River City Church - Smyrna, GA
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
Josh shares from Isaiah 58 to press into our need for Sabbath to combat the culture of busyness that infiltrates our lives. Busyness narrows our focus to "work" or "family." Busyness narrows our focus to "worship" or "mission." Busyness prevents us from pausing long enough to see the need to focus on work "and" family or worship "and" mission. Sabbath is a practice that invites us to create space to be with God regularly and long enough to see the "both/ands" in our lives -- to see, for example, how worshiping together and mission go hand in hand to form us into people that look like Jesus. Isaiah 58.
Josh shared a few quotes in his message as well:
(1) "Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life." -- Dallas Willard
(2) "How would our congregation respond to this call to worship? 'We hope you are not planning to go through the motions in worship today, singing the songs but never engaging your hearts, hearing the scripture but not listening for God, or giving an offering but not giving of yourselves, because if so, you are not doing God any favors. You do not get points for attendance today. If you really worship God, then you will share with the poor, listen to the lonely, and stop avoiding those in need.' The preacher who dares to preach as Isaiah preached will tell those who come to church that if they are not there to give themselves to God, then they should have stayed home.” -- Brett Younger
(3) "Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions." -- Henri Nouwen
Josh also shared Ten Symptoms of "Hurry Sickness" from John Mark Comer's new book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry:
1. Irritability—You get mad, frustrated, or just annoyed way too easily.
2. Hypersensitivity—All it takes is a minor comment to hurt your feelings, a grumpy email to set you off, or a little turn of events to throw you into an emotional funk and ruin your day.
3. Restlessness—When you actually do try to slow down and rest, you can’t relax.
4. Workaholism (or just non-stop activity)—You just don’t know when to stop. Or worse, you can’t stop.
5. Emotional numbness—You just don’t have the capacity to feel another’s pain.
6. Out-of-order priorities—You feel disconnected from your identity and calling.
7. Lack of care for your body—You don’t have time for the basics:
8. Escapist behaviors—When we’re too tired to do what’s actually life-giving for our souls, we each turn to our distraction of choice: overeating, overdrinking, binge-watching Netflix, browsing social media, surfing the web, looking at porn — name your preferred cultural narcotic.
9. Slippage of spiritual disciplines—If you’re anything like me, when you get overbusy, the things that are truly life-giving for your soul are the first to go rather than your first go to — such as a quiet time in the morning, Scripture, prayer, Sabbath, worship on Sunday, a meal with your community, and so on.
10. Isolation—You feel disconnected from God, others, and your own soul.
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