Self-Care - The Drains of Our Lives
Pastor Robbie concludes our Self-Care series speaking about some of the draining aspects of our lives!
This past Sunday we concluded our Self-Care series where we're going to look at some of the Scriptural teachings about how you can be a better you and experience a better self-care as it relates to your mind, body, soul, spirit, and rest in general. If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you and hope to be able to see you this upcoming Sunday! This week we addressed the subject of different things in our lives distracting us and causing distress when what Christ modeled for us is a life of peace.
When we take a look at our lives in the modern world, we see a lot of innovations that have completely changed the way that our lives operate, especially when compared to the days of Jesus’ ministry. Instead of having to walk everywhere (for the most part), most of us have access to some form of transportation that those during Jesus’ day would have never thought possible! There are many examples of positive changes and innovations, but there are also many negative ones, that when misused or mishandled, can cause a lot of distress in our lives. Consider this for a moment, the last time you were at a concert, or maybe traveling somewhere - how much time were you spending on your phone instead of taking in the experience and being ‘in the moment’ per se? Our phones, for example, are something with incredible power and accessibility to so many things in our lives today, but they can take away from life as much as they give.
Pastor Robbie started off with a pretty powerful statement, and it really sets the tone for what we are about to get into, saying, “In fact, just like it’s possible for a battery in your phone to get drained, many of us walked into the room this morning, and there are things, in addition to the phone and our constant distractions that come from it, that is draining the life out of you. They're draining the joy out of you, the peace out of you, and it is not the way God wants you to live.” Much of the sermon surrounded Luke 10:38-42 which describes an encounter Mary, Martha, and company had with Jesus’ in Martha’s home. Martha is working tirelessly with managing the affair, while Mary is captivated by what Jesus is saying and takes the time to sit and learn from Him. Martha did not take kindly to this, as she was busy doing all of the necessary tasks to make everything go smoothly; Mary, however, is praised for her devotion to what Jesus is speaking about. Mary and Martha, their roles depicted in this story are what we will be addressing here.
The first ‘Drain’ in our lives, and something that each and every one of us is prone to dealing with - Distractions. If you were not able to join us this past Gathering, we hate that you missed such an incredible little prop-heavy example of Pastor Jordan. While Ps. Jordan was doing a little physical activity, Ps. Robbie continually kept stacking different objects on top of him that are priorities such as a coffee cup (working at Starbucks); a guitar (worship); a bible (personal faith); a Datebox (healthy marriage) and 3-4 other things. To say the least, this is one example of a slew of priorities being managed up until there was simply too much and everything came tumbling down! At the end of the day, you have a million things that are going to fight for your attention, and the question before you and me is, "Jesus, what do you want from me right now?" The way you and I can have focus from distraction is by focusing not on all that needs to be done, not on everything around me, but "What does Jesus want from me today?" Many of the distractions that we experience are good things, but at the end of the day they are still distractions; being conscious of managing our priorities in life will save us from dropping the ball on our many important tasks in life.
The second ‘Drain’ in our lives is likely a product of what we have addressed already - Distress from anxious and overwhelming thoughts and experiences. Calling back to Luke 10:38-42 we look at something that Jesus said to Martha in verse 41 saying, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things…’ There are three things that Ps. Robbie talked about that cause these kinds of situations: Comparison, Sin, and Circumstances. It can be through comparison about what others have, about what I don't, about how much he's making and where I should be in life right now, about how they have children and I should have those or they're married already and I wish I was or they're in a dating relationship and I wish I was… By comparison, all of a sudden, you can experience stress. A lot of the most stressful situations that are weighing many of us down inside this room are related to sin. That is a stressful thing, and it kind of gnaws at you. You're carrying a burden you were never meant to carry. That's just a fact of living in a broken world. Somebody is going to get cancer. Marriages don't go the way we hoped they would. The company has a layoff and you lose your job, and you can feel burdened from carrying on these circumstances and the stress that comes from living in a broken world. But can I give you some good news today? Whatever burdens you are carrying, they all have the same solution. Surrender those burdens to Jesus, to God. 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."
We will leave with a positive affirmation that cannot be lost in all of this; above all of the distractions and distress that is in our lives, our Devotion to Christ, Brings Life! The point of this story is not Jesus is against go-getters. That's not what he says at all. The point is: he wants a relationship with you above everything else. He wants you to know him and him to know you beyond you just serving him and doing things for him. He wants a relationship, a constant connection with him. In other words, every second that it's not connected, plugged into the wall to a phone charger, it's going to continue to drain. This is how the Christian life is lived.
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Self-Care - The Drains of Our Lives: There are many different things that contribute towards us being drained in life, and Scripture speaks to this specifically!
Main Scripture Passages: Luke 10:38-42; Ps. 127:2; 1 Peter 5:7
Drain #1 - Distractions: Sometimes our responsibilities and desires in modern life hinder us more than they help us, having discernment as to which ones are necessary or desired helps us manage our priorities.
Drain #2 - Distress: With mismanaged priorities in our lives, we can cause ourselves a lot of unnecessary stress and anxiety that we never intended.
Positive Affirmation - Devotion to Christ, Brings Life: When we are looking at and addressing our list of priorities in life, our devotion to Christ must be among the highest on that list; intentional rest and peaceful life is what Jesus models for us.
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
Instagram: LegacyCityGWD
Twitter: LegacyCityGWD
Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie begins our Holiday(s) Series!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
Self-Care - Cleaning Out Your Closet
Pastor Robbie continues our series on Self-Care, focusing on dealing with the things in our lives that have stayed in the dark!
This past Sunday we continued our Self-Care series where we're going to look at some of the Scriptural teachings about how you can be a better you and experience a better self-care as it relates to your mind, body, soul, spirit, and rest in general. This week we addressed some difficult topics pertaining to some of the things in our lives that we try and hide away hoping they’ll just go away. If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you and hope to be able to see you this upcoming Sunday!
Our Self-Care series is off to an incredible start, with a second powerful and convicting message this week, Pastor Robbie is not shying away from the very real issues in our lives! This message surrounded the reality that many people are dealing with either sins or past hurts/struggles that have not been dealt with in their lives. Ps. Robbie said, ‘So we're going to look at what God's Word says about how we can experience freedom from some of the hurts and sins that have marked our lives.’ Ultimately coming down to, if we want to live lives that are honoring and glorifying to God, we need to consciously make efforts to clean out our closets every so often!
The first practical tenet to take away from this message was the truth that God will not heal the things that we continue to keep away from His influence. Beginning in Proverbs 28:13 we see, ‘Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.’ There are things in our lives some in the present, some in the past, and we hide them, we are basically saying, "God, I do not want you to heal this arena of my life." There's an Enemy called Satan who is feeding you the lie that "You can't tell anybody. You need to suffer in isolation alone because if people really knew the real you, they'd reject the real you." It's a lie. The God who's there says, "I'm inviting you to experience the cure," James confirms this further by declaring we should actively confess our transgressions. He says in James 5:16, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” God says with that, along with prayer, you will begin to experience the cure. Confession is the cure. He's inviting you.
The second practical tenet is that to defuse the power these past hurts have in our lives, we have to truly forgive those who wronged us; true forgiveness destroys the oppressive power the event has over us. Hebrews 12: 15 speaks to this saying, ‘See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled…’ - we know that bitterness is poisonous to the soul, and causes a tremendous amount of trouble and turmoil in our lives. Colossians 3:13 gives us the solution to this issue of bitterness from hurts in our lives saying, ‘bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.’ Ps. Robbie said that ‘The action you need to take is not choosing to forgive yourself; it's choosing to accept God's forgiveness despite the fact that you do not deserve it.’ This forgiveness will lead to you being able to forgive others of things in the past.
The final practical tenet to take away is that there is no situation of past hurt that God cannot wield for His honor and His glory through your life! There's no person who has committed sins and offenses and done such things that God can't write an incredible story through your life, and he wants to write an incredible story through your life; You can be a platform for the power of God. Take the story of the demon-possessed man of Mark chapter 5 verse 18-20 - this restoration that occurs through the saving work of Jesus spoke to so many people in that area; this is exactly what God desires to do through each and every one of us when we surrender to Him! Ps. Robbie concluded with ‘The only way for you to experience healing, whether it's a hurt or a sin hang-up, is for you to reveal and bring others in, for you to release the hurts from your life and allow God to be the one who administers justice for those things and for you to recognize, whatever your story is, God wants to use it if you will let him or you can just let it get lodged.’
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Self-Care - Cleaning Out Your Closet: In our lives, we have all gone through tremendously difficult things and some of those past hurts are still alive in our lives; this does not have to be the case!
Main Scripture Passages: Proverbs 28:13; James 5:16; Hebrew 12:15; Colossians 3:13; Mark 5:18-20
God Will Not Heal What We Continue to Hide: God desires for us to be conformed to the life of His Son Jesus, but he won’t force us - if he want to be healed of our past hurts we have to be open about our struggles.
Defusing Past Hurts Comes Through Forgiveness and Release of Power: The way Scripture says we need to address our hurts in life is very different from the rest of the world, we are to forgive, not destroy; forgiveness, true forgiveness releases the power that hurt has over you
There Is No Past That Cannot Be Used As A Platform For God’s Power If We Let Him: Everyone has these kinds of hangups, but nothing is beyond God’s means’ of restoring you for His honor and His glory; your personal sanctification is a direct testament to believers and non-believers alike!
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
Instagram: LegacyCityGWD
Twitter: LegacyCityGWD
Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie continues in our Self-Care series!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
Self-Care - Train of Thought
Pastor Robbie begins a new series on Self-Care, focusing on the trains of thought in our lives!
This past Sunday we began a new series where we're going to look at some of the Scriptural teachings about how you can be a better you and experience a better self-care as it relates to your mind, body, soul, spirit, and rest in general. f you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you and hope to be able to see you this upcoming Sunday!
Self-Care is a concept that has become incredibly popular in our culture here in America, and it certainly isn’t a wholly bad thing when it has the right motivations and right results for you and others around you. This can be a very real issue with some people, who can wrongfully abuse this term in their lives, Pastor Robbie states early on about our cultural view of self-care being ‘like a new virtuous way to do the things we want to do anyway. Biblically speaking, that would be a little bit more like selfish care…’. If our ideas surrounding self-care are for the exclusive benefit of ourselves at the expense of those around us, we are not taking care of ourselves like Scripture suggests we should. Our trains of thought are so critical for how we live our lives, because what you think about in your mind is going to impact the person you become!
Moving towards proper self-care from a biblical perspective includes several things, the first of which is to remove toxic thinking from our lives and minds. Ps. Robbie said, ‘All of us came into the room this morning and have had thoughts fill our minds that are toxic. They are not in line with God's Word, and you have to capture or arrest those thoughts. Thoughts like that are going to pop up. They're negative thoughts, anxious thoughts, lustful thoughts, all kinds of different thoughts. God would say those things are going to pop into your head, but it is your choice over whether you will dwell on them.’ (2 Cor. 10:3-5). We must take captive of our thoughts as we go throughout our days, we cannot be complacent and allow thoughts to live outside of obedience to the Gospel!
This second mode we need to work towards for proper biblical self-care is replacing toxic lies, and malicious thoughts with the Truth we find in Scripture! This comes directly from Philippians 4:8 saying, ‘ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.’ If you want to win the battle of the mind, it involves replacing the lies with the truth. I need to identify when I am beginning to believe a lie, wanting to get on this train, and I need to have others around me and really take the steps to replace the lie with the truth. It’s not enough to just try to arrest and push out the lies and toxic thoughts, we have to replace them with God’s Truth! Imagine what your life would look like if you really applied these verses. Imagine what this week would have looked like if everywhere you went, every thought you had at work even?! We have to tell ourselves the Truth! We have to affirm ourselves and those around us with Scriptural truths!
The third and final point mentioned about re-orienting our trains of thought is that we need to refocus with the right perspective. What do we mean by that? We mean with an eternal perspective. We can either choose to see the world around you with an earthly perspective and with today and "This is always how it's going to be" or with an eternal perspective. The apostle Paul was able to choose joy because he maintained an eternal perspective. In Phil. 4:4 we hear Paul declare to us ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!’ Because of God…his promises are eternal, we have security, no matter what we face in this life he's working for our good…you can choose to look for the goodness of God in every situation!
There are so many things that uniquely happen in all of our lives - many of them seem impossible to try and manage or deal with. What we can find comfort in an eternal perspective, dwelling in this mode of living through training our minds to focus on God’s promises! This is the same train of thought that allowed Paul to continually praise the Lord in the midst of harsh jail conditions, in the midst of persecution, in the midst of dealing with life! We are not alone in this fight, we have an intercessor who in familiar with our trials and pains - Jesus!
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Self-Care - Train of Thought: Unlike the sometimes selfish sentiments of our cultural idea of ‘self-care’ Scriptural Self-Care is based on how we orient our Trains of Thought!
Main Scripture Passages: 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Philippians 4:4, 8; 2 Cor. 12; Rom. 12
Remove Toxic Thinking: Our trains of thought must be checked because what we think about in our minds is going to impact the people we become.
Replace the Lies with Truth: Checking our trains of thought are not enough, eventually they will come back unless they are replaced with Scriptural Truths.
Refocus with the Right Perspective: Our perspective needs to be more focused on the eternal, rather than only on what is going on in our lives right here and now.
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
Instagram: LegacyCityGWD
Twitter: LegacyCityGWD
Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie continues in our Self-Care series!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!