Scripture referenced
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
-
Exodus 12:1-14 read aloud by congregation members as the foundational Passover text for the sermon
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
2 “This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household;
4 and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats:
6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.
7 They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.
8 They shall eat the meat in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
9 Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.
10 You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
11 This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover.
12 For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh.
13 The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
Exodus 5:1-18
read aloud to show Pharaoh's oppressive labor demands and the theme of restlessness
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”
2 Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don’t know Yahweh, and moreover I will not let Israel go.”
3 They said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Yahweh, our God, lest he fall on us with pestilence, or with the sword.”
4 The king of Egypt said to them, “Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people from their work? Get back to your burdens!”
5 Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens.”
6 The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,
7 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.
8 The number of the bricks, which they made before, you require from them. You shall not diminish anything of it, for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’
9 Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it; and don’t let them pay any attention to lying words.”
10 The taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you straw.
11 Go yourselves, get straw where you can find it, for nothing of your work shall be diminished.’”
12 So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
13 The taskmasters were urgent saying, “Fulfill your work quota daily, as when there was straw!”
14 The officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, “Why haven’t you fulfilled your quota both yesterday and today, in making brick as before?”
15 Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you deal this way with your servants?
16 No straw is given to your servants, and they tell us, ‘Make brick!’ and behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.”
17 But he said, “You are idle! You are idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to Yahweh.’
18 Go therefore now, and work, for no straw shall be given to you, yet you shall deliver the same number of bricks!”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Luke 10:38-42
Brian read the story of Mary and Martha to illustrate restfulness versus restlessness
38 As they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me.”
41 Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
42 but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Matthew 11:29-30
quoted as Jesus offering his yoke in contrast to Pharaoh's yoke of bondage
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.”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 6:1
cited to show that sin is no longer master over those who are saved
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Psalm 23:1
used as a breath prayer, inhaling 'the Lord is my shepherd' and exhaling 'I shall not want'
1 Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Tribe gathered on Palm Sunday weekend to observe Passover a week early, saving the following Sunday for Resurrection Sunday. Brian walked the congregation through the Exodus story and landed on a single theme: the yoke of restlessness that the world keeps trying to put back on our necks, and the restfulness that Jesus offers in its place.
What was said
Brian opened by explaining why Tribe marks the Lord's feasts at all. During COVID, when everything felt unstable, he said the Lord directed him to lean into the seven major feasts described throughout the Old Testament. He was quick to say these are not Jewish feasts exclusively. God calls them his own feasts in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Jews simply heard first. Most people in the room had never attended a church that honored them, and Brian said he did not fault that, because for most of his pastoral life he had not either.
He laid out three reasons Tribe now observes them. First, to rehearse, so that when prophetic events unfold in real time, there is some frame of reference for what is happening. Second, to recalibrate, the way instruments tune to a single reference pitch. Third, to remember what God has already done. If the word feast is hard to swallow, Brian suggested thinking of them as God's family traditions, the kind every family has, some sweet and some odd, but repeated year after year because they mean something.
The congregation read through Exodus 12 and then backed up to Exodus 5, where Pharaoh responds to Moses by increasing the Israelites' workload and cutting off their straw supply. Brian asked people to notice how many times Pharaoh uses the words work, labor, and bricks, and to hold the phrase "rat race" in mind. One person in the room pointed out that Pharaoh's explicit goal was to keep the Israelites too busy to listen to Moses and Aaron. Brian sat with that observation for a moment before saying: Pharaoh was essentially saying, stop distracting my workforce from the grind.
That observation pulled the sermon into the present. Brian read from his notes: the evidence that we are no different from Hebrew slaves is not clay under our fingernails or lash marks on our backs. It is found in our credit card statements, our overloaded calendars, and our prescriptions for anxiety and depression. The system of this world, he said, enslaves people in the name of productivity and freedom, and what is needed is to have the yoke of restlessness broken off.
He moved to the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10 to illustrate the difference between restlessness and restfulness. Brian was careful not to disparage doers. He said nothing would get done without them, and he admitted he is more of a "whoer," someone who identifies the right person for a task and then gets out of the way. But Jesus did not criticize Martha for working. He pointed out that she was worried and upset, and that Mary, sitting at his feet, had found the one thing worth being concerned about. Restfulness, Brian said, is not idleness and is not about output. It is a matter of mindset.
He then turned to Matthew 11, where Jesus says to take his yoke and find rest, and placed it directly alongside Pharaoh's yoke. Citing Bob Dylan, he said everybody serves somebody, and if a person is not actively serving Jesus, the alternative is not neutrality. Two practical ways to resist sliding back under the yoke of restlessness followed. The first was getting onto God's rhythm, including engaging with his calendar, honoring Sabbath rest, and coming under submission to his leadership. The second was bossing yourself around. He pointed to Romans 6, which says sin is no longer your master, and walked through the way the enemy lies to people in the first person, making old habits sound like reasonable rewards. The people who have been born again, he said, are new creations, and they have tools available that they did not have before salvation. He got visibly energized at this point, moving from teaching into what he called preaching, urging people to use scripture against temptation, call a friend after a victory, and go on the offensive rather than just absorbing blows.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
- Grab one of the Easter invite cards from your seat and think of one specific person to give it to this week.
- Sign up for the Bradley Taggart Lake hike on Saturday before Easter Sunday service.
- Look up the essay 'Why Work?' by Dorothy Sayers and read it.
- The next time an old temptation pulls at you, say out loud that sin is no longer your master, then call someone and tell them you got the victory.
- Set aside a block of time this week to Sabbath rest with the Lord, not as a list of rules, but as an intentional break from the restlessness of your calendar.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Brian talked about why most of us grew up in churches that never celebrated the Lord's feasts, and offered three reasons for leaning back into them: to rehearse, to recalibrate, and to remember. Which of those three resonates most with you right now, and why?
- When Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, his response was to pile more work on the Israelites so they would have no bandwidth to hear God's voice. Where in your own life do you notice busyness doing the same thing to you?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Resumen en español
El mensaje resumido, en español.
Brian comenzó el servicio honrando la fiesta de la Pascua judía, explicando que estas no son simplemente tradiciones judías sino fiestas que Dios mismo estableció para toda su familia. Las celebran en Tribe una semana antes de la Pascua de resurrección para que las dos coincidan: primero el cordero de Pascua, luego la resurrección de Jesús. La idea es ensayar, recordar y recalibrar el corazón alrededor de lo que le importa a Dios.
El hilo central del mensaje fue el contraste entre el descanso y la inquietud. Brian usó la historia del Éxodo para mostrar cómo el Faraón intencionalmente sobrecargaba a los israelitas con trabajo para que no pudieran escuchar la voz de Dios, y señaló que el sistema de este mundo hace exactamente lo mismo hoy, no con ladrillos y barro, sino con tarjetas de crédito llenas, calendarios imposibles y recetas para la ansiedad. El yugo de la inquietud es real, y muchos lo cargamos sin darnos cuenta.
La buena noticia es que Jesús rompió ese yugo. Brian habló de dos caminos prácticos para mantenerse libre: primero, sincronizarse con el ritmo de Dios, incluyendo honrar el Sabbat no como lista de reglas sino como tiempo intencional con el Señor. Segundo, mandarse a uno mismo, es decir, resistir activamente la tentación de volver a ponerse el yugo viejo. Citó que el pecado ya no es nuestro amo, y animó a la congregación a usar las herramientas que Dios da, oración, su Palabra, y la comunidad, para vivir como personas verdaderamente libres.
---
Pasajes bíblicos usados
- Éxodo 12:1-14
- Éxodo 5:1-18
- Lucas 10:38-42
- Mateo 11:29-30
- Romanos 6:1
- Salmos 46:10 (mencionado de memoria por alguien de la congregación)
- Santiago 4 (mencionado brevemente: resistid al diablo y huirá)
Read the full transcript 10,897 words
Good morning, tribe. You. In the name
gonna
see what God's doing, we assume that he's not working. But I he's always chasing after us with his goodness, and he's always looking our situation out for the better because he is good and he's a good father. So it might be storming, but you know, there's like sunshine on the way. I always say, there's always sunshine above the clouds. So it says with every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness.
And it's just like, you know, even when I don't think it's working out, even when there is so many obstacles before me, just still with every breath, I'm gonna sing of his goodness because he is still good. So, let's sing that again. And if you don't see it right now, just your words have power. So, we will see the goodness of god. Jesus, I just wanna thank you for being in this part of worship.
And I just pray over the next part of worship. If you be ringing the message, God, I just pray that you're all up in it and you're all over it, God. And I pray that our hearts are opened to, receive what you want for us, and our ears are open to hear, god and I pray that our minds are ready to be changed by your word, oh god. I pray that we don't sit where we are but we desire to change and get closer to you and who you are god. I just thank you for the spirit that's in this room.
Oh, yes. Wrap some little dessert or breakfast treats. Get some coffee.
Say hi to your neighbor. Thank you. And they can adjust it. Good morning. This is so great to see so many faces this morning considering it's the beginning of spring break and even new faces.
And one of the great things about living here in Jackson Hole, Wyoming is whenever the locals get out of town, then all the tourists, like people coming through town come in. And so if you're just passing through, so glad that you are here with us this morning. Glad that you found us. Church in a bar. So, I want to I want to I want to throw up.
Do you have that picture to throw up one more time, guys? Oh, where's Caleb? Caleb's standing in the back. We're trying to get your attention, Caleb. Caleb, just step in here.
Step in here. There he
is. Our
dear Susan is gonna make an honest man out of Caleb. They are engaged to be Maui ed. So we are excited. What do we got?
August 31.
August 31. Right here in the Virginia.
Right here in the Virginia. Oh,
so Caleb just went to visit. We call her our Susan because she has been a part of our family since before even Kai was born, and she has been living off and on for the last, what, two years in Israel. And Susan came back just long enough to lock down a man. She she went back to Israel. Caleb just followed her, pursued her, and then was like, I better I better I better lock this in while I'm there.
So he proposed to Susan while they were in Israel. Caleb is back, and then we're gonna have a wedding here in Jackson Hole, Wyoming end of the summer. Is it is it locked in August? Pretty much. Pretty much.
Alright. So, I'm inviting you all. No, just kidding. I'm not paying for it so I'm not inviting you but but if you have your Bible with you this morning, would you turn to the book of Exodus? And I'll give you a moment to turn there while I just share with you a couple of other things.
I've it has been in my notes to say this for the last couple of weeks, but it's it just didn't it was in my notes, but it didn't make it out of my mouth. But number one, there were at the beginning of this month, there was there's an organization called Wyoming for Israel, and it's a a coalition of people around the state of Wyoming and specifically here in Jackson Hole that are are gathered together for the purpose of supporting Israel in the midst of these very difficult and stressful and trying times, and they have organized they organize events periodically. They're trying for about once a month, and they have invited Lissa and Gretchen to be kind of their gentile Christian representatives. And so Lissa and Gretchen are on these Zoom calls that happen once a week as they talk about what's going on here in Teton County. And at the beginning of this month, there was a gathering we're not calling it we're not calling it a demonstration.
We don't call it a rally. We call it a gathering. On the town square where the two different Jewish communities and anybody else who would like to support Israel gathers on the town square for for this gathering, and we had one at the beginning of March. How many of you were there on the town square for that? I gotta say that it was a very impressive turnout from our tribe family at this gathering.
And I'm so proud of you for those of you who who gathered, even for those of you who are like, I'm not quite sure, but PB asked if I would go. And so I went. And so I'm glad that I'm thankful that you took, even if you didn't have a a tremendous personal conviction that you that you listened to old PB here and went anyways. It was it was a great turnout, a very strong turnout from the Christian churches, especially tribe. And one particular moment that that really sealed the deal for me, there were a few people that spoke and shared things.
We had a few people many people drive by honking in support. A few people drive by with some very shameful and derogatory comments directed at Jews here in this valley that drove past. But there was a moment where various people there were signs that were made in support of Israel, some Israeli flags. And there was a a moment where a group of young adults came up to us, maybe maybe three two or three or four. They looked like they've lived right here in Jackson, and this girl came up and said, like, what in the world are you doing here?
And to Lisa and I, we explained just briefly, and she goes, this is absolutely amazing. I am literally just off the plane from Tel Aviv. We have we have been in a very stressful season of our life for years. I had this trip planned to come to Jackson Hole to ski. We thought, should we cancel the trip?
Should we not? Like, oh, there's just so much going on at home. Anyways, we kept the trip. We've just gotten off the plane. We were we were down down the street at DOG Burrito.
We looked towards the town square, and I saw an Israeli flag. And I thought, what in the world is going on?
She was on leave from IDF.
She was on leave from the IDF, Israeli Defense Force. She's a active duty military. So she came down to the square. We told her what we were doing, and just the tears, tears, tears, to come all the way to the far flung Northwest corner of the state of Wyoming and to see that there is a contingent of people standing with Israel and for what they're going through meant the world to her and to her friends. She just couldn't believe it.
And so so when we stand when we stand on the town square and when we stand with Israel, we'll be super clear. We are not agreeing with with 100% of everything that's happening and going on. Let's let's be just like with anything y'all. You gotta eat the meat and spit out the bones. But for a people group who feel unsupported, who are the target of discrimination simply because of who they are and how they were born.
God in the Bible tells us so clearly that if you bless Israel, I will bless you. And of all the nations who will stand with Israel. Israel is the firstborn and then we as a wild olive branch have been grafted in and we love and support Israel. And so thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for for being there. We'll let you know when the next gathering will be on the town square. First Sunday of every month. This is my wife, Lissa. You can wave to her.
She's also my first base coach. And wasn't it amazing to not have her on stage today? You're you're not quite sure how to answer. I get it. I get it.
I get it. You can clap for Lissa doing a great job of setting this team up for success. See, they're like, okay. I'll I'll clap to that. So, man, you guys, where's B?
Wave your hand, B, if you're B, that was so great. And Connor, are you in the room? Connor, that was just so good. And Hill is visiting us from out of town. And I got to say, Oliver, keeping that bass, the kick drum locked down.
Oh, and then Cory. Noodling. Press that shirt. The other thing that I was just going to say really quickly is we recently had a worship night gathering at Gateway Church and if you know any of the significance, Felissa and I to be invited to that, it was very significant and it was wonderful and healing and great and there was also a very strong turnout from tribe at that worship night at Gateway Church and I was just like like my heart was just so full to see all of your faces that were there and loving the lord and so I'm I'm just I'm just so proud of my tribe fam like all the time. Left and right.
Exodus chapter 12. Today, we're going to read the story of the Exodus as tribe celebrates and honors the feast of Passover. And if you're thinking like, wait, I've got my calendar dates wrong or I do. None of us have our calendar dates wrong. Passover on the calendar is celebrated next week but next week, what we are going to do is celebrate the resurrection of Jesus but we want to recognize and honor the one of the save seven major feasts that the lord established and we've been doing this for a couple of years now.
By this week, we'll hit Passover and next week, we hit resurrection Sunday. Sound good?
Yes.
Okay. So, with that in mind, we're going to turn to Exodus chapter 12 and I like for us to take turns participating in service and your first opportunity to do that is by helping read from the word. We're not all gonna read from the word simultaneously. That's way too churchy for me. But what we'll do is we'll pass around the mic, and you can take turns reading.
And the reason why we have the mic in this room is so that, number one, we can hear your voice. And then number two, all of our livestream families, people that are traveling for spring break, things like that, they get to still participate and hear your lovely voice. And so Kat has the mic in the room, And whoever would like to start to read in verse one, we're gonna go Exodus chapter 12 verse one all the way through 14. And go, whoever would like to read first.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month is to be the beginning of month for you. It is the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, they must each select an animal of the flock according to their father's families, one animal per family. If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people. You should apportion the animal according to what each will eat.
The animal you select must be a one year old male, either a sheep or a goat with no defects. Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight. They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the door frames of the houses where the they eat the animal.
That same night, they must roast the meat over a fire and eat it along with bitter salad greens and bread made without yeast. Do not eat any of the meat raw or boiled in water. The whole animal, including the head, legs, and internal organs, must be roasted over a fire. Do not leave any of it until the next morning. Burn whatever is not eaten before morning.
In this manner, you shall eat it. With your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And on the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments.
I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike in the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever. You shall keep it as a feast.
The lord bless the reading of his word this morning. As we get into the subject that we're gonna have a conversation today about, I really would like this to be a conversation. So if you're brand new to tribe, maybe it's the first time you've ever gone to church in a bar before. That's one thing that's unusual. Something else that perhaps might be a little bit different than what you are accustomed to is I don't want to do all the talking.
I don't want this to just be some sage on the stage, but I want this to be a conversation, and I would like to hear from you. I'd like to I would like for you to be involved on this journey that we go on together, and you get to contribute with questions, comments, and connections. If something we're talking about reminds you, oh, oh, that reminds me of another place in the Bible where it says, or I just read yesterday. Like, that's a connection and I would love to hear those things. So all you have to do is throw your hand up.
We'll come around to you with the mic, and then you get to participate in the conversation as well. With that in mind, let me give you a little bit of background. For many of you, what I'm about to say will be familiar, but for others of you, it will be brand new. But it was during COVID season that the wheels were very wobbly on the train of The United States and really the rest of the world, and Jackson was no different. And while things were wobbly, all of us, especially as a leadership team here at Tribe, we were looking for what what is it?
Like, lord, how do we stabilize these wobbly wheels? Because there's so much that was uncertain and unknown. And, like, how long is this gonna last? And you guys all remember what how you made it through COVID. Hopefully, it wasn't just like the Tiger King that got you through COVID.
Hopefully, it was more than that. But the lord whispered to our heart and said, to help stabilize things, I want you. It is now time for you to lean into my feasts. And when I first read that, I or or heard that in my heart, I thought like, okay, he said my feast, but I immediately thought, like, Jewish feast and I started to study and look in god's word and started to look things up and I was like, oh yeah, there are these these big feasts that Jews celebrate and what does that have to do with us in the church and the lord talked to me and talked to me and coached me and showed me how these are really not Jewish feasts. They are feasts of the lord and he says it in Leviticus and in Exodus and in Deuteronomy and in numbers throughout the Old Testament.
These are my feasts that I'm commanding you to celebrate. It's just so happens that the Jews heard first and got to participate. Let me ask you a question by show of hands. How many of you come not not tribe, excluding tribe, how many of you come from a church that celebrated or honored or recognized the different Jewish feasts? Interesting.
Okay. So you can look around the room. There's like two little meek hands that raise up. Most of us most of us grew up not celebrating or honoring Jewish feast. Now, let me ask you this really open ended question.
Why do you think that is? If you have a thought or an idea, raise your hand. We'll get the mic to you. Why wouldn't the church do that? Every single one of us had our hands down like none of us came from that.
Why why don't we? Why don't we do that in the church we came from? Seems like old covenant, okay? Any anything else? Well, here it comes.
Here it comes. Here it comes. Here it comes.
I don't think very many of us here are Jewish or French.
Ah, okay. Because I'm not Jewish.
Okay. Yeah. Yes. Right. Great.
Okay. Great. Yeah. These are really good answers. Were one of you gonna say something?
Yeah. Phil?
Like, I feel like a lot of these things are pointing towards Christ and the sacrifice that he made. And so because that's been fulfilled then and we because we depend and rely on Christ and his sacrifice, then that's no longer required kind of
like old old covenant stuff.
Okay. All of those are really great rationales. And hear me super clearly. I do not fault any pastor or any church that you've come from that hasn't celebrated those. Because for as long as I've been in pastoral ministry, I never celebrated them and honored them.
For I'm not Jewish, that's Old Testament. Many of these things have been fulfilled. Why are we celebrating Passover? Because we know that Jesus is our Passover lamb. Like, like, But then the Lord set me down and and kindly and sweetly and patiently dealt with me and in and has invited me and our tribe family to reengage with the seven significant major major feasts of the lord throughout our Greco Roman calendar year.
Why he do that? Why? You've heard me talk about this. It's not up on the screen but there are three main reasons why the lord spoke to our heart about why we celebrate these feasts. Can anybody remember one of them and you can shout it out?
To rehearse. To rehearse. Yes. And that's like my favorite one and the one that I like to talk about last but let's just go there. Since you who said rehearse?
Oh, cat. Okay. I was like, wow. That was a really did you say it in the mic? No.
Oh, you just said it. Your voice projected so good. Rehearse. Rehearsal. Have any of you participated in a wedding that had no rehearsal?
That's probably called, like, getting married at the courthouse right in front of a judge, and very little rehearsals needed for that. But for the rest of us and for many of for some of you in this room, I've got to do your wedding. We always have a rehearsal. Why do we do a rehearsal? So it's less of a junk show with those groomsmen.
Right? This it's really all for the groomsmen and for the mother-in-law, so she so she has peace. Right? Those groomsmen, it's like herding cats. Like, alright, stand here.
No. No. Put that down. Don't. No.
No. Don't do that. Okay. Just stand here. But we do a rehearsal so that when the actual day and event comes, we have some frame of reference for what is unfolding.
In a similar way, some of the feasts, like Phil just mentioned, have already been literally fulfilled. Other of the feasts, like the feast of Sukkot, which is celebrated in fall, has not prophetically literally been fulfilled yet. But when we celebrate and honor the feasts, we get to rehearse and practice so that when the real thing comes, we can go, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, is that which we've been rehearsing and practicing for such a long time. The nation of Israel was invited to participate in god's feast of Passover year after year after year with the hopes that when they saw Jesus, who was in the temple every day for five days before he was the Passover lamb, the propitiating sacrifice that not just covers the sin but takes away the sins of the world that Jews would be like, woah. This is that.
And some did. So number one, we are invited to honor the Lord's feast to help rehearse so that when we see it in real life, we're like, we're we're we have a clue what's going on. What's another reason? What do you got? You can just say it.
Recalibrate. To recalibrate. To rehearse and to recalibrate. When we get on, when we get synced up with god's calendar, seven times a year with different emphasis on different aspects and events that have either unfolded or will unfold. It's an opportunity for us to recalibrate our heart.
Like a like a a piano that's tuned to perfect middle c and all of the other instruments get to tune according to that one instrument. Sure. Okay. Yeah. Whoo.
We get to come in tune and realign our hearts and our priorities and to recalibrate our life around what is significant and important on god's heart. So, to rehearse, to recalibrate, and what's the last one? To remember. So, Passover has already happened but this is a special time and opportunity and season for us to remember what god has done for us in the past And these are, think of them if if you're still having a hard time swallowing the pill for whatever reason of of Jewish feast or god's feast or this time of feasts, you can replace the word feast with god's family tradition. How many of you have a family that you you come from a family that has some weird odd traditions?
Okay? Memorable, fun traditions. Okay. How about weird, like, I don't wanna do that in my family traditions? Okay.
Okay. Fair enough. So one of the family traditions in the Fuller family, the family that Lissa came from, is whenever guests or company come for for dinner or for a holiday or whatever, all have a great time. But then when it's time to leave, the mom and dad, they walk out with their dogs or however many pets they have at the time. They walk out onto the porch.
Bye. Bye. Bye. Hugs. Hugs.
Hugs. Vehicle. Family gets in the car. And as they drive down the driveway, mom and dad stand on the porch and keep waving all the way down the driveway. And when you turn left on the street and you can still see up on the porch as far as you can possibly see, there are mom and dad waving and and saying bye.
And it's just one cute little family tradition and sure, hopefully, you have some some nice, sweet, sentimental family traditions in your family but in a similar way, god has seven specific family traditions that by evidence of you not raising your hand, you have missed out on for as long as you've been a part of god's family. I want to encourage you to lean into the seven major feasts or family traditions that god has established on an annual basis. Well, what are they, Brian? You dig it. You dig it up, find it, and honor it, recognize it, celebrate it in your own way.
But today, we're going to dig a little more into the feast or the family tradition of when god liberated the nation of Israel and bought brought them out of slavery, bondage, and captivity. He says, don't you ever forget that you were once slaves. We're just like Israel. Well, no different than Israel. Even though none of us were Jewish or Hebrew slaves in Egypt, each and every one of us before Jesus came and liberated us from the bondage and captivity of sin, we were held captives just like the Hebrew slaves were.
And you cannot read the story of the Exodus without seeing your own journey and your own human heart. And once a year, we get to revisit that story and see not only the condition that we were in, but the great price that was paid for our liberation. If you're taking notes this morning, you can write at the top of your notes. Rest, fullness versus restlessness. Restfulness versus restlessness.
The story of the Exodus and Passover is a foreshadow of Jesus shedding his blood to free us from the tyranny of sin and to enter into the Sabbath rest of salvation. But it is also an incredible story of Jesus breaking and freeing us from the yoke of restlessness so that we may enter into restfulness and that's what I want to I want to zoom in on that subject this morning for our conversation and in order to do that, what we need to do is rewind the story just a little bit and so, I know that you're in Exodus chapter 12 but turn back just a few pages to Exodus chapter five and we're going to read some more about this story. How this story gets set up. Exodus chapter five and we're going to read together another little bit longer passage. I'm sure you're familiar with it as well but it's worth revisiting.
Exodus chapter five and let's read verses one through 18 together. So whoever you want to voluntell to read, just hand them the mic.
Okay, Exodus five one through 18.
Yep. Read as far as you want and then you can hand it off.
Okay. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, this is what the lord, the god of Israel says, Let my people go so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness. Pharaoh said, who is the lord that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the lord,
and I will not
let Israel go. Then they said, the god of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the lord our god or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword. But the king of Egypt said, Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work.
Then Pharaoh said, look. The people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.
K. Pause. As we continue to read, here's what I here's what I want you to be looking for. Think of the phrase rat race. And look how many times pharaoh uses the word bricks or brick and work and labor.
Keep those keep those words and phrases spun up in your mind as we continue to read.
That same day, Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people. You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks. Let them go let them go and gather their own straw, but require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don't reduce the quota. They are lazy.
That is why they are crying out. Let us go and sacrifice to our god. Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies. Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, this is what Pharaoh says, I will not give you any more straw. Go and get it go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.
So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. The slave drivers kept pressing and saying, complete the work required of you for each day just as when you had straw. And Pharaoh's slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, why haven't you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today as before? Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh. Why have you treated your servants this way?
Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, make bricks. Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.
One more verse.
Bring us home.
Yep. Sorry. Thank you. Pharaoh said, lazy. That's what you are.
Lazy. That is why you keep saying, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.
How about observations from the text? What details do you see? I'm not you don't have to draw any kind of, like, like, deep spiritual conclusions in this moment. But for many of you, this is probably a familiar passage that you've read before. But did you see anything different this time or what details stood out to you from this passage that that you would like to make mention of?
What did you see?
Thanks, Scott.
He's blushing. And his wife has a very firm knee, hand on his knee right now at this moment. Don't worry.
He's kidding. Carla's gonna put me in an arm bar later. I just noticed that Pharaoh sees that if the Israelites work is increased and their resources are, you know, he takes away how he has equipped them. They are not gonna be able to listen to what he calls lies, but what I would say is probably the truth.
He sees
that they're not able to listen to Moses and Aaron if they have more work to do and busier.
Oh, let's go ahead. Maybe maybe you're thinking or going where I would think. No. No. No.
Can can can we're gonna give the mic back to Justin. Is there I I know that I said you don't need to draw any parallels in spiritual things, but would you have, like, a a spiritual hyperlink to connect to that? Yeah. Yeah. Like, for us today.
I just think of, like, in the Psalms when it says, like, be still and know that I am god. And it's so easy for us to be so, to just, like, pile more and more work on and, like, get our hustle on and totally tune out the voice of the Lord.
Right. The the so so faith, yes, that so very good. So, pharaoh was saying, quit distracting them from the work because they might actually hear the voice of the lord and that would take away from their ability to hear my voice, pharaoh, and from the voice of the taskmasters. Stop. You are distracting my workforce.
Yikes. Imagine god hearing those words. He's just like, cracks his neck. It's about to be on. Other yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Caden.
In the short term, it was like following god's plan caused more work even though in the long term, it was what was gonna set him free from slavery and from bondage. Oh.
So I invited you. You don't have to make any spiritual connections, but you are lobbing such great softballs across the plate. Let's go ahead. Could you make can you connect some dots spiritually? And if you're like, I wasn't thinking that far.
It's okay.
I wasn't. That's that that was kind of the extent of my whole thoughts.
You want you want me to take a swing at that? Somebody else take a swing at that at that beautiful softball coming across the plate.
I'm not sure if I'm getting ahead of myself, but I can't help but see the parallel to our Sundays today. But instead of working harder, we kinda play harder, and we substituted a lot of wonderful things like baseball games and soccer games and whatever instead of spending that time with the lord.
Okay. It is very easy for us to be loaded down with with the busyness of this world. And here's what Caden was going at. I'll go ahead and take a swing at at this, that the busyness and the lowdown that that we experience when we hear the invitation from the lord, what usually happens is things don't get better or easier, they tend to get worse. The Jesus never ever ever ever ever ever said, come and follow me and your life's gonna get a whole lot easier.
And if you follow Jesus based upon that invitation, you might have felt like you got the bait and switch. Following Jesus doesn't make your life easier or simpler. But it certainly gets a whole lot lighter. It certainly gets a whole lot more joyful. And it certainly gets to be a lot less burdensome.
And if you feel like Christianity is all about following a bunch of rules of do's and don't, you're you're you're on the right track, but you've missed the beautiful heart of the gospel that we're gonna talk about more. Any other, like, burning observations that, like, oh, I this just leapt off the page at me. Okay, let me read something to you that I that I wrote down in my notes that I thought of. Today, we are no different than those Hebrew slaves under the oppression of pharaoh. But the evidence is not found by clay packed under our fingernails or lash marks across our backs.
The evidence is found in our credit card statement, in our calendar, which is so full of things, and in our prescriptions for depression and anxiety. The system of this world is constantly trying to enslave us in the name of productivity and freedom. But what we need is to have the yoke of restlessness broken off of our neck and hear and respond to the invitation of restfulness. Now it's worth mentioning that there is a clear distinction between the nobility of work. There is something very noble about work and working hard and working long hours.
It was god who created work. In the garden, he told Adam and Eve to tend, to cultivate, to make something even more beautiful out of the raw ingredients that I've given you of this place called the Garden Of Eden. And there's a great essay. You can write it down and go back and read it. It's it's a little bit lengthy, but it's so good.
It's called work by Dorothy Sayers. Anybody here familiar with that writer Dorothy Sayers? Anybody familiar with that essay, work by Dorothy Sayers? Okay. I will now give you fifteen seconds to either look it up or write it down, bookmark that PDF so that you can go back and read it.
Your fifteen seconds begins now. Dorothy Sayers. Maybe it's titled Why Work? Why Work? It just came to me.
It's so good, and it's such a great antidote for the predominant mindset of the generation coming up just behind me. Caitlin, you haven't got that in your you haven't been assigned that essay in your theological studies? Maybe not yet. Alright. Extracurricularly, you can add it.
Great to see the Von Thuns in the house. Look what Jesus says in Luke chapter 10. Turn there real quick. You've all are familiar with this story. Luke chapter 10 verse 38.
I'll read this. As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister Mary sat at the lord's feet listening to what he taught, but Martha was distracted. There's that word again, distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work?
Tell her to come and help me. This is the part, this is the story that that the preacher always throws all of the doers in the room straight under the bus. Don't hear what I'm not saying mostly because I'm married to a doer. Doers have their place. Nothing would get done if it wasn't for doers.
How many of you are doers in the room? Doers. You're like, oh, great. They're about to throw me under the bus again. I am not throwing you under the bus.
How many of you, like me, would be whoers? So something a task gets needs to be done, and the first thing you think of is not how to do it or jumping right into it, but you think, oh, who would be really great at this? I'm a hoor. What I like to do is to delegate and then to lead and then come alongside and coach and equip and encourage. And and I take great satisfaction in identifying who would be great at a task, a a doer, and then inviting them into and recruiting them and saying, like, here here is a a thing for you doer to do.
Go for it and to watch them just be, like, happy as happy as just fill it in. My brain, I lost it. I thought of, like, five not so good ones, and I caught myself and didn't say any of them. So happy as a person being happy in a thing I love to do. There we go.
Good job, b. Thank you, Ella. And I love to to to watch them but I'm a whoer but this passage right here is for all of the doers that usually are get disparaged. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that but look what Jesus says in verse 41.
But the Lord said to her, my dear Martha, you're worried and upset over all of these details. He didn't criticize all that she got done, all that she was doing. He, the Jesus did not criticize how she was made, how she was operating, but he did need to point out a couple of things that typically maybe it's the shadow side that goes along with many doers. Worried and upset. She's getting to serve dinner to Jesus.
You're worried and upset about all of these details but there's only one thing worth being concerned about. Being with me and in my presence, Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her. Mary, maybe because of her personality, maybe because interactions that she had previously had with Jesus, the yoke of restlessness had been broken from off of her neck and she is a beautiful example of entering into that place of restfulness. Restfulness does not mean idleness. Restfulness does not mean getting a lot of work done and being productive.
It is not about output, but it is more about mindset. And Mary beautifully illustrates the difference between restlessness and restfulness. Let me, let's go to one more passage. Take a right and go to Luke chapter 11. I'm right there.
Verse 29 through 30. Maybe he was thinking of Martha as he said these words. Luke chapter 29 verse Luke 11 verse 29 through 30. Jesus is speaking. He might have been speaking to the crowd and looking right at Martha.
Take my yoke upon you and let me teach you. Because I am humble and gentle in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give is light. Wait a minute. We were literally just talking about pharaoh and the yoke and the bondage of slavery.
And now Jesus is talking about a different yoke. There are some direct parallels that Jesus intends for us to make. Just like the great poet Bob Dylan once said, everybody gotta serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the lord but everybody gotta serve somebody. If you are not actively engaged in serving Jesus, there is, it's binary.
There's no, well, I'm not serving the devil. That just means that you're under deception. I'm sorry. Sorry, Matthew 11. Yes.
I should have noticed for the few quizzical looks that are going up on the screen right now. See? You need that? Joy's like, once again, you need a proofreader. Matthew 11.
Thank you. So it's one thing to identify the yoke of restlessness. And maybe through reading these passages, maybe while we're talking, the holy spirit would would whisper to you like, oh, yeah. That's why my neck hurts physically because I carry around the stress, the emotional stress of restlessness. It's one thing to identify it.
It's a whole another thing to to like, alright. What do I do with it? So how do we break the yoke of restlessness off of our neck? I just wanna touch on a couple things really quickly. And if you write these down and chew on them and meditate on them and build them into your life, it can help you to resist the temptation or the urge to put back on your neck the yoke of restlessness.
How many of you are familiar and have experienced the freedom that comes from not wearing the yoke of restlessness. How many of you have experienced that? Okay. Alright. Keep your hands up.
Put them back up for a second. Alright. For those of you with your hands up, for how many of you you have actually felt the difference having experienced the restfulness, but then you find yourself like, dope, how did I get back underneath that yoke again? Yes. That's all
of us. That's all of us.
Even though the yoke has been broken and we're no longer obligated to it, that dang dirty devil through a myriad of ways, the culture that we live in, the way that we're naturally organically wired, demands of life, whatever, invites us constantly. Here, here, here, here. Put this back on. I know that it was broken off of you, but here, put this back on just real quick. And for how many of us, without even realizing it, we're like, okay.
And then, literally, our our necks hurt. Like, some I carry my stress in my neck. And, like, at the end of the day or after, like, a counseling appointment or something, I'm driving home and I'm like, oh, my neck hurts so bad. But there's the that dirty devil is always greasing the path for us to slide back under a yoke of restlessness and maybe somebody came in here the through the doors today never realizing that there was an opportunity to step out from under the yoke of restlessness. And it's not until we started talking about it today that's very irritating to you because you are becoming more cognizant of the splinters of the wood digging into your neck of restlessness, and you have been on this nasty treadmill of trying to fill your life more and more and
more and and thinking that it will
bring you restfulness or satisfaction, and only now are you beginning to feel the weight on your neck. How do I break free from the yoke of restlessness and enter into restfulness? Number one, you need to get on God's rhythm. Number one, you need to get on god's rhythm. Your body, your soul, and your spirit are not designed to operate on anything other than god's rhythm.
When you get in sync with the lord, when you get in step with him, when you live in surrender and obedience in the best way that you can to his leadership, your heart and soul and mind come into conformity and to alignment with God. Do you know that God never once had a stressful day at work? And he is the god who brings the sun up in the morning and makes it set in the evening. He causes the constellations to move throughout the cosmos. He knows all of the stars by name, and
he keeps you out of way more trouble than you
find yourself in. He's got a lot on his to do calendar, and not once has he ever felt a glimmer of restlessness. When you get in sync with his calendar, you get in step with him, when you come under submission to his leadership, that's what Jesus says. Take my yoke upon you. Just a a quick note on this calendar thing.
How many of you have heard any kind of, seen any articles come up in your news feed about red heifers being in Israel? K. Let's trade some eyebrow wiggles with each other just real quick. So, potentially, there could be some some very significant there could be some some global significance to red heifers that were identified on a ranch in the middle of nowhere North Texas that in 2022, they were identified. In 2023, they were flown specially from this ranch in Texas to Israel to be used for very significant and sacred I can see your scrunched eyebrows.
If your eyebrows are scrunched, it's okay. It's okay. May come out to nothing, but it may come out to be some huge significance. And for those people who are who are working towards getting synced up on the Lord's calendar, if anything plays out on the on a Jewish stage that will be broadcast around the world that could have could have an impact around the world, you'd be like, ah, well, I'm I'm I'm read up and I'm and I'm synced up. But there is constantly and continually an invitation from the Lord to get synced up with his calendar.
As you step onto and into his calendar, there may be some disruption. Just think about going through the airport and you step on that first step on the, like, moving walkway. You're like There'll be a little bit of disruption, but there's an invitation to get onto his rhythm. Listen to listen to this quote when it talks about as we enter into god's rhythm about beginning to honor the Sabbath as setting aside time from your busy calendar just to be mindful of restfulness. I'm not talking about a set of rules of do's and don'ts, but I'm talking about setting aside time to Sabbath rest with the Lord.
Listen to this quote. It's easy enough to see Pharaoh's compulsion for more grain, a measure of his wealth, and beyond anything he could have needed. Simply so that he could exhibit his great wealth and power. His desire for more created a restlessness that could permit no Sabbath rest for himself or any under his domain. And that's exactly what you saw in that quote earlier, Justin, as pharaoh was like, you're distracting the people.
If they actually tune into your voice and enter into that. Able to to We're do that. To the grind, especially here in this valley where we all have to have one or two jobs and then even a side hustle on top of that just to be able to live here. It's possible to do all of those things and maintain a state of restfulness, but we have to be intentional about it. That quote was from a guy named Walter Bergerman, and he wrote an amazing book called Sabbath as Resistance.
Number two, and this ties into what we were just talking about, you might need to boss yourself around. One of my favorite phrases, kids in in our house, Salem Kite grew up with me hammering that home as a mantra, and they didn't like to hear it. Hopefully, it will serve them well for years to come, and I certainly don't like it when my family uses my catchphrases against me. Hey, Brian. You may need to boss yourself around a little bit.
I'm like, yeah. But I'm hungry now. Boss yourself around. You might need to deny yourself. How do we break the yoke of restlessness when we clamor and grabbing for this?
And I want that. I want this, and I need
that, and I gotta fill up this and that.
Stop. Boss yourself around, and that might even include denying yourself. You can jot this down the address really quickly. Romans six one says, sin is no longer your master. For you no longer live under the requirements of the law.
Instead, you live under or with the yoke of freedom of god's grace. Really quick practical case in point. Maybe you struggle with something that you, fall back into, time and time again. You can fill in the blank. Maybe it's a bad attitude or a habit or an action or something that you go back to.
Before you were saved, sin was your master. And when it told you to jump, you said how high. But but there was no audible voice saying, Chris Baxter, it's now time for you to obey me and do that thing. And then for you like an automaton to say, yes, my master. I mean, hopefully, most I mean, we're Americans.
We love our freedom. And if we heard a voice saying that, we'd be like, what? Uh-uh. This is America. You're not my real dad.
But here's how that dirty devil lies to us. He's like, you know, you've been doing so good. You deserve to reward yourself. I know I know you've left that thing in the past, but you've had a long you've had a long day. And the the the enemy will often lie to us in the first person.
You know, it's not gonna be the end of the world if I just Let's go back to that. Just just to remind myself of how far I've left it behind. And then, like a lamb being led to
the
slaughter, you you you you you fall back into it. Right? And you go to that, and you go to that, and you go to that, and you do it. Or you're thinking, or you're saying, whatever it is, fill in the blank, you're smart. Before you were saved, you had no other alternative but to fall into obedience of that voice even if it lied to you in the first person.
Right? And for most of you, you followed the lust of your flesh not even realizing that sin was your brutal taskmaster. And even if through sheer willpower of your generated by your own force to resist that, you could only last so long. Right? But this is what's amazing about Jesus.
Not only did he free us from the penalty of sin forever, eternal separation from god, salvation, but he broke the power of sin as our task master over our life so that according to Romans six one, sin is no longer your master. So when that invitation comes, in the first person, you know, I should That's your old nature, your flesh, and your sin, but you have been born again. The Bible says that for anyone who has been born again,
you are a new what? Creation.
The Bible says, consider yourselves dead to sin. But here's the idea. I'm I I experienced the temptation of sin to go back to that day. Before I'm saved, I just get jerked along, right? And I find myself in that situation.
But now there's an opportunity to disrupt the cycle. By saying, wait a minute, I
am a new creation. Greater is he that lives in
me than he that lives in the world.
Romans six one, sin is no longer my master.
I do not have to
obey that thing. I don't have to.
How many verses have I just quoted right there? And then you throw so so you've got that dirty devil up against the ropes, and you're really working the kidneys. And then you throw him this. Turn to god. When you resist the devil, he will flee from you.
Bram. Bram. He's like, I can't take it anymore.
Be peeing blood for a week, and he'll think twice about coming back to mess with you again. And then then he's like, oh, okay. I give up. I give up. I throw in the towel.
And then you're like, do I back off? And God and and Jesus, as as the the referee of the match is like, no. Go get him. Then you go on the offensive.
I can tell this is developing just right before our eyes.
Like, I am. I've gone from teaching to preaching, y'all. This is good preaching. Right? Then you go on
the offensive and you call a friend
and say, I almost fell back into that old temptation but greater is he that is in me than he that's in the world and Jesus set me free from restlessness and I get to enter into rest fullness. I've been set free. I've been set free. I've got victory over that thing that that I had fallen victim for and been tripped up by 10 times but I got victory this time and I'm calling you to tell you that victory is available and the devil's like, quit. Like, like, just, okay, you're a victory but like, you don't have to go telling people about it and Jesus like, get em, get em and then you're chasing him out of the ring, throwing him haymakers and karate kicks.
Get out of here. It is for freedom that Christ set you free. We are we are called to live as different people. We're called to live as free men and women, sons of the most high god, not walking around while I'm forgiven but still carry around this yoke. It is for freedom that Christ set us free.
Restfulness. Restfulness. Not restlessness. You can clap for that. Yes.
Now, let Jesus just talk to your heart.
Lord, show us where we are, stewing and sitting in that restlessness. Just take these next few minutes and just let them search your heart. Maybe you need to repent, believe in that dirty devil, and not using your powerful God tools to smash those warped philosophies. Just let him talk to your heart.
As we continue to worship, I just wanna lead us through some breath prayer. If you don't know what that is, as you inhale, you are speaking something over yourself. You're you're thinking the lord is my shepherd. And as you exhale, I want you to say, I shall not want.
We're gonna do this a couple times. I wanna don't invite you guys to do it with me.
Ready? The lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The lord is As my shepherd. We transition into this time of giving, as we step into this freedom and this restfulness that the lord has given to us.
I just invite you to lay your finances down at the lord's feet To take off that that heavy burden, that yoke that the world is trying to put on you that you might have even put on yourself and say, I'm done with it. Crown chuckers. Throw it to the Lord's feet. And you for what you're doing in me, how you're speaking, how you're moving, how you are waking me up, how you are removing the scales from my eyes and the veil from my face, Lord, so that I can see clearly and I can gaze at you. We become what we behold, Lord.
And I look into your eyes, and I see love. There's nothing more that I want, Lord. You are my one thing. I give my all to you. Amen.
Can we give a round of applause for Brian and the word that the Lord brought through him? What an incredible vessel he is being obedient. I love just, like, what Alyssa was saying, like, seeing the Lord just, like, downloading things to him and and through him. Not at all. I the first song when we were singing reckless love, a word that came out of that for me was how God fights till we're found.
And then you were bringing up, like, that boxing analogy and then even hearing Glissus singing that the Lord fights for us. And, man, I just as Easter's coming up, this is one of the times that people's hearts are soft for the Lord. This and Christmas are some of our best opportunities to fight for people. You have an Easter invite on your seat. I really encourage you to grab that and even hold on to it right now as I'm speaking.
Ask yourself, who is that invite for? Because there is one person that needs that invite, that needs to get that. And whether you're gonna be coming here for tribe, for Easter at tribe here next week, or you're traveling back home and you're going to church somewhere else, I encourage you to fight for somebody as the Lord fights for us. We love because he loved us first. There's some extra posters and flyers and things like that.
And so if you're wanting to go the extra mile, grab one of those, put it up in your employee locker room, put it up at Cowboy Coffee where you go grab your coffee in the morning. They're big. People are gonna see that. I picture it as as planting a flag for the Lord and claiming that for the Lord and saying, like, Lord, like, this is you. Work through this.
I claim this area that people are gonna walk through here and they're gonna see this, and they're gonna feel something when they see it. I see it happen. I see it all the time. My coworkers walk past the Easter sign and put up in the locker room. I see them like, can tell the Lord's doing something.
And you just surrender that to the Lord. You say, Lord, like, I did my part. I put up that poster. I'm trusting you to do the heavy lifting. As Easter comes up on Friday, tribe is gonna be doing our first Good Friday service at 7PM.
It's not gonna be here. It's gonna be at the TMC. And if you've never been to a Good Friday service, it's gonna be a lot of contemplative prayer where we are going through the story of Jesus leading up to the crucifixion. And as we carry that over into Saturday, 10AM, we're gonna meet in here for Easter setup in the conference room. Hopefully, be two hours.
We'll provide lunch. And after that, we're gonna go for our annual family friendly Bradley Taggart Lake hike. This will be super fun and encourage you guys to join us for that before Easter here in the conference room next week on Sunday. Last announcement is that we got a little sign up sheet on the counter over there right next to all the hoodies for the Bradley Taggart hike and the and if you wanna bring the treats here this morning, I think Lanisha brought the treats here this morning. And she even said, she's like, I brought your favorite today.
I feel like and I love that.
It's just one the way hair claws?
Yeah. Whatever those what are
those called? Gosh. I can't figure
that out. Any hair claws will go with that. And what a cool way to make people feel welcomed. I know I don't eat breakfast on Sunday morning, so I come here and I'm just you guys see me. What an incredible ministry to my stomach.
So thank you for that. Phoebe, do you wanna come back up here and press out?
Two last things. Connect card, read the words, follow it, do it. You can just leave it on the seat or put it in the drop box back there. I'll cover ways to give real quick. Text to give, which you'll see on the screen, website, and or jam that box in the back with whatever you got.
Cat, can I have the mic real quick? Okay. Let me pray for you, but before you stand up, I just wanna get in in my abundance so that I can touch you. Would that be alright if I if I prayed for freedom over y'all? Yeah?
Okay. And I'm gonna be still for just a moment. Thank you, Jesus. Thank
you,
Jesus. Come, holy spirit. Come, holy spirit. I just see a picture in my mind's eye of people who have been in this boxing ring and who feel like they've been beat up, beat up, beat up. And then and then they get saved and become a Christian, And they're like, oh, they're still in the corner, but they got the boxing gloves on.
And they're like, oh, Jesus has helped me to withstand the relentless raining down of blows. Hello, am I Christian? And when the fight's over and I'm like, I've been all torn up that the boxing official will be like, yay, you won. But that is not the full invitation that that the the life that we've been invited into as Christians. The full invitation is we get the drugs, and he trains us how to use them so that, like I've said earlier, we do get to go in the ring and not only absorb blows, but but give blows back and just tear up that dirty dough.
Victory. Victory. Victory. Just like when Jesus was at Caesarea Philippi, and he was literally standing there at this place historically that is known as the Gates Of Hell. And Jesus, in a really powerful way that we don't quite see in the text, taunted the powers of hell and was like, the gates of hell will not prevail over.
The kingdom of God is coming to be established. So, Jesus, I pray for each and every member of our tribe family that you would give them an encounter with your restfulness so that they would abandon the system of the world that tries to continually put on their neck the heavy burden of restlessness. Receive his peace. Let go of the pain that you've been carrying around from the heartbreak of what you've been walking through recently. You.
We're
to be
some other folks to invite them into to prayer
for room therapist. Anything that you need prayer for, as soon as we're done here, go back and get some prayer. For how many of you this message touched a nerve today? I thought it was just for me. Lord Jesus, we're so thankful for your spirit.
And as Jay said, you're such a good shepherd. Thank you for leading us and guiding us. Thank you. Thank you. That because of the blood that's been painted over the doorpost of our heart that we get to walk out of slavery and into freedom.
Thank you, Jesus, for freedom. Thank you, Jesus, for freedom. I command a blessing over each and every member of our tribe family that's here today. We tell you that we love you. We pray these things in Jesus name, the strong son of god.
And everybody said, amen. I love you so very much. Say hi to some other folks. Have a great week. And remember, you got this.
Share this message
Every word on these came out of the message. Download one and post it anywhere.
