to him and we're talking about his trip, and I'm thinking, that sounds amazing. I mean, to remove yourself that dramatically and get away and to walk and hike and just experience the stillness and the quiet of that place. But, man, that is asking a lot of the family back home, right?
[00:09:11] And so I'm thinking, like, maybe someday. But the kids are young.
[00:09:16] And after Ben shared about it from here on a Sunday, my wife comes to me after the service. She goes, I wish you would leave like that.
[00:09:29] Okay?
[00:09:31] I wish you would go away for days on end.
[00:09:37] And here's the thing. She actually said that. And what the point is, it is no favor to the ones you love the most to neglect care of your soul.
[00:09:47] You're not doing anybody any favorite to refuse to carve out those moments where your soul is refreshed and recharged. The best gift we give to the ones we love is when we are in alignment with the presence of God and operating in such a way that we are constantly being renewed and being refilled by his presence. Jesus knew this, and he knew it to the point where he disappears. And the disciples are kind of disappointed, frustrated, annoyed. They can't find him. And yet he knew for their good that he needed to make this part of his daily and weekly rhythms of renewal.
[00:10:33] Two things that we see in this short passage. Number one, Jesus doesn't wait until his work is done to pause. He pauses in the middle of the work.
[00:10:43] And this can be a real natural temptation to think, okay, well, when all that stuff is done, when my to do list has all been checked off, that's when I'm gonna carve out the space and the time to rest and pause and reflect. What we find in Jesus life is he pauses in the middle of the busyness.
[00:11:00] And the more busy he becomes, the more important it is for him to get with the Father, to be renewed. And number two, Jesus is okay, disappointing people.
[00:11:11] I think this goes back to that first of Swoboda's listings of the genius of Jesus relational practices, that he knew how to set boundaries with people. Oftentimes we think, if we're being good Christians, that we are endlessly available at all times to everyone for whatever need comes up. And can I tell you that when we are intentional with the boundaries that we set in our lives that sometimes that looks like disappointing people in service of obedience to what God has asked us to do, that we actually look more like Jesus.
[00:11:47] So you might go home today and you're like, sweetie, Pastor Evan said I can disappoint you now. Well, this isn't all the time.
[00:11:56] Jesus has boundaries. But that doesn't mean that all the time he's disappointing his disciples. It doesn't mean all the time he is isolated. It doesn't mean all the time he's withdrawn. It means he has a rhythm where his soul is replenished that sometimes looks like disappointing others. But that's not all the time. It's a rhythm. It's an ebb and FL flow. It's the tides that go out and that come in that refresh and restore our souls.
[00:12:24] Henri Nouwen, the late, great Henri Nouwen, wrote that without solitude, it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life.
[00:12:34] We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and to listen to him.
[00:12:42] And this is my concern for all of us in the age of TikTok and Facebook and. And doom scrolling. The news is that we scroll more than we abide.
[00:12:55] We are in the know more than we are in the spirit.
[00:12:59] We become deformed instead of transformed. Our default mode is fight or flight rather than grace and peace. And we are frustrated and resentful rather than being filled and renewed. Do you feel the difference there?
[00:13:15] Do you feel the pull of our current moment to all the things that leave us empty and wanting and burned out?
[00:13:26] And here's where this ancient example of the rhythms of rest and renewal speak to our moment today is that we have a choice to either intentionally pause or unintentionally burn out.
[00:13:41] And the call of Jesus is to find those quiet places to be renewed. And I know some of you are saying, well, wouldn't that be nice with my job schedule and my family situation and the demands that are on my life. Listen, I understand. Stage of life can dramatically affect what quiet moments look like for some of you.
[00:14:05] You have a lovely space in your home all set up, and there's a coffee maker there, and it's the finest coffee in all the land. And you love to sit there, and you have a beautiful Bible and the lighting is right, and the sun comes in at just the right angle and you have a bird feeder outside and it's just all perfect. Am I painting a picture?
[00:14:26] Good for you. I mean, come on. That's amazing.
[00:14:30] I bet those Times are amazing. And maybe you don't have constraints on your schedule, so you could spend an hour or even an hour and a half or two hours in those quiet spaces. That's amazing. Now, some of you, that is not your story.
[00:14:45] Some of you, the best you could hope for is to barricade yourself in the bathroom and ignore the child who is knocking on that door incessantly. I've been there.
[00:14:57] Can I tell you this? That oftentimes we limit our ability to find the places before the presence of God because our requirements for those spaces are too high. And oftentimes we need to lower the requirements for those spaces and instead just be intentional about finding those. Whatever stage of life that we find ourselves in.
[00:15:16] So for some, it's a moment in the car before you step into work where you just say, jesus, I need you today.
[00:15:24] Or it's 30 seconds, you know, before you get out of bed, where you quote Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He restores my soul.
[00:15:38] Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. God, I need you today. And then you get up.
[00:15:47] And then for those of you with the beautiful room and the endless time, you can go deep, you can read, you know, entire psalms and sit in that. But wherever we find ourselves, making these moments, to both speak and to listen to God is not a luxury that we tack onto our faith, but it is at the core of our practices as people who follow in the way of Jesus.
[00:16:17] At the core of this practice is obedience to God. And it's really hard to obey God if we never stop to listen to Him.
[00:16:27] I've seen this as a parent.
[00:16:29] If my son is not listening to me, he's probably not going to do what I say. If he is listening to me, he probably also going to do what I say. But at least he'll know he's not doing what I say, right?
[00:16:41] And so it is a requirement to obey that we listen, that we pause.
[00:16:48] And even the word for obedience, it comes from the Latin, and in the Latin, it means to listen deeply from the depths. To obey is to listen to God.
[00:16:59] And so let me ask us this as individuals in this church. What is our rhythm of listening? What is our rhythm of renewal? What is our practice for finding those spaces where we can speak and listen to God?
[00:17:17] Some of you are introverts, and you're like, yes, I'll do it. You don't have to ask me twice. Pastor Evan, I will go find a quiet place with no one around right now if you want me to. I'm actually going to leave right now. I'm gonna go find that quiet space. Others of you are extroverts. And this sounds like, please just get me back around people, right? I will tell you this, that there is no specific personality type that this applies to. We all must find these places to get alone with God.
[00:17:47] And so here's some really practical things. Find a space and a time, no matter how short that time is, but where you turn off your phone, you close your laptop, you set down other distractions, you speak to God and you listen.
[00:18:07] I want to give us permission. If you are finding yourself constantly feeling like you're not doing enough in your Bible reading, or you have, you know, you set out a plan, first of the year, we're gonna read through the Bible every day. I want to give you permission that you can actually set that aside on certain days and simply be with God and listen, okay? Oftentimes we like to put so much duty into our practices that we miss the point of those practices, and that is to be with God. And so if you started through the Bible reading plan and you got through Genesis 1:4, and then you pause and you're like, I gotta get back to Genesis 1:5, and it's the 19th. Come on, take a break.
[00:18:50] Go into that quiet place with God, Invite his presence and wait in stillness. And if you need to skip over Genesis and just find a psalm tomorrow, and you just read that psalm and just sit on that, that's okay. Full permission to not feel this pressure of the obligation, but instead to find joy in that place of God's presence.
[00:19:10] The busier we get, the more we need to find the time to be with God.
[00:19:17] This is, I think, a call to be subversive in the culture that we live in.
[00:19:26] I think what I'm always looking for when I read the Gospels is in what ways was Jesus challenging the norms and the status quo of his day?
[00:19:35] And for me, I am so conscious of the ways that I accept as normal, all the different things that society and technology and culture and the status quo of everything that we live in as a modern society, how that shapes my days and my practices.
[00:19:55] And my challenge for us as a church is that we embrace a different way to live, or as some have called it, a different way to be human.
[00:20:04] That by embracing the rhythms in the way of Jesus, we actually become a subversive force.
[00:20:14] People who are not addicted to technology, but who instead live under his rule and his reign, and in turn experience his peace and his joy.
[00:20:26] Moving on in Mark, in chapter two, and Ben's going to pick this up next week, but the disciples are walking with Jesus.
[00:20:36] And famously, John the Baptist was one who was out fasting in the wilderness, you know, so he had his disciples, and they didn't eat a lot. They were scrawny. And John the Baptist, of course, is the one who came before Jesus and baptized Jesus. But Jesus shows up and he calls his disciples, and him and his disciples, they're eating and they're feasting and they're having a great old time.
[00:21:02] And the religious leaders are like, huh, that's interesting. Why don't you subject your disciples, Jesus, to the same kind of disciplines that John does?
[00:21:12] And Jesus turns to these religious leaders and he says, listen, I am with them, and I am bringing something that is brand new.
[00:21:22] And he says this. He says, no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the wine would burst the wineskins and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.
[00:21:35] Jesus was bringing something new, and in order to hold the new thing, it took a new kind of container. And this is what I want to close with as we're going to go into communion in just a few minutes, but is that God wants to do something new in your rhythms and your practices.
[00:21:52] If you've been one who has been following Jesus for decades and you feel a certain staleness in the ways that you engage in your faith and scripture and prayer, I believe this, that Jesus wants to bring something new and fresh into your practices. But oftentimes it's not enough just to receive the new thing. We have to be made new as new containers to hold the good thing that God is doing.
[00:22:17] And so we're gonna pray in a moment that God would not only bring us back to a place in his presence where as we take these moments to pause, we find these places of solitude, we engage in prayer and listen that it wouldn't be something that is stale or rote or routine, but instead he would meet us there with a new work and that our hearts would be made new to receive it. To receive it.
[00:22:47] Jesus walked out of these moments in these moments of solitude with the Father with a new clarity and focus and strength to step into the moments that would come that would challenge his authority, that would look like people in opposition to him, that would look like diseases that he would end up healing. All of the strength and the authority and the Power that he operated in was strengthened and renewed in these places of prayer. And this is my hope for us today, that as we engage and enter into these places, that we would have the same, that we would walk out of these moments in God's presence with clarity, focus, authority and power by the Holy Spirit. And so what I'm going to do to close this moment together is I'm going to read and we're going to read together even Psalms 46:1 3.
[00:23:40] And I think we have it up on the screen. And what I want to do as the band comes back and we're about to go into communion, is that we would allow this psalm to be our prayer in this moment and that this might be a little taste. I know we're not in solitude unless you're watching online, maybe you're alone, but we're all together in this place. But this would be maybe the taste of what this could look like for you, a simple psalm and then waiting in the presence of God with our ears wide open to how he would speak and what he would say. And so if we could put that up on the screen, it's up there now.
[00:24:17] And so in this quiet place, why don't we read this together? And then we're just going to take a moment, maybe 30 seconds of quiet, of listening, to allow God to speak his voice to us. Let's read this together. God is our refuge and our strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.
[00:24:38] So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge. Be still and know that I am God. Let's just close our eyes right now and allow God's presence to speak to our hearts.
[00:25:15] SA Jesus, we would pray that from these moments of quiet listening and these worshipful times where we just come before you, whether they're short or long, that from these moments our spirits would be renewed and strengthened and that we would experience new levels of your peace and your grace.
[00:26:28] Lord, I pray for those who've been struggling with sense of anxiety or being overwhelmed, that these moments would be a reset and a refilling of their hearts and their souls, a confidence in the hope they have in you, Jesus, and your presence.
[00:26:54] Lord, be our refuge and our strength today, no matter what comes, no matter what awaits us this week, that we would be still and know that you are God. In Jesus name. In Jesus name. Amen.
